The Battle of Jericho

Central Truth: Faith includes obedience.

Scriptures: Joshua 5:10-15; 6; Hebrews 11:30-31

After crossing the Jordan River, the Israelites kept the Passover, eating the grain and produce of the land of Canaan. The day after eating the produce of the land, the manna ceased. As Joshua scored the city while preparing for the battle, a Man with a drawn sword appeared. The Man told Joshua that he was the captain of the host of the Lord. He gave Joshua instructions on how to capture the city, and Joshua obeyed. 

Joshua organized his army as the Man had instructed. For six days, they marched around Jericho one time without making a noise. On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times. After the seventh time around, Joshua told them to shout because God has given them the city. The walls fell flat and the Israelites took the city, saving only Rahab and her family.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,

after they were compassed about seven days.

By faith the harlot Rahab perished not 

with them that believed not,

when she had received the spies with peace.

Hebrews 11:30-31

Bible Scrapbook

Each week the children will be adding to their scrapbooks what they have learned during Sunday School.  It is difficult to study and understand the Book of Joshua without knowing where the places are that were conquered by the Canaanites. In our journals, we added a map that included the possible locations of the biblical cities of Jericho, Ai, Bethel, and Shechem.

Israel Crosses the Jordan River

The Israelites crossing the Jordan River (picture from freebibleimages.org).

Central Truth: We should always remember what God does for us in our lives.

Scriptures: Joshua 3 and 4

The city of Jericho is located at the eastern entrance into the land of Canaan, so it was necessary for the Israelites to capture this city first before conquering the rest of the land. Before they could attack Jericho, they first had to cross the Jordan River. Unfortunately, the Israelites came to the river during a time when the Jordan overflowed its banks. It was going to take a miracle to cross the river. Joshua instructed the priest to carry the Ark of the Covenant to the brink of the river. When the soles of their feet entered the water, the water stopped flowing and the people were able to cross the river on dry ground. Twelve men from each of the tribes were instructed to carry a stone from where the priests stood with the Ark and to the other side of the river and made a heap of stones as a memorial. Joshua also took twelve stones from the river and made a second heap of stones where the priests stood in the river. The memorial marked the location of the crossing. As soon as the priests carried the Ark to the other side of the Jordan River, the water again flowed, overflowing the banks as before. 

Bible Scrapbook

Each week the children will be adding to their scrapbooks what they have learned during Sunday School. This time we had fun recreating the scene of the crossing of the Jordan River with scrapbook paper and construction paper. The scene was inspired by a coloring page I found on the Internet. Here are a couple of pages:

Rahab hides the Spies

Rahab helps the Israelite spies to escape (freebibleimages.org)

Central Truth: Other people see what God does, so let your light shine!

Scriptures: Joshua 2

In preparation for the Israelites to invade the Promised Land, Joshua sent two spies into the city of Jericho. The spies went to the house of Rahab and, when the king of Jericho heard that there were Israelites within Jericho, he sent men to Rahab demanding the spies to be turned over to them. The men could not find the spies, however, because Rahab had hidden them in the roof of her house. 

Rahab told the spies that the people of Jericho had heard what had happened in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea and how they had destroyed the Amalekites. The people of Jericho were afraid of the Israelites. Rahab asked the men to save her and her family when the Israelites attacked. The spies promised that no harm will come to them and to hang a scarlet thread in the window so that the Israelites would know not to harm anyone in her home.

Bible Scrapbook

Each week the children will be adding to their scrapbooks what they have learned during Sunday School. This week, we each made a scarlet cord of salvation for our scrapbooks. We took three strands of red thread and attached it to our scrapbooks. Then we braided the thread and added some beads at the bottom.  

Joshua Becomes Leader

Picture from freebibleimages.org

Central Truth: Through faith, God prepared a place for the Israelites and is ready to fulfill the land promise to them.

Scriptures: Deuteronomy 34; Joshua 1

After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, all of the Israelites who had been twenty years or older when they left Egypt had died except for Joshua and Caleb. Moses repeated to the Israelites who had grown up during the wandering years all of the laws spoken by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. Since Moses had sinned by striking the rock instead of speaking to it, he was forbidden to enter the land of Canaan. Before Moses had died, he appointed Joshua as the new leader.

Bible Scrapbook

Each week the children will be adding to their scrapbooks what they have learned during Sunday School. Today, we reflected on the life of Moses and created a beautiful page in our scrapbook:

Balaam & Balak

Balaam's talking donkey.

Central Truth: God can speak to humans in many different ways to communicate his message.

Scriptures: Numbers 22:23; 24; Revelations 2:14

After the Israelites defeated the two Amorite kings and their armies, they camped in the lands that they had conquered, which alarmed the Balak, the king of Moab. Bala hired Balaam, a magician from Pethor, a city on the Euphrates River, to come and curse the Israelites. God forbade Balaam to go to Balak, but Balaam disobeyed God and went. Nevertheless, God prevented Balaam from cursing Israel. Instead, Balaam blessed Israel because he could only speak as God directed him. 

The next morning, Balaam saddled his donkey and went with the messengers from Balak. The Lord was angry with him and the angel of the Lord stood in the way with a sword. Three times the angel stood to kill Balaam, and three times the donkey balked when she saw the angel. Balaam struck the donkey three times. The Lord then opened the mouth of the donkey, and the donkey asked Balaam why he had struck her but Balaam threatened to kill the poor donkey. Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord holding his sword. The angel told Balaam that he would have killed him these three times had it not been for the donkey.

Balaam was not an Israelite, but he knew enough about God to obey him. He thought he could influence God by offering sacrifices but failed. Since Balaam was greedy, he did advise Balak how to tempt the Israelites so that God would curse them by sending women to entice the men to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sins. Later, however, the Israelites warred with the Midianites and Balaam was killed.

Bible Scrapbook

This week we started a new project! Bible journaling and scrapbooking is a very popular thing of studying the word of God while being creative. We drew a mountain to represent the high places used to bless the Israelites. I found a cute free to use donkey picture to include with a speech bubble. Each child chose what the donkey said and we glued them into our scrapbook along with a map of where the story took place in the Holy Land. Next week we will finish with some bullet notes about the area.

Scrapbooks!