YEA Lesson Library
The Golden Calf
About This Lesson
This lesson teaches that God is worthy of all glory and honor; we should never worship an idol or fail to give God the credit for His marvelous deeds.
Scriptures
Exodus 20:3-6
Exodus 32:1-35
Deuteronomy 4:23
Isaiah 40:19-20
Acts 17:27-29
Acts 17:28
Acts 19:24-25
Words to Know
CREDIT - to say that someone is responsible for a certain action
JEHOVAH - God's name, also translated "I AM THAT I AM”
LAUGHINGSTOCK- something that is so silly, ridiculous, absurd that people make fun
PROVIDE - to give, usually what is needed
The Lesson
When you were younger, did you watch "Clifford the Big Red Dog"? In one of the programs, the dogs were digging on the beach where they uncovered a treasure chest. When Jetta saw the chest, she got very excited. While looking inside she and the dogs found that the chest belonged to Captain Birdwell, the founder of Birdwell Island where they lived. The chest contained all sorts of memorabilia and treasures that the islanders were thrilled to see. Jetta took all of the credit for finding the chest. And of course, the dogs couldn't say anything to let people know she was lying. There was a special Founder's Day ceremony where they planned to reward Jetta for finding the chest. But in the end, Jetta felt badly about taking credit and told the crowd she was wrong.
This is a simple kids' cartoon. But taking credit for something you didn't do, or giving credit to someone who doesn't deserve it, is an old sin. The Israelites did it at the very time when God was writing the Ten Commandments with His own fingers into tablets of stone.
Moses had been up on Mount Sinai with God for 40 days and nights. The Israelites got tired of waiting for him to return. They went to Aaron and told him to make them a god to lead them, because they didn't know what had happened to Moses. Aaron told the people to take off their golden earrings and give them to him. He made an idol out of them in the shape of a calf. The people said that was their god that had brought them out of Egypt. Aaron built an altar in front of the calf and said, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
God knew exactly what was going on. He told Moses to get back down to the people. They were out of control - making idols, worshiping and sacrificing to them, and partying. Try to imagine this scene Moses walked into. Moses was mad. He threw the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments to the ground where they smashed into pieces. Wow! That's very serious. God had written the Ten Commandments on those tablets. Moses was so angry he broke them!
The people didn't have enough faith and patience to wait for Moses and God. They forgot all about the plagues God sent to rescue them from the Egyptians. They forgot about the miraculous parting of the waters of the Red Sea. They forgot about God leading them with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. They forgot how God provided water and fed them with manna and quail. They asked Aaron to make them an idol that couldn't even walk to lead them. Then they gave this idol credit for bringing them out of Egypt. Wow! How do you think God felt when He saw all of this happening? They did these things when they knew better.
To make matters worse, Aaron lied about the whole thing. He told Moses that he took the earrings and threw them into the fire and out came the calf. Aaron, as the leader of the people, made several bad choices. He should have reminded them Moses was with God and would return. He should never have asked for their earrings to make this calf. He should have never built the altar for a place to worship and sacrifice to this dumb calf. He shouldn't have allowed the party. It made them the laughing-stock to their enemies. Their enemies knew God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt with many miracles. Now they watched the Israelites' wild behavior. This is not how God's people should have acted. They certainly weren't obeying the Second Commandment that they had just heard God thunder from Mount Sinai.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations, of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6 NIV).
Making idols to worship, giving credit to the wrong people, especially when the credit should be God's, and wild behavior is very serious to God. God was ready to destroy the whole group of people and start over with Moses!
We don't do this today, do we? We don't make idols to worship, do we? We always give God the credit for what He has done, don't we? We don't behave badly and bring dishonor to God, do we? We don't lie to cover up our actions, do we? If we're honest with ourselves, we know that there are many things in our lives that we put before serving God.
Too often we don't think about giving God credit. We don't thank God for what He's done for us. We either think it was just luck or that we did it ourselves. God is with us and He provides us with so many things. We owe Him praise and thanks. We need to be careful to give Him the glory and honor for being near us every day. Today's memory verse says, "For in him we live and move and have our being... We are his offspring" (Acts 17:28). We have so much for which to be thankful to God.
Activity
Teaching the Lesson:
Legacy Lesson: Student book/Teacher book - Teaching Time: 25 mins.
Lesson Prep - Teacher book - Time: 30 mins.
Activity: Give God the Glory - Teacher book - Time: 25 mins.
Song: "Heavenly Father, I Appreciate you" - page 82 of the Kids Classics Collection - Time: 5 mins.
Activity: Just This Week - Student book - Time: 15 mins.
Extending the Lesson - REACH Activities:
*Back to the Bible: The Nations Heard
*Journal Jot: Breaking the Covenant
*Word Study: Live - zaō
*Just Toolin’ Around: False gods
*Did you Know? Impossibility
*Stretch It Out: Thanksgiving
*Music Notes: O Worship the King
*Questions? - Writing Prompt - 10 mins.
