THE FIRST FOUR PLAGUES. 65 XXXI,. JHE FIRST fouR PLAGUES. | together to the king, an- other Pharaoh, who was now reigning in Egypt, and said, “The Lord com- mands thee to let the Israelites go.” But Pharaoh answered, “I do not know the Lord; and I will not let them go.” Then the king told the Israelites’ masters to give them more work, and the poor people were not able to finish their hard tasks in mak- ing brick; and their cruel masters beat them, and said, “ You are idle; fulfil your work, your daily tasks.” The Israelites cried to Moses, and Moses went to God, and told Him all his sorrow. God knew all; His eye was upon them, and very soon He would deliver them, and He said, “I have heard their groaning, I remember my covenant with Abra- ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and I will bring my people to Canaan as I have promised.” Moses was now eighty years old; but he was not weak and feeble, as many old men are; he was strong and powerful. God made him s0, because there was much for Moses to do before he died. It is God who gives us all our health and strength; and if we are well and strong, we must not be idle. There is much for us all to do; and we must use our health and strength for God. “Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” Ficclesiastes ix. 10. God now gave Moses and Aaron power to do wonders, and to work miracles before Pharaoh. They went to the king; and Aaron threw down his rod before him, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh called his wise men, and told them to try to do the same; and they did so with their enchantments. Had they power to work miracles? No; perhaps they might have learned to tame serpents, so as to make them look like rods in their hands; and then they might have thrown them down, as Aaron did, and thus pre- tended to work a miracle. But God made Aaron’s rod swallow up their rods. Pharaoh did not care for this, nor did he obey the command to let Israel go; and then God said, He would punish Pharaoh, by turn- ing his river into blood. The river Nile is very useful in Egypt; no rain falls there to water the ground; but in the summer, the river rises, and overflows the coun- try, and makes the land soft, and then the people sow their seed, and the grass and corn soon spring up. Did Pharaoh and the Egyptians thank God, who gave them the Nile to water their land? No, the Egyp- tians forgot God; they made their river a god, and worshipped it, and sacrificed to it. But the Nile had no power to make the country fruit- ful; it was God who made it, and who swelled up its waters, and watered the land; and now He de- termined to punish and humble the the Egyptians, and to turn their river god into blood. ' God did as He said. He told Moses to go and stretch his rod over the waters; and directly he did so, all became blood. The ponds, and the water in the vessels,