Scripture:
for
teacher background: 1 Kings
17,18,19 and 2 Kings 2
Making
contact:
A game where 2 children face
each other with a half a glass of water and a candle. They have to drink the
water and then blow out the candle.
After the game has finished – you can do it
as many times as time allows and as part of the illustration for later, ask
them if the candle would light if it was wet.
Exploration:
Recap
– who were the kings of Israel
After he died the kingdom
of Israel split – his son Rehoboam led
2 tribes, Judah and Benjamin, this was called Judah Israel
During the reign of Solomon's son and the kings after him
things were very bad in Israel
God called a man to be a prophet and go and warn them that they would be
punished. His name was Elijah. God told him to go live near a little
river on the other side of the Jordan
Elijah could drink water there and the ravens would bring him food.
Then
the little river also dried up and God told Elijah to go to a widow in the
town. He asked her for food. She said she only had a handful of flour and a
drop of oil and she and her son were going to eat their last meal and die.
Elijah
told her not to worry, that the flour and oil would not run out.
Her
son got sick and died and she called Elijah and he came and prayed for the boy
3 times and he came back to life.
In
the 3rd year of the drought, God told Elijah to go to the wicked
king Ahab.
Elijah went to him and told him that the prophets of Baal
must bring 2 bulls to Mount Carmel . Everyone
had to gather to watch.
Elijah said that the prophets of Baal had to sacrifice
the one bull to their god, but they mustn’t light the fire-, but they must call
on their god Baal to send fire.
Elijah would prepare a sacrifice with the other
bull and after they had tried he would call on the Lord God to send fire. Hour
after hour the prophets of Baal danced around in the hot sun. They even cut
themselves with knives.
Then
Elijah told them to pour water all over his 12 stones and to put water in the
trench around the altar. He prayed that God would prove that He was the only
true God.
The fire came and burnt up the whole soaking wet sacrifice and even burned all the stones. Elijah had all the prophets
of Baal killed.
After
this, Elijah was praying on the mountain for rain to come and sent his servant
7 times to look.
The 7th time he returned and said that there was a
cloud the size of a man’s hand coming up from the sea.
King Ahab got in his
chariot and started going home and it began to rain. The power of God was so
strong on Elijah that he ran ahead of his chariot all the way to Jezreel in the
rain.
He had been so brave, but now someone got to him. The king’s wife, Jezebel
said she was going to have him killed. Now he really got scared!
He fled for his life!
He walked a whole day in
the desert and would have died, but an angel gave him a loaf of bread and a jar
of water.
He walked for 40 days to Sinai, the holy mountain where Moses had met
with God and got the 10 commandments. Elijah was resting in a cave and God said He wanted to speak to him.
There
was a furious wind that split the rocks in an earthquake, but God wasn’t in
that.
There was a fire, but God was not in that.
Then there was a soft whisper
and Elijah heard God speaking to him. He told him to go back and serve Him,
that there were 7000 people who were still loyal to Him.
He had to anoint a new
king and a new prophet, Elisha, to take over from him one day.
When
the time came for Elijah to die, he didn’t die, but Elisha saw the most amazing
thing, he and Elijah were walking along talking when a chariot of fire drawn by
horses of fire came down between them. Elijah was whisked into heaven in a
whirlwind.
Application
Our
Bible buddy Elijah was a very powerful prophet, with a lot of faith, praying
down fire and rain, but a woman scared him!
It’s like David, Daniel or Samson
not being scared of lions, but being scared of a frog!
When
we serve God, we don’t have to be afraid of anything. When people tried to
arrest Jesus, He just walked through the crowd and they couldn’t arrest Him and
He said that his time had not yet come.
When we serve and honour God, He will
look after us and He knows when our time has come and then He will take us
home. Until then, let’s listen to God speaking to us in His whisper and let’s
obey and trust Him.
Consolidation
There
are pictures to colour in. There is also a question to answer on the sheet.
Memory Verse
"Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind." 2 Kings 2:11
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