Moses was reluctant to be the one to free his people, and the job was by no means an easy one. When Moses first went to the Pharaoh to ask him to let the Hebrews go, the Pharaoh responded by telling his overseers to make the Hebrews work harder. This made the Hebrews angry at Moses. It looked as if they were never going to escape the hardships in Egypt. But God was persistent and didn’t let Moses give up.

Moses and his brother, Aaron, went back to the Pharaoh. Aaron threw down his staff before the Pharaoh, and it turned into a snake. The Pharaoh summoned his magicians, who threw down their staffs, which also became snakes. And the Pharaoh still would not listen.

Because of the Pharaoh’s hardheartedness, ten plagues were inflicted on the Egyptians. In the first plague, Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh again, as he was going to bathe in the Nile. Moses said, "God sent me to say, ‘By this you shall know that I am the Lord. See, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall be turned to blood. The fish in the river shall die, the river itself shall stink, and the Egyptians shall be unable to drink water from the Nile."

When the staff struck the water, all the water in Egypt turned to blood. But the Pharaoh’s magicians did the same, so the Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened.

Seven days later, Moses again went to the Pharaoh. "Let my people go," he said. "If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs; the river shall swarm with frogs; they shall come up into your palace, and into the houses of your servants and of your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls; the frogs shall come up on you and your people and on all your officials."

The Pharaoh refused to listen, so Moses let loose the plague of frogs. The Pharaoh’s magicians did the same, and the Pharaoh did not know what to do with all these frogs; so he promised to let the Hebrews go if Moses would get rid of the frogs. Moses promised the frogs would all die the next day. After the frogs were dead, they were gathered into huge piles, and the land stank.

Once the frogs were dead, the Pharaoh went back on his promise, so in the third plague Moses caused gnats to swarm over all of Egypt, on both the people and the animals. The Pharaoh’s magicians told him that this was beyond their magic, but still the Pharaoh would not listen.

As a fourth plague, Moses caused great swarms of flies to cover the Egyptians, but the Hebrew people were not affected. The Pharaoh begged Moses to pray to God to make the flies go away. Moses said he would if the Pharaoh would let them go and not trick them this time. The Pharaoh promised, but as soon as the flies were gone he changed his mind again.

The fifth plague caused all of the Egyptian cattle, horses, sheep, and camels to die, but not one of the cattle of the Hebrews died. Still the heart of the Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

For the sixth plague, before the Pharaoh, Moses threw soot from the ovens up in the air, which caused boils to break out on people and animals. Even the Pharaoh’s magicians were afflicted with the boils; but still Pharaoh would not listen.

The seventh plague was hail, which ruined most of the crops. Next came the ou and your people eighth plague, locusts, which ate the remaining crops. The ninth plague brought darkness over the land for three days. But still the Pharaoh was not willing to let the Hebrew people leave Egypt with their flocks and herds. Then God announced the tenth and final plague, and Moses reported to his people, "Thus says the Lord: about midnight I will go out through Egypt; every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits upon his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock." So that the plague would not affect the He- brews, they sacrificed a lamb and spread its blood on their doorposts. In this way, God would know to pass over that household and let the Hebrew firstborn live.

Finally, all the Egyptians rose up and cried out to the Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. He agreed, and about 600,000 men, women, and children and all of their livestock set out. But once more the Pharaoh changed his mind. When he saw that all of his Hebrew slaves were gone, he and his army set out after them in chariots.

As the Hebrew people were camped by the Reed Sea, they saw the Egyptians coming, and they were very much dry ground afraid. Moses told them not to be afraid, and he stretched out his hand, with his staff, and divided the sea on dry ground. Once Moses and his people were across, Moses again stretched out his hand, and the sea closed in upon the horses, chariots, and chariot drivers who were pursuing them.

Moses and his people were now free from the Egyptians, but they had many years of wandering in the wilderness yet before them. Eventually, however, they found Canaan, the land that had been promised to them.