Kids Bible Lessons

Judges

Lesson 1: Judges 1-3

Introduction Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOYy8iCfIJ4

Israel turns away from God

Bible Aim: To teach children that sin always leads to consequences.

Bible Memory: “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs (Judges 3:7).”

Introduction:

Last week we talked about how we always have a choice to make about whom we will serve. When we choose to serve the Lord, He blesses our obedience, and takes care of us. But when we choose to serve ourselves, we are actually serving the enemy and are putty in his hands. Disobedience then will always lead to consequences, and the Bible makes it clear that we should be sure that our sins will always find us out.

Discussion time: what are some results or consequences of sin you have had in your life? What would be the consequences for the following?

1. Caught lying

2. Caught stealing

3. Caught cheating

Bible study:

Have kids turn to Judges chapter 1-3, and introduce the book

In Chapter 1, we find a list of towns and people the Lord gave the Israelites victory over. God had instructed them through Joshua to defeat and drive out all the Canaanites. When they go and attack, God gave them the victory, but as we near the end of chapter one, we see, that rather than driving them out completely, they allow them to remain in the land as forced laborers. This is not what God instructed, and though they may have thought it was no big deal, it would be the small thing that would lead to their downfall.

The reason God wanted the Canaanites driven out of the land was because He knew their moral failures of idol worship, and immorality would lead the Israelites astray, and it does just that.

Have kids read Judges 1:27-32

In chapter 2, we see that so long as Joshua is alive, the Israelites serve and walk in the ways of the Lord.

Read Judges 2:6-7

Yet, after Joshua dies, the Israelites downward spiral of sin, oppression, repentance, deliverance, peace, sin … begins.

Let’s look at Judges 2:10-23

Here we see in verses 10-12 that a new generation of Israelites grew up who neither knew the Lord nor what He had done on their behalf. Because of this we see that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served other gods, just as God knew they would do.

Judges 2:15-19; here we see the cycle clearly…. Due to their sin, God would allow their enemies to defeat them and they would be under the oppression of others. Then they would cry out to the Lord, who is merciful and gracious, and He would raise up a judge who would bring them out of the oppression. But when things got good again, they would fall back into sin.

Truth: It is easy for us to think how could they do this, but in reality, we are the same way.

Ask: In what ways do you think we are just like the Israelites?

1. We are sinners just like them.

2. We would rather do our own thing than what pleases the Lord.

3. When life is going well, we think we can handle it on our own.

4. When problems come, we cry out to God for help.

In chapter 3, we meet 3 of the 6 main judges of Israel that God raised up to deliver Israel from their oppressors.

1. Othniel: The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, they cried out to God, and He raised up Othniel who delivered them, and they had 40 years of peace.

2. Ehud: The Israelites did evil, they were oppressed, they cried out to God, and He raised up Ehud, who delivered them, and they had 80 years of peace.

3. Shamgar: Delivered the Israelites and saved them out of oppression.

Over the next few weeks, we will meet Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, and see what we can learn from them.

Ask: How can we apply what we have learned today to our own lives?

Applications:

1. We need to be obedient to the Lord in all that He ask, and not be willing to compromise on small things that can lead to our destruction.

2. It is the little compromises, little sins, that lead to bigger things. When Israel failed to drive out the Canaanites completely (which seemed a small things) it led to their forsaking of the true God to worship idols and false gods.

3. We too can fall into a cycle of destruction.

4. We need to be faithful to the Lord and to depend on Him when life is going good just as much as when problems arise. The Israelites thought they could handle things on their own when life was good, but in doing so, this led them away from the Lord, and back to sin.

5. Whether life is good or bad, we need the Lord just as much in both situations. We need to look to Him and depend upon Him.

Bible craft: Allow kids to make something similar to the photo below showing the cycle of Israel’s sin and destruction. Then close in prayer.

Lesson 2: Taking a stand for the Lord

Judges 4-5

Bible Aim: To teach children that sometimes you have to take a stand and do what is right despite what others may think or say.

