The 10 Plagues: Jehovah vs Egyptian Gods

For me one of the most exciting aspects of our homeschool adventure has been the opportunity to parallel study our history, Bible, geography, and literature through a chronological timeline. Veritas Press curriculum has made that very easy with fantastic resources and tools. Understanding the cultures in which and to which the authors penned books of the Bible has taken my own understanding of scripture to new depths as I seek to teach the boys not just another subject of "Bible" but God's revelation of who He is and His great plan of redemption as seen throughout the world's history. I believe this paradigm for education is also helping us in our endeavor to cultivate in the boys a Biblical worldview.

My oldest son is in first grade, and this year we have started our study through Ancient Egypt and Genesis to Joshua.  We've spent the last five months studying the development of ancient Egyptian civilization and culture - Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period, the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period, the Early New Kingdom - and it's given us an enlightening backdrop for our studies of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses who all spent significant time in Egypt. 

We are currently learning about the events surrounding the life of Moses, and I thought I'd share a few fun things from of our week focused on the plagues in Egypt. The Egyptians devoutly worshipped many gods and goddesses that each resembled an animal, object, or some part of nature, and God sent each plague to show His power over their lifeless gods.

(Bible Charts: Jehovah versus Gods of Egypt)

I copied and laminated a smaller version of our plague coloring pages, 10 Plagues Visual from Bible Fun for Kids, and made a poster with velcro dots. I wanted to illustrate and really hit home how 

each plague was a direct attack by Jehovah on a false Egyptian god!

As the boys matched and ordered the pictures of each plague, they would stick a Jehovah tag on top of each Egyptian god that the plague rendered powerless showing Jehovah as the one true God.

The boys and I had great discussion on how the Egyptians worshiped the created instead of the creator. God's plague of frogs showed the Egyptians that He was far greater than the frog itself which was thought to be a god. God struck down the Egyptian cattle showing His power over their cattle-god. He is the Creator of the sun and the plague of darkness showed his power over their sun-god, Amon-Re. The Nile River was essential for the people's survival. They worshipped it as a god, and the plague of blood showed God as the Creator and sustainer of their life giving water. Like the Egyptians we too can easily begin to worship gifts from God instead of the giver Himself.

As we've studied the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, there is no doubt that they thought themselves to be gods. In Exodus chapter one Pharaoh ordered all the Hebrew baby boys killed. The last plague was a judgement on him as the life of all the first born sons in Egypt were taken including his son's life. We spent some extra time discussing the last plague and the first Passover connecting it to our celebration of Passover during Holy Week that reminds us of Christ our Passover lamb. 

The boys worked on plague coloring pages while I read about the plagues from the Child's Story Bible. We studied two plagues each day.

It was interesting trying to come up with some tactile learning ideas for a few of the plagues!

I surprised them with a tub full of blood i.e. very red water for bath one night. They thought it was pretty cool; probably not the Egyptians reaction to bathing in real blood!

They thought it was hilarious when I started throwing plastic frogs onto their breakfast plates one morning.

We gathered animals for the plague of disease and showed how this plague only affected the animals in Egypt and not the animals belonging to the Israelites who lived in the area of Goshen. 

The plague of darkness left Egypt so dark that they could feel it. It was a paralyzing darkness. Even in a dark room your eyes will adjust allowing you to see shadows. I blindfolded the boys; then put a hat on top of the blindfold. Then they went into a dark closet but didn't stay long! This was the one activity that might have given them a tiny smidgen of a taste of the fear the Egyptians felt.

By God's grace, I really hope to help the boys get a firm grasp on the events of the Exodus. As we move forward in scripture, I believe they'll see how often God had his people look back to this event. Soon after they leave Egypt God mandates annual feasts of the Lord as holy remembrances of what He had done for His people. Not only does God not want us to forget what happened in Egypt but through the feasts, birthed out of those events, He also points us to Christ!