The Golden Calf

July 29, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ 1 Comment

Hi all! Today’s story comes from Exodus 32.

So Moses was up on Mt Sinai talking to God for 40 days (40 wake ups!)

And the people got bored with all that waiting. They said “Why is it taking so long?! What are we DOING out here?! Let’s make a new god!”

So Aaron, Moses’ brother told all the people to take their gold jewelry and dishes and they melted it all together and then they made a gold cow. They said “THIS is our God!”

But a gold statue can’t love you, or care for you. A gold statue can’t hear you when you pray. The people made a bad choice.

They put food in front of the gold cow, and they danced and sang songs. They bowed down to the ground and had a fancy party for the cow.

God was NOT happy. He sent Moses back down the mountain to tell the people to STOP IT! Only GOD is the real God. He is the One we pray to and sing songs for and dance for. He is the One who loves us and protects us and leads us.

God was very frustrated, but Moses asked God to please forgive the people.

There were still bad consequences for the people worshipping the cow and not God (some of them died and some more got very very sick). God just told us in the 10 commandments to put Him first and not worship any other thing…and His own people turned around and were doing just that.

It makes God very sad when we disobey or make bad choices. He did forgive the people though and He promised to lead them to the land He had waiting them. Even when we mess up or when God seems confusing or far away, we can trust that He loves us and has good plans for us. We can pray and ask Him to be close to us and to show us where to go next.

One more lesson in Exodus and then we’ll start Leviticus-Ruth in August. Love to you all!

Moses (Part 6)-Mt Sinai

July 28, 2015July 28, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! We are finishing up this month of July and our stories from Genesis and Exodus. Today we will continue the story with Moses (there will be two more lessons after this and then next month we’ll be covering leviticus-ruth).

Today’s story comes from Exodus 19-23.

After God saved the Israelites (His people) from the Egyptians, He led them through the desert and provided food and water for them. The people arrived at a mountain called Mt Sinai. God told Moses to come up the mountain and He would give Moses the rules the people needed to follow.

God gave the people rules to keep them safe and help them be more like God. What are some of the rules at your house? Your mom and dad (or grandma and grandpa) make rules to keep you safe and help you be nice to other people.

Moses went up the mountain and a big cloud came and God came and spoke to Moses. He gave him 10 commandments (a commandment is something you MUST do, or something you must NOT do. It’s like an official order.)

(We made another flip book to help us remember the 10 commandments…and as always my disclaimer is that i promote child-created art instead of printables or just coloring in a pre-made shape though you could certainly do that if you wanted)

1. God should be first (He’s number one!)

2. Only worship God, not other things (like statues, or people, toys or money)

3. Use God’s name nicely (don’t say God’s name to be mean to someone else, and don’t be disrespectful when you talk about God)

4. Rest one day a week and worship God. Remember to rest like God did and spend one day each week just focusing on Him.

5. Obey your mom and dad

6. Do not kill other people

7. Keep your marriage promises. When grownups get married, they promise to take care of each other and to love each other. They promise to help each other no matter what. God wants people to know how important it is to keep those promises, just like He always keeps His promises to us.

(also, i should mention i used the phrasing “keep your marriage promises” from the jesus calling storybook Bible for this one)

8. Do not steal (stealing is when you take things that aren’t yours) It’s ok to borrow something from a friend if you plan to give it back, but stealing is when you take it forever or leave a store without paying for the things you took.

9. Do not lie. A lie is when you say something that didn’t really happen. We need to always say what really happened, that’s call the truth.

10. Do not covet. That means wanting things other people have. The Bible says we need to be happy and thankful for all the things God has given us.

After God gave Moses these commandments, He also gave him some other rules. They basically tell us to love God and love others. Those are the two most important things God wants us to do. Love God, Love others.

Moses talked with God for 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain, then he came back down to tell the people all the rules God had given them.

Do you think the people will obey the rules? We’ll see soon!

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

Moses (Part 5)-God Provides

July 26, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hey all!

Today’s story is from Exodus 16 and 17..

After Moses and the Israelites (God’s people) escaped from Egypt and the angry Pharaoh (king), they began to wander around the desert toward the land God promised them.

Even though God had JUST saved them and they had seen some pretty cool things, (remember the plagues and the water dividing so they could walk through??) they were already grumpy.

They said “WHY GOD WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU BRING US TO THE DESERT WITH NO FOOD?! WE WERE BETTER OFF BEING MISERABLE IN EGYPT!!!”

