Moses’ story can be told in different ways. It is usually split into two parts: Moses; Moses and the Ten Commandments.
Many children have already heard this story in other cycles; in previous years. It’s important to be creative and perhaps use different approaches for this topic. This will allow this lesson to be interesting for every one. Please find some examples here below:
In order to facilitate and become more interesting to tell this story to the children, the spiritist teacher could use pictures from manuals, magazines, internet, etc. You could assemble an album with pictures from the internet as if you are setting up a movie to be shown to the children. You could also use cards or puppets to tell them the story, or perhaps use different types of toys.
[Click here] to download the Power point 1 that can be used to tell this story.
[Click here] to download the Power point 2 that can be used to tell this story.
[Click here], to find drawings which were created by Richard Ricardo Suarez Rodriguez; these can be printed and coloured.
[Click here], to find drawings which were created by Adriana Timón, from União Espírita de Peruíbe/SP.
The drawings related to Moses’ life could also be used as a cinema to be shown or as comic book to be assembled for the children.
Please find here a suggestion sent to us by the spiritist teacher Solange Rodrigues from CEDJ – Spiritist Centre Discípulos de Jesus, São Paulo, Blog http://evangelizacao-cedj.blogspot.com.
Click here to find the pictures.
It is important to remind them Moses had a mission, but he also had his free-will. We are given free will and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and we alone are responsible for all our thoughts and actions. He could have chosen not to fulfil his mission (someone else would have done it instead of Moses). Please also remind them the importance of the Ten Commandments which are quite up to date even in the present days; and that Moses is the first revelation from God to mankind.
The spiritist teacher could also invite a worker from the spiritist group to present the story. This person would be seen as someone different from the spiritist teachers which could increase the children’s curiosity, engagement and willingness to do something different in class. This could also be seen by the children as motivational since they are being valued by a ‘guest’ who is coming to see them.
You could bring this class into a closure by reinforcing the ideas developed with some of the following: puzzle game with the picture of Moses at Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, cross-words, pictures for colouring, Domino with the events sequence, memory game with facts from Moses' mission; Right and wrong game (split the team into two groups; pick questions related to the topic and give each team a chance to answer it at a time. The children should say whether the statements are right or wrong).
[Click here to find a word-hunt activity]
[Clique aqui to find a jigsaw puzzle]
[Click here to find pictures of the Ten Commandments for colouring]
[[Click here to find a picture of the first revelation from God to man for colouring]
[Click here to find the answers for this word-hunt activity]
[Click here to find resources for the spiritist teacher related to the Ten Commandments]
Here below you can find a summary of the main events at Moses life; this can be used a research source.
Moses was the son of Amram and Yochebed of the tribe of Levi. Miriam and Aaron were his brother and sister. He was born in Egypt during the period in which the Israelites (Hebrews) had become a threat to the Egyptians simply because of their large population.
Sources: Roteiros Sugestivos para os encontros de estudo da FERGS
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
Centuries ago, some nomadic tribes from Palestine decided to move away from that semi-arid land and go to Egypt (this is the people known for constructing the pyramids, which are the stone tombs of Egypt's kings - the Pharaohs and one of the world's greatest historical mysteries). These tribes wanted to run away from hunger, but the Egyptians decided to enslave them for 400 years. The Bible says they were forced to work very hard for the Pharaoh. The oppression’s peak reached during the 19th Dynasty with Ramses II, 13th centuries before Christ. The slaves were obliged by the Pharaoh to build a city to give name and fame to himself and his dynasty.
When Moses was born the Hebrew were slaves in Egypt. He was a beautiful and strong baby; his parents were slaves at that time. Pharaoh was afraid of them because he thought they might take over his country. He ordered that all Hebrew baby boys must be killed at birth so that they would not grow up and fight against him. To save Moses his mother made a plan. She hid him in a basket by the side of the River Nile.
The Pharaoh's daughter, Princess Termutis, came to the river to wash every day with her maids. This kind Princess was the daughter of Ramses II; she found Moses in his basket. Miriam, who was watching over him until he was found by the princess, managed to get into the palace and tell Termutis she knew a woman who could be a nurse for the baby. It was his mother. The Pharaoh's daughter took him back to live with her as though he were her son. The kind Princess Termutis was considered to be his true mother.
Moses grew up as an Egyptian prince, but he never forgot he was a Hebrew. One day Moses lost his temper and killed an Egyptian who had beaten a Hebrew slave to death. The king Ramses II got furious with him. Moses had to run away to another land where he became a shepherd and married a lady called Sephora. Moses worked for many years as a shepherd. One day, God spoke to him from a burning bush and told him he must go back and free the Hebrews from slavery.
