BIBLE STORIES

VOLUME I

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God’s Creation

Do you know who God is? God is the creator of everything! That means He made everything in the whole universe, and that includes you and me and everything that you can see!

Long, long ago, God made Heaven and earth. The earth was empty and dark and it didn’t have any shape to it. It was just like a big blob in the darkness. So first, God made light, and then there was light and darkness. That was the end of the first day.

Then, God made the sky, and He made it so very big that you can’t even imagine how far it goes. The sky is infinite, do you know what that word means? The word infinite means that it never ends! That was the end of the second day.

Then, God made oceans and land. God took the water and gathered it together in certain places and He put the land in other places, so now that big old blob was starting to take shape. On the land, God made grass, trees, flowers, and all kinds of plants that grow fruits and vegetables. And God thought that it was good. That was the end of the third day.

Adam and Eve

God planted a very beautiful garden on His brand new earth and it was called the Garden of Eden, and He put the man that He made, into the garden to take care of it. God named him Adam. But, God thought it wasn’t good that Adam was alone. So He put Adam to sleep, took a rib out of his side and made a woman with it. Her name was Eve. Now Adam had a helper.

God told them that they could eat fruit from any of the trees, except for the one in the middle of the garden and if they even touched it, they would die. This was a very terrible thing, because when God first created man, He created him to live forever and never die.

Now, there was a sneaky snake in the garden, that was very bad. Do you know why? Because one of God’s most beautiful angels named satan, thought he was special because of his beauty, and he wanted to be better than God, because he’s jealous of Him. You may have heard of another name that satan is called, and that is the devil. So anyway, he became very bad and now he tries to make people do bad things and win their hearts away from God. Now, back to our story.

The devil got into this snake in the garden of Eden, and He lied to Eve and told her that if she ate from the tree in the middle of the garden, that she would become very smart, like God. So Eve took fruit from the tree and ate it. Then she gave some of it to Adam.

Adam and Eve knew right away that they had done wrong and they hid in the trees. After a while they heard God looking for them. Why are you hiding? God asked. Adam answered, I was afraid because Eve gave me fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden and I ate it. Then God asked Eve, Why did you do that? Eve answered, The snake tricked me.

God punished them all for not obeying Him. He said, from now on snakes will crawl on their bellies and eat dust. When women have babies it will hurt and they will obey their husbands. And man will have to work hard to make things grow in the land. Then God made them leave the Garden of Eden and He put angels in His garden to keep it safe.

Cain and Abel

Adam and Eve had two sons. Their names were Cain and Abel. Cain was a gardener and Abel took care of sheep. One day, Cain gave God a piece of fruit for a present. Abel gave God a present too, he chose the very best of his sheep as his gift, because he loved the Lord so much. God was very happy with Abel’s present, but He wasn’t very pleased with Cain’s gift. This made Cain very angry, so he killed his brother Abel out in the field when nobody was looking.

God knew what happened, because God knows everything, and He asked Cain, Where is Abel? Cain was very sassy to God and said, I don’t know, do I look like my brothers keeper? God didn’t like that.

God said to Cain, I know you killed Abel, and now, to pay for what you’ve done, whenever you plant something, it won’t grow. You will not have a home and you will run from place to place on the earth and hide your face from me. Cain begged God, Please don’t punish me so hard, it’s more than I can take. Anyone that finds me will want to kill me.

So God put a mark on Cain to protect him from being killed. Adam and Eve had another son after that, and called his name Seth. 1,056 years after Adam was created, his great, great, great, great, great, great, great-grandson was born, and his name was Noah.

Noah’s Ark

As more and more people filled the earth, God saw that many of them were doing bad things. God was sorry that He made man, and this made Him sad in His heart. So God decided that He would make it rain for a long time, flood the earth, and get rid of all of the bad people and all the other living things on the earth, that He made.

But there was one man named Noah, who God really loved. Noah was a good man, and he obeyed God. So God told Noah to make an ark which is a very, very big boat. All the people who saw Noah and his family building the ark, laughed at them and said they were crazy. The ark wasn’t even near a lake or an ocean.

God gave Noah orders of exactly how to do everything, and it took Noah a very long time to build it. When the ark was finished, Noah brought everything on board that God told him to. Noah and his family were the only people on the ark. There were eight of them all together. There was Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives.

Now, most people don’t know this, but there weren’t only two of every kind of animal that God brought to the ark, but the animals that people used in those days to give as gifts to the Lord were called “clean” animals, and there were seven of each of those. There were only two of each of the unclean animals, but somehow, on that ark there was every kind of animal on earth! That was because after the flood, they could have babies and fill up the earth again, and God’s earth could start fresh with new people and new animals. Noah also had to take enough food for them all.

Once everything was loaded onto the ark and the door was closed, it began to rain. And it rained, and rained, and rained. All of the people who laughed at Noah for building the ark, didn’t think he was crazy anymore! It rained for forty days and forty nights! The water covered the mountain tops. Anything that wasn’t on the ark, died in the Great Flood.

