https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YlW8LY7Pr2EevKjKGUXcV96zI6Wt4ZW1fVkMuxFsjf0/edit?usp=sharing
Freedom vs Slavery - Younger Student
What is a slave? A slave is someone FORCED to obey someone else. Slaves are not safe. Slaves are not loved. Slaves do not have a choice.
God’s people, the Israelites, were slaves in Egypt. The Israelites had terrible lives with hard work all the time (Ex 1:19).
God gave the Israelites freedom by sending ten plagues (very bad stuff) to Egypt (Ex. 1-12). After the plagues, the pharoah (king) of Egypt let the slaves go free.
We are not slaves, but we also obey some people. Who do we obey? parents? grandparents? teachers?
How is obeying a teacher different from being a slave?
A slave works to help the owner. The slave does not gain anything. The slave is not loved by the owner. The slave has no choice.
We obey our teachers because the rules are for our good. School rules keep us safe and help us learn. We need the skills we learn in school to care for our families. Some teachers may even love us!
God gives us rules for safety and freedom. Can you think of some of God’s rules?
- Keep God as the most important person in your life.
- Don’t make things more important than God.
- Respect God’s name.
- Respect God’s day.
- Respect (Honor) your parents.
- Don’t murder.
- Husbands and wives should keep their promises.
- Don’t steal.
- Don’t tell lies about people.
- Don’t focus on wanting what other people have.
God gives us a choice. We can choose to follow God’s rules to stay safe and free, or we can make our own rules and become slaves to people and things. God’s rules are for our good. God loves us. God’s ways are always best.
To volunteer, sign up your child for food delivery, learn more about being a Christian, or to get more info, go to https://www.feeding-gods-lambs.org
Freedom vs Slavery - Older Student
Check out this song! Parents, always monitor your student on Youtube :)
What is freedom? Is freedom doing whatever we want? What would our lives be like if everyone lived this way?
Some parts of a rule-free world would be great! We wouldn’t have homework! With no rules, though, no one would work, so we’d have no electricity (NO INTERNET), no gas for cars, no grocery stores, etc.
In fact, we would still have rules; we’d be following survival rules.
When the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians, the Israelites followed the Egyptians’ rules. The rules helped the Egyptians and harmed the Israelites. Exodus 1:13-14a says the Egyptians “ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service.”
God sent Moses to free the Israelites. Pharaoh refused, so God sent plagues to force Pharoah to free them: water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock
sickness, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the killing of firstborn children.
Soon after they were freed, God gave the 10 commandments (rules). Although the Egyptians’ rules were meant to harm the Israelites, God’s rules helped the Israelites.
None of us are slaves, but there are things in this world that can control us and harm us: taking steroids for muscles, starving oneself to lose weight, making bad choices to fit in,even becoming obsessed with doing things right, etc.
These worldly concerns take away our choices, but “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17).
God’s rules are simple and can be summed up in this way: love God and love others. God’s rules free us from becoming slaves to the world. We choose which rules we follow: God’s rules or the rules of the world.
To volunteer, sign up your child for food delivery, learn more about being a Christian, or to get more info, go to https://www.feeding-gods-lambs.org.