Shownotes
Pharaoh thinks of himself as a god, but can he protect his people in the way that the God of Israel can? Find out as we explore Exodus chapters 8 and 9.
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The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
Transcripts
G'day, Dave. Here. Welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:Where do you feel most safe, most protected? Where do you know you'll be looked after?
Speaker:If there's someone there with you, take a moment to tell them.
Speaker:A long time ago, if people wanted to be safe, they'd go to a huge castle or a mighty
Speaker:fortress.
Speaker:A safe place with massive walls and towers to
Speaker:keep enemies away.
Speaker:Well, the Bible says that's what God's like
Speaker:for his people, a safe place that protects us no matter what's trying to smash against the
Speaker:walls to get in.
Speaker:God looks after his people.
Speaker:Let me read the first three verses of psalm 46 for you.
Speaker:Psalms are songs in the Bible, and psalm 46 describes God.
Speaker:It says this, God is our protection and our strength.
Speaker:He always helps in times of trouble.
Speaker:So we will not be afraid if the earth shakes
Speaker:or if the mountains fall into the sea.
Speaker:We will not fear even if the oceans roar and
Speaker:foam, or if the mountains shake at the raging sea.
Speaker:In the last few episodes, we've been hearing about how God is saving his people, the
Speaker:Israelites from Egypt.
Speaker:God could do it in a second.
Speaker:He could do it in half a second.
Speaker:He doesn't do that, though.
Speaker:He slows down and takes his time to teach everyone who he is.
Speaker:He's been sending plagues, great signs of power, to help the Egyptians and the
Speaker:Israelites and us understand who he is.
Speaker:We've seen that he's the powerful God, much
Speaker:more powerful than the gods of Egypt.
Speaker:He's the faithful God.
Speaker:He always does what he says he'll do.
Speaker:We'll keep seeing his power and faithfulness
Speaker:today.
Speaker:But we'll also see how God looks after his
Speaker:people, how he makes them safe.
Speaker:There have been three plagues so far.
Speaker:Did you hear the clue at the very end of the last episode about what's coming next?
Speaker:I'll give you a hint.
Speaker:They're not bees.
Speaker:Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:Every morning, Pharaoh goes down to the Nile river.
Speaker:Maybe for a swim, maybe to wash his face, maybe to offer things to his gods.
Speaker:Lately, his morning trips to the river have not been very nice.
Speaker:He keeps bumping into Moses, who brings messages from his God, messages that Pharaoh
Speaker:doesn't want to hear.
Speaker:Its about to happen again.
Speaker:This is what it says in Exodus, chapter eight, verse 20.
Speaker:The Lord told Moses, get up early in the morning, meet the king of Egypt.
Speaker:As he goes out to the river, tell him, this is what the Lord says.
Speaker:Let my people go so they can worship me.
Speaker:If you dont let them go, I will send swarms of
Speaker:flies.
Speaker:I will send them into your houses.
Speaker:The flies will be on you, your officers and the people.
Speaker:The houses of Egypt will be full of flies and they will be all over the ground too.
Speaker:Have you ever had a fly buzzing around you? That's really annoying.
Speaker:What about two flies, ten flies? God's saying he's going to send millions of
Speaker:flies.
Speaker:They aren't just going to be annoying.
Speaker:They'll cause massive problems.
Speaker:They'll be in every house, on every person, on
Speaker:the food, on the ground, in the air.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how powerful you are, you're
Speaker:going to be covered in flies.
Speaker:Unless.
Speaker:Unless you live where God's people live.
Speaker:The Israelites live in a part of Egypt called
Speaker:Goshen.
Speaker:And God's going to tell the flies not to go
Speaker:there.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:Can you imagine telling a fly not to cross a fence into your neighbors house?
Speaker:Do you think it would listen? Of course not.
Speaker:But the flies listen to God.
Speaker:Hes in charge.
Speaker:God says this to Pharaoh in verse 22.
Speaker:But I will not treat the people of Israel the
Speaker:same as the egyptian people.
Speaker:There will not be any flies in the land of
Speaker:Goshen where my people live.
Speaker:By this you will know that I, the Lord, am in
Speaker:this land.
Speaker:I will treat my people differently from your
Speaker:people.
Speaker:This miracle will happen tomorrow.
