2nd Commandment–Make No Graven Image Before Me

Children’s Lesson Plan – Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

*For the craft you will need to do it in two stages as the first stage needs a little drying time. As soon as the children come in have them start the first part.

Welcome and prayer

Introduce Lesson

Exodus 20: 4-5a

Bible challenge

Write out verse in large letters. Have a copy for the girls and one for the boys. Cut up scripture in large segments (between commas would work well) and have each team race to put the scripture together in the correct order. Try without the Scriptures and then have a child read out the verse to see if they are right.

Lesson

The first four commandments are about our relationship to God.

The 2nd is specifically about how we must approach God. God does not want us creating material or visual images that we worship. This doesn’t mean we can’t create beautiful works of art after all God is creative and he has made us with the ability to be creative also.

What it does mean is that we are not to make any representative images that we idolize or bow down to as if they were God. God wants our worship! He is the true and living God and can't be found in dead and false images.

This protects our relationship with him because He doesn’t want us to worship false idols made by man. We must worship God in spirit and truth. God is Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is in our hearts through our relationship with Jesus and when we talk to Him he hears us. He is not to be found in things that we create with our own hands. After all He made us, we do not recreate Him!

God’s glory will never be reflected in a man made image so we only hurt ourselves and God when we worship something other than Him.

Think about if instead of your friend playing with you or spending time with you talking to you they made a doll that looked like you and gave the doll all the attention. You would quickly feel jealous of your friends attention and leave. That’s how God says He feels when we worship other things instead of Him.

 

Craft Heart shaped booklet with hand decoration.

*Fold a white 81/2 x 11 in half. Have the children make painted hand prints with the palm at the fold. They paint each hand a different color. Place the hands so they form a heart and fingers overlap. Set aside and leave to dry.

Next take a black marker and draw around the hand shapes making a heart. The children can decorate with the marker. Write the verse on the front or inside. They can carefully cut the heart but make sure it stays attached at the fold.

We talked about using our hands to make good things and wrote Ex. 20:4a inside. This little fella wrote his Mum a Mothers Day Card. That’s a great thing to use our hands for!

Supplies

**Color sheets/ crayons

Plain white paper/ poster paint (minimum of two colors)/ black markers

** I mainly keep color sheets on hand for down times or if I have rambunctious child that needs occupying. ; )

Hope you have a Jesus filled week.

This was written in preparation for RU children’s class and based on RU plan.