YEA Lesson Library
As Far As East is From the West
About This Lesson
This lesson teaches that the Day of Atonement is about God making a way for our sins to be covered by the blood of Jesus and taken away from us. Consequences still remain.
Scriptures
Leviticus 16:1-34
Leviticus 23:26-28
Psalm 103:12
Hebrews 9:11-17
Revelation 7:14
Words to Know
DAY OF ATONEMENT - a holy day to remember that Jesus Christ makes us right with God the Father through His sacrifice and intercession
CLEANSE- to make clean
GROUNDED- privileges removed as a punishment for breaking family rules
FORGIVENESS - when one person accepts the apology of another, and the relationship is repaired
CONSEQUENCE- the result of an action
SACRIFICE - something you give up that costs you something
GUILTY- feelings bad because you know you did something wrong
The Lesson
Sara was very sorry. She shouldn't have been playing with the ball in the house. She knew she shouldn't have thrown it. But she did.
Sara went to her Mom. "Hey, Mom," Sara asked soberly, "can I talk with you for a minute?"
"Sure, honey. What's up?" her mom said.
"I did something bad and you're going to be mad at me." Sara started crying. "I broke your glass bowl!"
"Oh, Sara!" her mom groaned. "How did you manage to do that?"
"I was playing with my ball in the house. I know I'm not supposed to. But I was. Anyway, I threw it. And it hit the bowl," Sara said.
"You must have thrown it pretty hard and pretty high to hit the bowl! It was up on a special shelf!" Sara’s mom was very upset.
"I know. I did throw the ball pretty hard. I was wrong." Sara sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Mom."
"I know you're sorry," her mom told her. "But being sorry doesn't make the mistake go away. It doesn't fix the bowl."
"Can you forgive me?" Sara asked.
"Oh, Sweetheart, I forgive you," her mom said, "But I am disappointed in you.”
"I feel so guilty," Sara said.
"That's good," Mom said. "If you didn't feel guilty when you did something wrong, I'd be really worried. Guilt may help you remember when you’re tempted to throw the ball in the house. Living with guilt isn't healthy. So God made a way for His people to deal with their sins.”
"You mean by giving them His Son, Jesus Christ?" Sara asked.
"Well, yes,"her mom said. "But what I'm talking about is the Day of Atonement. On that day, the High Priest made special sacrifices because of the sin of all the people. He made a sacrifice for his own sins and to cleanse the altar. Then he took two goats. One goat was killed and its blood made atonement for the sins of the people on the mercy seat. The High Priest laid his hands on the head of the other goat and put all the sins of the people on its head - lying, stealing, not keeping the Sabbath, not obeying their parents, and other sins. Then the goat was led away into the wilderness. Can you imagine how the people felt as they watched their sins being carried away? Did you notice that the people had nothing to do with their sin being taken away? OnlyJesus' blood can cover the sins of all the people. That’s what the first goat pictures on this day. Our memory verse says our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west. That’s what the second goat showed us as he was led away into the wilderness."
"Okay, Mom," Sara said, "but what can Ido to make things right with you? I want you to love me again.”
"Oh Sara," her mom said, "I may be disappointed in some choices you make, but l'll never stop loving you. The Israelites made wrong choices. They sinned. They were sorry. They were God's people. So He made a way for them to make things right with Him again. He made the same way for you and me. That's why the Day of Atonement is still important for us today. Can you see God's love in the Day of Atonement?You need to clean up all the broken glass and start saving to replace the glass bowl."
"But I thought you said I was forgiven and you love me,” Sara protested.
“I did, and I do," her mom agreed. “But love and forgiveness don't do away with consequences. Even the Israelites had consequences to their behavior - even with the sacrifices of the goats."
As Sara and her mom swept up the broken pieces of glass, Sara thought about the High Priest going before God to make things right between the people and God. She thought about the blood of one goat and the other goat carrying the sins away. As she watched the pieces of glass slide from the dust pan into the trash, she thought about how her sins were forgiven by Jesus Christ. "Jesus loves me enough to sweep away my sins just like this broken glass,” Sara thought. "When I sin, I need to go to Him. I need to tell Him what I've done, tell Him I'm sorry, and ask for His forgiveness. I know He'll forgive me just like Mom forgave me for breaking her bowl.”
"Okay." Sara sighed, "I feel better now. And nowI understand why the Day of Atonement is important for me.”
Student Prayer
My Father in Heaven,
Thank you for the Day ofAtonement which shows me that you love me so much that you are willing to forgive me for all the bad things I do if I will say l’m sorry and repent.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Daily Devotions
Sunday - Leviticus 23:26-28
Monday - Leviticus 16:1-3
Tuesday- Leviticus16:4-7
Wednesday - Leviticus 16:8-10
Thursday- Hebrews9:11, 12
Friday - Hebrews 9:13, 14
Saturday - Hebrews 9:15-17
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Give a simple explanation for what happened on the Day of Atonement.