God heard the people and even though they should have been thankful, and were instead complying, God still had mercy on them and was kind. He gave them quail (bird meat) to eat each evening and He gave them manna (bread) each morning.

God told Moses to tell the people that bread would fall from heaven and each morning they could collect enough for just that day. If they were greedy and tried to take a bunch or to save it for later, it would just get yucky. God wanted His people to trust Him each and every day. And He was faithful and provided for them each and every day.

Even still, the people got grumpy. They were tired of just eating the quail and manna. At one stop, they were complaining about not having enough water. God again had mercy on His people and told Moses to go to a certain rock and to touch it with his staff (big stick). So Moses went before all the people and water came from the rock. (Nothing is too hard for God!)

(Above: we used two easter eggs and filled them with blue ribbon, but you could use tissue paper, crepe paper or even actual water if you wanted. Then they used their staffs (pipe cleaners) to tap on the rock, opened them up, and revealed the water.)

The people were still unhappy though. God was doing wonderful things for them and through them, but they just couldn’t trust Him and they couldn’t be happy. When God something hard or sad is happening in our lives, God is teaching us and helping us to trust Him more. It can be hard to always trust God, but He is always faithful and He loves us even if we are grumpy. Isn’t that wonderful news?

Next time we’ll see what happens at Mt Sinai. Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Moses (Part 4)-Crossing the Sea

July 25, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

We’ll continue our story of Moses today. (This month of July we are learning the stories from Genesis and Exodus).

Today’s part of the story comes from Exodus 13-14.

After Pharaoh sent the Israelites away, he changed his mind (again!) and was angry that he had let them go.

He rounded up all his soldiers (thousands!) and took off after God’s people. The Israelites had brought their stuff and were moving kind of slow, so it was easy for the Egyptians to catch up.

God led His people with a cloud by day and a fire by night. They could follow the cloud or the fire and know which way to go.

When the Israelites got to a big sea (called the red sea….but it’s regular blue water) they saw the Egyptians and they were scared. They said “Why did God bring us out here?! We would have been better off back in Egypt!”

But God told Moses to raise his hands and lift up his staff (his big stick). That night, the cloud moved from in front of the Israelites, to behind them, in between them and the Egyptians. God made a big wind come and He parted the water. There were two big walls of water on either side on the sea, but a dry path down the middle.

The Israelites walked through the water…water on this side…water on that side…but dry on their feet. Can you imagine?!

Then the cloud moved, and Pharaoh and his men chased after the Israelites. After all God’s people were through, Moses raised his staff again, and the water came crashing down on the Egyptians. They were all washed away.

God protected His people, the people from Abraham, Isaac and then Jacob/Israel. He had promised them that He would bring them back to their land. (They don’t always obey God, but He ALWAYS keeps His promise to them, even when they don’t follow Him. We will see that coming up soon.)

God also promises US life and freedom in Jesus (even if we don’t always make the right choice…God still promises to love and forgive us.)

We didn’t do a craft today, instead we watched “Moe and the Big Exit” by Veggie Tales and we also found this video from the Beginner’s Bible. It actually covers Moses through the 10 Commandments (but minute 21 is where we stop today.)

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Moses (Part 3-Plagues)

July 23, 2015July 23, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today we’ll continue learning the story of Moses from Exodus 5-12. We did our craft as we did the story. We made a book from 10 small pieces of paper stapled together then we colored each page as we talked about them. This story also has a nice rhythm so with each plague the kids knew the repeating phrases and did their “parts.”

So God had appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told him to go to Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) and to tell him to let God’s people go!

Moses took his brother Aaron with him. They approached the king and said “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

And the Pharaoh said “No. I don’t know your God!? How dare you ask me to let my slave workers go!? Just for that they’ll work EVEN harder!”

The Israelites (God’s people) were NOT happy with Moses and Aaron and they wondered why this was happening.

God told Moses that He was about to lead His people back to the land He promised them. (Canaan). God told Moses and Aaron to go again to the Pharaoh and tell him “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

But the Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God said “This king will not change his mind. Because he will not let My people go, I will send plagues and you will know that I am the Lord.” God told Moses and Aaron to meet the Pharaoh at the Nile River (the river Moses had floated on as a baby…the big important river that everyone got their water from). When they did, Aaron put his staff (like a big stick) into the water and it turned into blood. EW!? The people couldn’t drink it, they couldn’t wash their clothes or take a bath. It was disgusting.

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

Pharaoh responded, “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent frogs. They were in peoples’ houses, in their ovens, in their clothes, everywhere! Pharaoh said “If you take these frogs away, I’ll let the people go!”