Then God made the wind blow and the water started to dry up. Noah sent a dove out of the window of the ark to see if the water was dried up. He did this three times until the dove finally didn’t return to the ark. Now Noah knew that the land was dry, because he knew the dove wouldn’t come back if she could live on the earth again.

After being on the boat for over a year, God told Noah to leave the ark, and let the animals go live on the earth again. Noah gave presents to God and God was happy.

God made a promise that He would never send a flood to kill everything on the earth ever again. And now, after it rains, God puts a rainbow in the sky, as a sign of His promise. Did you know that’s where rainbows come from? Now, every time you see a rainbow, you’ll be reminded of God’s promise and the story of Noah’s ark.

Noah’s three sons were named Ham, Shem and Japheth, and everyone in the world came from one of their families. Noah lived for a very long time, he was 950 years old when he died.

The Tower of Babel

After the Great Flood, God told Noah’s sons and their wives to have children, and for their children to have children and to fill up the earth with people, just as He told Adam and Eve. So Ham, Shem and Japheth had many children, and at that time, everyone on the earth spoke the same language.

Now, Ham had a grandson named Nimrod and he was a hunter. He was not a good man. Nimrod had an idea. Nimrod wanted all the people to stay close together instead of spreading out and filling the earth, as God said. So Nimrod said, Let’s build a city and a tower that can reach up to Heaven. Let’s become famous!

God came down to see the tower. And God thought, If the people do this because they all speak one language, nothing will stop them from doing more bad things. I’ll make them speak different languages so they won’t understand each other and they won’t be able to finish the tower. Then I’ll scatter them around the earth. And that’s why people in different countries speak different languages. The tower that they were building was then named the tower of Babel because all the people sounded like they were babbling to each other.

Abraham and Lot

Many years later, there lived a good man named Abraham. And God told Abraham, Leave your father’s house and go to a place where I will show you. You will have children and they will have many children and grandchildren and you will all be blessed.

So Abraham left, as God told him. He took his wife named Sarah and his brother’s son, named Lot, because he had no children of his own, and they took all that they owned along with all the people who wanted to go with them. They went to a place called Canaan.

Abraham had a lot of gold, silver, and animals and many people that had followed him to Canaan, and Lot had his own animals and people who had followed, too.

After a while, there wasn’t enough food and water in Canaan because Abraham and Lot each had so many people and animals to take care of. They even started to fight with each other. So Abraham said to Lot, There’s plenty of land here. Let’s move apart a little bit and live in peace.

Then God made a promise to Abraham. God said, Look all around you as far as you can see. I will give you and your family all this land, forever, and you will have so many children and grand children and great grandchildren, that you won’t be able to count them all.

Soon after that, there was a war where Lot lived, so Abraham took his friends and saved Lot from danger until there was peace again. Lot and his family lived in the city of Sodom. There was another city nearby called Gomorrah. There were a lot of bad people in Sodom and Gomorrah.

One day the Lord visited Abraham! It was Jesus with two of his angels! What would you do if Jesus came to your house to visit you? Well, Abraham and Sarah made a nice meal for them. While they talked, Jesus told Abraham that Sarah would have a son, but they were both very old, and when Sarah overheard what Jesus said, she laughed to herself. Then the Lord asked Abraham, Is anything too hard for the Lord?

The Lord and the two angels were getting ready to leave, and they were headed to Sodom and Gomorrah to burn it all down because of all the bad things that people did there. Abraham was afraid because he knew Lot and his family lived there and he knew that they were good people.

So Abraham stopped the Lord and asked that if there were 50 good people there, if He would change His mind. And the Lord said yes. Abraham asked again, If there are 45 good people, will you change your mind? And the Lord said, Yes. Again, Abraham asked about 40 people, then 30 people, then 20 people and finally, Abraham asked one last time. Lord, what if there are 10 good people there? And the Lord said, I will not burn it if there are 10.

The two angels went to Sodom, and Lot invited them to his house. Before long, the bad people from the city knocked on Lot’s door and wanted to hurt the angels. The angels told Lot that if he wanted to save his family, to sneak them out of the city because the Lord was going to burn it down. The angels said, Run for your lives and don’t look back or you will die too.

So Lot did as he was told. And as Lot and his wife and his two daughters were running from the city, Lot’s wife turned her head and looked back at the city that was burning with fire from Heaven, and she turned into a pillar of salt.

Sarah Will Have a Son

Abraham and Sarah were getting even older now. Sarah was sure that she was too old to have babies, even though God told Abraham that one day he would have so many children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that you wouldn’t even be able to count them. When Abraham was 99 years old he saw God again. God promised Abraham that Sarah would still have a baby, and to name him Isaac.

The Lord didn’t forget Sarah, just as he had promised, and Sarah and Abraham had a son. They named him Isaac, which means laughter, because Sarah laughed when she heard the Lord tell Abraham that they would have a son in their old age.

