VERSES: Genesis 19:1-29; 1 Pet. 3:12 MEMORY VERSE: Genesis 19:24 BOOK TO REMEMBER: 1 Samuel Write "1 Samuel" on a slip of paper for each child and make sure to pass them out before they leave the classroom. PRAYER: Pray that we will stay away from sin and close to God. Pray that everyone will read their Bibles every day. SPECIAL SONG: Read, Read Every Day (see February - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #1) and Books of the Old Testament (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #3) VISUAL AID: Large "Sodom" City, at least double the sizes below (see below under "Activity" for directions.) LESSON POINTS: Remember last week Abraham had asked God if he would spare the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if there were ten good people found in them and today we are going to see what happened. Abraham's nephew, Lot, was sitting at the gate of Sodom when two angels came that evening. Do you remember what the word 'hospitality' meant? Being kind to people, inviting them into your home, giving them food. Yes! All of those are the right answers! Lot got up and bowed down to the angels and invited them to his house to rest and eat with his wife and two daughters. Lot prepared a feast for them and they ate, but before they went to sleep, the wicked men of Sodom circled around Lot's house and were shouting to Lot that they wanted the men to come out of his house. Lot went outside and shut the door after him and said to the men, "Do not behave so wickedly!" But the wicked men of Sodom pushed Lot and and were going to break the door down when the angels reached out, grabbed Lot and pulled him inside of the house. Then they struck the wicked men of Sodom with blindness so they couldn't even find the door! The angels told Lot to take all of his family out of Sodom because the city was so wicked that God was going to destroy the city and its wickedness. 1 Pet. 3:12 says that God's eyes are always watching over the righteous or the people who are obeying Him, but those who are only doing evil, He turns His face from them. Their evil ways were too much for God. Lot went outside and spoke to his sons-in-law who had married his other daughters and told them to leave the city because God was going to destroy it. But do you know what his sons-in-law did? They laughed at him and did not believe him. In the morning, the angels hurried Lot and said, "Get up and take your wife and your two daughters which are right here and leave the city!!" Lot hesitated, so the angels took his hand, the hands of his wife and daughters and took them out of the city. They said, "Escape for your life! Do NOT look back! Don't stay on the plain! Escape to the mountain or you will all die!" Lot said to them, "Thank you for saving my life, but I cannot go to the mountain. Let me go to the little city called Zoar right over there." The angels told him to go, but hurry. When Lot and his wife and his daughters entered the little city of Zoar, the Bible says that God rained fire and brimstone upon the cities of the plain--Sodom and Gomorrah--and all the people that lived there and even the crops and grass that grew there! All was burned up! Do you remember what the angels had said about looking back? They said, "DON'T look back!" But someone did. (Whisper) Lot's wife looked back at the cities to see what was happening...and she turned into a pillar of salt! She disobeyed God at the very end! We should ALWAYS obey God! Do you know what Abraham was doing? The Bible says he got up early in the morning and stood where he had been talking to God and looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and saw the smoke all over the plain just like a smoking furnace. He saw it all. God destroyed the the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the wickedness. God hates sin! "Older Student" Tips: Talk about what sin is: Rom. 14:23; Jas. 4:17; 1 Jn. 3:4; 5:17. Talk about "little white lies" being sin. Mention that most people, perhaps even their friends, believe that little white lies or small untruths are fine, but God sees sin as 'sin.' We must try our very hardest to keep sin out of our lives. "Older, Older Student" Tips: Background: Sodom was known for its homosexuality (Gen. 19:4,5), but there were many other sins that Sodom committed and are listed in Ezk. 16:49, 50. Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of what happens to all those who live ungodly (2 Pet. 2:6). Lot "vexed" his righteous soul day to day by Sodom's wicked ways. (2 Pet. 2:7, 8). We need to be careful where we choose to live and raise our families. Always put God first in everything! ACTIVITY: Materials needed: 6" x 18" piece of construction paper (I cut a regular 12" x 18" sheet of construction in half, lengthwise), orange or 'fire' colored cellophane (may be purchased an Walmart, school supply store, or art and craft store), crayons, glue, scissors. Pass out 6" x 18" paper to each child. Fold in half, then in half again. (See picture below.) Draw a square-ish design at the top of the construction paper. (See picture below.) Cut out design. Open to find a city!! Write Genesis 19:24 and "And the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven" along the bottom of paper. Draw small windows, and doors. Glue or tape scraps of cellophane inside the 'city. Set up and refold paper into a square. Tape edges together.