Speaker:Remember, Pharaoh thinks of himself as a type of God on earth.
Speaker:But the real God, the God of Israel, is saying, I'm in charge of my people and your
Speaker:people.
Speaker:You can't protect your people.
Speaker:But I look after my people.
Speaker:Which God would you prefer to have, pharaoh or
Speaker:the God of Israel? The God and father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Well, God sends the flies, great swarms of flies crawling all over the food and the
Speaker:furniture.
Speaker:And the people, they're in the palace and the
Speaker:homes of important people.
Speaker:They're ruining Egypt.
Speaker:But they're not in the part of Egypt where the Israelites are.
Speaker:Pharaoh's desperate to get rid of the flies, but he doesn't want to let the Israelites go.
Speaker:So he tries to bargain with God.
Speaker:He still thinks he has some power.
Speaker:He thinks he can give something to the Israelites, but still keep them as slaves.
Speaker:He still doesn't know or understand the God he's dealing with.
Speaker:So he says to Moses, you can sacrifice to your God, but you have to do it here in Egypt.
Speaker:Moses replies in verse 26, it wouldn't be right to do that.
Speaker:The Egyptians hate the sacrifices we offer to the Lord our God.
Speaker:They will see us offer sacrifices they hate.
Speaker:Then they will throw stones at us and kill us.
Speaker:Let us make a three day journey into the desert.
Speaker:We must offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God.
Speaker:There.
Speaker:This is what the Lord told us to do.
Speaker:Pharaoh's really frustrated by that response.
Speaker:But he doesn't have much choice.
Speaker:He has absolutely no power to get rid of the
Speaker:flies.
Speaker:So he gives in.
Speaker:He still tries to not give them everything they want, though.
Speaker:He says, oh, fine, you can go.
Speaker:Just don't go very far.
Speaker:Now, please pray for me.
Speaker:Moses knows that he can't really trust
Speaker:pharaoh.
Speaker:He says in verse 29, I will leave and pray to
Speaker:the Lord.
Speaker:He will take the flies away from you, your
Speaker:officers, and your people tomorrow.
Speaker:But do not try to trick us again.
Speaker:Do not stop the people from going to offer sacrifices to the lord.
Speaker:So Moses left the king and prayed to the lord.
Speaker:And the lord did as Moses asked.
Speaker:He removed the flies from the king, his officers and his people.
Speaker:Not one fly was left.
Speaker:But the king became stubborn again and did not
Speaker:let the people go.
Speaker:That's the end of the fourth plague.
Speaker:It's time for plague number five again.
Speaker:God sends Moses to meet Pharaoh and warn him,
Speaker:let my people go, or else you'll be punished.
Speaker:This time the punishment will be a terrible
Speaker:disease on all their farm animals.
Speaker:These animals arent pets.
Speaker:Almost everyone in Egypt would have some connection to farming.
Speaker:And animals are so important for that.
Speaker:They dont have any trucks or tractors.
Speaker:They havent even been invented yet.
Speaker:They use animals for everything, to carry
Speaker:things, plough the fields so seed can be planted.
Speaker:Theyre used for milking and for meat.
Speaker:Without the animals, the farms will start
Speaker:failing and Egypt will start to run out of food.
Speaker:Moses warns pharaoh that if he doesnt let the Israelites go, all the horses, donkeys,
Speaker:camels, cattle and sheep in Egypt will become sick.
Speaker:Except.
Speaker:Except for the animals of the Israelites.
Speaker:Once again, God looks after his people.
Speaker:So were told in chapter nine, verse four.
Speaker:But the Lord will treat Israels animals differently from the animals of Egypt.
Speaker:None of the animals that belong to the Israelites will die.
Speaker:The Lord has set tomorrow as the time he will do this in the land.
Speaker:The next day, the Lord did as he promised.
Speaker:All the farm animals in Egypt died.
Speaker:But none of the animals belonging to the Israelites died.
Speaker:The king sent people to see what had happened to the animals of Israel.
Speaker:They found that not one of them had died.
Speaker:Do you remember what it was like when we had
Speaker:the COVID pandemic? Pandemic means it's a problem in all the
Speaker:world, not just in one country or another.
Speaker:The disease spread really quickly.
