Chapter 29. Exodus 1, 2. Moses.
MANY years passed since Joseph’s death, and that of his brethren. A new generation of Israelites now lived in Egypt; they were very many, the country was full of them. A new king was reigning who did not know Joseph. He was cruel and hated the Israelites.
When he saw how they multiplied and were growing strong, he said to his people:
The children of Israel are more and mightier than we. We must deal wisely with them, less they multiply and it happens that when we go to war, they join themselves to our enemies and fight against us, and go out of the land. He therefore set hard task masters over them, and commanded them to do hard work in the fields and to make bricks. But the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and grew.
God was fulfilling his promise to Abraham many years ago: “In blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore.” God never forgets His promise to His people, for He is ever faithful. But had He not forgotten His promise to Jacob to bring him back to the land of Canaan, which He had given him for a possession? Ah! no. We read that God told Abraham that his children should go to a strange land and be afflicted there till the end of four hundred years. God knew the time. Soon the four hundred years would be over, then the Israelites would be sent home to their own land again. God saw fit to teach His earthly people patience, and dependence upon Him. It is in trials and afflictions that we often have to learn God’s wonderful power and love, and He is able to make us happy through it all.
But Pharaoh, the cruel king, neither knew nor feared God, and he tried again and again to destroy the Israelites. He commanded that every boy born to them, should be thrown into the river and drowned.
There was, in the tribe of Levi, a man named Amram, and his wife Jochebed, to whom God had given a baby boy. He was beautiful, and they loved him, and tried to save him from the cruel king. For three months, the mother hid her child that he might not be drowned. But as he grew larger, she could hide him no longer. But she knew God could keep her little boy if she could not. He can help us, no matter what trouble we happen to be in, and He can take care of us when our dearest friends cannot. He was pleased now to help this poor woman who trusted in Him, and to take care of her child.
The mother gathered some bulrushes, and platted them into a little basket or ark; she daubed it with slime and pitch; then she gently placed her baby into it, and carried it to the river, and left the ark among the high grasses and reeds on the river’s brink. In faith, she gave him up to God who alone could keep him.
Her daughter, Miriam, stood afar off to see what would happen to the child. Soon she saw some people coming—some young girls, Pharaoh’s daughter and her maids. They walked along by the river, for the princess was going to bathe. The king’s daughter spied the ark among the bulrushes, and sent one of the maids to fetch it. The young girl ran, and took up the ark and brought it to her mistress, and when she opened it, she saw the poor babe crying. The princess was filled with pity for it and said: “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Miriam drew near and asked: “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?” Pharaoh’s daughter said: “Go.” Miriam ran home for her mother, to whom the princess said: “Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages.” The mother brought him home, and, we may feel sure, praised God for His goodness. She nursed her boy and he grew. When he was a little older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, for she said: “I drew him out of the water.”
ML 09/26/1909