Introduction
(Describe the happy home life of a family of children, each having his own work to do in the home, each taking a pride in doing his work in the best way, and tell of the playtime following the work. Picture the children going down the street to meet their father as he comes home from work, and the joys of the evening time when all are together. Then tell of a day when the playtime was not so happy because one of the boys did not care to play. He said he was not sick, but he certainly was cross, and took no pleasure in any of the things that he generally loved to do. When the time came to go to meet father he would not go, but instead went to his own room. Of course the father missed him and when he found his boy was not ill he was anxious to know what the trouble could be.) Can you guess what it was that made Walter wish to hide from his father that night?
The Lesson Story
What a beautiful garden that was of which we heard last Sunday! And how happy Adam and Eve were as they did the work God had given them to do, and enjoyed the loveliness of the place which God had given them for a home, looking forward each day to the time when he would come and walk and talk with them there! But there came a sad day, when all that was changed. The garden was just as beautiful, but Adam and Eve found no pleasure in it. The work was there to be done, but they had no heart for it. Open your Bibles to the second chapter of Genesis and read with me verses 16 and 17. That does not mean that the moment they disobeyed they would die, but that the sin would open the door for death to enter the world, and that some day death would come to them as the result of disobedience.
One day the tempter said to the woman, “Is it possible that God has said that you must not eat of the fruit of all the trees of the garden?” Eve answered (Genesis 3:2, 3). The serpent said: “That is not true. You will not die. The real reason why God does not wish you to eat of the fruit of that tree is that when you do so you will become as a god yourself, for you will know good and evil.” It seems strange that Eve would listen to anyone who said that what God had told her was not true, but she did. She even began to look at the tree and its fruit and to long to have it, until, finally, she took it and ate, and gave some to Adam, and he ate. Then they did know good and evil, for they could remember the days when they were obedient and the happiness that they had, and now through shame and fear and the wretchedness of a guilty conscience they saw what evil is, and that with their own hands they had opened the door to let it into their lives. There was no longer any joy in the thought of the heavenly Father’s coming to the garden, and they tried to hide themselves from him. “Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah.” How would you answer that question? Of course they could not hide from God, and it would be the worst possible thing to do if they could. God knew of the wrong they had done and the punishment that the sin must bring to them, but his only wish was to help his sinful children, for he loved them then as always. (Have the children read verses 9 and 10 to themselves and then answer this question:) What reason did Adam give for hiding himself? Was that the true reason why he was afraid? No, for he had been naked before and had never been afraid. It was his sin that made him afraid. (Read verses 11, 23, 24.)
You have guessed that the boy I told you about in the beginning of the lesson had disobeyed his father, and that that was the reason why he wished to hide. You knew because you have sometimes felt like hiding yourself for the same reason. So you can see how this old, old story tells what we know is true when it shows us that wrong doing separates us from the one whom we have disobeyed and makes us miserable. What was it that spoiled the happy home that Adam and Eve had in the Garden? What was it that spoiled Walter’s good times? Yes, disobedience; and it is always so. Those who break God’s law have to suffer for it in some way. But how glad we are to know that God loves us so much that when we are sorry and tell him so, he will forgive us and give us a chance to try again. Listen while I read you something that the Bible says about this. (Psalm 86:5; 1 John 1:9.)
THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY
There probably will not be anything in the work outlined for this week that the children cannot easily do. It would be well, however, to call their attention to the memory text printed on page 8. Have them pronounce the name of the book from which it is taken, and help them to find the reference and read the words from the Bible. Ask them what the “a” after the reference means, and if they do not know, have them read again the paragraph explaining this on page 3. The easiest way for the children to find the book of Jeremiah when unfamiliar with any of the books is to open the Bible in the middle. The book opened to will be Psalms, which you can explain is the hymn book of the Bible, and then they can turn the leaves to the right until they reach the book of Jeremiah. Tell them that the name is that of the man who wrote the book.