3 Gideon Tears Down an Altar to Baal JuDGes 6:1-32 Kids will understand: • The story of Gideon tearing down the altar to Baal and building a new altar to God. • Before God did anything about their situation, He wanted the people to turn from their disobedience. • God desires a pure altar of worship, prayer, and living April 18 according to His Word from each of us. 2013 AcTIvITy suPPLIes • YouTube video Download the YouTube video, “Truck Demolition Derby: Delta, Utah,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiwyI4yFQd8. This video is only 1:17 minutes but your boys are going to love it! In our story today God uses a man named Gideon to do a little demoli- tion of his own. We’ll find out what he demolished. And, just like some of these cars and trucks were pushing back, God was with Gideon when he pushed back at the Israelites who were disobedient. If you need help in downloading the YouTube video, please see our easy-to-follow instructions in an attached file. BIBLe AccounT suPPLIes • copies of story cards (end of lesson) Prepare a bag of 12 pebbles or gravel for each pair of children. Give each pair a story card. Any children who are not good readers, make • pebbles sure they are paired with a good reader. The readers will hold the card • snack bags and the non-readers the pebbles. Altars were made out of stones, so each child will have their pebbles that represent the altar stones. Give the children time to read through their story card thoroughly. Twelve elements of the story are there, but in random order. As the children listen to the story, they will place a pebble on the appropriate cards when they hear that part of the story mentioned. Give the children time to read through their entire card before you begin telling he story. Once again the Israelites were under someone else’s control. This time, it was the Midianites. For seven long years, the Midianites had been controlling the Israelites and taking everything that belonged to them. When the Israelites’ crops were ready for harvesting, the Midianites came in and either stole the crop or let their cattle eat it. If the Midianites wanted more cattle or sheep or donkeys or camels, they just came in and took them from the Israelites. The Midianites were like locusts … they were everywhere! God had told His people when they went into the Promised Land to go ahead and conquer any people still in Canaan, but they didn’t do it. Now, they were living with the consequences of their disobedience. A man named Gideon was hiding from the Midianites as he threshed his grain. When they stomped on the grain it made a cloud of dust, so Gideon was hiding down in a pit where the threshing floor was. While he was down there, an angel sat down under a tree at the edge of the pit. 2 This iKnow kidzmatter.com The angel started talking to Gideon and called him a mighty warrior. Gideon didn’t feel mighty. In fact, he reminded the angel that he was from the weakest clan of Israel and he was hiding in this pit because he was afraid that the Midianites would find him. But the angel wouldn’t back down. He told Gideon that God would help him fight the Midianites and that defeating them would be like beating one man! Gideon was not sure at all that he was really talking to an angel. Gideon wanted proof. He went to prepare a meal of boiled goat and fresh bread for the angel. When he returned with the food, the angel told Gideon to put the meat and bread on a rock and then pour the broth over them. That’s when the angel struck the rock with his walk- ing stick. Immediately, flames jumped out of the rock and burned up the meat and bread. When Gideon looked up, no one was there, but he knew he had been visited by an angel of the Lord. That night, Gideon had a dream and received instructions from God. God told Gideon to take his second-best 7-year-old bull to help him destroy the altars to Baal—the Midianite god. The Israelites had dis- obeyed God and started worshipping this Midianite god. God said to build a new altar there, on the highest hill, that would be His altar. Then, sacrifice the bull on the new altar. Gideon was afraid of what the people would do to him, so he gath- ered ten men together and went in the middle of the night to carry out God’s plan. They used their second-best 7-year-old bull and demol- ished the altar to Baal. Then, they stacked stones to make a beautiful new altar to the real God of Israel and sacrificed the bull there. The next morning, when the people got up, they were angry with Gideon for destroying their altar. Next week, we’ll find out what God did through Gideon and the Israelites when they decided to obey Him once again. GAme - messy! suPPLIes • canned icing • cheese puff balls Read through the instructions to this game and then decide how many teams you want to have and how many to put on a team. Remember, • hair clips the more kids who actually get to participate, the more fun it is for • masking tape everyone. One person on the team will get an icing facial. You may want to use some hair clips to pull hair away from the volunteers’ faces. Smear the icing all over the volunteers’ faces, leaving an icing free halo around the eyes. Determine where the volunteers will stand and make a stand- behind line using the masking tape. 3 This iKnow kidzmatter.com Give each team a supply of 10 cheese puffballs. How many men did Gideon take with him in the middle of the night to destroy the old altar to Baal and to build a new altar to the real God of Israel? 