Children Bible Overview 27 07/10/07

MOSES PERFORMED 10 MIRACLES, BUT PHARAOH’S HEART WAS STILL

HARDENED
Teachers to read bible scripture: <Ex 4:18-10:29>
Children to memorize bible scripture: <Ex 4:21>

Recap
Last week, we saw that when Moses relied on himself, he was unable to save God’s people. Hence,
when he became an old and weak man, God revealed Himself to Moses, telling him His plans to save
His people and how He would use Moses greatly. Why did God do that? It was to let Moses know that
he could not rely on himself but had to rely on God.
Introduction
After Moses was called, he came before King Pharaoh one day. He told King Pharaoh, “God
wants you to let His people go, so that they may worship God.” King Pharaoh replied, “Who
is the Lord? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go." After that, King Pharaoh
ordered his people to make the work of Israelites more difficult. Moses was discouraged
because he did not understand God’s perfect will. But then, God spoke to Moses, and told
him that God wanted to do something great in Egypt. He instructed Moses, “Go to King
Pharaoh and perform 10 miracles. After the miracles, King Pharaoh’s heart will still be
hardened and he will not free my people but eventually, I will perform the greatest miracle
(by killing all the first-borns in Egypt, then King Pharaoh would free all of God’s people).”
Therefore, Moses and his helper, Aaron, went to King Pharaoh again and asked him to free
God’s people. Moses performed a miracle in front of King Pharaoh. Aaron threw his staff on
the floor and the staff became a snake. However, King Pharaoh’s magicians could also
perform the same miracle by throwing their staff on the floor and they turned into snakes.
Although Aaron’s snake swallowed their snakes, King Pharaoh’s heart was still hardened.
The second day, … (Narrate the rest of the miracles one by one interestingly and emphasize
how and why King Pharaoh hardened his heart each time). Conclusion: God is almighty, and
he can perform any kind of miracles. However, God’s method is to perform the greatest
miracle to destroy King Pharaoh’s (Satan’s) head. Only the greatest miracle can save God’s
people.

1. King Pharaoh is like the devil, Satan
He binds God’s people

1) Before we know Jesus, we were being bounded by the devil, Satan, just like our
father, mother, friends and teachers who are bounded now because they do not
know Jesus. Those who do not know Jesus are being bounded by the devil, Satan.
2) Those who are bounded by the devil, Satan do not have freedom and joy. Therefore,
observe: Are our father, mother, friends, teachers, who do not know Jesus, often
unhappy, worried, fearful, jealous or always dislike others, etc?
3) Those who are bounded by the devil, Satan are his slaves. Therefore, many bad
things will often come upon them. They often face problems in their studies; fall sick
easily; quarrel frequently when they are with their friends; are often beaten by their
parents at home.

2. After 10 miracles were performed, King Pharaoh’s heart was still hardened
He
still refused to free God’s people
1) The 10 miracles are to show us that God is almighty. God is in control of everything
and he can do everything.
2) However, to completely destroy King Pharaoh’s power and free God’s people, we
cannot rely on these 10 miracles.
 3) Similarly, if we want to destroy the devil, Satan’s head and completely triumph over
him, we cannot rely on other methods like money, our intelligence, other people’s
help but we can only rely on Jesus Christ. This is because the devil, Satan is not
afraid of anything but he is only afraid of Jesus Christ.

3. Only when God’s greatest miracle was performed, was King Pharaoh’s power
totally destroyed
He had no choice but to free God’s people
1) Therefore, through Moses, God performed the 10 miracles to show us his
almightiness (He could do everything). However, He also let us see that the devil,
Satan is not afraid if we do not rely on the name of Jesus Christ.
2) Therefore, children, when we meet with problems, do we pray in the name of Jesus
Christ? Do we then become not anxious, not upset, not fearful as we wholeheartedly
rely on Jesus Christ?
3) We must remember: There is a timetable for God to completely triumph and destroy
the power of the devil, Satan. Therefore, after God performed the 10 miracles, He
still had the greatest miracle to perform finally! What was that greatest miracle? We
will find out next Sunday!
[Find an activity that illustrates the differences between Methods that rely on Jesus
Christ Vs Methods that rely on Self when faced with different sets of problems]