Student Prayer
Dear Father,
Show me where You have worked in my life. I want to see what You have done so I can thank You for it.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Daily Devotions
Sunday: Exodus 20:3-6
Monday: Acts 17:27-29
Tuesday: Exodus 32:1-4
Wednesday: Deuteronomy 4:23
Thursday: Isaiah 40:19-20
Friday: Acts 19:24-25
Saturday: Exodus 32:5-6
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Retell the story of the Aaron making the golden calf for the Israelites.
2. Explain that the Israelites were breaking the Second Commandment, and show ways they broke it.
3. Transfer to themselves the lesson of putting anything before God.
4. Make a plan of action for praising and thanking God every day.
Topics & Themes
Golden Calf
Honor God
Idols/Idolatry
Materials Needed
Bible, YEA Students' and Teacher's books, pencils and pens, attendance and memory verse charts, stars, songbook, music player and music tape or CD, blackboard and chalk, post-it notes, foil stars, stickers, markers
Preparation
Find a medal, award, recognition plaque, etc. of one of your achievements to take into class.
Make some large post-it notes to demonstrate what you'd like the students to do for their activity so they can see the examples. (See Activity).
How to Teach This Lesson
Awards - Display your awards, plaques, medals, etc. for the students to see when they walk into class. Briefly explain what you did to receive them. Then encourage the students to share some of their achievements and what they are most proud of.
Credit where credit is due - Talk about this phrase. Apply it to the awards you just discussed. Ask: What if someone else had gotten the credit for doing what you had done? What if someone had gotten the award instead of you? What if they had done it intentionally? What if they had done it innocently?
Mount Sinai - Set the scene for the students. Say: Moses was up on the mountain with God for 40 days and nights. The people are getting bored and tired of waiting for Moses to return. They go to Aaron and tell him to make a god to lead them. "Concerning Moses who brought us out of Egypt, who knows what has happened to him?" (Exodus 32:1). Aaron tells them to bring their gold earrings. He makes a golden calf out of them. Aaron builds an altar in front of the calf and tells them to have a Feast the next day to this calf. The people ate, drank, worshiped and sacrificed to the golden calf. It turned into a real party. The party got so bad that they became the laughingstock to the nations all around them!
List the sins - On poster paper, list the ways they sinned. Breaking the Second Commandment should head the list. Ways they broke this commandment should include: asking for an idol to lead them, making an idol, worshiping and sacrificing to the idol, giving the idol credit for bringing them out of Egypt, improper behavior bringing dishonor to themselves and to God.
Moses' reaction - Tell the students you can gauge the severity of the sin by the fact Moses threw the tablets of the Ten Commandments to the ground, smashing them to bits. Then he called for whoever was for the LORD to come to him (Moses). The Levites went through the camp killing brothers, friends and neighbors until about 3000 people died. Yet God was still angry with them; He struck them with a plague.
Our reaction - We might be tempted to lie occasionally to keep from sure punishment. Sometimes our behavior is very unbecoming to Christ. We might think that we are very different from the Israelites and would never make an idol out of a calf. Maybe so, but we can make idols just the same. We can easily give credit which belongs to God to someone else.
Awards - Remind the students of the awards you talked about initially. Ask: I may have won that award through my actions, but who gave me the ability? Who gave me favor in the sight of those handing me the awards? Who is ultimately responsible for me being who and what I am?
God first in your life - Anything we love more than God can become an idol: money, the opinions of our peers, or how we look. Are there things you would rather do on the Sabbath than what God wants you to do? Do you want to wear clothes that God would not want you to wear, or look like people on TV who don’t please God? We should love God so much that we want to please Him in everything we do. Having a very deep love and appreciation for God will help you not to break the Second Commandment.
Credit where credit is due - Never forget to thank God for what He has done and is doing in your life. Never forget to give God the glory and the honor when people praise you and compliment you. He is the One who deserves the credit. Our memory verse tells us why. Have the students recite their memory verse at this time.
Review Questions
1. Where was Moses while the people camped at the base of Mount Sinai?
2. How long had Moses been with God on the mountain?
3. What was the people's reaction to Moses being gone so long?
4. What was Aaron's reaction to their request?
5. How did God feel about the behavior of the Israelites?
6. What did Moses do when he came back down from the mountain?
7. What can we learn from this story?
8. To whom should we give all the glory, honor, and credit?
Teacher-Directed Activity
Give God the Glory. Have students make post-it note reminders for themselves to thank God. Write on their notes: Give God the Glory, Praise God, Give God the Credit - or another phrase. Then have them decorate their post-it notes with stickers or stars. Tell them to put at least seven of them in different places in their home and plan to leave them there for a week. Encourage them to let their family know what's going on. Ask the students to be prepared to share what effect the notes have on them and on their families.
