JEREMIAH
Objectives:
- Children should again identify a prophet as one who speaks for God.
- They should identify Jeremiah as a prophet who lived in Judah.
- Children should identify Jeremiah as author of the book of Jeremiah and of the Lamentations.
- Children should know that Jeremiah prophesied the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians and lived to see that fulfilled.
- Children should identify Nebuchadnezzar as King of Babylon.
Possible Lesson Plan:
- Open with prayer.
- Read the story of Jeremiah and the fall of Judah in the Children’s Bible Reader, pages 146-147, First Bible, pages 132-133, or the Golden Children’s Bible, pages 298-303.
Add Jeremiah to your timeline.
- Feed the Elephant True/False questions:
True False
Jeremiah was a prophet of Judah. Jeremiah was King of Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar was King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was a prophet.
Jeremiah wrote the Lamentations. Jeremiah wrote the Proverbs.
Jerusalem was conquered by Babylon. Jeremiah defeated Babylon in battle.
- Class demonstration: God sometimes told Jeremiah to do something to show His people what He meant. So it was with the belt; Jeremiah buried a cloth belt for a long time and dug it up again all rotten and disgusting, showing how we also become rotten and disgusting if we hide ourselves from the light of God. Take a piece of cloth. Write each child’s name on it with washable marker. Dig a hole in the garden and bury it there. Dig it up again at the end of the Church School year. What happened?
- Remember that prophets talked for God. Make a talking paper plate puppet:
Draw a mouth as shown.
Fold the plate on line AB.
Fold again on line CD.
Color the mouth section red.
Draw in the facial features and
hair and color.
Make the puppet talk by gently
pulling and pushing on the
rim of the plate just below the mouth.
Remind the students that the prophets were asked to speak by God what HE told them to say.
6. Close with prayer.