The big picture
The confrontation with Pharaoh resumes under a clarified arrangement: Moses represents God's authority, Aaron speaks as his prophet, and both are commanded rather than self-directed. Their ages, eighty and eighty-three, quietly remove any image of inexperienced young adventurers taking on Egypt. The first court sign is matched by Egyptian specialists, but the imitation does not settle the contest because Aaron's staff swallows theirs. Pharaoh still refuses. The first plague then moves from the palace floor to Egypt's water. Moses meets the king by the river, the place already tied to the death decree and Moses' survival, and announces that Egypt will know the LORD through what follows. Water turns to blood, fish die, the river stinks, and ordinary people dig for something to drink. The magicians reproduce the affliction, but neither they nor Pharaoh can remove it.
Central truth
God appoints Moses and Aaron to speak his command before Pharaoh, whose refusal continues even when Aaron’s rod swallows the rods of Egypt’s magicians. Through escalating judgments and repeated refusals, the LORD makes his authority known in Egypt and demands Israel’s release to serve him, culminating in the warning concerning the firstborn.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Exodus 7:1: “And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.”
Slow down at the turning point
Exodus 7:11: “Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.”
Keep this word trail visible
LORD, Pharaoh, river, Aaron, Egypt, Moses
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Exodus 7:1–13
Exodus 7:1-2
A god to Pharaoh, and a prophet
Begin by connecting 7:1 to the objection in 6:30, because God’s first words are an answer. Explain “I have made thee a god to Pharaoh” carefully: Moses will stand before Pharaoh with God’s authority, and Aaron will speak for him as a prophet speaks for God. Read 4:16, where Aaron is to be “instead of a mouth” and Moses “instead of God”, so the class sees the same arrangement. Make clear that the phrase is about role, not nature. Moses is not divine; he is God’s representative to a king who calls himself divine. Teach this first so the roles are clear before the scene in court.
Exodus 7:3-5
Hardening and knowing
Read 7:3-5 and mark the two purposes. God will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply signs, and the result will be that “the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD”. Explain “hearken” as listen and obey. Show that the hardening statements in Exodus vary: sometimes God hardens, sometimes Pharaoh hardens his own heart (8:15), sometimes the heart simply is hard. Do not settle the theology here. Teach this before the rods so the class knows that Pharaoh’s refusal is already announced, and that the plagues are aimed at revealing the LORD, not only at freeing slaves.
Exodus 7:6-7
Obedience at eighty
Read 7:6 and point out the doubled phrase, “did as the LORD commanded them, so did they”, which the Book of Exodus will repeat when the tabernacle is built. Then read 7:7 and translate fourscore and fourscore and three as eighty and eighty three. Ask the group to picture the brothers at that age entering the palace. Teach this here because it shows the reluctant Moses of chapters 3 to 6 now simply obeying, and because it reminds the class that God’s timing in a life can be long. Keep the application modest: age is no barrier, not a promise of a public role.
Exodus 7:8-10
Show a miracle
Read 7:8-10 and explain that God anticipates Pharaoh’s demand, “Shew a miracle for you”, and gives the response in advance. Aaron casts his rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it becomes a serpent. Explain that the word for serpent here differs from the one in 4:3 and may mean a large reptile; do not build much on it. Distinguish this scene from the bush, where the sign was for Moses’ own assurance. Here it is a public credential in a royal court. Teach it as obedience followed exactly: command in 7:9, action in 7:10.
Exodus 7:11-13
Swallowed, and still not listening
Read 7:11-12 and let the group notice the magicians’ apparent success. The Book of Exodus says they did it “with their enchantments” and does not explain the means; mark sleight of hand or real occult power as proposals readers make. Then read the turning clause, “but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods”. Explain that the outcome shows superior authority, not a tie. Finish with 7:13: Pharaoh’s heart is hardened and he does not listen. Teach this last because it sets the pattern for the plagues to come: God gives evidence, Egypt imitates or resists, and Pharaoh refuses.
