February 2009 Calendar
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March 23rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
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March 18th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
The Hebrews had moved to Egypt to escape a famine in their home country Canaan. They lived well, and had large families, so that there were lots of Hebrews in Egypt.
Many years later, a new Pharoah came to power in Egypt. He was worried about how many Hebrews there were in Egypt. His advisors suggested that they make the Hebrews slaves so that they would not be able to take over Egypt. They made them miserable with hard labor—making bricks and mortar and back-breaking work in the fields.
One day, Moses, a Hebrew living outside Egypt, was looking after his sheep when he saw a bush on fire. As he got closer to it, he was amazed. The bush was blazing away but it didn’t burn up.
Then Moses heard a voice “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Yes? I’m right here!”
The voice said, “Don’t come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You’re standing on holy ground.” Then the voice said, “I am the God of your father: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
God said, “I have decided that it’s time the Hebrews, my people, were freed from slavery in Egypt. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to tell him to let my people go”
Moses answered God, “But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
“I’ll be with you,” God said. “Tell the Hebrews that God sent you”
Moses objected, “They won’t trust me. They won’t listen to a word I say. They’re going to say, ‘God? Appear to him? Hardly!’”
So God said, “What’s that in your hand?” “A staff.”
“Throw it on the ground.” He threw it. It became a snake; Moses jumped back—fast!
God said to Moses, “Reach out and grab it by the tail.” He reached out and grabbed it—and he was holding his staff again. “That’s so they will trust that God appeared to you.”
Moses raised another objection to God: “Master, please, I don’t talk well. I’ve never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer.” Send somebody else!”
So God said “Take your brother Aaron with you to help you.”
Moses and Aaron proceeded to round up all the leaders of the Hebrews. Aaron told them everything that God had told Moses and Moses showed them the staff turning into a snake. And the people trusted and listened believing that they would be saved from their slavery.
After that Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. They said, “God, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘Let my people go.’”
Pharaoh said, “And who is God that I should listen to him and send the Hebrews off? ‘Prove yourselves. Perform a miracle,’
Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his servants, and it turned into a snake.
Pharaoh called in his wise men and sorcerers. The magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their incantations: each man threw down his staff and they all turned into snakes. But then Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs.
But Pharoah wouldn’t listen.
God said to Moses: “First thing in the morning, go and meet Pharaoh as he goes down to the river. At the shore of the Nile take the staff that turned into a snake and say to him, ‘God, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you with this message, “Let my people go. If you don’t I am going to take turn the river Nile into blood.”
Pharoah wouldn’t let the Hebrews go. So, all the water in the Nile turned into blood. The fish in the Nile died; the Nile stank; and the Egyptians couldn’t drink the water.
Pharoah still wouldn’t let the Hebrews go.
God said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, Let my people go’. If you don’t the Nile will swarm with frogs.They’ll be all over you, all over everyone—frogs everywhere, on and in everything!’”
But the Pharoah said no, he wouldn’t let the Hebrews go.
So mob of frogs came up and covered the country.
But, Pharoah still wouldn’t let the Hebrews go.
So God sent gnats, biting the people and animals.
Then it was flies, ruining the countryside.
Then it was a disease which killed the sheep and goats and cows.
Then it was painful boils all over the Egyptians.
Then it was hail so heavy that it flattened everything, even trees.
Then it was locusts, which came and covered the land, and ate every single thing in sight so there was no food.
Then it was darkness, covering the land for three days. Nobody could see anybody, nobody could do anything.
And each time, Moses and Aaron went to Pharoah and told him that God said ‘Let my people go’. And each time Pharoah refused to let the Hebrews go.
Finally,God said to Moses: “I’m going to hit Pharaoh and Egypt one last time, and then he’ll let you go.
Then Moses confronted Pharaoh: “God’s Message: ‘At midnight the angel of death will go through Egypt and every firstborn child in Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl working at her hand mill. Everyone in the country will be crying. Only the Hebrews will be saved’”. Then Moses and Aaron left Pharoah and went to the Hebrews.
God said to Moses and Aaron, “Tell all the Hebrews that each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb to a house. Kill the lamb and take some of the blood and smear it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which you will eat it. You are to eat the meat, roasted in the fire, that night, along with bread, made without yeast, and bitter herbs.
“I will go through the land of Egypt on this night and strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, whether human or animal, and bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am God. The blood will serve as a sign on the houses where you live. When I see the blood I will pass over you. You must remember this day forever as the Passover. The Hebrews then went and did what God had told Moses and Aaron.
At midnight God struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, right down to the firstborn of the prisoner locked up in jail. Pharaoh got up that night, he and all his servants and everyone else in Egypt—what wild wailing and lament in Egypt! There wasn’t a house in which someone wasn’t dead.
Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron that very night and said, “Get out of here and be done with you—you and your Hebrews!”
The Hebrews grabbed their things and left. They ate unleavened bread because they didn’t have time to wait for the bread to rise. And God led the Hebrews to the Red Sea at the edge of Egypt.
When the Pharoah was told that the people were gone, he and his servants changed their minds. They said, “What have we done, letting the Hebrews, our slave labour, go free?” So he had his chariots harnessed up and got his army together and chased after them.
The Egyptians caught up with the Hebrews where they had made camp by the sea—all Pharaoh’s horse-drawn chariots and their riders.
As Pharaoh and the Egyptians approached, God said to Moses: ” Hold your staff high and stretch your hand out over the sea: Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and God made the sea go back.
The Hebrews walked through the sea on dry ground with the waters a wall to the right and to the left. The Egyptians came after them in full pursuit, every horse and chariot and driver of Pharaoh racing into the middle of the sea behind the Hebrews.
God said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea and the waters will come back over the Egyptians.”
Moses stretched his hand out over the sea: As Egyptians were running, the waters returned, drowning the chariots and riders of Pharaoh’s army that had chased after the Hebrews. Not one of them survived.
But the Hebrews had walked right through the middle of the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall to the right and to the left. God had saved the Hebrews from slavery. Now they were off to the promised land.