and Aaron should work such great miracles that it would be impossible for the Israelites to doubt their mission. Moses was to persuade the Pharao who was then king, to let the Hebrews go into the desert to offer sacrifice. CHAPTER XVII. MOSES BEFORE PHARAO. ́OSES set out for Egypt with his wife and family, and while he was yet journeying in the desert, Aaron was sent by God to meet him. Moses was now eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three. They assembled the Israelites, and Moses declared to them what he had been commanded to do. The people believed, and adored God. When Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharao, and asked permission for the Israelites to go out and sacrifice, the king was very angry. He said: "Who is the Lord that I should hear his voice, and let Israel go?" he bade Moses and Aaron trouble him no longer, but begone to their tasks. Pharao sent the same day for the overseers of the works, and told them that the Israelites must have very little to do, since they were asking to go into the desert to sacrifice; he bade them to increase How was Moses received by Pharao? What orders did Pharao give the overseers ? MOSES BEFORE PHARAO. 41 their tasks, that they might have something else to think of. The people were now angry with Moses because, as they said, he had only increased their sufferings. He tried to comfort them, by assuring them that God would fulfil his promises and deliver them; but they were so sick at heart, and weary with labor, that they paid no attention to his words. Moses and Aaron went a second time to Pharao, and when he refused to listen to them, Aaron performed many miracles before the king and his court. He threw his rod on the ground, and it immediately became a serpent. Pharao's magicians tried to imitate the wonder. They threw rods upon the ground, which appeared to change into serpents, but the serpent of Aaron devoured them all; and when he touched it, became a rod, as it was before. It was so when they tried to imitate the other miracles which he worked; they succeeded in doing some very strange things, partly by tricks, like those which jugglers now perform, and partly, perhaps, by the help of Satan, but they could not perform anything which was equal to the miracles of Aaron. What complaints did the people make? What is told regard ng miracles wrought by Aaron? THIRD PERIOD. FROM THE DELIVERY OF THE ISRAELITES OUT OF CHAPTER XVIII. THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT. PHARAO still hardened his heart, and refused to let the Israelites depart. Then God sent upc him dreadful judgments, which are generally known as the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Pharao was sometimes terrified, and promised to do what God had commanded; but when he was freed from the present suffering by the prayers of Moses, he broke his promise, and refused as before. The Plagues of Egypt were these: First: All the waters throughout Egypt were turned into blood and the people had to dig wells everywhere. Only in the land of Gessen, where the Israelites lived, the waters remained pure. Second: A multitude of frogs covered the land, filling the houses, and spoiling all the food. Name the Ten Plagues. |