The Story of Moses (1)

Do you remember the story about Joseph? We told you that his brothers hated him so much that they sold him to some travelers. These men took him to Egypt where he was sold to an important man by the name of Potiphar. After being in jail for some time for something he did not do, the Lord led Pharaoh to release Joseph from prison, and he made Joseph a very important man in his kingdom because he had interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph has large barns built to store food, so it will be available when the years of famine come.

Now all of Joseph’s family was living in Egypt. The Lord had provided that they were taken care of with food and a place to keep their cattle. Many years went by. Joseph had children, and his children had children. Joseph died, but he left behind a very large family. They did not return to the land of Canaan but stayed in Egypt. They felt very much at home there. They were all the offspring of Jacob whose name the Lord had changed to Israel; therefore, they were known as the children of Israel.

Joseph died, but someone else died also. That was Pharaoh who had been a good friend. The new king did not know Joseph or what he had done for the people by giving them food. He became concerned when he saw all the people who were not Egyptians. He said to his servants, “There are more of these strangers than there are of us. What would happen if there were a war? They could fight against us and take over our country. We have to put them to work for us. We will have them build two cities for us, and we will make them work very, very hard.”

So, the children of Israel had to work very hard. They could hardly stop to even take a drink of water. The king thought that with his plan the people would get sick and die. However, that did not happen; the people continued to increase in numbers, and they became stronger and stronger. The king said to his servants, “We have to make them work harder. From now on, we will not give them straw to make bricks, but they will have to get it themselves, as well as the mortar, but they still have to make the same number of bricks as before.”

Did the plan work? No, it did not. The people still increased in number. The children of Israel became greater and greater, and the king whose name was also Pharaoh became angry. He asked the two nurses who helped the Israelite women when babies were born to kill all the new-born boys . In that way he hoped that the people would gradually become fewer and weaker. The nurses, however, did not kill any of the boy babies because they feared the Lord. When Pharaoh asked the nurses why they did not obey him, they told him that the Hebrew women gave birth very quickly so that the babies were born before they got there. The Lord blessed these nurses because they did not follow the king’s command.

In all of their trouble, the children of Israel called upon the Lord and He heard them. We all know that the Lord is mightier than the greatest king, and He always looks out for His people. He would work out a way to help the people of Israel escape from Pharaoh and from the land of Egypt.

Pharaoh tried one more way to kill all the baby boys. Do you think that the Lord would allow that to happen? We will read in our next story how one baby boy was saved whom the Lord would use to save the nation of Israel.

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