The 10th Plague- explaining to 3rd graders!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nancita2009
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
N

Nancita2009

Guest
I teach Catechism to young children, and the Passover story was read. The children didn’t understand why God would kill the first born son of the Egyptians. This was confusing to them…They are stuck on the commandment:Thou shalt not Kill. So…how can God kill?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks
 
Hm. Well, maybe remind them about the part where an earlier pharaoh ordered the killing of first-born Hebrew babies (which is why Moses was put in a basket and floated down the river so he would be spared).

So, when you do something bad, it will come back to haunt you later.

Or something like that.
 
I don’t know how to share this with kids, but part of what is going on there is the idea that we owe everything we have to God who is our creator, and so if the Egyptians were not honoring God by voluntary sacrifice, He was essentially just taking what they “owed” Him - (the Israelites would be commanded to offer a sacrifice in lieu of their firstborn - that’s what Mary and Joseph were doing in the Temple with those turtledoves).

Another thread is that the Egyptians had ordered the killing of all the Israelite male children, so that the killing of the firstborn is actually less-severe than the ancient “eye for an eye” code would have decreed as just.

Finally, there is the thread that is explicit in the Scriptural account, which is that the warnings get more and more serious, and at any point in time they could have been ended if Pharoah had been willing to obey God, so that he brought this punishment on himself and his people by his rejection of God.

But the other thing that is important here is to emphasize that God is just and merciful which is not the same as “nice.” God says “this is the way it is supposed to be” and “this is the way I am going to help you to obey” but He does not say “nevermind, even though you have chosen to reject me, I’m not going to punish you because that wouldn’t be nice.” We really don’t do our kids any favors by highlighting God’s mercy and hiding His justice. Choices have consequences-for Pharoah, and for us.

At the same time I don’t think you as the teacher need to be afraid or ashamed to say “this is really hard for me to understand, too. It seems sad and not fair, but we know that God is always fair, even when we do not understand.” That’s more honest than trying to come up with an “easy” answer to a hard question.
 
This is such a misunderstanding! That commandment is 'thou shall not murder’ not ‘kill’.

- http://www.levitt.com/pics/big6.gif -

Hebraic Insight…
The Jewish sages note that the word “ratsakh” applies only to illegal killing (e.g., premeditated murder or manslaughter) — and is never used in the administration of justice or for killing in war. Hence the KJV translation as “thou shalt not kill” is too broad.
Since man is made in the image of God, his life is infinitely precious — only God Himself has the right to give and take life. In the Mishnah it is written, “Why was only one man (i.e., Adam) created by God? — to teach that whoever takes a single life destroys thereby a whole world.”
But murder can be figurative as well as literal. The Talmud notes that shaming another publicly is like murder, since the shame causes the blood to leave the face. Moreover, gossip or slander are considered murderous to the dignity of man. The Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) states, “The evil tongue slays three persons: the utterer of the evil, the listener, and the one spoken about…” The Lord Jesus also linked the ideas of our words and attitudes with murder (see Matt. 15:19).
http://www.levitt.com/hebrew/commandment_06.gif

The 6th commandment
 
cristian b said:
this is such a misunderstanding! That commandment is 'thou shall not murder’ not ‘kill’.

**- **http://www.levitt.com/pics/big6.gif -

hebraic insight…
the jewish sages note that the word “ratsakh” applies only to illegal killing (e.g., premeditated murder or manslaughter) — and is never used in the administration of justice or for killing in war. Hence the kjv translation as “thou shalt not kill” is too broad.
Since man is made in the image of god, his life is infinitely precious — only god himself has the right to give and take life. In the mishnah it is written, “why was only one man (i.e., adam) created by god? — to teach that whoever takes a single life destroys thereby a whole world.”
but murder can be figurative as well as literal. The talmud notes that shaming another publicly is like murder, since the shame causes the blood to leave the face. Moreover, gossip or slander are considered murderous to the dignity of man. The pirkei avot (ethics of the fathers) states, “the evil tongue slays three persons: The utterer of the evil, the listener, and the one spoken about…” the lord jesus also linked the ideas of our words and attitudes with murder (see matt. 15:19).
http://www.levitt.com/hebrew/commandment_06.gif

the 6th commandment
Click to expand...
great links, thanks
 
I really appreciate everyone’s responses! Thanks so much
 
My dear Nancita,

The sooner the children understand the true of the Scriptures the better it will be for them. There is no need to diminish the reality of history. God’s desire is for everyone to believe and to repent; He wants to save everyone including the Egyptians. The reason why the Israelites were saved from the tenth plague was not because they were better but because they had obeyed. Tell the children the whole story and how after Israel was saved, God requested the first born to be His as a sacrifice onto Him. These points to how Christ becomes the sacrefice for the salvation for all that believe. Every story of the Bible can and should be used to bring the listener to understand the love of God manifested in the giving His only son Jesus for the Salvation of all that place their faith on Him. The Children know how to deal with the Biblical truths, it is the adults that are not willing to believe and be obedient to the point of death.
 
