Abraham and Isaac activities

We finished off the unit on Abraham this past week with a lesson where he FINALLY got his child he’d been promised, earlier we saw how Abraham and Lot got along, and now in Sunday School it’s time to learn about Abraham and Isaac

Of course, Abraham being the imperfect man that he is, he tried to fix it all on his own.  This led to a few problems……….

Lessons from Abraham and Isaac

Actually this story in Genesis is important to 3 major religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.  The interesting thing to me is they all have a different take on it.

Judaism looks at this story as showing Isaac is the chosen child.

Islam (and I may be wrong on this, it’s been years since I read the book, so tell me if I am) looks at this story as proof that Ishmael was God’s chosen child.

Christianity looks at this story and sees Isaac as the forerunner of Christ, willing to lay down his life because his father asked him to.

Isn’t it interesting how your viewpoint changes what you get out of a story?

But more importantly it shows how much Abraham’s faith grows over the years.  He made an initial leap of faith when he moved, and all of us have had the time where we made a great move in faith, but then we got bogged down in the details.  As they say, “The devil is in the details,” and Abraham had to wait and have faith for 20 years.  But by the time Isaac is a grown man, his faith has grown so much he can say, “God promised me you are His fulfillment of the promise Isaac, so if God asks me to sacrifice you, then I know He will bring you back.”  That’s a hug leap of faith.

And on another note, Isaac let’s talk about Isaac.  Here’s a young man, because the word used in the Bible means young man, not young child.  There’s no way Isaac wouldn’t be able to stop his Dad if he wasn’t willing.  I mean his Dad is 100 years old, and Isaac is in the prime of his life.  That means Isaac trusted his Dad and God to save him somehow.  That’s impressive

All that to say, it’s a fun story.  There’s love, drama, intrigue, and conflict.  All the makings of a great story.

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Abraham and Isaac activities

One of the great parts of this story, to my mind, come when Hagar runs away and God calls her back.  She calls him the God who Sees.  So we made a collage about this, in the lesson I was going to have them make a booklet with other names of God, but that was when my printer was on the fritz, and the kids were not up for a big long bout of writing that day, so we just did the craft.

I think their collages turned out pretty good.  I thought the lion eyes was a fun touch, and made me think of Aslan.

We also did some talking about babies, the importance of names, and how to get along, but I have no picture of that.  It’s just us sitting and talking.

Then we got to the craft for the sacrifice of Isaac.  It’s an amazing story of trust and love, that I don’t know if I could go through with, but Abraham did.  Only to have God rescue him in the end, and bring a ram for the sacrifice.  So we made our own sheep.

Which I think turned out pretty cute, don’t you?  How do you teach difficult stories and ideas to your kids? We do a lot of talking through when we get to stories like this.

More Abraham and Isaac resources

• To get your own Abraham and Isaac lesson click here.
• Abraham and Sarah outnumber the stars craft
• Abraham family tree craft
• Abraham and Isaac salvation lesson
• Buck Denver Asks: What’s in the Bible? Volume Two – Let My People Go*
• Veggie Tales: Abe & the Amazing Promise*

Next up: The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah

For all of the Genesis series, head on over to Genesis Family Bible Study.

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