Golden Calf Exodus 24:17-18, 32:1-24. July Kids will understand:

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1 3 Golden Calf Exodus 24:17-18, 32:1-24 Kids will understand: The story about the Israelites making and worshipping a golden calf. That Moses crushed what represented the Israelites sin. That making excuses and blaming others for our sin has to be crushed. July

2 Activity We ve promised you a MESSY activity in each lesson for this summer unit. Today, we re going to start off with it. You ll need 11 raw eggs and one hard-boiled egg. Ask someone outside of the children s area to rearrange all the eggs in the carton, so you don t even know which egg is hard-boiled. How you choose the participants is up to you. If all your kids want to participate, then make a drawing out of it. If only a few are adventurous enough, then choose from the willing kids. 11 raw eggs 1 hard-boiled egg egg carton clean-up cloth pancho tarp Tell the kids that you have a dozen eggs in the carton. One of them is hard-boiled; the rest aren t. Then, tell the kids that someone told you that actually all of them were hard-boiled and now you want to find out if the eggs are hard-boiled or not. In order to do that, some volunteers will be needed. For each round, you will need two kids and a tarp to cover the floor. One will be the crusher, and the other will be the eggs-pectant volunteer. The eggs-pectant volunteer should put on the pancho just in case! The crusher will choose one egg from the carton, and there s no touching them until the egg is chosen. Then, the two kids will stand face-to-face, about an arm s length from one another. At the signal, the crusher will smash the egg against the forehead of the eggs-pectant volunteer. Make a big deal over each raw egg by saying something about how you should ve known there was only one hard-boiled egg. No matter when the hard-boiled egg is found, continue choosing pairs of kids to crush the rest of the eggs, because you want to find out how many are really cooked and how many are raw. When you re done, ask the kids how many real hard-boiled eggs were in the carton. Even though someone told me they were all hard-boiled, there was only one real hard-boiled egg. I let them talk me into doubting what I already knew that there was only one REAL hard-boiled egg. We re going to head into our Bible story today, where we ll find out about the real God. Others tried to make it seem like their idols were also real gods that there was more than one REAL God. Moses would have none of that. Let s find out what Moses did. Bible Account Today s story is written from the point of view of Miriam, Aaron and Moses sister. The storyteller should be in biblical garb if at all possible. storyteller in biblical garb My name is Miriam and I have two younger brothers Aaron and Moses. You ve probably heard of them, because God asked them to do some remarkable things. Moses was in charge of leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and Aaron was his right-hand man. I was so glad to get out of Egypt, and very proud that MY brothers had been chosen by God for this special assignment. 2

3 God performed miracle after miracle and we saw them with our own eyes! He pulled the waters back so we could get across the Red Sea when the Egyptian army was chasing us. I didn t even get my feet wet! He sent us manna and quail when we couldn t find food. Oh my, manna bread and quail burgers are yummy. God even caused water to come out of a rock in the middle of the desert. But, the people must have had really bad memories, because they seemed to forget how God had provided for them over and over. One day Moses took Joshua, another one of his main leaders, and went up Mt. Sinai. There, Moses met with God. My, he was gone for a long time. I mean a really long time. Over a month went by and we hadn t heard a thing from Moses. We could see the fire coming out of the top of the mountain and clouds covering it but no Moses and no Joshua. I really wasn t that concerned, but my goodness, some of the people got panicky. Since Aaron was in charge while Moses was gone, a whole bunch of people went to Aaron. They were convinced that something had happened to Moses and that he was never going to return. They started complaining about being out in the desert on their own. I tell you I got so tired of hearing them complain. I think some of those people just sat around thinking of things they could complain about. But this time, they really went too far. They wanted Aaron to make them a god that they could see. They wanted an idol! I don t know what got into Aaron. I guess all those people breathing down his neck got to him. So, he told them to bring their earrings and jewelry to him. You wouldn t believe all the jewelry they brought. It was a small treasure mountain. They kept pressing Aaron to make them an idol and he did. He melted all that jewelry down and molded it into something that looked like the calf idols the Egyptians worshipped back in Egypt. Apparently, that was just what the people wanted. They liked it so much that Aaron built an altar for the calf. Once he did that, it was like a signal for a huge party to break out! It was the biggest feast I had ever seen. People were singing and dancing and making all kinds of noise all because of that golden calf. What was my brother thinking! I guess God saw what was going on and got really angry. He even talked to Moses about getting rid of everyone. God was fed up with the way they were acting. He d told them to worship only Him, and now they had another god. He d told them not to make graven images, and now Aaron had made them an idol. Moses headed down the mountain in a big hurry, and he was carrying the two stone tablets that God had written Ten Commandments for the people on. When Moses saw the golden calf and all the people celebrating, he was boiling mad. I d never seen my brother that mad and believe me, I d seen him mad before. He threw down the tablets in his anger and they shattered. (gasp) Pieces of the Ten Commandments lay all over the ground. Moses couldn t find Aaron fast enough. I will never forget the tone in Moses voice when he caught up with Aaron. What is going on, Aaron? Up to this point, Aaron just went along with everything the people wanted, but now he got caught. He 3