Moses went to the Pharaoh to ask him to set the Hebrews free. Pharaoh did not want to lose his slaves. He would not let them go, because they worked on his grand buildings. They were cheap, qualified and abundant labour that generated a lot of money for the country, even if this race was working until their exhaustion.
Moses attempted to convince Pharaoh to let the poorly treated Israelite slaves go. He announced a series of plagues that would take place in Egypt. He knew these phenomena would take place in specific regions of the country.
Awful things began to happen in Egypt. There were ten plagues. Before each one, Moses warned Pharaoh what would happen. The plagues were: water turned to blood killing all fish and other water life, frogs, lice and flies appeared, plague of livestock death, plagues of boils, hail, locusts and of darkness. The sequence and extension of these natural events were known to Moses via his mediumship.
The last plague was supposed to be the worst. The eldest son in every Egyptian family, including Pharaoh's, would die. Pharaoh was so upset by this prophecy he said the Hebrews could leave Egypt. The Hebrews knew they must leave Egypt quickly. They needed food to take with them. There was no time to let the bread rise before it was cooked. They had to take the dough as it was.
Six hundred thousand people left Egypt guided by Moses. In order to leave Egypt, Moses could have chosen several different paths which would lead them to Palestine. There was no need to cross through the Red Sea. Unfortunately, the Pharaoh changed his mind again and sent his army after them to bring them back. The army chased the Hebrews to the banks of the Red Sea.
In order to run away from the persecution, Moses decided to lead the Hebrews into an unusual path: a place where the Read Sea and the Mediterranean connect; this place was called Sea of Cane. This is where the Suez Canal is located. At that time, the place was ok to be crossed as long as there was not a high tide. Moses knew the region quite well; he was aware this was going to happen soon. He hurried them up to pass there exactly at the time for the high sea. When the Egyptians arrived, the high tide stopped them.
Moses was well trained in the military art. He decided to go through a stony and dry are which was inappropriate for battle cars and cavalry. The Egyptian infantry was not considered an obstacle anymore, since they would have to march for many days to reach them.
Under Moses’ leadership, the Hebrews entered the rocky desert that covers the Sinai Peninsula. The majority of the slaves were feeling angry, brutalized and limited to the satisfaction of their primary needs due to the cruelty they had been through slavery. Mosses started to live with his people in the desert where every day complaints and rebellions would be present. In addition, they had to get used to living with harsh climate conditions, hunger and thirst. Under those circumstances, the man’s animal side prevails; only pain and the survival instinct can dominate it. The civil or disciplinary laws decreed by Moses were created at those times which were appropriate to the customs and character of the people. Moses found it necessary to restrain his people through fear due to their turbulent and undisciplined nature, and also to combat the abuses and prejudices acquired by them during the period of slavery in Egypt.
The Hebrew people, while lived in the Palestine, believed in a unique God. However, when they went to Egypt they started to worship statues; besides they built a golden calf that they considered to be a god. But Moses was able to make them understand there was only one God we are not able to see or touch, but who loves and guides his children. The idea of a unique God (monotheism) was of fundamental importance for the development of the human civilization.
The mediumship practices were abolished by Moses. Since he was such an extraordinary medium, he knew the problems could arise from the mental synchronization coming from these individuals. It would be necessary for an entire generation to pass and give place to another one, which was now free and did not have any suffering traumas to form a religious, political, and racial unit. That is why they wandered for forty years in the desert. All the slave generation died, so that the ones who were born in liberty could enter in the Promised Land.
Moses, who was always supported by his spiritual guides to accomplish his mission, received the Ten Commandments at the Sinai Mount. They were reiterated one thousand years later by Jesus:
1. You shall have no other Gods but me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. Respect your father and mother.
6. You must not kill.
7. You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbour.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbour's goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.
As Jesus said, "I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil it." Jesus did not come to destroy the Law, that is to say God's Law. He came to fulfil and develop it, to show its real meaning and to adapt it to the degree of Man's advancement at that time.
Moses’ life – his actions, achievements, laws – is written at the four books of the Pentateuch: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (the authorship of this book is believed to have been Moses). Moses died at a very old age. According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Mount Nebo is where Moses was able to see the promised land in Canaan. Once his mission was accomplished, he finished this reincarnation as the great leader of the Hebrews. He was a military genius, a legislator and one of the greatest mediums of all times.
These facts happened approximately 1200 years before Jesus Christ was born. Moses came first, but his law spoke only about earthly life, its passing punishments and rewards and were adapted to the people of his time. Then Christ came to complete Moses with a more elevated teaching: plurality of lives, spiritual life and moral punishments and rewards. Moses led through fear while Christ through love and charity. Moses ploughed, Christ sowed and Spiritism has come to harvest.
Estudos Espíritas do Evangelho de Terezinha Oliveira
