| Moses the child |
of Egypt for many years.
|
with
Jacob were: Reuben,
Simeon,
Levi, Judah, Issachar,
Zebulun, Benjamin,
Dan, Naphtali,
Gad and Asher.
The descendants of
Jacob numbered seventy in all but Joseph was already in Egypt.
Joseph,
his
brothers, and all that generation died, but the
Israelites had multiplied
and had become numerous, and the land was filled with
them.
|
|
A new
pharaoh had come into power. This new pharaoh did not know
anything about Joseph. He saw how the Israelites had become large
in number.
The new pharaoh was afraid that the Israelites might join their enemies and fight against them and then leave some day. So, the new pharoah made slaves of them and forced them to build cities for the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh put slave masters over them and treated them mean and made them work very hard. The harder they worked them and mis-treated them, the Israelites still multiplied in number. They made them work hard making bricks and mortar and also made them work in the fields. The Pharaoh couldn't stop them from
multiplying so he told two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, too kill all
the baby boys that were born to the Israielite (Hebrew) women.
But the midwives were afraid of God and
wouldn't kill the baby boys. the Pharaoh asked the midwives why
they hadn't obeyed him. They told him that the Hebrew women gave
birth before they could get to them. Because of this, God was
kind to the midwives. The Israelites still increased in
number.
So, the Pharaoh gave
a command to all his people to throw every boy born to the Hebrews into
the Nile River. |
A Hebrew woman
(Israelite from the tribe of Levi)
hid her baby boy in a basket.
|
A man of
the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
and she became
pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw
that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.
She couldn't hide him any longer, so she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. Some versions of the Bible call it an ark of bulrushes |
Miriam his sister watched her
brother from a distance.
| His sister,
Miriam, stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. When the Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile to bathe, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to get it. |
The Pharaoh's daughter
finds the baby.
finds the baby.
|
She opened it and saw the
baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry
for
him. She realized it was one of the Hebrew babies.
Then
Moses' sister, Miriam, spoke up and asked the
Pharaoh's daughter if she should go and get one
of the Hebrew
women to nurse the baby for her.
The Pharaoh's daughter told her to go. So Miriam went and got the baby's mother. |
She took him to
live in the palace.
| The Pharaoh's
daughter told the babies mother to
her take the baby and nurse him for her, and that she would pay her for
it. So the babies mother took the baby and nursed him. |
Moses grew up in the
Pharaoh's palace.
| When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she had drawn him out of the water. |
|
Conclusion: God had a
big plan.
Joseph had come to Egypt when he was sold by his brothers into slavery.
Later, the rest of his family moved to Egypt and they grew in
numbers. The new Pharaoh of Egypt was afraid of the
Israelites. So, he wanted the baby boys killed. God saved
baby Moses when his mother hid him in a basket (or ark). An ark
is a place of safe keeping for things that are precious.
The ark Noah built was also a place of safe keeping for those who were
inside. Moses then grew up in the Pharaoh's house (or
palace). The Israelites needed God to help them. Moses's
mother trusted God to take care of her baby and He did. We need
God in our lives too just as we need air to breathe.
God had
a bigger plan for Moses too. To learn about how he used
Moses, go to next lesson Moses
in Midian
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