Moses Receives the Commandments

After the Hebrews ran away in fear, Moses raced back to the camp. “Why did you run away while God was speaking?” Moses asked.

"The mountain began to shake and then there was all that thunder and lightning! We were scared to death!” They answered.
“Don’t be afraid.” Said Moses.” God has come in this way to show you His awesome power and might. So let your fear of Him keep you from sinning.”
“OK.” They replied. “But from now on, you talk to God. Tell us what He said. And we will listen.”

Moses went back up the mountain to talk to God. There God gave Moses instructions for building an altar, how to treat workers, punishment for fighting among themselves, protecting their property, working in the fields and that they should have three festivals each year. To celebrate God and how He freed the Hebrews from slavery to the Egyptians. (God loves when we remember what He has done for us.)

Moses went back to the people with all these teachings and regulations.
“We will do everything the Lord said.” The people told Moses.
“Very good.” Moses replied. “Now I have to go back up the mountain. God wants me to bring seventy leaders with me this time.”

Moses took Aaron (his brother), Joshua (his assistant) and sixty-eight other men with him back to the mountain. When they got to the boundary at the base of the mountain, all the men saw the glory of God glowing like blue diamonds on the mountain.
Then God spoke to Moses. “ Come up to the top of the mountain and I will give you two tablets of stone. I have written my commandments on them with my own finger.”

 Moses told the men to wait for him there as he and Joshua went up the mountain. When they got near the top, Moses told Joshua to wait there. When Moses was almost at the top, a large cloud covered the top of the mountain. The glorious presence of God rested there and Moses went into the cloud. Moses waited there for six days and finally God spoke.

God instructed Moses about how He wanted the Hebrews to build a tabernacle. The tabernacle was a sacred house for God to live in as the Hebrews travelled through the desert. God told Moses that He had chosen two artists from all the people to be the main guys that would work on the tabernacle. Their names were Bezalel and Oholiab. ( I’ll just call them Buzz and Ollie and we’ll talk about them later :o) God put His spirit on them so that they would be even more skilled than they already were.  God spoke of many many more things to Moses. He told Moses so many things up on the mountain, that it took forty days! Finally God gave Moses the Ten Commandments which He wrote on the two tablets of stone.
1.   Love God more than anything
2.   Worship only God
3.   Honor God’s name
4.   Honor God by keeping the seventh day holy
5.   Obey your parents
6.   Don’t kill
7.   Keep your wedding day promises
8.   Don’t steal
9.   Don’t lie
10. Don’t be greedy
 Next time we will talk about each of the Ten Commandments.

We learned that God wants three things from us.
                                     To fear Him.
He doesn’t want us to be so scared of Him that all we do is worry if He’ll zap us or something. He wants us to respect His power. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning us wisdom.”(Proverbs 9:10)
                                     To remember what He has done for us.
When we remember what He has done for us, we can’t help but thank Him for all we have and how He has helped us. The greatest thing that God did for all of us was to send Jesus to die for our sins.. At the Last Supper, Jesus said. “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22 :19)
                                      To obey Him.
God loves us. He didn’t give us a bunch of rules so that we can’t have fun. He wants to protect us.  Why do your parents tell you to look both ways before you cross the street? They don’t want you to get hurt. Imagine if a mom or dad thinks to themselves. “Im not into telling little Joni to look before she crosses the street. I hope she makes it.”  God’s rules give us the best chance to live a great life!

God Speaks to the People. (Exodus19 & 20)

The Hebrews were wandering in the desert for exactly 3 months when they came to a mountain. The mountain was called Mount Sinai. Remember when God spoke to Moses from the burning bus? This is the same mountain. They set up camp near the mountain. Moses went up the mountain to talk to God.
 “Go back down the mountain and tell the people that if they obey me, they will be my treasure.” God told Moses. So Moses went back down the Mountain and told the people what God had said.
 “We will surely do whatever God commands.” Agreed all the people. Moses went back up the mountain to relay the message to God (although God knows and hears everything anyway). Moses is over eighty years old by now, so going up and down the mountain is not so easy for him.

 When Moses reached the place where he met God, God said. “ I want the people to hear me talk to you so that they will respect you more. Go back down and tell the people that in three days I will speak to you. But I want them to hear me. When a loud trumpet blasts, have them come close to the bottom of the mountain, but make a boundary there. Tell them that no one is to cross that boundary or they will die.” So Moses went back down the mountain and told the people what God had said.
 On the third day, the people made sure they had on their best clean clothes. After all, they were going to hear directly from God today! While they were eating breakfast, they were startled by the sound of a loud trumpet blast. They all went to the base of the mountain where Moses had set up a boundary. As the people gathered, Moses went back up the mountain. The top of the mountain was covered in dark smoke. When Moses reached the smoke, God spoke. “Go back down and tell the people not to cross the boundary or they will die.”
 "But I already told them.” Moses said. “They know about the boundary.”

