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

Have you ever told the truth and no one believed you?

They thought you were lying or making it up, or you're just plain wrong.

It's so frustrating.

No matter how much you plead and beg and say,

I'll do all the washing up for 20 years if it turns out I'm lying, they just don't believe

you.

I bet you really wanted to be believed,

though.

You wanted people to know that you're not

lying, that what you're saying is true.

Earlier in Exodus, God made some amazing

promises about what he was going to do, how he was going to punish the Egyptians and save the

Israelites.

But no one believed him.

Not Pharaoh, not the Israelites, not even Moses.

In today's episode, though, everyone's gonna see that God's been telling the truth.

His promises are going to be fulfilled not once, not twice, not even three times, but

eight times.

Every time you hear this noise, you'll know

that God's kept a promise.

By the end, everyone, Pharaoh, the Egyptians,

the Israelites, Moses, even us, will all know that what God says he does, he always tells

the truth.

He can always be trusted.

He's always faithful.

Get ready for our next episode of stories of a

faithful God for kids.

At the end of our last episode, the sun was

going down.

On the 14th day of the month of Aviv.

Moses had told the Israelites what God had wanted them to do.

In the past, they may not have believed God, but because they have seen God's power and

faithfulness in the plagues, they know him better now.

They know he can be trusted.

And so each israelite household has taken a

lamb.

They slaughter it as the sun's going down and

paint some blood around the door.

God said that if they do that, they'll be safe

from what's coming.

They go inside and close the door, cook the

lamb and eat it, just like God said to.

And they wait, not daring to go outside.

At midnight, God comes to punish the Egyptians.

It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, old or young, powerful or weak.

All the Egyptians have sinned.

And so we're told in chapter twelve, verse 29,

at midnight, the lord killed all the firstborn sons.

In the land of Egypt.

The firstborn of the king who sat on the

throne died.

Even the firstborn of the prisoner in jail

died.

Also, all the firstborn farm animals died.

The king, his officers, and all the Egyptians got up during the night.

Someone had died in every house.

So there was loud crying everywhere in Egypt.

Before the nine plagues, before the staff turning into a snake.

Before Moses had spoken to Pharaoh or the Israelites, God had said this would happen.

He'd said if Pharaoh didn't let the Israelites go, then the firstborn son of Pharaoh would

die.

It's scary to ignore the one true God.

On this night, there's no one asleep in Egypt.

The entire country is awake.

Because every house has someone who's died in it.

And Pharaoh, he knows he's lost.

He knows he can't keep arguing with God.

So he calls in Moses and Aaron and gives them everything they've been asking for.

He says to them in verse 31, get up and leave my people.

You and your people may do as you've asked.

Go and worship the Lord.

Take all of your sheep and cattle as you have asked.

Go and also bless me.

When Moses and Aaron had first brought God's

word to Pharaoh, when they had said, God says to let his people go.

Pharaoh had said, who is this God that I should listen to him?

I don't know him.

And I won't let the Israelites go.

Well, now, after ten plagues, he knows God much better.

He knows that God is all powerful.

Much more powerful than the gods of Egypt.

He knows that it's really silly to try and fight this God.

Which is exactly what God said would happen.

He said he'd do these amazing things in Egypt

so that people would know him.

Its not just pharaoh, though.

All the Egyptians now know the power of the God of Israel.

Verse 33 says the Egyptians also asked the Israelites to hurry and leave.

They said, if you dont leave, we will all die.

These are the people whod beaten and whipped

the Israelites as their slaves.

Theyre the people whod thrown the Israelites

sons in the river.

They're the people who thought that the God of

Israel must be pretty useless.

Well, now they know differently.

Just like God said they would.

They're so desperate for the Israelites to

leave.

They're saying, go.

Go now.

Don't wait.

And so the Israelites have to quickly grab everything they can carry and get out.

Obviously, they're going to have to take food.

And they've been making bread.

But this is all happening so quickly.

They don't even have time to put yeast in

their bread to make it rise.

Verse 39 says the Israelites used their dough

they had brought out of Egypt.

They baked loaves of bread without yeast.

The dough had no yeast in it because they had been rushed out of Egypt.

So they had no time to get food ready for their trip.

Remember in the last episode, God told the Israelites how to celebrate this event every

year.

They'd do it by eating bread without yeast

every day for seven days.

It was how they'd remember that God had saved

them so quickly and so suddenly.

God had told them to do that before it had

even happened.

Now it has happened, just like God said it

would.

That's four promises God's kept really

quickly.

There's more to come.

God had told the Israelites to ask their neighbours for silver and gold and clothes.

