Lesson Objective:
The children will learn that Man is never as great as God.
Scripture:
Genesis 11:1-9
Arrival:
As the children arrive, greet them and show them to the singing area of the classroom. Take favorites, sing “The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock,” and close with “God Is So Good.”
Prayer Time:
Take prayer requests and pray for them. Remember to pray for the lesson time as well.
Lesson:
Ask the children if they have ever heard someone talking in another language. Find out if any of the children in your class know how to speak another language. If they are comfortable doing so, ask the child to say something in another language and then translate. Ask them why they think people speak different languages. Discuss some of the confusion that this can cause. Tell them that you are going to show them, from the Bible, how languages were created.
Remind the children of the command God gave Noah and his family after the flood. (Genesis 9:1 and Genesis 9:7). Emphasize that they were told not once, but twice, to fill the earth. Tell them that Noah’s descendents did not obey this command. Discuss how hard it must have been to leave the rest of the family behind when the whole world had been destroyed. Remind them, however, that Noah’s family should still have obeyed. Instead of filling the earth, they stayed put in one place. Imagine how disappointed God must have felt when He had just destroyed the earth for its wickedness, and now the family He chose to save will not obey His orders.
In their new home, people started to think they were as good as God. They decided to build a great tower to attest to their greatness. They wanted to “reach heaven” with their big tower. This did not please God. Instead of obeying His command, they were building a monument to man’s greatness and making it even harder to move across the earth.
So what did God do? One day he made all of the people speak different languages. Imagine how hard it must be to build a tower when you cannot speak to the worker next to you! Now the people did scatter throughout the world, following God’s command. They stuck with the people who spoke their language and filled the earth with people. The Tower of Babel, as the tower became known, was never finished. God accomplished His will in spite of man’s disobedience, because God is always greater than man.
Memory Verse:
Isaiah 55:8 – For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord – Discuss ways we cannot understand God’s will, and offer an incentive for children who can say the verse next week.
Craft/Game Time:
Provide flash cards with pictures and words in another common language, such as Spanish or French, for the children to learn. This will emphasize how different languages are beautiful, but can be challenging.
Dismissal:
End the class by telling the children to listen this week to see if they can hear someone talking in another language. When they do, remind them to remember that God created languages, and this shows that God’s ways are always greater than man’s ways.