“Go tell them.” God insisted. “And bring your brother Aaron back with you.”

Moses went back down the mountain. I’m sure he was getting very tired of going up and down that mountain. He reminded the people about the boundary and then told Aaron to come with him back up the mountain. About half way up, Moses told Aaron to wait there and Moses went up into the smoke covered mountaintop. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed! The mountain shook! God began to speak! 2 million Hebrews heard God speak that day as he began telling them the ten commandments. Did you know that God spoke the ten commandments before He wrote them on the stone tablets? The Hebrews were very afraid. They began to move back toward their camp. Moses called down to the people not to be afraid, but they kept on going back to camp. Moses remained on the mountain. God continued to speak to Moses.

 God wants us to hear His voice too! He doesn’t call us all to a mountain, but He does speak to us through the Bible. The Bible is full of promises that God makes to us. Through the Bible, God guides us, He tells us how much He loves us,  and what He expects from us. God also speaks to us through people. When we go to church, God speaks through pastors and preachers and teachers. At home, God can speak to us through our loved ones. God loves you though them. God also speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. If you have trusted in Jesus and made Him the king of your life, the Holy Spirit is living in you. The Holy Spirit is God living in you and He helps you do what is right.

Moses and a Little Help From His Friends

After God supplied the Hebrews with water from a rock, they were feeling pretty good. But that didn’t last too long. A group named the Amalekites came over the hill, ready to attack the Hebrews. The Amalekites were like desert pirates. They would wander about the wilderness until they came upon a town or a people that they could rob and kill for fun. The Hebrews knew that they needed God’s help. Moses told his general, Joshua, to go out and battle the pirates before they reach the women and children.
 “Take some of our men and go!” Said Moses. “I will stand on the top of the hill and raise my hands and the staff of God toward heaven in prayer.”

 So Joshua and some of the men went out to fight the Amalekites. Moses went to the top of the hill with the staff. He also brought his brother Aaron and a man named Hur. Moses lifted his hands. He raise the staff and prayed. As long as Moses’ arms were lifted toward heaven, the Hebrews would force the Amalekites back into the wilderness. But when Moses got tired and put his arms down to rest, the pirates would start to win the battle by pushing the Hebrews backward toward their women and children.

 Moses would raise his arms and the Hebrews would be winning. When he lowered his arms, they would be losing. So Aaron and Hur sat Moses on a rock and stood on each side of him. They helped Moses to keep his arms raised till sunset and the Hebrews won the battle!
 God told Moses to make sure that he wrote down what happened that day. So he did. Moses also built an alter at that place and called it  “God is my Banner”. What does that mean? You may be asking yourself. It’s like a flag that men carry into battle. It tells everyone what side they are on.  Moses was saying that they won the battle because they were on God’s side.

  Meanwhile Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law who lived in the desert, heard how the Hebrews had defeated the desert pirates and journeyed out to meet Moses. When Jethro came to a familiar mountain that they called The Mountain of God, he set up camp there and sent one of his messengers to go tell Moses that he was on his way. When Moses got the word, he went out to meet Jethro. When they saw each other they hugged and Moses told Jethro all the things that God had done. How God freed them from slavery, how He parted the red sea and how He fed the Hebrews with manna from heaven and water from a rock and now He has delivered them from the hands of the Amalekites! “Praise be to the Lord!” Jethro exclaimed.

 The next day Moses was so busy as as judge for the people that he had no time for Jethro or his own family.
“Moses are you the only judge among all these people ?” Asked Jethro.
 “Yes.” Moses answered. “I hear their problems and let them know what God has said about it.”
 “Moses! You are going to kill yourself trying to serve millions of people by yourself!” Blurted Jethro. “Find a handful of honest men and teach them what God wants. Appoint them each to a certain number of people. Your load will be lightened and you will have more time for God and for your family.”
 Moses listened to his father-in-law and trained up some capable judges to listen to the peoples cases. The simple cases were given to them and Moses only heard the difficult cases So he had time for other things that God desired for him. Then Jethro went back to his own town and Moses and the Hebrews packed up for another leg of their journey to the promised land.

