THE BASIC REVELATION IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

(For Younger Children)

Lesson Ten: What God's Enemy Did

Objectives:

Materials:

1. Life-study of Genesis #18
2. Lesson Nine in this series ("God's Enemy")
3. Lesson One in this series ("God's Good Pleasure")
4. Chalkboard, or large piece of paper (mounted for display, or let one child be your easel and hold it up)
5. Chalk. or markers, etc.
6. Rubber toy snake (first choice) or photo illustration of a snake (2nd choice)

Implementation:

1. Review Lesson Nine in this series ("God's Enemy"). Dces anyone still remember what it was that God wanted most of all - that would make Him happiest? (Refer to Lesson 1) Of course His great enemy, Satan, wanted to do everyihing he could against God, to "get even" with God, so he wanted to do something to keep God from getting that thing that God wanted so much. What do you suppose he did to try to stop God from getting what He wanted most of all?
2. Display: two stick figures. Two people were all there were mght there at the beginning, you know. Now how could God's enemy Satan do something to these people to keep God from getting what He wanted most. What could he do to these people to make God unhappy? (Let them guess. Let's look at it this way: What else was there, with these first two people in the beginning? Yes, there were animals there with them. What else? (The two trees is the answer you're looking for.)
3. Draw two trees on the board/paper. (The Tree of Life should be low and easy to reach-a vine tree- [John 15]. The Tree of Knowledge should be great, tall, and hard to reach.) Teach the children their names: the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil. What God wanted most of all - you do still remember what it was, don't you? - had to do with these trees. He told these first two people that he wanted them to choose between these two trees. They both had fruit on them, maybe like apples or oranges or pears or cherries.
4. Draw fruit on the trees. But the fruit of one of these trees was super special fruit. The fruit on the Tree of Life would make them into God's sons like Himself! - what He wanted most, remember? What wonderful fruit! What a wonderful tree! All these two people had to do to become God's sons just like Him was to eat the fruit on that Tree of life. And we know from certain verses in the Bible that the fruit on the Tree of Life tasted sweet and delicious, too. So all these people had to do to make God's heart happiest of all was to eat the delicious fruit of the Tree of Life and become His sons like Him. Because God fixed things like that so that was all they would have to do. Isn't that wonderful??!!? Now, what do you suppose God's enemy Satan could do to keep this from happening, to keep everything from turning out like God wanted, like what would make Him happiest? That's right, Satan could keep the two people from eating the fruit of the Tree of Life. But how could he do that???
5. Show Show the rubber snake/snake photo illustration. Isn't this an ugly old thing? But the serpent didn't always look like this. At the first, the serpent was the most beautiful of all the animals that God made. We just don't know what the serpent looked like then - certainly not at all like this - but the serpent was very, very beautiful and different and delightful to look at and be around. Well, God's enemy Satan got into this beautiful creature, the serpent, and he came to one of the two people there, to the woman. He was going to talk to her - yes, an animal talked.
6. Act Out: Let's imagine what it was like in the garden. Maybe this is what the serpent said to the woman, Eve.
   Assume make-believe voice for the serpent
   Act out with a girl:
   Serpent: "Would you like to be just like God? Wouldn't you like to be as wise as Him, and know everything there is to know? Just eat some fruit off of this tree, the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil, and you'll be just like God. God told you that you'd die if you ate it, didn' t He? Well, you won't, you know. You'll be like just like God and you'll know good and evil like He does."
   (Step out of the role and be yourself again.) Well, that's what God wants anyhow, isn't it, for the two people to be His sons like Him? So what's the problem here? The problem is that God gave the people the wonderful Tree of Life to eat to become His sons, and told them NOT to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil He even said that they would DIE if they ate it! Now, can God lie? Of course not! So who's lying here? That's right, God's enemy Satan in the serpent is lying to the woman. What do you think is going to happen? Will she believe him or will she believe God'? What will she do? Which fruit will she choose, the wonderful Tree of Life, or the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil? That's right - she did just what God's enemy Satan wanted her to do - she picked a piece of fruit of the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil and ate it!!! How terrible! This is just what God already said NOT to do! If the two people had just eaten some of the fruit of the wonderful Tree of Life, they would have become God's sons that He wanted so much and everything would have been wonderful! But what a shame - that's not what happened. The woman ate some of the wrong fruit, instead. And so did the man. Now what's going to happen?????
7. Preview:
   Oh my, A LOT of things happened! But we're going to wait until the next lesson to find out what they were. Be thinking what might have happened.

8. Optional:
   Have children draw the two trees and the two people and a snake as a illustration of God's enemy.