Single lesson
A Second Chance to Keep Passover
Numbers 9:1–14
In this lesson, children follow a short account about keeping Passover in the wilderness. They will notice the order of events, the problem some men faced, and how Yahweh gave clear instructions for both delayed and neglected obedience.
Before you teach
Numbers 9:1–14 begins with Yahweh telling Moses that Israel must keep the Passover at its appointed time in the wilderness of Sinai. After the people obey, some men explain that they are unclean because of a dead body and cannot keep it that day, so Moses waits for Yahweh’s command about them.
Students will be able to sequence Numbers 9:1–14 and explain the different outcomes for those who obeyed, those who were delayed, and those who refused.
Welcome: What happens when a date is important?
4 minBegin by explaining that this passage repeats the phrase about an appointed season or appointed time for Passover. Ask children to listen for when the Passover was to be kept and why that timing mattered. Introduce the setting simply as the wilderness of Sinai in the second year after leaving Egypt.
Numbers 9:1, Numbers 9:2, Numbers 9:3
Read and explain: The first Passover command and the problem
8 minRead verses 1–8 aloud. Help children hear the order: Yahweh commands, Moses tells the people, the people keep the Passover, then certain men cannot join because they are unclean because of a dead body. Point out their question: they want to know why they should be kept back. Moses does not guess. He waits to hear Yahweh’s command.
Numbers 9:2, Numbers 9:4, Numbers 9:5, Numbers 9:6, Numbers 9:7, Numbers 9:8
Discuss: Yahweh’s answer about a second time
6 minRead verses 9–12. Explain that Yahweh gives a way for someone who is unclean or far away on a journey to still keep the Passover in the second month on the fourteenth day at evening. The delayed Passover is still to be kept carefully, with unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and the other Passover rules.
Numbers 9:9, Numbers 9:10, Numbers 9:11, Numbers 9:12
Make and respond: Sequence cards with choices and outcomes
8 minChildren make simple sequence cards for the account, then place them in order and match each choice with its outcome. Include these moments: command to keep Passover, Israel obeys, certain men ask, Moses waits, Yahweh gives a second-month time, warning for the clean person who refuses, and one rule for the foreigner and the native-born.
Numbers 9:2, Numbers 9:5, Numbers 9:7, Numbers 9:8, Numbers 9:10, Numbers 9:13, Numbers 9:14
Closing: What this passage teaches
4 minSummarise that Yahweh gave clear instructions, listened to a real problem, made a provision for those delayed, and warned against refusing when a person could obey. Finish by noticing that a foreigner who desired to keep the Passover was also to follow the same statute and ordinance.
Numbers 9:10, Numbers 9:13, Numbers 9:14
Questions to explore
What did the certain men ask when they could not keep the Passover on that day?
Look closely at their own words in the passage and notice that they wanted to know why they were kept back from offering Yahweh’s offering in its appointed season.
Numbers 9:6, Numbers 9:7
What did Moses do before giving an answer?
Find the verse where Moses says he will wait so that he may hear what Yahweh will command concerning them.
Numbers 9:8
What different outcomes do you see for delayed obedience and for refusal to obey?
Compare the instruction for the person who is unclean or far away with the warning for the person who is clean, not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover.
Numbers 9:10, Numbers 9:11, Numbers 9:13
Make, think or respond
Passover Sequence and Outcome Cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or textas
- scissors
- Bible
Try it together
- Write or draw seven moments from the passage on separate cards: command, Israel obeys, men ask, Moses waits, second-month Passover, warning for refusal, one rule for the foreigner and native-born.
- Mix the cards and have children place them in order using the Bible reading.
- Ask children to mark each card with a simple symbol such as a tick for obedience, a question mark for the problem, and an arrow for God’s answer.
- Review the finished sequence together and ask which cards show a choice and which show an outcome.
This activity helps children sequence Numbers 9:1–14 and see how the passage connects people’s situations and choices with Yahweh’s instructions.
Adapt for your group
- For younger children, prepare the seven card labels in advance and let them focus on ordering, matching, and retelling the account aloud.
- For older or more confident children, ask them to copy key phrases from the verses onto the cards, such as appointed season, wait, second month, and one statute.
An optional closing prayer
You may pray: “Yahweh, thank you for speaking clearly in this passage. Please help us listen carefully, obey what you say, and trust you when we need wisdom.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Numbers 9
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
2 “Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season.
3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season. You shall keep it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances.”
4 Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover.
5 They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.
6 There were certain men who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day.
7 Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel?”
8 Moses answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.”
9 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
10 “Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh.
11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.
13 But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
14 “ ‘If a foreigner lives among you and desires to keep the Passover to Yahweh, then he shall do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its ordinance. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner and for him who is born in the land.’ ”
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.