Moses: Plagues of Gnats and Flies
Exodus 8:16-32
Discussion
With today's lesson, we're going to talk about the magician's responses to the plague of gnats (Exodus 8:18-19). Even they acknowledged that the plagues were from God when they could not create anything comparable, and even then Pharaoh would not listen...
Activity
Gnats and Flies Splatter Paint ~ I had a hard time coming up with a way to convey the sheer number of flies and gnats that Egypt must have had at the time of the plagues; stamping...too tiring, sand...hard for Andrew to do neatly, glitter...too pretty. The only thing I could come up with is splatter painting. I'll cover our work area with newspaper and have the kids wear paint smocks. I'm going to draw a person on each of two sheets of paper. They can each color their person with markers if they want (crayons will repel the paint, I'm guessing). Then we'll dampen black water color paint and dip an old toothbrush in it. (Too much water in your watercolors will create big drips. I put about 1 drop of water on the dry watercolor and rubbed the water in well.) The kids will run a thumb across the bristles of the toothbrush (bristle side down), allowing the paint to splatter onto the drawing. The paint spots will represent the gnats and flies that plagued Egypt, so the more spots they splatter-paint, the better! (If drawing people isn't your choice, consider tracing them from a Bible coloring book or making a scene with trees, etc.)
How It Went
I'd love to tell you that today's Bible study was awesome, but to be honest it just didn't happen. After school we had speech therapy and church, not to mention making and eathing dinner, giving baths, etc. We just didn't make time for our study today. I'll hope to do better tomorrow!
Scripture Reference
Exodus 8:16-32 (NIV)
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground, and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.' They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals.
The magicians said to Pharaoh, 'This is the finger of God.' But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord has said.
Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, 'This is what the Lord says, Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are.
'But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.'
And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.'
But Moses said, 'That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? We must take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, as he commands us.'
Pharaoh said, 'I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the desert, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.'
Moses answered, 'As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the Lord, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Only be sure that Pharaoh does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.'
Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, and the Lord did what Moses asked: The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained. But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go."