The command is “You shall not murder”.

Explain that not all killing is murder (war, death penalty, etc.)

Also, that the commandments apply to humans. God owns lives, He takes lives and He gives life. It is His to do with as He wills.
 
Pharaoh was punished and his nation was put under judgment, for failing to respect the rights of God’s first-born son. The Egyptian gods are also punished because Pharaoh mocks the power of Moses’ God. Each of the plagues can be linked to Egyptian deities. I don’t know them all. The nile, frog, bull, and sun were some of them. Pharaoh was the political god of Egypt and his sons were divinized also. So part of the plague striking the first-born of Egypt had to do with a rebuke on the political god.
 
Nancita2009 said:
I teach Catechism to young children, and the Passover story was read. The children didn’t understand why God would kill the first born son of the Egyptians. This was confusing to them…They are stuck on the commandment:Thou shalt not Kill. So…how can God kill?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks
Click to expand...
Excellent question! I don’t have a good answer; that one has puzzled me for a long time, along with the request of Abraham to sacrifice his own son. Both stories have elements of things that we expressly teach our kids NOT to do. In Abraham’s story: prove you love me. In the Egyptian story: people are suffering (innocent babies), even though they did nothing wrong.
 
Major_Tom said:
Excellent question! I don’t have a good answer; that one has puzzled me for a long time, along with the request of Abraham to sacrifice his own son. Both stories have elements of things that we expressly teach our kids NOT to do. In Abraham’s story: prove you love me. In the Egyptian story: people are suffering (innocent babies), even though they did nothing wrong.
Click to expand...
Doesn’t the Catholic Church say that we all have the guilt of the original sin? Doesn’t all this mean that we are all guilty until baptism (according to the teachings of the Catholic Church and I think the Orthodox Church as well). So, according to Catholicism, the baby is as guilty as Adam because the baby has the original sin. So the baby is guilty, according to the teachings of the original sin.
 
Cristian_B said:
Doesn’t the Catholic Church say that we all have the guilt of the original sin? Doesn’t all this mean that we are all guilty until baptism (according to the teachings of the Catholic Church and I think the Orthodox Church as well). So, according to Catholicism, the baby is as guilty as Adam because the baby has the original sin. So the baby is guilty, according to the teachings of the original sin.
Click to expand...
The answer is in the Scriptures Chapter 12 of Exodus. verses 1-13. Obedience. Obedience. Obedience. Luke 8:19-21 Obedience. Obedience. Obedience. Teach the children to understand the event and the love of God through it.
 
JPCalifornia said:
The answer is in the Scriptures Chapter 12 of Exodus. verses 1-13. Obedience. Obedience. Obedience. Luke 8:19-21 Obedience. Obedience. Obedience. Teach the children to understand the event and the love of God through it.
Click to expand...
I don’t object to your words at all, but the funny thing is, people infer their own meanings from stories. Doesn’t matter how many times you may repeat “no, kids, the moral of the story is about obedience”, my ears always heard “but you’re not supposed to test people”!
It also reminds me of the phrase “Do I say, not as I do”.
 
In addition to the answers that each time God sent a plague, it was worse than the one before, and, at any time the Pharaoh could have conceeded (because, after all, the things that were happening weren’t everyday occurances), inform the children how this ties in with the New Testament, and before God did ANY killing with this final plague (which was to show He was all powerful…this should be mentioned, that God did this so that even the Egyptians, who believed in Ra, Osiris, Isis, etc would KNOW how powerful the Israelite’s God was/is), He ordered the Israelites to post their door frames with lambs blood.

This is important.

Exodus 11 & 12 explains it.

Wiki gives a detailed and varied account. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt (I enjoyed reading how the plagues could have been a chain of natural events.)

I think it is important to put this plague, though, in context of the entire New Testament. The Jews have their own take on this as well, which may be somewhat of a help, but, keep in mind, and remind your students that all of the Old Testament is a pre-cursor for the New.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top