LESSON 6: ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL
Dig In to the Bible
Read: 1 Kings 18:1-39
In This Passage: Elijah challenges the prophets of the idol Baal to a duel. Each will build an altar, lay a sacrifice on it, and ask their god to light the sacrifice on fire. The prophets of Baal dance and cry out to Baal, but their idol doesn’t respond. Elijah douses his altar with water, and still God shows his mighty power by licking up the water with flames.
Bible Point: God is all-powerful.
Summary Verse: “No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
Dig Deeper
You’ll Be Teaching: God is all-powerful. Kids love hearing about mighty superheroes with amazing superhuman powers. But it’s easy to lose that kind of awe in God’s power. Help kids see that God’s power is much more impressive than any superhero.
Think About: How have you experienced God’s power?
Dig In to Prayer
Ask God to give your kids a sense of awe and wonder about who he is.
Quick Tip
You’ll notice Dig In asks a lot of open-ended, personal, opinion-based questions. We don’t play trivia games or ask questions with a single right answer. Why? We want to make sure all kids get a chance to share without fear of being “wrong” or feeling embarrassed. Make sure you create a culture where everyone can share without fear.
LESSON 6: Opening Music Videos!
Lesson 6: Step # 2
Core Bible Discovery
Supplies: Bibles * something to build with (such as blocks, Legos, cushions, or pillows) *empty cup
Lesson 6: Step #3 Talk about it with your family!
Bonus FUN!
Craft Activity!
Exercise Bands
Supplies
For Older Kids
Bibles*
thick rubber bands (6 per child)
fine-tipped permanent markers
For Younger Kids
4x6 notecards (2 per child)
markers or crayons
other craft supplies (such as paints, stampers, or stickers)
Older Kids: Make Exercise Bands
Give each child six rubber bands. Set out the markers to share, and have kids follow these directions to make exercise bands.
Loop the six rubber bands together into one long chain.
Use a fine-tipped permanent marker to copy the words from Psalm 147:5 onto your chain.
Younger Kids: Make Power Cuffs
Say: Superheroes often wear special costumes. Let’s make something a superhero might wear to help us remember that no one is more powerful than God!
Give each child two notecards. Encourage kids to decorate the cards like superhero cuffs. (If using stickers and paint, be sure to have kids put stickers on first.)
After the cuffs are decorated, help kids roll them around a marker or crayon to make them curl. (If using paint to decorate the cuffs, you may want to roll them first, so you don’t have to do it when cuffs are wet.)
After they finish making their cuffs, encourage kids to wrap them around their wrists.
Exercise
Say: God is all-powerful. When people want to be stronger and more powerful, we exercise! Let’s use our exercise bands to do some resistance exercises.
Lead kids in the following exercises.
Older kids: Hold the ends of the band with your hands in front of you, then pull outward.
Younger kids: Make muscles with your fists above your head.
Older kids: Hold the ends of the band with your hands in front of you, then pull the band up and down. Switch so the other hand pulls up.
Younger kids: Do push-ups.
Older kids: Sit down in a chair and put a foot on one end of the band to hold it in place. Pull the other end up. Repeat on both sides.
Younger kids: Push a chair across the room.
Older kids: Form pairs. One partner will hold a band in the middle, and the other partner will hold both ends and pull toward themselves like a bicep curl. Make sure both partners get a turn.
Younger kids: Lean against a wall and then push off with your hands.
Older kids: One partner will hold a band in the middle, and the other partner will hold both ends and push up toward the ceiling.
Younger kids: Make muscles with your fists in front of your tummy.
Talk About It
• How does exercise make people more powerful?
• How is physical power like or unlike God’s power?
God is all-powerful. But that doesn’t just mean he’s strong enough to lift heavy things; it also means he can do things no human could ever dream of doing! We can make our muscles stronger, but no one can ever compare to God’s mighty power.
HIGH-ENERGY GAME TIME!!
Animal Exercises
Supplies
upbeat music (optional)
music player (optional)
Tip
If you used the Music Video block, consider repeating the songs from today’s lesson during the game.
Create and Do Animal Exercises
Say: God is all-powerful—and we like to be powerful, too. That’s one reason people exercise: to be the strongest, most powerful versions of themselves. Let’s see what we can learn about being powerful as we jump into a session of Animal Exercises!
Ask kids to spread out, preferably in a large circle so they can see one another.
Explain that you’ll call out an exercise and an animal. Kids will do the exercise as if they were the animal you mentioned. There’s no “right way” to do each exercise, so allow for creativity.
Keep the pace fast so this activity’s energy stays high.
Animal exercises might include the following:
lobster lunges
duck dives
snake slithers
squid squats
penguin push-ups
llama leg lifts
jellyfish jumps
rhino races
snail stretches
shark sprints
Add your own, or take suggestions from kids.
If you’d like, play upbeat music as kids play.
Talk About It
Ask: • Which of these exercises did you find easiest? most difficult? Why?
• If you could be 10 times as strong as you are today, what would you do with all that strength?
Say: It would be great to be so powerful that you could lift a school bus or sharpen a pencil with your teeth! But no matter how many penguin push-ups you do, you’ll never be as powerful as God. God is all-powerful. God can create a universe and light a flooded altar on fire. That’s power!