“Locusts and Darkness”

{Exodus Chapter 10}

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh again to tell him that if he wouldn’t obey the Lord, tomorrow the Lord would send locusts to destroy everything that was left. Locusts are like grasshoppers, but they eat gardens and crops.

Pharaoh’s men were very frightened. They remembered about the river turning into blood, and about the frogs and the lice and the flies. They remembered about the sickness of the cattle and about the boils and the hail. They begged Pharaoh to let the Israelis go, so that no more punishment would come.

Moses and Aaron were told to come to Pharaoh’s palace, and he said to them, “All right, go and sacrifice to the Lord your God; but which of the people do you want to go?” Moses answered that all the people of Israel must go, young and old, sons and daughters, flock’s and herds, for they must have a religious holiday.

Pharaoh said that only the men could go, the women and children must stay in Egypt. Moses and Aaron were then dragged away by Pharaoh’s guards and told to get out and stay out.

Then the Lord told Moses to lift his hand toward Heaven, and the locusts would come. Then the Lord caused the east wind to begin blowing, and it continued blowing all that day and all that night too. In the morning. The wind brought great clouds of locusts that filled the sky and covered the ground! They were all over Pharaohs palace and in all the houses of the Egyptians. The locusts ate everything that the hail had left, until there was not a leaf to be seen on the bushes or trees in all the land.

Pharaoh hurriedly called for Moses’ and Aaron and said, “I have sinned.” He asked Moses to forgive him only this one more time and to pray that God would take the locusts away.

So Moses went out and prayed. The Lord sent a very strong west wind that blew the locusts into the Red Sea where they would drowned. There wasn’t one locusts left in all of Egypt!

But when Pharaoh saw that the locusts were gone, he wouldn’t let the people go!

Then the Lord commanded Moses to hold up his hand toward heaven, and it became dark all over the land. The Egyptians couldn’t see one another for three days, and couldn’t leave their homes.

But in the houses of the Israelis it was as light as usual.

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and said, “All right, go and worship the Lord! Take your children with you, but not your flocks and herds.” But Moses told him no, they wouldn’t go without their animals. That made Pharaoh angry. He told Moses again to get out of his sight and never come back again. If he did, Pharaoh said, he would kill him.

Questions:

What did the locusts do to the land of Egypt?

How long did the darkness last?

What did Pharaoh say that the people could take with them?

What did he say they couldn’t take?