Introduction

Tangled Up

• Tangle up a ball of string. Tangle the string and when it seems to be a hopeless mess try to untangle it.
• Ask the children how long it would take to untangle the string before it could be used for fishing. Discuss the option of just buying new string.
• “In today’s bible story we are going to learn about two cities whose people kept sinning over and over again so much that they became tangled in sin just like this string. They were so tangled up in sin that they would not even listen when people talked about God. Guess which city that was? It was the city where Lot had moved to. In this story we are going to learn how Lot was very sorry he had ever chosen to live in a place where there was so much sin.

Bible Story

• Lot and his family lived together with Abraham in the land of Canaan. One day Abraham said to Lot: ‘There isn’t land enough here for all our animals. Please, let us separate. If you go one way, then I will go the other.’
• Lot looked over the land. He saw a very nice part of the country that had water and a lot of good grass for his animals. So Lot moved his family and animals there. They finally made their home in the city of Sodom.
• The people of Sodom were very bad. This upset Lot, because he was a good man. God was upset too. Finally, God sent two angels to warn Lot that he was going to destroy Sodom and the nearby city of Gomorrah because of their wickedness.
• The angels told Lot: ‘Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters and get out of here!’ Lot and his family were a little slow in going, and so the angels took them by the hand and led them out of the city. Then one of the angels said: ‘Run for your lives! Don’t look back. Run to the hills, so that you won’t be killed.’
• Lot and his daughters obeyed and ran away from Sodom. They didn’t stop for a moment, and they didn’t look back. But Lot’s wife disobeyed. After they had gone some distance from Sodom, she stopped and looked back. Then Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt.
• One lesson we can learn from this is that God saves those who obey him, but those who do not obey him will lose their lives.
• Just as obedience is very important to God, obedience is very important in our family. God warns that there will be punishment for those who “despise authority,” and protection for those who are righteous (2 Peter 2:4-10).

Questions

1. What did the angels instruct Lot and his family to do?
2. What did Lot’s wife do?
3. After Lot’s wife disobeyed, what happened to her?
4. What does it mean to “despise authority”?
5. What does God say about those who ignore instructions?
6. Why did God want to destroy Sodom? Because there was so much sin in the city.
7. What is sin? It is a word, thought, or act against God
8. What happened to Lot’s wife? She turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at Sodom.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, help me to obey you and authority