Elementary Level, Block 7—Salomon, Kings and Prophets
Week 66
Daniel and His Companions—God Blessing Them with Knowledge and Insight
Points to Emphasize: Our youth is the best time to learn so many different things.
Reference Reading: Daniel 1
Memory Verse: Wise men treasure up knowledge… (Proverbs 10:14a)
Story Sample:
Who has heard about Daniel in the Old Testament? [Have the children raise their hands.] Yes, I am pretty sure we have all had heard at least one story about him. Some of those stories happened when Daniel was either in his teenage years or when he was a grown up. Today we are going to find out something about Daniel and his companions, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah when they were young, maybe as young as you.
At the time Daniel lived, God’s people had been carried away into captivity. They were no longer able to dwell in their own country but had been taken to a place called Babylon. By this time, Daniel and his companions were in their teenage years. These four young men along with others had been chosen from among all the sons of Israel to live in the king’s palace. The first thing they needed to learn in the palace was to understand, speak, read and write another language. They all grew up knowing Hebrew, but now they would learn a very different language. Daniel and his companions had been chosen because it was evident that they liked to learn. If in your teenage years you have the habit of learning, it means that when you were young you started applying yourself to learn different things.
Here is an example: If you are in high school and you are chosen to represent the school in a big spelling bee, it means that you have been learning to spell hard words since you were young. If you are chosen in high school to represent your school at a science fair, it means that you have been learning many different things in science since you were young.
So at an early age, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were interested in learning. They were not content just to sit and watch. They did not spend their time doing nothing. These boys liked learning. They spent their time and energy learning new things.
Here is another example. There was a boy who liked to do puzzles. When he was five he could already do puzzles made for much older children. He liked working on puzzles and he kept trying harder ones as he grew up. He was not the kind of boy who gave up when the puzzle seemed too hard. By the time he was eight years old he could do 300 piece and 500 piece puzzles. He spent time trying to figure out how the pieces of hard puzzles fit together and he eventually got very good at it.
Sometimes it is very easy for us to sit and watch. We may watch for hours but we aren’t learning anything. As boys, Daniel and the others spent time to study, to understand things they did not know. They spent time to figure things out just like the five-year-old boy spent time figuring out how to do hard puzzles.
Have you ever seen something that you can’t explain? I have. One time I was fascinated with spider webs. How could such tiny creatures make such complex webs. Since spiders are so small, I didn’t think they had a brain. But because I was fascinated, I had to look up information on spiders and view pictures and video clips. That’s how I learned a lot about spiders that I didn’t know before. Then there was the time I first saw a humming bird hovering near my bird feeder. It seemed to stay suspended in the same spot as its wings moved so fast that they were just a blur. So again, I looked up information. I just had to find out about these birds. [Storyteller, add your own example of something you were interested in.]
This week we should all be like Daniel when he was growing up. When we see something we can’t explain or something that fascinates us, then we should get into it, spend some time to dig for information, and learn something new. By the time Daniel and his companions were in their teenage years, they had the habit of learning and figuring new things out. We can start now and grow up learning just like them.