Zoom - lesson 2

Here are some tips that you can use to reenforce the lesson in home

The object is to paint a picture that kids will
understand and remember. When telling the story, remember you are painting a
picture for your viewers. Have fun and explore your creativity. Here are some ideas
to make your storytelling more memorable:

• Try asking kids to act out the story as you read aloud
• Characters in the story include: Israelites, Midianites, Angel, Gideon, Warriors
• You might use props like: crops, sheep, water/stream, swords, shields, battle
gear
Gideon Goes to Battle
(Selected verses from Judges 6-8)
Judges 6
Again the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord's sight. So the Lord handed them
over to the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites were so cruel that the
Israelites fled to the mountains, where they made hiding places for themselves in
caves and dens. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian,
Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, camping in the land and
destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat,
taking all the sheep, oxen, and donkeys. These enemy hordes, coming with their
cattle and tents as thick as locusts, arrived on droves of camels too numerous to
count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. So Israel was reduced to
starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.....
When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, the Lord sent a prophet to the
Israelites. He said, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up
out of slavery in Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who
oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. I told you, `I am the
LORD your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you
now live.' But you have not listened to me."
Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which
belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing
wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel
of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"
"Sir," Gideon replied, "If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And
where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, `The Lord
brought us up out of Egypt'? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over
to the Midianites."
Then the Lord turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have and rescue
Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!
"But Lord," Gideon replied, "How can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the
whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!"
The Lord said to him, "I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you
were fighting against one man...."
Judges 7
When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, "Divide the men
into two groups. In one group put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up
with their tongues like dogs. In the other group put all those who kneel down and
drink with their mouths in the stream." Only three hundred of the men drank from
their hands. All the others got down on their knees and drank with their mouths in
the stream. The Lord told Gideon, "With these three hundred men I will rescue you
and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home." So Gideon
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collected the provisions and rams' horns of the other warriors and sent them home.
But he kept the three hundred men with him.....
Each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the Midianites
rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran. When the three hundred Israelites
blew their horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each
other with their swords. Those who were not killed fled to places as far away as
Beth-shittah near Zererah and to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.....
Judges 8
Then the Israelites said to Gideon, "Be our ruler! You and your son and your grandson
will be our rulers, for you have rescued us from Midian."
But Gideon replied, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over
you!
That is the story of how Israel subdued Midian, which never recovered. Throughout
the rest of Gideon's lifetime—about forty years—the land was at peace.