Posts
When your family wakes up on the morning of the plague of blood, there should be red water everywhere – in the toilets, sinks, drinking water. The water had all turned to blood so that even the fish they worshipped were dead. Sprinkle Swedish fish all around your table and maybe have some in the water as a reminder that what they worshiped could not satisfy and their idols were now dead.
Play dough would be a great way to teach the difference between a soft and hard heart. As time went on, Pharaoh’s allowed his heart to harden to the point where God hardened his heart and had to bring judgment. Have your children form a heart out of play dough. As they form the heart, discuss the texture of the soft play dough. The potter can form the clay into any shape he wants just as God desires to form us into the person He created us to be. Allow the clay hearts to sit out in the open air during the days to come so that the process of a hard heart may be observed.
It is a sin to have a hard heart:
Isaiah 45:9 "Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker-- An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?' Or the thing you are making say, 'He has no hands'?
Isaiah 64: 8 “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.”
You are beginning a ten day journey through the rememberance of the ten plagues. God’s power was displayed through these different judgments so that we would KNOW who the one true God is, and so that we would TELL others the story of His might.
Judgment: A misfortune regarded as inflicted by divine sentence, as for sin. Dictionary.com
Your children might understand judgment in terms of consequence. If one misbehaves, then the consequence will be discipline.
Consequence: The effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier: The accident was the consequence of reckless driving. Dictionary.com
Pharaoh (The king of Egypt) had hardened his heart before God hardened his heart. It is important that we keep a soft heart before God. Obedience is very important when it comes to having a soft heart.
Obedience: The act or practice of obeying; dutiful or submissive compliance: Military service demands obedience from its members. Dictionary.com
Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”
Read the TRUE STORY from Exodus 7:
Exodus 7:3 "But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. "When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst." So Moses and Aaron did it; as the LORD commanded them, thus they did. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Exodus 7:8-13 “Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Work a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.' "So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the LORD had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents.”
But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Exodus 7:15-18 "Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, and station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile; and you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent.
"You shall say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness. But behold, you have not listened until now."
'Thus says the LORD, "By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood. "The fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become foul, and the Egyptians will find difficulty in drinking water from the Nile.'""
The god of the Egyptians – THE NILE RIVER
The water from the Nile River nourished the people of the land. Their welfare was determined by this river. The Nile and its fish were worshiped. They called the Nile the “source of life”.
Judgment: The Egyptians “thirsted after blood” when they killed the Hebrew children (to keep the Israelites from growing in number and taking over their land.) Now God was giving them blood to drink.
What brought “life” now brought “death”. Only God is the source of life.
Thou Shalt Not put any gods before me…
Psalm 81:8-13 Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, if you would listen to Me!
"Let there be no strange god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god.
"I, the LORD, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. "But My people did not listen to My voice, And Israel did not obey Me. So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk in their own devices. Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!
Romans 1:24-32 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.' "
So Moses and Aaron did even as the LORD had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood. The fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt.
Exodus 7:22 But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house with no concern even for this.
So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the Nile. Seven days passed after the LORD had struck the Nile.
Teaching points:
1. How would you feel if all of the water really was blood?
2. What does it mean to obey?
3. Tell of a time when you disobeyed. How did your heart feel?
4. Have you ever been disciplined or received a consequence for disobedience?
5. Did that discipline help you want to do a better job of obeying?
6. Are you listening to God?
7. Do you have “other gods” in your life?
8. Are you risking God “giving you over” to your gods / idols in your life?
9. What would happen if God gave you over to these gods?
10. If God were to send plagues today as judgment for the idols in our lives – what would we be plagued by?
11. What do you thirst for?
12. Has God tried to get your attention in any way?
PRAYER:
Ask God to forgive you for times of disobedience to your parents, those in authority or to God.
Ask God to give you a soft heart.
SONGS:
Have Thine Own Way
The Potter’s Hand
No comments:
Post a Comment