The Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 34)

Last time we were together, God was angry with the Israelites and said that He would not lead them personally into the promised land. That an angel would do it instead. The people were very sorry and asked Moses to speak with God.

Last time God spoke to Moses, He told him to set up a tent just outside the Israelite camp and that He would meet Moses there. It was called the Tent of Meeting. I bet Moses was glad, because going up and down that mountain when he was 80 years old had to be rough!
 “Please continue to guide us?” Moses asked God inside the tent. “The people want you to lead us , not an angel! If I have found favor in your eyes God, please do this for your people.”
 “Ok. “ said God. “It is true that you have found favor with me, so I will lead the Israelites to the promised land.”
 Moses was very relieved because the people were really upset. Then he asked God one more thing. “Can I see your glorious face?” he asked.
 “No one can see my face and live because I am holy.” God answered. “But here is what I’ll do. Tomorrow morning I want you to bring two tablets of stone up to the top of Mount Sinai. They must be chiseled just the way that the two originals were shaped. When you reach the top of the mountain, go in between two large rocks that are there. I will put my hand over the opening and pass by. I will take away my hand and you will be able to see me from behind as I go by.”
 Moses worked on the two two tablets over night and in the morning he went up Mount Sinai. At the top of the mountain, Moses went between the two large rocks. God put his hand over the rocks and passed by. When He removed his hand, Moses saw God’s glory! He fell down to worship God right then and there! We must always remember the holiness of God. When we think about how wonderful, how glorious and how holy He is, we should always praise and worship Him!
 Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days, just like the first time that he received the ten commandments from God. This time the people waited for Moses. They learned their lesson (for now).
 When Moses came down from the mountain with the new ten commandments, everyone looked at him with astonishment! He didn’t know it, but his face was glowing! The people had a glimpse of God’s glory. When people see us. We should have a certain difference about us because we are Jesus followers. Our faces  may not be glowing, but we can be a reflection of God’s love so that other people will want to know Him.
 Moses called a meeting. He said that God had given him specific instructions on building an ark for God as they traveled through the wilderness.  The ark was a chest where the Israelite were going to keep the two tablets of stone with the ten commandments. It had two long poles so that it could be carried. Here is a picture of what it looked like.

 Moses took up a collection of gold, silver, wood, precious stones and fabric. The people were so glad that God would be leading them again that they kept giving and giving. Finally Moses had to tell them to stop. Moses put out a call for all the artists among them to come and work on the ark. God had chosen two men to be the head artists. Their names were Bezalel and Oholiab. I bet as they never dreamed that they would be able to use their talents on such a wonderful project for God.

 God has given all of us some kind of talent. then when we start to follow Jesus, God gives us spiritual gifts.  Bezalel and Oholiab were blessed by God with artistic talent. Possibly their spiritual gifts were leading so hat they could lead all the other artists. See how our talents and spiritual gifts work together. Our gifts are always for the glory of God and to further His kingdom.

 So let’s always remember that God is holy. (Psalm 22:3)
 That we should reflect His glory by loving others. (John 13:35)
 God equips us to do great things for Him and others. (Hebrews 13:21)

Moses Smashes the Ten Commandments (Exodus 32)

Last time we left Moses, he had been on the mountaintop with God for 40 days. The Israelites got impatient waiting for him and approached Moses’ brother Aaron with a request to make them a new god out of their gold earrings. God told Moses to go back down the mountain because God knew what the people were doing. God sees everything.

 "I am so angry with those people right now!” God said. “I delivered them from slavery and I led them through the desert. I fed them when they were hungry and gave them something to drink when they were thirsty! Now I feel like destroying them all and starting over. I could make a great nation out of you Moses.”

 Moses begged God. “No please don’t destroy them. I will talk to them. Besides, what will all the other nations think, especially the Egyptians, when they find out that you brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, then killed them all here at this mountain.”
 “I will spare them because you asked me to spare them.” God replied. “But there will be punishment."



Don’t you wish that you could talk with God? You can! That is what prayer is. Prayer IS talking to God. We don’t have to memorize and recite what someone else wrote down. God wants to hear our thoughts. And you can pray anywhere, not just kneeling by your bed or at the dinner table. God always hears you! God loves when we talk/pray with Him.



Moses took the Ten Commandments which God had written on two stone tablets with his finger, and headed back down the mountain. Half way down he joined up with Joshua who had waited that whole time for Moses to return. Wow! He was so patient. Not like the rest of the people.
 As Moses and Joshua descended the mountain together, they began to hear some noise. “It sounds like the rumbling of war.” Joshua said.
 “No.” Replied Moses. “It’s not the sound of battle being won or lost. It is the sound of a celebration.”

