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A adult dressed up like a Egyptian tells the story to the children. The tent should be set up with several mud bricks lying around which you will have to make weeks prior to your program. You should have straw lying around and a large container of water, and a pile of dirt on a plastic tarp. You can also have a sickel that they used to cut the straw also. Try to make it as real as possible. ( You can have the women of the church come together to make the customs for the skits or if you have the budget you can purchase them. This one below is $ 35.00. The main cost of this program is the custumes and set ups. But believe me, it is money spent in one of the most exciting and rewarding Vacation Bible Schools that you ever will do. The customes can be used later for other events at your church. If you plan early the women can do all off them.
Famine in the Land of Canaan (previous name of Land of Israel) forced inhabitants to find food. Joseph, the son of Jacob, had been sold by his brothers and ended up in Egypt, where, through a series of spectacular events, he becoming second in command to Pharoah. When his brothers came from Canaan for food, Joseph instructed them to bring their father and settle in Egypt. Jacob and his family moved to Egypt and their help was soon requested in building two cities for Pharoah, Pitom and Ramsees. Initially, they were paid for their services, but with the death of all of the 12 sons of Jacob (Levi died last) the employment relationship slowly shifted into one of servitude. Because the tribe of Levi hadn't been involved in the employment relationship, they were not subjected to work, despite what popular film may show. While the actual implementation of the slavery may have been gradual, the biblical record indicates that a new Pharaoh came to the throne who 'knew not Joseph' (or didn't want to know) and so enslaved the Israelites. The thinking and process is described in the first chapter of Exodus. It must be remembered that Moses was brought up in the household of Pharaoh for 40 years and so would have been quite familiar with how they thought or regarded the Israelites.
Exodus 1:8-14 (King James Version)8Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 11Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. 13And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. Todays HIKE will be to a tent where a object lesson will be given about EXOD. and how Pharaoh slaved the Hebrews and how his heart hardened. The children will make mud bricks today outside on their hike. They will gather straw, dirt, and mix it up and place it in molds. THIS is a hands on learning lesson. The second part to the hike today will be the Good Samaritian Lesson. Complete directions and lesson plan will be provided after you register for our program. Straw is a binder in making mud bricks. It acts like ribs and thus helps the bricks to be firmer and less apt to fracture. Instead of being oven-baked, the bricks back there were sundried. Even today some of the pyramid bricks contain straw, showing that they date back to this era more or less. The fact that the straw in the bricks is not burned proves the bricks were sun-dried. Exod. 5:6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, The chain of command was Pharaoh-Egyptian taskmasters-Hebrew officers or overseers-Israelites. Hence there was a class of Hebrews, the officers, who were not necessarily in the mud slime making the bricks Aaron was of this class, and so were the elders as representatives of the people. It was an onerous task to have to pass Pharaohs commands on to the people. Notice that this particular command was given the same day. Moses was now 80 years old, and Aaron was about 83. Exod. 5:9 Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words. Pharaoh commanded the Egyptian taskmasters and the Hebrew officers: From now on do not give straw to the Hebrews to make bricks. Let them gather the straw themselves, yet they must continue to make the same number of bricks. Because they are idle, they want to go and sacrifice to their God; hence give them more work to do. The Hebrews had been using supplied straw. Now they had to gather the straw themselves. The gathering would take time, yet the number of bricks could not be decreased. Pharaoh wanted to so burden the Hebrews that they would not even think of asking for liberty to sacrifice religiously. What is the spiritual lesson? When we give our hearts to the Lord or even if we are just contemplating giving our hearts, the Adversary uses every possible means to distract or sidetrack us into another avenue that will occupy our time. Pharaoh is a picture of Satan here. If Satan sees someone seeking liberty through Christ from the burden of sin and death, he specially tries to make it difficult for that individual to pursue consecration. The people are already burdened, and he increases the burdens. We all have weaknesses. If we make progress along one line, then Satan will start to irritate us along another line. There is seemingly endless harassment to the end of our course. Jesus said, Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, but if we do not take time to know the truth, obviously we will not be set free (John 8:32). Pharaohs command reveals his evil heart condition. He could have just said, No, you cannot go into the wilderness. Your request is not reasonable at this time. To pile on extra burdens shows, instead, a truly evil character. This Pharaoh had no sympathy for the Hebrews in spite of what Joseph had done for Egypt. In fact, Pharaoh went to the other extreme and made the Hebrews slaves.Moses answered, What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, The Lord did not appear to you?
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