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Old Testament Lesson 23: Exodus 7-11
To Prepare: Read Exodus 7, Exodus 8, Exodus 9, Exodus 10, and Exodus 11; I recommend printing ONE COPY of the activity below for children to share. I also suggest finding your scissors and stapler ahead of time. We’re making a little booklet!
To Teach: Begin with a prayer. Tell the children that when Moses and Aaron showed the signs to Pharaoh as they had been told, that Pharaoh did not believe them. He made the work the Israelites had to do much harder.
For the lesson today, we are basically going to read and summarize the events of Exodus 7-11. An important point to note as you are teaching is that the King James translation says that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. From the Joseph Smith Translation we know that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. All of the death and destruction that occurred was due to Pharaoh’s pride and stubbornness. While reading these chapters, I always replaced ‘the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart’ with ‘Pharaoh hardened his heart’ to avoid confusion.
Beginning with Exodus 7:14, read the story of the ten plagues, stopping to explain what each one was. I skipped verses here and there (for example, I skipped the part where the Israelites borrowed things from their neighbors) but most of the story is written out.
The kids had a lot of questions as we went through. Did the plagues affect the Israelites, too? Were there any ways that the Egyptians could protect themselves from the plagues? How were the firstborn of the beasts going to be killed if all the livestock died in the 5th plague? Some questions are easy to answer with the scriptures, some aren’t.
Exodus 11 ends with a warning about the upcoming tenth plague. The Lord would provide a special protection to spare the Israelites from the tenth plague, but that’s a matter for the next lesson.
Finish by coloring and making the plague booklet. You did it! Well done!
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