The Tower of Babel Children's Sunday School Lessons

Hi! Welcome back to Blessed Steps! I have a couple of very fun and very meaningful children's Sunday School lessons to share with you.

The first is on the Tower of Babel, in which you'll play games, pull a little trick on the kids, and do a simple craft that will have your students thinking big ideas. The point of the lesson is to remind us to be humble and make us think about how we can reach out to other people who speak different languages.

Then, we have a children's Sunday School lesson on the story of Job. What a great example Job is! And I love pointing out how happy God was with Job's faithfulness. I have a couple of games and a Bible story that will inspire kids to be like God by placing their trust in God through the hard times of life.

And, if you're looking for more ideas or some take home activities, see my Recommended Extras. We're all on the same team in ministry, so I love sharing the good work of others.

Remember that is everything is best learned in context, so if you're not sure if your kids have a grounding in Creation and the Fall , I would start there before teaching on the Tower of Babel.

Recommended Extras

Extend the lessons below, review the stories, or give your kids something extra to think on with these paid and free resources.

Paid Resources

The Animated Kid's Bible – If you haven't started watching this series with your students, the Tower of Babel is a great place to jump in. You can show the clip to introduce the lesson and give the kids a visual of what's going on, or show it the next week as a special wrap-up and review.

The Comic Book Bible - After you finish the Tower of Babel Sunday School lesson, you can show kids this first volume of Ben Alex's comic book series. It has stories from Creation to the Tower, and will prove to be a book that your students will want to read. At such a low price for a hardback comic, I recommend keeping it in your classroom or adding it to your children's library.

Superbook: Tower of Babel – Watch your favorite characters witness the events at the Tower of Babel and how they relate to the Day of Pentecost. Then, watch them meet Job in this updated series. If kids like the show, tell them about the website and app so that they can play Bible games with the characters from the series.

The Book of Job – This is a storybook with very unique illustrations. It tells the story simply while awakening children's imagination with the art style.

Charades for Kids – While not necessary, you might enjoy having a classroom copy of a printed Charades game. Use it for your Tower of Babel Sunday School lesson, and then keep it for a time-filler later on. It's a simple game that kids will always enjoy. This edition also features difficulty levels, so you can choose which level of clues your kids act out.

Free Resources

Free Sunday School Curriculum has a coloring page to go with your Tower of Babel children's Sunday School lesson. They also have the best coloring and activity pages for your Job Sunday School lesson.

Just a note here: I normally don't give time for coloring or doing activity pages in class. Instead, I send them home with the children and give some sort of reward for bringing them back. The reward might be choosing the first game we play, making them a team captain, or giving them points toward "purchasing" a special treat.

I like Heidi York's object lesson on Sermons4Kids. She compares the losses we experience in life to the losses a king or queen might suffer when their controlling player is facing an opponent in chess. She points out that it's not the king or queen's fault when they lose a piece. God and Satan are playing the game and sometimes, our "pieces" get caught in the middle. It could be a very illustrative idea for your story of Job children's Sunday School lesson.

The Tower of Babel Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this Tower of Babel children's Sunday School lesson to teach kids to be humble and how to serve people in different parts of the world.

Needed: Charade cards, Charade cards printed in another language (you can use Google Translate to get an approximate translation of the phrases you enter), a picture of a world map , drawing paper, crayons or colored pencils or markers

Game: Charades – Prepare a number of charade cards beforehand with familiar words or phrases written on them. The leader should start the game by silently acting out one of the words or phrases. The first student to guess what you're acting then takes the next card and becomes the next actor. Play until everyone has had a turn to act or as long as time allows. After the game, point out that it's hard to get someone to know what you're talking about when you can't speak to them. It would have been much easier if the actors could have just said what their word was.

Round 2 – Tell students that you're going to make things easier. Instead of the actor acting out the word or phrase on their card, they're just going to show it to the class. The first person to read the card wins. Give a couple of students a card printed in your language and watch the children race to call out the words. Then, give them one written in a foreign language. When they can't guess what it says, pretend as if you don't know what the problem is. As you "catch on," explain that the word or phrase is written in another language.

Lesson: (Note: Always allow students to give their answers to the questions before you clarify the teaching.)

Ask students, Have you ever heard someone speaking in a different language?

Why do you think there are so many different languages in the world? Where did all those languages come from?

Summarize Genesis 11:1-9 with following Bible story, asking the included questions as you read.

In the beginning of the world, when God created Adam and Eve, everyone spoke the same language. People were still speaking that same language when Noah and his family came off the Ark after the Flood. But when Noah's grandchildren grew up, some of them moved to a certain area and decided to build a city. "C'mon," they said, "let's make bricks and build a city. And we can make a huge tower that stretches all the way up to the sky and everyone will see it. We'll have the biggest tower, and we'll be famous for it."

