Israel Is Divided

Teacher notes for Will and Rayssa

Calvary Kids, fourth grade | Sunday, October 25, 2026 | Lesson 89

Solomon broke the three rules God gave Israel's kings, and his wives turned his heart to idols. God tore the kingdom away for that sin, and for David's sake he waited until Solomon died and left one tribe with his son. Rehoboam then rejected wise advice, and ten tribes followed Jeroboam. By the end, every child should be able to say why God was angry with Solomon and how the one kingdom became Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

Use the suggested wording freely and sound like yourselves. Hear two or three answers to each question, then keep moving.

Before class

Open the lesson and click Full screen. Keep these notes on paper or a second device, and share only the lesson tab. Have a Bible open to 1 Kings 11, with Deuteronomy 17, 1 Kings 12, and James 1 marked.

Bring a sheet of paper or an old piece of cloth to tear into twelve strips on slide 6, and a spoon (or any small object) for the memory verse passing game.

Use the arrow keys or the navigation buttons to change slides, and the slide menu to jump to a numbered slide. To start fresh, click Reset lesson under the navigation bar twice. It clears every reveal, game and score and returns to slide 1. The named buttons inside a slide run its activity. Changing slides and revealing an answer are separate clicks.

One workable division: Will leads the story slides (3 to 8), and Rayssa leads the welcome, the verse game, the council timer and the scores. Swap wherever you like. During pickup, one of you runs trivia or the verse challenge while the other helps with checkout.

Timing

If you run behind, cut in this order: shorten the council timer to one minute, skip the partner talk on slide 4 and read the verse straight away, and play two passing moves instead of four. Jump to slide 10 by 12:12 no matter what, so every child hears the close before parents arrive. The Closing prayer link under the navigation bar jumps there.

1. Welcome

5 minutes | 11:35–11:40 | 1 Kings 3:5

Say: "We're Will and Rayssa. Tell us your name. Then answer this: if God said to you, 'Ask what I shall give you,' what would you ask for?"

Answer first yourselves, then go around once. Let a child give a name and pass. Keep each answer to about ten seconds.

Do not explain the question yet. God said those exact words to Solomon in 1 Kings 3:5, and Solomon asked for wisdom. You will come back to it on slide 9, where James 1:5 tells the children they can ask God for wisdom too.

2. Prayer

3 minutes | 11:40–11:43

Ask: "What would you like us to pray about today?" Hear a few requests. One of you remembers them while the other listens. Pray in your own words, name the requests, and ask God to help everyone understand his Word. No child needs to pray aloud.

3. The king's rulebook

5 minutes | 11:43–11:48 | Deuteronomy 17:14–20

Say: "About 400 years before Solomon, God told Moses what Israel's kings must not do. Here are three things a king must not collect."

The three cards start on the rules: many horses, many wives, piles of silver and gold. Ask: "Why would God ban these? What could each one do to a king?" Let them guess before you flip anything.

Answers to listen for:

The class notes sum it up in one line: the king was to depend on God. Point out 17:18–19 as well. God told the king to write his own copy of the law and read it every day of his life.

Click: Show Solomon's record flips all three cards. You can also click one card at a time. Ask: "How did Solomon do?" He broke all three. The numbers come from 1 Kings 10 and 11: 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, horses bought from Egypt, 700 wives and 300 concubines, and 666 talents of gold in one year (about 25 tons).

If a child asks about the word "concubines," say they were wives of lower rank.

4. Solomon's heart

3 minutes | 11:48–11:51 | 1 Kings 11:1–8

Ask: "God appeared to Solomon twice. He wrote proverbs about wisdom. How does someone that wise end up worshipping idols?" Give partners thirty seconds, then hear two answers.

Click: Read what happened. Read 1 Kings 11:4 aloud. Then ask: "Which rule from Deuteronomy 17 warned about this?" The wives rule: "lest his heart turn away."

Solomon built places to worship Ashtoreth (a goddess of the Sidonians), Chemosh (the god of Moab) and Molech (the god of the Ammonites), on the mountain east of Jerusalem. If a child asks about Molech, say that worshipping him included hurting children, and that God hated it. Leave it there.

The point for fourth graders: Solomon's wisdom did not protect him once he stopped obeying. His heart turned a little at a time, over years.

5. God's verdict

3 minutes | 11:51–11:54 | 1 Kings 11:9–13

Read the verse on screen aloud. Ask: "Find the judgment. Then find two mercies hidden inside it."

Click: Show the answer. The judgment: God tears the kingdom away and gives it to Solomon's servant. The two mercies: it does not happen in Solomon's lifetime, and one tribe stays with his son. Both mercies are "for the sake of David." God was keeping his promise to David (2 Samuel 7) even while he punished David's son.

6. The torn cloak

3 minutes | 11:54–11:57 | 1 Kings 11:26–40

Say: "Jeroboam was one of Solomon's best officials. One day, outside Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah stopped him on the road."

Do this live: Pick a child to be Jeroboam and have them stand. Tear your paper or cloth into twelve strips while you read 1 Kings 11:30–31. Hand ten strips to Jeroboam and keep two.

Click: Give Jeroboam his pieces. The screen shows ten strips and two. Ask: "God names ten tribes for Jeroboam and one for Solomon's son. Count again. Where is the twelfth piece?"

