God is not to be manipulated

This week, we continued in I Samuel. Bruce led the Bible story for the first time, from I Samuel 4. He did great! Here's the story:

In learning about God's attributes, we learned that (have child read): "God is Spirit". But people seem to need something concrete to remind them of the God they are to worship. So not long after they left Egypt, God instructed them to make something called a "covenant ark" as a reminder. What is a covenant ark? (send two boys to bedroom to bring ark(I made the ark after a pattern I found on the web. I'm quite proud of it)

So, basically it's a box. Is there anything in it? (have someone

shake it) What is in it? (open box & take out items one by one):

There's this tablet, of the ten commandments. To remind people to obey God's law. There's this jar with manna inside. That's to remind people of how God provided their needs in the wilderness. And there's this rod that belonged to Moses' brother Aaron. That's to remind the people of the miracles God did to deliver them from Egypt. And then, on top of the box, there are these creatures called Cherubim. Their purpose in creation is to worship God, day and night. So what are they to remind God's people to do? (ask all)

Okay, so now we know what the ark is, so we can understand today's story better. It takes place in the time of Samuel, whom we met last week when he was a boy. Now he is grown up. Israel is always fighting with the Philistines (choose 2-3 as Israelites, 2-3 as Philistines, fight with swords) The Philistines fight well, and Israel is routed (Israelites run away, Philistines high-five)

So the Israelites confer among themselves as to why they lost. Who should they ask about this? (ask all) But they didn't think they needed to ask God. They had their own idea: Let's take the ark with us this time, and then God will have to give us the victory! (2 boys carry ark, 2-3 more fight with Philistines again) Did Israel win? (ask all) Nope, they lost again. Not only did they have to flee, but the ark was captured by the Philistines! (Philistines take ark, Israelites run away)

(have all sit down) So, what did the Israelites learn today? Can you force God to bless you? (ask each child) Who is in charge, God or man? (ask each child) So, you can say they learned, you can't manipulate God.

But what did the Philistines learn? They probably learned something very different—what? (ask all) They learned that Israel's God wasn't very powerful after all! But is that true? (ask each child)

We know that is not true—and in next week's story, the Philistines will find out too!

We didn't do a game this week. I just couldn't think of one, to tell the truth. People have been coming late enough that time is short, so it wasn't a huge loss, but I'd rather not make it a habit. Craft time was long enough for both though. We made mini-arks out of small cookie boxes, with pre-cut cherubim to attach on top & chopsticks for the carrying poles. Then we painted them all over with gold paint.

Bible study was on James 4:13-16.