Jeremiah Sunday School Lesson for Kids -
Exiled!
Use this children’s Sunday School lesson
about Jeremiah and the Exile to teach kids about God's forgiveness.
Needed: Bibles, Play-Doh or clay
Intro Game: Forgiveness Tag!
Divide students into two teams. One team chases the other for five minutes. When someone is tagged, they’re out, but only temporarily. They go to the sidelines and count to seven out loud. Then, they re-enter the game.
If the first team can tag everyone and keep
them in the out zone at any time within the five-minute period, they win. If
they do win, or when the time runs out, switch which team is chasing the other.
Intro Craft Activity: God the Potter
Give each student a clump of clay. Let them make whatever they like for a moment. Then, tell them to make a cup.
When they’ve made a cup, tell them to make a
house.
When they’ve made a house, tell them to make
an animal.
When they’ve made an animal, tell them to make
a person.
Tell students,
The Bible tells us that we are like clay. Just like we made different
things out of the clay, God can make anything He wants, and He can make us. But
just like you had to destroy your things to make something new, God sometimes
has to destroy the things He made.
Lesson
In the Bible, God told the prophet Jeremiah that He had made the countries of Israel and Judah, and He made the people who lived in Israel and Judah, just like God makes all of us before we are born.
But the people of Israel and Judah were doing
too many bad things. They were believing in and worshiping fake gods instead of
the real God, and they were doing all the wrong things instead of the right
things that God wanted them to do.
So, God said He was going to destroy the
countries of Israel and Judah. Just like we can destroy the things we made out
of our clay, God can destroy anything He wants to. He sent foreign armies, the
Assyrians and Babylonians, to come to
conquer Israel and Judah.
Israel and Judah fought against the Assyrians
and the Babylonians, of course, but they didn’t win because God wasn’t helping
them. He sent the Assyrians and the Babylonians to conquer Israel and Judah as
a punishment to them for not believing in Him and for not doing the right
things that He wanted them to do.
The Assyrians conquered Israel, and the
Babylonians conquered Judah. The Assyrians took the people of Israel to their
own country of Assyria, and the Babylonians took the people of Judah back with
them to Babylon.
It was a very sad time for the Israelites and
the people of Judah because God was punishing them.
But do you know what the good news is?
The good news is that God didn’t make the
Israelites or the people of Judah stay in Assyria and Babylon forever. God said
that He would keep them there for 70 years as a punishment, but that then, He
would forgive them and let them come back to Israel and Judah.
We’ll start learning about the Israelites in
Assyria and Babylon next time, but for now, I just want to tell you that even
if God punishes us for doing something bad, He will always forgive us if we ask
Him to, just like He punished but then, forgave the Israelites when He let them
be conquered. God will always forgive us because God always loves us.
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