Unit 2 lesson 3 Deborah Big Idea: Praise God for his victories Key verse: Psalm 34:1 - I will thank the Lord at all times. My lips will always praise him Bible Passage: Judges 4-5 Thoughts for leaders Deborah s story is made famous for the most part because of her role as one of the few women in the Bible who has a clear leadership role. While this is definitely important, the Bible almost glosses over this fact, and in the scope of the book of Judges, what makes her stand out is really her response to God after his victory. While other judges are only briefly mentioned after their battle victories, and some are shown in a negative light, Deborah s song remains as a shining example of our response to God s victory in our lives: calling each other to remember God s victories and celebrating them! Let s praise God today for what He has done in our lives! All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Reader s Version, NIrV Copyright 1995, 1996, 1998 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIrV and New International Reader s Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. 1
Supplies list: Attention Grabber Craft Table Games - Football fan costume: jersey, - Prayer Journals - Pens & paper - empty water/pop bottles - Large cardboard boxes face-paint, hat - Glue/Modge Podge - Many rolls of duct - Large pop/soda cup - Hot dog - Noisemaker - dried Beans - Tissue Paper - Paint brush tape - Box cutters (leaders use only) or scissors. 2
Football fan costume: jersey, face-paint, hat Large pop/soda cup Hot dog Noisemaker Bob: comes in wearing a football jersey with matching face-paint. He pretends to squish past a whole row of people, balancing a hotdog and a massive cup, with a noisemaker under his arm. Excuse me; sorry; just getting through; sorry; excuse me Sits beside Dave. Bob: What d I miss? Dave: Ah, not much. We re three downs and in the end zone, and it looks like they re putting in the all-star quarterback. Bob: Wow! That s great. Cups his hands to shout. WHOO! WAY TO GO BRONCOS! GO GET EM TEAM! YEAH! Dave: looks panicked. SHHHH! In a stage whisper. What are you doing? Sit down! Be quiet! Do you want somebody to hear you? Bob: sits down. Why? What d I do? Are we in the wrong section? Bob looks around. He looks down at his jersey and at the imaginary guy sitting next to him. No, these guys are all cheering for the Broncos. What s the problem? Dave: I don t want them to hear us. Bob: Them, who? Space aliens? What s wrong with you, Dave? Stands up. LET S GO BRONCOS, LET S GO! Dave: pulls Bob down to his seat. Stop it! It s the Broncos I don t want to hear you. Bob: Why not? Dave: It might spoil their game. 3
Bob: Are you serious? It s football. Everyone cheers. The players love it. Stands up. YEAH! GO! GO! GO! ALL THE WAY! ATTA BOY JEROME!! Pulls out his noisemaker and gives a long blast Dave: Stop it! You re ruining their concentration! Bob: Dave. It s a documented fact that players play better when their fans cheer them on. C mon. Show some spirit! Dave: Fine. Closes his eyes and mumbles under his breath. Bob: What are you doing? Dave: without opening his eyes Cheering them on. Bob: How? Dave: How does it look like? Bob: Ummm are you praying to them? Dave: No, Bob. I m just trying to be respectful of their privacy. Bob: Dave! It s football! They re on the pitch! They re about to have a touchdown! They don t want privacy they want to celebrate! Get over yourself! Gets up, jumping up and down. YEAH! TOUCHDOWN! WOOHOOO! Blows noisemaker more. Dave: BOB! Sit down! You re going to upset the other team s fans! Bob: Who cares? Did you see that? That was AWESOME! YEAH BRONCOS! Dave: They might not agree that a touchdown is in everybody s best interests. Bob: What s your problem? It s sports. It s a game. Of COURSE it s not in everybody s best interests! It means WE RE WINNING!!!! WOOHOO!!! ALRIGHT BRONCOS!!! Stops himself. Dave, what s your problem. I thought you liked the Broncos! If I had known you didn t like football, I would have given your ticket to someone else. Dave: I DO like football! Bob: Then it s the Broncos you don t like? 4
Dave: No, no the Broncos are my favourite team! I ve got their jersey, their baseball hat, autographed posters, bumper stickers and even a game ball from 2005! Bob: But you re not wearing any of that. Dave: I just didn t want to give anybody the wrong idea. Bob: The idea that you might enjoy a game of football? Dave: sort of Bob: Or possibly even like the Broncos? Dave: yeah. I just think if I cheer, like, out loud, people will notice and think I m strange. Bob: looking at his get-up. Dave, do you think I m strange? Dave: just looks at Bob. Oh look! We lost the ball! Stands up. Good job, team! That s the spirit! Keep it up! Bob: Now you start cheering? What, are you crazy? They re losing! Dave: I know. This is the part I like the best. Bob: shaking his head. C mon. I ve got to get you out of here before you get us both in trouble! Bob drags Dave by the sleeve out of the room. Dave: Hey! They need me now! Atta go, Broncos! Don t worry! Dave ll come to the rescue! Bob & Dave exit the room Leader: That s a pretty strange way of cheering! But you know, the Israelites did just that. When God was on their side, they ignored Him completely and eventually forgot about Him altogether! When things went badly for them, that s when they remembered God and cried out to Him. It s easy for us to do the same thing, but just like that strange fan who only cheered when his team was losing, we want to remember to praise God in the good times and the bad! Our story today is about a judge named Deborah who remembered to do just that! 5
