King Josiah and the Hidden “Treasure”

Posted on by

We had so much fun this week!  We learned about King Josiah and how excited he was when the Book of the Law was found in the Temple.  When they found the lost scroll, it was like finding a treasure, so we talked a lot about how special the Bible is and how we “hide” it (the NASB says “treasure” it) in our hearts.

I told Ian the story of King Josiah over breakfast Monday morning.  (I was so frustrated last week with not being able to keep his attention, so I thought I’d try something different.  It definitely captured his attention better!)  As soon as we’d eaten, I got out crowns for both boys.  I had cut them out and decorated them with glitter paint the night before so it could dry, and then we got out the markers to finish up with their own artwork in the morning.

Then we went over to our flannel board set to review the story.  I had all the things inside the temple lying on their side, with a scroll for the Book of the Law hidden behind a table, and we talked about how the temple was in need of repair. Ian helped act out Hilkiah the priest finding the scroll and bringing it to Josiah.  Then we all helped “clean up” the temple by setting things straight and tossing out the statues bad kings had set up.  We talked about what a special place the temple was and how excited they were to find the “treasure” of God’s law.

The story is from 2 Kings 22:1-20, which we read at bedtime.  The only Bible story book we had that talked about Josiah was The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), so we left that out all week and read through it several times.

We just happened to have the perfect Bible  for this lesson: this Bible that looks like a treasure chest.   To emphasize how precious God’s Word is, we played a game of “hot and cold” where I hid the “Treasure Bible” and had the boys look for it.  Ian loved it!  He and I took turns hiding it over and over and looking for our treasure.  We played this game several times throughout the week, and Ian was excited to “teach” it to Daddy.

After the first time we played, I introduced our memory verse, Psalm 119:11. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”  (See our iPod playlist for memory songs.  The first two use this NIV text.) For our Bible notebook page I wanted to “hide” a Bible inside a heart, but I also wanted to convey the idea of the Bible as treasure, so I drew a treasure chest with a Bible inside.  Then Ian glued it inside a folding heart.  I’m not much of an artist, but it got the point across.  Such a simple notebook page, but it really captured the essence of the verse.

  

Ian really liked our iPod playlist this week and requested it almost every time we got in the car (in addition to listening several times at home).  I didn’t have anything for the story of Josiah, but I found lots of songs about our memory verse.  Here it is:

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool tagged with