One day, God tested Abraham to see how much Abraham loved God. He told Abraham to give Isaac to God for a present. If Abraham did this, he knew he would never see his son Isaac again. Abraham loved Isaac, but he loved God more. Just as Abraham was about to give Isaac to God, an angel said ... STOP!

God saw that Abraham loved God more than his own son, so God let Abraham keep Isaac. Abraham, Isaac and God were all very happy.

Abraham was a very old man now. He didn’t want Isaac to marry anyone from Canaan, so he told his favorite servant to go back to the place where he grew up and find a wife for Isaac. Abraham told his servant that the Lord would send an angel ahead of him to lead him to the woman that God wanted Isaac to marry.

So Abraham’s servant went where Abraham told him to go. When he got there, he went to the well where the women of the city go to get water. And he prayed that the woman he asked to get water for him would ask him if she could get water for his camels too, and that she would be the one that God wanted Isaac to marry ... And before he was even finished with his prayer, a girl named Rebekah came out with a pitcher on her shoulder and asked him the very thing he asked for in his prayer! Rebekah and her family agreed that she should go with him. Isaac loved Rebekah the moment he saw her, and they were married.

Jacob and Esau

Isaac prayed to God because his wife Rebekah couldn’t have children. The Lord answered Isaac’s prayer and Rebekah was going to have twins. God told Rebekah that her sons would be two very different kinds of people. One would be stronger than the other and the younger one would be in charge of the family one day.

When the twins were born, the first one had lots of red hair all over him and they named him Esau. The other took hold of Esau’s heel as he was being born and they named him Jacob. Do you know why he did that? Because the one who is born first, the oldest son, is usually the one who is the head of the family one day. It’s called a birthright. So because of what God told Rebekah about the younger of the twins getting the birthright, when Jacob took hold of Esau’s heel, he was kind of saying, Hey, I’m supposed to be born first!

The boys grew up and Esau became a hunter. Isaac loved him. Jacob didn’t like the outdoors, and he was more special to Rebekah.

One day Esau came home from hunting and he was very very hungry and tired . . . so hungry and tired that he was ready to faint! Jacob had just made some soup and Esau said to him, I beg you, please give me some soup before I faint. Jacob said to Esau, I’ll give you a bowl of soup if you give me your birthright. So Esau agreed because he didn’t think that his birthright would help him at that moment.

As time passed, Isaac grew old and blind. He called Esau to him and told him to go hunting to get some meat and cook it for him so that he could eat and give Esau a blessing and his birthright before he died. But Rebekah heard this, and she remembered what God told her before the twins were born, so she told Jacob how to trick Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing instead of Esau.

Joseph

Israel had twelve sons. His favorite son was named Joseph. Israel made Joseph a coat of many colors. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their dad loved Joseph more than the rest of them, they didn’t like Joseph anymore.

Joseph had a dream, and he told his brothers about it. He said, In my dream we were tying bundles in the field. And my bundle stood up straight, and all of yours bowed to mine! Joseph’s brothers hated him more now because of his dream. Joseph even had another dream and he told it to Israel and his brothers. He said, In my dream the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed to me! Joseph’s dreams were a sign from God that one day he would be very important.

One day Israel sent Joseph to check on his brothers, who were taking care of animals in another town. When they saw Joseph they said, Let’s kill the little dreamer boy and throw him in a pit and we’ll say that an animal killed him. But Reuben, who was Joseph’s oldest brother, said, No, don’t kill him, just put him in the pit. They took Joseph’s coat of many colors and threw him into a pit. Reuben knew how much his dad loved Joseph and wanted to rescue him later and bring him back to Israel.

Then Joseph’s brothers saw some people who were on their way to Egypt. Without telling Reuben, Joseph’s other brothers sold him to the people. Then they killed an animal and covered Joseph’s coat with it’s blood and took it back to Israel. They lied and said, Look, we found Joseph’s coat of many colors, but we can’t find Joseph. A wild animal must have killed him. Israel was so sad, and nobody could make him feel better.

In Egypt, where Joseph was taken, he was sold again to a man named Potiphar who worked for the ruler of Egypt called Pharaoh. Potiphar knew that Joseph was a good man and that God liked him, so he made Joseph the manager of his house. God blessed Potiphar’s house because Joseph was there. Potiphar’s wife didn’t like Joseph, and she made up lies about him and made Potiphar believe that Joseph was bad. So Joseph was taken to Pharaoh’s prison. But, the Lord knew that Joseph was good, so He made the prison guard be kind to Joseph. Soon after that, Pharaoh’s butler and his baker had upset Pharaoh, and they were put into the prison where Joseph was at.

One night, the butler and the baker both had dreams that they didn’t understand. Joseph told them that God would tell him what the dreams meant. So they told Joseph their dreams. The butler said, In my dream there was a vine with three branches and it grew beautiful grapes. I had Pharaoh’s cup in my hand, and I pressed the grapes into the cup and gave it to Pharaoh. Joseph told the butler, that in his dream, the three branches stand for three days. And in three days, he will take you out of this prison and you’ll be his butler again. Joseph said to the butler, Please be kind to me and tell Pharaoh what happened to me. I was sold from my home and there is no good reason for me to be here and in prison.

