I teach the fourth grade class at my church and this morning our lesson was on Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers. (Luke 17:11-19)
In reference to this we also discussed the stories of leprosy in the Old Testament (Moses’ hand, Miriam, and Naaman). In the Naaman story, Elisha’s servant and his family are cursed with leprosy (2 Kings 5:27). We discussed whether or not it was possible that the ten lepers Jesus healed were part of the servant’s descendants. (Possible, but no way to know.)
We also discussed how many children people in the Bible times had. I mentioned that Abraham didn’t start having children until 90+ and he had seven sons. (One by Hagar, one by Sarah, and five, after Sarah’s death, with Keturah.)
Then the kids asked about ages of people, so we discussed Methusaleh and how people figure he died the year of the flood. From there we went into a discussion of “the oldest man that ever lived, but died before his father.” Methusaleh, who lived to be 969, was the son of Enoch who, at the age of 365, was not for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)
We went all over the book, looking at thoughts and questions. It ws fun.