FBkids: God Sends Plagues on Egypt

Lesson 18

Hello again everyone! We are so excited that our church is starting to open back up. We are praying that we can have Adoration Station in person real soon. In the meantime we will keep sharing our video lessons with you.

We’ve been learning about Moses and the past two weeks we learned how God prepared him to lead the Israelites out of captivity from Egypt. Today we are going to talk about how God used Moses to reveal His power to the Pharaoh and all of Egypt.

When Moses and his brother Aaron got to Egypt the Lord told them what to do. He said, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the Israelites go. He will be very stubborn, and it will take many signs and miracles before he will let you go; but everyone will know that I am God when he finally frees the Israelites."

They did what God asked and they went to see Pharaoh. In front of Pharaoh Aaron threw down his staff and it became a snake (just as God told Moses it would). Pharaoh’s magicians copied Aaron and caused snakes to appear as well. Aaron’s serpent ate them all the others. Even still, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. Because of his hard heart, God sent the plagues.

A plague is an event or sickness that causes suffering, loss, and usually death on a horrific scale. There were ten plagues, but the first nine came in groups of three., with the tenth plague being the finale, and worst.

The plagues were:

Blood: Aaron struck the Nile with the staff so that all the water turned to blood and all the fish died. Even water in containers became blood.

Frogs: They came out of the water and covered the land, and invaded homes, beds, ovens, and bowls.

Gnats or Mosquitoes: These swarms of irritating insects irritated the eyes, nose, and ears, and could also bite.

Swarms: These insects likely fed on blood and probably spread disease among the livestock and maybe even humans.

Disease: This plague killed all the livestock of the Egyptians.

Boils: These were painful, blister like sores. They were on humans and animals. They were very painful.

Hailstorm: This was the worst hailstorm Egypt had ever known., with lightning flashing back and forth across the ground. People and animals that were outside were killed. Their crops were destroyed.

Locust: Locust are devastating. They consume all the crops and damage trees and fruit as well. The Bible tells us that this swarm was larger than any that has ever been.

Darkness: The Bible says that it was so complete that it could be felt. Only the Israelites had light where they lived. The darkness lasted for 3 days. They Egyptians were overwhelmed by terror and despair.

We are going to talk more about the 10^th plague next week.

Moses told Pharaoh to let God’s people go, but just as God had told Moses, Pharaoh hardened his heart. God continued to harden Pharaoh’s heart in order to fully display the greatness of His power. With plagues from the earth and plagues from the sky, with irritating plagues and deadly plagues, and with plagues undermining all the Egyptian gods, God proved that He alone is God. He wanted Israel to trust and serve Him alone, and He wanted all the earth to fear His power.

God’s great power presents us with a choice. We can choose to be like Pharaoh, who refused to humble himself before God. He was sorry when bad things happened to him, but he did not repent. Or we can choose to do what God said: we can trust Him as our deliverer and serve Him alone. If we do repent and believe, then just as God powerfully crushed the rule of Pharaoh over Israel, so He will powerfully crush the rule of sin, Satan, and death over us.