When the baker heard that the butler’s dream meant that he would get out of prison, he wanted to tell Joseph about his dream too. The baker said, In my dream I had three white baskets on my head. The top basket had all kinds of bread and cake and pie for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head. Joseph told the baker, that in his dream, the three baskets stand for three days too. But in three days, Pharaoh will hang you on a tree and the birds will eat you! These things happened, just as Joseph had said. But, when the butler was set free, he forgot to tell Pharaoh about Joseph.

Two years later, the Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing by the river and seven fat cows came out of the river. After that seven skinny cows came out of the river and ate up the seven fat cows. The dream woke Pharaoh up, but the same night Pharaoh had another dream. Seven ears of corn grew on one stalk and they were all big and fat. Then a stalk grew with seven skinny ears of corn on it, and they ate up the seven fat ears of corn. When Pharaoh woke up, he was worried about the dreams. He asked all the magicians and wise men of Egypt, but none of them could tell him what his dreams meant. The butler then finally remembered Joseph and that he had told him what his dream meant, so the butler finally told Pharaoh about Joseph.

So Pharaoh called for Joseph to be brought to him out of the prison and said, I heard that you can tell me what my dreams mean. Joseph said, It is God that gives the answer of what your dreams mean. So, Pharaoh told Joseph about his dreams and then Joseph said to Pharaoh, God is showing you what He is about to do. Both of your dreams mean the same thing. The seven fat cows and the seven fat ears of corn are seven good years with plenty of food. And the seven skinny cows and the seven skinny ears of corn are seven years when there won’t be enough food for people to eat. It will be very terrible, and that is why God showed you twice. You should plan to store up food during the seven good years so that Egypt will have enough food for the seven bad years. Pharaoh said to Joseph, You are a very wise man. You will be in charge of my house and I will listen to all your ideas, and all my people will do what you tell them to do. So Joseph became a very important man in Egypt.

During the first seven years while there was plenty of food, Joseph stored up extra food. In the next seven years, when the people of Egypt didn’t have enough food, Pharaoh sent them to Joseph. Joseph sold the food that he had stored to the Egyptians. Then other countries sent their people to Joseph because there wasn’t enough food anywhere. Back in Joseph’s home town where Israel and Joseph’s brothers still lived, Israel told his sons, I heard that they have food in Egypt. Go there and buy some, so that we aren’t hungry. Ten of Joseph’s brothers left for Egypt to buy food. Since Joseph was gone, Benjamin, the youngest brother, became Israel’s favorite. He wouldn’t let Benjamin go with his brothers because he remembered what happened to Joseph, and was afraid something might happen to Benjamin.

When Joseph saw his 10 brothers, he knew who they were, but they didn’t know him. They bowed down before Joseph and he remembered his dreams about their bundles bowing to his and the stars bowing to him. Joseph said, You’re spies and you have come to spy on Egypt! They said, No sir, we came here to buy food. We are all the sons of one man. Our youngest brother is at home with our dad and one of our brothers has died. Joseph said to them, One of you will stay here in prison while the others go and get your youngest brother. Bring him back here and that will prove to me that you’re telling the truth. If you don’t do this, I’ll know then, that you’re really spies and you will die.

So they left their brother Simeon there in prison, and they took food home and told Israel what happened. Israel was very upset. He said, You didn’t take care of Joseph and he’s gone, you just left Simeon, and now you want to take Benjamin away too! Israel wouldn’t allow Benjamin to go.

It didn’t take long until all the food they brought back from Egypt was gone and they were hungry again. Israel told his sons to go again and buy a little more food. But the brothers said, The man in Egypt said that if we don’t bring our youngest brother back with us, that he won’t sell any food to us. Israel was sad, but he finally let Benjamin go with his brothers and sent gifts with them for the man in Egypt, and he prayed that they would all come back safely.

The brothers returned to Egypt. When Joseph heard they were there, he told his servants to send them to his house. When Joseph met them at his home, they gave him the gifts that their father had sent. Joseph asked them if their dad was in good health. They told Joseph that he was alive and well. Joseph was looking at all his brothers, and then he saw Benjamin. He was so happy to see them all again, and to know that his Dad was alive and well, that he had to leave the room because he started to cry. Just then, Joseph came up with a plan. He told his servant to fill the brothers’ sacks with as much food as they could carry, and to put each man’s money back in their sacks. Then he said, Put my silver cup in the youngest brothers sack.

When morning came, the brothers all left, and before they had gone far, Joseph sent his servant after them. His servant caught up with Joseph’s brothers and said, My master’s silver cup has been stolen! The brother’s were surprised. We wouldn’t do anything like that! If you find it with any one of us, you can kill him, and the rest of us will be servants. But the servant said, Whoever I find with the cup, he will be the servant and nothing will happen to the rest of you.

