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The final showdown brings a strange and terrible plague to Egyptians and Hebrews
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
Death comes at midnight!
part six
Aaron stepped into the night. “Miriam, listen! Goshen is silent. Even the dogs aren’t barking.
“Tonight the plague will strike and the firstborn son in every Egyptian family will die. There will be crying such as no one ever has heard in Egypt. Moses announced God’s message, ‘This midnight comes with death, because the Pharaoh binds our Hebrew people in cruel slavery.’”
“Aaron, I hate being a slave. All my life I’ve been a thing for the Egyptians to use. I want to be free. Why won’t Pharaoh release us? He will not even let us go into the desert for three days to offer sacrifices to God.”
“Miriam, get the big picture. Nine disasters have come. They prove that there is a god greater than any Egyptian god. God told Moses, ‘When I show the Egyptians my power and force them to let the Israelites go, they will realize that I am the Lord.
“Pharaoh is consumed with himself. He believes he is an important
Egyptian god. When a plague wreaks destruction, he asks Moses to beg God to stop the plague. When the plague stops, he cancels any promise he has made to us.
I have heard Pharaoh consider our requests. Once he asked, “Hurry to the desert and pray for me.’ His words were worthless when the plague stopped. Pharaoh, not God, is responsible for the devastation of Egypt’s animals, food supplies, and people. Before each new plague God warns Pharaoh through Moses, but Pharaoh resists.
“Our slavery is coming to an end. God sent Moses to lead us to deliverance. After this plague we march to freedom.”
“But Aaron, this tenth plague is more horrific than all the others. Can you be sure what will happen to us?”
“Miriam, you know that God has given us a plan for our safety and deliverance. Do you forget the great power God has shown through the past nine plagues?”
“I am afraid, Aaron. Our people have endured plagues one, two, and three with the Egyptians. That is what I remember.”
“Miriam, you are blind to not see and think of God’s power. Don’t you understand that there is only one almighty God?”
“Oh, Aaron, some things are too terrible to erase my fear. During the plague of the frogs, the Nile River was packed with twitching frogs. Millions of them came hopping across our fields and into our homes. I was trapped by frogs. Every room in my home had frogs. When I wanted to sleep, my bed was squirming with frogs. I could not keep them out of my oven. I was helpless.”
“That is true, Miriam, but when the Egyptians had boils, we didn’t. When their livestock died, ours did not. We were protected through six plagues and now we will be saved.
“We follow God’s instructions for our safety and deliverance from slavery, just as He gave them to Moses. On the tenth day of this month our Hebrew families chose a one-year-old male lamb or goat with no physical defects. Some families shared. Today, the fourteenth day of this month, we killed and roasted the animals. We ate them with bitter herbs and bread that had no yeast. We wiped blood from the animals on the top and sides of the doorframe where each family ate. The blood is a symbol that the plague of death will not touch us. Tonight is the Lord’s Passover and tomorrow morning we leave Egypt.”
This Barbara Steiner with an account of deliverance as based on Exodus in the Bible.
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