Young Preschool Lesson #OT6 Tower of Babel CONCEPT God s plans are always for our good. GOAL Children will learn that even though man is in rebellion against Him, God is in control. They will be challenged to be a part of God s plan. PASSAGE: GENESIS 11:1-9 Key Verse: "The Lord confused the language of the whole world and scattered the people over the whole earth." Genesis 11:9 PLANNING AHEAD Lesson Supplies Activity Station: Cardboard bricks (stored in the rooms) Lesson: The Beginner's Bible, Karyn Henley Craft Supplies Learning Activity #1: Printed picture of tower, 1/child Stone label stickers from #OT25, 5/child Crayons, markers
Background Information /Teacher s Helps A historical link between Noah and Abraham is provided in Genesis 10 and 11 in the Bible. The events in this era demonstrate how subtle the revolt against God can be. This period in God s revelation is so important that special emphasis is needed. The System: The Way of Man Nimrod s Tower of Idolatry. Nimrod was a mighty king who built six of the ancient cities of the world. Two of those cities were Nineveh and Babel, later to be known as Babylon. His ambition was to make himself a name and to establish a world empire. To accomplish this, Nimrod led the people in building a huge temple-tower, which was to be a proud, eternal monument to themselves (Genesis 11:3, 4 LB). The tower in Babel was apparently an astrological observatory like the ziggurats which remain today in that part of the world. Astrology is the worship, not of God, but of the sun, moon and stars. Romans 1 tells us that if a person does not worship God the Creator, his first step away from God will be worship of the creation. The people started to build the Tower of Babel. Their motive in building the tower was to reach God meaning to attain the position of God. Nimrod s more specific motive was to keep mankind together under his own leadership. When the Lord observed these events, He said, look! One people, and all with one language [purpose]! The way they are starting to behave, nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them (Genesis 11:6 MLB). This is God s view of an indisputable historic fact: Fallen men without barriers greatly accelerate the rate of rebellion. The bricks of Babel. The people of Babel, under Nimrod s leadership, chose to build the tower of bricks. This choice of material demonstrates an important spiritual truth because bricks symbolize human effort without God in contrast to stones created by God. The bricks would not hold together and so the people used mortar made out of tar as a binding (see Genesis 11:3). This is the way man, by his human effort, builds his system. God s Kingdom, in contrast, is bound together by a willing submitting to God s authority, and results in peace and love. The human system represented by Babel is an idolatrous system, both religious and political. It is a mirror image of God s Truth and therefore backwards, and it is ultimately without spiritual validity. Such a system produces conditions similar to what B.F. Skinner describes as an establishment with an elite ruling clique, whose members virtually deify themselves and enslave the rest of mankind. Under this kind of world system, Satan binds people and takes away their uniqueness, dignity and freedom of choice. A monument to mankind. God observed the collective efforts of humans to build their own system apart from Him. To deal with the situation, God brought division through the introduction of different languages. This made it impossible for the people in Nimrod s empire to complete the tower, leaving it incomplete as an appropriate monument to mankind apart from God. Man s system apart from God may look exciting because it appeals to the senses. It may also seem secure but as surely as in Babel, God will either bring division to it or it will destroy itself, whereas God s Incredible Plan will never be stopped. We are all aware today of the brilliant achievements of modern-day man inventions such as the laser beam, which is being used medically and in industry, and is accomplishing great good. But its destructive capabilities are also being developed in modern weaponry. Laser beams can be used to blind or annihilate the enemy in a war. Which will the laser be used for to alleviate illness or destroy mankind? Man apart from God has no absolute value system of right or wrong and there will always be the selfish opportunist, like Nimrod, who will force his life-style, his kingdom plan,
on all the rest of his fellow men. The result is predictable since history is replete with the Genghis Khans and Adolf Hitlers and their resultant destruction." 1 Genesis 11:5-9 tells what God did when he saw them unified in rebellion against Him. By dividing them linguistically, God erected barriers to slow the rate of rebellion against Him so that His plan for man could proceed. Today those barriers of geography and language are being broken down as we enter into increasingly sophisticated telecommunications and computer technology and are being propelled toward a worldwide unity. Many people, even some religious leaders, see this as a great opportunity for world peace, but the Bible isn't so optimistic. The stage is being set, not for world peace, but for the oppressive rule of the Anti-Christ, of whom Nimrod is a type. This lesson is intended to teach the children that a world under man's leadership leads to destruction. But God is sovereign and loving and will accomplish His plan despite the rebellion of man. As you prepare this lesson, consider how much your daily life, your attitudes and your focus are affected by this eternal truth. 1 McCallum & Hamblin, God's Incredible Plan, pp. 34-35.
