Narrator: Thousands and thousands of years ago God’s people, the Israelites, were slaves in Egypt. Their slave masters were cruel and worked them very hard.
Make those bricks. Build those pyramids!
Narrator: The Slave Masters beat their slaves and even killed their children!
Beat those slaves.
Narrator: The Israelites cried out to God for help.
Help!
Narrator: So God sent Moses to save them.
Moses! Thank God, you’re here!
Narrator: God told Moses and his brother, Aaron, to go to Pharaoh to tell him to free the Israelites.
Let my people go!
Narrator: But Pharaoh was a very stubborn king and refused to obey God.
No way.
Narrator: But God would not be stopped. So he sent many terrible plagues on Egypt to punish Pharaoh for not freeing the Israelites. Their water was turned to blood, and all the fish died. Can you imagine the stink? So God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, again, to free the Jewish people.
Let my people go!
Narrator: But Pharaoh would not obey God. So God sent more plagues of frogs and gnats and flies to cover the land.
Oh my!
Narrator: But Pharaoh would not obey. So God sent more plagues of sores and locusts. Finally, he sent the worst of all plagues. God sent the Angel of Death to kill the firstborn male of every family, even their animals, if they did not obey him. But the families who marked their doorframes with the blood of a lamb would be kept safe. The Death Angel would pass over their homes.
Thank you, God, for saving us.
Narrator: In this final plague, Pharaoh's son was killed, and in his grief, he told the Israelites to go.
Go! Get out of here.
So Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Three months later, they camped at the bottom of Mount Sinai. It was there that God spoke to Moses and told him to tell the House of Jacob, the Israelites, “to get ready,” because he was going to do something very special for them. He was going to give them the Ten Commandments.
(Read the following passionately.)
On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain (turn lights on and off), and a very loud trumpet blast (bang lids). Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. And God spoke all these words:
(Show commandments on an overhead projector or on a tablet and say them together, using the Look and Learn hand signs.)
Take
the Ten Commandments challenge!