2. State that God provided a way to make things right when we sin.
3. State that only Jesus can make things right when we sin and He can save us.
4. Define repentance.
5. Explain God’s love for His people.
Topics & Themes
Consequences of Sin
Day of Atonement
God’s Love
God’s Mercy
High Priest
Holy Days, Atonement
Intercessor
Jesus, Savior
Reconciliation
Repentance
Sin
Materials Needed
Bible, YEA Students' andTeacher's books, attendance and memory verse charts, stars, songbook, CD and player, puppet, assorted colors of construction paper, stapler, scissors, decorating items: stickers, stamps, foam cut-outs, glitter glue, etc.
Preparation
In The Thread, God's Appointments With History, by Ronald L. Dart, the Day of Atonement ceremony is developed in chapters 14 and 15. The two concepts for this lesson are developed from two sentences: 1) "If you stood outside the Temple and watched the High Priest lay both his hands on the head of the scapegoat, and heard him confess all the sins of the house of Israel on this goat, what would you have thought and felt as you watched the goat depart?" (page 130); and, 2) "Salvation has never been by works" (page.137). Prior to this lesson, read these two chapters. Ron Dart thoroughly develops the concept of atonement, covering, and the role of the High Priest.
How to Teach This Lesson
Open the class with prayer and begin the dialog with the puppet.
Teacher: Why is it such a bad thing to sin?
Puppet: Because it makes your mom mad at you.
Teacher: Yes. Sometimes your mom gets mad. How else does your mom feel when you sin? It hurts your relationship with your mom. Who else is unhappy with your sin?(Keep questioning until
the children tell you that their relationship with God is damaged.)
Puppet: Uh oh. Having God upset at you is NOT good at all. What are we going to do about that?
Teacher: God made away for His people, as a community, to repair their relationship with Him. Does anyone know when that happened?
Puppet: I know, I know. Was it when they went through the Red Sea? (Be dejected at the wrong answer, but bounce back with another.) Was it when Moses gave them the Ten Commandments? (Be a little more dejected and bounce back with much less enthusiasm.) Was it when the walls of Jericho came down? (Be so dejected that you hide your head.) Do any of you know?
Teacher: It was the Day of Atonement. Who does the High Priest represent? He took two goats. The first goat was killed and the blood taken into the Holy of Holies. How often could he go into the Holy of Holies?
Puppet: (Still hiding his head) I don't know. Do you know?
Teacher: He could only go in on the Day of Atonement. He took the blood to sprinkle on the mercy seat. Whose blood was taken before God to make atonement for our sins so that we may have mercy?
Puppet: I know this one. It's Jesus Christ!
Teacher: Right. After that the High Priest laid his hands on the head of the second goat, confessing on it all the sins of all the people. Then this goat was led away into the wilderness.
Puppet: Wow! It seems to me I remember a verse that talks about our sins being taken away - as far as the north is . . . no, not north. Do you know, children? (Have them recite their memory verse.)
Teacher: What a wonderful feeling it is when you know that your sins are gone! You have this promise today, too, children, because Jesus Christ goes before the Father and asks the Father to repair your relationship with Him.
Puppet: That means you don’t have to feel guilty because God has removed your sins, the wrong things you’ve done, from you.
Teacher: Now remember, that doesn’t mean you still won't have consequences to your actions.
Puppet: You mean I may still be punished when I do something wrong, even if l’m forgiven?
Teacher: If you do something wrong that causes you to lose your hand and you ask God to forgive you, He will forgive you. But you will still have to live without your hand. That's a bad consequence. Before you sin, think about what the consequences might be.
Puppet: (Sigh) I really like the Day of Atonement. I do so many things wrong!
Teacher: Yes. God is so merciful to us. What a wonderful blessing to have a day to remember that Jesus Christ made a way to repair our relationship with Him!
Review Questions
1. Does God love His people? How do you know?
2. What happened on the Day of Atonement to show God's love?
3. How do we make things right with God when we sin?
4. What does it mean to repent?
5. What is guilt?
6. When you know you have been forgiven, do you need to feel guilty anymore?
Teacher-Directed Activity
Give each student a 2” x 5” strip of paper. Have them write one thing they did wrong on it. Ask if they know how to pray. Tell them to close their eyes and pray silently and ask for forgiveness for that sin. After a couple of minutes, have students tear the paper into tiny bits. Read 1 John 1:9.
REACH Activity
1. Do a sword drill with the daily devotionals. Depending on how many children you are involved, you can either have them compete against each other to see who can get to the scripture first or you can have a child time himself (or herself) and try to better his time each successive scripture.
