Bible Stories and Lessons for Children Book 2

By Dunmore Mazonde

“And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
(Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

God placed enormous responsibilities to the nation of Israel and ultimately on today’s believers to teach their children His WORD consistently as they grow up.

Due to competing demands between the time that is supposed to be devoted to Christian parenting and earning a living, believers have found it difficult to discharge this mandate faithfully under these circumstances. This probably explains the increasingly waywardness of some children as they graduate into young adults in a supposed Christian environment.
This Book ,the second in a series, aims at having children clamouring to read the Biblical stories and learn vital lessons that flow from the stories. Besides, the Book will also demand more time from parents to be with their children as they go through it.
Because of the depth in its content, Bible Stories and Lessons for Children Book 2 is highly recommended for ages of 11 years and above.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dunmore Mazonde
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215457580

Book preview

Old Testament

Chapter 1

God created living creatures of different kinds

God created the heavens and the earth and everything that we see today in six days. He simply spoke a word and things came into existence.

All the living creatures we see today were created on the fifth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of heavens. So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on earth. And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

– Genesis 1:20-23

And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

– Genesis 1:24-25

After God finished creating the living creatures, he brought them to Adam to see what name he would give them. Whatever name he gave each one of them became its name.

QUESTIONS:

1. How long did God take to create the heavens, the earth, and everything in it?

2. On which day were all the living creatures created?

3. How did God create living creatures?

4. How did the animals get their names?

ACTIVITIES:

1. Draw a picture of the animals listed below in your notebook. You can also cut pictures of these animals from old magazines and paste them into your notebook.

(a) The largest sea animal

(b) The largest land animal

(c) The largest bird

Write in your notebook the name of the animal you have either drawn or pasted.

1. Write down a list of the names of any five animals that are kept by people as domestic animals.

2. Write down a list of the names of any three birds that are kept by people for either their meat or their eggs.

3. Explain briefly the difference between the way God brought things into existence at the time of creation and the way people make different kinds of things in this world.

Chapter 2

Adam‘s disobedience against God in the Garden of Eden

Adam was the first man to be created by God. After creation, God placed him in a garden that was located in a place east of Eden. Within the garden grew every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food. Among the trees were two special ones, ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ and ‘the tree of life’.

God permitted Adam to eat freely of every tree of the garden but forbade him from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God warned Adam of the consequences if he disobeyed this law.

….You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.

– Genesis 2:16-17

Adam lived a very lonely life in the garden because he had no companion. So God decided to make a helper for him. He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, took one rib out of his body and made a woman out of it. Thereafter he brought the woman to Adam. Adam was very excited when he saw the woman.

Then the man said, This at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

– Genesis 2:23

So he gave the woman the name Eve, a name which means ‘a mother of all living’. The two lived happily together in the garden as husband and wife.

Their joy came to an end on the day that the devil entered the garden. He appeared to Eve as a serpent and spoke to her deceptively about what God had said to Adam in connection with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve believed the lies from the devil and she was deceived.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.

– Genesis 3:4-6

God was angered by Adam’s disobedience. Just as he had warned him of the consequences of eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he punished him. He also punished Eve and the serpent.

The LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

– Genesis 3:14-15

To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

– Genesis 3:16

And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it’; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

– Genesis 3:17-19

Adam became the first man to sin against God. He lost his fellowship with God entirely. He and his wife were chased out of the garden. Thereafter, God placed the cherubim and a flaming sword in the garden to guard the tree of life.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is Adam remembered for in the history of the Bible?

2. Explain in your own words how Eve came into existence.

3. What could be the reason why Adam gave the name ‘Woman’ to the human being who was made by God out of his rib?

4. Explain briefly how Eve was deceived by the serpent.

5. What is the meaning of the name ‘Eve’?

6. What are the three things that attracted Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil after she was deceived by the serpent?

7. Explain briefly how Adam disobeyed God.

8. Write down a list of at least four ways in which the serpent was punished by God.

9. Write down a list of at least three ways in which Eve was punished by God.

10. Write down a list of at least two ways in which Adam was punished by God.

11. Pick out three sentences from the scriptures quoted in the story that reveal details on how God ended Adam’s everlasting life.

12. Pick out a phrase in the Bible that is synonymous with the phrase ‘everlasting life’?

13. Why did God chase Adam and Eve out of the garden?

14. What could be the reason why God protected the ‘tree of life’ from Adam and Eve?

15. What is a cherub?

ACTIVITIES:

1. Most pictures we see in Bible stories today are a product of people’s imagination of how things were in Biblical times. Using your imagination draw a picture of Adam and Eve in the garden. Use different colouring pencils to make your drawing look real. Attach a title to your drawing.

2. What is the difference between the words ‘curse’ and ‘bless’? Discuss with your teacher, parents, or guardian how God cursed the serpent. Also, discuss how God’s curse affected Adam’s offspring. Pick out a scripture from Romans chapter 3 that supports this statement.

3. Most parents set rules on how children are supposed to conduct themselves at home and away. Even school authorities do the same. Write down at least three rules that have been set by your parents or guardian at home and four that have been set by the authorities at your school.

4. Write in your notebook the laws that you may have disobeyed either at home or at school. Explain in detail how your parents /guardian or the school authorities reacted to your disobedience.

5. If you didn’t disobey any of the laws, either at home or school, well done! You have proved that you are an obedient child of God. Now share with your parents, guardian, or classmates how you managed to be such an obedient child.

6. Have you ever been deceived or have you ever heard of someone who was deceived? Write a story about it in your notebook and show how the deception affected you or the person who was deceived.

7. John 8:44 reveals that ‘the devil is a liar’. Pick out some verses from Genesis 3 which proves that the devil is indeed a liar.

8. The Bible reveals that heavenly bodies such as the angels of God, the devil, and the demons are spiritual beings (Hebrews 1:13-14, Mark 5:7-8). Do some research on why the devil appeared to Eve in the garden in the form of a serpent instead of its created being as a spirit?

Chapter 3

The man called Noah

Once upon a time, there lived a man called Noah. Noah lived at a time when mankind had become very wicked. Because of the wickedness, God destroyed by floods all the creatures that did not go into the ark that he built after God commanded him to do so.. The only creatures that were saved from the floods that time were Noah, his wife, his three sons, their wives, and a pair of every animal male and female. Noah was saved by God with his family because he was a