Pastor Char will be sharing a special message with the kids about Advent: Hope, Love, Joy, & Peace.

The parting of the Red Sea is an incredible accounts in Scripture. After God freed His people through the events of the Passover, He performed this amazing miracle to deliver them from danger and secure their hearts in worship to Him alone. In this passage, we see glimmers of an even greater miracle––the salvation of God’s people, once and for all time, through Christ’s miraculous sacrifice on our behalf.

God repeated His covenant promises and reminded His people that He would be faithful to deliver them from Egypt and bring them to the land of promise. Through the suffering of slavery and desolation of the plagues, God’s people waited. And upon hearing God’s Passover instructions, they did as He commanded.  

Consider Moses’ difficulties in confronting Pharaoh, a man of great prestige. Then, reflect on the grace and mercy of God who reigns in sovereign power. Though it appeared impossible, God made good on His promises.

While Moses would not flawlessly follow God nor perfectly trust in His promises, God promised to provide Moses with help and demonstrate His power. Moses was aware of his own shortcomings as a leader, yet God still used him mightily to rescue the Israelites.

Although God allowed Job to suffer, His hand was there to guide him, and His comfort remained by his side. What we glean from Job’s story is that God’s righteousness is so much greater than our own, that He is worthy of worship despite our circumstances. In 2 Corinthians 4:17, Paul declared that “our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.” 

There is only one truly righteous person who suffered unjustly: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Help kids see that God is good, and His full worthiness is displayed in Jesus, the only truly righteous One. By faith in His finished work on the cross, we are counted as righteous and granted eternal hope. Pray that your kids will experience God's goodness and place their faith in Him alone.

At the closing of Genesis, Joseph—in the aftermath of slavery, famine, and injustice—declares that God used his brothers’ evil plans to bring about flourishing for His people. Joseph extended words of comfort, courage, and kindness his brothers did not deserve. 

In Christ, we receive an even greater gift—everlasting life, the undeserved bestowal of immeasurable peace, courage, and kindness. Christ experienced injustice and suffering on our behalf so that we might gain eternal life and redemption. As faithful to God as Joseph was, Jesus is even more faithful, forever renowned as the suffering Servant who takes away our sin. Pray for your kids to place their faith in the One who redeems our sins and suffering for His glory and our good.

In today’s passage, God continued His faithfulness to Abraham by extending kindness to Jacob amidst a time of great turmoil. God promised to bless Jacob, be with him, watch over him, and never leave him until His faithful promises had been fulfilled. Jacob found himself at a crossroads, seemingly alone, and was tasked with finding a wife in accordance with God’s plan to bless their family.

What can we learn from Jacob’s time of trial and his wrestling with God? How can this help us when we are suffering or wrestling with God ourselves?

After receiving his father’s blessing, Jacob was instructed by his mother and father to flee Esau’s wrath and find a wife. While on the run, God visited Jacob in a dream by which He confirmed the promises He had made to Abraham. Even in Jacob's sinfulness, God's faithful lovingkindness was shown to him as God declared that His covenantal promises would continue through Jacob's family. Then, Jacob made a vow, just as God had made one to him: “If God remains with me, watches over me, provides for me, and returns me safely as He says He will, then He will be my God.”

Later in chapter 32, we see the next phase of Jacob’s journey with God, as he wrestled with Him unknowingly. Jacob said to the man, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man—whom we know to be God—changed Jacob’s name from that of a deceiver to “Israel” Israel, meaning “He Sstruggled with God.” Despite Jacob's struggles with God, he prevailed and was blessed by Him. In the end, Jacob realized that God spared his life in this encounter. By grace, he was granted a new name and identity and was able to return home.

Today, we come to a similar crossroads as we wrestle with the role Jesus deserves in our lives as Savior and Lord. Those who surrender to Him by faith can, like Israel, experience new life in He who redeems and restores sinners, bringing them into His family forever. No longer are we bound by our old selves but given a new identity in Jesus.

Ask God to reveal to your kids the reality of the new life He offers in Jesus. Though we may not always understand His ways, God gives us grace as we come to surrender to His will for our lives. May His truth become clear in their hearts and minds as you teach them about His love.

The story of God’s faithfulness to Abraham continues as we venture into the lives of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 and 27. Isaac prayed that God would bless their family with an heir, and God responded. We witness God's sovereignty in the lives of brothers Jacob and Esau as God's promises are fulfilled.

Earlier in Genesis 25, God revealed to Rebekah that she had conceived twins, and that in the end, the older would serve the younger. Before either had done good or bad, God chose Jacob to become the nation of Israel. (Rom. 9:10-11) In His kingdom, the ways and logic of the world do not prevail; God destined Jacob to be the one whose lineage would one day bring us the promised Savior, Jesus.

God’s ways came to pass in accordance with His own wisdom and will. Isaac blessed Jacob as an act of passing on the covenant of his father Abraham. Nothing could intercept God’s promise to bless Abraham’s family through Jacob; in the opposite way, no scheming on behalf of this family could interfere with this blessing being passed down to the younger son.

Each member of Isaac’s family had to trust, by faith, that God’s ways were best, however confusing His plans seemed. In the end, God’s plan to provide the way to redeem and restore mankind through the lineage of Jacob would be accomplished. Just as Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob and even Esau had to surrender to God’s plans by faith, so, to do we surrender to God’s plan of restoring all things through His Son, Jesus. In Him, we receive the birthright promised to Abraham in its greatest and fullest measure, as God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

True salvation comes to all who place their trust in Jesus. Pray that your children, whose hearts have been entrusted to you, would hear of God’s sovereign goodness and surrender their lives to His will. May they place their trust in Him and receive the ultimate gift of everlasting life through His Son, Jesus.