(All material is original to the author with the exception of songs and activities which have been borrowed from various sources. All studies are free for public use.)
Theme: Trusting in God
Today’s Lesson: Trusting God’s Deliverance
Scripture Reference: Exodus 7-11
Memory Verse: Exodus 3:7
(Compiled and written by Martin W. Wiles)
Objective:
Children will learn about God delivering his people from Egyptian slavery where they had been for 400 years. God calls a man named Moses to call down plagues on the Egyptians so they will let the people go.
Say:
We are continuing our theme: Trusting in God. We will study various people and stories from the Old Testament that teach us how we can always trust God to do what he says. Today’s story is about Moses, a Hebrew who had been rescued as a baby and who grew up in the king of Egypt’s palace. When he was older, he saw that the Egyptians were treating his people very badly. They even made them slaves. Through Moses, God would send a number of plagues that would finally convince the king of Egypt to let the slaves go.
Say:
(Display the following verse where the children can easily see it.) Let’s say our memory verse together. I have heard their cries for deliverance. Exodus 3:7 NLT
Icebreaker Questions:
Have you ever needed someone to deliver or rescue you?
What are some ways firemen may rescue people?
What are some ways a lifeguard may rescue someone?
Bible Story Time:
Reflection: Do you think we can depend on God to rescue us? In what ways might God be like the fireman or lifeguard?
You may remember how God saved Moses when he was a baby. The king of Egypt had given a command to kill all the Hebrew baby boys. He was afraid the people would multiply into a large number of people and might join the Egyptians’ enemies when they went to war. Moses’ mother hid him in a basket, but the king’s daughter found him and adopted him as her son. When he was older, Moses saw an Egyptian beating one of his friends. Moses fought the Egyptian and killed him. When the king heard about this, he placed a death sentence on Moses. Moses ran off to another area and eventually married the daughter of a woman who lived there.
Forty years passed, and Moses had become a shepherd tending to the sheep that belonged to his wife’s father. One day, he took his sheep into the wilderness near Mt. Sinai—the place where God would later give him the Ten Commandments. As Moses was caring for the sheep, he saw a startling site—a bush on fire but not burning up. As he drew closer to see how this was possible, a voice said to him, “Moses! Moses! Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.” Then God told Moses who he was. He was the same God his ancestors had worshiped. He also told Moses he had a job for him. Moses was to go to the king and demand that he let the slaves—his people, go.
Moses was afraid to appear before the king. Moses was afraid he wouldn’t listen to him or even that he would kill him. After all, he had killed an Egyptian. Sure enough, the king wanted to know what god had sent him and why he should listen to him. After all, the Egyptians worshiped many gods, not just one as Moses did.
The Egyptians made the slaves’ lives miserable. They treated them very badly, making them do all manner of things against their will. God had plans for his people, and he was going to make the king change his mind about delivering them. As Moses imagined, however, the king said he wasn’t going to listen to him or his God. And he wasn’t going to let the slaves go either.
Reflection: Do you think God is more powerful than any other person or thing? What are our responsibilities in helping God to delivers us?
God was going to show the king that he was more powerful than any of the gods he worshiped and also that he needed to let the slaves go. The way God convinced him—and eventually delivered his people, was through a series of 10 plagues.
The Nile River was very important to the Egyptians, so the first thing God did was turn their water into blood. Now they couldn’t use it, and they had to have water to live. Also, all the fish died, and this made the river smell terribly. The king told Moses he would let the people go if he would ask God to make the water pure again, but when God cleansed the water, the king changed his mind.
The next plague was frogs, and they were all over the place. When God removed the frogs, he sent gnats. After the gnats came the flies. Then God caused their livestock to die. Next, he sent sores all over the people’s bodies. Then came a terrible hailstorm. Following this came a terrible swarm of locust. They ate up all the plants and fruit that the hail hadn’t destroyed. God then sent three days of darkness.
Each time God sent a plague, the king would tell Moses he’d let the people go if he would convince his God to stop the plague. Moses would pray to God, God would stop the plague, but the king would change his mind. God was going to have to do something that he didn’t want to do to get the king to let the people go.
The last plague was the death of all of the Egyptians’ first born sons and animals. God told his people to put blood on the side of and above their door frames. When the death angel passed through the land, he would pass over those houses, and their sons and animals would be spared.
Sure enough, when the Egyptians woke up the next morning, there were dead animals and children in every person’s house. They cried as they never had before. The king knew why this had happened. He called Moses and told him to get the people out of his land. God delivered the slaves because they were his people. They loved him and served him while the Egyptians did not.
God’s promise to deliver his people can still be trusted today. When we love and serve God, he will deliver us. We don’t have to be afraid of people who might want to harm us or things that might do the same. God expects us to be careful, but he promises to protect us from those things we can’t protect ourselves from. God also promises to deliver us from Satan’s temptations. He says he won’t allow the temptation to be so strong that he can’t help us resist it.
Activity Time:
TRUST WALK
The teacher will lead the children on a TRUST WALK. Along the way, say such things as, "Everyone sit on one of these chairs. Do you TRUST it to hold you up?" Or "Do you TRUST this door to open and let you through?" or "Do you TRUST this refrigerator to keep your drinks cold?" or "Stand here in one spot. Do you TRUST your legs to hold you up?" Ideas for this can be MANY. Then have children sit down on the floor and talk about things we can TRUST God to do every day in our lives—especially the things we can trust him to deliver us from.
Transition:
God delivered Moses and the Hebrew slaves from those who didn’t believe in their God and who were being mean to them.
Song:
Activity Time:
Read the story of the ten plagues and let children complete the Moses and the Ten Plagues worksheet.
Wrap Up:
Let each child tell one thing they learned about God’s deliverance from the story of the plagues God sent against the Egyptians.
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