Exodus 7:14–11:10
Exodus 7:14-25
In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD
Begin with the purpose stated at the start, "In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD" (7:17). Pharaoh asked "Who is the LORD" in 5:2, and the plagues are the answer. Read the first judgment: the river, Egypt's source of life, turned to blood, fish dying, people digging for water. Then 7:22-23: the magicians copy it and Pharaoh goes into his house, unmoved. Teach this first because it sets the pattern of warning, judgment, imitation or response, and refusal, and because the class needs the question of 5:2 in mind for every plague that follows.
Exodus 8:1-19
Frogs, lice and the finger of God
Read the frogs quickly, noticing how they reach the bedchamber and the kneading troughs, then Pharaoh's first request for prayer and first promise. Point to 8:10, "that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God", and 8:15, where respite produces hardness. Then the lice, which come without warning, and the magicians' confession, "This is the finger of God". Explain that the phrase means God's own direct action. Teach this to show the first crack: Pharaoh's own experts concede, and Pharaoh still refuses.
Exodus 8:20-9:7
A difference between my people and thy people
With the flies a new element appears: "I will sever in that day the land of Goshen" (8:22) and "I will put a division between my people and thy people" (8:23). The same separation is applied to the livestock in 9:4-6. Explain murrain as a deadly cattle disease. Teach this step to show that the judgments are directed and purposeful, not random disasters, and introduce Pharaoh's first bargaining offer in 8:25 and Moses' refusal, which the class will compare with later offers.
Exodus 9:8-35
Boils, hail and a confession that does not hold
The boils come from furnace ashes and reach even the magicians. Then 9:12 is the first time the text says plainly that "the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh". Read 9:14-16, God's stated purpose: that Pharaoh may know "there is none like me in all the earth", and that God's name may be declared. Then the hail, with its warning and the servants who heed it, and Pharaoh's confession. Teach the confession and its reversal together, and set out the ways the text speaks of hardening without settling the question.
Exodus 10:1-20
Tell it to thy son
Read 10:1-2 slowly. God gives a reason that reaches beyond Egypt: "that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son". The plagues are to be remembered and taught. Then the servants' plea in 10:7, "knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed", Pharaoh's offer of men only, and the locusts that leave "not any green thing". Explain coast as border or territory. Teach this step to show that Exodus is written to be retold, and that even Pharaoh's officials see what he will not.
Exodus 10:21-29
Darkness which may be felt
The ninth judgment comes without warning: three days of "thick darkness", in which they "saw not one another". Yet "all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings" (10:23). Explain that the sun was among the powers Egypt honoured, so darkness speaks against more than Pharaoh. Then the last offer, people but not livestock, and Moses' answer that they do not yet know what God will require. Pharaoh threatens death and Moses agrees not to return. Teach this as the end of negotiation.
Exodus 11:1-10
One plague more
Read the announcement in full and soberly. Explain that the firstborn held special honour in a household, and that 4:22-23 had already warned Pharaoh: "Israel is my son, even my firstborn", and "I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn." The judgment matches Pharaoh's own refusal to release God's firstborn. Name the "great cry" without dramatising it. Point out the difference God makes in 11:7, and the summary of 11:9-10. Teach this last and leave the event itself for chapter 12, where it belongs.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
Exodus 7:1–13
“God made Moses into a god.”
The phrase is “a god to Pharaoh” (7:1), a role in relation to the king, and Aaron is “thy prophet” in the same sentence. Exodus 4:16 has already explained the arrangement: Aaron speaks for Moses as a prophet speaks for God. Moses remains a man who must “speak all that I command thee” (7:2). The point is that Pharaoh, who claimed divine status, will be confronted by a man carrying the true God’s authority.
“The magicians were only doing tricks, so nothing happened.”
The text says their rods “became serpents” (7:12) by “their enchantments” (7:11), and it does not explain how. Some readers propose sleight of hand, others real occult power. Teach what is written: the magicians produced something that looked like the sign, and it was swallowed. The lesson is not about the mechanism but about whose power prevails. That point stands whichever explanation of the magicians a reader prefers.
“If God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, Pharaoh could not be blamed.”
