Theme: Playing together, loving each other and learning to love stories and books
Bible Story: The Tower of Babel
Value: Love and help others
The tower of Babel
Many years ago, all the people on earth spoke the same language. They decided to build a tall tower that reached the sky. They called it the tower of Babel.
“Let’s build this tower to show how great we are!” they said, working together. They built and built until the tower almost reached the sky! But they did all this building for the wrong reason. They wanted to show off and be more important than God, and more important than other people.
God watched them build. He saw that they were not thinking of Him. They were also not loving and helping each other. Instead, they were only thinking of themselves. So, God made everyone speak different languages. Suddenly, they couldn’t understand each other! The people were confused and couldn’t finish the tower. They stopped building and spread out to live in different places.
God wanted them to learn an important lesson: It’s important to love and help one another, not to try and be better than others. When we work together with kind hearts and help each other, we make God happy.
(Genesis 11:1-9)
- Opening
Ciao! Aloha! Guten tag! Did you understand any of these words? All of them mean “hello” in different languages. Can you say hello in another language?
Did you know that everyone in the world spoke the same language? Let’s find out how that changed. Let’s read the Bible story.
- Discovery
Can you remember the story that you heard yesterday?
Yes, we talked about how people built the tower of Babel, and how their languages got confused. Let’s read the story again.
What is your favourite part of the story?
What did it sound like when everyone suddenly spoke different languages? (Ask the children to all speak at once).
- Retell
Can you tell me what happened in our story yesterday? (Ask leading questions and guide the child using the picture and story).
Why did the people build a tall tower?
Why did God make them speak different languages?
- Value
This week we’ve been talking about how people built the Tower of Babel to show other people that they are better than them, and better than God.
It makes God sad when we think that we are better than Him, or better than other people. God wants us to work together as a team. He wants us to use our talents to love and help others and to serve Him. When we do this, we can build a world that makes God smile!
How can you work together and help your friends better?
- Activity
In our story this week, God taught the builders of the tower of Babel a lesson about loving and helping one another and putting God first in our lives. Now show me how well you can work together and help your friends!
(Provide the children with building blocks and encourage them to work together to build a tower. As they build, talk about how they can help each other, share and work as a team.)