  When Moses had his hands lifted in prayer and the Hebrews were fighting, I bet they were glad that Moses didn’t get all prideful and tell his brother Aaron and Hur, “I don’t need your help. I got this!” Because they would have lost the battle. We can’t do everything by ourselves. When you turn down help from someone who truly wants to help, you are not only hurting yourself and possibly others but you are taking away a chance for the person who wants to help of spiritual satisfaction and joy. God created us to help each other. The bible has so many verses about “one another”.
 The story of the Desert pirates and of Moses’ father-in-law show how we should accept physical help (Aaron and Hur) from others and Godly advice (Jethro).  When we need help, and God sends another person to help us, God is really helping us. We shouldn’t be too full of pride to accept help.

 This reminds me of a story I heard. A whole town was flooded. The rainwater was up to the rooftops. A man was sitting on his roof praying. “Dear God please help me!” A while later a boat came by and asked the man if he needed help. He said “No. I’m waiting for God! Thanks anyway.” No one ever knew what happened to that guy. Who does he think sent the boat?

Manna from Heaven (Exodus16)

  Last time we left Moses, his brother Aaron and the Hebrews, they were all camped out near a lake that God had transformed into sweet drinking water for them. The Hebrews were happy. The next day, the cloud of God’s glory began to move, so the Hebrews got their belongings together and began to follow.
After about a month, they had eaten all the food that the Egyptians had given them when they were freed from slavery. The Hebrews were now getting hungry and began to moan to Moses. “We would have been better off remaining as slaves to the Egyptians, at least we were fed well.” The complainers grumbled. “Now we are going to die of starvation out here in the desert.”

Poor Moses. He had to listen to all the complaining. He knew that God had not freed them, just to let them die in the desert. He knew that the Hebrews had it very bad in Egypt. They were only remembering the food and forgetting about how they were told to kill their first born sons and how they were treated like dirt. Moses knew that God told him that He would take care of them, but poor Moses had to listen to all the grumbling. The Hebrews were acting like it was all up to Moses, like Moses led them out there and Moses was going to get them all killed.

Finally Moses had a talk with his brother Aaron." Tomorrow, I will stand before the cloud of God’s glory.” He said. “I want the people close enough to hear and to see God’s glory, then they will know who is in charge. Maybe then, they will quit grumbling and just trust in God.”
The next day, as Moses approached the cloud, Aaron gathered the people and told them to look way into the wilderness. When God spoke to Moses, the people were amazed at God’s glory.  God told Moses that He would give the Hebrews food every morning but there were some rules. God told Moses that every morning the ground would be covered with bread from heaven. The Hebrews were to pick up no more than 2 quarts for each person. (enough for one day) then on the 6th day, they were to pick up 4 quarts. (enough for 2 days) .

The next morning, after the dew melted, the ground was covered with white flakes. The Hebrews went out and gather 2 quarts, just as God had said. However a few Hebrews were worried that they would not get food tomorrow, so they gathered more. When they woke up the next day, the flakes smelled rotten and were covered with worms! On the sixth day, they gathered 4 quarts each. On the seventh day, some Hebrews didn’t trust God’s Word and went out to gather more flakes, but there were no flakes to be found! God was angry at the Hebrews that didn’t trust Him. And He told Moses that He was.

The flakes tasted like nothing the Hebrews ever had before. It was so delicious! God is a great Chef! No one knew what to call it, so they named it Manna. (Which means....What is it?) I guess you can say that I made Manna for dinner a couple of times, because no one knew what it was. ;o)
Every morning God would rain down manna from heaven and every morning the Hebrews would gather it up.  Moses was probably very happy that they weren’t complaining or blaming him any more.


A couple of weeks later, and a few miles later, the Hebrews were getting thirsty again because they hadn’t had any water for a couple of days.
 “Is God going to just leave us out here to die of starvation?” They grumbled. "We had enough water back in Egypt!” Poor Moses. Even seeing the glory of God and God providing them with food every day, hasn’t stopped their complaining, but now they were blaming God!
 “Why are you testing God’s patience with you?” Moses asked. Then the men began to threaten Moses. He ran to God and pleaded with Him. “Please God, the men are going to stone me if we don’t find water soon!”
" Take a few of the men that you can trust and you staff. I will lead you to a rock. I want you to strike the rock and water will pour out of the rock so that everyone will be able to drink.”God said.

 Moses did as God instructed and water poured from the rock as some of the men looked on. There was enough water for everyone. Moses named that area The Place of Testing and Arguing.

