Intermediate Level, Block 8—Recovery
Week 73
The Plan Was Carried Out According to Instructions
Point to Emphasize: We can be those who follow instructions given by God and by the ones who lead and supervise us.
Reference Reading: Ezra 3:1-6
Memory Verse: Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven… (Ezra 7:23a)
Story Sample
It was wonderful that those who returned to Jerusalem had such a good attitude and helped willingly! But sometimes, just being willing isn’t enough. Often we need instructions so that we can be helpful. Just imagine thousands of people willing to build with no instructions. It would be chaos!
Where would they start? What materials would they use? How would they know what goes where? Where do you think the children of Israel got the exact instructions on how to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem? They got their instructions from the Bible! They were able to go back and look in the law of Moses to find exactly how the first temple had been built. They did not come up with their own way of doing things. They went back to the Bible to do everything exactly as God had instructed years back.
They began by building the altar so that they could worship God. Then they held the Feast of Tabernacles, to present their offerings up to God. This was also “as it is written.” This instruction was in the Bible, the Word of God. For 70 years they had not worshipped God according to the instructions. But now they followed Jeshua and Zerubbabel to go back to God’s Word.
Many times we don’t pay attention to instructions. So often a teacher gives an assignment but then when you turn the assignment in, it turns out that you did it wrong because you did not take care of the instructions. [Storyteller, give your own example of this. In your example encourage the children that when we follow instructions we will see the best results.] It is too easy for us to think that we “know how” to do something so we do not pay any attention to instructions. But the children of Israel who returned to build the house of God went back to the instructions.
This was not a building project that could be done in a week or a month. This was going to take them at least a few years. They not only needed to see the instructions God had given, but the work could only go well if there were ones to direct and supervise. During the first year of work Jeshua and Zerubbabel took the lead to meet this need. As the building work was going to continue onto the second year, they needed to appoint others to supervise. Moving forward, everyone from the tribe of Levi over 20 years old was to help with the oversight of the work on the house of God.
Sometimes it is not so easy to be under someone’s direction. But we need to learn that even as we grow up we will most likely be in situations where we are under someone’s supervision. Have you ever wondered why we have lunch or recess monitors at school? Why do we have crosswalk guards? [Bring in a discussion showing that without supervision we will not always conduct ourselves as we should and will result in getting into trouble.]
I hope that we can see that by reading the Bible, we can learn who God is and how He wants us to behave and do things. God has commanded many things for us. God has told us how He wants us to respond to our parents. God has told us that we need to love one another. God has told us that we need to forgive one another. If we follow God’s instruction according to what we see in the Bible and follow the ones God has appointed to direct and supervise us, we will grow in the best way!