When Moses was eighty years old, one day he saw a fire in the middle of a bush.  But Moses was frightened, as the bush was not being burnt up by the fire!  As Moses looked at this strange sight, God called to him and told Moses that He had come to deliver His people from the Egyptians.  And now God wanted Moses to go to Pharaoh to tell him to let the Israelites go and allow them to leave Egypt with all their cattle and possessions.

The Lord gave a sign to Moses and told him to cast his rod on the ground.  When Moses did so, the rod became a snake.  God then told Moses to pick up the snake!  Mose's knees shook as he gingerly picked up the snake by it's tail.  Would you be brave enough to pick up a snake? (Let the children respond().  Well, to Moses' great surprise, the snake became the rod again in his hand!  Moses then asked God for someone to help him, so God said that his brother Aaron could help him.

Moses left Midian and returned to Egypt, where he and his brother Aaron went to see the Pharaoh and said to him, "The Lord God of Israel says, you must let my people go".  But Pharaoh flatly refused and punished the Israelites by giving them even harder work to do.

When Moses and Aaron went again to Pharaoh, he told them to prove that they spoke for the Lord by working miracles.  So Aaron cast his rod before Pharaoh, and the rod became a snake.  But the magicians of Pharaoh's court did the same thing, and so Pharaoh wouldn't let the Israelites go out from Egypt.

The next day Moses and Aaron again went to Pharoah and said, "The Lord God of Israel says, you must let my people go".  But Pharaoh again refused and so Moses held out his rod over river Nile,  And God caused the waters to turn into blood, and all the fish in the river died, and all the water in Egypt became blood.

But Pharoah's magicians also turned water into blood, and so Pharaoh was not impressed and wouldn't let Moses' people go.  Then the Lord sent other terrible plagues to convince Pharaoh that he should listen to Moses.

The Lord sent millions of frogs to cover all of Egypt, and then millions of gnats to bother the people and animals of Egypt, and then millions of flies to swarm everywhere and get into everything.  But still Pharaoh was hard-hearted and would not listen to Moses or let Moses' people go.

And then the Lord caused all the cattle of the Egyptians to die, and He caused painful boils to grow on every man and animal in Egypt.   Then He sent fire and hail to strike down and kill everything in the fields of Egypt.  Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel lived in slave camps, were there no plagues.  But still Pharaoh would not let them go.

Then the Lord sent a plague of locusts to eat every remaining plant in the land, so that not a single green thing remained in all of Egypt.   And then He sent a thick darkness over all the land.  And this darkness lasted three whole days, but Pharaoh still would not let the people of Israel go.

And then the Lord told Moses to prepare for the most terrible punishment of all for this wicked king.  He told Moses that all the first-born in the land would die, but the people of Israel would be safe.  The Lord told Moses to have the people of Israel mark their doorposts with the blood of perfect lambs.  In that way, the angel of death would know which houses to spare, when he came to kill the first-born of Egypt.

The next day, just as God had said, all the first-born of Egypt were dead, and in each household there was great sorrow.  Even Pharoah's first born child was dead and so he finally sent the people of Israel out of Egypt.  And so thousands of men, women, and children went out of Egypt into the wilderness where the Lord led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

But, Pharaoh once again changed his wicked mind!  He ordered the Egyptian army to chase after the Israelites and recapture them.   The people of Israel were trapped on the edge of the Red Sea.  What were they to do?  But, God had a plan and told Moses to lift up his rod and stretch it out over the Red Sea.  Moses did so and the waters of the Red Sea parted.  The people of Israel were then able to pass through the waters and reach the other side safely.  When the army of Pharaoh tried to follow them, they were all drowned when the Lord caused the waters of the Red Sea to close over them.

The people of Israel were then led by God into the desert wilderness where God provided food for all the thousands of people.  On Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Law which He wanted the people of Israel to obey.  And after many years of wandering, the people of Israel eventually came to the land the Lord had promised them.  By this time Moses was a very old man and saw the promised land, but did not live to enter it.  He had saved and led his people as God had commanded him to, and now it was time for other great leaders to guide the people of Israel into their new life.

Do you know that God has a plan for each of your lives?  Just as God planned to use Moses even before he was born, so God has prepared a plan for each of your lives.  If you will obey God and let Him guide you each day, then He will use you at the right time to help and care for other people.

God bless!