Game playing is not only fun for children, it is one of the ways they learn all sorts of things. Adults continue to practice skills and find enjoyment in games, also. Especially popular are games in which something is hidden and the goal is to find it. From peek-a-boo to mystery weekends, it is clear that our love of searching for something hidden is more than just a game. Our normal curiosity about things and life’s way of always providing something new for us to figure out, combine to make the metaphor of hide and seek inherently meaningful to us.

At times, it can seem as though the purpose of our being here on earth is for us to search for answers to the hidden mysteries of life. It can seem as though a divine power created a world full of paradoxes and then put us here, without explanation, leaving us to try to figure it all out. Another way of explaining this feeling that life is something of a game is expressed by Alan Watts in his book entitled The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. In this book, Watts works with the following Hindu concepts: that all is ultimately Brahman or God; that our lack of understanding this is because of the magic of maya; and that figuring it out is lila, a playful game. He likens the game to Hide and Seek in which God, who is all, hides by pretending to be all the various things in the world including each one of us. However, Watts says, "when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self, the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever."

Religions, other than Hinduism, in varying ways, also have a sense of God as hidden. In Islam one of the ninety nine names of God is The Hidden; but for Muslims, God is totally other and ultimately unknowable. Christian belief presumes that God, though originally concealed, finally becomes known through God’s own revelation. In general, the emphasis is on God’s revealing rather than on human discovery. Paul, however does write in Acts 17: 26, "From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and [God] allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for [God] and find [God] though indeed [God] is not far from each one of us. For ‘In [God] we live and move and have our being;’ …"

Where one might find God differs from religion to religion; in fact, answers to this question may well be a part of what differentiates one religion from another. Jews might say they find God in historical actions of freedom and justice; Christians might say God is revealed in the love found in the life and person of Jesus; and Muslims might say they find the one God in the words of the Quran. In Alan Watts’ story and~ in the story in this curriculum God is found in everything that is: earth and sky; light and dark; people’s caring actions; within ourselves; and even in the not knowing. For if God is a symbol for ultimate reality, values, and mystery,one’s unknowing can be considered one’s ultimate reality.

This metaphor in which God hides and humans search is supported by the UU Principle which urges us to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We search in all of our Sources: our own experience, the `words and deeds of prophetic women and men,wisdom from the world religions, Jewish and Christian teachings, and humanist teachings.

This part of the story of Moses reinforces our belief in the historical existence of a Hebrew who was raised in the Egyptian court. Here Moses is shown identifying with a Hebrew who is being beaten and with the other Hebrew workers, even though they resent him when he interferes and confront him angrily: "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us!" He goes into exile because of his actions on the part of the Hebrews, yet the daughters of Reuel/Jethro in Midian mistake him for an Egyptian. And the "miracles" Moses is later empowered to do are those the Egyptian magicians can also produce.

No one is certain where Midian was. There are two possibilities: on the Sinai Peninsula and in the area east of the Gulf of Aqabah.

The two names for Moses’ father-in-law, Reuel and Jethro, can he explained by the fact that they appear in different sections, taken from different traditions, and the editors did not feel it was important to harmonize the two versions. In both cases, however, he is depicted as a priest of Midian.

The pharaoh who died is likely to have been Seti I, who died in 1290 B.C.E. The death of a pharaoh would be an auspicious time for the slaves to attempt a rebellion.

It is common in the Near East to take off one’s shoes when in the presence of the holy.

The angel may have been a messenger from God or an epiphany, and fire–for example, in halos– is often a symbol of God’s presence.

In order for Moses to convince the Hebrews of his authority, it was important for him to know God’s name. The Hebrew words for God’s answer can be translated variously as "I am what I am," "I am who I am," or "I will be what I will be." Albright, a noted biblical scholar, suggests the best meaning is "He causes to be what comes into existence." Some scholars question the likelihood of such an abstract name in those times, but there are examples of other, similar Near Eastern epithets for gods.

Third- and fourth-grade children are beginning to be able to make a commitment and stick to it, even if only for a limited period. In their imagination they can try out the feeling of being "called," and the idea of causes worthy of lifelong dedication, even if they are not quite ready for such dedication themselves. Children this age can identify with the oppression of slaves and their yearning to be free, and imagine an inner commitment to the cause of their freedom.

Another topic of interest will be "what really happened" at the scene of the burning bush and the other miracles. Eight-and nine-year olds are working hard to sort out the facts of things, to understand how things work and what is real. Let them discuss possible explanations, but bring them back to the question of how the miracles relate to commitment and the accomplishment of something so difficult that it might seem a "miracle."

AFTER THE HEBREWS LEFT EGYPT, they traveled in the wilderness. It was a very hard trip, and they were hungry and discouraged by the time they camped, three months later, at the foot of Mount Sinai. Mountains were considered holy places then. So Moses went up on Mount Sinai to talk to God. God told Moses that the children of Israel would become a holy nation. When Moses reported to the people what God said, they replied, "Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do,"

The next time Moses went up on the mountain, God told him to have the people devote themselves to goodness for two days. On the third day Moses was to come back on the mountain and God would appear.