Why did the people want to build a tower? (So that everyone would see it and so that they would be famous.)

Do you think God wants us to try to be famous?

Do you think God wants us to brag about ourselves and make everyone pay attention to us?

It's okay to be famous if we're good at something, but we shouldn't try to be famous. We shouldn't brag about what we can do or how good we are at something. Instead, we should talk about how good God is and what God has done for us. If you're good at something, it's not because you're so great. It's because God made you to be able to do it. He's the one who gave you your skills and talents in the first place.

So God came down and looked at the city and the tower the people were building. He saw how much they were bragging about their tower and heard them talking about how famous they would be, so He confused their language as a punishment to them. He made it so that some people were speaking one language and some people were speaking another language, and no one could understand what the other person was saying. It just all sounded like gibberish! Someone would say, "Hand me a brick," but all the other person would hear was, "Flaffa re backenugen." And they had to stop building the city and the tower because they couldn't understand each other well enough to work together.

Everyone, talk gibberish to each other!

Good. Now, you might know what you're saying, but no one else does. It would be very difficult to work on a project together if no one could understand each other.

What did God do to punish the people for bragging and just wanting to be famous? (He made it so that everyone was speaking a different language and they had to stop building the city and tower.)

So, then, all the people moved away. (Illustrate this point by grouping the children together.) The people who could understand each other went off by themselves and lived in one part of the world while another group of people who could understand each other lived in another part of the world, and a third group of people who could understand each other lived in another part of the world. And that's how all the different languages got started. The city that the people were trying to build was named Babel after that because everyone sounded like they were just babbling to each other. Babble, babble, babble!

So, remember to not brag about yourself. Don't try to be famous or popular. If you're good at something, just be quiet about it and thank God for giving you that talent or skill.

Craft: Languages of the World – Show your students a picture of a world map. Have them choose a country to draw on their piece of paper. Tell them to draw the shape of the country on one side of the paper along with the name of the primary language people speak in that country . On the other side of the paper, ask them to draw a picture of how they could help someone in that country if they knew their language. Point out that as Christians, we try to learn other people's language so that we can tell them the Good News about Jesus.

Game: Charades – Continue playing the regular game for as long as time allows.

Closing Prayer: Father, help us not to brag or become too prideful. We know that everything comes from You, even our skills and talents. We also know that You punished people when they became too prideful by making them speak different languages. But now, You want us to help people who speak different languages, so help us know how to do that. Amen.

The Story of Job Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this children's Sunday School lesson on the story of Job to teach kids to hope in God through every situation.

Needed: Blankets or sheets or beach towels, various objects

Game: Up and Down – Give the students blankets, sheets, or beach towels to hold between them. You can break the students into teams or have them complete the following challenges together.

1. Bounce an object 5, 10, and 20 times without dropping it.

2. See how high they can bounce an object.

3. Bounce more than one object for 30 seconds without dropping any of them.

4. Bounce an object while spinning their blanket, sheet, or towel. (Everyone in the circle moves one step between bounces.)

5. Bounce and object while hopping. (Everyone takes one hop between bounces.)

You can add more complicated challenges if your group is doing well. As you finish, point out that we all have ups and downs in life. Sometimes, things are going well for us, and, sometimes, they're not.

Lesson:

Ask students, Has anything bad ever happened to you? Tell me about a time something bad happened.

Did it get better?

(The teacher should also tell a story about a time when something bad happened to them and how the situation was resolved.)

Why do you think God lets bad things happen to us?

We're going to read in our Bible story today about a man who had some pretty bad things happen to him. Let's pay special attention to what his attitude is and how he deals with those bad things.

Summarize the story of Job with the following Bible story, asking the included questions as you read.

A long time ago, in the city of Uz, there lived a man named Job. Job was a man who had a good relationship with God and he always did the right thing. He had seven sons and three daughters, whom he prayed for every day, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, along with many servants.

It sounds like Job is pretty lucky, doesn't it? How would you like to have all those animals and servants and be rich like Job was?

But one day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan – or the devil - also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, "Satan, where have you been and what have you been doing?"

Satan answered, "I have been travelling back and forth all over the earth."

Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you seen My servant, Job? There is no one on earth like him. He has a good relationship with Me and he always does what is right."

"That's only because You protect him and his family and everything he owns," Satan replied. "Take away some of his things and he will surely curse You to Your face."

Do you think it's true what Satan said? Was Job just doing the things God wanted him to do because God was protecting him and making everything go well for Job? No, Job was doing the right thing because he believed in God and wanted to make God happy.