The answer: the "one tribe" is Judah, the tribe of David's family. The small tribe of Benjamin, right next to Jerusalem, stayed with Judah (1 Kings 12:21). That accounts for the two strips in your hand. The Levites, the priests' tribe, had no land of their own and lived in towns all over Israel. Many of them later moved south to Judah (2 Chronicles 11:13–14).

If time allows, mention that Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam after this, and Jeroboam ran to Egypt until Solomon died (11:40).

7. Advise the new king

8 minutes | 11:57–12:05 | 1 Kings 12:1–16

This is the main activity. Say: "Solomon has died. His son Rehoboam is the new king. You are his council."

Split the room. The left side plays Solomon's old advisors, and the right side plays Rehoboam's friends, the young men he grew up with. Read the people's request on screen (12:4). Each side decides what the king should say and why, and picks one speaker.

Click: Start timer gives each side two minutes. The timer turns red at zero. Pause and Reset are beside it. Hear the left side's speaker, then the right side's. Let them argue whatever they decided; do not correct them yet.

Then step through what really happened:

Click: Reveal the old men's advice (12:7). Ask: "Why might a brand-new king hate this advice?" He wants to look strong. Being called a servant feels weak.

Click: Reveal the young men's advice (12:10–11). Ask: "Why would this sound good to Rehoboam?" It made him sound powerful. These were his friends, and they told him what he wanted to hear. Scorpions probably meant whips with metal or barbed tips.

Click: What did Rehoboam do? He answered harshly, word for word from the young men, and the northern tribes walked out: "To your tents, O Israel!" Read the line on screen: Rehoboam asked two groups of men and chose the answer he wanted. He never asked God.

Ask: "How can you tell good advice from the answer you want to hear?" Listen for: check it against God's Word, ask people who love God and have lived longer, notice when advice only flatters you, and pray about it.

Start over returns to the setup if you want to replay it during pickup.

8. Two kingdoms

3 minutes | 12:05–12:08 | 1 Kings 12:16–24

The map starts as one kingdom. Ask: "After Rehoboam's answer, what do you expect the ten northern tribes to do?"

Click: Divide the kingdom. Israel in the north follows King Jeroboam with ten tribes. Its first capital was Shechem (12:25), and later kings moved it to Samaria. Judah in the south keeps King Rehoboam, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and Jerusalem. Rehoboam gathered 180,000 soldiers to win the north back, and God sent the prophet Shemaiah to stop him: "This thing is from me" (12:24). They obeyed and went home.

Read 12:15 on screen. Ask: "Rehoboam chose foolishly. God brought it about. Can both be true?"

The answer is yes. Rehoboam made a real choice, and he is responsible for it. God rules over the hearts of kings and used that choice to keep the word he spoke through Ahijah. Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." God never does wrong (Genesis 18:25), and no choice escapes him (Psalm 115:3). Fourth graders do not need the whole doctrine. They need to hear that God is in charge and people are still responsible.

Show one kingdom puts the map back if you want to replay the split.

9. Memory verse

4 minutes | 12:08–12:12 | James 1:5

Read the verse together twice. Say: "Rehoboam never asked God. You can."

Connect it to the welcome question. God told Solomon, "Ask what I shall give you," and Solomon asked for wisdom. James 1:5 says the same offer is open to every one of you.

Use Hide next word, Hide 1 random or Hide 5 random and have the class say the full verse each round. Click any word or blank to toggle it. Show all and Hide all reset the board.

Passing game: Children sit in a line or circle. They pass the spoon while saying the verse one word per child. Click Passing move for a new rule (left hand only, behind your back, under a knee, and so on). The child who misses a word starts the next round. Two to four moves are plenty.

10. Two kings and closing prayer

3 minutes | 12:12–12:15 | 1 Kings 12:14; Matthew 11:29–30

Say: "Rehoboam told his people, 'I will add to your yoke.' Jesus says, 'My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'"

God kept one tribe for David's family. From Judah came Jesus, the Son of David, the King who never turned from God. Where Solomon's heart turned, Jesus obeyed his Father completely, and he gives that obedience to everyone who trusts him.

Ask: "Where do you need wisdom from God this week?" Hear a few answers, then pray. Ask God for wisdom for each child, and thank him for Jesus, the King who serves his people.

11. Catch my mistakes

Pickup game | 1 Kings 11–12

Split into Team 1 and Team 2. Each claim on screen has a mistake. A team gets 1 point for the correction and 1 point for the verse that proves it. Use the + and – buttons by each team to score.

The fifth claim is a Bible lookup round. Hand a Bible to each team and let them find the correction in 1 Kings 12:21–24.

Reveal correction shows the answer, and Next claim moves on. Start over returns to the first claim and keeps the scores. Reset scores clears both teams.

12. Bonus trivia

Pickup game

Teams take turns picking a number from the board. Read the question, let the team answer, then click Reveal answer and Back to board. Used numbers show a check. Shuffle a new board resets the questions and keeps the scores. All twelve questions come from today's passages and the memory verse.

13. Verse challenge

Pickup game

Let the children hide words with Open memory verse, then challenge the two of you to recite James 1:5. Check your answer against the screen.

Source references

Deuteronomy 17:14–20; 1 Kings 3:5; 1 Kings 10:14–29; 1 Kings 11:1–43; 1 Kings 12:1–25; 2 Samuel 7:12–16; 2 Chronicles 11:13–14; Proverbs 21:1; Psalm 115:3; Genesis 18:25; Matthew 11:28–30; James 1:5.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.