commandments

Hello again! Today’s lesson is from Exodus 19-23, Romans 3,5, and 8. Our lesson and craft from last year (focusing on the 10 commandments) can be found HERE. Today’s lesson focuses more on the law and WHY God gave His people the law.

After God saved His people from the Egyptians, He led them through the desert and provided food and water for them. The people came to 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.

For 40 days and nights Moses talked with God and God told Moses everything the people needed to do or not do to obey God. God even wrote the rules on some stone tablets.

Do you know why your mom and dad have rules for you? They have rules to keep you safe (don’t touch a hot stove, use gentle hands, hold hands when you walk in a parking lot) and rules to help you become good people (study for school, clean your room, help take out the trash).

God’s rules for His people were the same way. Some of the rules keep the people safe and some of them help us be more like God.

Can we ALWAYS obey God? No…we can’t. (Romans 3:23) Only one person has ever perfectly obeyed God…do you know who that is? It’s Jesus! Jesus is the only person who was perfect. We all mess up and disobey God’s rules sometimes. So one thing the rules does is it shows us our sin. If we don’t know what the rules are, then we don’t know we are disobeying God. Now that God gave His people the rules, they would know when they disobeyed. (Romans 5:20)

Do you remember what the consequence for disobeying God is supposed to be? It’s dying. Back in Moses’ day, the people would ask God to forgive them and change their hearts to follow Him again. Then an animal (like a sheep) would have to die–to show that they were sorry and wanted to be right with God again.

If they people disobeyed God and never tried to make things right in their heart, the consequence would be forever death, in hell, away from God.

But God had a better plan. One day, He would send His OWN son, Jesus to be the sheep. Because He was perfect, He was the only one who could stay with God and take the place of our consequence-Romans 3:10, 19. Jesus died just like the sheep used to die. And He didn’t stay dead. He lived again…just like when we sin, we are supposed to die, but if we choose Jesus, then we will live again, forever. (Romans 8:3, 11)

The law (the rules) God gave His people showed them (and us) that we sin. And it shows us that we NEED a savior. (We need someone to save us from the consequences of our sins.) The Bible tells us that Savior is Jesus. And ALL we have to do, is believe in Him. (Romans 3:22, 25-26)

When we love God, we WANT to obey Him…so we try our best to follow His rules. (Romans 3:31) But when we mess up (and we all will), we trust that Jesus has taken that consequence for us and if we tell Him we are sorry and stop doing those bad things, that He WILL forgive us.

Even God’s people didn’t always obey the rules (as we’ll see next time). But now they had God’s plan–His plan to keep them safe, to help them be more like Him, to show them their sins, and to show them their need for a Savior.

Today we made little stone tablets like the ten commandments, but instead of writing the 10 commandments on them we wrote this:

The rules show us that we: SIN, and that we need a SAVIOR.

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

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!

He Bids Them Come

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

The Law

Moses (Part 6)-Mt Sinai