Exodus 7 v 14 – 10 v 29

Lesson Aim

To understand that God judges and punishes wrongdoing.

Hook 1: Plague of blood – Who is brave enough to drink this?

Bring out a jug of ‘blood’ (tomato juice) and pour out a glass. Explain that this was what all of the water in Egypt was like (it doesn’t matter if the children identify it as tomato juice-they will accept the concept of it representing blood).

Hook 2: Plague of frogs – Pictures of frogs.

Scatter pictures of frogs everywhere. Pretend to go to bed and have frogs on your pillow and in your bed, eat a sandwich and have a picture of a frog in the sandwich etc.

Hook 3: Plague of frogs – Chocolate frogs.

You can buy small chocolate frogs. Use these as in hook 2, but you will need to emphasise the horrible nature of the plague before letting the children eat them.

Hook 4: Plague of hailstones – Frozen spherical ice cubes.

(An ice cube balls tray can be purchased from any good kitchen equipment retailer or larger ones can be made by putting water into balloons and freezing them)

Drop these over the floor and gently throw one or two at a child to illustrate their destructive power.

Hook 5: Plague of darkness – turn out the lights.

Try to achieve a complete blackout, then after 20 seconds light a candle and explain that without electricity this is how the people would have had to live for three days.

Hook 6: Questions

Who has seen ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here’? Imagine being covered in insects, having frogs in your bed or drinking blood. Things like this happened for real in today’s Bible story.

Story tips

It isn’t necessary to go into great detail about all of the plagues. It can be better much more successful to focus upon three or four of them.

Application

God is a holy God. God judges wrongdoings. Every person had done wrong against God and God will punish in his time and in his way. Next time we will see how God saves his people.