Series 5: The Divided Kingdom
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This month’s reading (The Story for Kids & The Story Bible)
• Chapter 14: A Kingdom Torn in Two
• Chapter 15: God’s Messengers
• Chapter 16: The Beginning of the End (of the Kingdom of Israel)
• Chapter 17: The Kingdoms’ Fall
• Chapter 18: God Watches Over Daniel (or, Daniel in Exile)
* For corresponding TNIV chapters to read, visit www.willowcreek.org/nc
This month’s reading (Picture That!)
• Who Makes the Rain?; Elijah’s Trip to Heaven; Sing to God!; Three Men Stand in a Fire; A Hand Writes on a Wall; Lions Skip Dinner
Parent Tip:
There’s a version of The Story designed for each person in your home, no matter what age! Picture That! is for early readers ages 4-7, The Story for Kids is for elementary age kids, and The Story Bible is for Jr. High students and older. Parents, you know your family best! Decide which of these books will be the most helpful in your home and how you will read them. You might choose to read the pages independently or together as a family. Either way, feel free to read a few pages a day or a whole chapter in one sitting, to help your family learn and grow together.
• Chapter 14: A Kingdom Torn in Two
• Chapter 15: God’s Messengers
• Chapter 16: The Beginning of the End (of the Kingdom of Israel)
• Chapter 17: The Kingdoms’ Fall
• Chapter 18: God Watches Over Daniel (or, Daniel in Exile)
* For corresponding TNIV chapters to read, visit www.willowcreek.org/nc
This month’s reading (Picture That!)
• Who Makes the Rain?; Elijah’s Trip to Heaven; Sing to God!; Three Men Stand in a Fire; A Hand Writes on a Wall; Lions Skip Dinner
Parent Tip:
There’s a version of The Story designed for each person in your home, no matter what age! Picture That! is for early readers ages 4-7, The Story for Kids is for elementary age kids, and The Story Bible is for Jr. High students and older. Parents, you know your family best! Decide which of these books will be the most helpful in your home and how you will read them. You might choose to read the pages independently or together as a family. Either way, feel free to read a few pages a day or a whole chapter in one sitting, to help your family learn and grow together.
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• The Story for Kids (pgs. 244-246)
• The Story Bible (pgs. 394-396)
Parent Tip:
Talking about what we read helps us take our learning about God and relationships to a deeper level. Choose 1 or 2 questions from the pages above each week as discussion starters with your family around mealtimes, bedtime, or driving in the car!
• The Story Bible (pgs. 394-396)
Parent Tip:
Talking about what we read helps us take our learning about God and relationships to a deeper level. Choose 1 or 2 questions from the pages above each week as discussion starters with your family around mealtimes, bedtime, or driving in the car!
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Parent Tip:
After reading through the Fire Drill Activity below, think about how this will work best in your family and home. If you have young kids, consider ways to adapt the activity while still getting the same point across. The goal of this activity is to help your family discuss how the Israelites might have felt when the kingdom got divided as the people of God ended up being taken away from their homes by their enemies.
“FIRE DRILL” ACTIVITY
Parents and kids learn quickly about fire drills in school, at work and at home. While none of us hopes to experience this kind of tragedy, we know we need to be prepared for unexpected events to happen in our lives. Speaking of startling events, read what happened with God’s people during the time of the divided kingdom…
The Divided Kingdom in 200 Words or Less
As soon as King Solomon had passed away, the kingdom he had ruled was split in two. There was Israel in the north and Judah in the south and both of them had a serious problem with sin. The whole era of The Divided Kingdom is really about KINGS who were leading God’s people (most of the time in the wrong direction!) and PROPHETS who were calling the people back to God and His way to live. The people of Israel and the people of Judah kept living sinfully but would regularly be warned by a prophet that they must follow God or face the consequences. But the Bible tells us that the people wouldn’t listen. They would keep sinning and then inevitably they would be punished just like the prophets had warned. Even when some of God’s people would start to turn around to obey God, their leaders and kings would lead them back into sin. This happened over and over until one day, the nations of Israel and Judah fell apart and the people were dragged out of their homes, into foreign lands, with only what they could carry with them.
Fire Drill!
Imagine you and your family are the Israelites, but instead of being dragged off to a foreign land by a bad king, pretend there’s a fire in your house and you only have a few minutes to grab your things before getting to safety outside.
