THE STORY OF MOSES

The Birth of Moses: Exodus 2:1

Before Moses was born, the Israelites were living in slavery in Egypt. The Pharaoh was afraid of the numbers and might of the growing Israelites during this time, so he had all of them put under extreme bondage and slavery so they could not rebel against him. It got so bad at one time, that the Pharaoh had put out an order to have all of the male children killed that were being born by the Israelites.

Moses was hid in reeds in a river bank

It was during this time that Moses was born. His mother was a “Hebrew,” which is another name for Israelite. When Moses was first born, his mother hid him for 3 months so he would not be found and killed by the Pharaoh.

After 3 months, his mother then placed him in an ark made out of bulrushes and then placed him down by the reeds along the river banks hoping someone else would find him and raise him up safely. It just so happened that the daughter of the Pharaoh was the one to actually find him down by the river as she was getting ready to wash herself in the river.

Once she found him, she found out who the mother was and then asked the mother to nurse him during the nursing stage. Once the nursing stage was over, the mother then gave the child back to the Pharaoh’s daughter in order that she raise him up as one of her own so the Pharaoh would not find out who he was and have him killed. Moses was thus raised up in the Pharaoh’s house.

When Moses became full grown, he became very distressed at seeing his own people suffer under the hands of the Egyptians. During one of these times, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrew men. Moses became so furious at seeing this injustice, that he killed the Egyptian who had been beating up his fellow brother.

Moses in Midian

After killing this Egyptian man, the Pharaoh then finds out about it and seeks to have Moses killed. At this point, Moses flees into the desert into a place called Midian. He then lives in the desert for 40 years until God calls him out to deliver His people from their slavery to the Egyptians.






 It must have been a great change for Moses, after he spent forty years in the palace as a prince, to go out into the wilderness of Midian and live as a shepherd. He left behind the crowded cities, the pyramids, the temples of Egypt, and the great Nile River. For forty years Moses wandered around Midian with his flocks, living alone, often sleeping on the ground and looking up by day to the great mountains.

He wore the rough skin mantle of a shepherd and in his hand was a long shepherd's staff. On his feet he wore sandals instead of shoes.
Jethro gave  Moses his oldest daughter Zipporah for a wife.
Zipporah bore Moses two children. The first one he called Gershom ("a stranger there") in commemoration of the fact that he was a stranger and exile in the land of Midian, and the second he called Eliezer, "God is my helper," in gratitude for God's protection.

The children of Israel could no longer endure their terrible suffering and persecution at the hands of their cruel overlords.
After 40 years of Moses being in the desert, God heard the cries of His people under their Egyptian bondage.
He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and decided to deliver their descendants from bondage.


Exodus 3:5

Moses and the Burning Bush

One day, Moses led Jethro's sheep to the far side of the desert, to Horeb, which was known as the mountain of God. There he saw something very strange. At the foot of the mountain, he saw a bush on fire. But the fire did not spread. And the bush did not get burned up by the fire.

Then Moses heard a voice call him: "Moses, Moses!"

"Here I am," Moses replied, with his shepherd's staff in his hand.

"Don't come any closer," the voice continued. "Take off your sandals, for the ground on which you are now standing is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
When Moses heard the voice, he fell to his knees. He was afraid to look at the bush, which he knew was God.

Then the Lord said, "I have seen how cruel the Egyptians have been to you and the other Hebrews, who are my chosen people. The time has come for me to rescue you from the Egyptians.

"Therefore, I promise to bring you back to the land that I promised to Abraham and Isaac a long time ago. This is known as the promised land of Israel, which is a lovely land, with plenty of water for you to grow your crops.

"So go now, Moses, and tell Pharaoh that you will be the one chosen by me to lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt."

God was calling him to service.  He wanted Moses to be the leader of the Israelites and take them away from being slaves in Egypt to serve God in the Promised Land.  Moses made excuses but finally he realized he could not turn down God's call to serve him. As one last effort to make an excuse, he asked God what his name was so he could tell the children of Israel who it was that called him.  God answered with a word we now call Jehovah (from YAHWEH), which means I AM THAT I AM.

 In fact ten times he went to tell the Pharaoh, 'Let God's people go!' Each time Pharaoh said 'NO!' God would send a terrible plague on the Egyptians - a whole series of disasters - water instead of blood, frogs, flies, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death - it was dreadful. The Israelites watched and were finally convinced that God wanted to deliver them. They became sure that Moses was the leader they were to follow and that God had given Moses new courage and new authority.

God let plagues strike Egyptians

Just as God had said, they saw his 'mighty acts of judgment'. The climax came with the Passover, when God delivered the Israelite families from the death of their first-born and killed the first-born in every Egyptian family from the Pharaoh to their animals.

The Pharaoh and the Egyptians were terrified that they would all die. They begged the Israelites to leave the country, along with all the flocks and herds they would need for the journey ahead. Their anxious slave masters even loaded them with clothing, gold and silver.

 Exodus 14

This next miracle by God has to be one of the most dramatic and spectacular in all of Scripture. The children of Israel have now left Egypt. The Pharaoh, after allowing them to leave, once more changes his mind and decides to pursue them with all of his army in order to try and get them back. When the children of Israel see this, they start complaining to Moses.

The Red Sea was divided into two

The Red Sea is literally parted by dry ground! The Israelites then proceed to cross over the Red Sea on this dry ground mass that God has now miraculously provided for them in order for them to escape from the Egyptians.Moses then proceeds to stretch out his hand over the sea and then the sea returns to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. The Bible says that the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea!

Deuteronomy 34

Moses died in the land of Moab before the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River to go in to possess the land.
So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.
Moses was buried by the Lord and the place of his burial was kept secret from all men.

 Moses died on Mount Nebo and was 120 years old when he died.

 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days.