Abraham believes God and His promises.
Abraham asks God about His promises. God wants Abraham to know He keeps His promises. God makes a covenant with Abraham.

SCRIPTURE: Genesis 15

THEME: JESUS: OUR REDEEMER
POINT: God loves us and wants us to love Him.
MEMORY VERSE: “Believe in the Lord, Jesus.” Acts 16:31a

SNACK: Bread and white grape juice (Luke 22: 19-20)

ADVANCE PREPARATION: Hang stars (diecut from cardstock) from the ceiling with the names of the children and vbs teachers and everyone’s family members. (Genesis 15:5)

SUPPLIES:

black or dark blue construction paper
star stickers
coloring sheets

clay
newspaper for table
toothpicks and craft sticks

paper plates or bowls to carry wet clay pots home

poker chips

ARRIVAL CENTERS:

Science:
counting: poker chips – too many to count, like Abram’s children and grandchildren

Coloring sheets: Do an on-line search.

STORYTIME:
Sit outside the tent.
Ask if anyone noticed anything different about the room this morning.

Tell them that today’s story from the first book in the Bible (Genesis) will help them understand the stars hanging from the ceiling. (script is below)

Discuss:
What did God promise Abram?
I wonder what Abram thought when God promised him a big family?

How did God help Abram remember the promise?
I wonder what Abraham thought about when he looked at the stars?
What do you think about when you look at the stars?

Talk about how God keeps His promises. Talk about how we can keep our promises this week.

Teach the memory verse:
“Believe in the Lord, Jesus.” Acts 16:31a

BELIEVE: The signs THINK (index finger touches the forehead which is the location of the mind) and MARRY (hands clasp together to indicate two people bounding together in marriage) are combined to represent the concept of holding true to one's thought.

LORD: The sign KING (handshape moves from the chest to the waist while crossing the body; the movement indicates the location of the royal sash worn by kings) is made with a L handshape (form an L with the thumb and index finger).

JESUS: The middle finger of one hand touches the middle of the palm of the other hand then this action is repeated with the middle finger of the other hand. This action indicates the wounds in Jesus' hands after he was nailed to the cross.

Review the previous memory verses.

CRAFT:
pinch pot -

talk about how Abram and family would have used clay pots for cooking, water, storage, and many other things.

MUSIC:
Sing “Father Abraham”

from the Wee Worship CD (disc 3, track 1).

Run through the motions beforehand, and then play and sing the song.

Can you think of any other motions to add?

After singing it through once, talk about the lyrics. What “many sons” did Abraham have?

Why does the song say, “I am one of them and so are you.” Refer to Genesis 15: 1-6, where God promises Abraham many descendants. Talk about what this meant for Abraham to receive this promise and for God to make him the beginning of God’s chosen people.

Sing the song one more time, or twice if they like it.

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”

“Jesus Loves Me”

GAME:
Play a game of “Follow the Leader” or “Simon Says” with your kids and talk about how Abraham followed God.

SNACK:

bread - talk about how Jesus is the bread of life.

ADDITIONAL LEARNING CENTERS AND ACTIVITIES:

ART:
Allow the children to cover black paper with star stickers.

Talk about how many stars there are in the sky and about God’s promise to Abram.

Talk about the name change to Abraham, which means “Father of Many.”

SOURCES:
ASL Browser - with videos of the signs used for the memory verse: see first post resources

Bible Quest Publishers. Bible Quest: A Bible Story Curriculum for All Ages. Grades K-1. Fall 2001. “Abraham and Sarah Laugh.” [night sky story adapted from here]

Abraham Believes God and His Promises
STORY SCRIPT

[Sit outside the tent and pretend to be looking at the night sky.]
Who has looked at the stars at night?
Who has tried to count the stars?
I wonder how many stars are in the sky?

The Bible contains many stories of times God made “covenants,” a word which means promises. Sometimes those promises from God were hard to believe. Let me tell you more of our story in Genesis about one of God’s promises.

Do you remember our story? Abram, his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all their servants and animals left a nice, cozy home to travel to — only God knew! God said to do it, so they did. They trusted the Lord. And God blessed them so much, Abram and Lot split up and went in two different directions. But, with God’s help, Abram still watched out for his nephew Lot.

One day God said to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I will watch over you, and I have a surprise for you.”

Abram asked, “What will you give me? You have already promised us a child, but Sarai and I are old and still do not have one.”

God assured Abram that he and Sarai would have a child. He called Abram to go outside and look up at the night sky. “Do you see the stars? Can you count them? Someday you will have as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren as the number of stars in the sky.”

That was hard to imagine! And yet, somehow, Abram trusted God.

On another day, God said to Abram, “Remember the promise I made with you. Always remember it. You will have a son, and then you will become a grandfather with many grandchildren. That is the covenant I made with you. And because of my promise, I am going to change your name from Abram (which means important father) to Abraham (which means father of many). And Sarai will have a different name too. You shall call her Sarah, which means princess. She will be the mother of many people.”

Abraham thought this was funny, for he and Sarah were very old. He was one hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety. Abraham started laughing and asked God, “Can two old people have a child?”

God answered, “Yes, Abraham. You and Sarah will have a son, and I will make a promise with him, too. A covenant that will last forever! Lift up your eyes now, and look northward, southward, eastward, and westward. For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants so plentiful that you can’t even count them – just like the dust on the earth!”

[Act like you are sifting “dirt” between your fingers]

Just try to count the dust specs! It’s almost impossible! Wow! That’s how many grandkids and great grandkids and so on that Abraham is going to have!

And Abram was very pleased. He smiled. He jumped about joyfully. He high fived his family. He kissed his family. God had promised to make them a great nation! Tomorrow we will talk about what happened next. Do you think that when God makes a promise, you can count on it to come true?