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The children of Israel stayed in the land of Egypt much longer than
they had expected to stay. They were in that land about four hundred
years. And the going down to Egypt proved a great blessing to them.
It saved their lives during the years of famine and need. After the
years of need were over, they found the soil in the land of Goshen,
that part of Egypt where they were living, very rich, so that they
could gather three or four crops every year.
Then, too, the sons of Israel, before they came to Egypt, had begun
to marry the women in the land of Canaan who worshipped idols, and
not the Lord. If they had stayed there, their children would have
grown up like the people around them and soon would have lost all
knowledge of God.
But in Goshen they lived alone and apart from the people of Egypt.
They worshipped the Lord God, and were kept away from the idols of
Egypt. And in that land, as the years went on, from being seventy
people, they grew in number until they became a great multitude. Each
of the twelve sons of Jacob was the father of a tribe, and Joseph was
the father of two tribes, named after  his
two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.
As long as Joseph lived, and for some time after, the people of
Israel were treated kindly by the Egyptians, out of their love for
Joseph, who had saved Egypt from suffering by famine. But after a
long time another king began to rule over Egypt, who cared nothing
for Joseph or Joseph's people. He saw that the Israelites (as the
children of Israel were called) were very many, and he feared that
they would soon become greater in number and in power than the Egyptians.
He said to his people: "Let us rule these Israelites more
strictly. They are growing too strong."
Then they set harsh rules over the Israelites, and laid heavy burdens
on them. They made the Israelites work hard for the Egyptians, and
build cities for them, and give to the Egyptians a large part of the
crops from their fields. They set them at work in making brick and in
building storehouses. They were so afraid that the Israelites would
grow in number that they gave orders to kill all the little boys that
were born to the Israelites; though their little girls might be
allowed to live.
But in the face of all this hate, and wrong, and cruelty, the people
of Israel were growing in number, and becoming greater and greater.
At this time, when the wrongs of the Israelites were the greatest,
and when their little children were being killed, one little boy was born.
He was suc h
a lovely child that his mother kept him hid, so that the enemies did
not find him. When she could no longer hide him, she formed a plan to
save his life; believing that God would help her and save her
beautiful little boy.
She made a little box like a boat and covered it with something that
would not let the water into it. Such a boat as this covered over was
called "an ark." She knew that at certain times the
daughter of king Pharaohall the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh,
for Pharaoh means a kingwould come down to the river for a bath. She
placed her baby boy in the ark, and let it float down the river where
the princess, Pharaoh's daughter, would see it. And she sent her own
daughter, a little girl named Miriam, twelve years old, to watch
close at hand. How anxious the mother and the sister were as they saw
the little ark floating away from them on the river!
Pharaoh's daughter, with her maids, came down to the river, and they
saw the ark floating on the water, among the reeds. She sent one of
her maids to bring it to her so that she might see what was in the
curious box. They opened it, and there was a beautiful little baby,
who began to cry to be taken up.
The princess felt kind toward the little one, and loved it at once.
She said: "This is one of the Hebrews' children." You have
heard how the children of Israel came to be called Hebrews. Pharaoh's
daughter thought that it would be cruel to let such a lovely baby as
this die out on the water. And just then a little girl came running
up to her, as if by accident, and she looked at the baby also, and
she said: "Shall I go and find some woman of the Hebrews to be a
nurse to the child for you and take care of it?"
"Yes," said the princess. "Go and find a nurse for me."
The little girlwho was Miriam, the baby's sisterran as quickly as she
could and brought the baby's own mother to the princess. Miriam
showed in this act that she was a wise and thoughtful little girl.
The princess said to the little baby's mother: "Take this child
to your home and nurse it for me, and I will pay you wages for it."
How glad the Hebrew mother was to take her child home! No one could
harm her boy now, for he was protected by the princess of Egypt, the
daughter of the king.
When the child was large enough to leave his mother Pharaoh's
daughter took him into her own house in the palace. She named him
"Moses," a word that means "drawn out," because
he was drawn out of the water.
So Moses, the Hebrew boy, lived in the palace among the nobles of the
land, as the son of the princess. There he learned much more than he
could have learned among his own people; for there were very wise
teachers. Moses gained all the knowledge that the Egyptians had to
give. There in the court of the cruel king who had made slaves of the
Israelites, God's people, was growing up our Israelite boy who should
at some time set his people free!
Although Moses grew up among the Egyptians, and gained their
learning, he loved his own people. They were poor and were hated, and
were slaves, but he loved them, because they were the people who
served the Lord God, while the Egyptians worshipped idols and
animals. Strange it was that so wise a people as these should bow
down and pray to an ox, or to a cat, or to a snake, as did the Egyptians.
When Moses became a man, he went among his own people, leaving the
riches an d
ease that he might have enjoyed among the Egyptians. He felt a call
from God to lift up the Israelites and set them free. But at that
time he found that he could do nothing to help them. They would not
let him lead them, and as the king of Egypt had now become his enemy,
Moses went away from Egypt into a country in Arabia, called Midian.
He was sitting by a well, in that land, tired from his long journey,
when he saw some young women come to draw water for their flocks of
sheep. But some rough men came, and drove the women away, and took
the water for their own flocks. Moses saw it, and helped the women
and drew the water for them.
These young women were sisters, the daughters of a man named Jethro,
who was a priest in the land of Midian. He asked Moses to live with
him, and to help him in the care of his flocks. Moses stayed with
Jethro and married one of his daughters. So from being a prince in
the king's palace in Egypt, Moses became a shepherd in the wilderness
of Midian.
But Mo ses
did not remain a shepherd. While he was tending his sheep God
appeared to him in a burning bush and told him that he should return
to Egypt and become the leader of his people. The Lord told him that
the wicked Egyptians would be punished for the ill-treatment they
were giving the Israelites. In your Bible you will find in the book
of Exodus how God wonderfully fulfilled his promise. The Egyptians
were punished by many plagues, and finally allowed the Israelites to
go. They crossed the Red Sea in a wonderful way, and traveled for a
long time through a wilderness, where God fed them day by day with
manna from heaven. God also gave them rules as a guide for their
daily living; these rules we call the Ten Commandments; yet they
forgot the Lord so far as to make images and worship them.
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