My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 9: Moses and the Ten Commandments

Picture / Ornament: Stone Tablets with Numbers

Scripture: Exodus 12:40-41; Exodus 13:17-18; Exodus 14:13-18; Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 119:11; Romans 3:23; Galatians 3:10-14

Song: Go, Tell it on the Mountain

Another Song: Ten Commandments Song with Hand Motions

After miraculously saving the Israelites’ firstborn sons, God had more miracles to come. God parted the Red Sea so that all of His people could walk through on dry ground on their way to the very land that God had promised hundreds of years before to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  God is faithful to keep His promises in His perfect timing.

Again and again, the Israelites saw God work miracles for them and provide for their needs. Not only did God lead them through the Red Sea, but God gave them water out of a rock and fed them with manna and quail from heaven, yet still the Israelites complained. They struggled to trust and follow God.

God wanted the people to know what pleased Him, so He gave them ten special rules, what we call today, “The Ten Commandments.” These rules are good for us today, too.

The Ten Commandments teach us how to honor God and how to honor one another. Can you name all ten of the Ten Commandments?

God wants us to know Him and to know what pleases Him, so we will not sin, yet God also knows that no one can keep His laws perfectly. Everyone has sinned against God and broken His commands. Everyone. Your mom, your dad, your teacher, your pastor. Everyone has sinned against God and broken His commands. God also gave us the Ten Commandments so we would see our need for a Savior.

That Savior is Jesus. God sent Jesus to earth to live a perfect and sinless life. Jesus is the only one who could keep all of God’s laws perfectly, because Jesus is 100% God and 100% man.

The Israelites were saved by faith, trusting in God’s goodness and believing that God would one day send a savior. Today we, too, are saved by faith, trusting in God’s goodness and believing that Jesus is that promised Savior. At Christmas we look back at the Savior who was born as a baby in the little town of Bethlehem in that promised land of Israel.

Today is a perfect day to thank God for giving us His laws and for giving us a Savior, Jesus. Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus.