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Moses and the Red Sea

God opens a path through the sea for the Isrealites.
Contributed by Moody Publishers
Story also available on our translated websites: Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Hindi
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Years ago in the land of Egypt, fantastic monuments were built by the Kings, know as Pharaohs, using the labour of thousands of slaves. These slaves were God's chosen people, the children of Israel. – Slide 1
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The Egyptians were cruel to their slaves. They beat them to make them work harder. The Israelites prayed that God would deliver them from this hard life and God, hearing their prayers, prepared to take them out of the land of Egypt into the land of Canaan. – Slide 2
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First of all, God chose a leader for His people, a man by the name of Moses. Moses was a man who the Lord could trust and who trusted in the Lord. – Slide 3
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Moses was to be used by God to deliver His people from the power of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. – Slide 4
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Moses appeared before the King and boldly began telling him what God had planned for the children of Israel. God wanted Pharaoh to let His people go. At first the King was scornful of Moses. God? Who was God to tell him what to do? After all, he was the Great Pharaoh of Egypt. – Slide 5
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Moses warned Pharaoh that unless the children of Israel were set free, God would send great plagues upon the land of Egypt but Pharaoh refused to listen. On one occasion the Lord turned all the water in the land to blood. The air was filled with the stench of dead fish and there was no water to drink anywhere. But Pharaoh refused to let the people go. – Slide 6
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Another time God caused the land of Egypt to be overrun with frogs. Frogs in the streets, frogs in the houses, frogs in their beds, frogs everywhere. But Pharaoh's heart was as hard as before. – Slide 7
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On another occasion, flies were sent by the millions to torment the Egyptians and still the King would not give up. But God continued to deal with Pharaoh to let His people go. – Slide 8
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Finally the King had had enough; he called for Moses and told him to take the children of Israel and get out of Egypt and stay out. – Slide 9
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That was a happy day for the children of Israel. They were free at last. God had heard their prayers. – Slide 10
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For 430 years, these people, and their parents before them, had been held in bondage in the land of Egypt. Now they gathered up their belongings and were ready to go. – Slide 11
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Soon they were following Moses out into the desert. A hot, hard journey was ahead but the people were happy. They were heading for a new life and the land of plenty. – Slide 12
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What a sight they were, a whole nation of people, hundreds of thousands of them with their cattle and all their belongings strung out across the desert. – Slide 13
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One day, something happened that caused a murmur of fear to run down the column of people. They pointed and they whispered. What had they seen? – Slide 14
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A huge cloud had appeared before them and such a cloud they had never seen before. The people stood still in wonder. – Slide 15
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Then Moses said to the people don't be afraid, the Lord God himself is appearing as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. We know that the Lord is with us and is leading the way. – Slide 16
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Up until now the Israelites had been headed directly to the land of Canaan and if they went on that way they would soon come into the land of the Philistine and that would mean just one thing: war. – Slide 17
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The Lord knew that if His people had to go into battle they'd become discouraged and want to return to Egypt. So one day, God spoke to Moses and told him to change his direction of travel. – Slide 18
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The Lord wanted them to turn south towards the Red Sea. – Slide 19
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Moses may not have understood why, but he trusted in the Lord and gave the order to turn towards the Red Sea. The people did not understand either but they did what their leader told them to do. – Slide 20
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Pharaoh had spies watching and of course they were ready to report every move the children of Israel made. – Slide 21
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When the spies told Pharaoh that the Israelites were changing their direction of travel, the King got out his maps and began to study the situation. – Slide 22
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Pharaoh was already sorry that he had freed all those slaves that had served him so long and now they were walking right into a trap. – Slide 23
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Soon they would find themselves with no place to go. There would be mountains on each side and in front of them would be the Red Sea. If Pharaoh brought his armies in from the rear, well… – Slide 24
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That's what he decided to do and the armies of Egypt moved out across the desert and travelled as fast as they could. – Slide 25
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The Egyptians raised up quite a dust and when the Israelites saw the dust clouds far in the distance they knew right away what that meant. The Egyptians were coming after them. – Slide 26
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The people of Israel were afraid and they were angry with Moses for having brought them out into the Wilderness. They forgot that God was with them. – Slide 27
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The children of Israel cried out to Moses that they would rather have stayed in Egypt as slaves than to be slain out here in the desert by the Egyptian army. – Slide 28
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But Moses wasn't upset. He was perfectly calm and he said, 'Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.’ – Slide 29
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Then something strange happened. Pharaoh's soldiers saw it too. They saw a great dark cloud moving in between their camp and the camp of Israel. – Slide 30
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On the side of the Egyptians, the cloud made everything so dark that they thought they’d better wait until morning to re-capture their slaves. – Slide 31
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But on the other side of the cloud it was different. To the children of Israel, it was a pillar of fire. – Slide 32
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They could see everything clearly and the light showed they were trapped, hemmed in by mountains and the Red Sea. Any minute the Egyptians would come riding down on them and there was no place to go. Why had God allowed this terrible thing to happen to them? – Slide 33
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As the people watched, Moses their leader walked right up to the edge of the Red Sea. Then Moses did something that God had told him to do. He lifted up his rod and a strong wind began to blow. – Slide 34
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And the waters began to part. – Slide 35
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Before long, the wind had cleared a path, right through the middle of the sea. And though the children of Israel were frightened, they followed their leader in between those huge walls of water. – Slide 36
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All night long, the children of Israel marched through the sea on the path that the Lord had made for them. Finally the last person arrived safely on the other side. – Slide 37
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Pharaoh was told that somehow the Israelites were getting away; he shouted the orders to pursue them at once. – Slide 38
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In no time at all, the entire Egyptian army was in pursuit and they followed the Israelites right into the passage prepared in the Red Sea. – Slide 39
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Just about then, the Lord caused all sorts of things to happen: the wheels came off the chariots, there was confusion and panic in the ranks of the Egyptian armies. – Slide 40
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Pharaoh's soldiers were terrified. ‘The Lord is fighting against us,’ they said. ‘Let's turn back before it is too late.’ – Slide 41
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But it was already too late. God told Moses to stretch out his rod again over the sea. – Slide 42
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And the chariots, the horseman and all the host of Pharaoh were covered. Not one of them escaped. – Slide 43
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So it was that all of Pharaoh's armies, because they willfully acted against the will of God, were destroyed in the midst of the Red Sea. – Slide 44
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But Moses and the people sang a song of praise and gave thanks to God for the miraculous way He had delivered them from their enemies. The story of the Red Sea doesn't belong just to the past. It has a message for today. The Bible tells us that it took the power of God to deliver Israel from slavery and it takes the power of God today, to delivery people from sin. 1 John 5:4-5 – Slide 45
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