The talents of Solomon

SCRIPTURE:

1 Kings 1-5

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON:

1. Detect the talent of Solomon;

2. Show that the talent of Solomon was wisdom;

3. Encourage the children not to neglect their talent.

INTRODUCTION:

Start the lesson with a short song and/or a prayer.

PRESENTATION:

After reigning for 40 years, David died and his son Solomon became King. Solomon was not a warrior like David. He wanted to live in peace with everybody and with neighbouring countries. To prevent Israel from being attacked, he married Pharaoh’s daughter, thereby becoming Pharaoh’s good friend. By this alliance, King Solomon was being very wise. However, he was worried if he would be able to rule over so many people.

Then one day, the King went to Gibeon to offer a sacrifice. The Lord appeared to him at night in a dream and asked him what he desired. Solomon, who was so worried and anxious about governing the people, asked for wisdom. This demand pleased God; God gave him not only wisdom, but also wealth and glory.

One of Solomon’s judgements that showed his wisdom was in the case of two prostitutes whose case needed the court’s intervention. The first woman spoke up: “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born; this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.

During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”

The other woman spoke up to argue and said: “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”

The King used his wisdom and proposed that the living child should be cut in two and give half to one and half to the other. The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved; out of love for her son, she told the King, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!” Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.” When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice. Solomon lived in peace with all neighbouring countries and God gave him intelligence and wisdom in abundance; Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt and his name was known all over surrounding nations. The whole world was talking about his wisdom; he pronounced 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs.

480 years after the coming out of the Israelites from Egypt, King Solomon started to build the temple of the Lord. It measured sixty cubits long, twenty wide, and thirty high. Solomon shared his project with others and each brought in their know-how. Some of them made bricks and dug the foundation; others raised the walls, cut, and prepared the timber. They all took part in the construction of the temple that lasted seven years. Solomon prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple, which is the most important room of the temple. This room is covered with pure gold. The King and the Israelites offered sacrifices to the Lord: 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats.

SUBJECTS OF DISCUSSION:

1. Who is the father of Solomon?

2. What is a talent ?

3. What talent did Solomon make manifest in judging the two women?

4. How did Solomon show his wisdom?

5. How do we know that Solomon could read and write?

6. What talent did Solomon make manifest in building the temple of God?

7. What can we do to take part in the building of our church (carry stones, sand, and fetch water)?

ACTIVITIES:

 Make the children role play the judgement of Solomon.

 Draw Solomon’s sword and the baby waiting to be cut in two.

RESOURCE PERSON:

Invite a leader to give words of wisdom to the children.

ACTION TO ENCOURAGE: Encourage the children to think about politics and architecture.

MEMORY VERSE:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverb 1:7).

CLOSING:

Close with a short song and / or the dominical prayer.

Chapter 7

The talents of Samson Pour le Chapitre 7

SCRIPTURE:

Judges 13-16

OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON:

1. Present the supernatural power of Samson as a talent;

2. Show that everything we are endowed with can be used either for good or bad.

INTRODUCTION:

Start the lesson with a short song and/or a prayer.

PRESENTATION:

After the death of Joshua and of all those who had entered Canaan, there came another generation who neither knew Yahweh nor the things He had done for Israel. While the people had turned their backs on Yahweh, they were constantly under the threats of robbers.

In order to save the people of Israel from their enemies, God stimulated special characters to deliver them. The people who threatened Israel in our story are the Philistines. To save them from their enemies, God sent His messenger to Manoah’s wife, who was childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son; whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines”. The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. The spirit of Yahweh was with him, it gave him an extraordinary strength.

One day, while going to visit his fiancée, Samson met a young roaring lion. Without any weapons, Samson tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But the Philistines refused to give him the wife as promised. So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails,5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. The Philistines wanted to take their revenge on him, but he defeated them.

Some other time, the Israelites were threatened by the Philistines; they tied Samson with new robes and handed him over to them. But Samson broke the robes and with a donkey’s jawbone that he picked up on the way, he killed a thousand Philistines. As he entered Gaza, the doors of the town were locked in order to keep him prisoner. Then he got up in the middle of the night and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. She was able to know the secret behind his strength and destroyed the sign of consecration to God by cutting his hair while he was asleep. Suddenly Samson lost his strength; then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. One day, the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and to celebrate. At the end, when they stood him among the pillars, Samson prayed to God to restore his strength. He pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it, including himself.

SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. What is the name of Samson’s mother?

2. What was Samson’s talent?

3. What was the secret of Samson’s strength?

4. How was Samson able to deliver his people?

5. How do you use the strength that God gave you?

6. Identify the different tribes of the Sunday school children.

ACTIVITY:

Draw Samson with his morphology.

RESOURCE PERSON:

Invite a Christian athlete to tell you about the usage of his God given talent.

CONCRETE ACTION IN THE WORLD:

Encourage the children to use their strength to defend their nation and to protect the weak, instead of destroying them. Ask the children to research and find the different ethnic groups in the congregation.

MEMORY VERSE:

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Timothy 1:6).

CLOSING:

Close with a short song or the dominical prayer.