So Moses asked God to take the frogs away…but as soon as Pharaoh saw that the frogs were gone, he changed his mine and said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent bugs.

God sent Aaron and Moses back to Pharaoh to say “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

And Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent flies.

God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to say “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

And Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO!”

Next God killed the animals of the Egyptians, but not the animals that the Israelites owned.

God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to say “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

And Pharaoh said, “Ummmm NO.”

Next, God made the Egyptians have yucky, sick skin. They had big ouchy spots all over.

God told Moses and Aaron to go tell Pharaoh “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

Again, Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent hail (which is like big rocks of ice that come down during a storm). The hail hurt the people and their houses.

Pharaoh said “If you will take the hail away, then the people can go!”

God took away the hail, and told Moses and Aaron to say to Pharaoh “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

But Pharaoh changed his mind (again) and said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent locusts (kind of like grasshoppers) and they ate up all the wheat and food the Egyptians were growing.

God told Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh and say “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

And Pharaoh again said, “Ummmm NO.”

Next, God made everything dark. There was no light for 3 days. The people couldn’t cook, they couldn’t play, they couldn’t even move around it was SO.DARK. (But the Israelites had light.)

God had Moses and Aaron say to Pharaoh “God says ‘Let my people go!'”

But once again, Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO.”

Lastly, God said, “I have one more plague. After that, he will let you all go. In the middle of the night, I will come through Egypt and I will kill the firstborn son of every person, UNLESS, you kill a lamb and wipe the blood on your door. THEN, I will pass over that house, because I will know that that house has people who love Me and who obey Me.”

The Israelites obeyed God. They sacrificed a lamb (just the kind God said to) and they wiped the blood on their doors. That night, the first boy in every family died, even the Pharaoh’s son…but not the Israelite boys.

Do you remember that Pharaoh had been so scared of the Israelites being so strong that he had killed all their baby boys? And now God took his son, and all the first born Egyptian boys.

Later, God would give His own son, Jesus, to save all of us.

It was the middle of the night when Pharaoh found his son dead and he called Moses and Aaron and said “GET OUT!” The Egyptians were so scared of Moses and his God, that they gave the Israelites all their food and money and sent them away.

What do you think will happen next?

We will see what happens next tomorrow! Love to you all!

Moses (Part 2)

July 22, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again all!

Today we’ll continue our story of Moses (found in Exodus 3).

Moses grew up in the kings house with the princess, but he knew he was one of God’s people the Israelites. (One of Jacob/Israel’s descendants).

The king and the people in Egypt (the Egyptians) did not like the Israelites because they were so strong and so many. They made slaves (which means hard hard work for no money!) They did NOT want the Israelites to become too powerful!

One day, after Moses was a grown up, he saw an Egyptian being mean to one of his fellow Israelites and he killed the Egyptian. Was that a good choice?

He knew he would be in big trouble, so he ran far far away.

He was away for a long time, he even got married and had a whole new life.

One day, he was out working when he came upon a bush on fire! But the bush was not burning up! It was just like Gods people in Egypt who were having a very hard time under the king, but God was keeping them and making them even stronger.

What an odd thing to see?! Then something EVEN weirder happened! The bush SPOKE!

God was using the bush to speak to Moses. God said “I AM the God of your father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I have an important job for you. I have seen how the Egyptians treat my people and it’s time to bring them back to the promised land. YOU will go to the king (the Pharaoh) and say “LET MY PEOPLE GO!”

Go back? The people all knew he had killed somebody!? And tell the king to let the Israelites go!? Moses was scared. He asked God for a helper and God said he could take his brother Aaron too to help talk to the Pharaoh.

They set off to see the king. What do you think will happen next? Will the king let the people go?

For our craft, we drew a bush with leaves and glued tissue paper fire. Then we drew a surprised Moses.

Join us tomorrow as we see what happens next.

Love to you all!

Moses (Part 1)

July 20, 2015July 20, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. Welcome to Exodus!

Today’s story is from Exodus 1 and 2.

Recap: So Jacob had 12 sons, one of them was Joseph (who we just learned about). Jacob/Israel and all of his other sons moved from Canaan to Egypt to be with Joseph. God had promised the family they would have a LOT of kids and then one day return to the land God promised them.

Jacob was old and he died, then Joseph and his brothers had kids and they got old and died. And they had kids, and they had kids…and the people of Jacob/Israel (known as the Israelites) lived in Egypt for 400 years.

