Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

I have found that if you can mix a lesson with food, that makes kids happy!  They love making food or playing with food and I say "WHY NOT BOTH!"

We were studying Joshua 6: 1-27; the Battle of Jericho.  I just kept reading and re-reading asking the Lord to give me an idea and I remember reading in Group's Children's Ministry one time an idea about peanut butter sandwiches and the wall of Jericho.  So, I decided, to tweak their idea a little and create a really long wall of peanut butter sandwiched joined together with pretzel sticks.  I told the children, that as I read the story of Joshua and this huge wall that kept them out of the city of Jericho, I wanted them to make peanut butter sandwiches and cut them in half and then cut the halves in half, so that each sandwich made four squares.  After that was finished, I would love it if they would stick the pretzel sticks out of both sides of the sandwich square, between the bread and peanut butter, so it would look like a peanut butter square with two sets of arms.  I only gave out enough pretzel sticks to do half of the peanut butter sandwich squares this way....

While reading chapter 6 of Joshua, I would stop and see how things were going with the peanut butter sandwich square makers!  Wow!  That is a mouth full!  Anyway, by the time the realized there were not enough pretzel sticks the room became pretty nosey.  So, I asked them if they could work together?  Could the ones who had the peanut butter sandwich squares with the double set of arms work with the ones who had the peanut butter sandwiches without arms and together we could make one really long wall of peanut butter sandwiches!!  Start with a no arm PBSS (peanut butter sandwich square) and then that a PBSS with double arms and connect it to the frist one, then take a PBSS without arms connect it to the one that has arms, next, you got it, take one with arms and connect it to the one without arms, pretty soon, you will have a huge PBSS WALL!  Now, I did cover the table with aluminum foil before class started!!  Because this is messy! 

I finished reading chapter 6 of Joshua, and we talked about trusting God and working together as a team, together for God's purpose and glory. 

I asked them:

"Do you know anyone who works like that today?  For God's purpose and glory?"   The church, should be working like this!

"Do you think it was scary, to walk around that huge city, six days in a row and be quite while you walked?" 

"Why do you think God wanted them to be quite?"

"Do you think God ever wants us to be quite?"

"When you were making the PBSS wall and realized that there were not enough pretzel sticks to do what I asked you to do, what happened?"

"Everone got noisey didn't they.  Could you hear my instructions with all that noise going on?  No.  We needed it to become quite so you could hear my instructions.  Did you know that God gives us instructions, but most the time we are too busy and noisey to hear them.  That makes me sad."

"Sometimes, we have to be quite and alone with God, especially if we are scared and there is a huge wall in front of us! Like taking a test at school, or witnessing to someone about Jesus.  Those could be scary things.  God will protects, and He tells us to be strong and couragous, but we do have to listen to HIS instructions."

I have attached some pictures of us building the PBSS wall.

Of course, I never said it looked pretty!!  But they had a good time!

6 Now the gates of Jericho were all shut because of the people of Israel. No one went out and no one came in. ² The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and soldiers. ³ Walk around the city. Have all the men of war go around the city once. Do this for six days. ⁴ Seven religious leaders will carry seven rams’ horns. They will walk in front of the special box of the agreement. Then on the seventh day you will walk around the city seven times. And the religious leaders will blow horns. ⁵ When you hear the long sound of the ram’s horn, all the people should call out with a loud noise. The wall of the city will fall to the ground. And then all the people will all go in the city.”

⁶ So Joshua the son of Nun called the religious leaders and said to them, “Take up the special box of the agreement. And let seven religious leaders carry seven rams’ horns in front of the special box of the agreement.” ⁷ Then he said to the people, “Go and walk around the city. Let the men ready for battle go in front of the special box of the agreement.” ⁸ When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven religious leaders carrying the seven rams’ horns before the Lord walked on and blew the horns. And the special box of the agreement of the Lord followed them. ⁹ The men ready for battle went in front of the religious leaders who blew the horns. The other soldiers came behind the special box of the agreement while the horns sounded without stopping. ¹⁰ But Joshua told the people, “Do not call out or let your voice be heard. Not a word should come from your mouth until the day I tell you to call out. Then you must call out.” ¹¹ So he had the special box of the agreement taken around the city once. Then they returned to the tents and stayed there through the night.
¹² Joshua got up early in the morning. And the religious leaders took up the special box of the agreement. ¹³ The seven religious leaders carrying the seven rams’ horns in front of the special box of the agreement began walking and blew the horns without stopping. The men ready for battle went in front of them. The other soldiers came behind the special box of the agreement. And the horns sounded without stopping. ¹⁴ The second day they walked around the city once. Then they returned to the tents. They did this for six days.
¹⁵ On the seventh day they got up early at the rising of the sun. They walked around the city in the same way, but on that day they walked around the city seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time, when the religious leaders blew their horns, Joshua said to the people, “Call out! For the Lord has given you the city. ¹⁷ The city and all that is in it must be destroyed because everything in it belongs to the Lord. Only Rahab, the woman who sells the use of her body, and all who are with her in the house will live, because she hid the men we sent. ¹⁸ But keep yourselves from the things that are to be destroyed. Or while you give them up to be destroyed, you might desire them. Then you would make the camp of Israel sinful also, and bring trouble on it. ¹⁹ But all the silver and gold and objects of brass and iron are holy to the Lord. They will go into the store-house of the Lord.” ²⁰ So the people called out and the religious leaders blew the horns. When the people heard the sound of the horns, they called out even louder. And the wall fell to the ground. All the people went straight in and took the city. ²¹ They destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkey, with the sword.
²² Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the house of the woman who sells the use of her body. Bring out the woman and all who are with her, as you promised her.” ²³ So the young men who had spied out the land went in, and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all she had. They brought out all of her family and took them outside the tents of Israel. ²⁴ Then they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold and objects of brass and iron they put into the store-house of the holy tent of the Lord. ²⁵ Joshua saved the life of Rahab, the woman who sold the use of her body, and those of her father’s house and all she had. She has lived among Israel to this day, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.
²⁶ Then Joshua made them promise at that time, saying, “May the Lord destroy the man who gets up and builds this city of Jericho. With the loss of his first-born he will begin to build it. With the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates.” ²⁷ So the Lord was with Joshua. He was well known and respected in all the land.