2. Create a Who’s Who Game based on the holy day lessons in this book. Make a board game. Set up rules like: Draw a person card. Tell who the person is and which lesson and holy day he is associated with. (You will have to keep a small notebook of notes for each person so you can check to see if the answer is correct or not.) If you are correct, roll the dice and advance. If you are incorrect, roll the dice and go that many places backwards. From Lesson One: King Josiah; Lesson Two: Cyrus and Ezra. Lesson Three: Firstfruits. Lesson Four: Angel with the Seventh Trumpet. Lesson Five: High Priest. Add people to the game for each lesson.
3. Continue constructing a concentration game of God’s Holy Days. For this lesson, create four cards: Atonement, High Priest, Reconciliation, Most Holy Place. Plan to add four more cards to go with the next lesson.
4. Sing: From the CEM Hymnal, “Amazing Grace” on page 106, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” on page 8, “Just As I Am, Without One Plea” on page 98, “Praise Him, Praise Him” on page 20;
From the Kids Classics Collection, “I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord Forever” on page 17, “God is So Good” on page 87, “Wonderful Words of Life” on page 78;
From The Group Songbook, “Create in Me A Clean Heart” on page 36, “Great is the Lord” on page 62, “The Coloring Song” on page 14.
5. Getting Rid of Sin. Write something that you have done that you know what wrong - write it down on a piece of paper. Now tear up the piece of paper into tiny bits and throw it in the trash can. Imagine the trash can being emptied and the trash being taken away by the sanitation workers. Has your sin been taken away? No. You didn’t ask for forgiveness. And just writing the sin down on a piece of paper doesn’t get rid of the sin. How do we get rid of our sin? How do we get rid of our guilt? What’s the consequence of sin? Are there natural consequences of sin in addition to hurting the relationship with our Heavenly Father? Write about all of this in your Bible notebook.
6. Read all of Leviticus 16 with your family. Make notes about who has something to do on the Day of Atonement. What do they do? When do they do it? Where do each of the actions take place? If the verse tells why the action is done, write that down too. Once you have all of the chapter outlined this way, rewrite the chapter as a newspaper article. Doing this will help you better understand what happened on the Day of Atonement and why.
7. Atonement in the Bible. Find five places that the Day of Atonement is mentioned in the Bible. Write these down in your Bible notebook.
8. Fasting. Why do we fast on the Day of Atonement? Ask three people at church if they can give you a scripture which explains why we fast on Atonement. Once you have their answers, write down what you have learned in an essay. Share with your family and then file under the Holy Days tab in your Bible notebook.
9. Haiku. One form of poetry is the Japanese Haiku. It doesn’t rhyme, but it does follow strict rules. The first line has five syllables; the second line has seven syllables; the third line has five syllables. Usually the first and third lines are mirror images of each other - that is, they describe the same thing. Haiku are also usually about nature. Practice writing a haiku about the Day of Atonement. Here’s an example:
Day of Atonement
We all seek God’s forgiveness.
It is a fast day.
Once you have written a couple of haiku in your Bible notebook, pick your favorite. Write it in scroll lettering with a calligraphy pen on fine paper. Display where your family can see it.
10. Writing. In your Bible notebook, write two things you learned about the Day of Atonement this year.
11. Consequences. Discuss with your family why you still experience consequences even after you have been forgiven. Then discuss what reconciliation is and why forgiveness isn’t enough for reconciliation to take place. Find out what is necessary for forgiveness and reconciliation both to occur. Write what you find out in your Bible notebook.
12. Write a prayer. Thank God for giving us the Day of Atonement so that we can be reconciled to Him.
13. John Newton. Research John Newton’s story (the author of “Amazing Grace”). Learn how to play “Amazing Grace” on the piano, recorder, or guitar. Share the story and sing the song for your family.
14. Another Name. What do the Jews call the Day of Atonement? What do the words literally mean? What significant historical events have happened on Yom Kippur? Write about these in your Bible notebook.
15. Our Jubilee. Every fifty years, on the Day of Atonement, the Year of Jubilee was proclaimed. Look up Michael Card’s song “Jesus is Our Jubilee.” Write down the lyrics in your Bible notebook. Have your family help you find scriptures to support the belief that Jesus is our Jubilee.
16. Forgiving Others. Since the Day of Atonement is a day when God grants us forgiveness, we also need to forgive the people who have wronged us. Think about the people you might still be upset at because of something they’ve done to you. Jesus says that if we don’t forgive people who have trespassed against us, then God the Father won’t forgive us either (Matthew 6:14-15). Ask God to help you forgive them and to let go of the bad feelings you have. If the other person is not sorry, you don’t have to be friends with them. You do have to trust God that He will take care of the situation and you don’t have to worry about it. That’s hard sometimes, isn’t it! Write about this in your Bible notebook.
Song
"Jesus Loves Me" is on page 6 of Kids Classics Collection.
Closing Prayer
Lead the students in prayer thanking God for making a way to repair our relationship with Him and giving us the Day of Atonement to remind us of that gift.
Printable Pages