The Hebrews looked at Moses as the man who led them out of Egypt and as the man who was going to let them all die in the desert. God wants us to know that He is in control. He may work through men, but God didn’t want the people to depend on Moses and to blame him.  He wanted them to depend on Him. Just as He wants us to depend on Him and to come to Him with out hearts. There is a verse right in the very center of the Bible (Psalm 118:8) that says “It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in people.”
God also called Himself," God Who Provides”. It is good to remember that God (who takes care of the birds of the air  Matthew 6:26) provides all we need. Sometimes we WANT more than we NEED though.

The Red Sea (Exodus 14 & 15)

 Last time we were right in the middle of an amazing miracle! God had parted the Red Sea so that Moses and his brother Aaron could lead the Hebrews to safety. God had placed a cloud of darkness over the Egyptians so that they couldn’t go anywhere. God had also placed his light above the Hebrews so that they could see their way over the dry land where the Red Sea had parted. God is so amazing!

 It was just about morning and all 2 million of the Hebrews had just about crossed over to the other side of the Red Sea. Then God spoke to Moses again.
 “Now the Hebrews and the Egyptians will see my glory and know that I am God.” God told Moses.
God lifted the cloud off of the Egyptians and they saw that the Hebrews were just about across the Red Sea. The king ordered his men to cross through the Red Sea on the dry ground. The men followed his orders, although I’m sure they were a little nervous.

 While the Egyptians were in the middle of the Red Sea, God caused the wheels to fall off of some of the chariots! There were no ordinary chariots either. These were the best chariots that the king had! The Egyptians began to get scared and confused. Some of them started going in circles. “Let’s turn around!” Some of the king’s men said. “The God of the Hebrews if fighting against us!

Then God told Moses. “Now stretch your staff over the Red Sea!” Moses did as God had commanded and the waters began to flow back into the sea. The king and all his men were drowned that day. The Hebrews knew that God had truly freed them from the Egyptians that day! They stood on the other side of the Red Sea in amazement! They praised God and sang him a song. The Song is written down in Exodus 15:1-21.

Remember Moses’ sister Miriam? The one who watched as Moses was pulled from the Nile river by the king’s daughter. She shook a tambourine. Then led the singing and dancing and the praises to God.

That day the Hebrews began their journey to the promised land. God was still leading them with a cloud at day and a flame at night.  They traveled tree days through the wilderness, but couldn’t find any water. The Hebrews were getting pretty thirsty. Finally the saw a lake! They ran as fast as they could. But when they reached over and sipped some of the water from their hands, it was bitter! What a disappointment. The name of that place was Marah (which means bitter)
 Now the same Hebrews that were singing and dancing just three days earlier, were all upset at Moses and God. “What are we supposed to drink?” They complained.
 Moses prayed and God pointed out a stick lying on the ground to Moses."Go throw it into the lake.” He said.
 When Moses did as God had said, the water became sweet and the Hebrews drank till they were satisfied.

Sometime I complain when things don’t seem to be going my way. Instead, I should think about all the wonderful things that God has done for me.  The key word today is   REMEMBER. God constantly told the Hebrews to remember what He had done for them and who He is. We have to REMEMBER too. When we think about what we don’t have, we forget what we DO have. REMEMBER.

God Uses Moses to Part the Red Sea Exodus14

Last time we saw that the Hebrews left Egypt in a bit of a hurry. It was the middle of the night when the king’s son died and he finally let the Hebrew slaves go. Moses led the people out into the wilderness. Now what? God appeared as a pillar of fire to lead the Hebrews at night. When it got light out, God led the people as a cloud. This way the Hebrews could see God at night and during the day!  God led the people to the shore of the Red Sea.

Back in Egypt, the king and all the Egyptians had a change of heart.
“Wait a minute!” Said the king. “Now we don’t have anyone to do all the work!”

So he told his army to get 600 of his best chariots ready and bring back the slaves. The Egyptians set out with the 600 chariots, plus a lot more to bring back the Hebrews to Egypt. The Egyptians finally caught up with the Hebrews while they were camped along the Red Sea. The king happily thought to himself, “Hmmmm that Moses is not too smart! He has the Hebrews pinned in along the sea! They have no where to run!”

 One of the Hebrews saw the lights of the Egyptian army coming over the horizon. “Oh no!” The Hebrews shouted in horror! They were upset at Moses. “Weren’t there enough Cemeteries in Egypt? You had to lead us out here to the desert to die! We were better off as slaves in Egypt, than dead bodies out here in the wilderness!”

