Week 383 · about 45 minutes
1 Chronicles 9
1 Chronicles 9 · Memory verse 1 Chronicles 9:26
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (1 Chronicles 9), the matching word search and answer key (1 Chronicles 9 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a small lamp
Hold a small lamp. Read 1 Chronicles 9 in about four minutes, stopping at 1 Chronicles 9:26: “for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were in an office of trust, and were over the rooms and over the treasuries in God’s house.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 1 Chronicles 9?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
1 Chronicles 9 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “So all Israel were listed by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their disobedience.” That is not a motto invented for a poster. It is the first sentence a family hears when this page is opened at night.
Keep going a little further. The chapter also says, “So they and their children had the oversight of the gates of Yahweh’s house, even the house of the tent, by wards.” 1 Chronicles 9 opens with these words: “So all Israel were listed by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. Judah was carried away captive…” The line to keep is 1 Chronicles 9:26: “for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were in an office of trust, and were over the rooms and over the treasuries in God’s house.” Carry the word “four” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 1 Chronicles 9:26: “for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were in an office of trust, and were over the rooms and over the treasuries in God’s house.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 1 Chronicles 9? Then try this: Read “for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were in an office of trust, and were over the rooms and…” once more. What does it show you about God? You do not have to finish every verse. You can close the book after the memory verse and still have read the Bible together.
Group game
Walk the room as if you are moving through 1 Chronicles 9. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 1 Chronicles 9:26. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 1 Chronicles 9 and write 1 Chronicles 9:26 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
1 Chronicles 9:26
“for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were in an office of trust, and were over the rooms and over the treasuries in God’s house.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 1 Chronicles 9. Help us remember 1 Chronicles 9:26 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.