So, all of them opened their sacks from oldest to youngest and lo and behold, there was the cup, in Benjamin’s sack. They couldn’t believe it! They all went back to Joseph’s house and they bowed to him on the ground. Joseph said, leave Benjamin here, he will be my servant. The rest of you go home to your dad.

The brothers just couldn’t bear the sadness that this news would bring to Israel, and Joseph’s brother Judah begged to talk with Joseph. He said, Our dad is an old man, and his favorite son has died. Benjamin is his favorite now. When you told us that we couldn’t buy food if we didn’t bring Benjamin and prove that we weren’t spies, he didn’t want to let Benjamin come with us, because he was afraid of losing him too. But we needed food, so he allowed us to bring him. If we go back without Benjamin, our dad will surely die of sadness. Please let me stay and be your servant instead of Benjamin.

All of this was breaking Joseph’s heart. Joseph couldn’t keep his secret any longer. He started to cry and said, I am Joseph your brother! At first, they were all worried because they thought he was mad about them selling him so many years ago. But Joseph said, Don’t worry, It was God’s plan that I ended up in Egypt. There will be five more years left without food, and God showed me what to do so that our lives would be saved. Now go and get our dad and come back to live here in Egypt with me. And so they did, and Joseph took care of them all.

The Story of Moses

Hundreds of years after Joseph and all of his brothers died, there was a new Pharaoh in Egypt. He was afraid that soon there would be more people from the children of Israel (they were called Hebrews) living in Egypt, than there were Egyptians. He was also afraid that one day the Hebrews would want to take over Egypt. Pharaoh ordered that all the people of Israel be slaves and he made them build fancy cities for him in Egypt. But the harder the Egyptians made the Hebrews work, the more they grew! So Pharaoh thought of another plan to stop the Hebrews from growing. He ordered his people, that every Hebrew baby boy that is born must be thrown into the river to die.

There was one Hebrew woman who had a baby boy and she was able to hide him for three months. When she thought she couldn’t hide him any more, she made a basket and put the baby in it, and then put the basket in the river. The baby’s sister hid and watched to see what would happen to him. Soon after, the Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river and found the basket with the baby boy in it. She kept the baby and named him Moses. He grew up in Pharaoh’s house and one day when he became older, he saw an Egyptian beating an Hebrew. When Moses was sure no one was looking, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The next day, two Hebrew men asked Moses, Why did you kill the Egyptian yesterday? Moses was afraid that people knew what he did, and Pharaoh heard about it. Pharaoh ordered that Moses be killed, but Moses left there quickly and went to live in another place called Midian. There he married a woman named Zipporah, and they had a son.

The Hebrews were very sad being slaves in Egypt, and God heard their cries and He remembered the land that he promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God wanted to get the Hebrews out of Egypt so they could go to the Promised Land. So God chose Moses to do the job.

One day, while Moses was taking care of the animals that belonged to Zipporah’s dad, Moses saw a burning bush. When he looked closer, he heard God say, “Moses, Moses.” And Moses said, Here I am. God told Moses not to come any closer and to take off his shoes because the place where he was standing was holy ground. And God told Moses that He was the God of his father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that He knew how sad the Hebrews were, being slaves in Egypt, and that He was sending Moses to Pharaoh, to get His people out of Egypt. Now Moses knew that he was really a Hebrew, and it all made sense why it upset him so much to see that Egyptian beating the Hebrew. God told Moses that the Hebrews would listen to him, and God wanted him to lead the Hebrews three days journey into the wilderness to pray to God.

Moses was afraid, but God promised that He would tell him exactly what to do. But Moses was still afraid. So, God told Moses to throw his staff down on the ground, and when he did, it became a snake. Then God told Moses to pick it up, and when he did, it became a staff again. Then God told Moses to put his hand on his chest, and when he did it became covered with sores. Then God told Moses to put his hand back on his chest again, and when he did, the sores disappeared again. Moses was still very nervous. He told God that he couldn’t speak very well and was afraid he couldn’t do the job. God became angry with Moses and told him that his brother Aaron would go with him, and that God would tell Moses what to do, and Aaron would do the talking. God said, Use the staff to show that I have sent you. But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn, and he will not let the people go.

So, Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and called all the Hebrews, together. Aaron told them everything that God said to Moses and they believed and bowed their heads and thanked God. Then Moses and Aaron went to talk to Pharaoh and told him, The Lord God of Israel said, Let my people go. Pharaoh said, I don’t know the Lord, and I won’t let the people of Israel go. How dare you take my slaves away from their work! Then Pharaoh ordered that the Hebrews work even harder and if they didn’t, they were beaten. The Hebrews began to think it was better to just stay where they were. They thought it was all Moses’ fault that they were working even harder and thought they would end up dying if Moses didn’t stop asking Pharaoh to let them go. God told Moses what to do next.

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh again, and Aaron threw the staff on the ground. Once again, God turned it into a snake so Pharaoh could see. So, Pharaoh called his magicians and they threw their staffs on the ground and they all became snakes, but Aaron’s snake swallowed up the other snakes. This didn’t change Pharaoh’s mind. His heart was still stubborn and he wouldn’t let the people go.

