The Children of Israel Must Save Themselves

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Children of Israel, Egypt, God, plague

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

God promises the children of Israel that if they mark their doorposts He will pass over them and not kill their firstborn on His way to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians.

Bible Study Tools

Discuss the Children of Israel Marking Their Doorposts:

• Why would God tell the children of Israel to put blood on their doorposts? Would God not know where they live?

Creative Thinking About the Children of Israel Marking Their Doorposts:

• Name as many reasons as you can why God would have the children of Israel use blood to mark their doorposts.
• Name as many reasons as you can why God would have the children of Israel mark the doorpost as opposed to somewhere else.
• In which circumstances is it okay to leave everything up to God and when do we have to do something to help ourselves?

Homeschool Activities for Everyone:

• God gave the children of Israel a chance to save their firstborn. Write how God felt if one of the children of Israel did not mark his house with blood.
• If one of the children of Israel put blood on the lintel but only one door post what do you think happened? Why?
• God did not give the Egyptians a chance to save their firstborn. Do you think that He liked killing the Egyptians, was ambivalent, or did not like to do it at all? Explain your answer.
• Blood was used to mark the doorposts of the children of Israel. Research blood.
• Write a note of thanks to God for having your firstborn saved.
• Write a dialogue between a firstborn asking his father to put blood on the doorposts and the father refusing.
• This is the first plague that the children of Israel had a part to play. In all the other plagues God made a clear divide between the Egyptians and the children of Israel. Why do you think God now made the children of Israel do something to protect themselves?

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Three Days of Thick Darkness

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darkness, Moses, plague

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions About Darkness:

• What do you think a thick darkness would feel like?
• How is a thick darkness different from regular darkness?

Creative Thinking Questions About the Plague of Darkness:

• If the thick darkness came from God why would Moses have to stretch out his hand?
• For what reasons would God pick three days for the thick darkness?
• There is only one letter difference in think and thick. What could be a connection between these words?

Homeschool Activities for Everyone – Homeschooling or Traditional Schooling:

• What would be the difference between a sighted person in a thick darkness and a blind person in regular light?
• Research blindness
• Write a poem about living in darkness.
• Write about your feelings living in darkness.
• See if there is a blind institute near where you live. If there is check if you can go for a visit to find out more about how blind people live. If there is not one near you try to visit a blind institute online.
  • Write a letter to someone explaining something that you learned through your visit (whether live or on the web).
• Write a thank you note to a doctor or to God from someone who was blind but had an operation and can now see.
• Write a thank you note to God from someone who is blind for what they do have.
• Describe what the plague of thick darkness looked like from someone looking at it from the side where the children of Israel lived.

 

The Plague of Locusts Expanded Throughout the Borders of Egypt

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borders, Children of Israel, Egypt, locusts, plague

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

God said that He would spread locusts throughout the borders of Egypt, but no locusts would enter over the border to where the children of Israel lived.

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions About Borders:

• Why do countries have borders?
• Do you think that it is good that there are different countries or should we just be people of the world?

Creative Thinking Questions About Borders:

• Describe a world without borders.
• On what basis would you assign borders?
• Do you think that countries should still be allowed to change their borders?

Homeschool Activities for Homeschoolers and Non-Homeschoolers Alike:

• Are there any customs, food, or language that are specific to the country in which you live? If so, what are they?
• Are there any border disputes today in the world? If so where?
• God sent a plague of locusts throughout Egypt. Make a list of the harm that locusts can do.
• Write a journal entry for a locust in Egypt near the border with the children of Israel .
• Write a newspaper report from a reporter watching the Egyptian border from the side of the children of Israel.
• How would you mathematically figure out how many locusts it would take to fill the land of Egypt.
• There are no lines in the ground defining borders. What are the different ways that countries mark their borders?
• Countries are not the only places that have borders. Make a list of other borders.
• God sent locusts throughout the borders of Egypt as a plague. Research locusts.

Pharaoh’s Servants Ask Pharaoh to Let the Children of Israel Go

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Children of Israel, God, plague

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

Pharaoh’s servants have had enough. They ask Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go to serve their God as they have asked to do.

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions:

• If God is everywhere why would the children of Israel have to leave Egypt to serve their God?
• Pharaoh kept the children of Israel against their will. Is it ever right to keep people against their will?
• Pharaoh was stopping the children of Israel from practicing their religion. Was that okay?

Creative Thinking Questions:

• People in jail are kept against their will. Should they be given a choice of doing something else instead of spending time in jail? What would some of the choices be?
• What reasons can you think of to not let someone practice their religion?

