Objective: Help students realize that their identity should be rooted in Christ.
Ice Breaker Question:
If someone came up to you and asked you who you are, how would you respond?
Note to self: the objective of this question is to get others thinking about what determines who they are. Ask the student to give you three separate one-word answers.
Ex: Student, Son, Athlete (names are fine too)
Note to self: Before you talk about the wilderness, present the genealogy. The purpose of the genealogy is to help the students think about the term “children of Israel” as a family, as the literal children of Jacob, rather than a nation/country. We will also come back to the genealogy later in the lesson with Galatians 3: 26-29.
God –> Adam & Eve –> Seth –> Noah –> Shem –> Terah –> Abraham –> Isaac –> Jacob/Israel –> The 12
Before Israel became a nation, it was a family that God had chosen and made a covenant with through Abraham.
Genesis 12:1-3
Now the LORD had said unto A’bram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (KJV)
Genesis 15: 5
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. (KJV)
This is where God established circumcision as the method for Abraham and his family to enter the covenant.
Genesis 17:10-11
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Their identity was rooted in God, and God shaped their culture, values, and customs. They were set apart, different from all the other tribes/families/ nations surrounding them.
UNTIL the children of Israel moved to Egypt.
What happened in Egypt?
- For 430 years, the Israelites were stripped of their identity.
- They assimilated into the culture.
- Egyptian probably became their first language.
- They were a prominent minority heading to be a majority in the population.
- The food they ate was Egyptian.
- The clothes they wore were Egyptian.
- The music they listened to was Egyptian.
The Israelites were culturally Egyptian; they had undergone a complete change in Identity. After 400 years God brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness.
Exodus 5:1-2
And afterward Mo’ses and Aar’on went in, and told Pha’raoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Isr’ra-el, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pha’raoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Is’ra-el go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Is’ra-el go. (KJV)
- What were the Israelites doing this whole time that Egyptians did not know who their God was?
- Might it be the same with us?
- Are we too assimilated into the world’s culture that people can’t tell we are set apart?
- Or do we stay in our Christian bubble and keep God to ourselves?
Eventually, through God’s might, the children of Israel came out of Egypt into the wilderness to reestablish their identity and to know God.
It was in these moments of difficulty that they learned to trust and depend daily on God.
- Briefly mention manna and water being provided.
But it was also in these hardships that, despite everything God had done for them, they would look back on their past life of slavery and lust after it.
Numbers 11: 4-6
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all beside this manna, before our eyes.
This passage demonstrates how the enemy can keep us just comfortable enough in our bondage so that we stay in bondage.
*insert personal story here*
- The wilderness is hard; it’s lonely, but it is where God meets you face-to-face and restores your identity.
- God takes you out of your comfort zone and separates you unto Himself. Why? Because He doesn’t want you to forget who you are, He doesn’t wan’t you to forget who He is.
- The wilderness is where we learn to discern God’s voice.
- The wilderness is where we shed our past and put on Christ.
- The wilderness is where we learn to walk again, like a newborn baby; but with God on our side.
- The wilderness is where God prepares us to conquer Giants.
- They took the land of Canaan where Giants dwelt.
- Why do we think David was so bold when fighting Goliath? Because he knew who he was; he knew who God was.
- Why was Daniel facing Jerusalem when praying? He was remembering where he was from, who he was, and who his God was.
So, how do the genealogy and the story of Israel apply to us?
- Galatians 3:26-29
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
- V. 26 Faith leads to baptism
- V. 27 Baptism in Jesus name
- V. 28 These are the labels/identities the world will put on us
- V. 29 For us, going through the new birth experience makes us heirs of the promise. It brings us into covenant with God. He is not just the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he becomes the God of *insert a student name*, the God of *insert a student name*, the God of *insert a student name*.
If we become part of Abraham’s seed, then the promises God made to him will apply to us. If that is the case, then why do we worry about things?
- We will always be confronted by this world to conform to it and trade our God-given identity for a counterfeit one.
In conclusion, our job as disciples is to help others know who they are by bringing them closer to Christ.