God told Moses, Go to Pharaoh in the morning, wait for him at the river with the staff in your hand and say to him, God sent me to you, and said, Let my people go, but you would not listen. Now I’ll strike the river with my staff and the water through all of Egypt will turn to blood. The fish will die and the river will stink and the Egyptians won’t want to drink the water from the river. Moses did as God ordered, and all the water in Egypt turned to blood for seven days. Pharaoh’s magicians did the same thing. So, Pharaoh’s heart was still stubborn and he still wouldn’t let God’s people go.

Then, God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him, God says, Let my people go or I will bring lots of frogs into Egypt. There will be so many that they will jump into your homes and your beds and your ovens and all over the people. Ewwwww! Can you imagine that? But Pharaoh of course, still wouldn’t listen. So Moses told Aaron God’s words and Aaron held the staff over the water in the river and the frogs came up out of the river and covered Egypt! Pharaoh’s magicians made frogs come out too.

Now Pharaoh didn’t like the frogs, so he called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, Ask the Lord to take the frogs away and I’ll let the people go. Moses said, When the frogs go away, then you will know that there is nothing greater than God. So Moses asked God to take the frogs away and the frogs died. They piled them all up and they smelled absolutely terrible! But when Pharaoh saw that there was a little rest from the things that were happening, his heart was stubborn again.

Next, God told Moses, Tell Aaron to strike the dust of the land of Egypt with the staff and it will become lice that will crawl on all the Egyptian people and all their animals. So, Aaron struck the dust with his staff, and all of the dust in Egypt became lice and crawled on all the people and animals and they itched very badly! Pharaoh’s magicians tried, but they couldn’t make dust turn into lice. The magicians told Pharaoh, it is God that made this happen, we cannot do this thing. But Pharaoh’s heart was still stubborn.

God told Moses then to go to Pharaoh the next morning and warn him that if he didn’t let the people go, that He would send swarms of flies on him and the Egyptians. But of course, Pharaoh wouldn’t let God’s people go. Then, just as God had told Moses, swarms of flies were all over Pharaoh’s house and all over Egypt, in the houses and everywhere except where God’s people were. Not one single fly bothered the Hebrews! Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Okay, pray to your God, but pray to Him here in Egypt. Moses answered Pharaoh, We will go three days into the wilderness to pray to God, just as He told us to. So, Pharaoh asked Moses to ask God to take the flies away, and then he would let God’s people go. Moses said, I will ask God, but don’t try and trick God anymore and lie about letting His people go. Moses left and asked God to take the flies away, and God did, and there wasn’t one single fly left. But Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn, and he still wouldn’t let God’s people go.

God ordered Pharaoh to let his people go, ten times! And each time he wouldn’t let them go, God made something terrible happen to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. After the water was turned to blood, He sent the frogs, then the lice, then the flies, then God killed all of the Egyptians animals. After that, God put sores on all the Egyptian people, then He sent hail and fire into Egypt, and then locusts, and then He made it dark for three days straight. But Pharaoh’s heart was STILL stubborn, and he still wouldn’t let God’s people go. God told Moses, I will do one more thing to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and then he will let my people go and everyone will know that there is a difference between the Egyptians and the Hebrews. So, Moses got all the Hebrews ready to leave Egypt.

Then one night, at midnight, the Lord passed through Egypt and killed all of the firstborn in every family of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And all of the people cried in Egypt because there wasn’t a single house where there wasn’t one that died. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron while it was still night time and said, Go, take your people, and travel three days into the wilderness and pray to God. Take your animals and all of your things, and go! The Egyptians were glad because they didn’t want any more bad things to happen because of Pharaoh’s stubborn heart. So the Hebrews left Egypt very quickly. From the time Joseph was in Egypt, until the time Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt was 430 years, and Moses took Joseph’s bones up out of Egypt with him.

God led Moses and His people through the wilderness. He put a cloud in front of them to show them which way He wanted them to go during the daytime and He put fire in front of them to show them which way to go at night. He led them to the Red Sea. And God told Moses that Pharaoh would think they were trapped in Egypt because of the sea. God told Moses, Pharaoh’s heart will be stubborn once more and he’ll bring his army and follow you there. And I will show Pharaoh once and for all that I AM the Lord. When the children of Israel saw that Pharaoh and his army were nearby and wanted to take them back as slaves again, they were very afraid. They cried to God. Then they told Moses, it would have been better for us to remain slaves than to die, just as we told you before.

And Moses said, Don’t be afraid. Stand still and see how God will save you today. And God told Moses to lift his staff over the sea. The water split apart and there was a great path of dry land. The waters were like walls for God’s children on their left and their right for God’s people to cross the Red Sea. God put the cloud behind them as they crossed so Pharaoh and the Egyptians couldn’t see them, but they followed the Hebrews into the path through the sea. When the Hebrews were all across, God told Moses to lift his staff over the sea again, and then the waters closed, crashing in on Pharaoh and the Egyptians and not a single one of them lived. And that was how God saved His people from the Egyptians, and they believed in the Lord and his servant Moses.

