Balaam - Preschool Bible lesson

In this lesson, we will learn about Balaam and his Donkey from Numbers 22-24. Balaam is a complicated character, who finally learned to listen to God and say good things to His people.

Some of the lessons we will learn are:

The importance of our words
God is always in control
We must totally obey God.

Babies and Toddlers

Balaam (A4 British) pdf

Balaam (Letter USA) pdf

Lesson Guide – Balaam

Begin by asking your children if what we say in important? Prepare some photos of people and animals (There is also a worksheet in this lesson pack you may use). Have the child shout ‘yes’ if the picture can talk or if they see an image of an animal, they should make it’s sound. Finish by showing a picture of a donkey. Explain that while donkeys usually don’t speak, in today’s Bible lesson we read about a talking donkey.

Read the Bible story.

Remind the children how God rescued His people from Israel and promised to take them to the promised land. Talk about how the children of Israel became a mighty nation as they walked around the wilderness. When the people who didn’t know God saw them, they were scared and tried to hurt them.

King Balak wanted to pay Balaam to curse God’s people. To curse means to speak bad thing and wish them to be true. Talk about how we need to be careful with our words and what we say.

To illustrate this, you could use a tube of toothpaste. Say that when we speak, our words come out of our mouth like the toothpaste leaves the tube. Have the child squirt toothpaste onto a plate. When all the toothpaste is on the plate, ask the child to put it back inside the tube. Explain that when we speak; we can say good things or bad things. Sometimes we wish we could take our words back. We can say sorry but like the toothpaste it leaves a mess. So, we must be very careful with what we say.

Ask the children what they would do if someone asked them to do something wrong? Talk about how other people might ask us to do wrong things. We must always listen to God in first place.

Share how the king tried to pay Balaam money to do something bad. Share how people or the devil will try to make us do something wrong by offering something we want. Give some examples, for example, if you lie then I will give you some sweets. Reinforce that the child should always do what the Bible says. If anyone ask them to do something wrong, they should always speak to a parent about it.

Talk about how we must listen carefully to what God says and not only listen to what we want. Plan to prepare a cake. Show the child the instructions. Carefully follow everything the recipe says to do. Now repeat, but do whatever you want, add some things, and leave some things out. When the cakes are ready, show how one is tasty (hopefully) and the other is a mess and taste terrible. It is important we listen to all of God’s commands and not just some.

Balaam was angry when his donkey refused to go where he wanted to go, but later he learned that the donkey had saved his life. Talk about a time when you wanted to do something, and it didn’t work. Share how you were disappointed or maybe angry with someone for not letting you do something, but later learned it was good that it never happened.

Share while the king wanted Balaam to curse the Israelite so bad things would happen to them, God showed that He is always in control. At the end, Balaam learns his lesson, obeys God, and blesses the Israelite. Read and learn Romans 8:31.

Pray together and thank God for protecting you and guiding your step. Ask him to help you obey Him and be careful with your words.