Caleb and Joshua Obey

Monday:	Caleb & Joshua Obey
Story Passage:	Numbers 13-14
Other Passages:
Visuals	Available (updated 2016)
Objective:	We should learn to trust and obey God.

Introduction: Following the Footsteps

This week we're going to be learning about some people in the Bible, whose footsteps we should follow. What does it mean to follow in somebody's footsteps? (Accept some answers). It means to do what they did, or be the kind of person they were. Today we are going to learn about Caleb and Joshua and how they obeyed God.

Story: Caleb & Joshua

God was leading his people, Israel, to a new place to live. Moses was their leader. Moses picked Caleb and Joshua and ten other men to go look around in the new land to see what it was like. They looked around for forty days. They looked at what kind of people lived there, what the cities were like, what the food growing there was like. Then they went back and told Moses. They told him that the land was very good. They showed him a big bunch of grapes that was so big that it took two men to carry it.

Caleb said, We should go take the land. He knew that God had said he was giving them the land. Caleb trusted God to help them get it. Caleb wanted to obey. Joshua did too. But the other ten men forgot to trust and obey God. The others told Moses and the people, The people there are stronger than we are. They are so big, they make us look like little grasshoppers. But Caleb and Joshua said, We should not be afraid of them. God is with us, we should obey God.

The people would not listen to Caleb and Joshua. God punished the people for not obeying. He made them walk around in the dessert for forty years. None of them ever got to go into the new land that God and promised them. except, Caleb and Joshua did get to go. They had trusted God and wanted to obey. I think they were sad that the others wouldn't obey.

Application: Obedience to God

Have you ever been playing with friends and they started doing something wrong? Maybe they started hitting or calling names. Or maybe they went across the street where they weren't allowed to go. If this ever happens, you can tell your friends to do what is right. But if they will not listen to you, and they disobey, you can still obey. God wants us to obey, doesn't he?

Invitation: Obedience

Invite any children who want to learn to obey God to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.

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