Unexpected Intimacy: The Story of Moses and the Israelites

Due to safety concerns, Payson Park Church has canceled services for this Sunday. But I'd already put together my lesson for the Alleluia Class, our Sunday School class for 2nd through 8th graders. So I figured I might as well share it for any others who are missing out on worship services today!


For the past few weeks, we've been talking about how the Bible is really a series of family stories, stories about the family of God. Just like our families tell stories about things that happened before we were born, the Bible tells us stories of our ancestors in the faith. We thank God for stories! Let's open with a prayer:

Thank you, God, for stories: 

stories of problems and mistakes, 

stories of love and forgiveness, 

stories of Your care and concern for people in trouble, 

stories that help us learn about You and Your love. 

Amen.

Problems and mistakes, and love and forgiveness, have been part of all of the stories of the people in the Bible we’ve been talking about over the past few weeks. Adam and Eve made mistakes, and God forgave and cared for them. Abraham and Sarah didn’t always trust God – Sarah laughed when God told her she would have a baby in her old age! They made mistakes, but God still blessed them and fulfilled his promise to them.

When our story ended last week, Abram and his family had traveled from Ur, to Haran, to Canaan, and then to Egypt.

Eventually they came back to Canaan, and when Abram was 99 years old, God again promised that he would have many descendants, and changed his name from Abram, which means “Father is Exalted,” to Abraham, which means “Father of a Multitude.” Sarai was 90 years old, and God changed her name from Sarai, which means “contentious” (a word that means likely to argue, or disagreeable), to Sarah, which means “princess.” God did fulfill his promise to them, and Sarah gave birth to a son, Isaac, and through him Abraham and Sarah’s descendants formed the nation of Israel.

Let’s jump ahead to our next Bible character, Moses. By the time of Moses, the Israelites – the descendants of Abraham and Sarah – were captives in Egypt. God heard their prayers and sent a leader to help them. Let’s look at some of the stories from Moses’ life. 

When Moses was just a newborn baby, Pharaoh tried to kill all the Hebrew babies, but Moses’ mother and sister put him in a basket where the Pharaoh’s daughter would find him. She adopted him and raised him in Pharaoh’s palace, as her own son. When he grew up, Moses saw a slave driver punishing his slaves cruelly, and they got into a fight and Moses killed the slave driver. Because of that, he had to run away from Egypt to a country called Midian. 

Another famous story happened in Midian. God appeared to Moses in the form of a bush that was on fire but didn’t burn up. God spoke to Moses from the fire and told him to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to free the Israelites. Which leads to another story: Moses and Pharaoh.

What did Pharaoh do when Moses told him to let the Israelites go free? He refused! So God sent a series of plagues on Pharaoh's people, the Egyptians. Each time Pharaoh relented, but as soon as God stopped the plagues, Pharaoh changed his mind. Finally, God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn of all Egypt, people and animals alike. God told the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and put blood over their doors, so the angel would pass over their homes safely. Finally, Pharaoh told the Israelites to get out!

But even then, as soon as the Israelites left, Pharaoh changed his mind and chased after them with his army. The army trapped the Israelites against the bank of the Red Sea, but God told Moses to strike the water with his staff, and the waters parted, making a dry path on the bottom of the sea so they could cross in safety.

As soon as they crossed over and the army started to follow, the water closed in and drowned the whole Egyptian army. God's people were again safe.

So now the Israelites were free, but they spent the next 40 years wandering in the desert. How do you think they felt? Was it better than being slaves in Egypt? What difficulties do you think they had being in the desert for so long? Let’s see what the Bible says about it.

The story of the Israelites wandering in the desert is in the book of Exodus, chapters 15 and 16. A lot of Bibles add headings to certain stories, almost like a chapter title. The titles in these sections in the Good News translation, the Bibles we use in our God's Garden classroom, are: The Song of Moses, the Song of Miriam, Bitter Water, and The Manna and the Quail. What hints do each of these headings give us about the story? What kind of song do you thing Moses and Miriam sang? What is "bitter water"? What are manna and quail and why might they be important to this story? Let's look at each story, one by one.

