Elementary Level, Block 8—Ezra / Nehemiah / Esther
Week 74
Ezra—A Scribe
Point to Emphasize: We can learn to be accurate in the things we do.
Reading Reference: Ezra 7:6; 4:7
Memory Verse: Do you see a man skilled in his work? / He will stand before kings…
(Proverbs 22:29a)
Story Sample
Do you remember who we have been talking about in our stories? That’s right: Ezra! And do you remember that Ezra was a person who set his heart to learn God’s Word? Good! Because of that, the Israelites who had returned to rebuild the house of God needed help from Ezra. They needed someone to instruct them in God’s Word—someone who knew it well.
Ezra was just the right person for that. He was a scribe and a teacher. I think we all know what a teacher is, but does anyone know what a scribe is? [Write the word “scribe” on the board.] Back when Ezra was alive, a scribe was someone who read official documents and then wrote out copies of them. Today if you want a copy of something, you just photocopy it, right? But back then, they didn’t have machines like that. Back then, if you wanted a copy, someone had to write it out by hand. That was a scribe’s job. And since a scribe’s job was to make copies, he had to be very careful in his work. If he skipped a word while copying, it could change the meaning of the whole paper! So, he had to copy EXACTLY. He could not miss a thing.
I don’t think there are any people with the job of scribes today, but we do get some chances to act like a scribe. How many of you are learning to write your ABCs? Do you have a paper you copy letters from? Well, that is kind of like being a scribe! And when we trace and copy the letters, it’s important to be careful. Who knows what letter this is? [Write a letter E on the board]. Right! It’s an E. But what if I were copying the E and I was not careful. What if I didn’t write ALL the lines? [Start to write another E for “EAT”, but leave the bottom off so that it’s an F to spell “FAT”.] I would end up with a totally different letter and word! That’s an F, not an E! All because of a small mistake! That would be a big change! Or what I was writing the letter O, and I accidentally added an extra line—just a teeny tiny one, but… (Write an O and then turn it into a Q.) These things seem like such small mistakes, right? But they make a big difference. Scribes had to be so careful and exact! [Storyteller, insert your own example of being careless in copying something.] If being accurate means that we are careful and exact, what is the opposite of accurate? That’s right, if we are not accurate, then we can become sloppy or careless in what we do.
Well, Ezra was a very good scribe. The Bible says that he was skilled in the law of Moses—that tells us that Ezra was very good at his job. He could copy important things down without making careless mistakes! When I read this, I thought, “Oh, it would be so wonderful to be accurate like that!” How do you think Ezra got so good at this? I think he must have practiced a lot, and he must have checked his work as he went. He probably had a lot of chances to practice—and we have that too! We have a lot of chances to practice being accurate and exact! Can you think of some things we do that require us to be careful like Ezra was? [Writing our letters, telling our parents what time our soccer game starts, writing our name carefully on our papers at school, telling our parents exactly what happened at school, copying down the memory verse exactly at children’s meeting, etc. Storyteller, these are just some ideas. Add some more and help the children to think of others.] All of these are so good! The more we practice being accurate in these things, the more we will be just like Ezra in this way!