Pharoah And The Children Of Ancient Egypt: The Passover Festival

About 500 years after the death of Abraham, his descendants through Isaac were living in Egypt as slaves. Genesis 37 to 50 tells the story of how this came about. The 10 oldest sons of Abraham's grandson Jacob disliked their younger brother Joseph so much that they found a way to sell him to traders who in turn sold him to an Egyptian officer as a slave. In his new land, Joseph went through a series of ups and downs and eventually became the prime minister of Egypt, the highest official under the king. God enabled Joseph to foresee an approaching time of famine, and used him to store up food and then distribute it during the famine. His political position made it possible for him to settle his father's family in Egypt's most fertile territory. Here they prospered for many years. However, the time came when the leaders of Egypt began to view the rapidly growing Israelite community as a threat. As a result, they made slaves of the Israelites, treating them with ever-increasing harshness. Finally, desperate because the descendants of Jacob continued to multiply, they issued an order that all their male babies be destroyed at birth. The first 12 chapters of Exodus tell the story of how the Lord responded to the cries of His people. He miraculously provided Moses to be their leader, sent 10 plagues on the Egyptians, helped the Israelites celebrate their first Passover, and led them out of the land of bondage. It appears that as they left for Canaan, they had no

     The land of Egypt was visited by a succession of nine plagues. First, the rivers turned to blood. Then came the plagues of frogs, lice, murrain, flies, boils, locusts, and darkness. Still the pharaoh would refuse to let the Israelites go, until at last, Jehovah brought one more plague on the pharaoh and on Egypt.

Jacob (Joseph’s father) loved Joseph more than all of his sons because Joseph was born to Jacob when he was old. When all of Joseph’s brothers saw that their father (Jacob) loved him more than he loved them, they started to hate Joseph so much that they would never talk to him in a friendly way. One night Joseph had a dream about everyone bowing down and worshiping him and from this he told his brothers which then hated him even more and started to become jealous.

But a few hours after he changed his mind. Moses stretched his hands and there came a great plague of locusts on the entire agricultural produce of Egypt. The locusts ate and destroyed thousands of acres of crops such as corn and wheat, but on the Hebrews residence there were not even the smallest locust.

The story starts with the Pharaoh being afraid that the Hebrews would become too strong because they were becoming greater in number. To solve this the Pharaoh enslaved them in order to avoid an uprising, and ordered that all Hebrew newborn sons be killed, “And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.” (King James Bible, Exodus 1:22). However, one Hebrew son, Moses, survived by being hidden and put in a basket in the Nile river. The basket was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter and the Hebrew son was found and brought up in the Pharaoh’s home and was named Moses. When Moses was an adult, he fled Egypt after murdering a slave driver. God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush, demanding the Moses lead His people out of Egypt. Moses obeyed God and led his people through the desert for forty years until they found the Promised

The Passover was the first of the three great festivals of the Hebrew people. Passover is celebrated to commemorate their freedom by God from slavery in Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. The Israelites were instructed to swear the blood of the slaughtered spring lamb on their doorposts of their homes. Upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to “pass over” the first-born of these homes. God helped the children of Israel escape from this slavery by inflicting ten plagues upon the land. HE destroyed all the firstborn of Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to let His people go. Passover was observed on the 14th day of the first month, Abib, with the service beginning in the evening (Lev. 23:6). It was on the

The plagues start out with Yahweh commanding Moses and Aaron to turn the Nile into blood. They obey Yahweh but yet again Pharaoh is not impressed because his officials can also turn the water to blood. This and the fact that Pharaoh wasn’t directly affected by this plague, it let his heart remain strengthen. Yahweh proceeds with the plague of frogs which will invade the land of Egypt. Even though Pharaoh’s officials could bring up frogs too, Pharaoh asked Moses to tell his God to get rid of the frogs in exchange of letting His people go to

The most interesting part of the plagues on the Egyptians was that God harden Pharaohs heart through the plagues that his people faced. Pharoah was willing to let the people of Isreal go but God harden his heart. Why? With all the plagues that the Egyptians faced Pharoah was willing to let the isrealites

