Eliakim and the Ten Plagues

By day, Eliakim serves Pharaoh's household: carrying food and drink, fulfilling chores for Pharaoh's sister, and attending ritual ceremonies alongside Pharaoh's nephew, a prince just a bit older than himself. His position gives him a front-row seat to the growing conflict between Moses and Pharaoh. He hears the ruler's angry outbursts, his suspicions of Moses, and his open contempt for the God of the Hebrews.

By night, Eliakim carries that information back to his parents and the foremen of the Hebrew slave crews. He's not a soldier or a prophet. He's just an enslaved boy. But the information he carries matters, and so does the courage it takes to keep delivering it.

As Pharaoh ramps up his cruelty and the plagues intensify, so do the questions Eliakim and the Hebrews around him wrestle with: Why does Jehovah let us live as slaves? Aren't we His people? Why would He let this happen? Yet alongside those questions stands something that won't let go: the faith his mother Sheerah has spoken into him. "Jehovah never forgets His promises. He will do what is right, and He will do it at the right time."

When the final plague strikes and the firstborn of Egypt fall, Eliakim is not celebrating. The prince he has served, a boy he knows, is among the dead. Pharaoh's rebellion against Jehovah has a cost, and Eliakim watches Egypt pay it.

Fast-paced and full of tension, with energetic black and white illustrations throughout, Eliakim and the Ten Plagues will keep readers turning pages, even those who already know how the Exodus story ends.