Year C. 3rd Term. Lesson 2. Bible Buddy: Josiah

Scripture: for teacher background:  2 Kings 22-23

Making contact:  

Either talk about spring- cleaning and how we sometimes find something special that we’d forgotten or actually get the children to tidy up the hall. 

Purposely place a Bible somewhere for them to accidentally find.

 Exploration:

After King Hezekiah, there were unfortunately bad kings again, who worshiped idols and killed innocent people and caused the people to sin against God.

Then there was a little boy, Josiah, who became king when he was 8 years old. Imagine one of you being president of South Africa! What was wonderful about him, was that he loved and obeyed God and followed the example of the good kings and strictly obeyed God. 

When he had been king for 18 years, he gave the instruction to spring-clean and repair the temple.

 The book of the Law- the Bible, was found during the clean up. 

It was read aloud to the king. He was upset to see how badly the previous kings and the people had disobeyed God. He called all the people together.

Rich and poor, priests and prophets all gathered and listened to the Word of God being read. 

Josiah made a promise to keep the rules and to put the Word of God into practice.

 He had all the idols and symbols of pagan worship burnt and broke down all the altars where they worshiped other gods. He had all fortune-tellers and mediums removed. 

Then all the people celebrated Passover.

Application

 We need to spring clean our lives too and bring the Bible back into the centre and decide to worship God with our whole heart, mind and strength.

 We can’t worship God on a Sunday and then the next minute go to read our stars or to listen to fortune-tellers, witch doctors, sangomas or mediums. 

If we do these things, we are insulting our God. 

We are saying we don’t trust Him and that we choose to go to other gods for help.

 We can’t mix our faith up with these things. We must choose. Who are we serving – Jesus Christ or not? The Holy Spirit is our Counselor and guide.

Sometimes we need to wipe the dust off our Bibles and study them, not let them get lost in our rooms and neglected. 

Reading our Bibles helps us to focus on God so that we don’t need to consult other bad things.

Challenge to Mission

 Speak boldly about Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Tell someone who is looking for help in the wrong places that they need to pray.

 Offer to pray for them and pray in the name of Jesus.

Revive the reading of the Bible in your home, school and Church. Lead by example and read it yourself every day.

 Consolidation

There is a worksheet with a picture and an exercise to draw arrows to the treasure chest or the fire from words describing good and bad things.

Remember to use other sources like SERMONS FOR KIDS to source cross words and word searches. 

Memory Verse

“Don’t try to use any kind of magic or witchcraft or tell fortunes or cast spells or talk with the spirits of the dead.” Deuteronomy 18:11

 Write the memory verse on a scroll. Make a scroll from a piece of material and 2 sticks.