Illustration of Deborah leading Israel’s armies, © Lifeway Collection/licensed from goodsalt.com

May 30–June 5

Judges 2–4; 6–8; 13–16

“The Lord Raised Up a Deliverer”

There are many inspiring stories found in Judges 2–4; 6–8; 13–16. Ponder how you can use these stories to help the children come closer to the Savior and desire to follow Him.

Record Your Impressions

Invite Sharing

Invite each of the children to share a story from the scriptures that they have learned about recently. Then ask them to share what they learn from these stories.

Teach the Doctrine: Younger Children

Judges 3:9

Jesus Christ is my Savior.

When the Israelites prayed to the Lord, He raised up a deliverer for them. Help the children see that Jesus Christ is the Deliverer whom God has raised up for us.

Possible Activities

• Explain to the children that when the Israelites stopped keeping God’s commandments, they lost His protection and were defeated by their enemies. Read from Judges 3:9 the phrase “the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.” What did the Israelites do when they needed help? Share an experience when you prayed for help and God answered your prayer.

• Read from Judges 3:9 the phrase “the Lord raised up a deliverer,” and invite the children to repeat it with you a few times. Explain that a deliverer is someone who saves us. Show the children several pictures of people, including a picture of Jesus Christ, and place the pictures face down on the floor. Let the children take turns turning over the pictures, finding the picture of Jesus, and holding it up. Testify that Jesus Christ is the Deliverer whom God has raised up to save us from sin and death.

Gideon trusted in the Lord. © Lifeway Collection/licensed from goodsalt.com

Judges 6:11–16; 7:1–8

The Lord can use small things to do great work.

Gideon considered himself poor and insignificant, but God saw him as a “mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12). Help the children see that even if they feel small, God can work through them to do important things (see Alma 37:6–7).

Possible Activities

• Tell the children that the Lord needed someone to help Him save Israel from their enemies, the Midianites, and He chose Gideon. Read Judges 6:15 to the children, and ask them why Gideon didn’t feel he could do what the Lord wanted. Read verse 16, and ask them who the Lord said would help Gideon. Tell the children about a time when the Lord asked you to do something difficult to serve Him and you felt He was with you.

• Display pictures of children or youth doing great things in the service of God (see Gospel Art Book, nos. 19, 23, 90, 102), or tell about examples you have seen. Help the children think of ways they can participate in God’s work, and invite them to draw pictures of themselves doing these things.

• Use this week’s activity page to teach the children about how the Lord made Israel’s army smaller so the Israelites would know that His power had saved them from their enemies. Share examples of small things that do a great work, such as bees gathering nectar to make honey. Bear your testimony that God can help us do a great work, even when we feel small.

Teach the Doctrine: Older Children

Judges 3:7–9, 12–15

Jesus Christ is my Deliverer.

Judges 3 describes a cycle that you can use to teach the children that God delivers us from sin through the Savior Jesus Christ.

Possible Activities

• Write the following on the board: “did evil,” “cried unto the Lord,” and “raised up a deliverer.” Invite some of the children to find these phrases in Judges 3:7–9, and invite others to find them in Judges 3:12–15. Explain to the children that over and over in the book of Judges, the Israelites “did evil.” Then, when their enemies attacked, they “cried unto the Lord,” and the Lord “raised up a deliverer” to help them. What do we learn about the Lord from this cycle?

• Sing a song together that helps the children understand that Jesus Christ is their Redeemer and Deliverer, such as “He Sent His Son” (Children’s Songbook, 34–35). Invite the children to share their feelings about what the Savior has done to deliver us from sin, trials, sorrow, and death.

Judges 4:1–15

I can be faithful to the Lord even if others are not.

Although many of the Israelites fell away from the Lord, some remained true to Him and were able to help many others return to righteousness. How can you encourage the children to stay true to the Lord no matter what others are doing?

Possible Activities

• Tell the children that during a time when the Israelites had been wicked, a righteous woman named Deborah and the commander of the Israelites’ army, Barak, delivered Israel from their enemies (see Judges 4:1–15). Read together Judges 4:14, and ask the children to find something Deborah said that showed that her faith in the Lord was strong. Then ask them to read Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 to find a principle that is also in Judges 4:14. Encourage them to share what the Lord’s promise “I will go before your face” means to them.

• Sing a song about obeying the commandments, such as “Choose the Right” (Hymns, no. 239) or “Choose the Right Way” (Children’s Songbook, 160–61). How can we stand for righteousness and obey the commandments even when others around us do not?

Judges 7

God’s ways are different from the world’s ways.

The Lord asked Gideon to do things that he probably didn’t understand at the time. What inspires you about his story? How do you feel it can bless the children you teach?

Possible Activities

• Ask the children to imagine that they needed to gather an army together to go to battle. How many people would they want in their army? Using Judges 7:4–7, invite the children to act out how the Lord helped Gideon choose the army that would deliver Israel from the Midianites. Why did the Lord want Gideon’s army to be so small? (see Judges 7:2). Why might following the Lord’s command have been hard for Gideon and his army? Invite the children to share experiences when they learned to trust the Lord even though doing so was hard.

• Invite the children to draw pictures of a sword, shield, trumpet, lamp, and pitcher. Ask the children which of these objects they would take with them into a battle. Invite them to read Judges 7:16 to learn what Gideon’s army took with them. Why would it have taken courage to do this? Read together Judges 7:19–21 to learn how the army used the trumpets and pitchers to defeat the Midianites. What do we learn about the Lord from this story?

Encourage Learning at Home

Invite the children to share with a family member something they learned today that makes them want to keep the commandments.

Improving Our Teaching

Adapt activities to meet needs. Don’t view these outlines as instructions you must follow. Rather, use them as a source of ideas to spark your own inspiration as you ponder the needs of the children you teach. For example, in some cases, you might feel inspired to adapt an activity for younger children to teach older children, or vice versa.