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After the Pharoah of Egypt died,
a cruel king took his place.
The new Pharoah did not like
to see the Hebrews, or
Israelites as they were called,
happy. He made them work
really hard and assigned people
over them to make sure they did.
If they slowed down at all they
were punished. But, no matter how much
punishment the Pharoah tried
to do to them, their families
continued to grow and prosper.
This made the Pharoah very mad.
He issued a command saying
that all male children born to a
Hebrew woman was to be killed.
There was one woman who ignored
this command. For three months
after her child was born, she hid
him. Then came the time when
she could hide him no longer.
She decided to make a basket
to hide her baby in. She made
it out of bullrushes and covered it
with pitch so it would float.
Then she put her baby in it and
put it in the reeds, (shallow water)
along the river's bank. She had her daughter hide
and see what happened.
After a short time, the Pharoah's
daughter came down to the river
to bathe. She saw the baskets
and told her servants to bring
it to her. When she saw the
baby crying she took pity
on him. She decided she was
going to raise this child.
The baby's sister heard the Pharoah's
daughter say this. She came out of
the bushes and told her that
she knew of a Hebrew woman that
had recently lost a child who
could breast feed the child.
The Pharoah's daughter told her to
go get her. Not knowing that this
was really the babies mother.
She named the baby Moses, which
means drawn out of the water.
Moses grew to be a fine young man.
One day he saw an Egyptian
officer beating a Hebrew slave.
He became so angry that he killed
the officer. Fearing that he would be killed,
Moses fled to the land of Midian.
There he remained for many years.
One day, while leading his sheep
into the wilderness to graze,
Moses came upon the mountain of God
called Herob. God appeared to Moses
in a flame of fire from a bush.
When Moses looked carefully at
the bush, he saw that even though
there was fire, the bush was
not burning. This was God's way of
calling Moses. He had something
very important for Moses to do.
God told Moses that he had saw
all the pain and suffering that
the Israelites had been through.
He wanted Moses to lead them to
freedom. He promised Moses He would
help him find a land that was
rich with milk and honey.
Moses didn't understand how he
could lead people to freedom,
but God assured him that together
they could perform miracles.
The He would be with him.
Moses and his brother Aaron,
went to Egypt to see the Pharoah.
They said to him," The Lord the
God of Israel says, Let my
people go." The Pharoah replied,
"Who is the Lord that I should
heed His voice and Let Israel
go?" Moses performed a miracle to
show the power of God.
At God's command, Aaron cast
down his rod and it turned into
a snake. The Pharoah was still
not convinced. He refused to
let the people go.
Moses and Aaron went to the
Pharoah again the next day
and again asked him to let the
people go. The Pharoah again refused.
Then Aaron struck the water with
his rod and turned the river Nile
into blood, and no living thing
could drink from it. He would
still not free the Israelites.
Instead he gave them harder
work to do and treated them
even worse.
To punish the Egyptians, God sent
in horrible plagues. He overran
the land with frogs and locusts,
caused darkness over the land,
and made each plague worse than the
last. The Pharoah became frightened
and told Moses he would let the people
go as soon as God lifted the plagues.
As soon as God did, the
Pharoah took back his word and
put the Israelites in bondage.
God sent one more affliction. This
was the Angel of Death. God
told Moses for all the Hebrew
families to mark their doors with
a sign. The Angel of Death came to every
Egyptian house and took the first
born child of each family. The angel
passed over the houses of the Hebrews.
This was the beginning of the Passover.
This is celebrated all over the
world by generations of Hebrews.
The Angel of Death had also taken
the Pharoah's child. He finally
told Moses to take the people.
The people gathered their belongings
in a hurry, afraid that the Pharoah
would change his mind. God told
Moses to lead the people to the
Red Sea. The Pharoah got to
thinking about what he had done. He
changed his mind and sent his
Soldiers to overtake the Israelites
and bring them back to slavery.
When the Israelites saw the
Army they panicked and turned
against Moses. Moses told the
people to not be afraid, that
God would watch out for their safety.
God created a great cloud that
He placed between the Israelites
and the Egyptians. The Pharoah's
army could not see. He then
commanded Moses to stretch out his
hand over the Red Sea. When he did
this the sea divided and left a
dry path in the middle for the
Israelites to pass through. As soon as the last Hebrew person had passed through, Moses
again stretched out his hand and
the sea closed up. All of the
Egyptians following behind were
drowned.
Moses led his people into the
wilderness. There they had a
hard time finding food for their
families. They became angry
with Moses and told him they
would rather be in bondage where
they would at least have food.
God heard the complaints and in
the morning when the Israelites
awoke there was quail all over
the camp and thin flakes of meal covered
the ground. Moses said to them,
"It is the bread which the Lord
has given you to eat." The
Israelites gathered these fine flakes of
bread and called their new food "manna'.
As the Israelites moved further
into the wilderness, the people of
Amalek attacked them. Moses chose a man by
the name of Joshua to lead them
into battle. Moses went to the
top of a mountain. Each time
he raised his rod into the air
the Israelites began to win the battle.
But, each time he lowered it they
began to lose. Moses's arms grew
so tired of holding them in the
air that he had to have Aaron
and another man by the name of Hur
hold his arms up. Finally the war was over
and the Israelites had won.
Shortly afterwards, Moses and his
people traveled to a place called
Sinai and camped below a mountain.
God told Moses that in 3 days time
He would come down from the mountain
of Sinai for all the people to see.
On the third day there was thunder
and lightening, a great cloud came
over the mountain, and Moses
brought his people out to see God.
When Moses spoke, God answered with fire
and thunder.
Then Moses went up the mountain by
himself. God gave Moses the
10 commandments. These commandments are
rules written by God for all the
people to follow.
Moses spent 40 days up on the
Mountain listening to God.
The people thought he would never
come down. The started to lose
faith in God. They asked Aaron to
build them and idol to worship.
Aaron didn't want to do this,
but the people came to him every
day and he finally agreed. He
asked the people for all their gold
items. These he melted down and
shaped into a golden calf.
When Moses came down from the mountain,
he was very angry. He saw
the people dancing and singing around
the golden calf. He was so angry that
the threw down the tablets
of stone which were written the
10 commandments and broke them.
He then took the golden calf
and set it on fire and ground
it into dust. He scattered this on
the water and made the people
drink of it. Moses called all
those that wanted to worship God to
him and told them to kill all
those that wanted to worship idols.
Then Moses went back to the Mountain
of Sinai to talk to God. He asked God
for forgiveness for his people.
God relented and restored the
10 commandments: (Exodus 20)
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbour's.
When Moses was ready to die,
God sent him to the top of a
mountain which overlooked the
valley of the Jordan River at Jericho.
He told him that this rich,
fertile land was the land of milk
and honey and He promised it to
the Israelites. God told Moses that
he himself would never enter this
land, but the children of Israel would.
Soon afterwards, Moses died at
the age of 120. The people of
Israel mourned the great loss of
their leader. The leader who
had brought them out of slavery,
through the wilderness, and made them
a united people. This shows how
God protects and guides His children.
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