Let's Make a Deal!

Hello Friends!

Today's lesson idea is based off of the difficult decision that Abraham had to make regarding following God's directions to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22. 

Introduction:

To get the conversation going, I prepared 6 "gifts":

• a shirt box that had a dollar store musical recorder inside
• a small pretty red gift box that had an apple inside
• a small Christmas gift bag that had a roll of dental floss & a bar of soap
• two brown paper bag that each had a dollar store game inside
• a store bag with a package of oatmeal

Depending on the size of your group, you'll need to adjust and prepare gag gifts accordingly. All of the items were things that I had laying around the house for random times such as this.

To begin, I had half of the gifts out on the counter top. I let the youngest student have first choice of the gifts and the rest of the students followed with their choices. They could not look inside.

After everyone had a gift, I brought out the other gifts and this time started with the oldest student. I had only him look inside his gift without showing it to the others. He could either keep what he had originally chosen, "steal" from another student, or choose a new gift - he could NOT look at what it was. We continued this process for each student. (We have a small group, so it didn't take very long. If you have a larger group, you'll want to modify the procedure.)

Once all had settled on their final gift choice, they were allowed to look inside and see what they had "won".

To debrief this activity I asked:

1. What choices were involved in the process?
2. What decisions went into choosing the first gift and then deciding what to do with the second chance?
3. What choices do you make on a daily basis that are pretty easy? Which ones are more difficult to make?
4. How do you handle the times when you know what you should do, but really want to do something else?
5. Who are the authorities in your lives to whom you are obedient?
6. Have you had to be obedient at a time when it didn’t make any sense? How did you handle that situation?
7. How often are you tempted to do your own thing rather than following someone else’s directions?

THE WHAT:

Read Genesis 22:1-19

1. What are your observations?
2. What does this make you think?

THE SO WHAT:

1. What do you think it must have been like for Abraham to choose to be obedient to God when he was directed to sacrifice his only son?
2. How tempting do you think it was for Abraham to consider not sacrificing Isaac?
3. How was Abraham able to make that tough choice and go through with the sacrificing of his son up until God stopped him at the last minute?
4. What lesson is there in this for us?
5. Why is it best to avoid making a tempting choice and instead follow God’s path for our life?

THE NOW WHAT:

1. Think about the choices you will most likely have to make this upcoming week. How will you know what is the right thing to do? If it’s a tough choice, how will you decide what to do?
2. What are the benefits of making Godly decisions on a daily basis? What might be some of the consequences of making poor choices?

Close:

• Share with students the key verse of the week:
• Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galatians 6:7
• Remind students that even when we are tempted to make choices that are more appealing to us, it is always best to be obedient to God. We will be blessed because we do so.

Thanks for taking the time to read about how we studied the time in Abraham's life and how it applies to our daily living.