Gideon's 300 Chosen Men

God Chooses 300 Men

Judges 7

Gideon had to follow God's instructions when choosing an army to fight Midianites.  God told him there were too many men.  Having too many men would not show God's glory and power.  The first set of instructions to follow was that Gideon was to say to the people, "Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mt. Gilead."  Gideon followed God's instructions exactly and 22,000 men left.

God said there were still too many and gave him more instructions.  He told Gideon to "separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink."  300 lapped like dogs.  God told Gideon to send the others home.

In the middle of the night, God told Gideon to take his servant and go listen to what the Midianites were saying so he would have courage.  Gideon did so.

After a short, surprise battle, God gave Midian over to Gideon and his army.

If Gideon had not followed God's instructions, the Lord would not have let the battle be successful.

God has given us a set of instructions on how we ought to live our lives.  It is called the Bible.  If we follow His instructions, we will win our battles and join Him one day in Heaven.

I give the children all the materials they need to make this project at one time.  (I don't typically do that because they get in a hurry and don't wait for instructions.)  I tell them to wait for instructions so their project will turn out the right way.  

I begin giving them instructions:

1. Draw a face on the BACK of the spoon.  Then I wait until they are finished.
2. Then give another instruction:  Tape the spoon to the back of the card with the face showing.  Then I wait until they are finished.
3. At this point, the puppet I bring to class each week "makes" the craft like theirs but does not wait for instructions. (This could be done by a class helper.)
4. I tell the kids to tape the pipe cleaners on to be the hands (showing them an example).  See top picture of finished product.

When we are all finished, we show our projects.  I have a bear puppet (or a helper in the room) who made his but did not wait for instructions.  He shows his but gets very sad because his didn't turn out right (see 2nd picture).  We talk about what happens when we don't follow instructions - it doesn't turn out right.  When we don't follow God's instructions, our lives don't turn out right either.  

Then I give the bear puppet a chance to remake it and follow instructions which he does very well.  Following God's instructions is always the correct thing to do.

Click on the picture to print out the words to this project.