OT-40
"Wandering in the Desert: part 1”
Big Idea
God takes care of us.
Materials Needed:
-three paper bags labeled "A", "B", and "C". (You may decorate these bags if you wish.)
Setup:
1. Place a table in the center of the teaching area.
Lesson
1. Using the sheets generated during small group time, discuss a few of the foods the children mentioned, as well as the places to obtain water. Explain the following:
You may be getting a little hungry or thirsty with all this food and water talk, but do you remember where we left God's people, the Israelites, the last time we met? In the middle of the desert, where food and water are very hard to come by.
Do you remember how they got there? (Briefly, through prompts, help the children recall the following previously covered stories: the ten plagues, the parting of the Red sea, the giving of the ten commandments, the golden calf, the spies into Canaan).
Our big idea for today is "God takes care of us." He knows what we really need and he can make sure we get it. In our story today, the Israelites will learn this lesson. We'll talk about a couple of things that happened to them while they were wandering in the desert.
2. Explain the following:
We're going to talk a bit about the hard times the Israelites had in the desert. And to do it, we're going to play a game I like to call "Mystery Bags." (Place the three paper bags on the table, in order from "A" to "C".)
To play our game, we'll need two contestants and an announcer. (Select three children to come up front to be contestants or the announcer. They must be able to read well. Have the contestants stand behind the table, and the announcer stand next to you.)
Here's how the game's played. I'll read a section of the story, and then I'll stop. I'll take three cards and place one each inside the mystery bags. These cards describe what could happen next in the story. But only one of them is the truth, what actually happened. The other two are just silly guesses as to what happened.
Each round, one contestant will go first. He/she will pick one mystery bag. The next contestant will chose another mystery bag. Both contestants will then open their mystery bags and read the card to themselves. If the contestant who picked first thinks that his/her card is the correct card, they may keep the bag. However, if they think his/her card is incorrect, he/she may switch it with the bag left on the table. The contestant who went second is stuck with the bag they chose. He/she will get to go first next round.
Each round, the contestant with the correct answer will win a valuable prize for everybody to share.
3. Play the game according to the rules listed above. Read each section of the story, the question listed below it, and the description of the prize. Place the three story answer cards that correspond to the question number in the bags and allow the two contestants to make their choices.
Have each contestant then read his/her card out loud. Have the announcer read the answer in the unselected mystery bag. Then, hand the Correct Answer card that corresponds to the question number to the announcer and have him/her read it out loud, indicating to everyone that this is the correct answer. Have the announcer attach that Correct Answer card to the board/wall.
If one contestant answers correctly, give him/her the prize mentioned as you read that section of the story.
4. Explain the following.
The Israelites were wandering in the desert, as this was their punishment for not trusting God to help them conquer the promised land of Canaan. For three days, they walked around, looking for water, but they couldn't find any.
Finally, they found some water at a place called Marah. But when they drank it, it tasted so bitter and gross that no one was able to drink it. So they started complaining to Moses. "What are we going to drink?"
Moses didn't have an answer, so he prayed to God. And God decided to take care of his people.
Question #1: How did God get his people some water?
Prize: A glass of Israelite Ice Water: it's the tastiest!
5. Explain the following:
So God took care of his people by giving them water. He had Moses place a piece of wood into the water. God then caused the water to become sweet tasting, so that all the Israelites had very tasty water to drink. And the Israelites camped there for a while, enjoying all the water.
But when God had told the Israelites that they'd be wandering in the desert, he meant it! The Israelites packed up and Moses led them further into the desert. After a while, they began to run out of food.
And once again, they began to complain. "We had plenty of good things to eat when we lived in Egypt! Why'd we let Moses bring us out here in the desert to die of hunger?"
But God had a plan to take care of the Israelites' need for food. And he told that plan to Moses.
Question #2: What was the first part of God's plan for food?
Prize: Some Israelite M&Ms! The first M stands for Moses, and the second one
does, too!
6. Explain the following:
God took care of his people's need for food by giving them a special treat to eat: quail. Like M&Ms, they wouldn't be able to have it every day, but they sure enjoyed it as they ate it.
Still, God knew that the people of Israel would need more food. They needed something that they could have each and every day. There simply weren't enough quail living in the desert for the Israelites to eat all the time. They need different food. And God had a plan for that, too.
Question #3: What was the second part of God's plan for food?
Prize: A tasty peanut butter and jelly sandwich: made with real Joshua's Jelly!
7. Explain the following:
God took care of the Israelites by basically sending food from the sky. Dew formed on the ground each morning, and when it dried, it left behind white, thin flakes on the ground. The Israelites gathered these flakes together and ate them. They called it "manna," which in their language means "what is it?" It tasted like very thin bread made with honey.
Moses told the Israelites to only take as much as they needed to eat for the day. Instead of storing up the manna, they needed to trust that God would take care of them by sending some every day. But some people didn't listen. Instead, they took extra and stored it inside their tents until morning.
Question #4: What happened to the manna the people stored overnight?
Prize: Gummy worms, much tastier than the maggots in the manna!
8. Explain the following:
God took care of the Israelites every day for forty years by sending manna. Each week, on the day before the Sabbath, the special day of the week the Israelites were commanded to stop working, he sent enough manna for two days. The people gathered up extra manna on those days so that they wouldn't have to work on the Sabbath. And when they stored the manna on those days, it stayed fresh, with no bugs or maggots!
Soon, the Israelites packed up and moved out again. And, once again, they found themselves without water. Like before, they complained to Moses. And like before, God had a plan to take care of them.
Question #5: What was God's plan to get water?
Prize: Nerds candy: they look like rocks, but taste like candy!