Birth of a Nation - Teacher's manual

5 lessons on the Exodus from Egypt For high school students in years 7 and 8

Teacher’s manual Written by Tim Clemens To be used in conjunction with Birth of a Nation Student handbook and The Prince of Egypt DVD (sold separately)

Christian Education Publications PO Box A287 Sydney South NSW 1235 Australia Ph.: +61 2 8268 3333 Fax: +61 2 8268 3357 Email: sales@youthworks.net Website: www.cepstore.com.au Published May 2013 Copyright © Tim Clemens 2013 This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism and review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the express permission of the Publisher.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV).

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan.

All rights reserved worldwide. New International Version’® and ‘NIV’® trademarks are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc. The DVD used in conjunction with this resource is DreamWorks® The Prince of Egypt © 1990.

This is not provided with this Teacher’s manual but is available for purchase from CEP sales (www.cepstore.com.au). Please note that versions of the movie purchased from other DVD retailers may not correlate accurately to the segment timings as indicated in this manual.

National Library of Australia ISBN 978-1-922000-83-5 Author—Tim Clemens Managing editor—Julie Firmstone Theological editor—Loren Becroft Design—Bethany Abbottsmith

Birth of a Nation C on ten ts How to use this manual

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About the author 6 Unit overview 7 Lesson 1

A saviour is born

Lesson 2

The burning bush 14

Lesson 3

Let my people go

Lesson 4

The Passover 23

Lesson 5

Birth of a nation

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How to use this manuaL Birth of a Nation is part of a series of curriculum products written by Tim Clemens for years 7–10 students studying Christian studies in independent schools and Special Religious Education in State schools.

As with all Christian Education Publications, Birth of a Nation is grounded in the belief that God is the source of all truth and his word, the Bible, is where God reveals himself and his saving purposes. Each lesson aims to teach students directly from the Bible or, when this is not possible, to engage them with issues from a biblical perspective.

This unit is intended to provide you, the teacher, with reliable, engaging and ready-to-use material. With a total of five lessons, Birth of a Nation is designed to run for one school term. Each of these lessons is structured to run for 40 minutes to one hour, but can be shortened or extended to suit your needs.

Preparation B e fo r e yo u t e ac h e ac h l e s s o n : • pray for students to have open minds and hearts to receive God’s word • read through the lesson plan and the Bible passage(s). Think through

how you will lead the discussion and what you will share with students about your own experience

• watch the relevant DVD section and make sure you have the equipment ready to play the DVD at the appropriate time in the lesson

• have the Student handbooks and Bibles ready to hand out (one per student) • gather together any additional props or materials you will need to run the games and activities.

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Lesson format The lessons in this unit follow a basic format from week to week.

Prayer Introduction/ recap Discussion or activity SHARE LINK DVD

Read the Bible

Student handbooks

Reinforce the big idea

Chat

answers to common questions

An opportunity to commit the lesson to God and get the students used to praying and talking with him.

Lesson 1—A brief overview of what will be covered in this unit. All other lessons—a short revision of the previous lesson’s big idea.

An interactive section designed to get the students talking and thinking about the topic.

An opportunity for you, the teacher, to share something of your own life and walk with Christ as it is relevant to the topic.

A bridge between the activities and what you have shared, and the Bible teaching to come.

A segment of the The Prince of Egypt DVD as it relates to the day’s lesson topic.

A chance for students to read the Bible themselves. Get a confident reader in the group to read the passage for the day aloud. Key passages are printed in the Student handbooks for easy reference.

A resource for students to complete with a variety of questions and activities based on the teaching. Be sure to allow time for students to share their answers with the class and for you to see how well they have understood the material. See the note on page 6 for more information.

A way to finish the lesson with the key points from the study.

An invitation to students to challenge you on any point they disagree with or find difficult to accept or understand.

Encourage any young person to approach you after class with questions or comments, and offer to pray with any student who wants this support.

Some examples of difficult questions you may get asked by students on the main issues discussed in each lesson, together with appropriate and helpful responses.

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A note about the Student handbooks Each student should have their own handbook. Hand them out at the start of each lesson and collect them again at the end of class. This will give you the opportunity to review and mark (if you wish) their work, and to see whether the students have understood the material. At the end of the last lesson, allow the students to take home the Student handbooks as a record of what they have covered that term and a potential resource for any unanswered questions.