On the third day there were thunder and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain, God had come down to the mountaintop in fire and smoke, and the mountain shook violently. God called Moses to come to the top of the mountain, saying, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandments, which I have written for their instruction." Moses set out with his assistant, Joshua, while the people waited at the foot of the mountain. Moses was on the cloud-covered mountain for six days before he heard from God. Moses remained with God for another forty days and forty nights. When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, God gave him the two tablets of commandments, two tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

While Moses was away, the people complained that they didn’t know what had happened to him. They wanted Aaron,Moses’ brother, to make a god they could worship. Aaron took all the gold in the camp and made a statue of a golden calf. When Moses returned, after forty-seven days, with the two stone tablets, he found the people dancing and worshiping the golden calf. Moses was so angry he threw the stone tablets from his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain. This broke the covenant between the people and God. Then Moses took the calf they had made, burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the people drink it.

Some time later, after the people had shown that they repented, God forgave them. God said to Moses, "Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke." God was willing to renew the covenant because the people were now willing to follow God’s commandments. This is what the ten commandments said:

I. I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.
2 You shall not make for yourself an idol to worship.
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of God.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.

Goal:
To introduce the idea that people find God in many different places.

Preparation: Read Background for “Hide and Seek with God”

Activities:
Introduce the story:
In our Unitarian Universalist church people have many different ideas about God. For some people God is what’s really real, for some God is what’s most important, and for some God is what’s most mysterious. But there are also some UUs who have ideas about what’s most real and most important and most mysterious but they don’t call those things God. They use other words, like Universe, Life, or Love. In our church we each decide for ourselves which words to use and what we believe.

The stories I’m going to read were written to help kids decide for themselves what they thing about God. Here’s the first one.

Read “Hide and Seek With God”

Discuss:
Would you want to play Hide and Seek with God? Would it be fun? Would it be scary?
If you were playing the game, where would you look? What do you think God might look like?
One girl found mysterious things but she wasn’t’ sure she wanted to call them God. Do you ever feel this way?
Draw a picture of what you think God looks like. Hide your pictures around the room and play “hot” and “cold” to find them – telling the finder they’re getting hotter if they’re getting closer to it and colder if they’re getting further away.

Children at this age have probably learned about slavery in the early days of the United States. Because of this they may associate the word slave with African Americans. This story provides an opportunity to broaden their understanding of oppression and slavery, to help them avoid stereotypical thinking. The motivating questions ask them to think about times when they felt oppressed. This may be difficult for them to do, but if you can relate a short personal story, you Il may elicit some personal stories from the children.

Beginning with the definition of slavery as "the total subjection of one person to another" (Mays, Harper’s Bible Commentary, p. 959), children can see that slavery is not necessarily related to color, race, gender, or religion, although all of those categories have been used to define classes of slaves. The Hebrews held different religious beliefs from the Egyptians. They were easy to identify by their patterns of worship, their dress, their daily life–and they had become numerous enough to threaten the ruling class. Thus, though they had been welcomed as settlers by earlier generations of Egyptians, by Moses’ time they had become an oppressed class of people, subject to the cruel taskmasters of the Pharaoh.

The Hebrews worked on the tombs, temples, and obelisks designed by Egyptian architects. (The famed pyramids had been built approximately a thousand years earlier.) Because they were called lazy workers–a charge commonly leveled against oppressed classes–the Hebrews were forced to make their bricks without straw. Strawless bricks do not hold together well, yet the Hebrews were required to make their usual quota. It was either no straw, or take extra time to glean the stubble from the fields. Either way, the task was nearly hopeless, and the punishment was a beating. For Moses, the lack of straw was the "last straw. " It was time to try the magic that YHWH had shown him. Popularly known as the ten plagues, the calamities inflicted on Egypt were familiar threats to the well-being of the nation. The power of the Exodus story is that they occur one right after the other. Written down many centuries after it occurred, and drawn from three traditions J, E, and P), the story as recorded in Exodus is full of repetition and confusion. The plagues were natural occurrences in an unnatural time frame–folk history in its most dramatic form.

The story of the plagues and the crossing of the Reed Sea is the basis tbr the Jewish celebration of Passover. At the Passover meal the story of the Exodus is recounted through words, symbols, and songs. One seder ritual has to do with the plagues. Before drinking the first cup of wine, one removes a drop for each plague visited upon the Egyptians, diminishing one’s own pleasure because of the suffering of the oppressor. The theme of the Passover seder is that our joy in freedom is possible only if we remember our own suffering and the suffering of others.

In the telling of this story, we have referred to the Reed Sea. There is on modern maps a sea called the Red Sea, but the Hebrew term used in Exodus is yam suph or Sea of Reeds. Great confusion exists among biblical scholars about the route of the Exodus–in fact, three routes have been suggested, each with respected literary and geographical credentials. The source of confusion seems to be the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint, dating back perhaps to the third century B.C.E. Reed was translated Red, and on the basis of that error it was long assumed that the Red Sea was the site of the crossing.