4 started making excuses, like the calf just hopped out of the fire when he put the jewelry in. And, then he tried to blame it on the people by saying that they made him do it and he was afraid of them. There was no way Moses was going to let that calf stay around. He had it crushed and ground up so fine that it became gold dust. And then he sprinkled it in the drinking water. Yuck, it made the water so bitter. With each drink of water, the people were reminded of that golden calf and how they had sinned against God. Game It is up to you to decide how many kids play at a time, depending on the size of your group and the amount of space you have. For each player you will need to set up 3 chairs, each with a pop can sitting on it. At the signal, all the players will go to their first chair and knock the pop can off the chair with their head. Then, they will crush their can by stomping on it. Once their first can is crushed, they move on to the second chair where they do the same thing. Then, do the same thing at their third chair. When all three cans have been crushed they will return to the leader. The first player back to the leader gets 100 points and the opportunity to earn another 100 points by answering a question about today s story. (If you re playing as teams, keep a team score.) HAVE FUN! large supply of empty pop cans chairs Questions and Answers Why wasn t Moses with the Israelites and Aaron? (He had gone up the mountain to speak with God.) Who did Moses take up the mountain with him? (Joshua) Why did the Israelites get restless? (Moses had been gone a long time.) What did the Israelites tell Aaron to do? (make them gods) What excuse did Aaron give for doing what the people asked? (He was afraid of the people.) What did the Israelites give Aaron to make their idol? (their jewelry and golden treasures, things they had brought out of Egypt) What did Aaron make with the melted gold? (a golden calf) How did they worship their new golden calf idol? (had a feast, bowed to it, sang and danced around it) What did Moses do when he saw the people worshipping with the golden calf? (He threw down the tablets that God had written the Ten Commandments on.) What did Aaron say when Moses asked him how the idol got made? (He said he threw their jewelry in the fire and the calf came out!) What did Moses do with the golden calf idol? (crushed it to dust and put it in the drinking water) Now, make sure you recycle all these crushed cans! 4