Exodus uses several expressions: God says “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” (7:3), and elsewhere Pharaoh “hardened his heart” (8:15). Both are true in the book, and later judgment treats Pharaoh as responsible. Traditions explain the relationship in different ways, and this passage alone does not settle it. Teach the wording as it stands and save the fuller discussion for a lesson that can read all the hardening texts together.
“A clear enough miracle would convince anyone.”
Pharaoh sees his magicians’ rods swallowed and still “hearkened not unto them” (7:13). Evidence does not produce obedience in a heart set against it. Jesus says something similar in Luke 16:31: some would not be persuaded even by one rising from the dead. This frees learners from thinking that faith depends on the next sign, and it warns them that refusing God is not mainly a problem of insufficient information.
Exodus 7:14–11:10
"The plagues were just natural disasters that happened to come together."
Readers have suggested natural links between some plagues, and teachers may mention that. But Exodus presents each one as announced in advance, timed ("To morrow the LORD shall do this thing", 9:5), directed away from Goshen (8:22, 9:26), and stopped at Moses' prayer (8:13, 8:31). The book's point is that God controls creation for a purpose, "thou mayest know that I am the LORD". Whatever the means, the text insists on the God behind them.
"God made Pharaoh refuse, so it was not Pharaoh's fault."
The text speaks three ways. Pharaoh "hardened his heart" (8:15, 8:32, 9:34); his heart "was hardened" (7:13, 7:22); and "the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (9:12, 10:20, 10:27). Pharaoh also confesses, "I have sinned" (9:27), and then "sinned yet more" (9:34). Traditions have explained the relationship in different ways, some stressing God's sovereignty, some Pharaoh's prior choices, some both together. Set out the verses and let the class see that the text holds Pharaoh responsible.
"God was cruel to the ordinary Egyptians, who had done nothing."
Take the question seriously; it is a fair one. Then show that God warned before most judgments, that the hail warning saved those who "feared the word of the LORD" (9:20), and that Pharaoh's servants pleaded with him (10:7). Pharaoh had ordered all his people to drown Israel's sons (1:22). Do not pretend the suffering is small, and do not resolve every question; let the text's concern for warning and its account of Pharaoh's choices stand.
"Pharaoh's offers were fair compromises, and Moses was being stubborn."
Each offer kept something back: worship inside Egypt (8:25), not far away (8:28), men only (10:11), no livestock (10:24). Moses' answers rest on God's command, "Let my people go, that they may serve me" (9:1), and on what worship requires (10:26). Teach learners to see that partial release kept Israel under Pharaoh's control. The demand was never a negotiation between equals but God's claim on his people.
Learning objectives
- Explain Moses’ and Aaron’s delegated speaking roles.
- Identify the announced purpose of the coming judgments.
- State the brothers’ ages at the confrontation.
- Trace the commanded sign and the magicians’ imitation.
- Identify the decisive difference between the competing rods.
- Distinguish a displayed sign from a receptive response.
- Arrange the nine narrated plagues in their passage order.
- Trace the repeated purpose of knowing the LORD.
- Distinguish imitation from the magicians’ eventual inability.
- Identify Pharaoh’s proposed restrictions on Israel’s departure.
- Compare Pharaoh’s hardening with statements of divine hardening.
- Distinguish the firstborn warning from its later execution.
Teacher preparation
- Read Exodus 6:29–30 first; hear the role assignment as an answer to Moses’ concern about speaking.
- Compare “a god to Pharaoh” in 7:1 with “instead of God” in 4:16; explain representative authority from the surrounding commands.
- Translate “fourscore” and “fourscore and three” as eighty and eighty-three; picture the messengers at their stated ages.
- Prepare a simple sequence of command, sign, imitation, swallowing, and refusal; avoid dramatic claims about how the enchantments worked.
- Read the hardening statements in 7:3, 7:13, 8:15, and 9:12; preserve the wording instead of flattening every statement into one formula.
- Read all of Exodus 7:14–11:10 beforehand; assign advance reading and prepare a nine-row chart so the session can focus on selected verses.
- Mark the ranges: 7:14–25; 8:1–15, 16–19, 20–32; 9:1–7, 8–12, 13–35; 10:1–20, 21–29; reserve chapter 11 for the final warning.