These were the people God had chosen, the people of Jacob…and He blessed them. There were SO many of them and they were strong and healthy and good workers. BUT, the king (pharaoh) and people of Egypt began to be afraid of the Israelites because they were so many and so strong.

They started to make the Israelites work for them. They were mean to them and tried to keep them down. They made them slaves and it just got worse and worse for the Israelites, all because the king and people of Egypt were scared that the Israelites would take over.

Eventually, the king said “All the boy babies that the Israelites have, have to die. We don’t need any.more.Israelites!” The king and his men killed the sweet baby boys. Isn’t that sad?!

Well, one of Jacob’s sons named Levi, had a son who had a son who had a son, and he got married and he and his wife had a baby boy. The mommy couldn’t let them kill her baby boy, so she hid him in a basket. She covered him up and put him in the Nile River (a really big and important river through Egypt). Then she sent the baby’s big sister to watch and see what happened to him.

And do you know what happened? That baby floated down the river until he was spotted by the princess! The king’s daughter! She picked him up and she wanted to keep him. But she needed someone to help take care of him because he was still so little.

So the sister came out from where she was watching the baby and said “I know somebody who can take care of him!” And she went and got the baby’s mommy. The mommy was able to keep her boy and take care of him, until he was old enough, then he lived with the princess. The princess named him Moses (which means “i pulled him from the water”).

God had big plans for Moses…and we will learn more about that tomorrow.

For today’s craft we cut out pictures of a baby and a princess and glued them on our papers. Then we used toothpicks to make a reed-basket around the baby. We drew on water and Moses’ mommy and sister in the background.

All for today…love to you all!

Ephraim and Manasseh

July 19, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again friends.

Today is our last story in Genesis and it’s from Genesis 48.

Joseph was growing older and his daddy Jacob was VERY old and getting sick. He was about to die, so Joseph went to visit him. Joseph took two of his sons, Manasseh (the older boy) and Ephraim (the younger boy) to see their grandpa.

Jacob gave both boys a special blessing and said “they will be like my children and get the promises of God, just like my other sons.”

Then Joseph had the boys kneel down in front of Jacob/Israel and he put Manasseh, the older one, on the right side and Ephraim, the younger one, on the left side and Jacob/Israel said he would give them special blessings. BUT, he crossed his hands and started to bless the younger brother.

Joseph said, “oh no, dad! THIS is the first boy who SHOULD get the blessing!”

But Israel/Jacob said “No. They will both be blessed, but the younger brother will be greater than the older. And they will inherit the promised land just like my other sons.”

Jacob blessed all his sons and said they would be 12 great tribes. They would each get part of the land God promised them. Then Jacob died. Joseph promised his brothers it would be ok. They all stayed in Egypt a long time, but knew one day their people would return to the land God promised them.

God has been working all along to show us that He doesn’t always pick the “best” or “most important” people. God reaches out to everyone who will have Him. Jesus would come from a whole line of people who were “less than” but He would be great. There is nothing too small or too weak for God. There is no bad choice too big for God to handle. There is no person small or bad enough that God’s love can not overcome it.

God also keeps His promises. He has a big plan for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. Jesus would come from Judah’s (one of Jacob’s kids) families. And tomorrow we’ll start learning about Moses (a man from the tribe of Levi, another one of Jacob’s sons).

For our craft, we traced the kids’ arms and hands. Then we drew two heads and glued their hands criss-cross on the heads.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Joseph (Part 2)

July 17, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi again, friends!

Today we will continue the story of Joseph found in Genesis 39-45.

So Joseph’s brothers had sold him and he ended up in Egypt, working for Potiphar (the king’s top guard). Joseph was a good worker, but sad to be far away from his home.

Potiphar’s wife fell in love with Joseph and tried to get him to love her too, but he said “that would be wrong! You’re married to Potiphar!” That made her mad, so she lied and said Joseph did bad things and he was thrown in jail.

Later, two of the king’s helpers were put in jail and they each had dreams. God helped Joseph understand the dreams. He told the 1st one that he would be free from jail in 3 days, but the other one’s dream meant he would be killed in 3 days.

Both of those came true. Joseph asked the 1st man to remember him when he got out and to tell the king good things so he could get out too, but the man forgot to say anything for TWO YEARS!

One day, two years later, the king had a dream and none of his helpers could figure out what it meant. That’s when the king’s helper remembered Joseph, so the king called for Joseph and told him his dream.

Joseph said, “I can’t tell you the meaning of your dream, but God can!”

