This week we continued laying out the testimony that God has given us about Himself, the framework He provides for truly understanding His mercy in Salvation. The giving of the Law is such an important part of this, revealing God's character, His desire to communicate with man and His wisdom in showing us our great need for a Savior. I am always humbled and grateful when I read this story from Exodus 19-20. I'm humbled because God truly is all that He describes for us in the Law and we clearly are not -- yet still He wants to communicate with us and reveal His wonderful self to us. And I'm grateful because He does provide a way for us, sinners who can't keep the Law, to come to Him. This story, taken in the context of what we now know in the New Testament, is so beautiful. We gaze on God's perfect character, displayed in the Ten Commandments, and we are aware of our unworthiness -- and then so grateful that God has provided the way to Him that we so desperately need.
Of course, I did not try to teach all of that to your children in those words! But everything I did teach them was with these thoughts in my heart. The Lord was very good this week as we met for our special time together. We started out with a hands-on activity using air-dry clay. I told the children to make something very special out of the clay. My intention was to talk about what they were making and what was special to them and to then explain that some things are so special that we only look at them, rather than touch them. Melanie really helped my illustration before I had even said anything by pointing out that she had once made something out of this kind of clay with her Dad and that it had broken.
This activity took a little longer than I had intended, and I'm not sure that the younger children made the connection, but with your help at home perhaps you can reinforce the idea behind it. It did prove to be a good time to ease the children into the lesson and get them excited about the story.
We moved to our Bible Story Table, and I used the felt board, choosing children to put up pieces beginning with Moses, the Israelites and Mount Sinai, which the Israelites could not touch. One child put up the fence that God had told Moses to build at the foot of the mountain. Another put up a cow on the "safe" side of the fence, emphasizing that even an animal would die if it touched the mountain. God had told Moses he was going to talk to the people! After three days, lightning and a cloud of smoke appeared at the top of the mountain. (The children put these pieces up on the board.) I told them that meant the presence of the Lord was in that place -- and His presence is very special and very good -- too good for us to touch. The word for that is Holy. God is Holy.
But God wants us to know Him. The people were very frightened when they saw the lightning and begged Moses to talk to God instead of them (to represent them before God.) God told Moses to come up to the mountain, where He gave him 10 special, holy rules, the Ten Commandments. Moses came back down, wrote them out and read them to the people.
The people said they would obey them -- but could they? Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, all people have been born with wicked hearts, prone to do evil. The people thought they could obey the rules, and they told God they would. But they could not, and they would not.
Why did God give them rules they could not obey? Because He wanted them to really understand that they were sinners and needed a Savior -- because His plan from the very beginning had been to send that Savior, many, many years after Moses -- our Lord and Savior Jesus, who would obey all the rules perfectly for sinful people who trusted in Him. This would be the greatest display of His glorious character, and seeing His character as it really is would bring His people more joy than anything else.
The children really listened to this story. I kept it short and intentionally saved some key parts (such as talking about specific commandments and how important it is to seek to obey them)to talk about in Snack Time and in the Question and Answer time. Short and varied activities seems to work best with this group.
We went outside and "built" a snack that would remind the children of the lesson: we spread peanut butter on a square graham, then cut a banana slice in half and put one half on the top of the graham, to resemble the Ten Commandment Tablets. Then we took 10 raisins to represent the 10 special rules and put them on the graham. As we ate, we talked about some of the Commandments. The children told me some of the ones they knew, like no lying, no killing, no coveting. We talked about what those mean, and what the opposite, or positive side of them, would be, (i.e. telling the truth, protecting people, being content.) We talked about how good God is that He is always all of those good things all the time. I told the children that we would be talking about and learning all of God's special rules this year. We are working on a very easy Ten Commandment fingerplay, which you can find among the links to the right of this blog post, which teaches the chhildren the Commandments in order.
I asked the children if we could obey all the rules all the time, and Trey said sadly, "No." Then I said, but should we still try to obey them? Trey said, very loudly, "Yes!" I told them that when God helps us understand how good He is, and how all His rules are to protect us and make us happy, and when He helps us understand that His goodness even extends to making a way for sinners who can't obey perfectly -- that's when we really WANT to obey His rules. I'm not sure they understood all of this, but they were certainly on board with God is good and they want to obey His rules! Such a sweet group!
We went back inside and glued construction paper lightning and stone tablets onto a picture of Moses receiving the Commandments. As we worked, I asked the children questions from the story. They remembered the lightning and thunder and not touching the mountain -- the Holiness of God -- the most clearly. I would say that is a very important thing to remember!
Please do not worry if your children are not grasping everything that is being taught in this curriculum. We are building categories in your children's minds that will allow them to understand the Gospel on a deep and rich level as they mature: The Holiness of God, the Sinfulness of Man, the need for Repentance, the Mercy and Wonder of Redemption. We are also making a book together in class that will be a resource for you and your child to look at over and over again and review the Truths that are being unfolded. I am praying for your children to grow in wisdom and understanding and am so grateful for the privilege of teaching them!
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