Homeschool Activities for Those who Homeschool as well as Those who do Not Homeschool:

• Research communism as it was in the Soviet Union and how the people were not allowed to practice religion.
• Check if there is any country today that does not let people practice their religion as they would like.
• People in jail are not free to leave. Are they free to practice their religion? Do they have any restrictions?
• What aspects of religion require people to be free?
• The children of Israel wanted to make sacrifices. Research sacrifices.
• Would sacrifice or prayer be a more meaningful experience for you? Why?
  • If you do not think either prayer or sacrifice are meaningful describe some form of ritual which would have some meaning to you.
• Research prayer.
• Make a chart with the similarities and differences between sacrifice and prayer.
• Pharaoh’s servants wanted Pharaoh to let the children of Israel to go free because they were afraid of the plagues from God. Have you ever given in to someone because you were afraid?
  • How did it make you feel?
  • Do you think that it is the same or different than Pharaoh‘s servants asking Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go so that they would not have any more plagues from God.

Pharaoh’s Request to Moses

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God, Moses, Pharaoh, plague, plea

An Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

Pharaoh asked Moses to plea to God for him to stop the plague.

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions regarding pleas and  prayers:

• Pharaoh asked Moses to plea to God. What is a plea?
• What is a prayer?
• What is the difference, if any, between a plea and a prayer?
• For what type of things do we pray to God?

Creative Thinking Questions About Asking for Things:

• Pharaoh asked Moses to make his plea to God. Name as many reasons as you can for asking someone else to ask God for something that you want.
• Are there any differences between asking a friend for something and asking God? If so what?

Homeschool Activities for Both Homeschoolers and Non-Homeschoolers:

• Write a plea to God for something that you want.
• Write a plea to God for something that a friend wants.
  • How are the two above pleas different?
• Make a billboard to encourage people to ask God for what they want.
• Explain how much you should leave things up to God and how much effort you should still exert after you ask God for something?
• Do you think that a personal plea to a parent or a plea on behalf of a sibling is more powerful? Why?
• When is it better to do things for yourself and when is it better to ask for help?
• Is making a plea to God the same as asking a friend for help? How is it the same and how is it different?
• Do you think that a personal plea to God from Pharaoh or a plea on behalf of Pharaoh by Moses would be more powerful? Why?

 

A Divide Between the Egyptians and the Children of Israel

Tags

Children of Israel, Egypt, God, Pharaoh, plague

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

God created a plague. All the Egyptian livestock died from the plague. But, the cattle that belonged to the children of  Israel did not die.

Discussion Questions Related to Cattle Dying in Egypt From the Plague:

• Is it normal for cattle to die?
• Is it normal for disease to spread?
• If it is normal for disease to spread and cattle to die why was this plague exceptional?

Creative Thinking About Cows Dying in Egypt:

• If an Egyptian said to you that it was just coincidence that all the Egyptian cattle died and none of the cattle from the children of Israel died, how would you convince him that this was God’s doing?
• If you were an Egyptian cow and you went over to where the children of Israel lived, do you think you would be spared, or you would still die? Explain.

Homecshooling Activities for Even Non- Homeschoolers About Cattle Dying in Egypt From the Plague :

• Write a journal entry from a cow on the Egyptian side that sees all of the cattle around her is a dying.
• Write a journal entry from a cow on the side of the children of Israel that sees the cows dying on the Egyptian side but all the cows healthy on the Israelite side.
• Create a TV news broadcast standing right on the division line between the Egyptians and the children of Israel.
• Write a poem from a dying cow.
• Research a disease.
• Research death.
• What do you think happens to someone after they die?
• What do you think people would do with all the cows after they die?
• Do you think that the children of Israel realized at the time that all the cattle of the Egyptians were being killed and their cattle was being saved? If they knew do you think that they felt lucky that God didn’t kill any of their cattle from this plague? Why or why not?

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Grief

Tags

God, Pharaoh, plague

Click to see the book trailer for Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme Workbook. This workbook is filled with discussion and  creative thinking questions about the book of Genesis and lots of different activities that will get anyone’s mind thinking and pen writing! This book is great for homeschooling, youth ministries, religious schools who want to integrate English Language Arts and Bible, and anyone who wants unique ways to talk about the book of Genesis.

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

Moses told God when Pharaoh wanted the frogs to disappear. God took care of the frogs and they died. There were piles of frogs everywhere.

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions related to Pharaoh’s heart being hardened:

• What does it feel like when someone is nice to you until they get what they want and then they go back to not caring or being mean to you?
• What does relief feel like?
• What is grief?

Creative Thinking Questions:

• If you could harden someone’s heart, whose would it be and why?
• If you could soften someone’s heart, whose would it be and why?
• If you could relieve the situation somewhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Homeschooling Activities Related to God making the frogs disappear and hardening Pharaoh’s heart:

• Describe the feeling of the land when the frogs were gone.
• Write a journal of a frog as he saw what was happening to all the frogs around him.
• Many people have hardening of the arteries. What is this and how does it affect the heart?
• After Pharaoh saw that the frogs died he was not concerned with the situation. Do you think that this is a good quality for a leader? Why or why not?
• Learn how to make an origami frog. See how many you can make in ten minutes.
• Write a poem about grief.
• Research the heart.
• Why is the heart associated with love and caring?
• Describe the feeling of Pharaoh, or an ordinary Egyptian, when s/he saw that God had caused the plague of frogs to be gone from the land.