THE BASIC REVELATION IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

(For Younger Children)

Lesson Nine: God's Enemy

Objectives:

Materials:

1. Pictures of various animals
2. Pictures of various people
3. Lessons Six, Seven and Eight in Unit One of this series.
4. Props for teacher to act out story of Brenda (Bee below)
5. Life-study of Genesis #2 (for reference)

Implementation:

1. Review last lesson by askang children what we talked about last time we got together. Then fill in any gaps that are manifested as the children tell what they remember.
2. Sing one of the songs from the last or other prior lessons which reinforce whatever gap-filling is required.
3. Make Sure the children see that God has now gotten everything ready for Him to get what Me wants most, including a special part inside people just for Him to come into.
4. Ask: Did you know there is someone trying to stop God from getting what He wants most? Did you know that God has an enemy? What is an enemy? (Let them respond.) Do you know who it is? Before I tell you, let me ask you something else:
5. Show pictures of animals. Is this all God made? What else did He make besides animals/ birds/insects/fish/plants?
6. Show pictures of people. God made people, didn't He? Well, what else did He make ? There is something else that He made a lot of, but I can't show you a picture. Can you guess what? Yes, angels. I can't show you a picture because angels aren't in bodies that a camera can take a picture of, or that anyone can draw No. they don't look like ladies in long dresses with wings, or fat babies with wings. That's not what the Bible says they're like We can't figure out what they look like, because we can't see them with these eyes, except when God has them show themselves to us in bodies like people's - but He doesn't do that very often at all. Nearly all the time we can't see them, but the Bible tells us that they are beautiful and powerful and full of light, and never get sick or old or die. We just can t think how different from us and wonderful they are. God made thousands of them, before He made our Earth with all it's living things They came first They shouted for joy and even sang when God made the Earth! - how beautiful that must have been
   The most beautiful of all these beautiful angels was named Lucifer, which means "Son of the Morning." God made Lucifer the king over the Earth God had made, God made Lucifer the leader of all those thousands of beautiful and powerful angels, the "Head Angel." God made him the closest one to God Himself the closest one to God s own throne. (Make sure all the children know what a throne is.) If there could be a picture of Lucifer, he would be more beautiful than anything you can think of and more powerful than anything you can think of.
   Can you believe this wonderful, beautiful angel Lucifer became God's enemy? He did. God had made him the most beautiful and powerful and even "chief" angel Then how could he become God's enemy, be against God who gave him all this? Can you guess? (Let them guess.)
   Here's how Lucifer became God's enemy, He got to thinking just how wonderful he was, how he was and powerful and beautiful. He got to thinking that he was just as wise and wonderful as God Himself! - as God, Who thought up and made everything there is, including him/Lucifer! Lucifer decided that he wanted to be the same as God, have everything worship him as they did God, and be king of the whole universe, like God And not just, be a king like God is king, but King instead of God! Can you believe that? So Lucifer got as many of the angels as he could to think like him and be on his side, and they fought a great war in the heavens with the other angels, Of course, Lucifer couldn't win - he isn't really as wise and powerful as God at all and he and a lot of angels were beat in the war and thrown out of the heavens where God and the other angels were They had to leave, to go somewhere else, and they came to our Earth. This was very, very long ago. They hated God, and they still hate Him, and are His enemies, trying to keep God from getting what He wants.
7. Tell and/or act out (teacher is Brenda) the story of Brenda, who thought she was as smart as her teacher - she was quite smart, you know. When her teacher was late one morning. Brenda decided to be the teacher and sat down at the teacher's desk. She had read ahead the day before, and knew quite well what should be taught today. Besides that, she had always disapproved of how her teacher handled Tommy, the bad boy, and knew she could make him behave better than her teacher did. Brenda was sure, in fact, that she could be a better teacher all around, than her own teacher was. Brenda sat there at the big desk, all sure of all this and proud of herself, and waited for everyone to sit down and get quiet. But they didn't. Can you guess what happened? (Let them guess,) Yes, all that and more: by the time Brenda's own teacher arrived, one window shade was broken, all the boards were full of drawings and scribbling and ugly sayings, and three desks were turned over. Plus Joe's nose was bleeding from the fight he had had with the bad boy, Tommy. Do you see that that's how Lucifer felt, too, like Brenda did when she sat down at her teacher's desk? - that he was the smartest of all, could do everything better than God Himself? But Brenda was just a little girl, whereas Lucifer was the most powerful of all those wonderful beings called angels. Lucifer became Satan, whom we also call "the Devil," and has been ever since he led the war against God. Now you know how God came to have an enemy to keep Him from getting what He wants most, and now you know who that enemy is.