About the author Tim Clemens is passionate about reaching youth with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has been involved in youth ministry since 2006, and began teaching Special Religious Education (SRE) at St Ives High School in Sydney in 2009. Tim’s desire is to develop material which will engage and challenge high school students as they hear the gospel.

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unit overview The Birth of a Nation unit traces the story of the Exodus and introduces students to the Israelites as the chosen people of God. It explores the miraculous way in which God intervened in history to deliver them out of slavery in Egypt and bring them into the Promised Land as his obedient children.

An integral part of each lesson is the ‘From shadow to reality’ section, in which the story of the Exodus is seen within its wider context of biblical theology and understood in the light of Christ. The writers of the New Testament describe the religious festivals, the Sabbath, the law and the temple of the Old Testament as shadows of a reality that would be finally and fully revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (Colossians 2:16–17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1). Jesus also taught his disciples that all of Scripture testified about him (Luke 24:25–27, 44; John 5:39). In order to understand Jesus, we need to understand the Old Testament, and in order to understand the Old Testament properly we need to understand how it is fulfilled by Jesus, and so this unit tries to illuminate Christ in the story of the Exodus.

There are five lessons in the unit: 1. A saviour is born. God’s people were enslaved to the Egyptians, so God raised up his servant Moses to be their deliverer.

2. The burning bush. God heard the cries of his people and sent Moses to deliver them from the hand of Pharaoh.

3. Let my people go. Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, so God sent plagues on the Egyptians in judgement while sparing his own people.

4. The Passover. God brought judgement on the people of Egypt, but passed over those who had sacrificed a lamb and smeared its blood across their doorframes.

5. Birth of a nation. God delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt and brought them into a new land as his chosen people.

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Key to this unit are the animated DVD The Prince of Egypt (available as a separate purchase from CEP*) and Bible reading. Each lesson revolves around watching an excerpt from the movie and reading the corresponding passage from the book of Exodus. This has the benefit of reinforcing the main learning, keeping students engaged, and giving them an opportunity to read the Bible for themselves. *Please note that the indicated timing for the DVD in each lesson has been based on the version of the movie available from CEP. If you use another version of the movie sourced from another retailer or online supplier, you may need to check the timing before the start of the lesson.

Unit aims This unit aims to: 1. introduce students to the Israelites as the chosen people of God 2. challenge students to trust in the God of the Israelites for their salvation 3. help students to see, know and worship Christ, as he is promised in the Old Testament.

Assumed knowledge It is assumed that, in beginning this unit, students will: • • •

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understand that the Bible is the word of God have basic skills in reading the Bible and finding Bible passages have a fundamental understanding of the Christian faith including:

i. God as Creator

ii. Man as sinful

iii. Christ as Saviour.

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Let my people go Big idea

God judged the Egyptians by sending plagues on them, but lovingly spared his own people.

Outcomes

In this lesson students will: • investigate one of the plagues • be challenged by the power of God • consider the connection between judgement, salvation and a relationship with God • understand that those who have a relationship with Christ will be saved.

Key passage

Exodus 7:14—10:29 18

Today’s lesson Prayer Begin by praying something like, ‘God, thank you that you love justice and do not let evil go unpunished. Thank you also for the way you show mercy and kindness to your people. Please teach us from your word, the Bible, and show us what it means for our lives today. Amen’.

Recap Ask the students what they remember from last week’s lesson. Perhaps you could provide a reward for the first student who reminds the class of the big idea: God heard the cries of his people and sent Moses to deliver them from the hands of Pharaoh.

Activity: Pictionary relay Begin the lesson with a game of ‘Pictionary relay’. As the name suggests, Pictionary relay is basically a game of Pictionary® in which teams race each other to finish first.

Split students into groups of five or six and give each group a piece of paper to draw on. Ask each group to send one representative to the front of the classroom to be given the first word.

After you quietly tell them the word, students must return to their groups and draw it for the other members to guess. They must not speak or write the word on the paper.

The student who guesses correctly is then sent to collect the next word.

The winning group is the first group to make it through all of the words.

