Purpose: to help family members understand the importance of the Abrahamic Covenant and that because God kept his promises to Abraham, we can know that He will keep promises with us.
Possible scriptures: Genesis 28:14; Genesis 35:11-12; Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6,8-9; Deuteronomy 26:16-19; Deuteronomy 28:9 (or any part of the chapter); Psalm 47:7; Psalm 95:3; Isaiah 32:1; Hosea 3:4-5; Matthew 2:1-2; Romans 9:27; Galatians 3:7-9; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:14-15; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Nephi 30:2; 3 Nephi 5:21; Doctrine and Covenants 1:22-23; Doctrine and Covenants 35:24-27; Doctrine and Covenants 54:4-6; Doctrine and Covenants 133:57-60; Moses 8:3;
Possible Songs: Choose the Right, Hymn 239; How Gentle God’s Commands, Hymn 125; Come Follow Me, Hymn 116; Come Let Us Anew, Hymn 217; Press Forward, Saints, Hymn 81; I Have Work Enough to Do, Hymn 224; Keep the Commandments, Hymn 303, Children’s Songbook page 146 ; Choose the Right Way, Children’s Songbook page 160; Seek the Lord Early, Children’s Songbook page 108, The Lord Gave Me a Temple, Children’s Songbook 153;
Possible Materials: 5 popsicle sticks for each member of your family plus 10 more. Scripture figure or picture of Abraham. A picture of an angel saving Abram, a picture of Abraham and Isaac (I like this one better but it isn’t as traditional as the other), and a picture of Abraham kneeling. This picture of the scattering of Israel. A map of the world.
Preparation: Begin with prayer. Read the suggested scriptures, along with Genesis 12-17 and Abraham 1-3 (remember you can use the arrows on the right of the screen to go to the next chapter). Read through the lesson, including any links, and carefully select the most relevant material for your family. Follow this video to make a 5-point star out of popsicle sticks. On 5 other sticks, write the following: “Land of Inheritance,” “Kings from Thee,” “Priesthood,” “Salvation and Eternal Life,” “Posterity fills the Earth.” Children: Watch either this video or this one for younger readers and this video about Covenants (which is also great for adults!)
Lesson:
Discuss how last week’s challenge went.
Introduction: Hold up the popsicle stick star you made before the lesson. Talk about how it holds itself together without using any glue. Where are stars? How many stars are in the sky? Show this picture of stars or one like it. Talk about how there are more stars in the sky than we can count. Heavenly Father once promised a prophet that his family would grow so big it would be like the stars.
From the Scriptures: hold up a picture or scripture figure of Abraham. Tell your family that this is Abraham and God loved him. Abraham tried to always make the right choices. When he was a kid, he was called Abram. Abram’s dad did not make good choices. He wanted to sacrifice Abram to a false god. That means he wanted a wicked priest to kill Abram for a not-real god. Abram prayed to Heavenly Father to protect him and an angel came and saved him. Hold up the picture of an angel saving Abram. Abram grew up and followed Heavenly Father’s commands, even when they were really really hard. Heavenly Father promised Abram a son and changed his name to be Abraham. It took a very very long time before Abraham and his wife Sarah had any kids. Sarah was 90 years old when she was pregnant with Isaac. Think about your oldest relative that your family knows. Compare how old they are to Sarah’s age. Then Heavenly Father tested Abraham and asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Hold up the picture of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham did not want to sacrifice Isaac, but he trusted Heavenly Father. Before any harm came to Isaac, Heavenly Father said the test was done and provided a lamb to sacrifice. Heavenly Father knew he could trust Abraham because he listened and followed the commandments, even when it was hard. He made a special promise with Abraham. Hold up the picture of Abraham kneeling. Tell your family that a special promise with God is called a covenant. Pull out the 5 popsicle sticks that have writing on them. Ask your family if they can remember one of the promises given to Abraham, the prophet (we talked about it in the intro).
