Year C. 3rd Term. Lesson 9. Bible Buddies: NEHEMIAH and EZRA

 Scripture: for teacher background:  Nehemiah 1,2,4,8 Ezra 7

Making contact:

Have some building blocks, like duplo or wooden blocks and play a game where the children build a wall. 

Discuss why walls are necessary. Sing songs like “Building up the temple”

 Exploration:

Cyrus was now the king in Babylon and he made a proclamation that the Jews could go home to their own land - Israel.

 The exile was over. Only the earnest and very religious Jews went back. The others were very comfortable in exile. And couldn’t face all the hardships back home.

The first thing the people wanted to do was to rebuild the temple. But other people caused lots of trouble and the work was held up for a long time. The prophets spoke out and said they ought to be ashamed of themselves, building their own homes and neglecting God’s temple. It was finished at last but was very plain and simple compared to the temple that King Solomon had built.

About 60 years later, God sent Ezra, a biblical scholar to Jerusalem and he started teaching the people all about God and the Holy Scriptures. He taught the people to obey God and to keep his law. He probably wrote parts of 1 and 2 Chronicles and even Psalm 119. He led a great revival of Bible study.

Thirteen years later there was another man named Nehemiah who was the wine steward to the king of Persia. Although he had such an important job in exile, he had not forgotten his own country and his own people.

 The king gave permission for him to go back to Jerusalem and help his people.

 He did a tour at night and saw how badly the walls were broken. He called a meeting of all the leaders and they organized that the walls should be rebuilt. 

A portion of wall was assigned to each family.

They had opposition from the Samaritans and they had to have half the people working and half standing guard.

Nehemiah kept praying and never gave up. He was fearless and courageous. The wall was all finished in 52 days.

They had a great celebration. They marched all around the city on top of the walls, shouting and singing their thanks to God. The priests blew their trumpets and the band played. Everyone was happy.

A great revival began after this when Ezra read to all the people from the book of the Law, the Bible. The people repented of their sins and followed God. They have never again fallen into idolatry and worshipped idols ever again.

So Ezra the scholar and Nehemiah, the governor led God’s people and taught them what was right.

Application

 Have we neglected our Bibles and our churches? Have we left our Bibles to gather dust and are our churches run down and dirty?

 Let’s put God and His Word and church first and build up what is neglected and broken down. 

It isn’t right just to look after our selves and our homes only. We need to honour God and worship Him with all our hearts and souls. 

We need to put our money where our mouths are and bring to God our tithes and offerings.

Challenge to Mission

 If your church is in good repair then how about suggesting your Sunday school or church helps another church that is struggling. 

You could “adopt” a poorer church and visit them to encourage them.

Give a Bible to someone who doesn’t have one or tell someone else about what you are learning.

 Consolidation

There is a worksheet. Teach the memory verse using blocks – write one word or a couple of words on a sheet of cardboard that looks like a brick.

Memory Verse

“Keep your roots deep in Christ, build your lives on Him and become stronger in your faith.” Colossians 2:7