To make sure the game is related to the lesson, use some of the plagues as words: · blood · frogs · flies · animals · boils · hail · locusts · darkness.

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Discussion Ask the students, ‘If there is something you just don’t want to do, what might change your mind and get you to do it?’

Share Tell the students about something you don’t like doing and what convinces you to do it.

Link Pharaoh was stubborn and refused to let the Israelites go. This provoked God to send ten plagues against Egypt including turning the water supply to blood; plagues of frogs, gnats, flies and locusts; sickness in the livestock; boils; hail; darkness over the land; and finally the death of all firstborn Egyptian sons.

DVD Watch The Prince of Egypt from 59:20—1:05:19 minutes. This covers Moses asking Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, followed by a montage of the first nine plagues.

DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt is fairly close to the biblical version of the Exodus, although often not as detailed. Feel free to mention any significant variances if you think this will be helpful for your students. You might even like to turn it into a game of ‘Spot the Difference’.

Use this time to hand out the Bibles and Student handbooks.

Theological note As we saw last lesson, around 500 years before this event, God had lovingly chosen Abraham and promised his offspring the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:7). A little later, Abraham asked God for proof that he would fulfil this promise (Genesis 15:8). You can read God’s response in Genesis 15:13–16: … Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions ... In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here.

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This shows us that God was in control the whole time. He was always with his people; it was just a matter of time before he acted to rescue them out of slavery.

These plagues fulfilled the promise that God made to Abraham more than 500 years earlier.

Read the Bible Split the class into groups of three or four students. Allocate each group one of the following passages to read on their own: Blood in the River Nile Exodus 7:14−24 Frogs Exodus 8:1−15 Gnats and flies Exodus 8:16−32 Death of livestock Exodus 9:1−7 Boils and hail Exodus 9:8−10, 13−35 Locusts Exodus 10:1−20 Darkness Exodus 10:21−29

Student handbooks Instruct the students to begin answering the questions in their Student handbooks.

If it is appropriate for the class, you may like to ask them to do this work collaboratively in their groups of three or four. Go around the class and help them as they do this.

Depending on time, you may like to get your students to complete one (or both) of the Get creative activities. For the first option, you will need to provide them with a large sheet of butcher’s paper, as well as coloured textas and pencils. Be sure to provide an opportunity for the students to display and explain their work to the rest of the class.

Reinforce the big idea Make sure the students understand that God sent plagues on Egypt in judgement of Pharaoh’s blatant refusal to obey him. Help the students to see that God lovingly made a distinction in his judgement between the Egyptians and his own people (Exodus 8:21–23; 9:4, 6–7, 26; 10:23).

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From shadow to reality: God’s gracious choice Conclude the lesson by suggesting that the Bible consistently tells us that Christians aren’t saved because of who they are, but because of what Jesus has done by dying on the cross. Explain that there’s no ‘sitting on the fence’ when it comes to Jesus; you can either trust in him and receive eternal life, or reject him and face God’s wrath. We can know this for certain because God is who he is—he is faithful to his promises. Encourage the students with the good news that they can be a part of God’s family through faith in Jesus, and that by doing so they will be saved from the judgement of God.

Chat Invite any students who have questions or who wish to talk further about the concepts in this lesson to speak with you during or after class.

Answers to common questions How did Moses do all of these amazing things?

As we saw in our last lesson, God promised Moses that he would be with him.

These passages also make it clear that it was not Moses who did these amazing things, but God. Moses was just an ordinary man through whom God chose to do extraordinary things.

Wasn’t God being a bit harsh on the Egyptians?

It is easy to feel sorry for the Egyptians, particularly when we’re not the ones suffering under their oppression. However we need to remember that the Egyptians weren’t innocent bystanders. Under the leadership of the pharaoh, they had not only worked the Israelites harshly, they had also tried to wipe out the Israelites by murdering all their baby boys. The Egyptians were far from innocent.

The Israelites were not blameless either. It’s easy to think that God saved the Israelites because they deserved to be saved; they didn’t. God’s people had started to worship false Gods in Egypt (Joshua 24:14).

What we see in this story is amazing. God saved his people not because they deserved it, but because he had promised to be faithful to them. God saved his people not because of who they were, but because of who he is (Deuteronomy 7:6–9).

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