Along with Moses    
    
   Today, our turn - Mrs. Donut and I - to "shepherd" preschool kids during adult church (just short of two hours). Why me, O Lord? 

   Our assignment - various activities, and the story of Moses on the mountain with God's Ten Commandments. We made pretend tablets they could take home. Of course, we chose age-appropriate words for commandments, adultery, idols, covet, etc. 

   You've heard that teachers learn more than their students.

   Well, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, and you know the Genesis stories. Words from above to men below, but no particular instructions for living. God allowed Abraham's descendants to suffer in slavery.

   All the better for them to be grateful and obedient when He sends Moses and directs their miraculous exodus. On the way, however, there is griping and complaining, and still no instructions on life. 

   At Mt. Sinai, God, who owns the people by virtue of their deliverance, gets their attention with fire, thunder, trumpet blasts and earthquakes. 

   Now hear this! the Lord is saying. He calls Moses up the rugged slopes where his mighty presence awaits. 

   We noticed that God spoke the first commandments to his people well before He inscribed them on stone tablets. Number one:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt,

out of the land of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

   This command is for all of us. He owns us. Without obedience to No. 1...well...it is the umbrella over items 2-10.  

   Today, we are not saved by perfect obedience, but by the blood of Jesus. 

And we have an advantage the Israelites did not, the Holy Spirit. 

   Today, believers (regardless of background) are set apart, a holy nation, separated from the world's ungodly ways. But Israel will rise again, when Jesus returns to earth in power and glory.