Moses and Pharaoh Part 1: God is all powerful

Story: Moses and the first five plagues (Exodus 6:28-9:7)

The Big Idea: God is all-powerful

Bible Verse: Job 42:2 - "I know that you can do all things: no plan of yours can be thwarted."

Moses and the Burning Bush: God can use anybody

Story: Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus 2:23-4:17)

The Big Idea: God can use anybody.

Bible Verse: Philippians 4:13 - "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

Moses Loses Control: Don't be bad when you get mad

Story: Moses attacks an Egyptian and flees (Exodus 2:11-25)

The Big Idea: Don't be bad when you get mad.

Bible Verse: Proverbs 14:17a - "A quick-tempered man does foolish things."

The Birth of Moses: God Always Has a Plan

Hey everybody, we're back from summer hiatus! I'll be updating this blog each week with some info that might help you any of you who have a child in Faith Kids reinforce what we learned on Sunday morning.

Some things I'll include each week are:

1. The Story Title and Bible Reference: pretty self-explanatory
2. The Big Idea: This is a short, hopefully memorable lesson from the story that we focus on.
3. Bible Verse: Each week, we spend a few minutes learning a Bible verse that supports the big idea.

Story: The Birth of Moses (Exodus 1:1-2:10)

The Big Idea: God always has a plan.

Bible Verse: Jeremiah 29:11a - "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord."

Joseph Meets His Brothers Again

For the past couple of week, we've covered the story of how Joseph met his brothers again in Egypt.

To tell the story of the story of how Joseph collected Egypt's food during the seven good years, we each had bowls of Fruit Loops. We got to eat half of them; the rest we took up to 'Joseph' and deposited in a large bowl. That way, during the seven years of famine, we had some food left to eat.

When we got to the part of the story where Joseph met his brothers for the first time in years, we played a choose-your-own-adventure game. At various points in the story, we gave our kids threes choices as to what would happen next. One of them was the real choice, what actually happened in the Bible. The other two were completely ridiculous and funny choices. We acted out all three, choosing the correct one at the end.

As we finished the tale of Joseph reuniting with his brothers, we assigned a crazy motion for each character involved in the story and performed them each time their name was mentioned (which happened a lot!)

Pharaoh's Crazy Dreams

Our story this week centered around Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his crazy dreams.

To tell the story, we had one of our kids lie down on a cot with a pillow and blanket to represent Pharaoh. Then we used an overhead projector to shine a 'dream bubble' over 'Pharaoh's' head. Then we placed a bunch of different shadow shapes inside the dream bubble.

One night, Pharaoh had not one, but two crazy dreams! In the first, seven fat cows appeared by the Nile river, followed by seven skinny cows. The skinny cows then walked on over to the fat cows and ate them!

In the second dream, seven fat heads of grain were eaten by seven skinny heads of grain.

Needless to say, after having such strange dreams, Pharaoh was concerned. He asked the smartest people in Egypt what these dreams could possibly mean, but no one could tell him.

Finally, Pharaoh's cupbearer remembered Joseph from the time they had spent together in prison. Joseph had interpreted his dream correctly for him back then. So, the cupbearer told Pharaoh about Joseph, and Pharaoh sent for Joseph immediately.

After hearing Pharaoh's dreams, God helped Joseph understand what they meant. He told Pharaoh that Egypt would experience seven really good years, followed by seven years of severe famine. Joseph told Pharaoh that, during those seven good years, he needed to find someone smart to make sure they saved enough food to last during the seven bad years.

Pharaoh thought Joseph looked smart enough for the job, so he put him in charge of Egypt's food supply. Not only that, he put him second-in-command over all of Egypt. Only Pharaoh would have more power than Joseph.

A Joseph, a baker, and a cupbearer

This week, we told the story of Joseph's time in prison in Egypt. Mrs. Jessica read the story and I (Mr. Andy) played the parts of Joseph, the baker, and cupbearer, wearing different costumes and speaking in different voices as I tried to switch between characters as fast as possible.

Two men who worked for Pharaoh, his baker and his cupbearer, were thrown into the same prison Joseph was in because they had somehow angered Pharaoh.

While they were there, they had strange dreams, dreams they knew meant something. But, they were bummed out because they had no idea what they actually meant.

Joseph asked them, "What's wrong, guys?" They told him about their dreams, about how they didn't know what they meant.

"God can help me understand what they mean. Why don't you tell me them?" Joseph said. And so the cupbearer and baker did so.

When they were finished, God helped Joseph understand exactly what the dreams meant.