Instructions: Pick a time when everyone is home to do this activity together. Meet in the front yard and explain these instructions to your family. Bring a battery powered alarm clock or timer.
• 5 minutes, 5 things – Tell your family you are going to play a game called Fire Drill. The rules are simple. When I say “Go,” everyone will have 5 minutes to run into the house and grab 5 things that you would bring with you if there was a real fire in our house. Use the alarm clock/timer to indicate the start and end time.
• Discussion – When everyone returns, sit in a circle together with the things each person brought back from inside the house. Use the following questions to guide your discussion time as a family. After having run around in the house and rushing back in under 5 minutes, be sure to let each person catch their breath before discussing. This will also help set the tone to not rush through the questions – this could turn into an amazing teachable moment!
o What 5 things did you bring outside and why?
o Was it easy or hard for you to decide which things to grab and what to leave behind? Explain.
o Would you say these 5 things are the most important things in the world to you or is there something else you would say is more important?
o As a family come up with a list of 5 things that you all agree are more important than the stuff in your house (i.e. family, health, God, love, etc.).
o During the Divided Kingdom, the Israelites had a hard time remembering that loving God and loving people was supposed to remain most important. What can your family do regularly to remind each of you what is most important in life? (i.e. serving together at church, helping neighbors or friends, sending cards to people you love, [your idea here]).
After reading through the Fire Drill Activity below, think about how this will work best in your family and home. If you have young kids, consider ways to adapt the activity while still getting the same point across. The goal of this activity is to help your family discuss how the Israelites might have felt when the kingdom got divided as the people of God ended up being taken away from their homes by their enemies.
“FIRE DRILL” ACTIVITY
Parents and kids learn quickly about fire drills in school, at work and at home. While none of us hopes to experience this kind of tragedy, we know we need to be prepared for unexpected events to happen in our lives. Speaking of startling events, read what happened with God’s people during the time of the divided kingdom…
The Divided Kingdom in 200 Words or Less
As soon as King Solomon had passed away, the kingdom he had ruled was split in two. There was Israel in the north and Judah in the south and both of them had a serious problem with sin. The whole era of The Divided Kingdom is really about KINGS who were leading God’s people (most of the time in the wrong direction!) and PROPHETS who were calling the people back to God and His way to live. The people of Israel and the people of Judah kept living sinfully but would regularly be warned by a prophet that they must follow God or face the consequences. But the Bible tells us that the people wouldn’t listen. They would keep sinning and then inevitably they would be punished just like the prophets had warned. Even when some of God’s people would start to turn around to obey God, their leaders and kings would lead them back into sin. This happened over and over until one day, the nations of Israel and Judah fell apart and the people were dragged out of their homes, into foreign lands, with only what they could carry with them.
Fire Drill!
Imagine you and your family are the Israelites, but instead of being dragged off to a foreign land by a bad king, pretend there’s a fire in your house and you only have a few minutes to grab your things before getting to safety outside.
Instructions: Pick a time when everyone is home to do this activity together. Meet in the front yard and explain these instructions to your family. Bring a battery powered alarm clock or timer.
• 5 minutes, 5 things – Tell your family you are going to play a game called Fire Drill. The rules are simple. When I say “Go,” everyone will have 5 minutes to run into the house and grab 5 things that you would bring with you if there was a real fire in our house. Use the alarm clock/timer to indicate the start and end time.
• Discussion – When everyone returns, sit in a circle together with the things each person brought back from inside the house. Use the following questions to guide your discussion time as a family. After having run around in the house and rushing back in under 5 minutes, be sure to let each person catch their breath before discussing. This will also help set the tone to not rush through the questions – this could turn into an amazing teachable moment!
o What 5 things did you bring outside and why?
o Was it easy or hard for you to decide which things to grab and what to leave behind? Explain.
o Would you say these 5 things are the most important things in the world to you or is there something else you would say is more important?
o As a family come up with a list of 5 things that you all agree are more important than the stuff in your house (i.e. family, health, God, love, etc.).
o During the Divided Kingdom, the Israelites had a hard time remembering that loving God and loving people was supposed to remain most important. What can your family do regularly to remind each of you what is most important in life? (i.e. serving together at church, helping neighbors or friends, sending cards to people you love, [your idea here]).
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