GENESIS 

Chapters 18, 19 & 20 

If you don’t have a Bible handy, click this link for Genesis Chapter 18, Chapter 19, and Chapter 20.

Chapter 18:
Verses 1-8  Three men visit Abraham.
Verses 9-15  The men tell Abraham that Sarah will give birth to a son.
Verses 16-21  The men tell Abraham the plans for Sodom and Gomorrah.
Verses 22-33  Abraham asks the Lord to spare the city for the sake of the righteous people in it. He starts out at 50 and works down to 10. The Lord will not destroy the city if there are 10 righteous people in it.

Chapter 19:
Verses 1-3  Two men go to Sodom and Lot invites them to his house for the night.
Verses 4-11  The men of the city want the 2 visitors to come outside – they want to engage in sinful activities with them.
Verse 8  Lot offers his daughters to the men outside but they want the visitors.
Verses 12-17  The visitors tell Lot to take his family and leave the city – to flee to the mountains.
Verses 18-20  Lot doesn’t want to go to the mountains – asks to go to a nearby city instead.
Verses 21-25  The visitors will not destroy the city until Lot and his family reach their destination.
Verse 26  Lot’s wife did not obey and becomes a pillar of salt.
Verses 27-29  Abraham sees the smoke. Not even 10 righteous people in Sodom & Gomorrah.
Verses 30-38  Lot and his daughters left Zoar and went to the mountains. The daughters get the idea to have offspring by their father to preserve his lineage.

Chapter 20:
Verses 1-2  Abraham lies again.
Verses 3-7  God speaks to Abimelech and protects Sarah.
Verses 8-10  Abimelech confronts Abraham.
Verses 11-13  Abraham gives his excuse.
Verses 14-16  Abimelech blesses Abraham.
Verses 17-18  God heals Abimelech, his wife and female servants so that they could have children.

Discussion:
Who were the 3 men? Angels? Why?
Have you ever entertained “angels”? What caused you to think they were angels? What did they share with you?
Have you prayed for your city?  Your county?  Your state?  Your country?
What would happen if your city was slated for destruction? Would there be at least 10 righteous people living there to stop it? Would you be one of them?
Have you ever stepped in to protect someone from harm? What did you have to sacrifice to do that? Have you ever stood up for someone’s rights against an angry crowd?
Lot did not instruct his wife and daughters in the way of the Lord. When the time came for him to lead them, they did not believe him and they did not obey. Are you a good example to your family? Do you spend time with them in the Word?
Abraham lies about his wife again – still has trouble trusting God even though God has rescued him before. Do you trust God? Do you think God won’t help you a 2nd time? Do you feel that you don’t deserve God’s help? Why? What would you have done if you were Abraham?

Children Discussion:
What would it be like to live in a city that was evil and did bad things all the time? Scary?
Lot’s wife did not want to leave and she looked back – what is a pillar of salt?

Child Activities:
Find a picture of a Pillar of Salt (google). 
Use small cardboard boxes to make houses.
Cut out "people".
Assemble houses and people together – preferably outside in a fire pit.
Have an adult set it on fire.
Have the kids be far away but still able to see the smoke (Abraham’s view).

GENESIS 

Chapters 15, 16, 17 & 21 

If you don’t have a Bible handy, click this link for Genesis Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17 and Chapter 21.

Chapter 15:
Verses: 1-3  Abram asks God about an heir as he doesn’t have one. Would his heir be his servant?
Verses: 4-6  God says that the servant will not be his heir and that he will have descendants as numerous as the stars. Abram believed God.
Verses 7-21  God makes a covenant with Abram.

Chapter 16:
Veses 1-4  Sarai was impatient – decided to “help” God.
Verses 5-6  Sarai realizes her mistake and sends Hagar away.
Verses 7-14  Hagar flees from Sarai and has an encounter with an Angel of the Lord who tells her to go back and to name her son Ishmael.
Verse 15-16  Ishmael is born.

Chapter 17:
Verses 1-14:  God affirms His covenant with Abram and changes his name to Abraham.
Verses 15-22  God changes Sarai’s name to Sarah and tells Abraham that she will have a son and to name him Isaac.
Verses 23-27  Abraham circumcises all the males in his household.

We are skipping ahead to Chapter 21. We will continue with Chapter 18 in the next blog.

Chapter 21:
Verses 1-7  Sarah gives birth to Isaac. (Sarah is very old – similar to the age of a grandmother).
Verses 8-19  Ishmael scoffs at Isaac and Sarah tells Abraham to send him and Hagar away. God tells Abraham that it is OK – that he will make a nation out of Ishmael also. Hagar and Ishmael leave. They run out of water and believe that death is imminent. But God heard their cries and showed them were the water was.
Verse 20-21  Ishmael grows up and becomes an archer. Hagar finds a wife for Ishmael.
Verses 22-24  Abimelech is concerned that Abraham may go to war against him and wants a peace agreement.
Verses 25-34  Abimelech and Abraham work out the well rights.

