Moses: Burning Bush & 10 Plagues

Moses: Burning Bush & 10 Plagues

Old to New Laws: What God wants NOW

Bible Scripture: Exodus 1-12

Part 1 of 2 for Moses (super condensed Life of Moses)

The Bible is made into two parts. We have the Old and the New Testaments. We are going to talk about Moses today, and our lesson is found in the book of Exodus. Who wrote that book? Moses, he wrote the first five books in the Old Testament. And in the next couple of lessons, we will talk about the difference in the laws Moses was given from God, and the new laws that Paul tells us about. We were given the new laws when Jesus died on the cross.

One day, when Moses was moving the sheep, he came to Horeb, which was the mountain of God. An angel appeared in the flame of fire in a bush, except the bush wasn’t burning! God called from the bush “Moses, Moses! Take off your shoes because this is holy ground.” You’re the one I want to go before Pharaoh and lead them out of Egypt. Moses said, “Why me and what am I supposed to tell them?” God said, “I AM WHO I AM. Tell the people that I AM sent you.”

So, Moses asked, “What if they don’t believe me or they won’t listen to me?” God told him to throw down his rod and it turned into a snake… Moses ran from it! When Moses picked it up by the tail, it returned to his rod. God told him “They will believe.”

Moses still isn’t sure about it and replies “But God, I really don’t talk very well.” God said, "Go to Aaron, his brother, and he will do the talking and you will show the proof of Me.” So, Moses took his family and returned to Egypt.

You can't get a good photo of a stick, so I didn't try. I asked a friend at church to find me the perfect stick in his woods for Moses... and he did! He trimmed it all up and make it perfect for the kids. So, I throw down the stick and pick up the snake. They love it! This snake is awesome, I picked it up at a Halloween store a couple of years ago. It is huge, feels real and it's kinda scary!

(Exodus 7:10) Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and when Pharaoh said to show him a miracle, Aaron threw down his rod (walking stick) and it turned into a serpent! Pharaoh called in his magicians and they turned their rods into snakes, too, except Aaron’s snake ate all their snakes.  (I hand out plastic snakes from Dollar Tree.)

Now, God sends the 10 plagues to show Pharaoh the power of God. They are:

(I have a bowl of water, and add red food coloring. Easy. But we talk about how I can't turn water into blood, as we just saw, but God has the power to! (I used to give them a punch juice box to represent the bloody water, but I have started giving bottled water.) I throw  plastic fish in and let them float on top, and let each of them have one:

1. (Exodus 7:17) water into blood: all fish die and there's no water to drink. After seven days:

 

2. (Exodus 8:6) frogs…everywhere. Pharaoh said have your God take them away and I will let the people go. All the frogs died except for the ones by the river. They gathered them all together and made piles of them and it stank! So, the problem was taken care of and Pharaoh changed his mind. (I buy frogs from Dollar Tree. I did buy some really nice ones at Target in the party section. They pick one out and add it to the little paper bags [small paper sacks, 3.5x2x6.75 $2.99 for 16]I found at Hobby Lobby in the make your own card section.)

3. (Exodus 8:17) lice on all people and animals. Aaron held out his staff and hit the dirt. It became lice. Pharaoh's magicians couldn't do this one and told Pharaoh to listen to Moses and Aaron. (Rice, which I found out at the Teachers Workshop, and the kids add rice to their bag. But some of them really believed the rice was lice, and didn't want to put it in their bags! )

4. (Exodus 8:24) swarms of flies. 8:32: But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go. (Again, Dollar Tree. at Halloween, they had pkgs of flies, and I bought lots of them. They add the flies to their bag.)

5. (Exodus 9:6) all the Egyptian animals died, but all the Hebrew animals lived. (The animals are all standing, and we start knocking them over. I buy animals as I see them (small ones in the front), and they add that to their bag)

 

6. (Exodus 9:10) boils on all the people and animals. They took ashes from the furnace and Moses sprinkled it in the air and everyone had boils! (I used my daughters old Barbie head... I hand out Band-Aids, and we talk about how painful this would have been.)

7. (Exodus 9:23) God sent thunder and hail and fire ran along the ground after Moses raised up his staff to heaven. If anyone has a good handout for this plague, I'd love to know it! Desiré [see comments below] suggested to use clear marbles or stones... THANKS! ☺And, someone also suggested white pom poms! Another suggestion is rock salt! Great ideas! Someone else suggests marshmallows! I love this choice, it would be cheaper also!

8. (Exodus 10:14) locusts. The land was dark with them and they ate EVERYTHING green! Pharaoh asked for them to be gone, so God made a strong wind and blew them away. So, Pharaoh changed his mind again. (Again, Dollar Tree. I set up the locusts so that there are only dead sticks behind them, and the green leaves, etc in front of them.)

9. (Exodus 10:22) Thick darkness for three days. So dark they stayed in their homes!

(turn off lights. We talk about caves or somewhere they have been and it is pitch black and you can't even see your hand!)

 

10. Firstborn died (Exodus 12:29) The Lord went out about midnight and all the Egyptian first born died, even the firstborn animals. The Hebrew killed a perfect male lamb and put the blood on the door frame (top & sides) and the Lord passed over their home and didn't kill anyone in their homes.

Exodus 12:23  For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. (NKJV) (The original language doesn't say death angel... anywhere.) For an in depth look at the scripture about the 10th plague, please read the article found here.

And, remember Jesus died on the cross, and shed His blood just like the lamb. The lambs blood saved the Israelites, and the blood of Jesus will save us. Pharaoh finally decided to let the people go. We will finish talking about Moses in the next lesson.

Remember, when Moses was born, his mother put him a basket to save him, and he grew up as an Egyptian. He left Egypt and married Zipporah. (chap. 3) (There is a baby boy in the basket)

Pics are room lights off, then on. I used the Halloween orange lights with the flicker bulb. (And, this is another visual I saw at the Teachers Workshop, but I didn't get a picture.)

The 10 Plagues Visuals

Click here to download the updated visuals for Exodus 7-12.

All of the 45 visuals are not shown.

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

 

We loved this 10 Plagues Song. Click here.
Click here to download the black & white version.

For a more in-depth lesson plan for the 10 Plagues and new ideas for each plague:

#1-5
#6-9
#10

Here are some of the older bulletin boards I have done for these lessons

 

 Another verse to look at is Numbers 33:4:  For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them. Also on their gods the Lord had executed judgments. (NKJV)

 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission.