God's Story: The Story Of Moses

The Story of Moses

SCENE 1

1: The last time we visited the Israelites they moved to Egypt because of the 7 year famine.

2: Joseph who was second in command to the Pharaoh helped to save his people.

3: After the famine, many years go by.

4: The relationship that Joseph once had with Egypt is forgotten.

5: The Israelites grew in number very quickly.

3: The Egyptians felt threatened and took drastic measures.

1: The Israelites were treated as slaves.

4: But then Pharaoh did the unthinkable.

2: In order to slow down the rate of children being born to the Israelites,

5: He commanded that all of the Hebrew baby boys will be executed by being thrown into the Nile River.

1: An entire generation wiped out.

3: Except one!

5: In an ironic twist of fate, one mother could not stand to see her baby boy drowned.

4: She hid him in a basket.

3: That basket was found by Pharaoh’s daughter.

2: She took it upon herself to raise the boy as her own. 

1: A single male from a generation of boys who were slaughtered.

3: Is now one of the Egyptians!

5: Moses grows up.

2: He takes it upon himself to look out for his people.

4: One day he sees an Egyptian guard physically abusing a fellow Israelite.

1: He looks both ways.

2: And then takes matters into his own hands.

3: BOOM! Dead guard! Problem solved.

4: Except that word gets out about what he did.

5: And the Pharaoh wants him dead.

3: Moses runs. He tried. He did what he could. He failed. The Israelites did not appreciate his looking out for them.

1: Moses is done with the whole situation.

2: It is time to live a normal life and raise a family.

3: 40 years go by.

4: The king of Egypt dies.

5: The Israelites call out to God from their oppression.

3:  God is ready to initiate one crazy, ironic, wonderful, beautiful plan to free his people.

SCENE 2

2: One day when Moses was out with flock he noticed something strange.

4: A bush that was on fire. Yet it was not burning. As he stared, a voice said,

1:  “Moses! Moses!”

3: And Moses said,

5: “Here I am.”

2: God said,

1: “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

4: At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

2: The Lord said,

1: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

5: Oh yes, Lord. I am sure it is still bad!

1: So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

5: That is awesome! I tried once and failed miserably.  If anybody can do it, it would certainly be you God!

1: And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

5: Yeah, those Egyptians sure do have it coming to them! I am glad you finally are going to do something about it Lord!

1: So now, go. I am sending YOU to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

5: WWWWWWHAT, hold on there a second.  What did you just say? ME?!?!  Why me? You don’t want me!  I tried already, remember?

3: And then the verbal wrestling match began.

2: Moses tried to make every excuse in the book for God to see that he was not the leader he had in mind.

4: But God would not take no for an answer.  He told Moses what to expect, how he would be received, and even gave him his brother Aaron as a partner in this plan. 

2: He promised Moses that God would be with him every step of the way.

3: Moses had no other choice than to obey. 

SCENE 3

3: Moses made his way to Egypt and faced off for the first time with the new Pharaoh.

5: Let my people go!

1: YOUR PEOPLE? You mean the slaves who just now lost all their straw and still need to make as many bricks as before, thanks to you?  Oh yeah, those people. Um, NO.

5: Then prepare for God to make his presence known.

2: Thus the plagues begin.

4: 10 plagues targeting 10 of the false Egyptian gods.

1: The first plague made a mockery of Hapi, the god of the Nile when the water was turned into blood.

2: The second plague made fun of Heka the god of fertility who had the head of a frog. You want a god of sex that looks like a frog? Then how about A LOT of   frogs!

3: The third plague went after Geb, the god of the earth. The dust became gnats. Lice everywhere attached themselves to flesh.  Instead of the earth being a source of sustenance, it became a parasite.

4: At this point, the plagues begin to affect only Egyptians, as they can visibly see that the Israelites are not being affected at all while they suffer from the effects of the plagues. 

5: The fourth plague became a parody of the god of creation named Khepri. This god had the head of a fly. That is not a real fly. If you want flies then here you go! 

1: The fifth plague weakened the belief in the goddess of protection named Hathor who was depicted with the head of a cow. Disease spread among the livestock of the Egyptians and many died.

2: The sixth plague went after Isis, the goddess of Medicine and Peace.  With cleanliness being a hallmark of the Egyptian culture, now everyone is unclean, unable to perform their rituals to their gods.

3: The seventh plague destroyed the belief in Nut, the goddess of the Sky.  Hail came down in the form of fire, destroying the flax and barley fields. 

4: The eighth plague decimated the god of storms and disorder who was named Seth.  An army of locusts came up and leveled any other crops that were left standing from the hail storm.

5: The ninth plague completely made the sun god Ra impotent. The Egyptian people were thrown into complete darkness. Ra was considered the second most important god next to Pharaoh himself.  Darkness was a sign of death, judgment and hopelessness.

1: The tenth and final plague went after Pharaoh himself.  The Pharaoh was seen as the greatest god among the Egyptians.  His first born son would be seen as the son of god.

3: The God of Israel did not forget the injustice that was done to a whole generation of Hebrew boys.  Moses never grew up with male friends.  He survived the massacre of his generation.

2: God brought justice to that day by showing Pharaoh that the God of Israel was the one and only true God who has the power over life and death.  God removed the first born of any people who did not obey the commands to prepare for the Passover of the angel of death. 

4: Pharaoh lost his son. The heir to the throne died.

5: God proved himself to the Egyptians.  He destroyed their gods. He dismantled their economy, and he brought justice to their oppression and genocide of the Israelites.

1: God made sure that the Egyptians felt the oppression that they themselves imposed upon the Israelites for so long.

3: It was then that Pharaoh was finally broken and let the Israelites go.

5: The Israelites were allowed to leave!

2: But by the time that all the Israelites got to the Red Sea, Pharaoh had a change of heart.

4: The Egyptian army was assembled and sent after the Israelites.

1: The Israelites were frightened and began to turn against Moses.

5: It was then that God provided a miracle.

2: The path to their salvation.

3: The Red Sea was parted so that the nation would pass through the waters to escape           death.

4: In much the same way that all believers pass through the waters of baptism, representing a death to the slavery of sin, and a resurrection to a new way of life, living into the fullness of God’s Spirit within our lives!

1: There were many more stories involving Moses as he led the Israelites to the Promised Land.

2: The receiving of the Law on Mount Sinai.

3: The disobedience of the Israelites.

4: The curse that they brought upon themselves to wander the desert for 40 years.

5: And eventually the promise fulfilled of them entering into the Promised Land once    Moses passed away and Joshua led them.

3: The Story of Moses lets us know that God hears the voices of the oppressed.

1: God will do everything He wants to accomplish, whether we want to be a part of that             or not!

4: When God says to you “Go” he won’t take no for an answer!

2: And by doing the will of God, God himself will use YOU in ways that you could never even imagine.

5: The story of Moses is a story of oppression, deliverance, leadership, miracles, drama, the clash of civilizations, and the will of God.

4: Are you willing to be used of God?

3: What if God calls YOU into his story that might mess up the carefully crafted story you have tried to manage for yourself.

2: Would you be willing to say what Isaiah said at his calling, “Here am I, send me!”

1: Or would you be more like Moses and fight God for messing with your life?

3: If God took no for an answer how pathetic would Moses’ story have been!

5: In the end do you think Moses regretted his decision to finally say yes to God.

2: I think not.

4: Do you want God to lead you into an epic life like Moses? Then open up your heart and mind to allow God to be the author of your story!