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Episode 5: David vs. Goliath

Everything You Need to Know (about God) You Can Learn in Sunday School Series

The story of David and Goliath is one that most people know, even non-believers. It’s a story that when I have taught to boys and girls alike over the years they all lean in and want to learn more. For me, every time I read this story in the Bible something different stands out to me that I feel I have never read before. The scriptures hit differently as my faith and foundation in Christ grows. There are so many ways to look at David’s life and find modern day applications and analogies. He was so chosen by God, anointed, but also so human in all of his mistakes. He is someone that you can’t help but root for even when he sins or rushes into very serious decisions too quickly.

His Biblical story starts years before he meets up with Goliath. When he was a young boy the prophet Samuel (lead by God’s guidance) anointed David in secret to be the next king after Saul. Even with this promise he continued being a normal shepherd boy. The Israelites had been in battle with the Philistine army for a long time and his father sent him to check on his older brothers that were in the army.

When he got there he learned of something crazy that had been happening every day. The Philistine’s had a literal giant that towered over 9 feet tall! Every morning and night he would challenge the Israelite army to send one person to fight with him. During this time armies would present their “champions” to fight each other in order to save the lives of many of their soldiers. It was actually a pretty smart way to prevent a huge loss of life on both sides. The problem here was Goliath was so large that no one on the Israelite side was interested in his offer. Even King Saul and his military leaders were afraid and would not go into battle with the giant. This went on for 40 days and nights. I have read these scriptures and taught them many times but I do not recall paying attention to the number 40 being significant in this account.

The number 40 appears in both the New and Old Testament and it is thought to represent a period of trial or testing. What was the testing here? Was each person on the Israel side being tested of their faith? Could you imagine something happening twice each day and no one attempted to do something about it? I know that if something happens to me just a few times on repeat I start to lose my patience or find a way to make the recurrence end. David as a fifteen year old boy saw this happen and couldn’t believe that no one had the faith in God to go to battle with Goliath to make it end.

What is our Goliath? Who is our enemy? Satan of course is our ultimate enemy, but does he use anything or anyone to attack us daily?

When word got back to King Saul that David was questioning why no one had fought Goliath he requested he come to him. David told Saul that he would fight Goliath. I wonder what must have went through the King’s mind. He, himself, the king was not willing to fight Goliath or any of his military leaders… but a very young man with no military experience was willing to risk his life to put all of this to an end.

King Saul dressed David in his own personal armor, his tunic, helmet and a large sword. Little David began to walk around and realized that all of the weight would weigh him down and do the opposite of protecting him. Instead, he gave them up for his sling and selected five smooth stones from the stream. David was not comfortable in the heavy armor he was not used to wearing. He traded it in for the armor of God. He knew that what he needed was God’s protection and the weapon he had used many times with God’s help. We as Christians can have the ability to wear the Armor of God too as stated in Ephesians 6:10-18!

I’m guessing that you probably know the rest of this story. David goes to battle Goliath. Goliath actually says some belittling remarks to David and in his mind more than likely he had little concern about fighting the shepherd boy. David lets him quickly know that Goliath’s weapons mean nothing compared to what David has – the Lord almighty.

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whome you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands…

1 Samuel 17:45-46a

I left some of the rest of the verse out in case you are sharing this article with younger innocent minds. I encourage you to read the scriptures of this battle on your own.

Goliath continued to press towards the shepherd, but David moved quickly (remember he is not weighed down with heavy armor) and this is when he was able to reach into his bag to remove a smooth stone, he slung it and struck the giant in the forehead. The giant comes crashing down to the ground. This is also another set of scriptures that you might want to look up away from little minds. This is where I usually stop reading and explaining when I teach younger children. If you are interested look up 1 Samuel 17:50-54.

The Israelites were so excited and they started to charge towards the Philistine army and they ran away! The Israelites win the battle!

The little shepherd boy wins the battle over the giant all with the help of a small sling and a big God. If this isn’t a story of faith over fear I don’t know what is.

What is your Goliath? How can putting on the Armor of God prepare you for the battle you have ahead?

Verses to check out on your own: 1 Samuel 17; Ephesians 6:10-18

Have a Blessed Day!

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** I am not theologically trained. This is just my explanation at a very basic level and hoping to make relatable for children and adults to understand to grow their relationship with God. The literature from my Sunday School class is from D6 – Elementary Teaching Guide through D6 Family Ministry – I have made all attempts to not reference their materials directly but they are great lessons and this is what I use in my class. I try to take as much from my own learnings from the Holy Bible in addition to the lessons for this blog. **

Episode 1: Old Testament- The Commandments

Everything You Need to Know (about God) You Can Learn in Sunday School Series

When I first started studying the Bible I didn’t see much point in understanding the Old Testament. Now, I love the Old Testament and want to know as much as I can from it!

The way I explain it to the kids is that the whole Bible is one big story mostly about one family and leading to Jesus. Our Savior grew up following the strict rules of the Jewish religion and He answered and fulfilled over 300 prophecies from the Old Testament!

I think that studying the OT is super important if we want to grow our relationship with the Lord. Knowing where someone comes from and why they do the things they do is a great way to understand them and trust them – and love them.

When we study the OT there is also another common thread throughout this whole division of the Bible and its that the Israelites repeat a relationship cycle over and over with God.

Here’a a simple explanation of the cycle:

  1. They love God, they follow His commandments.
  2. They forget what God has done for them and they fall away- usually turning to false gods/idols.
  3. Something really bad happens (a big test/trial)- a war, famine, slavery etc
  4. They turn back to God by turning away from their false gods/idols/disobedience and follow the commandments again.
  5. God forgives them.
  6. Repeat!