As they neared the foot of the mountain, Moses could see all the people dancing around. And in the middle of the celebration was the golden calf! Moses was so angry that he raised the two tablet of stone on which were written the commandments above hid head and smashed them at the base of the mountain. He knocked the golden calf into the fire and melted it down. Then he went over to his brother Aaron.
 "What is the matter with you?” Moses asked. “How could the people convince you to do something so wrong in the eyes of God?”

 Aaron tried to explain. “You were taking way too long up there Moses. The people were getting impatient. I got nervous when I saw a million people marching toward me. They had already decided that they wanted me to make them a god. I didn’t want to, but to calm them down, I asked them to give me all their gold. I threw the gold into the fire and POOF! out came a golden calf!”

 Did Aaron really think that Moses was that stupid? Aaron let his fear of the people get into the way of his obedience to God. Sometimes we worry more about what other people will think than what God thinks. Sometimes we put more trust in pleasing people, than we do in God’s protection.

 “You have let the people get completely out of control.” Moses scolded his brother. “Tomorrow I will call a meeting of all the people who are truly sorry for what has happened here.”
 The next day, Moses gathered all the people. “I will go back up the mountain and maybe I can obtain forgiveness from God for you.” The people were ashamed about how they had behaved.

 So Moses went back up the mountain, again. When He approached God, Moses said that he would take the punishment for all the people if God would just forgive them. Does this sound familiar? Jesus took our punishment. He could do that because He was sinless. Moses however was not. God said.
“I will forgive the people but you will not take the punishment. I will send a plague into the camp. Some will get sick and some will die. Then you will lead the remaining people into the promised land that I had promised. I will not go with you though. I will send an angel to lead you.
 So a plague went throughout camp. Some people died. Then it came time to leave again for the promised land. Moses told the people how God would not be doing the leading from now on because He was so angry with them, but that an angel would be doing the leading. The people were very afraid that they would not have God as their guide. As a sign of repentance (Being sorry) none of them wore any more jewelry for the rest of their journey.

So this week we can learn lessons from four different people.
1. From Moses we know that talking with God is praying. We can pray and where, any time. God hears us. (Phil 4:6)
2. From Joshua we learned to be patient waiting on God. We will see in future stories how God used Joshua in amazing ways. (James 5:7)
3. From Aaron we learned that when it comes to pleasing men or pleasing God, God always comes first. (Gal 1:10)
4. From the impatient people we see that disobeying God has consequences. (1Corinth 6:9)

Golden Calf (Exodus 32)

Ok, so I know we took a little detour from Moses on Mt. Sinai. Let’s not forget where we left off with him. God had just given Moses the Ten Commandments written on two stone tablets. Moses was on the mountain for 40 days with God! Joshua, Moses’ right hand man, was camped about halfway up the mountain. He was waiting for Moses. Aaron, Moses’ brother, and about 70 other men were waiting for Moses at the base of the mountain. The other one million Hebrews were back at their camp a little ways from the mountain. I just want to follow up a little more on what we talked about last time, accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

 If you prayed that prayer last time and meant it from your heart, you are what the Bible calls “saved”. You have a home waiting for you in heaven! But until we get there, we are living on this earth as followers of Jesus. When you were saved, God sealed you with His Holy Spirit. (2 Cor 1:22) That is God’s guarantee! Wow! No one or nothing can snatch you from His hands! (John 10:29) He has placed His Spirit inside you. The Holy Spirit is now living in you. He is a part of you.
 We are born with a body and a mind. The bible says that our bodies are sinful and desire to please ourselves instead of God. Our mind, (thoughts, emotions and will) decides what to do. Now we have another part of us. Our spirit, which is holy. Here’s is our situation as we live our lives: Our spirit wants to do only good. Our bodies want to do wrong. So our mind is the tiebreaker! That is why we should “renew” our minds. (Romans 12:2) If we play violent video games more than we read the bible, our minds will lean more toward the sinful stuff that our body wants. If we pray and talk to God more than we watch some of the bad stuff on television or our computer, the our minds will lean more toward pleasing God which is what our spirit wants.
 Television, computers,video games, hanging with the wrong crowd, or reading the wrong stuff can pull us in the wrong direction, but God has given us the Bible, the privilege of talking to Him, good TV shows and movies and loving people to hang out with to help us in the right direction. His direction.

 Ok back to Moses. He was on top of Mt. Sinai for 40 days. I’m sure everyone was wondering what happened to him. He was never gone for more than a couple of days before. Joshua waited patiently half way up the mountain. But the Hebrews were getting restless. They marched to the base of the mountain where Aaron and the 70 leaders were camped out.




“Moses has been gone way too long.” The people said to Aaron. “Something has happened to him.
He brought us out of Egypt, but now where is he? Make us a god that we can see and worship.”
“OK,"Aaron said.”Take off your gold earrings and bring them to me.”

So the people did as Aaron asked. Aaron took all the gold earrings, melted them down and molded them into a golden calf.

 The Hebrews got all excited and shouted. “Oh Israel! These are the gods that brought you out from slavery in Egypt!” We can think to ourselves how stupid the Israelites (Hebrews) were, but we do the same thing. If we are trusting God for something, and He takes too long, we lie, cheat or steal to make it happen. Part of trusting God is waiting on Him. God is never too late. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

 When Aaron saw how happy the people were with their new god, he built and altar in front of the Golden calf. “Tomorrow is Golden Calf God day! Let’s party! (Mr. BibleHead translation)
So the next day the Israelites party like their was no tomorrow. They were getting rowdy, dancing like sinners and getting drunk.
Then God said to Moses. “You better go back down the mountain. The people that you led out of Egypt are out of control. They have made a new god out of gold.
 Don’t we do that sometimes too. We think more about money or things than about God.  When we trust in our money or things to meet our needs, we are making a god out of gold. So we learned a couple things today.
(1) We have the Holy Spirit living inside us. (If we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior)
(2) Waiting on God is trusting in Him.  (Don’t sin to get what we want.)   (Isaiah 40:31)
(3) We can’t make money and things our god. (Keep God first, He’ll take care of us) (Mt 6:24)

Ten Commandments....bad news and good news

 OK, last time we discussed how God gave us the Ten Commandments and how they were for our own good and for our safety. There is another reason, which takes us to the bad news and the good news.
 First the bad news. When we break a single commandment, no matter how big or how small, it separates us from God. Breaking a commandment it is “sin.” God is a holy God and heaven is a holy place. Sin is like a stain.(Isaiah 1:18) Heaven is so clean, that any stain can’t be allowed or it wouldn’t be a clean and holy place. No matter how much good we do, the stain is still there.

 Let’s say that the Ten Commandments are like ten dollars that your mom gave you and your brother to go to the movies. The movie ticket costs ten dollars. On the way to the theater, you see the ice cream truck and buy some ice cream for a dollar. When you get to the ticket window at the theater, the ticket seller says that you can’t buy a ticket with only nine dollars. The movie is ready to start! You offer her your bracelet or the little doll that you have in your pocket. No matter how valuable those things are to you, you still can’t get in. We have to be perfect to get into heaven.

 More bad news.... no one has ever lived the perfect life and not broken a commandment, except Jesus. Have you ever lied, taken anything that wasn’t yours or disobeyed your parents? I have. That means that we are NOT perfect. The bible says that “everyone has sinned and fallen short of heaven.”(Romans 3:23)
 That’s enough bad news. How about some good news? There are four books of the Bible about the life of Jesus. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are called the Gospels. Did you know that gospel means “good news!” Jesus is our good news!  Let’s go back to our movie ticket story. Jesus lived the perfect life. He bought all the movie tickets for everyone in the whole world! Jesus wants to give us a ticket into heaven, but we have to come to Him. What does it mean to come to Him. We have to believe that He is the son of God. That He lived a sinless life. That He died on the cross to pay a price that I could not pay because I have sinned. And that He rose from the dead on the third day.

The Ten Commandments show us how we have failed and how much we need Jesus!

 Without Jesus we are in big trouble when we die. If we think that we can be good enough to get into heaven, we are fooling ourselves. Let’s say that the Ten Commandments are like a chain and each link is one of the commandments. You are hanging onto the chain above a lake of fire. You are not too worried because the chain is strong and it is hoisting you to safety.

But if even one of those links breaks, the whole chain is broken. If you tell a little lie or disobey your parents, the link breaks and you begin to fall. Who can save us from that lake of fire? Only Jesus.

