Bible Story

Nehemiah Helps the Poor
Nehemiah 5

Use this guide to help your family learn
how God can help us show initiative.

First, watch this video
Then, follow up with the fun activities below!

WHAT YOU NEED:

Read the following statements about today’s Bible story. Tell your child to stand and give a thumbs-up if they think the statement is true, or stay seated/sit down and give a thumbs-down if they think the statement is false. For every false statement, challenge your child to think of what needs to change about the statement to make it true.

What You Do

– Nehemiah decided to rebuild the wall all by himself. (False; Nehemiah gathered the people living in Jerusalem to help with the rebuilding)
– Each family or group worked on a different part of the wall to get the work done. (True)
– People from neighboring nations were super-excited that the wall was being rebuilt. (False; they taunted and made fun of the people rebuilding the wall)
– A group of people came to Nehemiah with sad news. The taxes were so high that they had to borrow money, then they couldn’t pay the high interest. (True)
– When Nehemiah heard about how hard things were, he just ignored the problem.
(False; Nehemiah took it so seriously that he stopped work on the wall)
– Nehemiah gathered all the leaders who were charging the high interest and said, “What you are doing isn’t right.” (True)
– Nehemiah told the leaders to give back anything they had taken as payment, even the interest. They said “NO” and threw a tantrum. (False; they immediately agreed to give it all back.)
– Once this big problem was taken care of, work on the wall began again. (True)

Talk about the Bible Story

What problem did Nehemiah see as he was building the wall? (People were in need, didn’t have food to eat, and had to sell their land to buy food.)
How were people being treated unfairly? (Officials were charging them too much when they had to borrow money.)
Did Nehemiah keep working on the wall and ignore the need he saw? (No; he stopped working on the wall and helped.)
How can we help others like Nehemiah did?
Parent: Share about a time when you wanted to make things right, but you didn’t. What happened as a result? What do you wish you’d done differently?

Use this prayer as a guide, either after your discussion or right before bed tonight:

“Dear God, thank You for giving us what we need to help other people! You’ve given us a voice, resources, the ability to pray, and the ability to love people who need it. Whether it’s our neighbor or someone in another country who we’ve never met, help us look for ways to lend a hand. Please open our eyes and ears to ways we can stand up and help make things right. We love You, and we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

God Time Cards:
are devotionals kids can do that will reinforce the content in the weekly video presentations.