Year C. 3rd Term. Lesson 6. Bible Buddy: EZEKIEL

Scripture: for teacher background:  Psalm 137, Ezekiel 11, 37

Making contact:  

Show how lifeless a balloon is and then blow it up and let it go. It will shoot across the room. God breathes life into us in a similar way.

 Exploration:

Ezekiel was in exile with the rest of God’s people. He remembered the temple in Jerusalem well and would have also been very sad when he thought about it. 

Read Psalm 137. 

This is about the time spent in exile and people asking them to sing, but they were too sad.

 There is a song that a music group Boney M sang:

D

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down

                A                                        D

Yeah we wept when remembered Zion

For there, they that carried us away

                          G

In captivity requiring of us a song

D

Now how shall we sing the Lord`s song

         A           D

In a strange land

After 10 years in exile, the people had given up hope, but God chose Ezekiel to speak to the people in exile to give them hope.

 God said He would change their hearts of stone and give them new hearts.

Ezekiel also had visions and he told the people about them. 

There was a valley full of dry bones and God said to him  “Ezekiel, speak to these bones and tell them to live” 

He heard a noise and all the bones came together.

You can use that song about "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones."

 “Now, Ezekiel,” God said “tell the winds to blow from every direction and breathe life into these dead bodies.”

 Ezekiel commanded the winds to blow and immediately the bodies began to stand up and they formed a great army.

 Just like this God would bring the people back to their land and care for them.

Some other things Ezekiel had to do was to act out things instead of speaking, and as the people watched they got God’s message.

Application

 We must never give up hope when we don’t see our prayers answered. God said He would never leave us, and in His time He will bless us and help us.

 We need to keep our hope alive and one way of doing this is to read the Bible. These wonderful stories and teachings are like breathing air into us. 

We need to have the Holy Spirit inside us, so that we are like bones joined together, but alive with God’s breath inside us.

Challenge to Mission

 Can you go to a situation that is hopeless and take God’s hope there?

Pray that God will show you where He wants to use you and where He can breathe new life into dry bones.

 Consolidation

There is a worksheet with a picture of the valley of dry bones, the song about the Rivers of Babylon, the memory verse and a heart showing that God puts a new heart in us.

Memory Verse

“I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put My Spirit in you.” Ezekiel 36:26,27

Print the memory verse on red cardboard hearts.