In a Land of Sand

A children's poem about the ten plagues which befell Egypt.

Some few thousand years ago
A cruel man was the pharaoh
Of a far-off desert land
With little rain and lots of sand.

Then one day a man of God
Came carrying a shepherd's rod;
He and Aaron told the pharaoh
"Let God's children go!"

"No! I will not let them go!"
Shouted Egypt's pharaoh.
He did not heed that man of God
Who leaned upon his shepherd's staff.

Moses struck the River Nile
And soon ev'ry ribboned mile
Turned into a flood of blood
Between banks of blood-caked mud.

Then came the frogs, the gnats and flies
Yet even midst all Egypt's cries
The pharaoh's heart was very hard
And from his slaves he would not part.

The livestock died; then came the boils,
Yet no medicine or oils
Could affect a decent cure -
Of this we can be very sure.

Thunder crashed and lightning flashed;
Stones of ice fell down and crashed
Man and beast and even fields;
At last it seemed the king might yield.

But still the pharaoh's heart was hard
And locusts left all Egypt scarred;
Darkness came thick as the night
Driving out each ray of light.

At midnight the destroyer came
Egyptian firstborn lives to claim;
At last the old defeated king
Was broken by death's fatal sting.

This then is the tale as told
Since forgotten days of old
Of the wonders which our God
Did through Moses and his rod.

~ Belinda van Rensburg ~
Copyright © 2011
All Rights Reserved

[ by: Belinda van Rensburg Copyright © 2011 ( lindievr@yahoo.com ) -- submitted by: Belinda van Rensburg ]