This lesson teaches children that God sees everything people do, and that he wants his people to be fair, kind, and faithful to him. It is best for children ages 5 to 11 and takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Ezekiel 22 is a hard chapter, so keep the telling simple and focus on God’s love for doing what is right.
Big Idea
God sees how we treat other people and how we treat him. He wants us to be kind, fair, and faithful, because he always notices and always cares.
Memory Verse
Ezekiel 22:30
“I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.
(WEB)
Put one hand on your heart and then hold up your hand like a stop sign, as if you are standing in the gap. Say the verse together while you hold your stop-sign hand up tall. Each time you move, the children will remember that God was looking for someone to stand strong for what is right.
The Story: Ezekiel 22 for Kids
God spoke to a man named Ezekiel and gave him a job. Ezekiel was to tell the city of Jerusalem about all the wrong things its people were doing. Some leaders were hurting people, and some people were stealing and cheating their neighbors. Many had forgotten to honor God and his day of rest.
The people were treating their parents with disrespect. They were mean to strangers who lived among them. They took advantage of children who had no father and of women who had no husband to take care of them. Each wrong thing hurt people and hurt God’s heart.
God said that the city was like a pot of dirty metal that needed to be melted down so it could be made clean again. God told Ezekiel, “Tell them that I am going to melt them in my fire, so they will know that I am the Lord.” God was sad about what he had to do, but he wanted his people to come back to him.
Then God looked for someone who would stand in the gap and pray for the land. He wanted a person who would build up a wall of protection and stand strong for what was right. God said, “I looked for a man to stand in the gap, but I found no one.” That made God very sad.
God wants us to be the kind of people who stand in the gap. When we are kind, fair, and honest, we help protect the people around us and show that we love God.
Read It Together
Ezekiel 22:7
In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.
(WEB)
Point out that the people were mistreating their parents and the strangers who lived among them. Ask the children how they can show respect to the grown-ups and the newcomers in their lives.
Ezekiel 22:12
In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord the LORD.
(WEB)
Explain that the people were taking unfair money from their neighbors and had forgotten God. Help the children see that being honest with what belongs to others is part of loving God.
Ezekiel 22:26
Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them.
(WEB)
Show that the priests were supposed to help people know the difference between right and wrong, but they failed. Remind the children that God trusts them to tell the truth and to choose what is good.
Talk About It
- What is one way you can show respect to your parents or the grown-ups who take care of you?
- How do you think God feels when someone is unkind to a stranger or to a child who has no one to help them?
- Why do you think God wanted someone to stand in the gap and pray for the people?
- What is one thing you could do this week to stand up for someone who is being treated unfairly?
- How does it feel to know that God always sees what we do, even when no one else does?
Activity Ideas
Gap-Standing Wall Craft
You will need paper cups, cardboard, markers, tape, and small paper people. Have each child decorate a cup as a wall and tape a paper person inside it to show someone standing in the gap. Talk about how the wall protects the person. Let the children take their walls home as a reminder to stand up for others.
Stop and Stand Game
Play a simple movement game in an open space. Call out things people do, such as “helping a neighbor” or “being unkind,” and have children stand tall with both arms up if the action is right, or sit down quietly if it is wrong. Finish by having everyone stand tall together and say the memory verse. This helps children practice thinking about right and wrong.
Kindness Jar at Home
You will need a clean jar, paper, and a pen or crayons. Each day, have the family write one kind or fair thing they did on a slip of paper and place it in the jar. At the end of the week, read the notes aloud together. Talk about how God notices every kind choice, just as he noticed the wrong choices in Ezekiel’s time.
Teacher Notes
For adults, Ezekiel 22 shows that God takes sin seriously because it hurts people and breaks his covenant. The chapter also shows that God still looks for people willing to pray, intercede, and stand for justice, which points forward to Christ, who stands in the gap for us. Adults can see both the warning and the invitation to faithfulness.
Avoid overstating the judgment and the melting imagery to children. Keep the focus on God’s love, his desire for his people to return to him, and the hope of standing with him, rather than on frightening descriptions of punishment.
A Prayer to Close
Dear God, thank you for always seeing what we do. Help us to be kind, fair, and honest with everyone we meet. Give us the courage to stand up for what is right, just as you were looking for someone to stand in the gap. Help us to love you with our whole hearts. Amen.