Normally in those days, when a big army beat another army, they'd go into their camp or

city and steal all their valuable things.

It's called plundering.

The Israelites haven't won a battle.

God has.

But God said that they'd be able to plunder the Egyptians afterwards.

Verse 35 says the people of Israel did what Moses told them to do.

They asked their egyptian neighbours for things made of silver and gold and for

clothing.

The Lord caused the Egyptians to think well of

the Israelites.

So the Israelites took rich gifts from the

Egyptians.

This is a huge victory.

Egypt was the biggest, strongest country around.

People don't plunder them, they plunder other countries.

But no one's bigger and stronger than God.

He's won the victory, he's won the battle, and

his people get to share in all the good things he's won for them, just like he said would

happen.

So the Israelites all get together and they

march out of Egypt like a victorious, plundering army.

They march out as a huge army.

Verse 37 says that there were about 600,000

men walking.

This does not include the women and children.

600,000, not including women and children.

That means there are probably more than 2

million of them.

When the israelite family had first gone into

Egypt, do you know how many of them there were?

But God had promised the Israelites that the

family would grow enormous, like the number of stars in the sky.

And in spite of everything the Egyptians had thrown at them, making them slaves, treating

them really badly, trying to kill their babies, that hadn't stopped God.

God's made them grow enormous, just like he said he would.

God had also said there'd be a blessing to the whole world.

In Egypt, there were lots of people watching what the God of Israel was doing, watching his

power, watching the way he looks after his people.

And they think, I want to be with that God and those people.

And so verse 38 says many other people who were not Israelites went with them.

These people leave behind their old homes.

They leave behind the power and wealth of

Egypt because they think it's worth being around God and his people.

They get to share in the blessings of being God's people, just like God said.

I've got one more for you.

Hundreds of years before this, God had

promised to Abraham, the very first Israelite, that his family would be given the land of

Canaan.

But he also told him that something had to

happen first.

In Genesis, chapter 15, verse 13, God told

Abraham, he said, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers and travel in a

land they don't own.

The people there will make them slaves, and

they will do cruel things to them for 400 years.

But I will punish the nation where they are slaves.

Then your descendants will leave that land, taking great wealth with them.

Does that sound familiar? The 400 years is not an exact number.

Just like when you tell people your age, you might tell people that you're nine, but what

you really mean is that you're nine years, four months, 16 days, 18 hours, 48 minutes and

7 seconds, 8 seconds, 9 seconds, ten.

Anyway, you get the idea.

Well, all the other things that God says there have happened.

And now we read this about Israel leaving Egypt.

Back in Exodus, chapter twelve, verse 40, we're told the people of Israel had lived in

Egypt for 430 years.

On the day the 430 years ended, the Lord's

divisions of people left Egypt.

It all happened just like God said it would.

There's nothing that he said would happen that didn't happen.

He didn't lie.

He didn't get anything wrong.

Because of his power and his faithfulness.

God kept his promises.

Do you know, God never changes.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Three and a half thousand years ago, God kept his promises to the Israelites because he

always keeps his promises.

He was a promise keeper back then, he's a

promise keeper now, which means you can always trust him.

Throughout the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, God makes lots of promises.

Promises to bring fairness to the world, promises to save people, promises to send his

Holy Spirit to live with his people, promises to give life forever and forgive people's

sins.

In the New Testament, in two corinthians

chapter one, verse 20, we're told the yes to all of God's promises is in Christ.

All of his promises, his promises to save and forgive, his promises to look after his

people, his promises to send his Holy Spirit, they're all fulfilled in Jesus.

If I read to you the story of Jesus in the New Testament, with my sound effect, that shows

when God's kept a promise, it would sound something like this.

When God says he loves you, he's kept that promise by sending Jesus to save you.

When God says he's with you, he's kept that promise.

Jesus asked him to send his holy spirit to live in you.

When God says you don't need to be afraid of death, you know it's true because he raised

Jesus to life, and you know he'll do the same for everyone who trusts Jesus.

Whatever God's promised, whatever he said, you know it's true.

He's kept it all through Jesus.

Back in Egypt, Pharaoh and his officials are

starting to scratch their heads and think, why on earth did we ever let the Israelites go?

They're forgetting everything God's done and how they have no chance against him.

And so they're going to strap on their armor, get out their chariots and ride off for one

last battle with God.

But that's a story for next time.

I'd love to hear how you're finding the podcast.

Get in contact through the link in the show notes to faithfulgod.net.

if you've never done it before, don't panic.

There's a first time for everything and I'd

love to hear from you grown ups.

You can let me know how you use the podcast in

your family as well.

There's no age limit.

Don't forget to tell others about the podcast.

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.