Teaching

Our SuperTruth says: “There is power in unity.” You experienced the power of unity in the game. If even one player decided not to cooperate and had a different purpose, your team could not have built the tower. Unity is powerful; yet in our Bible story; we see that unity can be used for the wrong purpose!

Read Genesis 11:4:

Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”

Why were the people building the tower?

They had selfish desires to become famous and stay all together in one place.

Place 15 blocks on the floor in a pile and ask two volunteers to begin building a tower straight up—do not build out horizontally.

This is an example of what the people joined together, or united, to do. Yet here is what God told Noah to do after the flood, in Genesis 9:7 (cev):

“I want you and your descendants to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.”

Another translation of that same verse says the people should “… spread out over the earth" (hcsb).

Did God want the people to build a tower so they could all stay together in one place?

No. Have the children knock the tower down and scatter the blocks on the floor.

They were commanded to spread out andlive everywhere onEarth! The people tried to ignore God and prevent themselves from being scattered, yet God saw what they were doing. He acted and changed their plan! Nothing escapes God’s eyes!

There was another problem with their plan. Listen again to what they said:

Write these excerpts from Genesis 11:14 on the board as you say them:

Let us build a city for ourselves … make us famous … keep us from being scattered.

Can you find a word that is repeated three times? Us.

Yes, and “ourselves” is used, also.

Does this sound like God was the focus of their plan?

Did they come together in unity to do God’s work?

No, they were focusing their work and creativity upon themselves.

The center of the issue is pride. Write “pride” on the board.

Read Genesis 11:6–7:

“Look!” He said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”

God decided to stop the tower before it was completed to protect the people from doing even greater prideful acts of disobedience and rebellion. Nothing would be impossible! Now, listen to how our loving God corrected their plan. He didn’t destroy the tower, city and people. He chose to confuse their language so they couldn’t communicate. This is why the tower is called Babel. Babel means to confuse.

Speak a few sentences in a foreign language that the children don’t understand, or use nonsensical words, looking serious as if nothing has changed and they should understand.

Why do you have such puzzled looks on your faces?

Imagine how the people felt when suddenly they could not communicate with each other! What a loving and effective way for God to correct the people and accomplish His will!

Their desire was to make a name for themselves by building a great tower and city for all to admire and applaud their ability and knowledge. They wanted to bring glory and honor to themselves instead of God! God does not want His gifts to be misused for selfish purposes.

God has given us amazing and powerful talents to do His work. When we focus on God and combine our talents and abilities in unity, there is nothing that we can’t accomplish together with Him and for His glory—not ours!

Read Psalm 148:13:

Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For His name is very great; His glory towers over the earth and heaven!

As tall as the Tower of Babel was, it fell far short of the heavens. God’s glory towers over heaven and Earth! Only He is great and worthy of our honor and praise! No one else can compare to Him.

There is power in unity, and that is what our Discipleship Challenge is about. Let’s find out more about how we can work toward achieving unity in different ways.

Discipleship Challenge/Practical Application

Hold up the Unity Chain craft model. Unity means to join together. The links of this chain are joined together to represent unity.

Give each child a pattern, pencil, children’s scissors, glue stick, and tape or stapler. Have them cut apart the strips and write their names on Link 1. Display the sample chain you made and help them assemble the links in the correct order to make their own chains. Be sure they connect all the links to make a chain circle.

Link 2 says, Unity with Christ—1 Corinthians 1:30–31. Let’s read this Scripture:

³⁰ God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin. ³¹ Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”

Who does God unite us with? Christ Jesus.

When we are united with Christ Jesus, we are made right with God—not because of anything we have done; only by what Christ has done for us! He made us pure, holy, and freed us from sin!

How did Jesus do this? By dying on the cross to pay the price for our sins.

So, since we didn’t do anything to be right with God, do we have anything to boast or brag about? No!

Who should we boast about then? The Lord, God, Jesus.

Yes! Now, the first part of the challenge at home is to look up and read the verses on Link 2, which we just read aloud. The second part is found on Link 3: to thank Jesus daily for dying for us and forgiving us—then to tell someone what He has done for you. Take this Unity Chain home as a reminder to do the challenge. Next time, I’ll ask who remembered to do it—and what happened when you did!