It is God Who Delivers

God delivers His people, not man.

Our evening started off on the right foot, with the Salsamendis back from being sick and three students ready to play our Opening Time Bible verse game. (We ended up with all five of our regular students ready for action!) We played a matching game, designed to cement the fact that the verses we have memorized this year include ... all 10 commandments. Over the course of the year, we have discussed each Commandment verse as we have learned it. Now we are taking a step back and reminding the children that these are the same 10 laws that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai, laws that show His character (and our sinfulness), laws that will keep us happy as we seek to obey them and drive us to Christ as we see how we fall short -- laws that the Israelites keep forgetting -- which leads them into all types of slaveries including oppression by the Midianites in Gideon's day -- (which was Wednesday night's Bible story.) Certainly these are laws we should know very well!

I took the pictures used on the VersePak cards for each of the commandments and put them in order on two pieces of paper, cut to resemble the Ten Commandments tablets. Then I had the children take turns choosing pieces of paper that had the commandments written on them. I would read whatever commandment they had picked, and they had to match the commandment to the picture. They proved very good at this game and had no trouble with it! (Patrick even remembered that Commandments 6, 7, 8 all go with the same verse card.)

When we got in our classroom, we started off by standing up and saying those Ten Commandments in order, using a silly variation on the hand motions we learned last year (see the "The Ten Commandments" link on the left). We would swing our hands around and around with One Finger up, then stop and say ONE, and do the motion pointing upward, saying, "You shall have no other gods before me." Then we did the same thing with Two Fingers up -- swinging them all around and then finally stopping and saying TWO: (carving with fingers) "You shall not make for yourselves an idol." And so on. This was a good way to get the wiggles out, as well as a teaching time.

Then we did some fingerplays and sat down, ready for the story. Before we started, I had a pan of water and asked the children how they would go about drinking that water. The children offered some different ways of doing it, including using a cup or pouring the water all over themselves (this last was Jacob), but finally someone said you could drink it like a dog. I asked for a volunteer. SarahClaire came up, got in puppy position, but was too shy to actually lap up the water like a dog.

Then I told the children that in today's story, we would see how God used some men who lapped water like a dog.

Our story was about God using Gideon to deliver His people from the Midianites, and our main point was that God used a fearful, insignificant man and a very small army so that the Israelites would know that it was God who saved them, not their own strength. It is God who delivers His people, not man.

After the story, I wanted to really drive this idea home of how few men God used to defeat the Midianites. I had a piece of paper that had the word Israelites on one side and Midianites on the other. Then I brought out several boxes of soldiers from the game of RISK. I had counted out 120 pieces ahead of time to represent the 120,000 soldiers fighting for the Midianite side. Then I had the children take turns adding soldiers to the Israelite side, until we had 32, to represent the original 32,000 who had volunteered to fight. The disparity was so apparent. The boys especially were very into this, enjoying the counting process and then marveling at how many Midianites there were.

Then I reminded them that God had said that the Israelites had too many men, and had told Gideon to urge those who were afraid to go home. I had the children take turns removing soldiers from the original 32, until only 10 were left. We marveled at that again, compared with the 120 on the Midian side.

But then, I reminded them that God had said even that was too many men. So he had Gideon send back all those men except the ones who had lapped their water like dogs. I had the children remove soldiers until there was only one left. I told them that this one soldier represented 1000 men -- and that the Israelites had even fewer men than that -- they had less than half that number, only 300 men. They could really see the difference in the two armies. One hundred and twenty pieces, totally filling one side of their paper, -- compared with less than half of one piece.

I asked again, "Why did God want the Israelites' army to be so small?"

C.J. was all excited and said, "Because he wanted us to know that there are a lot more bad people than good people?" (I was interested and amused by this answer, but figured that I couldn't prove or disprove his speculation ...so I decided to point him back to the story.) I answered carefully, "Well, that's not the reason that God gave in the story. What reason does God give for doing this?" C.J. said, "Because God doesn't NEED a lot of men to win the battle."

Patrick added, "Because He's so strong."

I filled in the rest of the answer by repeating God's words to Gideon: that He did not want the Israelites to think they had won the victory because they were so strong. He wanted them to know that it was God.

Then I asked, "Who is it that delivers His people when they cry out to Him?" "God!" Yes, only God can deliver His people, not men. (Just as only God can deliver us from slavery to sin through Jesus.)

Then we moved over to the table and began coloring the picture of the surprise attack by Gideon, featuring the torches and pots. Despite the exciting nature of the picture, not all of the children were into coloring this week, and our question/review at this time was not very focused. (I think they were tired from trying to grasp the enormity of the Midianite army compared with the Israelites! I hope so, anyway.) We ended the evening by singing Ephesians 6:1, a reminder of Gideon's obedience and the need to obey the Ten Commandments.



MOMS: There is no new verse this week or next week. (A memory verse schedule for the year can be found at the "Verse Schedule 2008-09" link to the right on this blog.) Next week, we will continue to work on the Ten Commandment hand motions in class and review our old verses, rather than teach a new verse. If you would like to work at home on the hand motions, you will find them described in the link "The Ten Commandments" to the right of the screen. The motions are designed specifically to teach the order of the commandments. The Lord willing, after this class, your children will have studied all Ten Commandments, memorized them, and be able to recite them in the correct order. Many Christians cannot do this, and I was one until my children learned this method of memorizing them!

P.S. If you would like to work ahead in the VersePak, please feel free to to do that. Just let me know, and I'll listen to your child's verses and award their stars!