The Bible Course for Children

Genesis 46 and the time after

After Joseph had told his brothers who he was, he calls his father Jacob and his entire family to Egypt to provide for them during the years of famine. Jacob is very pleased when he hears that Joseph is still alive and moves to Egypt. The whole family has lived there for many years. Many children were born in Egypt. After 400 years, one family had grown into an entire nation: The nation of Israel.

The further history of this people is described in the Old Testament. For example, you will also find the story of Moses, who led this people out of Egypt and brought them to the land of Canaan. Canaan is the name of the land where the state of Israel is located today.

The story of Israel's exodus from Egypt is very exciting. You can find it in the book of Exodus, in chapters 1 to 15.

Read through these chapters once.

Please now turn to Exodus 5,1:

And afterwards Moses and Aaron went in, and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Let my people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness. (Exodus 5:1)

But Pharaoh did not want to let the people of Israel go, because the Israelites were working for him as slaves.

Again and again, Moses went to the king on God's behalf and demanded permission to leave. Because Pharaoh refused, God punished him by bringing 10 plagues upon the land. For example, God sent a very, very heavy hailstorm, so that all the grain in the fields was destroyed. Many people and animals were also killed by the hail.

As soon as one plague was over, Pharaoh refused each time to let the Israelites go. God had to send increasingly severe plagues.

Just before Israel could finally leave, God announced that someone would die in every Egyptian house, always the eldest son. For the Egyptians, this was a punishment from God, the 10th plague.

But the Israelites - they also still lived in this land! Would their first-born sons die as well?

No, God had given His people a protective measure: they were to slaughter a lamb and spread its blood on the outside of the front door, then this house would be spared. What do you think the people did back then? Did they believe God and slaughter the lamb, or did they think, "Let's wait and see if anyone really dies"? How good, the families of the Israelites were obedient and each family slaughtered a lamb.

Thus, they were spared when God killed all the eldest sons of the Egyptians in one night.