This literally happens over and over again throughout the whole OT more times than I know. This is how almost all of the stories in the Old Testament can easily relate to our lives today.

How many times do we do this same process? How many times do we forget all of the great things that God has done for us and turn our attention and time to other things? How many times are we then reminded we need God in our lives because something bad happens and we need His help? How many times do we ask Him to forgive us and then do it all over again?

If you are someone that is in the middle part of this cycle I want you to focus on items 4 & 5. You can still turn back to God and we know that God will always forgive us. Then the way we grow our relationship with Him is try really really hard not to keep repeating the process or if we do return to steps 4 & 5 as quick as possible.

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments after the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea fleeing from the Egyptians (the exodus of Egypt following the plagues). There were over 500,000 men plus women and children – so upwards of over 1,000,000 people! It makes complete sense that God felt He needed to give some rules to follow going forward to help keep them on the right path with Him.

Several years ago while teaching the children’s church class the Ten Commandments I came across a video that taught the kids how to use their hands to remember the commandments and it is the simplest and most memorable way I have used. I will link the video to the one most similar to the pictures I’m posting below. These are photos below of my ten year old daughter’s hands and explanation of each commandment. Please review these and I can promise you can learn them too! I used this in my Sunday school class with this lesson and every single kid (regardless of age) was able to share them all back to Mrs. Brenda and I by the end of the roughly 30 minute class!

Commandment 1: We are to have ONE and only ONE God (Use ONE finger to show the number ONE)
Commandment 2: TWO Gods are too many (use TWO fingers like a peace sign)
Commandment 3: WATCH your WORDS – Do not say God’s name in vain or say anything bad about God (The fingers make the shape of a W with THREE fingers).
Commandment 4: We are to rest on the Sabbath Day/Sunday and worship and give thanks to God on that day (Hold up FOUR fingers with the thumb resting on your palm- this is to show we are to rest on that day)
Commandment 5: Honor thy mother and they father (This is my favorite to teach kids about they usually have guilty reactions – hold all fingers together on one hand like you are making a pledge- FIVE fingers for commandment 5)
Commandment 6: Do not kill (don’t panic over this one and it works – hold one hand of all five fingers sideways and take index finger from the other hand like you have a squirt gun pointing at the other hand- this uses SIX fingers)
Commandment 7: Keep marriage sacred- married people should love each other and shouldn’t go on dates with other people (hold one hand with all five fingers out flat- take index and middle finger of the other hand to make two people walking together- you will be using SEVEN fingers).
Commandment 8: Do not steal (this one is fun and usually makes them laugh- hold four fingers up on both hands – not using the thumbs on either- put the EIGHT fingers in front of your eyes like you are behind jail bars).
Commandment 9: Do not gossip/tell lies about others (hold up one hand with all five fingers turned to the side- hold up four fingers on the other hand with the thumb turned towards the four extended fingers- this is to show the thumb is talking to the four fingers about the other hand of five fingers).
Commandment 10: Do not be greedy (You take all TEN fingers and hold them in front of you and scrunching fingers to show you are wanting something- we usually do this with funny greedy faces- I teach them that coveting is different than stealing- it’s being jealous of someone having something that you want and you may wish that someone loses that thing or that they get hurt so they can’t have it anymore).

These commandments are still very important today and we should follow them to the best of our ability. We know that when Jesus came in the New Testament some things from the OT went away such as animal sacrifice. When Jesus was asked about the Ten Commandments this was His response:

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” MARK 12: 30-31

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2012%3A30-31&version=NIV

If we look at the above verse it summarizes all of the commandments into just two commandments! If we love everyone like we love ourselves- then we would not steal, not talk bad, not cheat, keep marriage sacred, not murder or not want bad for others. If we love God with all of our heart, mind and soul we will always put Him first, not have any other idols, we would put one day away for Him and would never say anything bad about Him. So really if we follow what Jesus says in this verse we would cover all of the Ten Commandments!

Thank you each for reading and I hope this helps you grow your relationship with God like it does for my Sunday School class.

Have a Blessed day!

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Link to a video version :

https://youtu.be/8pBrw4uVgz8?si=PLFCVwd8omhC1FZC

** I am not theologically trained. This is just my explanation at a very basic level and hoping to make relatable for children and adults to understand to grow their relationship with God. The literature from my Sunday School class is from D6 – Elementary Teaching Guide through D6 Family Ministry – I have made all attempts to not reference their materials directly but they are great lessons and this is what I use in my class. I try to take as much from my own learnings from the Holy Bible in addition to the lessons for this blog. **

Holy Week

Day 2 Holy Monday

Happy Holy Week! Yesterday as we all know was Palm Sunday. If you want more activities for Palm Sunday please visit my post at http://www.tiffanyshepherd.com/palmsunday for scriptures, free coloring sheets, activities, crafts, puzzles, songs and more.

Today is Holy Monday, the second day of Holy Week. Todays post will be much shorter. I will try to post each day this week activities and scriptures for your family to celebrate!

Holy Monday is usually celebrated as the day that Jesus cleared/cleansed the temples.

Here are the scriptures and where else to find them:

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words. Luke 19: 45-48 NIV

Matthew 21:12-16; Mark 11:15-18; John 2:13-16

I couldn’t find a picture but something we have done before is take construction paper, write, ” My house will be a house of prayer.” or the whole scripture. We took popsicle sticks and made a table turned over and glued coins to the paper.

Here are some coloring sheet links:

http://www.sermons4kids.com/cleansing_temple_abda_colorpg.htm

Holy Week in Handprints

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

http://www.kidssundayschool.com/1483/preschool/jesus-cleansing-the-temple.php

I’ll be adding more tomorrow for Tuesday of Holy Week. Jesus teaches in the Temple.

Thanks and have a Blessed day!