Year A. 1st Term. Lesson 3. Abraham

Scripture: Genesis 12-15 (back ground readings for teachers.)

Outcomes: to understand what faith is and to trust God with our lives.

Making contact:

A trust walk. Blind fold one child and then lead this child around the room. Explain where the furniture is and how to take each step. If time and if suitable, let others try this. Be careful with young children, they might not be old enough to be the guide and someone could get hurt. Ask the blind folded child what it felt like to have to trust someone.

Exploration:

Tell the story of how God called Abram to leave his country in Ur and go to a country God would show him. So he packed up his belongings and with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot, and started travelling. After a long time they came to a country and near a town called Bethel they stopped and Abram built an altar. At different times Abram stopped and built altars. There was some trouble between Lot’s servants and Abram’s so the time had come to separate. Abram let Lot choose and he chose the fertile valley near a very wicked city. This led to huge problems for Lot later on and Abram had to pray and ask God to rescue Lot from the city. When God was destroying it, Lot’s wife looked back when she shouldn’t have and turned into a pillar of salt. God gave Abram wonderful promises about having as many descendants as the stars, but as yet he didn’t even have one child. God changed his name to Abraham and said he would be the father of many nations. God changed his wife’s name to Sarah. When they were very old, they had a son named Isaac. One day God asked a very strange thing. He told Abraham to go to a mountain and sacrifice his son. Even though Abraham didn’t understand why he must do this and how the promise about many descendants could come true, he obeyed and at the last minute God said stop and provided a ram. He could see Abraham would obey him, even if it cost him his dear son.

Application:

Abraham pleased God, although he did make some big mistakes. But what pleased God was how he trusted Him and had faith even when he couldn’t see the answer. We also need to do this. So we learn from our Bible buddy Abraham to trust and obey and put our faith in God. The answers don’t come straight away, but we must never give up.

Consolidation

There is an activity sheet to colour in with Bible verses on it. A game could be made with blocks on and pictures showing a journey. Some blocks could say, “Move 2 blocks back because Abram disobeyed…” or a block that say “move 3 blocks forward because Abram trusted God.” You could try bringing in some more of the story. E.g. “Abram let Lot choose the better land.” The children have a counter to put on the blocks and they throw a dice.

Memory Verse:

Abraham put his trust in the Lord and because of this the Lord was pleased with him.”

Genesis 15:6