A lot has happened since we last saw Moses.  He has left Egypt and, at God’s command, has returned to free the Israelite people from their harsh treatment.

He has also become a magician (with God’s might behind him.)  When Moses and his brother Aaron came before Pharaoh, Moses threw down his staff, and WHOA! It became a snake! 

Pharaoh’s court magicians did the same thing with their staffs, but Moses’ snake swallowed up all the other snakes!

Sadly, that was not enough to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.

Moses was kind of discouraged.  He went out of Pharaoh’s court and talked to God. God tells him to warn Pharaoh that he, Moses, will take that same staff that he turned into a snake, smack the Nile River with it, and the Nile water will turn to blood!  Not only that, everybody’s pitchers and bowls in Egypt will be filled with blood!

Now when Moses did that, Pharaoh’s magicians could not fix it.

But Pharaoh paid no attention.

So after a week, God tells Moses that, when he, Moses, stretches out his staff, the whole country’s going to be overrun with frogs!

Well, you know the story from Passover.  The frogs died away, but then there were gnats all over.  Still Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. Then there were wild animals. Then a plague on the livestock (though not of the livestock of Israel), then boils, hail and locusts and finally – the Death of the Firstborn.

But that’s another story.