LESSON OVERVIEW FOR ADULTS
In Exodus 19:1-20:21, God’s people arrived at Mount Sinai after traveling for three months from Egypt. This mountain held special significance as the place where Moses had encountered the burning bush and received God’s promise to deliver Israel. Now, God was fulfilling His covenant by establishing His people as a treasured nation set apart from all others. Moses ascended the mountain multiple times to receive instructions from the Lord, and the people prepared themselves by washing their clothes and consecrating themselves for three days.
On the third day, God descended upon Mount Sinai in a powerful display of His holiness and majesty. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed across the sky, thick clouds covered the mountain, fire burst forth, and the sound of a trumpet grew increasingly loud. The mountain trembled, and the people were filled with awe and fear. In this dramatic setting, God spoke the Ten Commandments—His foundational instructions for how His people should worship Him and treat one another. These commandments were not arbitrary restrictions but loving guidelines designed to protect the Israelites, help them flourish as a community, and distinguish them as God’s holy nation. God Himself wrote these laws on tablets of stone as a permanent record of the covenant between Him and His people. The commandments covered their relationship with God (commandments 1-4) and their relationships with others (commandments 5-10), providing a complete framework for living in a way that honored God and blessed the community.
OPENING ACTIVITY 6:00-6:15 | TEN COMMANDMENTS PAPER BAG TABLETS
Items Needed:
- Brown paper bags (one per child)
- Printed Ten Commandments templates (pre-cut or with cutting lines)
- Glue sticks
- Crayons or markers for coloring
- Optional: Gray or brown crayons for shading edges to look like stone
- Sample completed craft for demonstration
- Newspaper or scrap paper to stuff bags (optional)
Description: Before class, print the Ten Commandments templates (five commandments per tablet). For preschoolers, pre-cut the tablet shapes to save time, or have safety scissors available for older children who can cut.
As children arrive, give each child a brown paper bag laid flat. Show them how the bag will become two stone tablets. Help children glue the printed commandment templates onto the front of the paper bag – one set of commandments (1-5) on one side, and the other set (6-10) on the other side. The bag can be left flat or gently stuffed with crumpled newspaper to give it dimension and make it stand up.
Children can color around the edges of their tablets with gray or brown crayons to make them look more like stone. They can also decorate the borders or add simple designs. Leaders should read each commandment aloud as children work, helping them understand that these are God’s special rules.
BIBLE STORY 6:15-6:25
Question 1: Where is this found in the Bible? (Exodus)
Question 2: Is this in the Old Testament or New Testament? (Old Testament)
[Hold up a big picture of a mountain]
Who knows what this is? That’s right—a MOUNTAIN! A great big mountain! [Stretch arms up high] Can you make yourselves as tall as a mountain? Stand up and reach HIGH! [Wait for children to stand and stretch]
Good job! Now, in our story today, God’s people came to a very special mountain called Mount Sinai. [Emphasize “Mount Sinai” and have children repeat it] Can you say “Mount Sinai”? [Wait for response] Great!
[Sit down and have children sit]
God’s people had been walking and walking and walking for THREE whole months! [Hold up three fingers] How many fingers? THREE! [Let children hold up three fingers] They walked from Egypt all the way to this big mountain. Their feet were probably tired! [Rub your feet] Are your feet ever tired? [Let kids respond]
When they got to the mountain, guess who went UP to the tippy-top? [Make climbing motion with hands] Moses! Can you pretend to climb up, up, up the mountain? [Do climbing motions together] Up, up, up! Moses was going to talk to God!
God had something VERY special to tell Moses. God said, “Moses, I have some RULES for my people. These rules will help them know how to love me and how to be kind to each other.” [Nod head enthusiastically]
God told Moses, “Tell the people to get ready! Wash your clothes! In three days, I’m going to come to the mountain, and EVERYONE will see how powerful I am!”
So the people got ready. They washed their clothes. [Pretend to scrub clothes] Scrub, scrub, scrub! Can you help wash? [Kids pretend to wash] They waited one day… two days… THREE days! [Count on fingers]
Then, on the third day—OH MY! Do you know what happened? [Eyes wide with excitement]
The mountain started to shake! Can you shake? [Shake bodies gently]
There was LOUD thunder! BOOM! BOOM! [Clap hands together] Can you make thunder sounds? BOOM! [Let kids clap and make sounds]
And bright, flashy lightning! FLASH! [Wiggle fingers like lightning] Show me your lightning fingers! [Kids wiggle fingers]
There was fire on the mountain! Whoooosh! [Wave hands up like flames]
And a trumpet went TOOT-TOOT-TOOT! Getting louder and LOUDER and LOUDER! [Cup hands around mouth like trumpet, getting progressively louder] Can you make a trumpet sound? [Kids make trumpet sounds]
The people looked at the mountain and said [whisper] “Wow! God is SO powerful!”
They were a little bit scared, but they knew God loved them. Then God spoke! And He gave Moses TEN special rules. These rules are called the Ten Commandments. [Hold up ten fingers] How many? TEN! Let’s count our fingers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10! [Count together]
God’s rules said things like:
“Love God the most!” [Point up to heaven]
“Be kind to your mommy and daddy!” [Blow a kiss]
“Tell the truth!” [Nod yes]
“Don’t take things that aren’t yours!” [Shake head no]
“Be happy with what you have!” [Hug yourself with a smile]
These rules help us know how to be good and kind! God loves us SO much that He gave us these rules to help us!