5 Science Experiment Watch the video of Dr. Bunsenburner crushing the pop cans. If you d like to do this experiment live, here are the instructions. You will need: a hot plate, empty pop can, bowl of ice water (not just ice), tongs, and a little water. Put about 2 tablespoons of water in the pop can. Set it on the hot plate until you see steam coming from the can. The steam tells you that it s nice and hot. Use the tongs to pick up the can and turn it upside down in the ice water. Or, you can wear a fireproof glove. You must turn the can upside down or it will not work. The can will make a loud pop and will be crushed. Pull the can out for the kids to see how the can was crushed. video Dr. Bunsenburner Crushes a Can When Moses came down from the mountain where God had given him the Ten Commandments, he became so angry with the Israelite people for making the golden calf idol that he threw the stone tablets on the ground and CRUSHED them! But that s not all. Moses turned around and CRUSHED the golden calf until it was dust. Then, he added the gold dust to their drinking water and made them drink it. Yuck! Skit Both actors should be wearing a ball cap and carrying a baseball mitt. #1 has a baseball shirt on, and #2 has a plain t-shirt on. #1: I can t wait. I ve got a friend coming over and we re going to play some baseball. Well, really there s only two of us, so we ll just play pitch and catch. Wonder where he is. 2 actors 2 ball caps 2 baseball mitts plain t-shirt baseball shirt #2: (offstage) Batter up and the crowd goes wild. #1: Alright, I hear him coming now. #2: (enters) Hey, ready to play some ball? #1: Sure thing. Got my lucky hat, my mitt, and my favorite baseball shirt. #2: Well, I ve got my hat and my mitt, but I don t know what s happened to my shirt. Hey, wait a minute. #1: What? #2: Isn t that my shirt you re wearing? #1: You re crazy. #2: No, really. That s my shirt. I would know that ketchup stain anywhere. I got it when my dad took me to watch a pro game. 5

6 #1: I don t see any stain. (tries to cover up part of the shirt) #2: I must have left it at your house when I spent the night. #1: Well, I thought since you left it that you must have been trying to tell me that you wanted me to have it. #2: Yeah, right whatever. #1: Well, it s your fault for leaving it. #2: Why would you think that I wanted you to have my shirt just because I got a little forgetful? #1: I guess I was just hoping you wouldn t notice, cause I really, really like this shirt. I m sorry. #2: It would ve been better if you had called me when you found my shirt at your house or at least owned up to it when I recognized you wearing it. That s the way friends act. #1: Guess you can call me out on this one. I tell you what I ll ask my mom to wash it and I ll bring it to you as soon as it comes out of the dryer. #2: That s a deal. #1: And my mom can get out any stain with that new stuff off the infomercial. I bet she can get out that ketchup stain. Oh man, if I d thought of that earlier, you wouldn t have recognized the shirt. Kiddin! Excuses, excuses, excuses. People try to get away from accepting blame by making up excuses. Aaron tried to get out of his mess by making up excuses, and our friend in the skit here tried to get out of his wrong-doing with a pile of excuses. Excuses only cause messes big messes. Message PowerPoint slides (show slide #2) What a mess! Moses was major angry with the Israelites and with his brother, Aaron, and he let it show. But, even more than that, the people were in a big mess with God, because of the way they had disobeyed Him. It s not that they didn t understand what God wanted, either. They knew good and well that what they were doing was going against God. God had told them not to make graven images (idols) and that s exactly what the golden calf was. God had told them to serve no other god, and they were certainly guilty of that. 6

7 What do we tend to do when we get caught disobeying? (show slide #3) We make excuses for our sin. Do you remember what Aaron said when Moses asked him what had happened? Aaron said that when he put the gold in the fire, the calf just jumped out! How absurd is that! Did he really think Moses would buy that story? Now, on top of disobeying two of God s commandments (serve no other gods and make no graven images), now Aaron lies. That s what happens when you let sin into your life. One sin leads to another, which leads to another. Every excuse just makes it worse. What kind of excuses have you used? Turn to a neighbor and share a time when you did something you knew was wrong and what excuse you gave. Then, let a few of the kids share with the entire group. Why do we make excuses? It s a way of hiding. In our minds we think that if we make an excuse then we re okay. We think we can cover up our sin by making it sound like someone or something else was really to blame. (show slide #4) We blame our sin on someone else. We point our finger at someone else and try to make it sound like they were to blame and not us. When Moses asked Aaron why he had done this awful thing, Aaron said it was because the people put pressure on him. They wanted an idol and he was afraid of what they might do if he didn t give them what they wanted. He was pointing his finger at the Israelites and trying to say they were to blame. Who do you most often point your finger at and say, But they started it or It was his fault? Why do you try to blame your sin on someone else? Well, it s because you don t want to (show slide #5) Admit your sin. If you confess what you did and take the blame, then you OWN that sin. It s yours. It belongs to you and nobody else. Moses asked Aaron to own what he did. When you tell your parents the truth about what you ve done, and you don t point your finger at a friend or a brother, they may not like what you ve done, but they will respect you more than if you tried to blame someone else. When we know better, there is no excuse for disobeying. God wants the truth, also. He is all-knowing, so He knows if you re hiding something. But, He wants you to come clean and be truthful about your disobedience. And, when you admit the sin and own it, then you can do something about it that will bring you back to God. Read together Psalm 32:5 that says, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. (show slide #6) Crush the sin and get rid of it. 7

