Children Bible Overview 31 04/11/07

BECAUSE THE ISRAELITES DID NOT BELIEVE IN GOD’S PROMISES, THEY

WERE AFRAID OF THE ENEMIES

Teachers to read bible scripture: <Nu 13 – 14>

Children to memorize bible scripture: <Nu 14:24>

Recap
Last week, we learned that what God hated most was idol worshipping. Therefore, as a result of idol
worship, the Israelites’ individual life was not good, his family was not good, everything is not good.
This was because behind those idols is the devil, Satan who performs works of destruction.
Introduction
Not long after this incident, God told the Israelites, “I brought you all out of Egypt to bless you with the
most beautiful place, called the land of Canaan.” (The land of Canaan was the most abundant place,
and was also the place where Jesus Christ would come later on. Therefore, God specially gave
Canaan to the Israelites.) Therefore, God asked them to choose 12 people (called spies) among them
to explore the land of Canaan, so as to conquer it later. The 12 spies went there to explore and
returned to give Moses and the Israelites a report. Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, believed in
the promises of God, and said, "God has already given us the best place. Therefore we should take
possession of that land and chase away the enemies." However, because the remaining 10 spies did
not believe in God's promises, they saw that the people of Canaan were very tall and huge (powerful)
and the city walls were fortified, and they were thus extremely afraid. Therefore, not only did they not
believe in God, but they also started to grumble against God for bringing them to such a place. Some
of them even said, “Why don’t we find someone to bring us back to Egypt?! We do not want to follow
God and His servant, Moses.” After that, all the Israelites listened to these people, disbelieved God
together with them, and grumbled against God. God saw the disbelief of the Israelites, and told
Moses angrily, “These people have seen me perform so many miracles, and yet they still do not
believe me. So, other than Joshua and Caleb, none of the Israelites can enter this land. They will all
die in the wilderness.” Therefore, after about 40 years, other than Joshua and Caleb, all the other
Israelites died in the wilderness.

1. The Israelites did not believe in God’s promises at all

1) Whatever God said will be fulfilled! God gave us the promise of the 4 Gospelization
[Go through and reinforce the 4 Gospelization]
2) However, the devil, Satan often steals the word of God from our hearts (e.g. use
people’s words, the toys that we like, television programs, pets, unpleasant situations,
to take away God’s words, causing us to disbelieve always)
3) As a result of disbelief, we are not able to see God’s blessings. Instead, we will
continue to grumble and later encounter worsening situations, bad people, causing us
to be bullied and unhappy [Ask the children: Is it true?]

2. Therefore, when met with enemies (i.e. problems), they were afraid
1) The consequence of not believing in God’s promises is that the devil, Satan will use
his lies to deceive us, causing us to have wild thoughts about our parents not loving
us, others also dislike us, we are lousy and stupid… These are all the devil’s lies.
2) In the end, we will often see unhappy and fearful incidents [Is that true? Give
examples.] This is just like the Israelites who only saw the giants but did not see how
God was helping them and how He was with them.
3) Subsequently, unhappy and fearful incidents will increase daily, be it at home or in
school. E.g. get beaten by parents, quarrel with others, others dislike me, etc
[Therefore, do you all want to believe and rely on Jesus Christ?]
3. However, those who believed in God’s promises will definitely receive the greatest
blessings in the end
1) Joshua and Caleb believed in God’s promises. Eventually, they received the greatest
blessings. They conquered the land of Canaan and chased out the huge and tall
enemies. This was because God helped them and fought the battle for them.
2) It is the same today. If we believe in Jesus Christ and believe in the promise of the 4
Gospelization given by God [reinforce 4 Gospelization again], we will definitely
receive the greatest blessings and will in turn bless many people.
3) God has already prepared the greatest blessings for those who believe and know
Jesus Christ (just like how God prepared the most beautiful land of Canaan for
Joshua and Caleb). Therefore, because God wants to use us to bless many people
in future, He prepared:
(i) parents to teach us (therefore those who believe in the promises of God will listen
to their parents)
(ii) schools for us to study (therefore those who believe in the promises of God will
put in effort to study well)
(iii) friends, or brothers and sisters for us (therefore those who believe in the
promises of God will love their friends, brothers and sisters)