. Thru-the-Bible Story: Baby Moses
IN OUR LAST STORY, which was quite some time ago, the Egyptians were treating the Hebrew people very badly. They had forced them to become slaves for the Egyptians! This was because many years had passed since old Jacob and his large family moved to Egypt. In those days, there was a famine in the world, and Jacob's son Joseph was second in command of all of Egypt. But those days were over. The new Pharaoh didn't care about Jacob's people.

The Hebrews had become very numerous! The Egyptians became afraid that one day there would be more Hebrews than Egyptians, so they came up with a very evil plan. They told the Hebrew parents that if they had a baby boy, they would have to throw the baby into the Nile River! Can you think of anything worse?

Now there was a Hebrew family that had a baby boy. They loved him so much that they just couldn't throw him into the river. So after a few months, the baby's mom built a little boat out of reeds. She made it waterproof so it would float, and then placed her dear baby boy into it. There must have been many tears that day! She place the little boat, baby and all, into the Nile. She was obeying the Egytian law because she did put her baby boy into the Nile.

She asked her daughter Miriam to watch over the baby in his little boat. While Miriam was watching, some rich Egyptian ladies came down to the Nile for a swim. One of these ladies was Pharaoh's daughter, a princess! The princess saw the baby floating among the reeds in the river, and asked a maid to go fetch him. The baby was crying, and the princess's heart was touched. "This is a Hebrew baby!" she said, and named him Moses.

Miriam came over to the princess and said, "shall I go find a Hebrew lady to take care of this baby for you?" Miriam had her own mom in mind, of course! When Miriam's mother arrived on the scene, the princess told her to take the baby home with her, not realizing she was the baby's own mom! What's more, she promised to pay her!

So Moses was returned to his family. God had great plans for him when he grew up!