Scripture: Judges 6-8
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn when God asks us to do something He expects us to do it.
- Students will learn when God asks us to do something He will provide what we need to do it.
- Students will learn God may appear to give us less than what we think we need to complete the task in order to remind us that God is in control.
- Students will review counting and even and odd numbers.
Guiding Question: How can students apply counting to review even and odd numbers?
Materials: Sets of small plastic soldiers or other figures
Procedure: Review the story of Gideon, focusing on how God limited the number of men who were to go to battle. This was so that there would be no question that their victory was from God and not by human effort. Explain that this was done in order for the people to see that God is and always is fully in control. When God wants something to be done, He will always provide what we need and who we need to successfully accomplish what he calls us to. It is easy for us to want to be in control and have things go our way. We need to remember that God’s way is the best way and allow Him to have full control in our lives.
Introduce the activity. Remind the students that Gideon kept creating sets of men that were still in his army and mentors that were sent home. Give the students lots of little plastic soldiers or other people. Have them create the sets you call out to them. Once students seem comfortable, have them pair up and give each other sets to create. The students can work on counting and creating even and odd sets of men.
Additional Questions: How can students use even and odd sets of people in real life?
Supplemental Activity: Have the students create a town with different amounts of people in each part of the town. There needs to be at least two sets of even and two sets of odd. For example, 22 people work at town hall and 15 people work at the park.