Lesson 124 - Elementary

Memory Verse

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away"  (Matthew 24:35).

Notes

The Holy Bible

Most children like to look at books that have pretty pictures in them. Some books tell animal stories. Many books are not true but only make-believe. The stories you find in some of them are not about real people.

There is one Book that has been read and is loved by more people than any other book. God gave this Book to the people a very long time ago. The boys and girls whose names are given there truly lived long ago. We know that this Book is true, because God told the good men – the prophets – what to write, and God always tells the truth. Every word in that Book is good. Do you know the name of it? It is God's Holy Word – the Bible. More Bibles are printed today than any other book. Children too small to read it for themselves enjoy hearing the stories told them from the Bible. When they grow old enough to read for themselves, they find many good things that teach them how to live as Jesus wants them to live.

Not to Be Destroyed

We learned in another lesson that a long time ago God gave Moses ten commandments, which were written upon two stones. Moses read them to the people. One day after the people had worshiped an idol the stones on which the commandments were written were broken. But God told Moses to cut two pieces of stone like the first. God said that He would write upon them the words that had been on the first stones. God did not want those words broken or lost. That was many years before the rest of the Bible was written. Later God told Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, and others to write about Jesus.

Do we remember the story of the little boy named Josiah who began to be the king of Judah when he was only eight years old? It was during the time that he was king that some men found a Book which had been lost for many years. This Book was their Bible and God's Holy Word. Many of the holy things in the Temple had been destroyed, but God kept the Bible hidden away, and did not let wicked kings destroy that Holy Book. God's Word will never be destroyed. He takes good care of His Word because He knows people need to have it.

Jeremiah the Prophet

The people did not always have books, paper and ink as we have today. Sometimes they wrote on sheepskins; sometimes they used scrolls, or rolls, to write upon. They rolled up both ends, and as they read the roll, they unrolled one end of it, and rolled up the other end. Sometimes they wrote on sheets and rolled one over the other. No doubt they made their ink from the juices of plants or nuts.

One day when Josiah's son was the king, God told a prophet named Jeremiah to take a roll, and write a message to the people. Jeremiah called for a man, who took some ink and wrote down all the words, which Jeremiah told him to write.

When the king heard that Jeremiah had written some words in a Book, he asked for a man to read them to him. It was a cold day in the month of December. There sat the king in his comfortable chair before the fire, which burned on the hearth. He listened as the man read three or four pages from the Book, or roll. The words that Jeremiah had written told of the sins of the people and that the people needed to repent and be saved. It no doubt made the wicked king angry, so he took out his penknife and cut out those leaves and cast them into the open fireplace. What a terrible thing to do – this wicked king was destroying parts of this Book! Some men standing there asked the king not to burn the pages, but the king kept right on cutting out the pages. He threw them into the fire and burned them until the whole roll was burned.

God was not at all pleased with the king for burning the roll. He did not want these words to be lost. He told Jeremiah to take another roll and write the same words again. So they took another roll and wrote again the same words that had been burned, and also added more than had been written before. God said He would punish the wicked king for burning the roll, and He did, too.

God's Word in the Heart

Are we always careful how we treat the Bible? Let us remember that it is God's Word and we should treat it with care and respect. We should never tear out any of the pages, as the naughty king did. Some parents teach their children never to throw the Bible to the floor or even place anything on the Bible.

The Bible is a good Book from which a mother may read to her children. Children who learn lessons from the Bible at a young age will often keep these truths in their heart and never forget them. A young minister testifies that his mother always read Bible stories to him and his brother when they were very young. Often at bedtime the younger brother would fall asleep while the mother read, but this boy listened as long as his mother read from the Word of God. The stories of David, Samuel, and many other Bible stories he kept in his heart through the years. Later he was saved, and today he works for Jesus every day.

Ashamed of the Bible

A woman said she was brought up in a Christian home by Christian parents. She was taught the Bible and taught to pray. But she decided that when she had a family of her own she would not bring them up as she had been. She turned away from her Christian mother's teaching. She was ashamed of the Bible. She said, "My mother would read her Bible in the living room, and leave it there, and when she wasn't looking I would put it in the bedroom for fear my friends would come in and see the Bible. When our daughters began to grow up and love the things of this world, I began to realize they were doing things I did not approve of. I had neglected to tell them of Jesus, and teach them to pray. One day my husband and I asked God to help us. God heard that prayer and saved our souls. He saved two of our daughters and today they have Christian homes.”

Wonderful Treasure

The children in the Sunday School love to sing about the Bible. Often they hold their Bibles in their hands and lift them toward Heaven as they sing:

"I have a wonderful treasure,

The gift of God without measure,

And so we travel together,

My Bible and I.”

The Word of God is true, and everything told there will come to pass. Let us never be ashamed of the Bible, but love this "wonderful treasure” with all our heart.

Questions

1. Who told Jeremiah to write in the Book? [JER:36:1];[JER:36:2].

2. What did the king do to the Book? [JER:36:23].

3. What did the Lord tell Jeremiah to do after the pages were burned? [JER:36:28].

4. Did Jeremiah again write the same words? [JER:36:32].

5. Will God's Word ever pass away? [MAT:24:35].