BACKGROUND PREPARATION: Before leading this session, you may find it helpful to read Isaiah 36-39 and familiarise yourself with the story of Hezekiah. Spend some time focussing particularly on Hezekiah’s relationship with God, in preparation for this session’s Bible study.

Begin the session by playing a simple, well-known game with your group. A version of indoor football or indoor basketball would work really well. Just make sure you choose a game where your young people already know (or think they know) the rules.

Before the session, prep your leaders or helpers to play one of two roles. Ask some of them to play the part of ‘rule keeper’ and the others to advocate a more relaxed attitude towards playing by the rules. Each time a decision has to be made, for example if a point was scored or not, if the ball was out or not, where a player should be standing etc; encourage your leaders to vocalise their point of view on whether the rules should be stuck to, or the team ‘let off.’ Watch as your young people involve themselves in the decision making.

KEY POINT: This session focuses on the gift of God’s mercy to us. Use this activity to help your young people feel the benefit of receiving mercy, not to cause too much confusion in playing the game.

Introduction (5 mins)

Tell your young people that the theme for this session is mercy and justice. Ask your young people to define what they understand these terms to mean. Help them to understand that justice means getting what we deserve, whereas mercy means not getting what we deserve. You could display these definitions somewhere in the room to refer to later.

Ask your young people to think about the game you just played. Were they advocating justice or mercy? How did it feel to be on the receiving end of mercy when decisions were made?

Ask your young people to think back to a time when they did not get what they deserved but were shown mercy instead. Perhaps when a teacher let them off a detention they should have been given, or when a friend readily forgave them for hurting them in some way. Ask your young people how that mercy made them feel. If your young people are happy to, encourage them to share their stories. You could begin this activity by sharing your own tale of mercy. 

KEY POINT: Try to keep this pretty light-hearted. The idea is to focus on the mercy that was shown, not to make them feel guilty for whatever they did. This activity should help your young people to grasp just how powerful mercy is; the idea of being ‘let off’ something they did.

Bible study (15-20 mins)

Ask someone to read Isaiah 38:1-22. Think carefully about which translation your group will find most helpful to follow, The Message, for instance. As you listen to the reading ask your young people to listen out for evidence of Hezekiah’s character and evidence of God’s character.

Unroll a life-size outline of a man (drawn on large paper before the session) in front of your group. Provide your young people with pens and invite them to record what they found out about Hezekiah on the appropriate part of his body. For instance eyes – he cried, heart – his love of God etc. Encourage your group to re-read the passage themselves to add more information.

Once completed, encourage your group to reflect on what this diagram shows us of Hezekiah’s relationship with God. Help them to understand that Hezekiah faithfully followed and trusted God. Remind them that he served and loved God in all circumstances.

Now ask your young people to reflect on God’s relationship towards Hezekiah. Help them to see that He too loved Hezekiah and showed him great protection and mercy.

Key verse (5 mins)

Ask someone to reread verse 17. Tell your young people that this verse offers us the key to understanding God’s mercy. Explain that although we have seen that Hezekiah could be called, or known as, a ‘good man,’ he still recognised the sin in his own life. He was not a perfect or blameless man, but he recognised the significance of God’s mercy in ‘turning His eyes away from his sins.’

For this role-play exercise, you will need your young people to play different roles. Ask for 4-5 volunteers to play the part of ‘the guilty’, then divide the rest of your young people into two groups, naming one group ‘justice’ and the other ‘mercy.’

Tell your young people that they are going to act out various ‘courtroom scenarios.’ One at a time, the guilty will stand in the dock and confess to a series of crimes, (provide each of the young people playing this part with a card bearing the details of their confession; the more ridiculous the better!). Once they have confessed, ‘justice’ will hand out the punishment which they believe best fits the crime. ‘Mercy’ can then reply with their response to the crime. You may like to sit one leader with each of the groups to help guide them to making an appropriate response, according to the role they are playing.

After completing this activity, invite your young people to discuss how they felt playing their role. Did they enjoy dishing out justice? How did it feel to act in mercy? How did it feel to be on the receiving end? How were their relationships with one another affected through the course of this activity?

Close (3 mins)

As you close the session, remind your young people that God offers us the same mercy He showed to Hezekiah. Pray for your young people as they leave, thanking God for His mercy on us. You could use the words of Isaiah 38:16-17 as your prayer. 

Notes for adapting:

For younger groups… Rather than acting out the role play in ‘Justice says…, Mercy says…,’ you may find it more helpful to lead your group in an open discussion about how justice and mercy would respond to the confessed crimes.

For older groups… In place of‘I remember when…’ you may prefer to provide your young people with a range of newspapers, asking them to look through and find examples of mercy in action.

For un-churched young people… The key to this session is in understanding that God shows mercy when He forgives us for our sins. This may need a greater level of explanation with un-churched groups and you may feel some kind of response is appropriate during this session.

For churched young people…You could use this session to begin to explore the question ‘when is justice a right response?’ Your young people may be ready to grapple with these bigger questions.

 

 
Back to top