The Ten Commandments

Moses brought God’s children out of Egypt and they traveled three days into the wilderness, but they couldn’t find any water that was clean enough to drink. So, Moses prayed to God, and God led Moses to a tree. When Moses threw that tree into the water, God made the water clean. Then they ran out of food, and the people were upset with Moses again! The Lord knew the people were hungry so every morning, bread from Heaven, called manna, came raining down. Manna is what angels eat! In the evening, there were birds called quail that God sent to them to eat. The Hebrews ate manna like this for 40 years, and they traveled in the wilderness wherever God led Moses to take them.

They came to another place where there was no water to drink, and they cried to Moses again. Moses asked them, Why do you blame me, and why do you doubt the Lord? Moses prayed to God and asked, What should I do? The people are ready to kill me because there is no water. And God led Moses to a rock and told him to hit the rock with his staff, and the people watched as water came flowing out of the rock!

Three months after the Hebrews left Egypt, they were in a place called Sinai, which is the mountain of God. God called Moses up on the mountain and gave him rules to give to the people, called commandments. These are the ten commandments that God gave to Moses.

God told Moses to come up onto Mount Sinai and He would write the commandments on two blocks of stone so that Moses could use them to teach His people. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights because God was teaching him other rules too, and explaining everything very clearly to Moses. While Moses was gone, the people got tired of waiting and they told Aaron, Let us make our own God, because we don’t even know what happened to Moses, he’s been gone so long. They took all their gold jewelry and brought it to Aaron. Then Aaron made a gold calf out of the jewelry and they put it up on a big stand. Then they prayed to it and they had a big party.

Oh my, you can bet that God would be angry about that, and Moses too! When Moses came down from the mountain, he heard the people singing. As he came closer to the people, he saw the golden calf that they had made as their new god and was so angry that he threw the blocks of stone with the commandments on them, down on the ground and broke them all to pieces. Then he took the golden calf and burned it all up and ground it into powder. He threw the powder into the water and made the Hebrews drink it. Some of the people were sorry for what they did. Then Moses said, Whoever is on the Lord’s side, come to me. And the people that came to him fought with those that were against God and 3000 people were killed that day. Moses prayed that God would forgive the children of Israel who sinned against Him and were sorry for it.

God told Moses to bring two more stone blocks up on the mountain so that the commandments could be written again. He told Moses that He would lead the children of Israel to the Promised Land and that he would make the people that live in Israel now, leave the Promised Land, because they didn’t believe in God.

Moses was on the mountain, alone with God for another forty days and forty nights. When Moses returned to the people, his face was shining so brightly that the people were afraid to come near him and he had to cover his face while he told them all that the Lord said.

The Hebrews left Sinai and began their trip to the Promised Land once again. Whenever they weren’t happy about something, they started to doubt in God and again they would cry to Moses. Many many times, Moses asked God to forgive them. In fact, this happened ten times! There’s a lot of tens in the Bible aren’t there?

God told Moses to send messengers to spy on the land of Canaan. Did you remember that the name of the Promised Land was Canaan? The land was flowing with milk and honey and many good things. The messengers came back 40 days later and said that the people who lived there were too strong to fight against, and, there were even giants there! It’s true! There were really giants in those days!

The Hebrews were afraid they couldn’t win if they fought for the land. But there were two holy men, named Joshua and Caleb, who believed that God would help the Hebrews through anything, and if they weren’t afraid, they could win the land.

But the people were afraid and they said bad things about Moses and Aaron to each other and still once again they said that they’d rather be back in Egypt, than where they were now. Moses asked God to forgive them, still again. But God was angry and said that all the people who talked bad about Moses and Aaron, would die, and only their children, and Joshua and Caleb would live for 40 years in the wilderness, one year for each day that was spent spying on Canaan, and then they would be allowed to enter the Promised Land.

Joshua

After Moses’ days, God put Joshua in charge of bringing the Hebrew people into Israel. There was city called Jericho and this city had walls of stone all around it. The people there were afraid because they knew the children of Israel were going to try and take over the city, so the gates of the city were closed up tight.

Joshua sent two messengers to spy on the city and the king of Jericho found out they were there. A woman named Rahab hid the messengers on the roof of her house and when the king came to find them they were out of sight. They were able to get back to Joshua safely and tell him about the city.

Joshua gave the people God’s orders and this is what they did. They very quietly marched around the city every day for six days, and on the seventh day they marched around it seven times. Then seven priests blew trumpets and Joshua told them, When you hear the trumpets, shout at the top of your voices as loud as you can. When they did, the sound was so loud that it shook the walls of Jericho, and they fell down flat! The children of Israel destroyed the city and everyone who lived there died, except for Rahab and her family because she was kind to Joshua’s messengers.