Moses and Miriam both sang their thanks to the Lord for saving them from slavery and from the Egyptian army, and the Israelites sang along with them. They encouraged the people to publicly express their thankfulness to God for His faithfulness and care for them. Miriam especially encouraged the women to sing and celebrate their freedom and victory in God.

After the people crossed the Red Sea, they began to travel away from the sea, into the desert. Water became scarce. They needed water to survive, but they had walked for three days without finding any. When they finally found some, the water was bitter and unsafe to drink. But Moses prayed to God, and God told him to throw a piece of wood into the water, and it became sweet and safe to drink.

In addition to water, the Israelites needed to find food. As they grew more and more hungry, they began to complain to Moses and his brother Aaron, who was helping to lead them. "Why didn't God just kill us in Egypt, if He was going to let us die of starvation in the desert anyway?", they complained. They lost their faith in God because of their hunger. God told Moses that He would  "rain food down from the sky" for them. God told Moses to tell the people that He would send them meat to eat at the end of the day, and bread in the morning, so they would know it was God providing for their needs.

That evening, a large flock of quail, a type of bird like a pigeon, flew into camp, and the people were able to catch them easily. And the next morning when they got up, there was dew all over the camp, and when it dried, there were delicate white flakes left behind. The Israelites asked each other, "What is it?" (which sounds like "manna" in Hebrew), and Moses told them it was the food that God had promised them. And God continued to send them manna for the rest of the time they were wandering in the desert - for all 40 years!

Let’s read from the next chapter, Exodus 17, to see how the people behaved after this.

The whole Israelite community left the desert, moving from one place to another at the command of the Lord. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there to drink. They complained to Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses answered, “Why are you complaining? Why are you putting the Lord to the test?” But the people were very thirsty and continued to complain to Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord and said, “What can I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Take some of the leaders of Israel with you, and go on ahead of the people. Take along the stick with which you struck the Nile. I will stand before you on a rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moses did so in the presence of the leaders of Israel. The place was named Massah and Meribah [which mean “testing” and “complaining”], because the Israelites complained and put the Lord to the test when they asked, “Is the Lord with us or not?”

Why did the Israelites grumble? Do you think they had good reason to be upset? Try to imagine: they were slaves, then they were free, then they were being chased by an army, then God miraculously saved them, they wandered in the desert, God provided them water and food, but now they were without water AGAIN. Whom did they blame for their troubles? What were they really afraid of? How did Moses respond? What did God do? Did God get angry with the people for complaining?

Do you think God listens when we grumble and complain about things? Do we have to be always good and making good choices for God to listen to our prayers? Of course not! God listens to us even when we make mistakes and bad choices, even when we disobey Him. What kinds of things do you grumble about? Homework, chores, bullies, not getting what you want? Do you ever talk to God about those problems? We can talk to God about all our problems, large and small. He always listens.

Let’s think about how Moses talked to God. He talked to Him like a friend, asking for advice. “What can I do about these people?”, he asked God. Do you think we can talk to God the way Moses did, like a friend who gives good advice? Does God speak to us face-to-face like Moses? Not usually, but He does speak to us through the Bible, through worship and discussion, through our consciences, even through advice from other Christians.

Not long after this story, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. God’s laws are a way that God speaks to us! God's laws teach us how to behave, and can help guide our decisions and let us know if we're doing the right thing. And not just the Ten Commandments, but everything we learn from scripture about how God wants us to live and love each other.

Let’s end our lesson with prayer.

Thank you, God, for your love and care. 

You cared for Adam and Eve after they disobeyed you. 

You saved Noah and his family from the flood. 

You saved Moses as a baby and spoke to him as a friend. 

You brought the Israelites out of slavery and supplied their needs as they wandered in the desert. 

You help us in our times of difficulty. 

Amen.