46» GOD REMEMBERING HIS COVENANT.

 

them, and lead them to a land flowing with milk and
honey. God sent Moses to tell the king of his purpose.

Now the king might ask, what authority have you
to tell me to let the people of Israel go? So God had told
him to take a staff with him and cast it on the floor, and
it should become a serpent in the sight of Pharaoh.
Pharaoh was greatly frightened when he saw the serpent
on the floor, but he refused to hear God, and let the peo-
ple go, and did not until repeated judgments had been
sent upon him.

You have read how God sent frogs over all the land,
so that they filled their houses, and the people would find
them in the tray where they mixed their bread.

God sent lice upon them, to cover man and beast.
He turned the rivers and streams to blood, so that the
people could not get any pure water. These were some
of the terrible afflictions which the Lord sent upon the
people of Egypt, to make them willing to let his people
go.
At last, when God had tried everything else to no
purpose, he determined to make Pharaoh willing, by de-
stroying the first-born in every family. We learn of this
in the next lesson.

God wanted to lead his people back into Canaan, and
separate them from other nations, to make of them a great
nation for himself. This is why he allowed them to suffer
so in Egypt, that they might not want to stay there.