Week 962 · about 45 minutes
Malachi 3
Malachi 3 · Memory verse Malachi 3:8
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Malachi 3), the matching word search and answer key (Malachi 3 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a paper crown
Hold a paper crown. Read Malachi 3 in about four minutes, stopping at Malachi 3:8: “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Malachi 3?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Malachi 3 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, ““Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies.” 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, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough for.” Malachi 3 opens with these words: ““Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and…” The line to keep is Malachi 3:8: “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.” Carry the word “robbed” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Malachi 3:8: “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Malachi 3? Then try this: Read “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.” 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 Malachi 3. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Malachi 3:8. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Malachi 3 and write Malachi 3:8 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Malachi 3:8
“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Malachi 3. Help us remember Malachi 3:8 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.