10! So, let’s get all 10 of those guys to stick on the face of our volunteer. At the signal, one team member at a time will toss the cheese puff at their icing volunteer. Cheese puffballs that do not stick have to be re- trieved and tossed again until all 10 are stuck. If you do not want to have the volunteer stand for this, they can lie on the ground and have the cheese puffballs tossed at them that way. (They may not have to throw quite as hard.) What was the “mess” in this story? The answers might vary: Israelites disobeying, the Midianites taking everything from the Israelites, Gideon being afraid of what the people would do when they found out about the altar to Baal. How did the mess get cleaned up? Before delivering them from the Midianites, God wanted to get the people through the spiritual mess they had gotten themselves into. scIence exPerImenT suPPLIes • 2 eggs Beforehand, put one egg in a glass of cola for several hours. • cola Show an egg that has not been in the cola. Then, pull the egg out of the • glass glass of cola. What happened? The cola stained the shell of the egg • toothbrush and made it more like the color of the cola. • toothpaste Think about what happened to the Israelites. When the Midianites moved in, instead of staying away from their beliefs and gods, the Israelites became more and more like the Midianites. The Israelites even started worshipping the god of the Midianites—Baal. The Midianites put their stain on the Israelites. Now, put some toothpaste on the toothbrush and scrub the cola- stained egg. Ask the kids to describe what happened when you used the toothpaste and brush on the egg. When Gideon and the 10 men tore down the altar to Baal and built a new altar to the real God of Israel, they were cleaning things up. Every time the Israelites saw the altar to Baal they were reminded of their disobedience to God. Now, when they looked upon the altar to God, they would be reminded of the One who led them out of Egypt and gave them a new land, the Promised Land. When we come to God, He wants us to put everything else aside. He wants to be the first thing in our lives. When we worship Him, it should be pure, without distractions. God doesn’t want a worship atti- tude of, “I’ll worship You when …” or “I’ll worship You after …” or “I’ll 4 This iKnow kidzmatter.com worship You if You …” He wants worship that says, “I’ll worship You because You are God. Period.” Anything that has distracted us or taken priority over God stains our worship. God wants pure worship with all those things set aside. GAme suPPLIes • 2 squirt guns With the masking tape, mark a circle about 8-feet in diameter. Then, • medium-size paper make a 3-foot square in the center of that circle. cups The kids will sit around the circle, with their knees on the masking tape • masking tape line. Each one will need a paper cup. Choose one older kid, or one of • PowerPoint slide your helpers, to stand in the center of the box, armed with the two squirt guns. At the signal, the kids with the paper cups will try to quickly sneak their cup into the square, but the cup must be standing when it’s left there. As soon as any player crosses the masking tape circle, though, the person armed with the squirt guns can squirt them. Once they have been hit by water, they can’t pick up their cup again. See how many kids can get their cups into the box. (show slide #2) We let sin sneak in. Now, let’s talk about what happened here. Some of the cups got into the box and others didn’t. The person in the middle would get dis- tracted when they were squirting one person and someone else would sneak their cup in. In our story, the Israelites became more and more like the Midianites, even worshipping their god Baal instead of the real God. It didn’t happen over night, though. The ways of the Midianites just sneaked in … one thing took hold with the Israelites … and then another … and pretty soon they were living more like the Midianites than like God’s people. Sin does that. Satan likes to sneak it in when we’re distracted or not thinking. One little thing doesn’t seem too bad; we hardly even notice. Then another little way sneaks in and we turn our backs on God. It keeps adding up and soon we’re