8 Once you admit your sin, then you ve got to crush it. Moses crushed the calf that represented the sin of the Israelites, and then he put it in their drinking water. He didn t want any part of the golden calf around to remind the people of idols. He didn t want them to be tempted to do that again, so he got rid of it completely. When we admit our sin and ask God to forgive us, God will crush that sin, and that really ticks off Satan. Read together Romans 16:20, And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Then, we need to get away from anything that tempts us to sin again like that. If you have a friend who thinks it s fun to see if he can shoplift, and he talked you into doing that also, then it s best to get rid of that friendship. Crush that friendship and get rid of it. If you ve cheated at your schoolwork when sitting close to a certain classmate, then ask the teacher if you can sit somewhere else or move your desk further away from that person. Crush that temptation. Get serious about crushing Satan. You can really tick off Satan when you crush temptation! Object Lesson When God saw the golden calf and the way the people were singing and dancing around it, what was His reaction? He was angry really angry! When Moses saw the golden calf and the way the people were celebrating around it, what was His reaction? Major angry, also! Did Moses tell them to put the calf away and not get it out anymore? Did he melt it down and have them make new pieces of jewelry with it? No, he crushed it up until it was dust powder. He wanted it to be totally unrecognizable. ceramic figurine hammer plastic garbage bag pillowcase newspaper You can get a little ceramic figurine at the dollar store, if you don t have something that s headed for your garage sale. Put the figurine in the plastic bag, and then put the plastic bag in an old pillowcase. Let the kids take turns smashing the pillowcase with a hammer. Before each child strikes, ask them to tell you a specific way that Satan can be crushed. Such as: I ll refuse to gossip. I ll admit what I ve done to displease God. I ll avoid being with people who encourage me to sin. I will look for the good in people rather than think the worst of them. When the figurine is crushed sufficiently, pour it out onto some newspaper. Is this dust? Not yet. The figurine was just a little thing and it took us that much work to crush it this far. Imagine how much work it was to crush the golden calf until it was powder, and the golden calf was huge, not little like the figurine was. Crushing sin is a big job, too! But that s not all Moses did. What did he do with the gold powder when the golden calf was crushed to powder? He put the powder in their water. Can you imagine pouring this crushed figurine into our drinking water? The Bible said that the gold dust made the water taste bitter. 8

9 Why do you think he put the gold dust in the water? If Moses had just put the golden calf away so it wasn t where they would see it all the time, it would still be around. If he had melted down the calf so the people could make new jewelry from it, they would still have the gold as a reminder of their sin and maybe be tempted to melt it down again to make a new idol. Moses wanted to get rid of anything that reminded them of how they had disobeyed God. He didn t want anything around that would tempt them to disobey like that again. God had wonderful things for the Israelites, but they kept letting Satan talk them into lesser things. Don t let Satan talk you into sinning, because the best life is about obeying God. That s a huge way we worship Him. Prayer empty pop cans Give each child an empty pop can and access to a permanent marker. Write on your pop can what you need to crush. When you admit that you need help, God is ready to be with you to crush Satan. Have you given excuses or tried to blame someone else? Is there something in your life that you know God is not happy with? That s disobedience. God knows about it, but He wants you to admit it. As the kids write on their cans, walk through the room to see what they are including. If some of the kids want to share out loud with the entire group, that s wonderful. Saying it out loud is a big step towards crushing sin. Then, voice a prayer on behalf of the kids. Tell God of your commitment to follow Him, to obey Him, and ask for His help in the crusade to crush Satan. Instead of saying Amen, the kids will stomp on their can. Blessing Go with confidence that God will help you crush Satan. 9