Bible Memory: “So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength (Judges 5:31).”

Introduction:

Divide class into groups and pass out a scenario to each group. Allow kids to discuss how they could take a stand and do what is right in the midst of that situation for the Lord.

Scenario1: You are with your friends at school, when suddenly they begin to bully and pick on another kid. What do you do?

Scenario 2: Some of your friends have started using bad language because it makes them feel cool. Each day you hear words you know your parents don’t like. Your friends even use the names of God and Jesus as if they were just bad words, and they call you a baby because you won’t talk like them. What will you do?

Scenario 3: You heard your best friend and some others lying to the principal about who started a fight. You didn’t see the fight, but your friend told you another good friend of yours started it. Now an innocent person has been blamed and will be suspended from school. What will you do?

Say: Today we will meet a judge named Deborah, who was willing to take a stand and do what was right even though the responsibility belonged to someone else.

Bible Lesson:

Turn in your Bibles to Judges 4 and 5.

Have kids take turns reading Judges 4

Explain in overview: In Judges 4, we read that God chose a woman, Deborah, to judge Israel for a period of time. She was well prepared when God called her to be a prophetess and a judge because she knew God’s laws and was wise in their execution. God told Deborah to send for Barak and tell him to fight against their oppressors – Jabin, king of Canaan and Sisera, the commander of his army. Barak responded that he would only go if Deborah went with him. Though Deborah knew women did not normally fight in war she agreed to go, but Barak would have to sacrifice the glory of the victory to a woman. God gave them the battle plan which they executed with precision. Barak along with ten thousand troops from Napthali and Zebulun soon had Sisera and his troops on the run. They killed them all, but Sisera escaped from the battle to the tent of Jael, a woman whom he thought was an ally. While Sisera slept, she drove a tent peg through his head, and Jael became the heroine of the battle instead of Barak just as Deborah had said. This marked the end of Jabin’s oppression, and Israel had peace for forty years. Yet after all this, Israel again turned to her evil ways.

God used Deborah to take a stand and do what was right, when others would not. When Barak was too afraid to go and fight, Deborah was willing to go and fight. Because of this, the glory of the win would go to a woman rather than a man.

Summarize Judges 5, as a song of Deborah of the Lord’s victory given over their enemies.

Truth: When God gives us victory, we have a choice to make. Will we give the credit to the Lord or take the glory for ourselves? We see here, that Deborah gave all the glory to the Lord.

Bible Memory Game:

Bible Verse Relay

This one can be hilarious to watch! Have the kids memorize the verse of the day. Near the end of the class split your class up into 2 teams and set up 2 boards (marker boards, chalk boards…etc.).

When you say “GO!”, one kid from each team will run up to the board and write the first word. They then run back and pass the marker/chalk to the next teammate who then runs to write the second word. The teams must work fast to finish the verse, including the book, chapter and verse that it came from.

Whichever team finishes correctly first, wins.

Close in prayer.

Lesson 3: Fear verses Faith

Judges 6-8

Bible Aim: To teach children that they can trust the Lord and be obedient to Him no matter what He ask.

Bible Memory: The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you (Judges 6:14)?”

Introduction:

Play who am I:

Before class write Bible characters name on slips of paper and place in basket or bag, folded.

Example: David who killed Goliath, Abraham who was old and had a child, Noah who built the ark, Jacob deceived his father that he was his brother, Moses the baby placed in a basket, Joshua and Caleb the two spies who believed God, Mary, the mother of Jesus, etc.….

Allow kids to take turns drawing a slip and then acting out the character until the other students guess who they are.

As teacher, act out Gideon, the judge who wanted a sign from God. Allow kids time to guess, until they guess who the lesson is about today.

Bible Lesson:

Have kids turn to Judges 6.

In Judges 6, Israel has done it again. They have done evil in the eyes of the Lord, been given over to their oppressors, cried out to the Lord for help, and thus enters Gideon as their help.

Yet, Gideon wasn’t so sure of what God asked of him.

