Hello to everyone!
We have all returned home from the Feast and are once again settling into our varied lives of work, school, and everyday events that include parents battling with this world for the minds and hearts of their children.
Now every parent faces the question of what Bible lesson they need to teach their child or children that will prepare them for the challenges they will meet. Parents have a difficult assignment. Competing with all the distractions—TV, School, Movies, Videos, Friends—to gain children’s attention is tough. It takes imagination to find the right subject that will grab children’s minds and hold them in place while attempting to deliver a lesson that will inspire confidence in God and His ways. Here is one I recommend that will appeal to their imagination and open up discussion—that of Angels
In the Bible there are a number of sterling examples of young peoples’ behavior. Among them is one example that always stands out to me–that of three young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who are written about in the book of Daniel. Those boys, probably in their teen years, were captured by Nebuchadnezzar’s army and taken from their homes in war-torn Israel to the pagan kingdom of Babylon. There they faced a very serious challenge to their faith in God. As an act of loyalty to their new king, they were told they must bow down to an idol that represented the king himself. If they refused, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace—a furnace so hot it would destroy anyone who even approached it.
These three young men refused to bow down, and for that reason they were led to an opening to the inner core of a furiously blazing fire that was meant to kill them instantly. Even the men who thrust them into the fire died as they flung them into the waiting flames. Earlier, they had stood their ground, refusing to bow to a pagan idol. So in they went, to the very heart of that fiery pit; but to the amazement of all, those who stood at a safe distance could see four figures, which included God’s protective angel, walking about in the flames that continued to leap in that fiery caldron. Undeniably, the three young Israelites were still alive and unharmed, and the dazed king, coming to his senses, called to them demanding they come out of that deadly furnace.
You see, God had saved the young men—all three—from the flames that took the lives of those who were tasked with killing them. This miracle was performed by one of God’s angels sent to protect them. No harm came to those three young and very brave fellows. They had stood their ground, and God performed a very great miracle for them so that not even a hair on any on their heads was singed.
Where would Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be if God’s angel had not neutralized the flames that were about to end their lives? Like those three, your children have the blessing of oversight by watchful angels who are ready to help them when they need their help. Make sure your kids know that, and make sure they know, like those young men, they will benefit from showing their loyalty to God:
Matthew 18:10: Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
How powerful are the angels that watch over us and our children? After witnessing how God had delivered Shadrach, Meshch and Abednego from those monster flames, Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed he exclaimed:
“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trust in him and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” (Daniel 3:28)
Once you have finished a Bible lesson illustrating God’s powerful intervention for those who are loyal to Him, make sure you reinforce the knowledge that God has millions of angels who serve Him, and that some of them are given the assignment of protecting His people today. Those very same angels that delivered His people in the Bible are with us right now. God will still use them to protect, guide, and reward our children who pray to Him and follow Him as they learn about Him from the lessons you teach.
Matthew 19:11: For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Until next time,
David O’Malley