During this time, a new King came to power and the Israelites were forced into slavery and harsh labor. The new Pharaoh also demanded that baby boys were to be thrown in the Nile and baby girls can live. However, a levite woman went against this rule and placed her precious baby in a basket and let him float down the river until the Pharaoh's daughter found him, named him Moses, and took the baby home. As Moses grew up he noticed the unfair treatment of the Israelites and fled the area. Years later, Moses was called by God through a burning bush; the Lord told Moses to help his people escape Egypt and slavery. Moses obeyed the Lord and went to the Pharaoh demanding him to stop the cruel treatment at once and to listen to how God feels. Moses is the, “leader of the Israelites In their exodus from Egypt and the mediator in their covenant with Yahweh” (go.galegroup.com). The Pharaoh disagreed and continued to disrespect God’s people, angering the Lord into cursing all of Egypt. The ten plagues of Egypt were a punishment to the Pharaoh from God and until the Israelites were set free, the Plagues would continue. After the death of the firstborn plague, the Pharaoh gave permission to Moses to take his people and serve the Lord as he said. The Israelites finally departed Egypt and set out for Rameses- ready to follow the word of their Lord. The journey to the promised land was

The sons obeyed and saddled their donkeys and went. While in Egypt, Joseph saw them and they didn't recognize him. The brothers were brought before Joseph and they bowed their heads before him because now Joseph was the prince. They never knew it was Joseph because it was a long time since they saw each other. Furthermore, they didn't think that Joseph would be a prince in this country of Egypt.

She was very upset with Joseph that she lied to him and Potiphar had Joseph put in jail. While being in jail for several years, God was still with Joseph. During this time he was having dream interpretations. When Egyptian Pharaoh began to become troubled by a reoccurring dream it was then remembered that Joseph could interpret

It is a pilgrimage to the holy city where these three important feasts were observed and celebrated as an obligation and a regular practice of Jewish life. Jesus also made such trips as accounted for in the Gospels for Passover ceremonies. Luke’s gospel make reference both of the journey to Jerusalem and also Jesus’ last Passover celebration before his paschal mystery (cf. Lk 2:21; 22:14). In the light of John’s gospel, he calls the Passover “the feast of the Jews” (cf. John 6:4). What is remarkable in the celebration of the feast of Passover was the historical attachment assigned to it. It is the feast by which the people of Israel celebrate in a memorial way the liberation from Egypt which periodically marks the life of Jesus from his childhood

In my opinion, the most suitable name for Passover is Hag Hacheirut- the Freedom Holiday. In Passover G-D saved the Jews from slavery in Egypt, but also from the Egyptian culture. From that (this?) moment on, the Jews became independent. Therefore, Passover represents the beginning of the Jewish people.

Joseph, a sheepherder, lives in the land of Canaan with his father and twelve brothers. He was the second youngest of the brothers and started having dreams when he was seventeen. His first dream was that they were all binding their sheaves and his grew tall and proud while theirs bowed down to him. The second dream he had was that the sun and stars praised him. Both of these dreams made Joseph seem like he was the greatest and that everyone and everything else should praise him. Joseph had always been his father’s favorite son; but after these dreams, they hated him even more. The brothers become jealous and plan to get Joseph out of the way. At first, they just want to kill him; however, they realize that they will gain more if they sold

We will never know our path in life or why we’ve gone through certain negative experiences but God always knows what he’s doing and should not be doubted. We as humans need to put full faith into Gods hands and believe that he has a plan for each of us. Eventually the time will come when we realize what these experiences have done to better ourselves and get us where we are today, and that’s exactly what Joseph did. In this story, Joseph is the second youngest son of Jacob and the brother of eleven other boys. It is immediately made clear Joseph is Jacobs favored son, resulting in a strong hatred from his brothers. This hatred can only be assumed, because as humans we cannot control what we feel, it is completely natural and understandable that Joseph brothers were feeling this anger and jealousy towards him. They all had the same father, but didn’t get any love from him. Genesis 37:3 NKJY reads, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors”. Joseph also tells his family about his dreams of them bowing down to him, which his brother take even more offense too. One day Joseph goes to check on his brothers while they’re watching the sheep, as the brothers spot Joseph from a distance they plot to get rid of him by selling him as a slave to some traveling Midianites. All this hatred towards Joseph, that he had no control over, was