- Define “murrain” as livestock disease, “blains” as sores, and “respite” as relief; keep the human and agricultural losses visible.
- Prepare hardening and negotiation columns; distinguish what each verse attributes to Pharaoh from what it attributes to the LORD.
- Read 9:3, 6, and 19 together: acknowledge the field qualification and later surviving livestock without inventing an unreported restocking scheme.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Locate the assigned roles in Exodus 7:1–2, the brothers’ ages in 7:7, and Aaron’s rod swallowing the others in 7:12. Keep Exodus 8:15 and 9:12 together: Pharaoh hardens his heart, and the LORD hardens it; neither statement may be erased.
Scripture-supported
Use Exodus 4:15–16 and 7:2 to explain Moses’ representative role: he receives God’s words, while Aaron communicates them as commanded. Use Exodus 12:12 to support judgment against Egypt’s gods; read 7:17, 8:22, and 9:16 for the stated purpose of making the LORD known.
Strong inference
Infer from Exodus 7:11–13 that similarity of appearance does not establish equal authority; the swallowing distinguishes the signs even while Pharaoh refuses. Infer from Exodus 8:8–15 and 9:27–35 that requests for relief and admissions of sin do not necessarily amount to sustained submission.
Possible or traditional reading
Treat sleight of hand as a proposed explanation of Exodus 7:11–12, not a fact the passage supplies; it reports enchantments without explaining their mechanism. Label one-to-one assignments of each plague to a particular Egyptian deity as proposed interpretation; Exodus 12:12 supplies no such chart.
Limit
Do not derive a complete account of freedom and hardening from Exodus 7:3, 13 alone, or promote Moses into an independent deity from 7:1. Do not claim every plague explicitly spares Israel: Exodus 8:22, 9:4, 9:26, and 10:23 name distinctions, but not every account specifies one.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. How do verses 1–2 answer Moses’ concern about his lips?
What a good answer contains
Moses had said, “I am of uncircumcised lips” (6:30). God does not excuse him; he arranges the speaking: “Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh” (7:2). Moses receives the words and Aaron delivers them, as promised in 4:15-16. A good answer sees God meeting the weakness with a partner, while the mission stays Moses’ own. A weak answer says Moses was let off, when 7:6 has both brothers doing what they were told.
Show teacher guidance
Connect 6:30 with the assigned message and Aaron’s speech. Correct the idea that Moses is excused from the mission entirely.
2. What will the Egyptians know through the judgments and departure?
What a good answer contains
“the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD” (7:5), when God stretches out his hand on Egypt and brings Israel out. The judgments have a revealing purpose: Egypt is to learn who the LORD is. A good answer notices that this knowing is promised to Egypt as well as to Israel (compare 6:7). A weak answer makes the aim the vindication of Moses or Aaron, or a contest of skills, when the verse names the LORD as the one to be known.
Show teacher guidance
Use verse 5: that the LORD is the LORD. Keep the stated purpose larger than proving Moses a skilled public speaker.
3. Why keep the ages of Moses and Aaron visible in this scene?
What a good answer contains
Because the text stops to give them: “Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh” (7:7). Eighty and eighty three. The great confrontation of the book is carried by two old men. A good answer lets that correct the picture of young heroes and notices that God’s timing in their lives was long. A weak answer turns the verse into a promise that every older believer will receive a public assignment of the same kind.
Show teacher guidance
State eighty and eighty-three from verse 7. Let the detail correct an imagined young duo, without promising every older person this same assignment.
4. Whose rod becomes a serpent before Pharaoh?
What a good answer contains
Aaron’s. God tells Moses, “thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh” (7:9), and “Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh” (7:10). In chapter 4 it was Moses’ rod, cast on the ground at the bush as a sign for Moses and for Israel’s elders. Here the sign is before Pharaoh, and Aaron acts at Moses’ word. A good answer distinguishes the two scenes and the two audiences. A weak answer merges them.
Show teacher guidance
Use verses 9–10: Aaron casts his rod at Moses’ instruction. Distinguish this court scene from Moses’ earlier sign in Exodus 4.
