Children will love the story of Moses; his life circumstances are unique, and the perils this man faces, before he can even speak, are riveting–oh yea, and there’s a happy ending!
We are introduced to Moses through the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. A typical villain for the time period, Pharaoh, has decided that even though the Jewish people have worked their tails off to make him happy, they still pose a threat the comfortable happiness that he enjoys: “And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.” (Exodus 1:9)
Fearful of a Hebrew revolt in the future (because there were hexa Hebrews in Egypt at the time!), Pharoah orders that he will kill the vast majority of Jews by simply working them to death. He enslaved the Jewish people, having them “[build] for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses…But the more [Pharaoh] afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” (Exodus 1:11-12)
So, Pharaoh just couldn’t kill the Jewish people. His new solution: kill all newborn baby boys (the midwives were able to keep the young boys alive by saying they feared God more than Pharaoh). Exodus 22 reads “Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”
Moses would be born while this decree was in effect–his mother would keep his birth a secret for three months. When the mother feared she could no longer keep him a secret, she “she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.” (Exodus 2:3)
This is where the plot thickens, so to speak. The Pharaoh’s daughter is strolling along the river and hears baby Moses cry out. She recognizes (though, I don’t know how) that the baby is a Hebrew child, and fetches a wet nurse. The story of Moses ends with the Pharaoh’s daughter raising the baby, “ [calling] his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 2:10)
Moses goes on to do something great: to lead the people of God out of Egypt…we’ll save that for another day
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