Moses and the Ten Plagues

After Joseph died, all of his relatives stayed in Egypt. They and their descendants continued to live there for many years and had many children. They were called the Israelites.

As time passed, the Egyptians forgot about Joseph and all he had done to help them, and they became afraid of the Israelites because there were so many of them. So, they made the Israelites, who were also called the Hebrews, their slaves.

The Egyptians forced the Israelites to work for them by building lots of buildings, even whole cities.

The king of Egypt, called the Pharaoh, saw that the Israelites were still having lots of babies, so he made a rule that all Israelite baby boys had to be killed by throwing them into the Nile River.

A certain Israelite woman gave birth to a baby boy. She and her husband hid the baby for as long as they could.

Then they put him in a floating basket in the Nile River and they had his older sister follow it to see what would happen to him.

A daughter of Pharaoh, an Egyptian woman, saw the basket and looked inside. When she saw the baby, she took him as her own son. She named him Moses. Moses grew up in the palace and was well educated.

One day, he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite slave. Moses knew that he too was an Israelite, so he tried to save his fellow Israelite.

When he thought nobody was looking, he killed the Egyptian and buried his body. But someone saw what had happened,

and when Pharaoh found out about it, he wanted to kill Moses because of what he had done. Moses ran away from Egypt to a place where he would be safe.

Moses became a shepherd in the wilderness a long way from Egypt. He married and had two sons.

One day while Moses was out taking care of his sheep, he saw a bush which was on fire. But this was no ordinary fire, because the bush did not burn up. Moses went to take a closer look. As he approached the bush, the voice of God spoke to him from inside the burning bush.

God told Moses, "I have seen the suffering of my people. I will send you to Pharaoh so that you can bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. I will give them the land of Canaan, the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Moses said, "What if the people ask me who sent me, what should I say?" God said, "I am who I am. Tell them, 'I am has sent me to you.' This is my name forever."

Moses was very scared and did not want to go. So God sent Moses' brother, Aaron, to help him. God warned Moses and Aaron that Pharaoh would be stubborn.

Moses and Aaron went to talk to Pharaoh. They told him that God wanted him to let the Israelites go free. Pharaoh laughed at them. Instead of letting the Israelites go free, he increased their work!

Pharaoh kept refusing to let the people go, so God sent ten plagues on Egypt. God showed Pharaoh that He is more powerful than Pharaoh and all his gods.

God turned the Nile River into blood, but Pharaoh still would not let the Israelites go.

God sent frogs all over Egypt, then gnats and then flies.

Each time Pharaoh promised to let the Israelites go if God would take away these plagues.

But each time the problem left, Pharaoh changed his mind and would not let the Israelites go free. So God continued sending plagues. After this time, the plagues only affected the Egyptians and not the Israelites.

The next thing God did was send a sickness to kill all the animals that belonged to the Egyptians.

Then God sent painful skin sores on the Egyptian people themselves. God hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let the Israelites go free.

After that, God sent hail that destroyed the crops in Egypt and killed anybody who went outside.

Even after all these terrible things, Pharaoh's heart was hard and he refused to let the Israelites go free.

So God caused swarms of locusts to come over Egypt. These locusts ate what was left of the crops that the hail had not destroyed.

Then God sent a darkness that lasted for three days. It was so dark that the Egyptians could not leave their houses. But where the Israelites lived, there was light.

Even after these nine plagues, Pharaoh still refused to let the Israelites go free.

There was one last thing that God planned to do, since Pharaoh would not listen. This would change Pharoah's mind.

Moses and Aaron warned Pharaoh that if he did not let the Israelites go free, the firstborn son of every person in Egypt would die, and the firstborn of their cattle would die, too.

Pharaoh still refused to believe God, so God did what he promised. That night, God sent an angel to kill the firstborn son of every Egyptian person and the firstborn of all their cattle.

When Pharaoh saw what had happened, he called for Moses and Aaron and told them to leave immediately. The Israelites were very happy. God had saved them from slavery in Egypt through His servant Moses. They left the very next day on their way back to the Promised Land.