The Golden Calf
Theme: Worship God and Him alone.
Scripture: Exodus 32:1-14
Get Ready: Click here to get your complete supply list for this lesson.
The Children’s Sermon:
You’ll Need:
● A small statue
Do This:
Explain to the kids that each time you hold up the statue that you brought with you,
that they have to freeze like a statue. They must hold their frozen statue pose until you
are no longer holding the statue up in the air. You will do this multiple times as you tell
today’s lesson so encourage them to pay close attention.
SAY: Who can tell me what this is? (Give time for answers.) That’s right, it’s a statue.
(Hold it up and kids freeze.) How many of you have statues (Hold it up and kids
freeze.) in your home? Have you ever seen any statues in parks around the city?
Perhaps you’ve seen a statue of a famous baseball player or an artist or author. I
once went to a park with statues of characters from books by Dr. Seuss. My
favorite was Horton the elephant.
Statues are fine unless they become something that we worship other than God.
(Hold it up and kids freeze.) When we do that, the statue becomes an idol that
replaces our God.
That is what our Bible lesson is about this morning. Moses was up on a mountain
called Mt. Sanai. I am sure that you remember that God had told Moses to go up on
the mountain so that God could give him the Ten Commandments for the people to
follow.
Now Moses stayed up on the mountain longer than the people thought he should.
(Hold it up and kids freeze.) They went to Aaron and said to him, "We want you to
create gods who will go before us so that we will know what way to go. As for this
fellow, Moses, who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to
him."
Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings you are wearing and bring them
to me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took
all the gold they had given to him and made it into an idol in the shape of a calf.
(Hold it up and kids freeze.) The people were very happy with the idol that had been
made for them.
When Aaron saw how happy the people were, he built an altar for the calf. He said,
"Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord and you are to rise up early and make a
sacrifice of burnt offerings before the calf." (Hold it up and kids freeze.)
When God saw what the people were doing, He became very angry and told Moses
that He was going to destroy the people because of their unfaithfulness. But Moses
begged the Lord to remember the promise that He had made to Abraham, Isaac,
and the children of Israel. Moses convinced the Lord and He changed His mind and
did not do what He said He might do—He did not destroy them.
What can we learn from this? We sometimes put other things before God. It may
not be an idol made of gold in the shape of a calf, but it may be things like money,
friends, or sports. Anything we put ahead of our love for God becomes an idol and
that is a big mistake.
PRAY: Dear God, let us always remember that You created us and all we have. You
must always have first place in our life. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“What’s an Idol?” Video Lesson
You’ll Need:
● “What’s an Idol?” video lesson
● Something to play the video
Do This:
Show them the video.
ASK:
● What did you learn about what an idol is?
● Is there anything that you are loving more than God today?
Aluminum Prayers
You’ll Need:
● The Golden Calf How-to Video
● Aluminum foil - 3 feet per child
Do This:
SAY: Today we learned that we are to worship God alone and not make idols. Now
we may not have a golden calf in our lives, but an idol is anything we put before
God. Do you ever put things like friends, TV, toys, or family before God? We can
certainly love those things, but we are to love God most of all. Take your piece of
aluminum foil and shape it into something you may have as an idol in your life.
Allow kids plenty of time to shape their idol and be prepared to direct them if they are
confused about an idol in their life.
After they have completed their idol, instruct them to hold it out in their hands. Lead
them in prayer to give it to God and silently ask God to help them not worship anything
more than Him. After they have silently prayed, invite them to stomp on their aluminum
idol.
PRAY: God, we are sinners and at times we worship things more than we worship
You. Search our hearts and show us our sin and how we can always put You first. In
Jesus’ name, amen.
Complete Supply List:
● A small statue
● “What’s an Idol?” video lesson
● Something to play the video
● Aluminum foil - 3 feet per child
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