Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this map free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.
Today I am joining some other Multicultural Kid Blogs to bring you a Passover for Kids Blog Hop. This year I decided to focus on the Biblical story behind Passover. As a Christian I know this story since it is part of the Old Testament (in the book of Exodus chapters 7 through 14). To look at this story we started by looking at it in cartoon form on a DVD from the library.
For Hazel the most fun thing we did was tell the story with food. We had leftover Gingerbread Family cookies from Christmas. (We had planned on making a graham cracker and cookie nativity.) We used these as our people and I built a quick graham cracker house. For water, blood and head covers we used fruit roll-ups. Then we got creative for the plagues and other props. We used jelly beans, whole cloves, marshmallows, frosting (I had some pink leftover so we used pink). I also printed off a pharaoh headdress and we used a pipe cleaner for Moses' staff. But before we begin our story let's give you a bit of history.
Biblical History
For me the story starts with Joseph. You probably know him and his colorful coat. His story is in Genesis in the Bible. He was sold into slavery by his brothers and brought to Egypt. Eventually he helped the pharaoh interpret his dreams and thus store food for when the great famine hit. Some Israelites left Canaan for Egypt because they heard there was grain there. This included Joseph's brothers. The pharaoh welcomed Joseph's family and Joseph forgave his brothers and they stayed in Egypt where there was food. The pharaoh eventually died and the next pharaoh was not as kind and they kept getting worse. Eventually the pharaoh enslaved the Jews because he feared the great number of them might take over if he didn't. The Jews had to work to build cities and in the fields for the Egyptians. They were beaten and treated poorly. Eventually the pharaoh ordered that all Jewish sons be killed upon birth. One mother could not kill her son and hid him in the reeds of the Nile River where the pharaoh's daughter found him and cared for him. She named him Moses. He grew up in the palace but always knew he was Jewish and felt bad about how his people were treated. He eventually revolted and left until God told him to return and demand pharaoh to release the His people.Exodus
Moses and his brother, Aaron, did what God asked. They went to pharaoh and told him God wanted his people released. Pharaoh refused. Moses and Aaron warned there would be a repercussion if he refused. He didn't care.
Moses and Aaron returned to the pharaoh and made the same demand. They warned that frogs would be the next punishment for refusing. Pharaoh did not care.
The Egyptians could not escape the frogs. They were everywhere. Moses and Aaron returned again. Pharaoh refused again. The punishment was an invasion of gnats (and some translations say lice).
Again Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. Again he refused. Next God sent flies to invade Egypt.
Moses and Aaron returned to pharaoh. Again he refused to free the slaves. The Egyptians and their animals became covered in painful boils.
Moses and Aaron returned to pharaoh. Again he refused to free the slaves. This time there were large hailstones. The hailstones crushed and ruined many of the Egyptian crops.
Moses and Aaron returned to pharaoh. Again he refused to free the slaves. God sent locusts to ruin the rest of the Egyptian crops.
Moses and Aaron returned to pharaoh. Again he refused to free the slaves. The punishment this time was darkness for several days. The Egpytians could not keep a light lit in the darkness. Only the area where the Jews lived had light.
Moses and Aaron returned to pharaoh. Again he refused to free the slaves. God then told Moses and Aaron to tell the Jews to sacrifice a lamb and use its blood to mark their doors.
To roast and eat the lamb for a meal and to prepare to leave the next day.
Their doors needed to be marked so God's angel of death would pass over those houses and only kill the firstborn sons' of Egyptians. And this is what happened. The firstborn sons died including the pharaoh's son.
The pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and told him to take the Israelites and leave. The Israelites were so happy but they hurried in case pharaoh changed his mind. They took bread dough with no yeast since there was no time to let it rise. (This is why the Jewish people eat unleavened bread during Passover.) They were led by God and eventually ended up near the edge of the Red Sea.
Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his soldiers to recapture the slaves. However God intervened with smoke and clouds making it hard for the Egyptians to see. However they realized they had the Israelites trapped at the Red Sea. God used Moses and his staff to part the Red Sea for His people.
The Israelites were able to cross on dry land between walls of water. The waters fell after the last Israelite went through and closed the sea on the Egyptians and drowned some of them.
There is of course more to this story. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years. It was during this time that God dropped manna for food and gave Moses the Ten Commandments, but those are other Bible stories.
To understand the story even better we got Map of Exodus and Wilderness Journey edited by Abraham Park from Tuttle. This is really a map in a folder. The map has so much information on it about the journey.
It shows the 42 campsites and has them listed in English and Hebrew as well as the scripture they are from. They have historical facts and places marked as well as battles that were fought. For our story, however we only need to focus on a small part today.
I find it fascinating to see the route they took and that God led them on. It does not look like the easiest or shortest route, so there must have been a plan for God to do this. I can also see why it was for forty years and why Moses did not make it to Canaan. This map really helps grasp the locations and the story a bit more. I have to say I love seeing it and know Steve will be very happy we have it (he loves maps, history and the Bible). Hazel is also very excited to see it and see where this Bible story occurs. I say it is a must for anyone trying to study the story of Exodus and the Wilderness Journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to hear your comments and ideas. Thank you for reading and contributing!