G'day, Dave. Here. Welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids.

Where do you feel most safe, most protected? Where do you know you'll be looked after?

If there's someone there with you, take a moment to tell them.

A long time ago, if people wanted to be safe, they'd go to a huge castle or a mighty

fortress.

A safe place with massive walls and towers to

keep enemies away.

Well, the Bible says that's what God's like

for his people, a safe place that protects us no matter what's trying to smash against the

walls to get in.

God looks after his people.

Let me read the first three verses of psalm 46 for you.

Psalms are songs in the Bible, and psalm 46 describes God.

It says this, God is our protection and our strength.

He always helps in times of trouble.

So we will not be afraid if the earth shakes

or if the mountains fall into the sea.

We will not fear even if the oceans roar and

foam, or if the mountains shake at the raging sea.

In the last few episodes, we've been hearing about how God is saving his people, the

Israelites from Egypt.

God could do it in a second.

He could do it in half a second.

He doesn't do that, though.

He slows down and takes his time to teach everyone who he is.

He's been sending plagues, great signs of power, to help the Egyptians and the

Israelites and us understand who he is.

We've seen that he's the powerful God, much

more powerful than the gods of Egypt.

He's the faithful God.

He always does what he says he'll do.

We'll keep seeing his power and faithfulness

today.

But we'll also see how God looks after his

people, how he makes them safe.

There have been three plagues so far.

Did you hear the clue at the very end of the last episode about what's coming next?

I'll give you a hint.

They're not bees.

Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful God for kids.

Every morning, Pharaoh goes down to the Nile river.

Maybe for a swim, maybe to wash his face, maybe to offer things to his gods.

Lately, his morning trips to the river have not been very nice.

He keeps bumping into Moses, who brings messages from his God, messages that Pharaoh

doesn't want to hear.

Its about to happen again.

This is what it says in Exodus, chapter eight, verse 20.

The Lord told Moses, get up early in the morning, meet the king of Egypt.

As he goes out to the river, tell him, this is what the Lord says.

Let my people go so they can worship me.

If you dont let them go, I will send swarms of

flies.

I will send them into your houses.

The flies will be on you, your officers and the people.

The houses of Egypt will be full of flies and they will be all over the ground too.

Have you ever had a fly buzzing around you? That's really annoying.

What about two flies, ten flies? God's saying he's going to send millions of

flies.

They aren't just going to be annoying.

They'll cause massive problems.

They'll be in every house, on every person, on

the food, on the ground, in the air.

It doesn't matter how powerful you are, you're

going to be covered in flies.

Unless.

Unless you live where God's people live.

The Israelites live in a part of Egypt called

Goshen.

And God's going to tell the flies not to go

there.

What?

Can you imagine telling a fly not to cross a fence into your neighbors house?

Do you think it would listen? Of course not.

But the flies listen to God.

Hes in charge.

God says this to Pharaoh in verse 22.

But I will not treat the people of Israel the

same as the egyptian people.

There will not be any flies in the land of

Goshen where my people live.

By this you will know that I, the Lord, am in

this land.

I will treat my people differently from your

people.

This miracle will happen tomorrow.

Remember, Pharaoh thinks of himself as a type of God on earth.

But the real God, the God of Israel, is saying, I'm in charge of my people and your

people.

You can't protect your people.

But I look after my people.

Which God would you prefer to have, pharaoh or

the God of Israel? The God and father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, God sends the flies, great swarms of flies crawling all over the food and the

furniture.

And the people, they're in the palace and the

homes of important people.

They're ruining Egypt.

But they're not in the part of Egypt where the Israelites are.

Pharaoh's desperate to get rid of the flies, but he doesn't want to let the Israelites go.

So he tries to bargain with God.

He still thinks he has some power.

He thinks he can give something to the Israelites, but still keep them as slaves.

He still doesn't know or understand the God he's dealing with.

So he says to Moses, you can sacrifice to your God, but you have to do it here in Egypt.

Moses replies in verse 26, it wouldn't be right to do that.

The Egyptians hate the sacrifices we offer to the Lord our God.

They will see us offer sacrifices they hate.

Then they will throw stones at us and kill us.

Let us make a three day journey into the desert.

We must offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God.

There.

This is what the Lord told us to do.

Pharaoh's really frustrated by that response.

But he doesn't have much choice.

He has absolutely no power to get rid of the

flies.

So he gives in.

He still tries to not give them everything they want, though.

He says, oh, fine, you can go.

Just don't go very far.

Now, please pray for me.

Moses knows that he can't really trust

pharaoh.

He says in verse 29, I will leave and pray to

the Lord.

He will take the flies away from you, your

officers, and your people tomorrow.

But do not try to trick us again.

Do not stop the people from going to offer sacrifices to the lord.

So Moses left the king and prayed to the lord.

And the lord did as Moses asked.

He removed the flies from the king, his officers and his people.

Not one fly was left.

But the king became stubborn again and did not

let the people go.

That's the end of the fourth plague.

It's time for plague number five again.

God sends Moses to meet Pharaoh and warn him,

let my people go, or else you'll be punished.