10 Snack Put some water in the bottom of a double boiler. In the top portion, put the chocolate morsels. (You can also use a regular saucepan as the bottom of a double boiler and a metal mixing bowl for the top part.) Set the top on the bottom and then put this on a hot plate. As the water heats in the bottom portion it will warm the top portion and melt the chocolate morsels slowly and evenly. Stir the chocolate occasionally with the spatula. hot plate double boiler water chocolate morsels spatula small candy molds spoon Once the chocolate is completely melted, then spoon the chocolate into the candy molds. You ll want the candies to be bite-size, so your molds should be for small candies. Gently tap the mold against a countertop; this will release any air bubbles trapped in the chocolate. Now, set the mold in a freezer for about 10 minutes. The candies will pop out of the mold easily. Give each child one of the molded chocolate candies, but have them hold onto it until you tell them to eat it. We melted down yummy chocolate, but the Israelites gave their gold jewelry and treasures to Aaron to melt down. Our chocolate was given a form by putting it into a mold. Now it looks like something. The Israelites wanted to have a god they could look at, so Aaron put the melted gold into a mold that made the gold look like a calf. What did Moses do to the golden calf? He crushed it! Okay, let s crush our chocolate! Pop one in your mouth and chomp down on it. The kids will follow suit. For large groups, you ll want to demonstrate melting and filling one mold, but have others made up ahead of time. Music Worship today by singing I m Really Happy and It s Not New. It s hard to sit still when you sing I m Really Happy, so praise the Lord with your whole body, because the One True God deserves everything. When God heard the Israelites singing and celebrating the golden calf, He was not happy because they were singing to and celebrating an idol. Let s give God singing that will make Him happy because it s all about Him! If you d like more of Yancy s music, go to yancynotnancy.com. 10 music DVD downloads

11 Scripture Memorization 1 John 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. play dough waxed paper craft sticks Aaron molded the gold into something that was not pleasing to God, but we can mold play dough into something that will please Him. The difference in making something like this is that we re making it as part of our worship of Him. Using the play dough can help us understand God s Word better and that is pleasing to Him. Give each child a piece of waxed paper and access to play dough and craft sticks. Challenge them to make a play dough creation that says something about the verse that we re memorizing. Refrain from directing them in any specific direction. If some children need help getting started, then tell them to say different phrases from the scripture out loud, and think about the phrase rather than the entire verse. Go around the room as the children work and ask them to describe what they are making and the connection it has to the scripture. You ll be amazed at how God s Word speaks to them! Activity Let s take a survey. Record the answers to each question. As you ask each question, get the kids excited about the possibilities! How many of you would like to have ice cream for breakfast every day? How many of you would like to have unlimited time on video games whenever you want? How many of you would like to be able to drive at 10 years old? How many of you would like to get a 5-month summer vacation? How many of you would like to choose the grade your teacher puts on your report card? Giving people what they want isn t necessarily a good thing. Go through each of these survey questions again so the kids can tell you why their answer would not be a good thing to actually happen. Even though most of you would like to drive when you re 10 years old, that s not a good idea. Handling a piece of equipment that s a couple 1,000 pounds is more than a 10-year-old is ready for. Even though we would all enjoy more time off in the summer to swim and play, we need to spend time learning subjects that will help us as we grow up. Aaron gave the people what they wanted because he felt pressured. And, it definitely wasn t a good thing for him. Wise people and good leaders know when to NOT give people what they want when what they want is bad for them. The idol that the people wanted meant disobeying God and that s never a good thing. 11