Week 784 · about 45 minutes
Jeremiah 3
Jeremiah 3 · Memory verse Jeremiah 3:15
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Jeremiah 3), the matching word search and answer key (Jeremiah 3 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a smooth stone
Hold a smooth stone. Read Jeremiah 3 in about four minutes, stopping at Jeremiah 3:15: “I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Jeremiah 3?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Jeremiah 3 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, ““They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.” 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, “Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”” Jeremiah 3 opens with these words: ““They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that…” The line to keep is Jeremiah 3:15: “I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” Carry the word “give” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Jeremiah 3:15: “I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Jeremiah 3? Then try this: Read “I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” 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 Jeremiah 3. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Jeremiah 3:15. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Jeremiah 3 and write Jeremiah 3:15 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Jeremiah 3:15
“I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Jeremiah 3. Help us remember Jeremiah 3:15 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.