Leader: The last two weeks, we have learned about the country of Israel where the people had very, very short memories. They knew God had saved them from slavery and given them a country of their own, but in the first week they forgot about God and ended up becoming slaves to the Canaanites. When they remembered God, they cried out to Him, and he sent a judge named Othniel to save them. The second week, the Israelites had done the same thing: forgotten about God, ended up becoming slaves, then cried out to God and God sent a left-handed man named Ehud to save them. This week, guess what the Israelites did: they forgot God! The Bible says they did evil again, and the king of Canaan made them slaves all over again. But after twenty years they must have been slow learners they finally remembered to call to God for help! God sent them a woman named Deborah to be their next judge & hero. People really respected Deborah and they often came to her for advice. The Bible said she was the kind of judge who made decisions about really important things for all of Israel, and she was a very good leader for Israel. One day, God told her to tell a soldier named Barak that it was time for God to save them from the Canaanites, and that Barak was to take his armies into battle because God would help them win. Even though Barak trusted God, he thought it would be smart if Deborah came with him because she was such a good leader. So Deborah went into battle with Barak, but because Barak wasn t brave enough to go on his own, instead of the mighty king being captured by his soldiers, God let a woman who wasn t even a soldier, kill the king herself. God rescued his people once again! But the thing that makes Deborah s story so special is not just that God used her to help rescue his people, but that Deborah is one of the few people who remembered what God did for them, and instead of forgetting God right away, she praised God! Praise is a word we don t use very often anymore, but it means to cheer. We cheer at sports games, or for our favourite band, or when we watch a performance of some kind. We re pretty used to cheering. But for some reason, it feels a little weird to cheer for God, and we often forget. Deborah reminded the people of Israel to cheer for or praise God! She didn t want the Israelites only talking to God when they needed rescuing. She wanted them to talk to God all the time: to thank Him when He did great things, to remember what He had done for them, and to praise Him even just for being a really great God. 6
In the Bible, there s one chapter that tells us the entire story of Deborah, Barak, and the battle they won, and then another whole chapter that tells us the song she wrote giving thanks to God! The praise she gave God was just as important as freeing God s people from slavery! It might be easy for us to remember to ask God for things we need, or to be rescued from situations out of our control, but Deborah s story reminds us that it is super important to talk to God in the good times, too. We need to keep thanking God for what He has done and praise Him for who He is! Just like we keep praising or cheering for our favourite musicians, football players and actors, we can cheer for God who is with us every day and WAYYY more powerful than anybody else we could have on our side! 7
Prayer Journals Pens & paper As a small group, write either a rap or a cheerleader s cheer to God for winning the battle! Discussion Questions - Have you ever had somebody else take credit for something good you did? How did it feel? - Why was it so important that Deborah praised God for her victory? Take the time to go through prayer journals. Close in prayer, lifting up your requests to God. Make sure to take a special amount of time to thank God and praise him for answered prayers! 8
Monthly Verse: Jeremiah 7:23b Obey me. Then I will be your God. And you will be my people. Live the way I command you to live. Then things will go well with you. Weekly Verse: Psalm 34:1 - I will thank the Lord at all times. My lips will always praise him! Make up your own actions to this verse. Try performing it to each other using the actions. See if you can recite the verse using only the actions to remind yourself of the words, without any prompts from reading it! Eg. Touch your lips for lips, point upwards for Lord or tap your watch for times. 9
Empty water/pop bottles Modge Podge (make your own Modge Podge by mixing 1 part water with 1 part white glue) Beans Tissue paper, torn into small pieces Paintbrushes Place dried beans inside water bottle. Screw the cap on tightly. To decorate, paint the water bottle with Modge Podge, then stick on pieces of tissue paper, covering the entire water bottle. Allow time to dry. Leader: One way people love to praise is using music and loud noises. When we praise (or cheer on) sports teams, we often use noise makers. When we praise, or cheer for, God we also like to use instruments and noisemakers. Today we re going to make our own noisemaker - we re making maracas! 10
Large cardboard boxes Many rolls of duct tape Box cutters (leaders use only) or scissors. Give each team 5-15 minutes to create their own sled (if only a short amount of time is allowed) or race car (if more time is allowed). On your mark, have teams race by pulling/pushing sled/car from starting line to the finish line. Points are awarded for creativity, stamina (which car still looks the best at the end) and speed. 11