Aim

To introduce the story of Amos.
To understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.

Preparation

Before the lesson familiarize yourself with the story of Amos.
Photocopy one worksheet for each child.

Lesson

Remind the children what they learnt last week about the Holy Spirit. Do they think the Holy Spirit existed before Jesus came to Earth. Answer - yes. The Holy Spirit is in the Old Testament as well. In fact, He is mentioned by name in the first paragraph of the Bible.

"In the beginning God created the sky and the earth. The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean and God's Spirit was moving over the water."

In fact there has never been a time when the Holy Spirit did not exist as the Holy Spirit is God Himself.

There is a difference however in how the Holy Spirit works in the Old Testament and how He works in the New. In the Old Testament, He worked only in a few individuals and only for limited periods of time.

Amos was one person in the Old Testament who received the Holy Spirit. Amos was a prophet; a person chosen by God to communicate His words to the people of Israel.

If the children were God, who in the class would they chose to be their prophet - the cleverest, the oldest, the strongest, the most confident?

Amos was none of these things. He was really a shepherd. In fact, he was only able to be a prophet because with the job came the Holy Spirit. And with the Holy Spirit came a whole range of talents including the ability to see into the future.

Which of the children would like to be a prophet? Which of them would not? Why not?

Being a prophet was a bit of a rotten job because prophets often had to say things people did not want to hear. Amos told the people that God wasn't pleased with them and they were heading for disaster.

Have the children ever had to give/receive bad news? What was it? What was their reaction or that of the people whom they had to tell.

Activity

In pairs role play a number of situations in which the children have to give or receive bad news.

• Teacher tells pupil that he/she has been dropped from the football/netball team.
• A police officer tells a person that his/her brand new car is, in fact, stolen.
• A doctor tells patient that the results of his/her medical tests are positive.

How does it feel to be the bearer of bad news? How does it feel to be at the receiving end?

All of the prophets suffered hardships as a result of speaking the word of God. Amos may have been arrested and killed for what he said.

Amos was sent by God to speak to his fellow Jews in the kingdom of Israel. What do the children think a prophet should be saying about Britain today? The children are to use the worksheet to write a prophecy against the people of Britain. They could address social problems (such as homelessness and inequality), low church attendance figures, environmental issues etc.

Invite volunteers to read out their prophecies.