Week 442 · about 45 minutes
Ezra 3
Ezra 3 · Memory verse Ezra 3:1
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Ezra 3), the matching word search and answer key (Ezra 3 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a paper crown
Hold a paper crown. Read Ezra 3 in about four minutes, stopping at Ezra 3:1: “When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Ezra 3?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Ezra 3 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.” 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, “They also gave money to the masons, and to the carpenters. They also gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus King of Persia.” Ezra 3 opens with these words: “When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to…” The line to keep is Ezra 3:1: “When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.” Carry the word “seventh” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Ezra 3:1: “When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Ezra 3? Then try this: Read “When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered…” 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 Ezra 3. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Ezra 3:1. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Ezra 3 and write Ezra 3:1 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Ezra 3:1
“When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Ezra 3. Help us remember Ezra 3:1 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.