Grade 12 - Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States

Sunday School Curriculum Grade 12
confidence ―Arise, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered, and your foes flee before you‖
(Numbers 10:35).
As the journey begins, the Israelites start complaining about their hardships, especially food.
Also a power struggle erupts when Moses‘ older sister and brother decide that Moses made a
mistake by marrying a Cushite. In addition, they claim that God does not speak exclusively
through Moses; He speaks through them as well. God tells them that with Moses ―I speak
with him face to face‖ (Numbers12:7-8), not in dreams or visions. God penalizes Miriam to
become leprous and she recovers only after she lives outside the camp for a week.
Moses selects one leader from each tribe to spy out the land of Canaan. When they returned
after 40 days, only 2 of them recommended invasion, Caleb and Joshua. The other 10 spies
said ―The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and
all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the
descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight,
and so we were in their sight‖ (Numbers 13:32-33).
Fear gripped the Israelites and they refused to go any further. Lack of trust in God makes Him
furious and He sentenced the entire nation of adults, ages 20 and older to spend 40 years in
the wilderness, one year for each day of the spies‘ mission. Only Caleb and Joshua will live to
reach the Promised Land.
Discontentment with Moses and Aaron intensifies. Korah and 250 respected Israelites took
their complaint directly to Moses and Aaron demanding to know why the 2 brothers exalted
themselves as leaders. God punished the rebels ―and the earth opened its mouth and
swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods‖
(Numbers 16:32). The remaining 250 men were consumed by fire. The Israelites verbally
assaulted Moses and Aaron the very next day, accusing them of killing “the people of the
Lord” (Numbers 16:41). Again, God‘s punishment is swift and terrifying. Thousands died as
a plague strikes the camp.
At the end of Israel‘s 40 years in the wilderness, Miriam and Aaron die. Still the people
complain bitterly, ―Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread‖ (Numbers 21:5),
referring to the manna the Lord continues to provide each day. God unleashes a plague of
poisonous snakes and many Israelites die before they repent and plead with Moses to ask God
to remove the snakes. God instructs Moses to make a bronze image of a snake and to set it on
a pole ―Everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live‖ (Numbers 21:8). Jesus cited
this incidence, referring to His crucifixion, saying, ―Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have
eternal life‖ (John 3:14-15).
Now, Moses and the Israelites capture much of the land immediately east of the Jordan River
and as far north as the Sea of Galilee. The king of Moab, a nation east of the Dead Sea, sends
for Balaam, a famous seer who lives near the Euphrates River. The king wants to hire Balaam
to curse the Israelite invaders. Balaam initially refuses because of a warning from God, later
God tells Balaam to speak only the words that he receives from Him. God sends an angel with
a drawn sword, seen only by Balaam‘s donkey to warn the seer to proclaim only the word of
God.
FILLER LESSONS 3