Discussion:
Do you get impatient for the promises God has for you? Do you try to “help” God out? How did that turnout?

How impatient are you? Do you want things NOW? Do you understand that God’s timing is different than ours?

Do you think anything is too hard for God? Does everything need to have a human explanation? Do miracles still happen today? What does a miracle look like?

There are consequences when we run ahead of God. Sarah received the promise of God (Isaac) and now she had to deal with the consequences of her impatience (Ishmael). What would you have done?

Abram and Sarai were given new names. When you were younger, did you have a nickname? Is your nickname based on your behavior? Is it a form of your given name such as James/Jimmy? Which do you prefer? Why? As an adult, do you go by the nickname or your given name? Have you ever wanted to change your name – be known by something else? Why?

Discussion for Children:
When someone makes a promise to you, is it hard to wait for it to happen? Do you get impatient? Do you nag that person about the promise?

Sarah made a big mistake by not being patient. Has that happened to you?

Ishmael was jealous of Isaac. Are you jealous when Mom has a new baby? Why?

Crafts/Activities:
Cut out lots of stars.
Write names on the stars – have the kids think of everyone in their family (include cousins, etc.) If you have a family tree already done, use that to get lots of names.
Hang them from ceiling (if possible) to give the illusion of a night filled with stars.

GENESIS 

Chapter 12, 13 & 14 

If you don’t have a Bible handy, click this link for Genesis Chapter 12, Chapter 13 and Chapter 14.

12: 1-9 Abram, Sarai and Lot leave the family and start traveling.

12:10-20 Abram tells his first lie (his way of protecting Sarai instead of trusting God). God protected Sarai.

13:1-18 Abram and Lot go their separate ways. Lot went in the wrong direction.

14:1-17 Lot gets captured and is rescued by Abram.
14:18-20 Abram meets Melchizedek – first mention of bread and wine (communion elements).
14:21-24 Abram refuses payment from the King of Sodom for his efforts.

Discussion:
Abram built an altar to God. What would that look like today?
Has God spoken to you? How did you respond?
Have you ever feared for your life? Was prayer the first thing you did, or the last?
Did your fear become reality or did you worry for nothing?

Families do quarrel and have conflicts among themselves. What causes the conflicts in your family? Are you able to work it out peacefully?

Have you had to rescue a family member because of their choices? Has anyone had to rescue you?

Abram won the battle but would not take anything that wasn’t his. Abram had the opportunity to get more but he refused. What would you have done? Would it have brought glory to God?

The tithe – the law had not been written yet. How did Abram know to tithe to Melchizedek? Were stories passed down from Cain and Abel about their offerings?

Abram lived in a land of idol worship – so who taught him about offering first fruits to God? How do you thank God?

Child Discussion:
Have you and your family moved to a different place?
Is it far from grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins?
Was it scary to live in a new place and make new friends?
Have you told a lie? Who were you protecting?

Activities:
Have each child move to a different seat and “meet” the person sitting next to them.
Serve crackers and juice for snack.

GENESIS

Chapter 11

If you don’t have a Bible handy, click this link for Genesis Chapter 11 .

Chapter 11 starts off with everyone speaking the same language – not unusual as they all came from the same family.

Verses 1 – 4: Tower of Babel – making bricks to build a tower to heaven. Also note that they did not want to be scattered (verse 4)

The people were going down the wrong road . . . again. God had promised that He would never flood the earth again. So, He did something different.

Verse 5-9: Everyone spoke the same language until God changed it. Then they were scattered over the face of the earth.

Babel sounds a lot like babble – when someone is babbling, you can’t understand what they are saying.

God then focuses on Shem’s line (Shem honored his father and covered him – see chapter 9).

Verse 10-26: Genealogy of Shem

• Shem
• Arphaxad
• Salah
• Eber
• Peleg
• Reu
• Serug
• Nahor
• Terah

Terah's sons:  Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Verse 27: Haran’s son is Lot
Verse 29: Abram marries Sarai; Nahor marries Milcah (his niece)

Verse 31-32: Terah takes Abram, Sarai and Lot and goes to Haran. Note: the name Haran differs from the place called Haran

Discussion:
What would it be like if your siblings all spoke a different language?
What would it be like for the family to split and go off in different directions?
There were no maps or roads – how would they find each other later?
Why do you think they wanted to build such a tower?
Were they trying to reach God another way?
Were they going the same route as Adam and Eve?
Was their pride getting in the way of their relationship with God?
Do you have a family member that is walking with God but the rest won’t?
Or, do you have a family member that isn’t walking with God and the rest are?
Which family member are you?
Has a relationship with God caused a split in your family?

Activities for Children:
Using legos or blocks build a tall tower. See how high you can go. Could a tower ever reach to heaven?

Have each child make up their own “language” and then have them try to talk to each other in their own language. Is it fun or frustrating?

Coloring Pages:

To print out the coloring pages: Click on the image, select copy image, then paste the image onto a document (such as Word). You can make the image smaller or larger – then print.