REACH Activity
Back to the Bible: The Nations Heard
Exodus 32:1-35 tells the story of the golden calf. Read the whole chapter. Then look specifically at verse 25. This was a disgusting display that the enemies of the Israelites heard about. This wasn’t just a few people getting drunk. This wasn’t just loud singing and dancing. This was something so disgusting that their enemies “held them in derision.” Have you ever considered the magnitude of this event! Not only did the Israelites make a golden idol and worship it instead of God, they call this hunk of metal His name! They gave credit to this worthless idol for all of the miracles in Egypt. Then as if that wasn’t bad enough, their conduct was so bad, it brought dishonor to God. After all, He was the One who saved them. God was the One who told Pharaoh to “let My people go.”
Seriously pray about this event. The apostle Paul warns us that when we condemn people for being disobedient to God, we are condemning ourselves. (Romans 2:1) There is not one person on this earth who hasn’t sinned (Romans 3:23). And when we call ourselves Christians, we bring dishonor to Him by our actions. Read Psalm 139:24 and make it your prayer that you will not bring dishonor to our Great God.
Journal Jot: Breaking the Covenant
Do you remember that the people all assembled before God at the foot of Mt. Sinai and agreed to the covenant. They said they would observe all the commandments God gave them. (Exodus 19:8) They had promised!! Now, just a short 40 days later, they are breaking the Ten Commandments. In a very real object lesson, Moses shattered the stone tablets the way the Israelites shattered the covenant with God. God was ready to destroy all of the Israelites and make a mighty nation out of Moses. This was not something to take lightly.
How do you feel about obedience to God? Do you realize that God’s commandments are still in effect? Do you know that if you claim to be a Christian, you are claiming to be part of His people? Are you willing to obey Him in all things? Or do you think you can do what you want and God will overlook the rest? You need to seriously think about how serious God takes obedience to Him. Write about this in your Bible notebook.
Word Study: Live - zaō
The word translated “live” in Acts 17:28 is the Greek zaō - which means “to have life, be alive” (Source: Zodhiates’ NAS Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, 1990, G#2198). God is the source of life. “In him we live and move and have our being.” Like the worshippers of the golden calf, if we don’t acknowledge God as the Source of life and the Sustainer of life, then we are not giving credit where credit is due.
The impossibility of one single DNA strand coming together by itself (aka through evolution) testifies to God as Creator. But our life goes beyond just initial existence! God provides everything we need to continue living. Write about this in your Bible notebook.
Just Toolin’ Around: False gods
Using a concordance or other Bible resource tool, look up false gods and idols. There are some very interesting verses about worshiping them. Write down five of them and add the scripture citation. One of my favorites is Jonah 2:8. The 2005 NIV says, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Think about that for a minute! You are willing to trade God’s grace for a worthless idol? Wow!
Did you Know? Impossibility
Impossibility is calculated by mathematicians to be 10 to the 50th power - That’s 10 with 50 zeros behind it. That’s enough to blow your mind. However “the chances of DNA forming spontaneously with the proper letter sequence” requires 10,837 zeros.” (Source: https://genesisfile.com/dna-dictates-design/) Then, let’s just say that you could get all of the DNA to form spontaneously with the proper letter sequence, congratulations; you don’t have life; you have a dead body.
Write about this in your Bible notebook.
Stretch It Out: Thanksgiving
Read several psalms of thanksgiving, like Psalm 92, 95, 96, 98, or 100. Now write one of your own. Make sure you cite specific things God has done in your life for which you are thankful. Once you have the psalm written, set it to music. Share it with your family.
Music Notes: O Worship the King
This hymn is on page 19 of the CEM Hymnal.
Robert Grant is the author of the text of this hymn. Although he came from a prominent English family, was a member of Parliament of Scotland, and was governor of Bombay, he was also a devout Christian. He truly cared about people and “endeared himself to the people of India by establishing a medical college in Bombay.” He wrote 12 unpublished hymns, but this is the only one in usage today. It’s set to a melody composed by J. Michael Haydn, an Austrian composer and younger brother of the famous composer, Joseph Haydn. Michael was a noted composer and musician in his own right. "By Michael's 12th birthday he was earning extra money as a substitute organist at the cathedral and had, reportedly, performed preludes and fantasies of his own composition.” (Source: Amazing Grace, Kenneth Osbeck, 1990, pg. 275 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Haydn).
As you sing this hymn, pick out your favorite lines. Make a bookmark to remind you to worship God daily! He alone is worthy of our worship and praise.
Questions?
Write down any questions you have in your Bible notebook so that you can remember to ask your parents or your pastor.
Song
"Heavenly Father, I Appreciate you" is on page 82 of the Kids Classics Collection.
Closing Prayer
Lead the students in prayer asking God to show them what He has done in their lives so they can thank Him.
Printable Pages