Then—guess what God did? He wrote these ten rules on STONE! [Pretend to write with finger on hand] Big stone tablets! Can you pretend to write on a stone? [Kids “write” with fingers]
God gave these stones to Moses so he could bring them down the mountain and show EVERYONE God’s rules.
God’s rules help us know the best way to live! They help us love God and love each other!
THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS:
- Who gave the Ten Commandments? (God gave them)
- Why did God give us rules? (To help us know how to love Him and be kind to others)
LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
- How can you obey God’s rules at home? (Listen to mommy and daddy, share toys, tell the truth)
- What’s one way you can be kind to a friend this week? (Share, use kind words, help them)
PRAYER:
Dear God, thank You for giving us Your rules to help us. Help us love You with all our hearts and be kind to everyone around us. Amen! [Everyone says “AMEN!” loudly together]
WORSHIP IN SONG 6:25-6:35
PRAYER 6:35-6:45
Transition kids to the floor for prayer time. Pray for hearts that want to obey God’s good rules and for help to love God and love others well.
BIBLE VERSE GAME 6:45-6:55 | 10 Commandments
Items Needed
Use the 10 Commandments (for kids) printouts. Go through each of the 10 Commandments with the Kids and what they mean. Have children take turns pulling out one of the 10 Commandments. Discuss what it means and then have them tape it to the wall.
BIBLE CRAFT 6:55-7:10 | Salt Dough Stone Tablets
Items Needed:
- Mixing bowl, 4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1⁄2 cups cold water
- Pencils
- Ziplock bags
Use the following steps to make salt dough tablets:
- In a bowl, mix together the flour and salt.
- Slowly mix in 1½ cup of cold water.
- Place the dough on a flat surface to knead. Add drops of water as needed.
Give each child a chunk of dough. Invite the kids to form two thin stone tablets with their dough. Consider providing pencils for etching Love God or Love Others to represent the Ten Commandments.
Send the tablets home with kids in Ziplock bags to air dry. You may also print instructions for parents to bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until dry (about 30 minutes).
Say: God gave us rules to show how to love Him and others. God is holy and deserves to be worshipped through our obedience. As you think about the Ten Commandments this week, remember that God loves you so much, He sent His Son, Jesus. When we fail to obey God perfectly, we have hope because salvation comes through faith in Jesus. Jesus obeyed God’s law perfectly and died the death we deserve for our sin.
SNACK TIME & BIBLE STORY VIDEO 7:10-7:25
Pass out snacks and allow kids time to eat while they watch the Bible story video.
BONUS ACTIVITY | TABLET RUBBING ART
Items Needed:
- Cardboard cut into tablet shapes
- Glue
- Yarn or string
- White paper
- Crayons with paper removed
Before class, prepare “stone tablets” by gluing yarn in the shape of numbers 1-10 on cardboard pieces. During activity time, children place white paper over the raised yarn numbers and rub the side of a crayon over it to reveal the numbers. They can make rubbings of all ten commandments.
This is a quiet, tactile activity that helps children remember there were TEN special rules God gave us. Talk about what each number represents while they work!
PARENT TAKE HOME SHEET
TODAY’S KEY TAKEAWAY
God’s Rules Help Us
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
Today we learned about the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. God gave us rules because He loves us and wants to help us know the best way to live. When we follow God’s commandments, we show our love for Him and for other people.
QUESTIONS TO ASK ME
Theological Questions:
- What mountain did God give the Ten Commandments on? (Mount Sinai)
- Who did God give the Ten Commandments to? (Moses)
- What did God write the Ten Commandments on? (Stone tablets)
- Why did God give us the Ten Commandments? (To help us know how to love Him and love others; to help us live good lives)
- What is a covenant? (A special promise or agreement between God and His people)
Life Application Questions:
- Which commandment tells us to honor our parents? (The 5th commandment – Honor your father and mother)
- What does it mean to not steal? (We don’t take things that belong to other people)
- How can you show love to God this week? (Pray to Him, obey Him, worship Him, thank Him)
- How can you show love to others by following God’s rules? (Be kind, tell the truth, share, help others)
- What can you do when it’s hard to obey God’s commandments? (Ask God to help you, pray, remember God loves you)
Memory Verse: “You shall have no other gods before me.” – Exodus 20:3 (KJV)
Family Activity: Talk about each of the Ten Commandments this week at dinner. Discuss how your family can follow God’s rules together.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (KJV)
Exodus 19:1-25
¹In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
²For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
³And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
⁴Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
⁵Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
⁶And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
⁷And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him.
⁸And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
⁹And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord.
¹⁰And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
¹¹And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
¹²And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:
¹³There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.
¹⁴And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
¹⁵And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.
¹⁶And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
¹⁷And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
¹⁸And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
¹⁹And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
²⁰And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
²¹And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.
²²And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.
²³And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
²⁴And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them.
²⁵So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.
Exodus 20:1-21
¹And God spake all these words, saying,
²I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
³Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
⁴Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
⁵Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
⁶And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
⁷Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
⁸Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
⁹Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
¹⁰But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
¹²Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
¹³Thou shalt not kill.
¹⁴Thou shalt not commit adultery.
¹⁵Thou shalt not steal.
¹⁶Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
¹⁷Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
¹⁸And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
¹⁹And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
²⁰And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
²¹And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
Exodus 24:1-18
¹And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.
²And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.
³And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.
⁴And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
⁵And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord.
⁶And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
⁷And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.
⁸And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.
⁹Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
¹⁰And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
¹¹And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
¹²And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
¹³And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.
¹⁴And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matter to do, let him come unto them.
¹⁵And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.
¹⁶And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
¹⁷And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.
¹⁸And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.