Numbers
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Curriculum coming soon [kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w38 – Balaams Donkey Talks [505kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Balaams-Donkey-Talks [54kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 38 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
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source YouTube
Numbers
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Curriculum coming soon [kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w37 – The Bronze Snake [215kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet The-Bronze-Snake [53kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 37 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
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source YouTube
Numbers 20:1-13
Things have really been going badly for the people of Israel, the people of God.
First, they refused to enter the land, thus sentenced to wander till that generation died.
Second, Korah and his delinquent followers put up a smoke screen for a coup d’etat and ended up suffering the wrath and judgment of God.
Third, the people believed and followed the rebellers up to the point of judgment then ran screaming and afraid and some ended up dying as well.
Fourth, it took the budding of Aaron’s staff to visually prove to the people who was God’s pick for high priest and not of any cunning or manipulation on the part of Moses or Aaron. Things have got to look better, right? Well, as is a common phrase: things usually get worse before they get better. That is true in the case of this story.
Curriculum y1_w36 – Moses Messes Up [260kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w36 – Moses Messes Up [304kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Moses-Messes-Up [54kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 36 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Numbers 16:1-50; 17:1-13
The people had disobeyed. They were to wander for forty, long years in the wilderness. The story below follows those grave decisions to complain, wail, and rebel. In addition, the people were getting sick and tired of Moses and Aaron telling them what to do. I mean, who are they? Do they think they are special or something? So, like all the other times, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
Now, think for a second, even before we read this story: is this going to be a good thing challenging the leadership of Moses? Or a bad thing? Based on the previous studies of this sinful, yet human people group, I think we can make an educated, accurate guess.
Curriculum y1_w35 – The Korah Rebellion and the Budding of Aarons Staff [308kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w35 – The Korah Rebellion [493kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet The-Korah-Rebellion-and-the-Budding-of-Aarons-Staff [61kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 35 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Numbers 13:1—14:45
Being in the desert was not optimal for the people (in their eyes). They deserved better (or so they thought) than what God was giving them. And who could blame them? They had been trekking in the desert on foot for a long time (possibly a year already), carrying everything they owned with them. Nowadays we have U-Hauls and Mayflower movers, but back then they did not. All they had been eating up to this point has been manna, which for a while was cool, but like all human reactions, once it gets old you want something else (i.e. meat & potatoes). So this is the state of the Israelite condition: they are tired, ready to enter the land, they want God’s blessing now, they want to rest, but they do not want to obey to get it, as we shall see.
Enter chapter 13 of the book of Numbers. A casual reader would think, “Yes! We are finally getting somewhere. These miserable people are finally going to get a break!” And so they might.
Curriculum y1_w34 – Twelve Spies Rebellion and Wandering [306kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w34 – Twelve Spies Rebellion and Wandering [440kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet 12-Spies-Rebellion-Wandering [59kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 34 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Numbers 9:15—10:36; 11:1-35
The story ends in the book of Exodus with the nation of Israel poised at Mount Sinai awaiting further direction. They had just received instruction on the construction of the tabernacle and they built it. They had just received plenty of rules and regulations to govern them as a people in the book of Leviticus. And now they are ready to do their duty as a nation—the kingdom of priests, the holy nation, and the light to all the other nations. Well, almost…
The book of Numbers opens up with a census and some more various instructions regarding life and living. Then we get to chapter nine and we find more instructions regarding the tabernacle. On the day that the Tabernacle was set up the cloud of the Lord covered and rested upon the tent. At night it looked like fire and during the day it was a cloud. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tabernacle the Israelites were supposed to follow the cloud, and when the cloud stopped the people were to stop and camp. The cloud moving was to be seen as a command from the Lord and legally binding.
Curriculum y1_w33 – Cloud Fire and Quail at Mount Sinai [274kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w33 – Mount Sinai – Cloud Fire and Quail [844kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Mount-Sinai-Cloud-Fire-Quail [56kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 33 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Exodus 35:4—40:38
The tabernacle was one of the most interesting things in Israelite history. Tabernacle means tent and is referred to as the Tent of Meeting. This special dwelling place would facilitate the meeting between the LORD God and man—specifically the Israelites. The tabernacle held the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread, the Lampstand, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Burnt Offering, the wash basin, the courtyard, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place. The tabernacle was placed in the center of the Israelite camp, with all twelve tribes encamped all around it—three tribes on each side, like a compass. The Ark was generally thought to be the most important part of the tabernacle for it was holy and beheld the presence of God among the cherubim on the seat. The Ark contained the tablets of stone, which held the covenant, the staff of Aaron that had budded, and a jar of manna from the wilderness. There were proper and exact procedures how to handle and carry the Ark when moving it. In addition, the tabernacle also has specific instructions when transporting it between places where the Lord led. The Levites were in charge of this task.
From this point on in the narrative of Scripture, the Israelites are bound by the covenant of God at Mount Sinai and are bearers of the glory of the Lord in the tabernacle.
Curriculum y1_w32 – The Tabernacle at Mount Sinai [320kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w32 – Mount Sinai – Tabernacle [626kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Mount-Sinai-Tabernacle [62kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 32 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Exodus 33:12-23; 34:29-35
Moses had spent considerable time with the Lord up on the mountain—a couple of 40 days worth. God told Moses all of the laws and decrees that the nation of Israel were supposed to live by in order to be a holy and separate nation. During that time, the Lord also gave Moses a detailed description of the tabernacle, the house of God, the place where the Lord was to dwell among the people. The construction of the moveable tent itself, the pieces within, and the way the high priest and the Levitical priests were to handle the matters of sacrifices and ceremonies, were all a picture of the heavenly sanctuary wherein God dwells (cf. Hebrews 9:11, 24). The glory of the Lord was to rest among the Bema seat on the top of the Ark of the Covenant within the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle. The Lord God was to literally dwell among the people of Israel. What an amazing privilege to be near the Lord of heaven and earth!