This time the punishment will be a terrible

disease on all their farm animals.

These animals arent pets.

Almost everyone in Egypt would have some connection to farming.

And animals are so important for that.

They dont have any trucks or tractors.

They havent even been invented yet.

They use animals for everything, to carry

things, plough the fields so seed can be planted.

Theyre used for milking and for meat.

Without the animals, the farms will start

failing and Egypt will start to run out of food.

Moses warns pharaoh that if he doesnt let the Israelites go, all the horses, donkeys,

camels, cattle and sheep in Egypt will become sick.

Except.

Except for the animals of the Israelites.

Once again, God looks after his people.

So were told in chapter nine, verse four.

But the Lord will treat Israels animals differently from the animals of Egypt.

None of the animals that belong to the Israelites will die.

The Lord has set tomorrow as the time he will do this in the land.

The next day, the Lord did as he promised.

All the farm animals in Egypt died.

But none of the animals belonging to the Israelites died.

The king sent people to see what had happened to the animals of Israel.

They found that not one of them had died.

Do you remember what it was like when we had

the COVID pandemic? Pandemic means it's a problem in all the

world, not just in one country or another.

The disease spread really quickly.

And it didn't care what country you were from, what side of any border you lived on.

That's not how disease works.

But here in Egypt, the disease must obey the

powerful word of the Lord God.

And so he keeps the animals of his own people

safe.

While striking down the egyptian animals.

It raises that same question.

Which God would you rather have?

You might not be surprised to hear what God tells us in chapter nine, verse six, though we

are told.

But the king was still stubborn.

He did not let the people go.

That's okay.

God's still in charge.

That was plague number five.

It's time for plague number six.

The last one attacked the farm animals of the

Egyptians.

This one attacks the people's own bodies and

the other farm animals.

And this time, Pharaoh doesn't get a warning.

Verse eight says this.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, fill your

hands with the ashes from a furnace.

Moses.

Throw the ashes into the air in front of the king of Egypt.

The ashes will spread like dust through all the land of Egypt.

The dust will cause boils to break out and become sores on the skin.

These sores will be on people and animals everywhere in the land.

The saucer called boils because they look like the bubbles when water is boiling.

And it would hurt a lot.

All the Egyptians get them, including the

magicians.

We haven't heard from them in a little while.

Remember, these are the guys who represent the gods of Egypt.

Even when they looked at their strongest, God beat them.

But as time's gone on, they've gotten weaker and weaker and weaker.

Now they're so weak, their bodies are so covered in sores, they can't even stand up.

This is what verse ten says.

The magicians could not stand before Moses.

This was because all the Egyptians had boils.

Even the magicians.

Imagine going to play a sports game and the other team can't even stand up to face you.

Or even more amazingly, imagine going to a battle, and the other army are so sore and so

sick, they're all lying down.

You know who's going to win, right?

Well, this is a battle between the gods of Egypt and the God of Israel.

And you see who's winning by looking at their people.

Moses is standing tall, bravely standing up to pharaoh and his officials and his magicians.

He serves the powerful God who rules all the world.

He doesn't have any boils.

But the magicians, their feet are so sore,

they can't even get up to face Moses, their gods are useless.

Which God would you rather have? The God of Israel, the God of the Bible.

He has power over every single thing in the universe, from giant mountains to tiny gnats,

from stars and clouds to flies and dust.

He uses that power to look after his people.

It doesn't mean that bad things won't ever happen to his people in this world.

God never promises that bad things won't stop until he takes us to the new creation, when

Jesus returns.

But he does look after us and care for us,

even during the hard things and the bad things.

He's like a strong castle or fortress, he says.

These people are mine, and I stand guard over them today.

You don't have to be an Israelite to be one of his people.

Instead, you have to be someone who trusts Jesus as your king and savior.

Someone who turns away from sin and says, I want to live Jesus way.

You're not going to do that perfectly, but that's what you want to do and try to do.

If that's you, Jesus has made you one of his people.

If it's not you yet, why not give up trying to be in charge of your own life?

Give up on being like Pharaoh and ask Jesus to be your king and saviour.

Back in Egypt, the Lord God is still in charge.

He still has more to teach about himself, and so he doesn't let Pharaoh escape.

Verse twelve says, but the Lord made the king stubborn, so he refused to listen to Moses and

Aaron.

This happened just as the Lord had said.

We're six plagues down.

There are four to go.

The plagues are getting bigger and bigger, but that's a story for next time.

Don't forget to like, subscribe or follow the show and whatever app you're listening on.

Leave a review and tell others how you're finding the show and get in

contact@faithfulgod.net.

dot that's faithfulgod.net dot.

See you soon.

Thanks so much for listening, adults.

If you think this podcast is helpful.

For your kids and for others, please show your appreciation by donating some money.

To help keep the show going.

You can donate@faithfulgod.net.

that's faithfulgod.net dot.

Thanks so much to everyone who already has donated.

You make all this possible.

Also, kids and adults, I'd love you to go to the website and send me a message.

Tell me how you're finding the show, and don't forget to follow stories of a faithful God on

Facebook, Instagram and.

X. Bye for now.