For older families, read all the scriptures listed below and place the popsicle piece into the star as you finish each one. For younger families select 1 scripture for each stick. Talk about how God’s covenants are strong and work together, but if we want to break covenants, those promises come apart. He leaves that up to us. Read Doctrine and Covenants 82:10. We can trust that if we keep our promises, God will keep His.
- Land of Inheritance: Read Genesis 12:7, 13:14-15; 15:7, 15:18, 17:8-9, Abraham 2:6, Abraham 2:19
- Kings from Thee: Read Genesis 17:6-7, Genesis 17:18,20;
- Priesthood: Read Abraham 1:1-4, 1:19, 2:9
- Salvation and Eternal Life: Read Genesis 15:15, Abraham 2:11, Abraham 2:16;
- Posterity fills the Earth: Read Genesis 12:2-3, 13:16; 15:2-6, 17:1-5, 17:15-21, 22:17-18, Abraham 2:9-11, Abraham 3:14,
From World History: show this picture and tell your family that Abraham’s family grew and grew and filled the whole land of Israel, just like God promised. But then the people stopped listening to Him. Heavenly Father promises Abraham that his posterity would inherit a blessed and fruitful land if they would be obedient, but He also promised that He would use his posterity to bless the whole world. When the people forgot to listen to Heavenly Father, the promise that they could stay in the promised land was undone, and God used the disobedience of the Israelites to fulfil another promise: the promise that Abraham’s family would fill the whole earth. The posterity of Abraham, called the tribes of Israel, were scattered 4 different times, spreading their influence further and further. First, half of the tribes were scattered, then the other half. Then some of Abraham’s people, then called Jews, began to move back to Israel. Jesus Christ was born during this time. Jesus is also a descendent of Abraham. He is, in a sense, the most important king that came from Abraham. But lots of people didn’t follow him, so the people were scattered again! 2 different times, the people were mixed into the Roman empire. The Roman Empire was large, and the people were scattered throughout most of Europe. Show a world map and point to Europe. From there, they spread to all the world. Heavenly Father kept his promises to Abraham! He gave him a big family that started and filled all of the promised land, and then spread throughout the whole world. Lots of kings fill the family tree of Abraham, including the King of Kings, Jesus. Abraham was given the priesthood and promised that he could be with his family forever after he died. God kept and continues to keep his promises to Abraham.
From Church History: Because God kept his promise to Abraham, we can know that he will keep his promises with us. What covenants do we make with Heavenly Father? We covenant with Heavenly Father when we are baptized, when we take the sacrament, when we go to the temple, when we receive the Priesthood, and when we are sealed to a spouse.
Further Discussion:
As you read the following scriptures, ask your family what we are promising to God and what He is promising to us.
- Baptism: Doctrine and Covenants 20:37; Mosiah 18:8-10; 2 Nephi 31:11-13; Alma 7:14-16
- Sacrament: Doctrine and Covenants 20:77&79;
- Priesthood: Doctrine and Covenants 84:33-44; Doctrine and Covenants 132:28-31
- Endowment: This paragraph from the Endowment Gospel Topics, Doctrine and Covenants 5:12
- Celestial Marriage: Doctrine and Covenants 131:1-2; Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-20
Recent Conference talks to consider in your discussion: Click here for conference talks about Covenants.
Challenge:
Have everyone make their own stars and help them write “God keeps His promises.” Tell them to keep them somewhere they can see them this week. When they look at their stars, ask them to think of any promises Heavenly Father has made to them and to remember that it is up to us to keep those covenants intact.
Giving due credit: as usual, I read and learned from Gospel Principles Chapter 15 and Gospel Topics from Gospel Library on the Abrahamic Covenant and Covenants. As there was very little information on Abraham in the sunbeams manual I had to resort to newer material, and pulled some information from Come Follow Me Primary for Feb 7-13 I also drew much more heavily from the topical guide and the bible dictionary (Blessings of Israel; Abrahamic Covenant; Earthly Kings; Jesus Christ, King; Abraham, Covenant of; Seed of Abraham, etc). Another helpful resource was the July 1987 Friend,