Now during Moses time with the Lord, he became so near to Him. Moses boldly asked the Lord to show him His glory…
Curriculum y1_w31 Moses and the Glory of Yahweh at Mount Sinai [231kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w31 – Mount Sinai – Moses and the Glory of Yahweh [332kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Mount-Sinai-Moses-and-the-Glory-of-Yahweh [47kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 31 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Exodus 32:1-35
This story pops out of what has been (in Exodus) an instructional account of how to make the tabernacle and how the Israelites are to live and act in this new land they are heading to. Ever since the declaration of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, this exposition has been going on. The reader of this text would thus be “awakened” (so to speak) to this narrative story that jumps off the page here in Exodus 32.
The text tells us that:
“the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, ‘Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him’” (Exodus 32:1).
This would become a sort of benchmark for how the people of Israel would behave from here on in their history. They were a very forgetful people; a very impatient people; a very stiff-necked, stubborn, and rebellious people. The Israelites decided that they wanted to make their own gods to worship. It is easy for us many, many years later reading this account to realize the futility of their behavior, but we weren’t there feeling what they felt. Yes, they still acted in utter disobedience, but who is to say that many, many years later from now, if an account was written of your personal history, would you be portrayed as acting in utter disobedience at times? The history and account of the people of Israel is a mirror of all of human history and our disobedient behavior. We find ourselves in their shoes when we “read the Bible” in our current circumstances. Nonetheless, the people did drastically disobey the Lord’s commands that they had agreed to not but 12 chapters earlier. Remember the “thou shalt have no other gods before me… and thou shalt not make an idol of any kind?” Well, they must have forgotten this part.
Curriculum y1_w30 – Golden Calf Incident at Mount Sinai [260kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w30 – Mount Sinai – Golden Calf Incident [348kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Mount-Sinai-Golden-Calf-Incident [52kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 30 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Exodus 19:1 – 20:21
The Israelites were journeying across the desert on their way to the long-awaited Promise Land, when the Lord had them stop and camp at Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. This was THE MOUNTAIN that God had appeared to Moses in a burning bush and commissioned his adventure to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Well, it has come full circle. Moses is back to this mountain and God wants to do business with the people that he loves. This is where the God of the universe makes an eternal, binding promise with the people of Israel:
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).
This is where the law, the Torah, was given to the people and they were to obey.
Curriculum y1_w29 – Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai [225kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w29 – Mount Sinai – Ten Commandments [160kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Mount-Sinai-Ten-Commandments [49kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 29 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Exodus 15:22 – 18:27
This section contains many stories of what happened with the Israelites after the Red Sea incident. Bitter water turned to sweetwater, manna and quail coming from the heavens to provide nourishment, water from the rock on Mount Sinai, the Amalekites defeat with the arms of Moses being held up, and the visit of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law and his advice on management of time, are all stories told in this section. The common thread throughout this narrative is the constant complaining and grumbling of the Israelites.
After they had passed through the Red Sea and seen the Lord deliver them by his great hand, they began to complain after three days because they could not find water suitable to drink. “What are we to drink?” they complained. Moses cried out to the Lord and by throwing a piece of wood into the water it made it sweet to drink. The Lord told them that if they obeyed the voice of the Lord and did what was right in His eyes, then the people would not suffer any of the diseases that were brought upon the Egyptians. They obeyed—for a short while.
When they were in the desert for a while they began to complain again…
Curriculum y1_w28 – Water and Food in the Desert [225kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w28 – Water and Food in the Desert [871kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet Water-and-Food-in-the-Desert [48kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 28 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
source YouTube
Exodus 12:31 – 14:31
Apparently the final plague was too much for the hard-hearted Pharaoh. He just could not contend and be stubborn against the God of the Israelites. So during the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and told him that all the Israelites could leave (with no more conditions). “Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me” (Exodus 12:31-32). Pharaoh released his grip on the people of Israel and let them leave.
All the Egyptians urged the people to leave as well. Just think, plagues had ravaged their country, their land, their livestock, and their very children, they were left with next to nothing. They wanted the Israelites out of their land to spare them further misery and heartache. As the Israelites left, they plundered the Egyptians. They actually asked for things and the Egyptians gave it to them (Exodus 12:36).
And so the people began the journey, the mass exodus from the land of Egypt. Men, women and children, livestock, food, and the articles of gold and silver they took from the Egyptians, all began the journey to the Promised Land. Freedom. They were no longer slaves of an angry and oppressive ruler. The Lord had delivered them from their enemies. And now 600,000 men strong, they ventured into the unknown, led by a former Egyptian, into a land they did not know, and following a God they did not yet trust. They had been in the land of Egypt for 430 years to the very day (Exodus 12:40-41).
Curriculum y1_w27 – The Escape From Egypt [338kb, PDF]
Graphic y1_w27 – The Escape from Egypt [532kb, JPG]
Coloring Sheet The-Escape-From-Egypt [68kb, PDF]
Year 1, Week 27 Bible story from the Main Street Curriculum
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