So the king said, “I had two dreams. In the first one, there were 7 healthy, fat cows and then 7 skinny, sick cows and the skinny, sick cows ate up the fat, healthy cows. In my second dream, there were 7 big, wonderful stalks of wheat, and then 7 yucky, thin heads of wheat and the yucky wheat ate up the good wheat.”

Joseph replied, “Your dreams both mean that there will be 7 years of good food and then 7 years of famine (or no food, usually because there’s no rain.) You should find someone very responsible and put them in charge of saving up food, so when the bad years come, you’ll have leftovers and no one will be hungry.”

Well the king liked this idea very much, so he put Joseph in charge of saving up the food…in fact he put Joseph as 2nd in command over all of Egypt.

After 7 years, the famine came, and Joseph helped give all the people the food they would need.

People even came from all over to ask for food. And do you know who came? Joseph’s brothers.

They didn’t know Joseph was in charge in Egypt, they just came looking for food, and they didn’t even recognize Joseph when they saw him! But Joseph knew who they were!

Joseph had to know how they felt now, so he gave them some tests. The brothers showed Joseph that they were very sorry for what they had done to him.

He couldn’t stand it any more. Finally, he told them who he was and they SO were surprised and scared! Joseph was in charge of all of Egypt. He could have them killed! But instead, he forgave them!

The brothers went him, got Jacob the daddy and they all moved to Egypt to be with Joseph. God told them it was ok to move to Egypt, and that He would bring them back home someday.

The brothers had meant bad things for Joseph, but God turned them into good. He was sold and put in jail, but God used all of that to do great things. And everyone in Egypt learned about God because of Joseph.

You can be sure God has great plans for you too!

We didn’t do a craft today, because we watched the veggie tales “Ballad of Little Joe.”

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Joseph (Part 1)

July 16, 2015July 16, 2015 ~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again!

Today we’ll begin following Joseph. (This month of July we’ll be learning stories from Genesis and Exodus in the Bible.)

This story comes from Genesis 37.

So Abraham had Isaac and Isaac had Jacob and Jacob had….a LOT of kids, just like God had promised. One of Jacob’s sons was named Joseph. Jacob liked Joseph the most.

He even gave Joseph a fancy coat. It was REALLY special and Joseph’s brothers were jealous! (Which means they were angry and really wanted one too!) And they were mean to Joseph because of it.

One day, Joseph told his brothers he had had a dream. He said, “We all had stalks of wheat growing, but mine was standing tall and all of your wheat was bending over, bowing to my wheat.”

“What do you mean!?” the brothers asked madly. “Do you think you’ll be king over us?! That we would EVER bow down to YOU, our LITTLE brother?! No way!”

Then, Jacob had another dream. “This time, the sun and moon and stars were bowing down to me.”

The brothers did not like this one.bit. “You think all of us and EVEN mom and dad will bow down to you!?” Even Jacob the daddy thought this idea was crazy.

Later, the brothers were working in the fields and Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. They were so jealous of Joseph and so angry that he thought HE could be king over them, that they decided they would kill him.

Reuben, the oldest brother said, “That’s a terrible choice! We can’t do that?!”

So they decided not to kill Joseph, but to throw him down a well (and Reuben decided HE would go back later and rescue Joseph.) So Reuben went back to work and the other brothers took Joseph’s coat and threw him in the well….but then, they took him out and instead decided to sell Joseph to some people passing through on their way to Egypt.

“Why should we just leave him when we could make some money from selling him?!” they said.

When Reuben went back to save Joseph from the well, he was very sad to find out the brothers had instead sold Joseph!

Then, they did something REALLY sneaky and they put some blood on Joseph’s coat and took it back to Jacob the daddy so he though Joseph was really dead. And he was very sad.

When the people who bought Joseph got to Egypt, THEY sold Joseph and he started working for the king’s top guard.

That’s where our story will end for today, but it’s not the end of the story for Joseph. Things look yucky now…Joseph is working in a different country, his brothers lied to the daddy and the big brother and daddy are very very sad. And Joseph was probably working very hard and he was probably very sad too to be so far from home. BUT, even though the brothers had planned bad things for Joseph, God had GOOD things in store. God ALWAYS has a plan and HE watches over His people.

For our craft, we made fancy coats. We just did colors and glued confetti on paper cut outs of coats, but you could also make a coat out of a paper grocery bag or some felt and decorate a WEARABLE coat.

We will learn more about Joseph tomorrow. Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

He Bids Them Come

A place of encouragement to help teach your little ones about Jesus and His word