LESSON PLAN SET UP INCORPORATION LG GROUP 15 MIN INSTRUCTION/ INTRODUCTION 5 MIN LESSON LG GROUP 10 MIN The week before class: Pray for the children in your class. Ask the Spirit to help you relate God's truth and love to them. Activity Stations: Tower Building Goal: Connect the principle that everything people build will eventually fall. Instructions: Set the cardboard blocks on the floor. See how high a tower can be built before it falls down. Have you ever talked to someone who speaks a different language? Have you ever heard someone say hola, bonjour or gutentag? Those words all say the same thing. They are the same as the word we say for hello. A long, long, long time ago everyone spoke the same language. Everyone said the same word for hello. Today we are going to learn about the time when "The Lord confused the language of the whole world and scattered the people over the whole earth. Let s find out why He did that. Story "A Tall Tower" Instructions: Read pages 36-40 in The Beginner's Bible. God planned for the people to live in the whole earth and to follow Him. But the people didn t want to follow God. They wanted to make their own plans and do what they wanted to do. They didn t believe that God s plans are always for our good. God knew there would be big trouble for them if He didn t stop them. So all at once, God made the people talk in different languages so that they couldn t understand each other. Since the people couldn't understand each other, they couldn't finish building the tower. The people moved away from each other and began to build other cities all over the world just like God had planned. "The Lord confused the language of the whole world and scattered the people over the whole earth. And many of them decided that God s plans are always for our good so they wanted to follow God. Let s thank God for all of His plans because God s plans are always for our good. His most wonderful plan was to send Jesus to earth. Jesus died on the cross for all the bad choices we make so we can be God s friends forever. When we ask Jesus to forgive us He does and we become God s friends. God s plans are always for our good because He loves us and wants what is best for us. TRANSITION 2 MIN LEARNING ACTIVITY #1 LG GROUP 10 MIN Let s pray now that we will remember that God s plans are always for our good!! Let s ask God to help us learn to follow Him. And let s thank Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins. Let s make a craft now that will remind us that God s plans are always for our good!! Craft Coloring Page Instructions: Give each child a picture of the tower and five brick stickers. As they color, discuss with them how difficult it would be to build something if you didn't say the same words as the rest of the workers. God was very wise when He confused their language. He protected the people from their own plans.
Languages Puppet Skit Cast: Squeaker, Mouth Props: Hello and Good-bye tapes Squeaker enters Hello! How is everyone doing? Is everyone having a good time? Mouth enters quickly and dramatically (startled and looking Mouth over) Whoa! Who or What is this? (pause for audience response) Hello! (pause) HELLO!! I don t get it! Start Mouth s tape and start talking Whoa! What did it say? That s weird. I don t understand anything it s saying? Are these words? (to audience) What do you think? Is it saying words? Does anyone understand what it s saying? It must be talking with words from another country. Sometimes it s hard to understand people who use different words to say things that we say. Did you ever wonder where all these different words came from? Did someone say, Gee, I think I ll come up with different words and a different way of saying things today? (stress) I don t think so. (looking at Mouth) It sure is hard to understand you. And it would be hard to work with you since we don t understand each other. (to audience) Does anyone have an idea where all these different words came from? Right, God made them. You ll learn more about that in class, today. Do you think it would be hard to talk to someone who doesn t talk the same way we do? Do you think you can learn how to talk the way other people talk in other countries? Mouth: (turn off tape and in a normal voice say, HELLO. Change tapes to the Good-bye tape and wait to turn on. Do not respond to Squeaker. (to audience) What did it say? Did it just say hello? Well, I ll be. Maybe it s been saying hello all this time. (to Mouth) Hello! pause HELLO! (to audience) I don t get it. Start Mouth Good-bye tape
(double take and react to Mouth) What?!? Now it s starting to talk? I don t get it. The words sound similar but they aren t the same. Just when I thought I was making sense out of it all, it starts talking again but I still don t understand what it s saying. (to audience) Do you? Mouth keeps talking from the Good-bye tape. Squeaker gets more and more frustrated. I m getting tired of this. Tell you what, I ll let you get back to your class now. It doesn t look like this mouth is ever going to stop talking, so I ll just leave you alone with this talking machine. Goodbye. Squeaker exits Mouth: Turn off tape and in a normal voice say, GOOD-BYE, then exit.