Joshua led the Hebrews into many cities to take them over and give the land to God’s people, as He had promised. In one city, Joshua spoke to God, saying, Sun, stand still over the children of Israel, and darkness, stay over the people we are fighting against. So it was light where Joshua and his people needed light to win against that city and it stayed dark where the enemies were, so they couldn’t fight back. There was never another day like it. God wanted all the different families of the children of Israel to live in certain places, and he told Joshua who he wanted to live where. Joshua worked all of his life for God, taking over all the cities of Israel, and getting God’s children to the places where He wanted them in His Promised Land.

Samson

For many years there wasn’t a leader for the children of Israel and a lot of them didn’t obey God’s commandments when nobody reminded them. Now Philistine was a city in the Promised Land, with strong armies, but they didn’t believe in God. So, when the Hebrews continued to disobey the laws of God, He made them slaves to the Philistines for forty years.

One day an angel told an old Israelite woman who didn’t have any children, that she would have a son who will be very strong and save Israel from the Philistines. The child was born, and his name was Samson, and he grew up, and the spirit of the Lord was with him. One day a lion tried to attack Samson, and he killed the lion with his bare hands. Some time later, he saw the dead body of the lion and it had a bee hive full of honey in it!

Samson married a Philistine girl, and they had a big party for seven days. Samson was talking to thirty Philistine people at the wedding and said, I have a riddle for you. If you can figure it out before the party is over, I will give each of you new clothes, and if you can’t, you will each give me new clothes.

The people said, Tell us your riddle. So, Samson said, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. After three days, they couldn’t figure out the riddle and they told Samson’s wife that if she didn’t find out the answer to the riddle by the seventh day, that they would burn her and her family and their house with fire! Samson’s wife pouted and said to him, If you don’t tell me the answer to your riddle, that means you don’t love me.

Samuel

Once there was a woman named Hannah, who was very sad because she didn’t have any children. She prayed to God and promised Him that if He gave her a son, that she would give him to the Lord to serve Him all his life and that she would never cut his hair. God blessed her with a son, and his name was Samuel. To keep her promise, Samuel’s mother took him to live with a man named Eli. Eli was a priest, who lived in a place called Shiloh. People went to Shiloh at a special time every year and gave presents to God to show Him how much they loved Him. God’s treasure box, called the ark, was in Shiloh where Samuel and Eli lived. The ark was very special to Eli. It had things in it that were special to God, like Moses’ staff, and the stone blocks with the ten commandments written on them, and things like that. Eli had two sons, and they did not follow the commandments of God.

Samuel became Eli’s helper. One night Samuel heard a voice say, Samuel. So, Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Here I am. Eli said, I didn’t call you, go back to sleep. Samuel did, and he heard the voice again, say, Samuel. He got up again and went to Eli and said, Here I am. I didn’t call you, go back to sleep, said Eli. So Samuel went back to sleep, and it happened again, a third time. Eli knew then, that it was the Lord calling Samuel, so he told Samuel, The next time you hear the voice, say, Speak Lord, your servant is listening. So, Samuel went back to sleep.

Soon Samuel heard the voice again, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel answered, as Eli had told him to, Speak Lord, your servant is listening. And the Lord said to Samuel, I will do something in Israel that will surprise everyone. I will punish Eli, because he knows that his sons have done wrong, and Eli didn’t stop them. Samuel told Eli everything the Lord had said, and Eli said, He is the Lord, let him do what seems is good. After that, each time the Lord would speak to Samuel, Samuel would tell about it, and all of Israel knew that Samuel was chosen to be a prophet of the Lord. A prophet is someone who God talks to and gives them messages about things that are going to happen.

Saul ... 1st King of Israel

Samuel was very wise and always told the people of Israel the right things to do, just as God told him to. When Samuel was old, the people of Israel said they wanted a king because all the other countries had kings. Samuel was sad that the people weren’t satisfied with the way things were. Samuel prayed, and God told him to listen to His people and do what they wanted, but the real reason they wanted a king was not that they didn’t like Samuel any more, but they didn’t want God to be their king.

God told Samuel to warn the people of Israel that if they choose a king, that he will take their children to work hard for him, and he will take their best animals and their best food, and the best of everything they have, and keep it for himself. The people didn’t believe Samuel and still wanted a king. Samuel told God, and God said, Listen to them, and find them a king.

One day there was a man named Saul looking for his Dad’s lost donkeys. When he couldn’t find them, he went to ask Samuel for help because he knew Samuel was a prophet of God. When Samuel saw Saul, God told Samuel that this was the man that would be the first king of Israel. Samuel told Saul that his dad’s donkeys had already been found, before Saul ever even asked about them. Then Samuel told Saul that he would be the first king of Israel. Saul didn’t believe it. Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head to show that God had chosen him to be the captain of His people, and Samuel told Saul three things that would happen so that Saul would believe that it was true.

Don’t miss

Little Christian’s Bible Stories

VOLUME II

&

Little Christian’s Bible Stories

VOLUME III