5. What do the magicians imitate, and what happens to their rods?
What a good answer contains
They do “in like manner with their enchantments”: “they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents” (7:11-12). Then comes the decisive clause, “but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods” (7:12). The text does not explain how the magicians did it. A good answer reports the imitation and then the swallowing, and sees that the outcome is not a draw. A weak answer either denies the magicians did anything or treats their copy as proof of equal power.
Show teacher guidance
Read verses 11–12: their rods become serpents, but Aaron’s rod swallows theirs. Keep the decisive event rather than declaring the confrontation a draw.
6. Does seeing the swallowing make Pharaoh listen?
What a good answer contains
No. “he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said” (7:13). Pharaoh has seen his own magicians’ rods swallowed and still refuses. A good answer separates seeing evidence from obeying it, and notices the phrase “as the LORD had said”, which points back to 7:3-4: nothing here has taken God by surprise. A weak answer assumes that a clearer sign would have changed Pharaoh, which the following plagues will show is not so.
Show teacher guidance
Use verse 13: he does not listen, as the LORD had said. Distinguish receiving evidence from responding obediently to it.
7. What is the sequence from the bloodied river to three days of darkness?
What a good answer contains
Blood in the river (7:14-25), frogs (8:1-15), lice (8:16-19), swarms of flies (8:20-32), murrain on the livestock (9:1-7), boils (9:8-12), hail (9:13-35), locusts (10:1-20) and three days of "thick darkness" (10:21-29). The rod becoming a serpent comes before, in 7:8-13, and the death of the firstborn after, in chapter 12. A good answer gives nine in order and keeps the tenth outside this passage. A weak answer counts ten here or loses the order.
Show teacher guidance
Expect blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock disease, boils, hail, locusts, darkness. Keep the rod sign before this sequence and the firstborn judgment after it.
8. When do the magicians stop matching the signs?
What a good answer contains
They copy the blood: "the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments" (7:22), and the frogs (8:7). With the lice "they could not", and they tell Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God" (8:19). By the boils they "could not stand before Moses because of the boils" (9:11). A strong answer notices that even their success only adds more blood and more frogs; they never remove anything. A weak answer treats their tricks as a fair contest.
Show teacher guidance
Compare 7:22 and 8:7 with failure at 8:18–19 and inability to stand at 9:11. Imitation does not remove the suffering they reproduce.
9. Who takes the hail warning seriously before it falls?
What a good answer contains
"He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses" (9:20), while "he that regarded not the word of the LORD" left them in the field (9:21). A good answer sees that some Egyptians took God's warning and acted on it, and that the warning was given so that lives could be saved. A weak answer treats all Egypt as a single mind identical with Pharaoh's.
Show teacher guidance
Use 9:19–21: some of Pharaoh’s servants shelter people and animals. Correct an account treating every Egyptian response as identical to Pharaoh’s.
10. How do Pharaoh’s concessions keep parts of Israel’s life under his control?
What a good answer contains
First worship "in the land" (8:25), then in the wilderness "only ye shall not go very far away" (8:28), then "go now ye that are men" (10:11), then everyone but "let your flocks and your herds be stayed" (10:24). Moses answers each: "We will go with our young and with our old" (10:9), and "there shall not an hoof be left behind" (10:26). A strong answer sees that each offer keeps a hold on Israel. A weak answer calls Pharaoh reasonable.
Show teacher guidance
Compare worship in the land and nearby in 8:25–28, men only in 10:11, and retained livestock in 10:24; contrast Moses’ answers.
11. What follows Pharaoh’s confession after the hail, and who hardens hearts?
What a good answer contains
Pharaoh says, "I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked" (9:27). But when the hail stops, "he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants" (9:34). The text says Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15, 8:32, 9:34), that his heart "was hardened" (7:22, 9:35), and that "the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (9:12, 10:1, 10:20). A good answer keeps all three ways of speaking. Traditions weigh them differently; the passage holds them together.
Show teacher guidance
Read 9:27–35 beside 9:12 and 10:1. Retain confession, renewed refusal, Pharaoh’s agency, and divine agency without pretending these verses settle every philosophical question.
