Week 447 · about 45 minutes
Ezra 8
Ezra 8 · Memory verse Ezra 8:23
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Ezra 8), the matching word search and answer key (Ezra 8 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a folded cloth
Hold a folded cloth. Read Ezra 8 in about four minutes, stopping at Ezra 8:23: “So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he granted our request.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Ezra 8?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Ezra 8 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Now these are the heads of their fathers’ households, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:” 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, “and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;” Ezra 8 opens with these words: “Now these are the heads of their fathers’ households, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of…” The line to keep is Ezra 8:23: “So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he granted our request.” Carry the word “fasted” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Ezra 8:23: “So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he granted our request.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Ezra 8? Then try this: Read “So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he granted our request.” 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 8. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Ezra 8:23. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Ezra 8 and write Ezra 8:23 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Ezra 8:23
“So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he granted our request.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Ezra 8. Help us remember Ezra 8:23 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.