In our last Thru The Bible story, God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and told him that he'd be bringing the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Moses had his doubts, but he obeyed God and returned to Egypt.
Moses and his brother Aaron went to see Pharaoh. They told Pharaoh:
This is what the LORD God of Israel says to you: "Let My people go, that they may have a feast for Me in the wilderness."Pharaoh replied:
Who is God, and why should I do what He says? I don't know God, and I'm not going to let the Children of Israel go.They argued a bit, and finally Pharaoh said that the Children of Israel could not leave Egypt, and what's more, they were going to have to make more bricks than ever. And to make things even worse, they were going to have to find their own straw to use to make the bricks! (Straw was an important ingredient in Egyptian bricks.) When the Children of Israel had trouble making all the bricks, the Egyptians yelled at them and beat them, saying they were just being lazy! It was a terrible time for the Children of Israel.
To convince Pharaoh to let the Children of Israel go, God sent ten terrible plagues upon Egypt. After each plague, Pharaoh almost changed his mind, but at the last minute said "No, you can't leave Egypt."
Here are the ten plagues:
1. The Nile River turned to blood.This last plague was more than Pharaoh could stand. He told the Children of Israel that they could leave.2. God sent frogs! They hopped everywhere, even into the Egyptians' beds!
3. God sent swarms of gnats, tiny little bugs that drive you crazy!
4. The next plague was flies, nasty flies buzzing everywhere.
5. The next plague after that was a disease that made their cows sick.
6. A plague of boils came next. This is a painful skin disease.
7. Plague number seven was hail, hard rocks of ice falling from the sky. The hail flattened all their crops.
8. Next came swarms of locusts. Locusts are a type of grasshopper that ate up all the green plants.
9. Next came darkness. It was dark in the middle of the day everywhere in Egypt except in the land of Goshen, where the Children of Israel lived.
10. The last plague was the most terrible of all. This was the death of the first-born of all men and animals- even Pharaoh's oldest child died. All except the first-born of the Children of Israel, that is. God told them to paint some lamb's blood on their doors, and if they did, they would be safe.
NEXT TIME: Crossing the Red Sea!
Click here to listen to a song we sing at our church called Pharaoh, Pharaoh
Click here for a picture that you can print out and color. This is a picture of an Israelite painting the blood on his door to keep his family safe during the tenth plague.
Would you like to take a quiz, to see how much of this story you remember?
People have asked that we make past Bible stories available. We have begun doing this. So far we have archived [Story of Baby Moses] [The Easter Story] [Moses and the Burning Bush]