Speaker:And it didn't care what country you were from, what side of any border you lived on.
Speaker:That's not how disease works.
Speaker:But here in Egypt, the disease must obey the
Speaker:powerful word of the Lord God.
Speaker:And so he keeps the animals of his own people
Speaker:safe.
Speaker:While striking down the egyptian animals.
Speaker:It raises that same question.
Speaker:Which God would you rather have?
Speaker:You might not be surprised to hear what God tells us in chapter nine, verse six, though we
Speaker:are told.
Speaker:But the king was still stubborn.
Speaker:He did not let the people go.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:God's still in charge.
Speaker:That was plague number five.
Speaker:It's time for plague number six.
Speaker:The last one attacked the farm animals of the
Speaker:Egyptians.
Speaker:This one attacks the people's own bodies and
Speaker:the other farm animals.
Speaker:And this time, Pharaoh doesn't get a warning.
Speaker:Verse eight says this.
Speaker:The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, fill your
Speaker:hands with the ashes from a furnace.
Speaker:Moses.
Speaker:Throw the ashes into the air in front of the king of Egypt.
Speaker:The ashes will spread like dust through all the land of Egypt.
Speaker:The dust will cause boils to break out and become sores on the skin.
Speaker:These sores will be on people and animals everywhere in the land.
Speaker:The saucer called boils because they look like the bubbles when water is boiling.
Speaker:And it would hurt a lot.
Speaker:All the Egyptians get them, including the
Speaker:magicians.
Speaker:We haven't heard from them in a little while.
Speaker:Remember, these are the guys who represent the gods of Egypt.
Speaker:Even when they looked at their strongest, God beat them.
Speaker:But as time's gone on, they've gotten weaker and weaker and weaker.
Speaker:Now they're so weak, their bodies are so covered in sores, they can't even stand up.
Speaker:This is what verse ten says.
Speaker:The magicians could not stand before Moses.
Speaker:This was because all the Egyptians had boils.
Speaker:Even the magicians.
Speaker:Imagine going to play a sports game and the other team can't even stand up to face you.
Speaker:Or even more amazingly, imagine going to a battle, and the other army are so sore and so
Speaker:sick, they're all lying down.
Speaker:You know who's going to win, right?
Speaker:Well, this is a battle between the gods of Egypt and the God of Israel.
Speaker:And you see who's winning by looking at their people.
Speaker:Moses is standing tall, bravely standing up to pharaoh and his officials and his magicians.
Speaker:He serves the powerful God who rules all the world.
Speaker:He doesn't have any boils.
Speaker:But the magicians, their feet are so sore,
Speaker:they can't even get up to face Moses, their gods are useless.
Speaker:Which God would you rather have? The God of Israel, the God of the Bible.
Speaker:He has power over every single thing in the universe, from giant mountains to tiny gnats,
Speaker:from stars and clouds to flies and dust.
Speaker:He uses that power to look after his people.
Speaker:It doesn't mean that bad things won't ever happen to his people in this world.
Speaker:God never promises that bad things won't stop until he takes us to the new creation, when
Speaker:Jesus returns.
Speaker:But he does look after us and care for us,
Speaker:even during the hard things and the bad things.
Speaker:He's like a strong castle or fortress, he says.
Speaker:These people are mine, and I stand guard over them today.
Speaker:You don't have to be an Israelite to be one of his people.
Speaker:Instead, you have to be someone who trusts Jesus as your king and savior.
Speaker:Someone who turns away from sin and says, I want to live Jesus way.
Speaker:You're not going to do that perfectly, but that's what you want to do and try to do.
Speaker:If that's you, Jesus has made you one of his people.
Speaker:If it's not you yet, why not give up trying to be in charge of your own life?
Speaker:Give up on being like Pharaoh and ask Jesus to be your king and saviour.
Speaker:Back in Egypt, the Lord God is still in charge.
Speaker:He still has more to teach about himself, and so he doesn't let Pharaoh escape.
Speaker:Verse twelve says, but the Lord made the king stubborn, so he refused to listen to Moses and
Speaker:Aaron.
Speaker:This happened just as the Lord had said.
Speaker:We're six plagues down.
Speaker:There are four to go.
Speaker:The plagues are getting bigger and bigger, but that's a story for next time.
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