Week 738 · about 45 minutes
Isaiah 23
Isaiah 23 · Memory verse Isaiah 23:7
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Isaiah 23), the matching word search and answer key (Isaiah 23 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a seed
Hold a seed. Read Isaiah 23 in about four minutes, stopping at Isaiah 23:7: “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Isaiah 23?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Isaiah 23 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.” 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, “Pass through your land like the Nile, daughter of Tarshish. There is no restraint any more.” Isaiah 23 opens with these words: “The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim…” The line to keep is Isaiah 23:7: “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?” Carry the word “joyous” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Isaiah 23:7: “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Isaiah 23? Then try this: Read “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?” 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 Isaiah 23. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Isaiah 23:7. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Isaiah 23 and write Isaiah 23:7 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Isaiah 23:7
“Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Isaiah 23. Help us remember Isaiah 23:7 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.