Well we've hit the big number 5 for Bible Bathdays! Would love to hear how you've been finding them in the comments below. The aim is to transform one bathtime a week into telling a Bible story that involves water. Super fun. See intro post here.
Story 5 - The Plagues of Egypt + The Passover
From: Exodus 7-12
What you'll need:
Some red food colouring
Any frog toys you have (optional)
What we'll do: We'll see God's judgement on Egypt in the plagues - particularly in the Nile turning to blood and the Passover. God saved his people from slavery to Egypt, and now he saves his people from slavery to sin - by some different blood.
Let's do it (a possible script):
Get kids in a particularly warm (but safely warm) bath.
Ok we're going to hear another story of God saving his people in Egypt. That's why the bath is so warm again today. Last time we heard about baby Moses. This time it's about Moses when he had all grown up. Now the Israelites (God's people) were still slaves to Pharaoh - the king of Egypt. That meant that they had to work for him, and they would even get paid! The Egyptians would hurt the Israelites and make them miserable. But God had a plan to save them. He got Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh wouldn't listen to God. He thought he was the one in control! But God said it was time to show the world who is the true boss.
Do you remember that river in Egypt called the Nile River? The one when Moses' mum put him in a little boat when he was a baby? Well that river was still a big river after Moses had grown up. Pretend that the bath is the Nile River. One day God told Moses to go see Pharaoh at the edge of the Nile River. So Moses went and met Pharaoh. And he said to Pharaoh that God would do something so that he knew that God is the boss - not Pharaoh. He would turn all the water in the Nile River into blood. And so Moses whacked the water with his staff, and BOOM, it turned into blood.
Put some (only a few!) drops of red food colouring into the bath and get the kids to swirl it around. It will look like blood.
How yuck would that have been? All the fish died. The river stank. The Egyptians couldn't drink from it anymore - like they used to. They couldn't swim or have baths in it anymore - like they used to. They couldn't even use it to wash their cars! In fact - they didn't even have cars! This blood river was terrible. God was showing he was the boss. But you'll never believe it! Pharaoh didn't listen. He was stubborn in his heart (which is called sin!) and wouldn't listen to God (also called sin!). He wouldn't let Gods people go. So God sent more plagues on Egypt:
Frogs absolutely everywhere (pull out frog toys)
Gnats (pretend to kill mozzies)
Flies (pretend to swat at flies)
Livestock died (pretend to die)
Boils (pretend to have sores all over your body)
Hail and lightning (pretend to get hit with hailstones - ouch ouch ouch)
Locusts (pretend to chomp up all the food)
Darkness (turn off light)
But even though God did all these terrible things to Egypt, Pharaoh kept saying no! He wanted to be the boss. So eventually God promised the most terrible plague of all. If Pharaoh didn't let God's people go, he would put the oldest boy in every house to death. They would all die. How sad that sin leads to such terrible judgements. It really is a bad thing. But God had a way to save his people yet again! He said if they killed a lamb, and put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, the killing angel would pass over their houses, and their oldest boy would stay alive. So that's what the Israelites did!
Get the kids to put some "blood" around the edge of the bath.
That morning when the parents woke up, the Israelites who put the blood on their doorposts found their boys alive, but the Egyptians who didn't, found their boys dead. How sad! And so finally, Pharaoh told God's people that they were free to go. They were no longer slaves! God had saved them!
That morning when the parents woke up, the Israelites who put the blood on their doorposts found their boys alive, but the Egyptians who didn't, found their boys dead. How sad! And so finally, Pharaoh told the God's people that they were free to go. They were no longer slaves! God had saved them!
Link to Jesus
Did you know, that we are like the Israelites? Who were they slaves of? The Egyptians. We are slaves too. But not of the Egyptians. We are slaves to sin. The Bible tells us that our hearts are sinful and we can't get free by ourselves. We keep trying to be the boss of our own lives (just like Pharaoh!) and we don't listen to God (like Pharaoh!). But just like the blood of the lamb saved the Israelites from God's punishment, some other blood saves us from God's punishment. Do you know whose blood can save us? Yes, it's Jesus' blood. If you ask Jesus to save you, his blood washes us clean of sin. God is awesome, and he sent Jesus to die to free us from being slaves to sin.
For Extra Keen Beans
Bring in some ice cubes to act as hail
Ask the kids if they trust in Jesus, and if the answer is yes, get them to wash in his blood (which will still be in the bath)
I'd love to hear you comments on what does and doesn't work with this one!