Idol in the Desert

Our lesson on Sunday was the next episode of the the Ten Commandments.

When Moses had climbed Mount Sinai to receive the rules from God, he was gone for forty days and forty nights. The Israelites started grumbling and fearing that Moses was dead. They wanted a god like the ones they had in Egypt and asked Aaron to make them one. So he asked them to take off all their gold earrings, melted them down in the fire and fashioned a gold calf for them to worship.

First, we used playdoh and each made an animal. Then, I asked them if that animal could be a 'god' that would love and provide for us. Of course, then disagreed understanding that it was just something we had made with our hands.

I needed a prop to bring the lesson to life, so I happened to be at the Christmas Tree Shop and found this ceramic milk pitcher for $1.99. After I put masking tape over the fill hole, a friend of mine painted it golden with some ornament paint she used at Christmastime.

It turned out quite well, don't you think?

I had the children put on gold beads while I built the story up to the part of Aaron asking for their jewelry. I had a black bucket with the calf in the bottom and had them put their necklaces in the bucket without letting them see the calf. (I should have added flames to the outside of the bucket. That would have enhanced the lesson)

Then I 'stirred' them in the fire and when I brought out the calf, their eyes widened in amazement.