“Don’t be afraid.” Said Moses. “What what God will do. See all those Egyptians.... Take a good look at them because you’ll never see them again! God will fight the battle.... Now keep your mouths shut!”
Moses went to God and cried out and prayed. God told Moses to stop crying out and to cut his prayer short. “Get moving.” God told Moses. “Stretch out your staff toward the Red Sea. The water will separate and for a wall on two sides. You and all the people will be able to walk across on dry land”

Meanwhile, the God cloud that had been leading the Hebrews through the desert, was now between them and the Egyptians. God made it so dark for the Egyptians, that they couldn’t see anything. So they had to stay put. God lit the way for the Hebrews so they could see where they were going.

Moses stretched out his staff over the water, and the water began to part. The Hebrews had been witnesses to a lot of amazing things that God had done, and this was near the top[ of the list! The water parted and the land became dry as a bone! All 2 million Hebrews walked across the Red Sea on dry ground that night as God’s light guided them and his cloud held off the Egyptians!

Did God help the Hebrews because they were moaning and complaining? No, He already had a plan for them to escape. God doesn’t like complaining as you will see as the Hebrews go through the wilderness. They do a lot of complaining. Complaining all the time just gives us a bad attitude and makes us miserable. In Proverbs, the Bible says that the complainer’s days are hard, but the content (which means happy with what we have) person’s days are like a feast!  Next time you feel like complaining.... think of ALL the wonderful things that God has given you. (The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from God.) ... and thank Him. You’ll be amazed how much better your day is!  Besides, complaining doesn’t do any good anyway :o)

The 10 plagues (part 2) and Passover

 Last time we checked in on Moses and his brother Aaron, they were leaving the king of Egypt after he had promised them that he would let the Hebrews go if God would get rid of all the frogs, but he lied.
 So far God has turned Moses’ staff into a snake. He has turned the Nile river to blood and He has covered all of Egypt with frogs. God knows that it will take 8 more miracles before the king finally lets the Hebrews go.  Here is a list of the first nine. (We’ll look closer at number ten, because that’s the one that finally freed the Hebrews from slavery.)

 1. The Nile river turns to blood. All the fish die and the Egyptians have to dig new wells for water.
 2. Frogs come up from the water and cover the land. When they die, all of Egypt smells really bad.
 3. Gnats (which are those teeny tiny bugs) come up from the dust and swarm over all of Egypt.
 4. Flies swarm over all the land, causing all kinds of problems with sickness and food and comfort.
 5. The cows and donkeys and sheep in Egypt will get sick and die except for the Hebrew’s livestock.
 6. Sores (called boils) break out on all the Egyptians, all over their bodies, but not on the Hebrews.
 7. A great hailstorm destroys the crops in the fields and kills many of the Egyptian’s livestock.
 8. A swarm of beetles called locusts swarms over the fields and eats the remaining plants and crops.
 9. Total darkness covers all of Egypt for three days, however the Hebrews still have light.

By number 8, the Egyptians were begging the king to let the Hebrews go, but he was so hard-hearted that he still refused. So what finally convinced the king to let the Hebrew slaves go?
 God told Moses and Aaron that the king will finally let the Hebrews go, and that the Egyptians would be so happy to see them leave, they would give them valuables.  He told Moses to tell all the Hebrews not to make bread because it takes too long. Instead make crackers.  He said that all of a sudden, the king would tell the Hebrews to leave at once. God even told them not to put on their pajamas at night so that they would be ready.

“Tonight an angel of death will fly over Egypt. The firstborn son of every family will die except for the families that put the blood of a lamb on their door. “ God told Moses.
 Moses went to all the Hebrew families and told them to put the blood of a lamb on their doors and God would spare their oldest son. So they did and the angel of death flew over Egypt and all the firstborn sons died except for the families that put the lamb’s blood on their door. The angel of death passed over them and that is why the Hebrews celebrate Passover till this day. Jesus is our lamb. He died and shed His blood so that if we believe that He is God’s son and that he died and rose for us, God’s judgement would pass over us and we will live forever with Him!
 The king woke up in the middle of the night  to the queen’s cry because their oldest son had died. He went right away to Moses and told him to leave Egypt. All the Egyptians were so glad to be rid of the Hebrews, that they gave them gold and silver and clothing! Just like God said they would. It’s a good thing that the Hebrews weren’t in their pajamas and they didn’t have any bread in the oven, because they were told to leave at once! But  soon after they left.... the king changed his mind again. He and all his men went out to the desert to bring them back. Next time we’ll find out if they catch up with them.

 About 2 million Hebrews left that night. In the Bible it is called the exodus which is where the name of the second book in the Bible came from. The Hebrews were  slaves to the Egyptians for 430 years! To us that seems like such a long time. But the Bible says that 1000 years is like a day to God. (2Peter 3:8) So in “God years” they were only slaves for about 11 1/2 hours.