Moses Parents & the Midwives Listen to God (Exodus 1 2:8)

Moses’ Parents & the Midwives Listen to God (Exodus 1 – 2:8)

Main Point: There is blessing in listening to God and obeying Him.

Key Verse: Shiphrah and Puah had respect for God. So He gave them families of their own. – Exodus 1:21

Materials: Two pieces of candy

Personal Connection:

Say: Today we’re going to talk about a really difficult choice: obeying a person who is in charge of you, or obeying God. Have you ever had a person in charge of you, like a teacher or parent, ask you to do something that you thought God said was wrong? You might not have ever had this happen – parents and teachers do not often tell us to do things that we know are wrong! Even if this has never happened to you, it has happened to people all throughout history and to many people in the Bible. Today, we’re going to see what a difficult situation this is.

Hands on Application:

Say: I need a volunteer today. Who wants to help me? Choose a volunteer. Now, I have a very easy job for you today. I just need you to hold onto this piece of candy for me. Give your volunteer a piece of candy. So just hold onto that for a few minutes while I choose another volunteer, and after we’re done you can eat it. Can I get somebody else to help me today? Choose another volunteer.

Say to second volunteer: I have a different job for you to do. What I want you to do is go over to my other volunteer, take his/her candy, unwrap it, and eat it. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Wait to see what your volunteer does. If he/she does not take the candy, ask why it would be wrong to take it. If he/she takes it, ask if taking the candy was the right thing to do. Give your other piece of candy to your volunteer who doesn’t have one and have them sit down.

Group Discussion:

Say: So what was the choice my second volunteer had to make? They had to choose to either obey the teacher or to disobey and let the other rightfully have their candy. What was the right thing to do? Not take the candy. Why was this a hard choice? They had to choose between stealing and disobeying.

Say: Have we heard of anyone else in a similar situation? What about the midwives Shiphrah and Puah in the lesson today? What was their situation? They had to choose between murdering babies or disobeying the Pharaoh. Right. OBVIOUSLY, the right choice was to disobey Pharaoh and let the babies live, which is what they chose to do. The Bible says that they honored God and He blessed them for their decision (Exodus 1:20 - 21). But why wasn’t it wrong for them to disobey Pharaoh? After all, he was the king of Egypt. In the book of Acts, Peter and John are in a similar situation when they are commanded by the Sanhedrin to stop preaching the gospel of Jesus. They refused, however, saying it was better to obey God than to obey men (Acts 4:18 - 20). Even though we are to obey those in authority, we must NEVER disobey God. When we obey God, He blesses us! The Bible goes on to say that Shiphrah and Puah were given their own families by God because of their decision, and they are even mentioned by name in the Scripture! God always blesses those who obey Him.

Conversation with God (Prayer): Pray that your children will always remember to obey God and that He will bless those who obey Him. Fill in the prayer journal and close in prayer.

Unless otherwise noted the Scriptures taken from: Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version, (NIrV®)