God Preserves Moses, But Later He Must Flee

We began our study of Exodus with God preserving Baby Moses -- and so preserving His people. Satan's evil plan to destroy the people of God through Pharoah (and also to destroy the Savior) is thwarted by God, using midwives who fear the Lord and a mother who trusts Him. God had made a promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and no one can stop God from fulfilling His promises.

We opened with a short rebus puzzle of our verse "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." It can be hard to remember which part comes next, so I drew pictures for each to help us remember. Each time we added a picture, we sang the verse to the tune of "Anchors Away". REally a fun song. In our classroom, I had gummies shaped like numbers. The children had to find the numbers that matched the verse address. (Deuteronomy 6:5)I don't usually give them sugar, and I apologize but I really thought the numbers would help them to remember.

I opened storytime by holding up a basket and asking what kinds of things we usually find in baskets. Melanie said, "A baby!" Now, I hadn't expected her to say that! Agnes told me later that she has been reading her picture Bible, so she already figured out where I was going. I'm delighted by that!

During the story, I used a little peg game to keep their attention and to illustrate how God had prospered the Hebrews and how cruel Pharoah was. I told them that first God had brought Joseph to Egypt and then handed each of them one peg. Then Jacob and his sons came. I handed each some more pegs. Then Jacob's sons married and had children. I kept handing them more and more pegs until their hands were overflowing. I told them that this new Pharoah did not like the Hebrews and made them serve as slaves. There were so many Hebrews that Pharoah was afraid that they would rise up and take over, so he ordered the baby boys to be killed. I had pink and green pegs, and if the peg was green (a boy) he had to be thrown in the middle tray (the Nile). If the peg was pink (a girl), she could be put on the side and live. The children were rightly upset at this injustice. We talked about how God had Moses' mother place him in a basket, so that he could be delivered -- saved by the princess and raised in the palace instead of being killed.

After the story, during question time, I asked why Pharoah wanted to kill the baby boys. Jacob answered: "Well, he wasn't a fan of baby boys." The children did do a very good job of recounting this story. I told them that God saved Baby Moses because He was going to use him to save His people from slavery. This story reminds us of another baby who came much later whom Satan wanted to kill -- Baby Jesus. But God preserved Him and He went on to save His people. (Remember that when Jesus was a baby, Herod ordered all the baby boys killed. Wow! Moses points us to Christ and the deliverance in such a clear and beautiful way, as only God can do! I didn't share the parallel between murderous Herod/murderous Pharoah with the children because I thought it would be too confusing to get into all the details -- but you might want to tell them that story at home and show them the similarities.)

We colored our pictures as we talked about the story and how God is completely Truthful. He said he would keep his promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and nothing will stop that. We went back to look at the title page of the book we are making (where it says God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable) and I reminded them that God is infinitely, eternally and unchangeably Truthful!

April 28 -- Moses Flees Egypt: We opened with a Yahtzee-style verse game. I had spelled out the verse "Love your neighbor as yourself" with foam letters and then put identical letters inside a Yahtzee shaker can. We shook the can, then picked out a letter, peeled off the back and stuck it over the matching letter on our sign. After each letter, we sang the verse as we shook the can. We had a visitor, and Melanie was kind to help him. We missed our Jacob though!

After the verse game, we played an active game to introduce our story. We played a version of tag with one player being an Egyptian and another being Moses. I told them that in today's story, Moses was very afraid because he had done something to very bad to an Egyptian.

We sat down and I told them how Moses had been upset that the Hebrews were being treated so poorly, but that he did the wrong thing. He saw an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew, and he killed him in his anger. His sin was discovered, and then he had to leave everything he knew and everyone he loved and flee from Egypt. Moses had tried to help the Hebrews but failed. He had done it in the wrong way and sinned against God. Only God could deliver His people from their slavery, and He would do it in just the right way in His time. Even though Moses had done a terrible thing when he killed the Egyptian, God did not give up on him. God took care of a repentant Moses in Midian. God never gives up on His people.

Again, in telling this story I was struck by God's mercy and justice. His zeal for His people is not dependent on their behavior -- God does not give up on Moses the murderer. Instead, He transforms Him into Moses, the savior. Just as Moses did, God also hears the cries of the tormented Hebrew slaves and He burns to right the injustices against them. And He will! God's Mercy and Justice are both comforting facets of God's character.

After the story, we played the Moses tag game again, then I let each child take turns carrying Moses' staff as we walked to the bathroom pretending to be on our way to Midian. Upon return to our room, we colored our pictures and then cut out some yarn to glue to the tail and mane of Moses' horse. We worked on our front page by sticking down the letters that spell "UNCHANGING". God's justice and mercy are perfect, last forever and never change. He is infinitely, eternally and unchangably just and merciful. These are big and glorious Truths!