What is God Like?

MOSES
AIM: God shows us His character through events

God is POWERFUL (Y3 T1 UE)

Teaching Idea: God shows us He is POWERFUL by the plagues He performed
Learning Tool: Bead with ‘POWERFUL’ written on it for bracelet
Bible Verse: “The Lord … is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to be
destroyed.” 2 Peter 3:9

Balloon Boasts

Three ‘boasts’ are written on small pieces of paper and put inside balloons which you then blow up and know, ready for the challenge.
‘Boast’ egs: “I’m the greatest, and I’ll prove it by arm wrestling”
“I’m the coolest, and I’ll prove it by staring out my opponent”
“I’m the fastest runner, and I’ll prove it by racing three lengths of the hall”

Carefully choose six children (before devotions) who will enjoy the boasts and challenges, and not be embarrassed or upset by them. Three will be ‘boasters’ and three will accept the challenges.

NB: Hopefully this activity will demonstrate that we are NOT like God – some of the boasts which were made will not have been fulfilled. If possible try to set it up so that at least one of the boasts cannot be fulfilled, because of your choice of person to challenge the boaster.

Inside each of these three balloons there is a boast. Girls have been chosen who will come and burst a balloon, read out the boast and then try and prove their boast against a challenger.

Complete the ‘Balloon Boast’ activity

While these were only fun boasts, sometimes you hear people really boasting about things that they can do. Sometimes we can do what we boast of, and other times we can not.

What kinds of boasts do people make?
What kinds of boasts do you make?
Are people always able to do what they say they can?
Are you always able to do what you say you can?

Sometimes we can do what we say we will do, but other times we let our words run away with us. We boast about things that we are not really able to do – maybe we are not strong enough, or not old enough, or not brave enough, or not clever enough, or whatever it is. There are times when people say they can do something and they really are not able to do it. God is different. Because God is powerful He is always able to do whatever He says He will do.

The Plagues

God had tried to teach the king of Egypt that He is LORD, but the king would not listen.

Briefly name and stick up a picture of each warning from the previous lesson:

River turned to blood
Frogs
Gnats
Flies

When God says that He will do something, He is able to do it. God is powerful. The king of Egypt kept refusing to let the people of Israel go, and kept refusing to believe that God was the LORD, so God kept showing that He is powerful and that He is always able to do what He says He will do.

Briefly name and stick up pictures of other plagues which God said He would do and did:

Death of the animals (Exodus 9:1-7)
Boils (Exodus 9:8-12)
Locusts (Exodus 10:1-20)
Darkness (Exodus 10:21-27)

Hail – Picture Sort

SECTION ONE:

Read Exodus 9:13, 14, 17-21

“The LORD then said to Moses, “Early tomorrow morning meet with the king and tell him that the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me. This time I will punish not only your officials and your people, but I will punish you as well, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the world. Yet you are still arrogant and refuse to let my people go. This time tomorrow I will cause a heavy hailstorm, such as Egypt has never known in all its history. Now give orders for your livestock and everything else you have in the open to be put under shelter. Hail will fall on the people and animals left outside unprotected, and they will all die’”. Some of the king’s officials were afraid because of what the LORD had said and they brought their slaves and animals indoors for shelter. Others, however, paid no attention to the LORD’s warning and left their slaves and animals out in the open.

Members sort pictures into the correct order

Moses with the king
Bringing animals in
Other animals dying

What did God say that He would do? (v18)

What did God hope to prove about Himself by doing this? (v14)

SECTION TWO:

Read Exodus 9:23-25

So Moses raised his stick toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightening struck the ground. The LORD sent a heavy hailstorm, with lightning flashing back and forth. It was the worst storm that Egypt had ever known in all its history. All over Egypt the hail struck down everything in the open, including all the people and all the animals. It beat down all the plants in the fields and broke all the trees.

Members sort pictures into the correct order

Moses with rod lifted
Hail/Lightening/Thunder
Land devastated

c. God had said that He would send hail and He did. Because God is powerful He is able
to do whatever He says He will do.

SECTION THREE:

Read Exodus 9:27, 28, 33-35

The king sent for Moses and Aaron and said, “This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and my people and I are in the wrong. Pray to the LORD! We have had enough of this thunder and hail! I promise to let you go; you don’t have to stay here any longer.”
Moses left the king, went out of the city, and lifted up his hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder, the hail, and the rain all stopped. When the king saw what had happened, he sinned again. He and his officials remained as stubborn as ever and, just as the LORD had foretold through Moses, the king would not let the Israelites go.

Members sort pictures into the correct order
Moses and Aaron with king
Moses in prayer
Land normal and king refusing

c. Even though God had said that He would send hail and proved that He was powerful
and able to do what He said, the king of Egypt did not believe Him.

God shows us He is POWERFUL by the plagues he performed. God still is powerful and has the ability to do whatever He says He will do.

Prayer

Thank God for His power to always do what He says He will do.