Read Judges 6:12-40

Break up into 3 groups and allow kids to find in the verses the three times Gideon ask for a sign. Allow each to present one of the signs.

Ask, why do you think Gideon asked for a sign from the Lord?

Ask, have you ever been asked to do something that just seemed way to hard for you to do?

Explain often in the Bible we see God calling the weak, the least, the smallest etc. Here God calls Gideon who was from the weakest tribe, and the least in his family.

When Gideon is asked to do something that seems too much, he wants a sign from the Lord that God will give him the victory. He just isn’t sure, his heart is fearful and doubtful, yet God is gracious and answers his request each time.

Sometimes our fear is greater than our faith, and it is in such times we must rely completely upon the Lord, holding fast to Him, and believing His word, over our feelings.

God loves to choose the weak, the least, the less smart etc. to be His hands and feet b/c then He gets all the glory.

Turn to Judges 7, here we see another great picture of just this.

In Judges 7, Gideon has a large army of men ready to fight, but God says no. He tells Gideon that there are too many fighting men. So, he tells Gideon to tell all the men who are afraid to go back home, and 20,000 men left. But God says there are still too many men. So, He instruct Gideon to take the men down to the water for a drink, and He tells Gideon to separate the men according to how they drink water. Then He instructs Gideon to take the 300 men who lapped up the water like dogs to fight with him.

Gideon had to be shocked, are you sure Lord, He must have asked. Yet, He takes the 300 men to fight and God gives them the victory, getting all the glory for the defeat.

Have someone read Judges 7:22 and to explain what happened.

That is right, God didn’t even have the 300 men to fight, He caused the Mideanites to turn on one another and to kill each other, and they did.

Explain, often what God ask us seems too hard, or it just doesn’t make sense. Yet, this is when we must trust Him all the more. God wants us to be led by faith rather than fear. What God ask doesn’t have to make sense. And though it may seem hard, we can trust Him and do as He ask, because just as He was with Gideon giving Him the victory, He will be with you, giving you the victory when you obey Him.

Close in prayer

Bible Memory: The Tricky Teacher

Repeat the verse with your child several times so that they are familiar with it. Then, say the verse aloud to them, but make a mistake. When your child hears the mistake, they call out “Gotcha” and get one point. If your child doesn’t catch the error, the “Tricky Teacher” gets a point. Multiple children? Play this game in exactly the same way, pitting the children against the teacher to see who gets the most points.

Lesson 5: Mistaken Vows

Judges 10-11

Bible Aim: To teach children that God is serious about vows and means for us to keep the vows (promises) we make. The Bible makes it clear that it is better not to make a vow than to make a vow and not keep it.

Bible Memory: It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it (Ecc. 5:5).

Introduction:

Who has ever promised to do something, only to have to later back out of it?

Sure, we all have.

We have all said we would do one thing, and then had to go back on our word.

This is quite common, but is this okay?

The reality is that the Bible teaches us that our yes should be yes, and no should be no. We should not say things we do not mean or make promises we can not or have no intention of keeping.

Here in Nepal, this can be a big issue. Being a shame culture, it is often common to say yes to someone, or say you will do something, with no real plans of following through on such things. But this is not okay.

In today’s lesson we will see a vow or promise made by Jephthah to God that was foolish and cost him a lot.

Bible Lesson:

Turn to Judges 11

While kids are turning to Judges 11, summarize who Jephthah was.

The nation of Israel had once again turned from God, they were being oppressed, so they cried out to the Lord for help.

And God sent them Jephthah.

Jephthah was the son of Gilead, but his brothers hated him. This was because Jephthah’s mom and their mom were not the same. So, they treated him as an outcast, and they ran him off because they did not want to share their father’s inheritance with him.

So, at the time God calls Jephthah to deliver the Israelites, he was off on his own. One day, his brothers and the elders of Israel come and seek him out. They wanted him to come and lead them. He couldn’t believe it, but they promise that they will make him the leader of Gilead if he will help them. He makes them promise to do so, which they do.

