Judges 7

Lesson Aim

To understand that God gives his people victory.

Hook 1: Blue strip of cloth, shallow bowl containing water, jug,  paper torch and sword

Use the blue cloth as a stream and bow down to drink from the stream, showing the children the two different ways that the Israelite soldiers drank using a bowl and some water.

Make a paper torch with coloured flames at one end and place it inside a jug so that it can be brandished in the story when they attack the Midianite camp, then pretend to fight and kill other children with the sword.

Hook 2: Paper trumpets

Give each child a paper trumpet made from a large sheet of paper rolled into a cone shape and sellotaped together. Practise making a trumpet noise with the children before the story. Have them blow their trumpets and shout  “For the Lord and Gideon” at the appropriate time in the story.

Hook 3: For the brave hearted!

If you feel very confident with your children, it is possible to re-enact the whole story en masse, that is with all of the children taking part. To achieve this you should brief the other leaders beforehand so that they can also effectively take part. Tell the children that they are all soldiers and announce that 22,000 have already left because they were frightened. Then take all the children to the stream (the cloth) for the second test where they should pretend to drink water from the ‘stream’. After this explain that they are going to attack the camp and have them crawl across the room in silence to the Midianite camp. Once there, then they can all join in the story with smashing of jugs (plastic cups); waving of paper torches; shouting; fighting with rulers and killing the Midianites.

Story tips

Hook 3 is a very effective way of telling this story but you should only attempt it if you feel very confident about the behaviour of your children and have sufficient helpers to cope with any difficult children.

Hook 4: Questions

Have you ever wanted to be a soldier? To fight with a sword and shield? To creep up in secret and attack your enemy? Let’s find out about soldiers fighting for God in today’s Bible story.

Application

Explain to the children that God wanted to be seen to give his people victory. Victory was by God’s help, not by their strength.