Lesson 122 Completion, Dedication Of The Temple Ezra 6:13-22 MEMORY VERSE EZRA 6:16 “Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with Joy.” WHAT YOU WILL NEED: A “Learning about Forgiveness” template for each child in your class and one brown paper bag. Drawing paper and markers. A bowl, a towel and pitcher with water to wash hands, a table cloth or sheet, a flashlight (to represent a candle), pot-pourri (to represent incense), napkins, assorted green vegetables (lettuce), grape juice, saltine crackers, and lunch meat cut into 4 pieces. ATTENTION GRABBER! Learning about Forgiveness In the Old Testament animals were sacrificed to cover people’s sin. The Bible says that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). In other words the punishment for our sin is death. God provided a way of forgiveness through His Son Jesus. But before Jesus died on the cross, God gave His people a picture of Jesus’ death through the animal sacrifices. When the innocent lamb was slain and the priest prayed, laying the sins of the people on the lamb, it was a beautiful picture of how Jesus would one day take upon Himself the punishment for our sins. We don’t have to do animal sacrifices anymore because when Jesus died on the cross, He took away all of our sins forever. When we come to Jesus we know that we are forgiven and our sins are removed from us for good. The Old Testament system wasn’t complete because they had to continually sacrifice animals. For the children to gain better understanding of this concept have them cut out the animals from the enclosed sheet. They can color the animals if they would like. Have them think of something that they have done wrong and write it on the animal. You will have to assist the younger children. After this is done have a volunteer go around with a brown paper bag and collect all of the animals. Explain to the children that in Old Testament times they would make an offering of the animal for a covering of their sins. Explain to the children that you will place the bag out of sight never to be remembered again. That is how God’s forgiveness works. Today we don’t sacrifice animals, but we do come to Jesus to receive forgiveness of sins. Is it not wonderful that we can turn to Jesus and find forgiveness of sin? He removes our sin forever. Explain to the children that in our lesson today we will learn about how the Lord forgave His people and helped them to finish the building of the temple. They were able to make offerings again, worship in the temple, and celebrate Passover. LESSON TIME! What an amazing story we will be learning today. It shows that God will take care of His people no matter what. He will even move kings and rulers to do what He wants. In the previous lesson, there were several people who were opposed to the Israelites rebuilding their temple. They wrote to King Darius to convince him to stop the work. They accused the Israelites of planning to rebuild Jerusalem and their temple and then rebelling against the king. The king listened to them and ordered the work to stop. But God wasn’t done yet! He moved King Darius to search the archives (kind of like a library) and he found a decree from King Cyrus, the king before him. The decree told about the time when King Cyrus gave permission for the Jews to return to their land and to rebuild. We will see now how King Darius will change his decision and order the work to begin again. EZ R A 6:13-15 T h e n T at t e n ai , go v e r n o r o f t h e r e gi o n be y o n d t h e R i v e r , S h e t h ar -B o z n ai , an d t h e i r c o m p an i o n s d i l i ge n t l y d i d ac c o r d i n g t o w h at Ki n g D ar i u s h ad s e n t . S o t h e e l d e r s o f t h e J e w s bu i l t , an d t h e y p r o s p e r e d t h r o u gh t h e p r o p h e s y i n g o f Haggai t h e p r o p h e t an d Z e c h ar i ah t h e s o n o f I d d o . An d t h e y bu i l t an d f i n i s h e d i t , ac c o r d i n g t o t h e c o m m an d m e n t o f t h e G o d o f I s r ae l , an d ac c o r d i n g t o t h e c o m m an d o f C y r u s , D ar i u s , an d Ar t ax e r x e s k i n g o f Pe r s i a. N o w t h e t e m p l e w as f i n i s h e d o n t h e t h i r d d ay o f t h e m o n t h o f Ad ar , w h i c h w as i n t h e s i x t h y e ar o f t h e r e i gn o f Ki n g D ar i u s . After those who were against God’s people received the decree of King Darius they became quite cooperative with God’s people as they rebuilt the temple. They had no choice. They were in charge of the area, but King Darius was the ruler of their world. If you want to stay in charge of something, you do what your boss says. After experiencing opposition from the hostile local government officials, after experiencing a period of interruption of building the temple to settle arguments, and after appealing to the highest authority in the land, God granted them favor. When we ask for forgiveness, God always gives us another chance. This shows the awesome power of God. And so the temple was completed in the month of Adar, which is the twelfth month in the Jewish religious calendar. EZ R A 6:16-18 T h e n t h e c h i l d r e n o f I s r ae l , t h e p r i e s t s an d t h e L e v i t e s an d t h e r e s t o f t h e d e s c e n d an t s o f t h e c ap t i v i t y , c e l e br at e d t h e d e d i c at i o n o f t h i s h o u s e o f G o d w i t h j o y . An d t h e y o f f e r e d s ac r i f i c e s at t h e d e d i c at i o n o f t h i s h o u s e o f G o d , o n e h u n d r e d bu l l s , t w o h u n d r e d r am s , f o u r h u n d r e d l am bs , an d as a s i n o f f e r i n g f o r al l I s r ae l t w e l v e m al e go at s , ac c o r d i n g t o t h e n u m be r o f t h e t r i be s o f I s r ae l . T h e y as s i gn e d t h e p r i e s t s t o t h e i r d i v i s i o n s an d t h e L e v i t e s t o t h e i r d i v i s i o n s , o v e r t h e s e r v i c e o f G o d i n J e r u s al e m , as i t i s w r i t t e n i n t h e B o o k o f M o s e s .