Let’s take a look, have kids take turns reading Judges 11:1-10

In Judges 11:11-27; we see that Jephthah sends a letter to the King of the Ammonites, seeking a peaceful solution to the problem, but the King pays no attention to his letter, nor does he respond.

Read 11:28, here we see that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he set out to fight the Ammonites.

Allow kids to read Judges 11:30-31

On his way he made a foolish vow to the Lord, a vow the Lord did not ask of him, nor require.

He vowed that if the Lord would give him victory over the Ammonites, that he would offer whomever/whatever came out of his door to meet him upon his return home as a sacrifice to the Lord.

Allow kids to read Judges 11:34-40

God does give him the victory and he returns home excited. Yet, his excitement was quickly turned to mourning when he sees his only daughter, his only child, come out of the house to greet him.

When he sees her, he begins tearing his clothes, and when he explains why to his daughter, she asks that he give her 2 months to spend with her friends before keeping his vow. He agrees and she goes off with her friends but returns 2 months later and Jephthah keeps his vow to the Lord.

Wow! What a tragic ending to an otherwise great victory.

Application:

Ask, what can we learn from this story?

Allow kids to answer, then share.

1. We learn that God does not want us to treat others badly no matter what. Jephthah’s brothers hated him and treated him as an outcast.

2. We learn that we shouldn’t make foolish vows or promises that God does not ask of us. God never asked Jephthah to do anything in order to get the victory. God would have given him the victory regardless of his vow, but Jephthah foolishly thought that this vow would cause God to give him victory.

3. All vows we make before the Lord are serious, and we should keep them. Ask: what are some vows we make to the Lord??

a. Marriage vows: These are made to the Lord, and when we make these vows, they are not to be broken.

b. Children dedication: When parents make vows before the church to raise their children in the ways of the Lord, they are to keep such vows. They are not to be broken.

c. Other vows: when you make a promise to the Lord concerning different things, He expects you to keep it. Remember it is better not to make a vow than to make one and not keep it.

4. We should let our yes be yes and our no be no. You and I shouldn’t make promises we can’t keep. We shouldn’t say one thing and do another. We should strive to the best of our ability to do what we say we will do.

Bible Memory: Have kids stand and say the verse the number of times of their birth month. Ex: March (say 3 x). Once all have had a turn, erase verse from board and have kids say it aloud together. Have them say it in a normal voice, a whisper and then as loud as they can.

Close in prayers

Lesson 6: Samson’s strength and downfall

Judges 13-16

Bible Aim: To teach children that sin will always take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.

Bible Memory: “But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved (Judges 16:22).”

Introduction:

Who do you think is the strongest man alive? What makes them so strong?

Today we will study the strongest man in the Bible, does anyone know who that was?

What made Samson so strong?

Was it his hair, was it the vow his parents made for him to be a Nazarite??

Today, we will see that none of these things gave Samson strength rather his strength came from the Lord.

Let’s take a look.

Bible study:

Turn in your Bibles to Judges 13-16; we won’t read all of these chapters, but here we find the details of the life of Samson.

Have someone read Judges 13:1-5

Here we see the Israelites are up to their old ways, and they are in need of a deliverer. You will notice that God doesn’t deliver them right away, in fact it will be many years before Samson is old enough to go and deliver the Israelites, but God is preparing the way.

Manoah (Samson’s dad) prayed that God would show them how to raise Samson, so the angel of the Lord comes and instructs them. Read 13:13-14

Read 13:24-25; later Samson was born and from his birth, the Lord was with him.

Application:

Many times, when we are going through difficulties, we pray and want or expect the Lord to hear and answer our prayers immediately. Sometimes He does, but sometimes He doesn’t. He allows us to continue through the difficulties for a time, and then answers later. But one thing we can know for sure is that God is always at work. He hears our prayers, He sees what we are going through, and He can and will deliver us if we continue to look to Him. The Lord is always on time, usually not early, but also never late.

