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Objective• To explore the theme of justice.

Summary of resources required this lesson• Friends and Heroes Episode 16• DVD player• Large piece of hessian (sackcloth) [available from fabric sellers]• Materials to produce a collage (including the pictures and grape outlines on Printable Resources

– pages 6 and 7)• Colouring pens• Paints – and suitable protection for clothes and surfaces if you choose to use them (optional)• PVA (or similar) glue• Scissors (if appropriate for your group)• Flipchart and marker pen• A stiff ruler, a pencil (preferably with a hexagonal cross-section) and two identical coins

Summary of Friends and Heroes storyMacky is scouting out the Roman encampment with a view to finding Daniel and making a plan to rescue him. While doing this Macky discovers that the Romans plan to use a giant battering ram to breach the walls of Jerusalem. He hurries back into the city to tell the zealots, who see their only option as readying themselves for battle. Macky would prefer to deal with the threat in a different

way, but he is unsure what this could be. Sarah assures him that God will punish the Romans for doing wrong, just as he punished King Ahab and

Queen Jezebel for their actions against Naboth.

Prepare yourself – Remember to pray first!Watch Episode 16: In the first half, note the references to bullies and punishment. Also, note Lucius’s attitude towards the zealots (this is useful for the next lesson).

Lesson 16.1: Elijah, Ahab, Naboth and the vineyard (1 Kings – chapter 21)Episode 16 – The Ram [Timing: 0:00 to 10:52]

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Starting off

Craft activity – sackcloth collage

Materials• Episode 16 and DVD player• Large piece of hessian (sackcloth)

[available from fabric sellers]• Materials to produce a collage (including the pictures and grape

outlines on Printable Resources – pages 6 and 7)• Colouring pens• Paints – and suitable protection for clothes and surfaces if you choose

to use them (optional)• PVA (or similar) glue• Scissors (if appropriate for your group)

Preparation• The amount of preparation to undertake for this activity will depend

on the number of children in your group, their age and their abilities. Read what is to be achieved below, in order to determine how much material you need to prepare in advance.

Watch the first part of Episode 16 together, from the beginning until Macky is left standing alone in the street with the growing evening shadow of the city wall falling over him (end point = 10:52).

Afterwards, tell the children that we are going to make a collage about King Ahab taking Naboth’s vineyard. Point out that the backing material (hessian) is coarse and very rough to touch. This is like the sackcloth that King Ahab wore when he realised he and his whole family were going to be punished for what he had done.

The aim is to produce a wall-hanging with the following words on it:

King Ahab was a bully,who took Naboth’s vineyard,and God punished him.1 Kings Chapter 21

(Note: the third line line “and God punished him” will be added during Prayer time.)

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The letters/words can be created in a number of ways – whatever you feel is most appropriate to the talents and ages of your group. They can be cut out of other fabrics (or materials, including paper and card). They can be painted as whole words onto smaller pieces of sackcloth, which are then attached to the large backing piece. They can be pre-printed on your computer’s printer at an appropriate size, in solid colour or in outline ready for colouring in.

In addition to the words, the children can colour in (and cut out) bunches of grapes. They may also like to cut out images from the Bible story. [See Printable Resources – pages 6 and 7.]

Assign different tasks to different children, and collectively assemble the collage.

Do not add line 3 “and God punished him” at this stage.

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In deeper

Brainstorming activity and discussion

Materials• Flipchart and marker pen

Preparation• Draw a line down the middle of the flip chart. At the top of the first

half, write ”What do bullies do?”; and at the top of the second half “How can we stop them?”

Remind the children that Amikam tells the story of Naboth and his vineyard in this episode because he thinks the Romans “are bullies, just like King Ahab”. Point out that Macky is unsure what to do about the Roman threat to batter down the walls of Jerusalem. He thinks Amikam’s plan to arm everyone won’t work, but he doesn’t know what to do instead.

Now take some time to brainstorm answers to the two questions on your flipchart. Encourage the children not just to answer in terms of Macky and the zealots’ situation, or the Ahab and Naboth story – although you (or they) may use these as springboards to a wider discussion. Your aim should be to bring your children to the realisation that it is easier to describe the things that a bully may do (which, universally, can be identified as bad and selfish actions); but it is much harder to find personal, effective responses to these actions if you happen to be the victim of them (which is similar to the position Macky finds himself in). Very often, if you do try to combat bullying behaviour just by yourself, it can escalate the other person’s bad behaviour or lead you into bad behaviour.

The answer in the end is to bring in an authority that the bully is answerable to. If the bully is someone at school, the person to tell is a teacher. If it is your brother or sister, then the person to tell is your mother or father or the person looking after you.

Round off your discussion by pointing out that this is what happened to King Ahab in the end. He is told by Elijah that God will get rid of him and all his family, because of what he has done. Even though he is a king here on earth, he knows that God is greater than him and that there is no escape from the punishment that is due for the wrong that he has done.

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Prayer time

Materials• The pieces that make up the third line of the collage prepared

during Starting off.• Glue• A stiff ruler, a pencil (preferably with a hexagonal cross-section)

and two identical coins

Having made the point that Ahab, even though he was a king, was answerable to God, complete the wall-hanging begun in Starting off, with the missing line “and God punished him”.

Then, just before praying together in front of your newly-made collage, take two minutes to reinforce the concept of justice. Make a rudimentary balance by laying a ruler across a pencil, and explain that many people see doing something wrong and then the punishment that follows as a balance. When somebody does something wrong (place a coin on one side of the balance) things move out of kilter. In order to bring things back the way they should be, something has to be done to restore the balance (place a coin on the opposite end of the ruler). So if someone does something wrong, something else needs to be done to make things right again. God works in this way. He is a fair God.

Dear Heavenly Father

You are a fair and just God. You know everything, and you know all the wrong things people have done. You punished King Ahab for treating Naboth so badly and taking his vineyard.

Help us to treat everyone we meet fairly.

Amen

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Printable Resources Lesson 16.1 – Collage Materials (1)

• Print and cut out for use on your collage.

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Extra, extra!Lesson 16.1 – Naboth’s Vineyard

[Jesus said] “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5 [New Living Translation]

The bigger bunch on the bottom has 31 grapes; the smaller one on top has 30

Answers:

Here are two enormous bunches of grapes from Naboth’s vineyard.

Can you tell which one has the most grapes? You might have to count

them, to be sure. You can also colour them in if you want.