VERSES: 2 Samuel 7:1-29
MEMORY VERSE: 2 Samuel 7:16 "And your house and your kingdom will be established forever..."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Review the first five books of the Old Testament. Repeat them over and over, so that the students will have a good foundation in memorizing all 39 books of the Old Testament. Write the first five books of the Old Testament on small slips of paper and hand out to the students at the end of class.
PRAYER: Thank God for always keeping His promises.
SPECIAL SONG: No, Not One (see June - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #6 on this blog)
VISUAL AID: Large Activity (see below)
- In time, God gave King David rest from his enemies who lived all around him. He was sitting in his house one day, talking to Nathan, a prophet of God. David said, "Look around. Here I live in a beautiful house of cedar, but the ark of God lives within curtains." Nathan did not talk to God about this plan of building a house for the LORD that David was thinking about. Nathan said for David to do all that was within his heart.
- That night, God spoke to Nathan and said to tell David that the LORD said, "Will you, David, build Me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. Have I asked any of the judges of Israel to build Me a house?"
- God went on to say, "Tell David that I took him from shepherding sheep to be a ruler over all Israel. I made him that wherever he went, I was the One who cut off all of his enemies and made him a great name, one of the greatest names on the earth. I will make a place for My people and they will not move anymore. Their enemies will not hurt them like they did before. I will give David rest from his enemies for a while."
- God continued to say that, instead, He would build David's house, meaning when David died that God would make David's son king over Israel, and He would establish his son's kingdom. David's son would be the one to build God's house, not David. God said that He would treat David's son as His son and, if David's son disobeyed God, then he would punish him, but God would not take away the kingdom from David's son like He took the kingdom away from Saul. David's throne would be established forever.
- Do we know what that means--David's throne would be established forever? That means that Jesus would come from David's seed or from his children and their children and their great-grandchildren and eventually, Jesus, would be born and establish His kingdom, the church! God was making a covenant or promise to David. This was a great blessing that God was giving David and, when Nathan spoke all these things to David, he truly appreciated and thanked God His blessing. David prayed a beautiful prayer to God, thanking Him and praising God's name.
- Definition of "covenant"-- promise or agreement. God made an agreement with David that David's kingdom would live forever, resulting in Jesus coming from his bloodline. This was a HUGE promise or covenant God was making.
- Read Luke 1:32, 33. Compare the words "house," "kingdom," and "throne" in 2 Samuel 7:16 to those same words in Luke.
Materials needed: 9" x 12" piece brown of construction paper, 4" x 12" piece of red construction paper, 4" x 12" piece of white paper, markers, crayons, scissors, glue.
- Hand out brown paper.
- With black crayon or marker, have student draw dark and light lines across entire piece of paper to resemble a house of cedar. Add squiggles for knot holes.
- Write "God's Promise To David" and "2 Samuel 7" at top of brown paper.
- Hand out white paper.
- Cut white paper in half.
- On one half of the white paper, write "I want to build a house for the ark of God."
- Cut into a speech bubble.
- On the other half of the white paper, draw David sitting on the throne (make a throne by drawing a lower case 'h') and Nathan.
- Glue David and Nathan on brown paper.
- Write "David" on David's throne and "Nathan" on Nathan's robe.
- Glue speech bubble on brown paper.
- Hand out red paper.
- Fold red paper in half.
- On outside of red paper, write "God's Answer."
- On inside of red paper, write "No. I will build your house and it will last forever."
- Write "David's House of Cedar" at the bottom of the brown paper.