Judges 14; summarize

In Chapter 14 we find that Samson has fallen in love with a woman he wants to marry. On his way down to ask her to marry him, he kills a lion with his bare hands that was about to attack them. Wow! Later on, the day he is to be married, he see’s this same lion dead on the side of the road, but inside the lion’s body he notices that some bees have made honey. He scoops some out and eats it, then gives some to his parents without telling them were it came from.

Ask: What was wrong with what Samson di?

That’s right, Samson was not to ever eat anything unclean, and honey from inside a dead animal would have been unclean. Even here we see a lack of respect in Samson concerning the Lord. Oh, he enjoyed the power that would come upon Him, when God strengthened him to fight, but he did not honor the Lord as holy.

On the day of his marriage he gives the Philistines a riddle, which they only figured out because his bride pleaded with him for 7 days to tell her the answer. When he tells her, she tells the Philistines. When they come with the answer, Samson is furious because he knows his wife told them the answer. So furious that he leaves his wife and goes and burns the fields of the Philistines. Well, you can imagine they were not happy. In fact, they wanted him dead.

Application: We saw here that Samson did not really honor the Lord with his life. He was somewhat grateful for the strength God gave him, but he didn’t really credit his strength to the Lord. Sometimes we are the same. We are happy for the talents and abilities God has given us (with music, sports, school etc.) but if we aren’t careful, we take the credit for such abilities rather than giving the glory to the Lord.

God wants us to give Him the glory for the talents/abilities He has given to us.

In chapter 15-16 we are introduced to Delilah. You will notice that beautiful women were a dangerous trap for Samson, they were his weak spot, that would eventually lead to his death. Such is the story of Delilah.

Have kids turn to Judges 16 and read 16:6-14

Here we find that Samson has fallen in love with Delilah. When the Philistines hear that Samson is with her, they tell her they will pay her if she can find out the secret to his strength. Three times she tries to coax it out of Samson, and each time he tells her a bit of truth, but not the full truth. Delilah also tells the Philistines each time what Samson tells her, and they come and attack. Yet, Samson is able to defeat them. This makes the Philistines even angrier, as well as Delilah.

Read 16:15-22

Samson grew so tired of her nagging that he finally told her the truth, and this time the Philistines were able to subdue Him, but did you notice verse 22; which is today’s Bible verse. It tells us that Samson’s hair began to grow again. Wow, what a merciful God we serve.

Application: Each time Delilah tried to trick Samson, his answer become more and more truthful. He compromised a little more and a little more until he finally told her the source of his strength, and it led to his downfall.

Sometimes we think oh it’s just a little white lie, its just a small sin, no big deal. Nobody will know, nothing will happen, and maybe you get away with it. But you know what happens when those little sins add up, what those compromises lead to? Bigger and greater sins and our own downfall.

One would think that God was done with Samson, I mean come on Samson has blown it again! But God is merciful and while in prison, Samson’s hair began to grow.

God is merciful towards you and me too. Even when we blow it BIG God can forgive us if we ask Him, and He can still use us for His glory. Which is what He does with Samson.

At the end of chapter 16, we see that Samson’s hair has grown back. Now, was Samson’s hair the cause of his strength (no), but it symbolized the strength of God upon Samson’s life.

While in prison, they had gouged out his eyes, so he could not even see. One day they called him in to entertain them. Really, they just wanted to mock Samson and make fun of him. But on this day, Samson prays that God will allow him to defeat them one last time. So, while Samson is standing between the two pillars, God restores His strength in full, and when Samson pushes on the two pillars the walls and ceilings come tumbling down and kill all the Philistines as well as Samson.

Read Judges 16:30

So, God did use Samson to deliver his people from the Philistines. It was done in a most unusual way, but God delivered his people once more just as He said He would.

Application: Sometimes the way God does things doesn’t really make sense. We may expect deliverance or answers to our prayers to come in a way that makes sense to us, but it may come in a very different way. We must remember that God knows best.

Close in prayer.

Game time:

Break kids into two teams and see which team can answer the most riddles correct.

Riddles: