October 30, 2016 - The Ten Plagues

TONY AND MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Exodus 6:8a

What was the hardest job that God ever gave you to do?  Did you think it was too hard?  Did you think that you were ready for it?  Last week we talked about how Moses felt that very same way.  However, God knew that He had prepared Moses and that, with God's help, Moses could accomplish the work God gave him to do.  After all, God Himself was going with Moses...

Last week we left off with Moses and his older brother Aaron were going back to Egypt to confront the Pharaoh about the horrible way he had been treating the Children of

Israel.  When they arrived, God told them to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go into the wilderness and have a feast to worship their God.  Pharaoh, however, had a very hard heart and refused to let the people go.  

"You people are just lazy and don't want to do your work!" Pharaoh said to Moses. " So I am going to make their work even harder."  The Israelites were making bricks for Pharaoh and he would make sure they had the straw they needed to do the job.  "Now I will make them go and get their own straw and they had better make just as many bricks as they did before!"  So now the children of Israel had to do twice

as much work in the same amount of time!

Moses went to God and asked, "Why did you send me here?  All I've done is make their lives even harder!"  But God told Moses to go back to Pharaoh while he was down by the Nile River and tell him once again to let the people go.  Moses

did so but Pharaoh refused.  So Moses told Aaron to use his staff and turn the entire Nile River to blood.  This made all the fish die and the water stink.  The Egyptians could no longer even drink the water from the river and had to dig wells to find clean water.  This was the first plague that God sent on Egypt. However, the Pharaoh had sorcerers that could do the same thing using witchcraft.  So Pharaoh ignored Moses warning and went home.

So God had Moses and Aaron cause millions of frogs to come out of the Nile river and go everywhere!  This was the second plague. The sorcerers could also do the same thing but they couldn't get rid of the frogs.  The Pharaoh called to Moses and Aaron and said he would let the people go if they would get rid of the frogs.  So the

next day all the frogs died and the people piled them up in huge stinky mounds.  When Pharaoh saw that the frogs were gone, he hardened his heart again and wouldn't let the people go.  

So God had Aaron strike the ground with his staff and all the dust of the ground turned

into gnats.  This was the third plague God sent.  The gnats were so bad that once again Pharaoh promised to let the people go if God would get rid of them.  However, once the gnats were gone, Pharaoh broke his promise again.  

So God, through Moses and Aaron, sent plague after plague on Egypt and each time Pharaoh would make a promise and then break it.

 Also, each time God sent a plague, He was showing that he was stronger than all of the false Egyptian gods.  

Finally, God decided to send one more horrible plague.  He gave Moses special instruction to tell the people of Israel.  Each family was to take a perfect lamb that had nothing wrong with it and sacrifice it to God.  This was to be called the Passover Lamb.   They were to eat the lamb's meat that night but the blood had another purpose.  God told them to put the blood of the lamb on the two

doorposts and the mantle of the door of every Israelite house.  Then they were to go inside their houses and wait.  They all kept their sandals on and were dressed so they could leave in a hurry.  God also told the Israelites to ask their

Egyptians neighbors for their silver and gold.  He touched the Egyptians' hearts so that they were willing to give the Children of Israel whatever they asked for.

That night, God sent the Angel of Death over Egypt to go into every house and take the life of the firstborn son of every family.  When the Angel came to a house that had

the blood on the door frame, God told him to pass over it and not hurt anyone.  This is why the people of Israel celebrate Passover today.  

That night, every Egyptian family lost their oldest son, including the Pharaoh himself.  When the Pharaoh realized that even his own son had died, he knew he was beaten.  He called Moses and

Aaron and told them to take their people and leave Egypt.  So the people went to their neighbors to ask for their gold, silver, and clothes, and then walked out of the country with all the treasures of Egypt!  Finally, the Israelites were

free.

Today, God can still call us to do great things that we can only accomplish if God helps us.  We must learn to trust God and obey His commands.  If we do these things, there is no limit to what God can do through us.