| But
Moses was not an Egyptian boy. Oh no! He was a
little Jewish baby. They were called Hebrews
then, which is still one of the names of the
Jewish people. The Hebrews
were the children of Jacob, and all the children
that have since been born from Jacob's children
are called Jacob's descendants. Jacob was the
grandson of Abraham.
To
Abraham and his children God promised to give the
land of Canaan, but at the time of this story all
the Hebrew people were in Egypt. Joseph, one of
Jacob's sons, had become a ruler in Egypt, and
the rest of the family went there during the
years of famine. I told you all about this in my
last story, but I want you to be sure to remember
it.
Everything
went along fine with the Hebrew children as long
as Joseph lived. But, like everybody else, Joseph
grew old and died, and so did all his brothers.
But of course there were a great many Hebrew
children who became men and women, and they had
children of their own. As years went by, there
were thousands and thousands of Hebrews living in
the land of Egypt.
The
Egyptians grew old and died also. Everybody had
to die then, just as everybody dies now, because
in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
It
won't always be that way though, for God loves
everybody, and he gave his Son, Jesus, to die for
everybody; and by and by Jesus will bring back
all the dead people and give them health and
strength, and they will then live forever. Won't
that be wonderful? That's what the Bible means
when it says that Jesus saves the people. He
saves them from death just as the big ark saved
Noah and his family from the water, and just as
the little ark saved Moses from the water.
Well,
to get back to my story, that nice, kind Pharaoh,
or king of Egypt, who had made Joseph such an
important ruler over the people, died. Then there
was a Pharaoh in Egypt who had not known Joseph
and he was unfriendly to Joseph's relatives.
This
king saw how the Hebrew children were increasing
in number, and he was afraid that some day there
would be more Hebrews than Egyptians. So what do
you suppose he did? Why, he made slaves of all
the Hebrews and put cruel masters over them to
make them work very, very hard. Perhaps he
thought this would cause them to die young, and
that soon there wouldn't be nearly as many
Hebrews.
But
God was with the Hebrews.
He
had made wonderful promises to Abraham and to
Isaac and to Jacob, and to all of Jacob's sons.
These promises belonged to all the Hebrews. They
were God's people, and God won't let anybody kill
all of his people.
Besides,
God will bring back to life all the Hebrews who
have died, and everybody else, too, for that
matter. You see, God always keeps his promises,
and no one can really interfere with what God
wants done. That's a very important thing to
remember.
Making
slaves of the Hebrews didn't stop. them from
increasing in number, so the king of Egypt
ordered that all the boy babies of the Hebrews
should be killed as soon as they were born. They
were to be thrown into the river Nile and
drowned. Wasn't that awful?
Now
the mother of the baby boy who was later named
Moses dearly loved that little child, just as all
of us love babies today, and no matter what the
king had said, she made up her mind that she
would do all she could to keep him from being
drowned.
She
kept the baby out of sight in her home for three
months, and when she realized that she couldn't
keep him hidden much longer she built that little
ark of bulrushes and painted it with tar so it
wouldn't leak. Then she placed the baby in the
ark and bid it among the leaves and grass that
grew up at the edge of the water in the river.
After
the mother put this small boat with its precious
passenger by the edge of the river, she went
away. But the baby's sister stood nearby to see
what would happen. And what do you think did
occur? Why, one of the daughters of the king-the
very king who had ordered all the Hebrew baby
boys killed—came down to the river to bathe.
Several young ladies came with her to give her
any help she needed. The king's daughter saw the
little boat snuggled among the reeds and rushes
by the water's edge, and she asked her servants
to find out what was in it.
When
they opened the basket, there was that darling
baby! Of course the king's daughter knew that it
was a Hebrew baby. She knew, too, that all Hebrew
boy babies were supposed to be drowned. But she
was tenderhearted and couldn't bear to see such a
precious little baby killed; so she decided that
she would adopt the baby and call it her own.
Wasn't that wonderful?
You
see, God had planned that when this particular
boy became ,a man he would give him a great work
to do, and this was God's way of saving the boy
he wanted to use. God always knows how to do what
he wants to do. That's why we should always trust
him and believe that his promises will come true.
The
king's daughter knew that she didn't understand
very much about taking care of babies, so just at
the right time the baby's own sister, who had
stayed nearby to see what would happen, came to
her and offered to get a nurse to take care of
the baby. The king's daughter thought this was a
very good idea, so the baby's sister went home
and brought back their mother.
When
she came, Pharaoh's daughter asked her to take
the baby and nurse him for her. Now, didn't
everything turn out well. That is the way the
Lord does things. Then the king's daughter named
the baby Moses, and Moses was cared for by his
own mother until he grew to be a young man.
A LITTLE
BOY IN AN ARK
QUESTIONS
Explain
how it come about that Moses was cared for and
educated in the
home of Egypt's ruler.
Who
was Moses, and why was he put in a small ark at
the edge of a river when
he was a baby?
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