The Plagues 

EXODUS 2-12

            Moses grew up strong and bold.  But one day he killed an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew and had to run away to Midian, to escape Pharaoh’s anger.  There he married a shepherdess named Zipporah and he became a shepherd, too.  One day God spoke to Moses.  God told Moses that he had seen the suffering of the people in Egypt, and had chosen Moses to lead them out of their slavery.  Moses found it hard to believe that he had been chosen to save God’s people, but he agreed to do what God told him. 

            Moses returned to Egypt and he and his brother Aaron went to see Pharaoh.  “Let my people go out in the desert and worship God,” Moses said, but Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he would not listen.

            Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh again.  Aaron performed miracles for Pharaoh to show him that he and Moses had been sent by God, but still Pharaoh would not listen to them.

            The Lord struck the land of Egypt with many plagues.  He turned the Nile River into blood and overran Egypt with frogs and gnats and locusts and flies.  He killed their livestock, covered the people with the sores, destroyed their crops with hail, and covered the land in darkness.

            Finally, because Pharaoh still would not let the Hebrew people go, the Lord told Moses, “I am sending one more plague on Pharaoh and the land.  Then he will let my people go.  Tonight, every firstborn son and animal in Egypt will die.  Tell all the people of Israel to spread lamb’s blood on their doors and stay inside, and I will pass over their homes and they will be spared.”

            That night, all the firstborn sons of Egypt died, from the son of Pharaoh to the sons of Egyptian slave women.

            At last, Pharaoh told Moses that he would let all the Israelites leave Egypt.  So they gathered their things, took what their neighbors gave them, and left Egypt, carrying the bones of Joseph with them.

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(From Classic Bible Stories, A Family Treasury retold by Lise Caldwell (c) 1998 Standard Publishing.  Used by permission.  This book may be purchased at your local Christian Bookstore or from Standard Publishing (800-543-1301).