The bible says to “cry out to Jesus!”  He will SAVE us.(Psalm 37:17)  If we choose with our heart to make Jesus our Lord and Savior. He will save us.  What does Lord and Savior mean?  Lord means that we follow Jesus. He is sitting on the throne of our hearts. While we are on this earth, we get to know Him and what He wants us to do. Savior is about when we die. Jesus stands before God and says, “Father, his or her price has been paid.” We are then allowed to spend forever in heaven.
 Do you want to go to heaven when you die? Wouldn’t it be great to know that you will be spending eternity with Jesus? You can be sure. Do you believe that Jesus died for you? Do you believe that He rose from the dead? Do you believe that He is God’s son? Are you ready to follow Jesus? Do you realize that you have sinned and that you need Jesus? The bible says to "confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved.”(Romans 10:9) Confess means to say out loud, so if you really, really, really believe this with all your heart, say this prayer.
 God, I admit that I am a sinner. I believe that Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life and died for my sins. I confess now that Jesus in now the Lord of my life and my Savior. Thank you God for Jesus and thank you for saving me. Amen.

 If you prayed that prayer and meant it with all your heart, guess what? You are going to heaven! The Bible says that every time someone is saved, the angels throw a big party in heaven!

The Ten Commandments

                    So God spoke the Ten Commandments to the Hebrews. Then He gave Moses two tablets of stone with the commandments engraved on them. I guess this was important stuff! The Ten Commandments can be broken into two parts. The first four commandments are about God an the last six are about people. Jesus even said that The commandments can be summed up in two commandments. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

  So why did God give us commandments anyway? Does He just want to spoil our fun? Doen't He want us to enjoy life? YES! He does! .... and that's exactly why he gave them (and us) the Ten Commandments. Imagine a game without any rules.... That wouldn't be too much fun with everyone doing whatever they wanted. Would it? How about if your mom or dad didn't have any rules for you? Let's say you were two years old and you wanted to cross a busy street. Your mom and dad didn't believe in giving you any rules and let you try to cross the street as they sat on the front porch and watched you try to get across the street without getting hit by a car. That would not be very loving of them. If we follow God's rules, we will have a fuller, safer and more enjoyable life!

God also gave us the Ten Commandments to help us see that we are sinners. If we don’t know the rules, how do we know that we are breaking them. The Bible says that Jesus was the only one who kept all the commandments His whole life.

 Let’s look at the first four commandments . They are about God.

The First Commandment says: to Love God more than anything else. When you love someone, you let them have the first piece of pie. You let them get a drink from the water fountain first, even though you are thirsty. So if we love God more than anything else, we put what He wants first. What does He want? He wrote it down in the Bible and on two tablets of stone. He wants us to show our love for Him, by obeying Him.

The Second Commandment says: to worship only God. This is different from the first one. We worship with our mind and our time. What do we think about more than God. Do we think about playing video games or texting more than we think about God? What do we spend more time doing? Praying or playing? Reading the Bible or reading a text?

The Third Commandment says: to honor God’s name. God is holy and so is His name. We should not blurt out His name when we get mad or hurt ourselves. How would you feel if every time something went wrong, someone yelled your name? When we say God’s name, He leans a little closer to hear what we are saying. We should use His name when we are praying, or telling someone about how much He loves us.

The Fourth Commandment says: to honor God by resting from work on the seventh day. Work is a distraction. God wants us to free up our time in order to Honor Him. When we go to church on that seventh day, God knows that we have put aside that time to spend with Him. He gave us the example of resting on the seventh day when He created the universe and rested after six days.

Now let’s look at the last six commandments. They are about loving each other.

The Fifth Commandment says: to honor your mom and dad. The best way to honor them is to obey them. God put them in charge of you. God is in charge of them. The only time God doesn’t want you to do what they say, is if they tell you to do something that is not right.

The Sixth commandment says: not to kill anyone, which also means not to hurt anyone. Jesus says that even thinking about hurting someone is just as bad as really doing it.

The Seventh Commandment says: to keep your promises when you get married. When you get married, God is right in the middle of those promises. When you break one of those promises, it’s like telling God that you are more important than Him. God never breaks His promises.

The Eighth Commandment says: not to steal. God sees everything. God loves us. God wants good things for us. When we take something that is not ours. It makes Him sad. Then God doesn’t give us the better thing that He had for us.

The Ninth Commandment says: not to lie. God hears everything. God loves us. God wants the best for us. When we lie, we are not trusting God. We think we need to lie to get out of some kind of trouble, but then the lies get us into more trouble. Jesus said that the truth sets us free.

The Tenth Commandment says: not to be jealous or greedy. This is hard because it deals more with our heart than the rest of the commandments. It is hard to be happy for someone when they have what we wanted, but that is what God wants us to do. Be happy for the kid who got the new bike.  When we do that. It changes us on the inside and we are happier with what we have.

 Next time we will talk about the bad news and the good news of the Ten Commandments.

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.