The Ten Commandments
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this lesson is to teach the children the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses. These are God's fundamental laws to His people. All Christians are still using these laws, as Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.
INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 5 Minutes
Do your parents have rules for you at home and outside of the house? Give the children time to answer the question.
- Have you ever broken any of these rules? Listen to the children's answers.
- What happened if you continued to break the rules? Did your parents become upset with you and what did you do?
- Today we will see what happened when God gave rules to His people, and continued to disobey Him.
HOLY SCRIPTURE - 5 Minutes
Memory Verse
"Your word is lamp to my feet and a light to my path" Psalm 119:105
Reference: Exodus 20 & 34
CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 15 Minutes
- Do you remember last week's lesson? Moses led the Hebrews across the Red Sea in a miraculous way with God's instructions and saved them from Pharaoh and his army. Do you remember how God protected His people after they crossed the sea? Do you remember what He provided to guide them, how He fed them and gave them water? Remember how they were always complaining about their conditions in the wilderness even when God protected their clothing and even their shoes were not worn out. God continued to lead them until they got close to Mount Sinai.
- Once they reached mount Sinai God told Moses to go up the mountain so He could talk to him. Moses told the people that they will be dwelling in this land for a while. God told Moses that by the third day, He will speak to him and for Moses to warn the people to not touch the mountain.
- The morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning that filled the sky. A black storm of clouds covered the mountain. A loud trumpet sound came from the mountain that scared all of the Israelites. They all stood by the foot of the mountain. Moses knew it was time for him to go up the mountain to speak to God. Moses then went up the mountain and disappeared into the clouds. While Moses was up on the mountain the people heard thunder echo all around the mountain. The Israelites knew that the sound of thunder was the voice of God talking to their leader Moses.
- God gave Moses the ten commandments and many other rules, and told him that he has to tell the Israelites that they have to follow these new rules. The next day Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain and told the people that they have to promise to obey the rules.
- Moses went back up the mountain because God had more things that He wanted the Israelites to learn. The Israelites waited and waited for Moses to come back down, but there was no sign of Moses. The people thought that God abandoned them and that Moses will not be returning. The people then asked Aaron (the brother of Moses) to make them something that they could worship, they wanted something that could be touched and seen. Aaron then took everyone's gold and built them a calf made out of gold. The people started worshiping their new god and offering it sacrifices.
- Moses came down from the mountain holding two large stones with the most important commandments. The Ten Commandments were carved by God himself into the stone tablets. Moses was very angry when he found out from God what the people did. Moses, in his anger, threw the tablets down and they broke into many pieces. He then took the golden calf and threw it into the fire that the people made for the sacrifices. Moses got very mad at his brother, Aaron, for going along with what the people asked him to do. Moses then demanded those that believe in God to come stand by his side and all those that don't believe in God were going to die.
- The next day, Moses, went back up the mountain to get another tablet with the commandments from God and to ask God to forgive the people for their disobedience.
- THE TEN COMMANDMENTS:
- These commandments were the first heavenly rules to the Hebrew people which our Lord Jesus Christ built on when He spoke on the Sermon on the Mount to his disciples in the New Testament.
DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 10 Minutes
- Why do you think the Israelites forgot about God and all His miracles when Moses went up Mount Sinai? Why do you think they rejected God and asked for a golden image to worship?
- Why do you think God allowed the bronze serpent to heal people from the snake bites?
LIFE APPLICATION - 5 Minutes
Ask the children, what is something you have complained about in the past week? Ask them if complaining helped the situation. Do you think God is happy when we complain? Explain that when we complain, it shows that our hearts are not grateful. Explain that when we trust God, when we have faith, we trust that even if God does not give us what we want, He gives us what we need.
Encourage the children to go through the next week without complaining and that, if there is anything they want to complain about, to give thanks to God for what they have.
ACTIVITY - 5 - 10 Minutes
Ten Commandments Crossword (Attached below)
SERVANT RESOURCES
Old Testament Books Song - Missing Deuterocanonical books (Tobit and Judith from history books, Wisdom and Sirach from poetic books, Baruch, 1&2 Maccabees from prophetic books, and the Prayer of Manasseh)
Refer to the Old Testament Timeline attached for major events and chronological order through the Bible.
PARENTS CORNER/HOMEWORK
Today the children learned about the important heavenly rules given to Moses for the Hebrew people, the Ten Commandments. You may want to review these commandments with them and remind of Christ's beatitudes building on the ten commandments.