God Calls Moses to Deliver Israel
Scripture: Exodus 3-4
Target Age: 4-5 years old
Focus: God is holy. Man is unable to come near to the holy God.
Opener:
Talk with the children about fire. What do you do when you see fire?
Lesson Prep:
Create a burning bush. If your church is like mine, we have a bunch of potted plants around. I just borrowed one from the lobby and placed red and orange cellophane in and among the branches. Before the kids came into the class I told them to take their shoes off because the place where we will be going is holy ground.
Lesson:
I try to read through the scripture passage at least twice before planning the lesson. That way, I can get a flavor of what details are most important to the focus of the lesson and also what might not be appropriate for a class of this age group. Then I print out a copy of the passage and highlight what I will read. Place it back in my Bible and read the summary to the kids while holding my Bible.
Or sometimes I find a great summary in a children’s Bible. Like the Jesus Storybook Bible or The Gospel Story Bible. We will discuss as a class that this story is true and where it can be found in the Bible. This is what I did this week. The Gospel Story Bible had a nice summary of Exodus 3 and 4 so I read it from there.
Most of the summary focused on Moses’ dialogue with God at the burning bush. The back and forth of God calling Moses and Moses shying away from the responsibility. And finally ending with God sending Moses and Aaron to meet with the Israelite elders.
Discussion Questions:
What is unusual about the bush in the story?
Why did Moses take his sandals off?
What does God say to Moses from out of the bush?
Where is Jesus in the story?:
God told Moses not to come close the bush and to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. Do you know what holy means? It means God is different, set-apart, and pure. Moses could not come near to God because he was a sinner. We cannot come near to God either because we are sinners. Only one person who ever lived could come close to God because he never sinned. Do you know who that is? {Jesus!} God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. If we trust in Jesus and believe He is God’s son, then God will let us come close to him because the blood Jesus shed on the cross covers our sinfulness.
Activities:
Game – Follow the leader. God called Moses to lead his people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Let each child have a turn leading the class around. If appropriate, let them leave the classroom and lead around different areas of the church. At the end of the game, the teacher is the leader and leads them back to the classroom.
Craft – Supplies: paper, markers
Have the kids create a drawing of the story. Ask them about different aspects of their drawings as they are working. They can draw a burning bush, Moses, a snake, sandals, the words I AM WHO I AM, ect…
Memory verse:
Romans 5:8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ dies for us.
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