VBS Day 4: Rahab

Rahab: I Can Trust God When I'm Scared

Lesson

Once there was a town named Jericho. This town was filled with very bad people who did not obey God. The whole town was surrounded by a huge wall. One day God told a man named Joshua to go knock down Jericho’s wall and get rid of all the bad people inside. Joshua sent two spies to check out the city before they attacked it. While the spies were in the city, Jericho’s king said “Are there spies in my city?! Go get them!” The spies quickly hid at their friend Rahab’s house. Rahab was a woman who lived in Jericho but wasn’t bad like all the other people. She wanted to obey God. So she helped the spies hide on her roof. Rahab’s house was part of the big wall that surrounded the city. So when it got dark out, she opened her window, threw out a rope, and helped the spies slide down and escape. But first she made a deal with the spies. She said, “I know that you are from Israel. And I know that you love and obey God. I want to love and obey God too. Please protect me and my family when you come back to knock down our wall.” The spies said, “We will protect you and your family because you love God. Put this red rope out your window on the night that we attack the city, and we will rescue you.” So the spies escaped and a few days later the attack started. Can you imagine being Rahab and her family? They shut the door of their house and stood by the window, listening as the walls fell down with a crash and the soldiers came marching in to destroy their city. It must have been so loud and so scary! But God helps us not to be afraid. Rahab knew that He had a plan to save her, so she and her family threw the red rope out the window and waited to get rescued. And finally, the spies came back! They saved Rahab and her family and they didn’t have to be afraid anymore! Did you know that God has a plan to save us, too? Not from people knocking down our city, but He has a plan to save us from sin. We’re going to learn more about that tomorrow. First, let’s work on our verse for today. It has a fun song that goes with it.

Verse: “When I’m afraid I will trust in you.” Psalm 56:3

Song: When I Am Afraid by Steve Green

"Flannel" board pictures. 

Craft

I pulled out one of my old stand-bys for entertaining Lucy: making pipe cleaner/bead bracelets. I reminded the kids that Rahab put a red cord out her window, and gave them each a red pipe cleaner and 30 red beads (that I counted and put in ziploc baggies last night while watching TV). The kids did great with threading the beads on the pipe cleaner. Only the youngest needed help, and they caught on quickly. I gave the kids the option of twisting their finished work into a bracelet or leaving it long like Rahab's rope, and told them that they were reminders that we can trust God when we're afraid, just like Rahab did. 

Activity

I brought in a big bag of Duplos to serve as our time filler and also to make the wall of Jericho for our activity. While the kids were building the wall, I asked them to tell me some things that scare them. I wrote all their fears down on small sticky notes. They were actually kind of hilarious:

My favorites were Voldemort and goats. Lol.

I stuck the sticky note fears on the wall, then told all the kids to knock down the wall. I explained that God can knock down our fears just like he helped the Israelites knock down the wall of Jericho. And that when we're afraid, we can trust him to help us and comfort us.

For more VBS ideas (including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus), go here.