So the Lord said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands. You can take away anything that Job has, but you can't hurt him."

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and got ready to make his attack against Job.

Then, one day when Job's sons and daughters were having a party at the oldest brother's house, a servant came running back to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys and camels were grazing in the field, and a bunch of men attacked and carried them off. They killed all your servants who were watching the animals, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

While he was still speaking, another servant ran up and said, "Fire fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants watching them, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

While he was still speaking, still another ran up and said, "Your sons and daughters were having a party at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. The house fell down on them and they are all dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

Those are some pretty bad things to happen to Job, aren't they? How would you feel if all those things happened to you? What would you do? Would you get angry at God about it? Would you think it was all God's fault that those bad things were happening to you?

When Job heard all this, he got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised." In all this, Job did not sin by saying that God had done something wrong to him.

On another day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him. And the Lord said to Satan, "Satan, where have you been and what have you been doing?"

Satan answered, "I have been traveling back and forth all over the earth."

Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you seen My servant, Job? There is no one on earth like him. He has a good relationship with Me and he always does what is right. And he still has not cursed Me, even after you had all his animals stolen and all his sons and daughters killed."

Satan replied. "Job is only good because You protect him. Hurt his body and he will surely curse You to Your face."

Do you think Job will curse God?

The Lord said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands. You can hurt him, but you can't kill him."

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and made Job's skin break out with painful sores all over - from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

Job's wife said to him, "Are you still doing the right thing? Curse God and die!"

Job replied, "You are talking like a foolish person. Sometimes we have good things in our life and sometimes we have bad things. We have to accept both." In all this, Job did not sin by saying that God had done something wrong to him.

When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon Job, they set out from their homes and came and sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how very sad he was.

Job was so sad about everything that had happened – about all of his animals being stolen and all his children dying and all the painful sores all over his body – that he suddenly cried out to God and to his friends, "I wish I was never born! Then all this bad stuff couldn't have happened to me."

Job's friends were also very sad and they said, "Job, you must have done something very bad for God to do all of this to you. He is punishing you for your sin."

Was God punishing Job? (No. Remember that the story said that Job always did the right things. God was not punishing Job.)

So Job said, "Good things happen to everyone and bad things happen to everyone. Just because something bad is happening to me, does not mean that God is punishing me."

Then a great storm started to form in the sky and God's voice came out of the storm. "You are right, Job. Good things happen to everyone and bad things happen to everyone. You have done very well to keep your faith and not curse Me, even through everything that has happened to you. Now I will reward you."

And over the next few years, God gave Job twice as many animals as he had before and He gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters, and He let Job live until he was one hundred and forty years old!

So you see that even though bad things happen to us, God can always make things better, can't He? We just have to keep doing the right things and having a good relationship with God. Then, we can trust Him to make things better for us.

Game: Job Relay Race – Students can run this race in teams or as individuals.

Leg 1. Skipping. At the beginning, Job was happy because everything in life was going well for him. Skip like you're happy.

Leg 2. Flapping Arms. Then, God called all the angels to a meeting. Flap your arms like they're angel wings.

Leg 3. Hopping with Devil Horns. Satan came to the meeting too. Hop with your fingers on your head in the shape of devil horns.

Leg 4. Hopping and Pointing Fingers. Satan didn't' think Job would stay faithful to God if bad things started happening to Job. Hop and point your fingers like you're Satan pointing at Job.

Leg 5. Dragging Feet. God believed in Job, so He let Satan do bad things to Job. That made Job very sad. Drag your feet, cry, and mope like you're sad.

Leg 6. Crippled and Rubbing "Sores". Satan even made Job break out in painful sores all over his body. Hop on one leg and rub your arms like you have sores on them and are in pain.

Leg 7. Running and Shouting for Joy. But through it all, Job never turned against God, and that made God very happy with Job. Run and shout with joy like you're God being happy.

Leg 8. Skipping. Then, God reward Job by making his life better again. Skip like you're Job being happy.

Game: Up and Down – Play the intro game again as long as time allows. Remind children that we have ups and downs in life, but God is always with us and He always makes everything better in the end.

Closing Prayer: God, we thank You that You are with us in our good times and our bad times. We thank You that You have a plan to make everything better. Help us to stay faithful and keep our hope in you, like Job did. Amen.

You can also find these children's Sunday School lessons for your Kindle reading app or in print form in Created: Children Sunday School Lessons for Genesis 1-11 .

Visit my page for Genesis children's sermons for help in using these and other lessons during your worship time.

Find your next lesson on my children's ministry resource page .

If you're like me, you enjoy teaching children because you learn as much as they do! Enjoy your learning as you prepare to teach, and may God's Spirit be with your spirit! - Steve