12. What makes the firstborn announcement different from another bargaining round?
What a good answer contains
It is not an offer but an announcement. "Yet will I bring one plague more" (11:1), and when it comes Pharaoh will "surely thrust you out hence altogether". Moses names the firstborn of every household, from the throne to the mill (11:5), and "a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt" (11:6). There is no bargaining and no request; Moses leaves "in a great anger" (11:8). A good answer keeps the deaths in the future: chapter 11 warns, and 12:29 reports.
Show teacher guidance
Read 11:1, 4–8: complete expulsion and an unparalleled cry are announced. Correct any answer that places the deaths inside chapter 11.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Ask learners to evaluate the claim that one more impressive sign necessarily produces obedience, using verse 13 rather than personal skepticism disclosures.
Relationships and community
Map the complementary duties of Moses and Aaron; discuss faithful cooperation in a fictional teaching team without ranking human worth by visibility.
Test spectacle against authority
Compare two descriptions of the confrontation, one stopping at imitation and one including verse 12; identify the difference the shorter account conceals.
Recognize conditional surrender
Chart what Pharaoh offers to release and what he retains; explain why each concession falls short of the demand to serve the LORD.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
Exodus 7:1–13
45 minutes
From objection to assignment
Read 6:30 and 7:1-2. Take question one and confusion one, and draw the chain: God, Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh.
That Egypt may know
Read 7:3-5. Take question two and set confusion three briefly on the board, promising more time in a later lesson.
Eighty and eighty three
Read 7:6-7 and take question three. Ask the group to picture the brothers’ ages before moving on.
Rods and serpents
Read 7:8-13 using the prepared sequence: command, sign, imitation, swallowing, refusal. Take questions four, five and six, and confusion two.
Response and handout
Take confusion four, choose one application, read the key verse together, and close in prayer.
90 minutes
Who speaks for whom
Ask the group to name a time someone spoke for them. Then read 6:28-30 and 7:1-2.
A god to Pharaoh
Read 4:14-16 beside 7:1-2. Take question one and confusion one, explaining representative authority.
The hardening texts
Read 7:3-5, then 7:13, 8:15 and 9:12. Take question two and confusion three, recording the different wordings without forcing one explanation.
Two old men
Read 7:6-7. Take question three and ask the older members of the group what they would say to their younger selves about waiting.
In Pharaoh’s court
Read 7:8-12. Take questions four and five, compare 4:2-5, and work through confusion two.
He hearkened not
Read 7:13 and Luke 16:31. Take question six and confusion four.
Application
In pairs, take one application. Ask each pair to name one way they ask for signs when God has already spoken.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, give out the sheet, and pray for courage to speak what God has said.
Exodus 7:14–11:10
45 minutes
The question of 5:2
Write "Who is the LORD" on the board and read 7:14-17.
The first judgments
Survey 7:14-8:19 with a chart of the plagues. Ask questions one and two, and take confusion one briefly.
The division and the warning
Read 8:22-23 and 9:18-21. Ask question three, then take confusion three.
The offers
Read 8:25-28, 10:8-11 and 10:24-26. Ask question four and take confusion four.
Hardening and the final warning
Read 9:27-35 and 11:1-8. Ask questions five and six, setting out the verses for confusion two.
Handout
Read the key verse together and give out the sheet.
90 minutes
Who is the LORD
Read 5:2, then 7:14-17. Ask what Pharaoh is about to learn.
Blood, frogs, lice
Read 7:19-25 and 8:5-19. Ask questions one and two and begin the chart of the judgments.
The division
Read 8:20-9:7. Explain murrain and the separation of Goshen, and take confusion one.
Boils, hail and a confession
Read 9:8-35. Ask questions three and five; set out the verses on hardening for confusion two without choosing between readings.
Locusts and the servants
Read 10:1-20. Ask what 10:2 adds to the purpose, and take confusion three.
Darkness and the last offer
Read 10:21-29. Ask question four and take confusion four.
One plague more
Read 4:22-23, then 11:1-10 soberly. Ask question six.
Application
Work through the application on recognising conditional surrender.
