“that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.”
~ Exodus 10:2
Hi James and Ellen,
You will as you get older learn about the ten plagues that God caused to take place in Egypt to make Egyptian guys and gals want His specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group, to leave their country. God used plagues to get the attention of Egypt’s Pharaoh so that the Pharaoh would let God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids leave Egypt. Exodus 10 reports on the eighth and the ninth plague that God inflicted on Egypt’s land and on Egyptian guys, gals and kids. The plagues that are mentioned in Exodus God sent to cause only the Egyptian guys, gals and kids to suffer. These plagues did not affect God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids. Do you think that God for one reason or another is still sending plagues today? Your grandpaa thinks that God still sends, allows or causes plagues to take place. Your grandpaa thinks that God’s ordered plagues are wakeup calls. Horrific ailments today – such as AIDS as an example, are killing guys and gals all over planet Earth. God is also using today all over planet Earth horrific earthquakes, devastating storms and ravaging fires to get the attention of guys, gals and kids.
Your grandpaa has already told you how God chose Abraham to be the father of His specially chosen people. Abraham was living in a land called Canaan when God promised Abraham that he would become the patriarch of a people group which would grow to have more guys, gals and kids than the stars in the sky. God promised Abraham that Abraham’s extended family would always be able to claim as their land the same land area where Abraham was living. God made this same promise to Abraham’s kid – Isaac, and then to Isaac’s kid – Jacob. Because of a famine that devastated Canaan, Jacob and his family had to relocate to Egypt. One of Jacob’s kids – Joseph, had ended up earlier in Egypt when his bros sold him to some Midianite merchants who were traveling in a camel caravan who in turn sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar. Potiphar was Pharaoh’s captain of the guard. Joseph helped to get his dad and the rest of his family settled in Egypt where they did very well even though the Egyptians used them as slaves. It is now decades later after God made His binding promise with Abraham. Moses – over 350 years later, has been charged by God to lead His specially chosen people out of Egypt. Because Pharaoh was not about to let free labor leave his country, God used plagues to get Pharaoh to change his mind. God for His eighth plague sent locusts to eat everything in Egypt that the locusts could find to eat. Have you ever seen a locust? A grasshopper is kind of like a mini locust. Your grandpaa grew up on a farm. There were times when there were so many grasshoppers in one of your dad’s grandpaa’s fields that it looked like a cloud when the grasshoppers sort of flew in mass from one spot to another spot. There are always grasshoppers in the fields where your grandpaa grew up just as there were always locusts in Egypt’s fields. God using a strong wind brought in even more locusts to help completely destroy anything and everything that locusts could find to eat. Pharaoh’s counselors leaned on Pharaoh to let the Israelite guys, gals and kids leave Egypt as . . . so Pharaoh told Moses again that he would let the Israelites leave Egypt. What do you think that Pharaoh did again after God blew away all the locusts? God had Pharaoh change his mind again about letting God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids leave Egypt. God wanted to teach His specially chosen guys, gals and kids a couple more lessons through plagues so that they might remember what He would always do for them. God sent darkness as His ninth plague. It was so dark for three days that no one could see anything. When you go to sleep, do you like to have a light on in the room? Have you ever been someplace where it is pitch black – where you cannot see anything? It can be quite scary. That was the way that it was like in Egypt. At the same time that the Egyptian guys, gals and kids were in total darkness, God gave His specially chosen guys, gals and kids light to see. What has God done for you and is doing for you to help you to internalize that He controls everything around you?
If God had not fulfilled His promised to always have His specially chosen people – the Israelite people group, live in Canaan, what is taking place today on planet Earth would look very different. Why do you think that God does the incomprehensible things that He does? God explains to Moses in verse 2 one reason why He kept changing Pharaoh’s heart about letting His specially chosen guys, gals and kids leave Egypt. It was so “that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.” Do you remember how many Israelite guys lived in Egypt when God began sending plagues against Egypt’s land and against the Egyptian guys, gals and kids? Moses wrote later that there were at least 600,000 guys plus gals and kids who left Egypt when Pharaoh finally gave them the okay to leave his country. Even after all that God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids saw take place in Egypt and during their exodus to Canaan – which was the Promised Land, God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids quickly forgot all the miraculous things that God did and was doing for them. Your grandpaa is sending these letters to you so that you may know and remember all the special things that God has done in the lives of your grandmaa and grandpaa. Your grandmaa and grandpaa do not want to forget all the marvelous things that God has done in their lives and in the lives of guys and gals who your grandmaa and grandpaa have gotten to know on planet Earth. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are especially thankful for the opportunity that God gave them through el Programa de Educación Bíblica in Guatemala and through el Centro de Capacitación in Bolivia to enable guys to clearly impart what is in the Bible.
Exodus 10 (71)