Intermediate Level, Block 7—Kingdom Degrading
Week 66
Stubbornness Leading to Destruction and Captivity
Point to Emphasize: When we disobey, we need to admit we did wrong and apologize.
Reading Reference: 2 Kings 17: 4-6, 7-18, 24—25; 2 Chronicles 36
Memory Verse: For whom Jehovah loves He disciplines, / Even as a father, the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12)
Story Sample
Have you ever done something wrong and refused to apologize? You are no longer a kindergartener or even 1st grader, so by now, you know you need to obey your parents in EVERYTHING, right? I know you always try to obey as much as you can. However, sometimes you might disobey. The important question is, what do you do after you have disobeyed? Do you immediately recognize you did something wrong, apologize, and try to make it right? Or do you try to hide your mistake and refuse to apologize?
In past weeks we have heard that after the children of Israel asked God to set kings over them, some of the kings were good and some were bad. In fact, there were more bad kings than good kings. The bad kings disobeyed God. The last two kings set over the children of Israel, Jeconiah and Zedekiah, were very disobedient and caused all of the children of Israel to also be stubborn and to disobey God. Out of His love and patience, God sent them prophets to warn them to stop the evil things they were doing and to return to God. However, the children of Israel were stubborn. They acted like they didn’t care about what God said and continued to disobey. They should have just admitted they were doing evil things They should have apologized to God and should have do the right thing. But they did not. They were stubborn.
I will give you an example of what it means to be stubborn. When I was in grade school, during lunchtime the older children were allowed to walk out of the schoolyard to a little candy store on the sidewalk right in front of the school. But some children would leave school and walk a whole block to go to another store to get “better candies.” Even though my parents had strongly told me NOT to leave the school beyond the sidewalk, one day I disobeyed them. I went to the other store to get the “better candies.” Although nothing bad happened and I came right back to school, my friend’s dad saw me and told my dad. When I got home in the afternoon, my dad asked me where I went during lunch, and I lied to him. I told him I had stayed at school. My dad was VERY loving and patient, just like God. He tried to give me hints that he knew where I had been and guided me to apologize. But I was stubborn and did not want to admit what I had done and apologize. My dad had no other option but to tell me he knew I had disobeyed. As a consequence, I was not able to go even to the store on the sidewalk for an entire month. [Storyteller, insert your story of disobeying, being stubborn and missing an opportunity as a consequence.]
Now let’s go back to our story. The good land got taken away from the children of Israel because they refused to obey God and refused to turn from their evil ways. Eventually, they were carried away from Jerusalem all the way to Babylon. Unbelievable! So Jehovah placed them in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Chaldea, who not only took them as slaves but also took all the vessels of the house of God to Babylon, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah. The Chaldeans then burned the house of God and broke down the walls of Jerusalem and burned all the palaces. This was SO sad. The kingdom of the children of Israel was destroyed. They were taken away into captivity and they ended up as slaves AGAINAll because they would not confess that they had disobeyed and rejected God.
From this sad history, we can realize that things turn out poorly if we do not admit when we disobey. We really don’t have to be so stubborn. We all know that sometimes we disobey. It is really best if we can admit we were wrong and apologize for disobeying.