On your marks:
The story of the spies going into the Promised Land (Numbers 13—14) is a corker because of its strong themes of trust and fear, provision and plenty. Here's a simple session designed for any sized group to get into the story and think about global issues of fair trade and making poverty history. This story ties into
The Barnabas Children’s Bible series through the Big Story of
Famine and Feast.
Get set:
You'll need a Bible timeline, a bunch of grapes divided into smaller bunches, a large piece of paper, glue, scissors, magazines or coloured pens and a download from a charity or organization that works to get food to people who have none.
Go!
1. Use a timeline to show the children where in the Bible this story comes. Or ask what they can already tell you about Moses. Ask if they know anything about Moses' young friend, Joshua. If they mention the walls of Jericho, explain that this story you are going to tell them comes before that, before the people of God even get as far as Jericho.
2. Ask the children to act out the story below as you tell it. You'll need a Moses, Joshua and Caleb. You could have someone to play God, any number of explorers and God's people who listen to what the explorers saw. Smaller groups will need to double up on parts, but that will work fine.
3. At the points marked (
- ) you might like to stop and use drama ideas to explore the feelings of the characters at that moment before you press on with the story. For example you could hotseat the characters or you might just ask them:
'How do you think you're feeling when this happens?'
'Why do you feel like that?'
'What are you feeling about Moses at the moment?'
'What are you feeling about God at the moment?'
The story throws up feelings of nervousness, adventurousness, trust, mistrust, excitement, fear, disappointment, puzzlement, faith, praise.
Try to ask questions that relate those feelings to times the children have felt these things, for example, 'So the explorers were very nervous about going into the Promised Land? I wonder when you've been nervous about going somewhere new? I wonder how you felt about God then?'
4. Talk about the way that the Promised Land was a place full of wonderful things to eat and how much God wanted his people to be in a place full of good things to enjoy. Sometimes we call this a 'land of milk and honey'. What good things has God given us to enjoy? Fill a big sheet of paper with pictures or cut-outs from magazines with all the good things we enjoy: food, drink, toys, friends, beautiful places and so on: try to make it as locally relevant as possible, including pictures of your local parks, hills, cafes, toyshops and anything else you can think of.
5. We are so rich! But some parts of our country and our world are so poor and don't yet enjoy all the good things God wants them to enjoy. Show an example of a country where the people don't have enough to live on, from a website or magazine. Ask which other countries the children know that are not ‘a land of milk and honey’.
Do something as a group to raise some money for an organization like Christian Aid or Oxfam to try to redress the balance.
Or encourage the group to give up some luxury this week, just for a week, and to give the money to one of these organizations.
Or encourage them to buy fairly traded chocolate this week so that people who grow the beans and pick them are getting a fair wage. Ask them to bring in the wrapper next time to glue on to the collage of good things.
6. Prayer time: Give small bunches of grapes to half the group, with strict instructions not to eat them yet. Say, 'This half of the group has plenty of grapes. This group has none. In our world, many people have plenty of good things and many have none. I invite you now to share your grapes with those who have none, as a sign that you want to make the whole world a fairer place, starting right here. Let's share our grapes with each other and as we do so, we'll have a moment of quiet to ask God to help us make this world a place where everyone has enough to eat.'
(You may, at this point, have to encourage the grapes from the grip of the 'haves' to share with the 'have-nots'. Might be worth having a few bunches in reserve in case of early-consumption disaster. Or you might be a leader who can make a memorable point out of the hurt feelings and injustice of some people being greedy and others going without. I don't think I could.)
7. To finish the session quietly you could reread the story from the
Barnabas Bible (64) or another version.
The story
God rubbed his hands in excitement. He jumped up and down with glee. After walking through the wilderness for forty years, at last his people had arrived at the edge of the Promised Land! The land he had been getting ready for them for years! The land that was full of good things to eat and drink! The land that had so much, it was as if it was flowing with milk and honey! God sat down and called to his friend Moses.
Moses took his sandals off and stood up and listened hard to get the instructions right. God told Moses to choose twelve leaders to send into the Promised Land to explore it. Moses nodded. He chose twelve leaders from the tribes of Israel and sat them down in front of him.
He said to them: ‘Go and see what the country’s like, what the cities are like, what the people are like. Bring us back some fruit so we can see how well it grows there.’(
- )
The twelve explorers lined up and marched off across the River Jordan into the Promised Land. When they saw the countryside, their mouths fell open. And Joshua and Caleb did a high five. When they saw the cities they all trembled. All except Joshua and Caleb, who were choosing where they would like to build their houses. And when they saw the giant people, all their knees knocked together. All except Joshua and Caleb, who were too busy thanking God for this lovely place they were going to live in.(
- ) They cut a bunch of grapes that was so big that it took two men to carry it on a pole. And Joshua and Caleb were the only ones whose eyes weren’t goggling and whose knees weren’t knocking, so they got to carry the grapes.
And they marched back to Moses and the people.
The explorers sat down in front of the people, biting their nails. God rubbed his hands, ready to hear the explorers tell the people what a wonderful country they were going to live in.
They said: ‘The fruit’s really good.’
And God nodded happily.
Then they all said, ‘BUT…’ and it all came rushing out: ‘The cities are huge and strong! And the people are so enormous! We looked like grasshoppers next to them! We’ll never win any wars against them!’
And all the people went ‘Oooooh! (
- ) That’s really scary! We don’t want to live there!’
God was really hacked off and he folded his arms. He’d gone to all this trouble to get a fantastic country ready for his people, and here they were, worrying their socks off! He didn’t want his people to be scared—he wanted them to be happy.
He gave Joshua and Caleb a prod.
And Joshua and Caleb said: ‘Just trust God! We’ve
got to have this amazing land! It won’t be a problem. Don’t get your knickers in a twist. It doesn’t matter how big the people are, if we’ve got God on our side.’
And as it turned out, Joshua and Caleb were right. God’s people had nothing to worry about. It didn’t matter how big the people there were, or how strong the cities were—with God on their side they could go in and enjoy that wonderful place God had got ready for them. I expect they all enjoyed eating the grapes, too!
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