living more the way that Satan likes than the way God wants. messAGe suPPLIes • PowerPoint slides • items for altar (show slide #3) The enemy is inside, not outside. The Israelites thought their big problem was the way the Midianites 5 This iKnow kidzmatter.com were treating them. But they had the wrong enemy. The real problem … the real enemy … was the way they had turned their back on God. Their disobedience was the big problem, not the Midianites! The Israel- ites let the ways and the beliefs of the Midianites come into their lives. There’s all kinds of sin going on around us all the time. The TV is full of people killing each other, friends telling lies about each other, kids dis- respecting their parents, and loads more. But YOUR problem is when you let those sins come into your life. That’s when you’ve got a real enemy in your camp! Each of us is responsible for keeping Satan out of our lives. Don’t let him inside! (show slide #4) You have to tear down before you can build up. Gideon’s instructions were to get rid of the altar to Baal. He was told to use a 7-year-old second-best bull. The Israelites had let the Midianites control them for 7 years, and so using the 7-year-old bull represented tearing down those 7 years of captivity. Once Gideon had torn down the altar to Baal, then he could build a new altar where the Israelites could worship God with pure hearts. There would be no temptation or reminders around to make them think about the altar to Baal. In our hearts we have to do demolition on our old ways—get rid of the things that keep us from worshipping God—our sinful ways. If what you’re doing is keeping you from worshipping God, then what you’re doing is sin. The way we do demolition is by admitting what we’ve let sneak into our lives and calling on the mighty power of God through Jesus to forgive us. When we admit our sins and ask for His forgive- ness, then we’ve torn down the old altar and you can build a new altar to God. When the old comes down, something new needs to take its place. As you talk, put together a worship center or altar in front of the kids. Include a Bible open to Romans 12:1 and any other things you’d like that remind you of God (bread, candle, crown, lamb, vine). An altar is a place to worship and to pray and to claim God’s words as truth. An altar is a place where we give something to show our commitment to the Lord. The Bible tells us what we should put on the altar. (show slide #5) Offer yourself as a sacrifice. Open your Bibles and read together Romans 12:1. What is it that God wants us to give as our sacrifice of worship to Him? A sacrifice was a way of giving God the best gift you could give Him. He wants His cre- ation to worship Him. He wants His people to love and honor Him. He wants the gift of YOU. If you’ve let Satan sneak into your life and allowed something other than God to be the most treasured part of your life, then you need to do demolition on your old altar. Your enemy is within. You need to ad- mit how you have disobeyed God and ask for forgiveness of your sins. And then, build a new altar and offer your whole self as a gift to Him. 6 This iKnow kidzmatter.com oBJecT Lesson S suPPLIes • piece of glass A piece of glass out of a cheap frame from the dollar store will work • shortening great. Hold the glass up in front of your face. When the Israelites were • grease cutter cleaner following God and placed their faith in Him, they had a clear view of • rag who they were in God’s sight. They were His people and He was their God. Smear some of the shortening on the glass and hold it up in front of your face again. When they accepted the false god of Baal, they no longer had a clear view of God and who they were in His sight. By wor- shipping another god, they smeared their relationship with God. Now, use the grease cutter cleaner and rag to clean the glass. When Gideon tore down the altar to Baal and built a new one on high ground to God, he brought their worship back into focus. He cleaned up their view of worship and made it right. I want to give God my pure worship. That means that anything that is getting in my way of making my life a sacrifice to Him or distracting me from Him has to go. That altar of sin needs to be torn down and a new one in a high place in your life needs to go up to God. Your pure heart of worship is the sacrifice that He wants. Encourage your kids to: • Read their Bibles with a smile on their face and anxious to find out what God is going to teach them. Anticipation is part of worship. • Pray risky prayers of willingness to really sacrifice. • Live as though absolutely everything they do is an offering to God. At any moment, could they ask themselves, “Would God be smiling at how I am honoring Him right now?” PrAyer suPPLIes • straw or hay • tarp Lay a tarp out and then spread the straw over the entire covering. This