This continues the Life of David series and is found in 1 Samuel 24. This is an excellent lesson about righteousness and forgiveness.
Saul has desperately been trying to find David. His son
Jonathan is friends with David and has warned him of Saul’s intentions. David
went to the priests at Nod, and they gave David Goliath’s sword as a weapon.
When King Saul questioned the priests, they said David was honorable and
faithful and they didn’t know Saul was looking for him. David fought the Philistines
again and was gone before Saul could catch up to him. Then, Saul and his army
fought the Philistines and David escaped again.
When Saul returned from his battle with the Philistines, he
was told that David was in the Wilderness of En Gedi. Saul took 3,000 select
men and went looking for David. They went looking for David at the Rocks of the
Wild Goats. When they came to the sheepfolds by the road, there was a cave.
Saul went into the cave by himself. It just so happened that David
and his men were staying at the back of that same cave. David’s men told him “Look,
Saul is being given into David’s hands!”
David got up and secretly cut off a corner of King Saul’s
robe. But afterward, David felt bad about cutting Saul’s robe. David told his
men that Saul was the king appointed by God and He wouldn’t want me to do that
to Saul. David’s men didn’t fight Saul because of what David said. They allowed
Saul to leave the cave without him even knowing David and his men were in the
cave with him.
After Saul left the cave, David went out of the cave and
called out to Saul. David bowed down to Saul and asked him why Saul listened to
men who told him that David wanted to hurt him? David told him to look at the
corner of his robe and see that even though someone urged him to kill Saul in
the cave, David didn’t harm Saul. David told him that he wouldn’t hurt Saul because
God anointed him. David said even though he cut off the corner of the robe, he
had no intention of hurting Saul. Why did Saul continue to look for David and
want to kill him?
When David had finished talking to Saul, he asked, “Is that
you, my son David?” Saul was crying and said to David “You are more righteous
(good) than I am. You have treated me good when I have treated you bad. You have
shown me today that you have been treating me good. You could have killed me,
but you didn’t.
Would a man let his enemy go if he finds him? Because of
that, may the Lord reward you for saving me today. I now know that surely you
will be king, and the kingdom of Israel will be well-known in your hands.
Promise me now that you will not cut off any of my descendants after I die.
And, that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.”
David promised King Saul what was asked. Saul went home and
David and his men went up to the stronghold.
The printables for David in this series are for an older
age group than I usually post. Although this lesson is, most of these lessons about David are not
appropriate for early elementary. But David is a great study. So, as you can
see from the above picture, there is a Q&A. This could be used with younger
groups by using the answer sheet and just asking the questions for
discussion. Each post in this series will have a maze and some type of puzzle.
The additional application has thought questions about how the students can apply
the lesson to their daily life. There are answer sheets for all worksheets
except for the last application. Everyone will have a different set of
answers and is intended to be a conversation starter. Click here to download.
Bible Verse: 1
Samuel 24:17
Click here to see the entire list and links for the Life of David series.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission.
Hi Debbie,
ReplyDeleteI am loving this new series of lessons and activities for older kids. They are great to use and offer other options for different learning styles in class. They are wonderful, as usual. I was wondering if there is some sort of glitch on this lesson. I am having no luck downloading and printing the printables (questions, maze, etc). Thanks for all you do!
Thanks for letting me know! It has been fixed and I appreciate the comments.
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