Hi all! Today we are continuing the story of Moses–this lesson is found in Exodus 5-12. Last year’s lesson and craft (focusing on more on the plagues than the Passover) can be found HERE.

So Moses and Aaron were headed back to see the new Pharaoh and to tell him “God says, ‘Let My people go!'” (God was going to take His people back to the promised land and away from the mean Egyptians.)

When they got to the Pharaoh they said, “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

The Pharaoh was not happy! “Who is your God? Why should I listen to YOU? NO! These people can not go! And because you tried to set them free…now they will work EVEN HARDER!”

The Israelites DID work harder and they were not very happy with Moses. Again Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh and said “God says ‘Let my people go!’” The Pharaoh again answered no. And now he was MAD!

Then God said “This king will not change his mind. Because he will not let My people go, I will send plagues (a lot of bad things) and you will know that I am the Lord.” God told Moses and Aaron to meet the Pharaoh at the Nile River (the river Moses had floated on as a baby…the big important river that everyone got their water from). When they did, Aaron put his staff (like a big stick) into the water and it turned into blood. EW!? The people couldn’t drink it, they couldn’t wash their clothes or take a bath. It was disgusting.

**Sidenote: Aaron’s staff was not a magical stick…it was not anything special…but GOD made it do cool things sometimes. It was God’s power…not the stick that did the cool things.

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

Pharaoh responded, “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent frogs. They were in peoples’ houses, in their food, in their potties, everywhere! Pharaoh said “If you take these frogs away, I’ll let the people go!”

So Moses asked God to take the frogs away…but as soon as Pharaoh saw that the frogs were gone, he changed his mine and said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent bugs.

God sent Aaron and Moses back to Pharaoh to say “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

And Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent flies.

God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to say “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

And Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO!”

Next God killed the animals of the Egyptians, which means they didn’t have any milk to drink or any meat or eggs to eat.

God sent Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to say “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

And Pharaoh said, “Ummmm NO.”

Next, God made the Egyptians have yucky, sick skin. They had big ouchy spots all over.

God told Moses and Aaron to go tell Pharaoh “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

Again, Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent hail (which is like big rocks of ice that come down during a storm). The hail hurt the people and their houses.

Pharaoh said “If you will take the hail away, then the people can go!”

God took away the hail, and told Moses and Aaron to say to Pharaoh “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

But Pharaoh changed his mind (AGAIN) and said “Ummmm NO.”

Then God sent locusts (kind of like grasshoppers) and they ate up all the food the Egyptians were growing in the ground.

God told Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh and say “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

And Pharaoh again said, “Ummmm NO.”

Next, God made everything dark. There was no light for 3 days. The people couldn’t cook, they couldn’t play, they couldn’t even move around it was SO.DARK.

God had Moses and Aaron say to Pharaoh “God says ‘Let my people go!’”

But once again, Pharaoh said “Ummmm NO.”

Lastly, God said, “I have one more plague. After that, he will let you all go. In the middle of the night, I will come through Egypt and I will kill the firstborn son of every person, UNLESS, you kill a lamb and wipe the blood on your door. THEN, I will pass over that house, because I will know that that house has people who love Me and who obey Me.”

This was a sacrifice. If you remember, before Jesus came and died for us, people used to give sacrifices to God…they would kill one of their best animals and that would be like a special present to God to show God they were sorry for their bad choices. This time, God asked them to sacrifice a lamb and paint their doors with the blood. It sounds gross and it probably kind of was. But this also reminds us of Jesus. Jesus is like a sacrificial lamb who died for us and when we love and trust Him and ask Him into our hearts, His blood covers over our sins, just like the blood covered the doors of the houses of the people who loved God.

The Israelites obeyed God. They sacrificed a lamb (just the kind God said to) and they wiped the blood on their doors. That night, the first boy in every family died, even the Pharaoh’s son…but not the Israelites who obeyed God.

Before, the Egyptians had been so scared of the Israelites being so strong that they had killed all their baby boys. And now God took the Egyptians’ first born boys.

(Later, God would give His OWN son, Jesus, to save all of us!)

It was the middle of the night when Pharaoh found his son dead and he called Moses and Aaron and said “GET OUT!” The Egyptians were so scared of Moses and his God, that they gave the Israelites food and money and sent them away. They were finally leaving Egypt and heading to the land God had promised them.

For our craft today, we cut some cardboard and drew doors on it. Then we painted (with paint, not blood…but hey…knock yourself out if you want) the “blood” on the doorframe.

Our text reads: Passover Exodus 12

 

 

THIS is an EXCELLENT overview of the story and of Passover posted by Crossroad’s Kids Club.

 

Another craft we have done at church is to take this sheet and add cotton balls to the lamb. It has a simple explanation of Passover on it for the kids.

 

passoverlamb

(If it won’t load for you, it is a coloring page of a lamb and the description says:

When the Pharaoh would not let God’s people go, He sent plagues. The Israelites gave God their best lambs, and put the blood on the door just like He said. He saw that they obeyed Him and passed over their houses. God is all-powerful. He is omnipotent. The blood from the lambs saved the Israelites just like Jesus’ blood on the cross saves us. Exodus 7-12, John 1:29)

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!