Adapting the lesson
Exodus 7:1–13
Children
Use two paper rods and a few smaller ones for the magicians. Let a child be Aaron and lay the big rod down; then lay the small rods down and have the big rod sweep them up. Explain that God was showing Pharaoh who was really in charge. Leave out the detail about enchantments. Mention that Moses was eighty, older than most grandparents the children know, and God still gave him an important job.
Youth
Teens will ask how the magicians did it; let them, and then show that the text does not say and does not need to. Put the weight on 7:13: Pharaoh saw and still refused. Ask what makes people resist something they cannot answer. Talk about speaking for God when you feel unqualified, using Moses and Aaron as a pair who did it together, and about the fact that both were old men.
Adults
Give time to the language of 7:1 and to the hardening statements, reading several of them and noting how traditions explain them. Draw out the stated purpose in 7:5, that Egypt would know the LORD, and ask how that shapes the way the plagues are read. Let older adults hear 7:7 as a word about their own usefulness, and younger ones hear it as patience with God’s timing.
One to one
Ask the person where they feel like Moses in 6:30, unfit to speak. Read 7:1-2 and talk about whom God has given them as an Aaron. If they are waiting on someone who will not listen, read 7:13 and say plainly that refusal is not always the speaker’s failure. Do not promise that the other person will change; promise only that God has not been surprised.
Exodus 7:14–11:10
Children
Use simple picture cards for the nine signs, from the red river to the dark sky, and let children put them in order. Explain that God was showing a proud king that he is the real God and that his people must go free. Point out that God's people had light when it was dark. For chapter 11, say only that God warned of one last, very sad sign; do not describe deaths of children.
Youth
Ask them to track Pharaoh's promises and how long each lasted, using a timeline on the board. Then look at his offers and ask what each one kept back. Let them argue about the hardened heart, show them all three ways the text speaks, and admit honestly that Christians have explained it differently. Watch for anyone troubled by the suffering and give them room to say so.
Adults
Give time to the theology of the plagues as judgment on the powers Egypt trusted, and to the hardening language, setting out the readings of different traditions without choosing. Read 9:16 with Romans 9:17. Discuss conditional repentance from 9:27-34. Some adults will struggle with the suffering of ordinary Egyptians and with chapter 11; honour that and do not hurry to an answer.
One to one
Read 9:27-35 together and ask whether they have ever said sorry while planning to carry on. Follow that gently. If they are troubled by God's judgments, listen first, then read 9:20 and 11:7 together and talk about God's warnings. Do not try to settle the question of hardening in one conversation.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Exodus 7:1–13
The passage in brief
God answers Moses’ fear of speaking by giving him Aaron as his prophet. Moses will carry God’s words and Aaron will speak them to Pharaoh. God says he will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply signs, so that Egypt will know he is the LORD. At eighty and eighty three, the brothers obey. Aaron’s rod becomes a serpent; the magicians copy it, but Aaron’s rod swallows theirs. Pharaoh still refuses to listen.
A verse to keep
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
Exodus 7:5 · King James Version
Questions to take home
How does God answer Moses’ worry about speaking in 7:1-2?
What does 7:5 say the Egyptians will come to know?
Why do you think Pharaoh still would not listen after 7:12?
This week
Ask God this week whom he has given you to stand beside, and thank that person.
Exodus 7:14–11:10
The passage in brief
Pharaoh will not let Israel go, so God sends nine judgments on Egypt: blood in the river, frogs, lice, flies, sick livestock, boils, hail, locusts and darkness. Pharaoh's magicians copy the first two but then admit, "This is the finger of God." Several times Pharaoh promises to let the people go and then changes his mind. God keeps his people in Goshen safe. Finally God warns of one last judgment, the death of the firstborn, after which Pharaoh will drive Israel out.
A verse to keep
And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Exodus 9:16 · King James Version
Questions to take home
Why does God say he is sending these judgments?
What did the servants who "feared the word of the LORD" do before the hail?
What did each of Pharaoh's offers keep back from God?
This week
This week, notice one area where you have offered God part instead of all, and give it to him in prayer.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
