Battles in the Promised Land

We have spent the past month seeing God's Hand at work in the battles that He calls the Israelites to in the Promised Land. Each battle clearly is decided by the Lord and each is unique, as He reveals different facets of His character to His people.

In the battle of Jericho, we saw God give His people a victory in an unusual way: In a manner more reminiscent of a worship service than a battle. I had brought some styrofoam blocks and made a wall, then had the children march around it. I asked them if that would make the wall fall down. They laughed and said, "Nooo." Then I had them shout loudly at the wall, and repeated the question. Again: "Nooo." We did the same thing while pretending to blow trumpets. I asked them what they had to do to knock down this wall, and then had someone gleefully demonstrate. Then I told them that in today's story, someone would knock down a huge city wall without ever touching it. (Trey knew right away that it was the story of Jericho.) I told the story, emphasizing to the children that God wanted his people to know that He is All-Powerful and that victory comes through faith and worship of the One True God.

In the battle of Ai, we saw God withhold a seemingly easy victory from Israel because of secret disobedience. I opened by hiding one of the children under a sheet. I asked the other children if they could see Mia. (All said no.) Then I asked them if God could see Mia. (The responses were varied on the second question.) I told the children that the Lord can see everything and everybody, all the time. He knows everything. Nothing is hidden from Him. In telling the story of Achan's disobedience and the discovery of his guilt, I stressed the point that God punishes sin to lead men to repentance. Sin is not good for us, and God does not want us to continue doing what is not good for us. I speculated that we would most likely see Achan in heaven because he was sorry for his sin; he repented. But we won't know for sure until we get there, because the Bible doesn't tell us.

We studied the battle led by Gideon in two parts. First, we learned of God's call on Gideon to crush idolatry and to deliver his people. We spent the beginning of class popping the bubbles in pieces of bubble wrap. I told the children that we were going to hear a story about how God told someone to totally destroy something, just like we were destroying these bubbles. They really got into the popping/destroying. I told of how fearful Gideon was, but that he obeyed God and crushed his father's Asherah pole. God is jealous for His glory and will not share it with a false god -- and worshipping a false god will only make God's people unhappy. Who wants to worship something that is not worthy of our love, that has no power and can't help us in any way? Only the One True God is worthy of our devotion. We spent some time after snack crushing and destroying various items I had brought, such as a milk carton, soda can and water bottle.

Finally, we saw God deliver his people through Gideon in a very strange manner, -- ensuring that the Israelites' faith would be strengthened as they knew that only God could win a battle in such a way. I had a pan of water and asked the children how they could drink this water if they didn't have a cup. I got the two answers I was looking for: lap it like a dog or scoop it with your hands. Then I told them that in today's story we would see how God used some men who lapped their water like dogs in a very special way. I told the story of God instructing Gideon to send home all the men who scooped their water and only keep the lappers, leaving the Israelites greatly outnumbered by the enemy. I emphasized that, again, God is jealous and will not share His glory (and that is for our good). He wanted to make sure that Israel knew that God alone had won the battle. These few men did as God instructed and took a torch covered with a pot in one hand and a trumpet in the other, and quietly stole into the camp of the sleeping Midianites. At the signal, all broke their pots, blew their trumpets and shouted. In their sleepy confusion, the Midianites ended up killing each other instead of the Israelites and God claimed the victory, using just a handful of Hebrews! We made torches and trumpets and retold this story about three times during the evening. They really know this one!