will represent the threshing floor where Gideon was hiding. It was on the threshing floor where Gideon talked with the angel. It was then that Gideon received his orders from God about what he was to do. There on the threshing floor the angel assured Gideon that God would be with him and that gave Gideon new hope for the future of the Israelite people. The threshing floor is where Gideon asked the Lord questions and then made his decision of full commitment. Bring the kids onto the tarp so that they can stand on the threshing floor to pray. Our threshing floor can be a place where we ask the Lord questions. It can be a place of decision if you need to make a commit- ment. Pose some prayer questions and give the children a few moments to pray about each one. 7 This iKnow kidzmatter.com • Have you taken on habits or actions that you shouldn’t because you are afraid of being left out? • Is there something you need to “tear down” so that God will have a clean heart to live in? • Do you need to make a commitment to worship God sincerely? suPPLIes musIc • downloads of music DVDS You’ve been provided two DVD downloads from Yancy called “I’m Really Happy” and “It’s Not New.” Using voices and instruments are definitely a way of worshipping the Lord, but we can only offer pure worship if the words speak to what our hearts are feeling. Encourage the kids to think about what the songs are saying and not just go through the mo- tions of singing. Put your voices on the altar of pure worship! scrIPTure memorIzATIon suPPLIes • 3 different colors of poster board 1 John 4:4 • stapler “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because • coins or milk jug caps greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” One very important way of worshipping God is by claiming that His Word is truth. How does this verse connect with our story today? Gideon did demolition on the altar to Baal, because the real God of the Israelites was greater than the god of the Midianites. How did knowing that God was greater than Baal help Gideon? Cut 4” strips of three different colors of poster board. Cut one strip the entire length of the poster board. In another color cut the strip about 6” shorter and the third color cut the strip another 6” shorter. Write on the side of the longest strip 10 points, on the middle-length strip 50 points, and on the shortest strip 100 points. Then staple the ends together to make three circles. These will stand up and can be positioned inside one another (much like a skeetball game). Indicate a stand-behind line. The kids will take turns tossing a coin or milk jug cap at the nested strips. If it goes inside one of the strips, that player will be awarded the points if they can say the memory verse. 8 This iKnow kidzmatter.com BLessInG May everything in your life be an offering to God. 9 This iKnow kidzmatter.com Know your BIBLe Gideon was what the Bible calls a judge. Judges today sit in court and help decide whether people are guilty or innocent, then sentence them if they’re guilty. But judges in the Bibles were different; they were leaders chosen by God to lead the tribes of Israel. Their actions were directed by the Spirit of God. Judges 6:34 says, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.” After Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, the peo- ple did not do what God told them to do. They were supposed to take over the rest of the peoples who lived there. Instead, the Israelites became more like the people living there. A cycle started that happened over and over and over. Make a clock-like circle with your arms as you describe the cycle. • The Israelites disobeyed God. • God permitted the enemy to take over the Israelites. • The Israelites cried out to God for help. • God raised up a judge to lead them. • The Israelites defeated their enemy. • The Israelites disobeyed God … (and the cycle starts over) Read Judges 6:1 to get a feel for the cycle that keeps taking place. What words stick out to you? (“once again”) Because the Book of Judges is about this cycle and how the Israelites kept failing God, it is sometimes called the “book of failure.” suPPLIes GAme • shoeboxes or building blocks Beforehand, write the word HOPE in large letters on a piece of • piece of paper paper. Then, pile shoeboxes or building blocks on top of it, so • table that the paper cannot be seen. Each team will have one of these piles. This pile represents the altar to Baal that Gideon demolished and disposed of. In a high place, Gideon then built a new altar. Part of God’s instructions for this altar was, “Use layers of stones for my altar, not just a pile of rocks.” The table represents the high place where Gideon built the altar. At the signal each team will send one player to their pile of shoeboxes. That player will use only their elbows to move one 10 This iKnow kidzmatter.com