The Basket Baby

The Story of Moses, Part 1

Exodus 1-3

After Joseph and his brothers all died, the people of Israel prospered and multiplied in the land of Goshen, among the Egyptians, for generations.  Their sheer numbers and prosperity aroused the envy and fear of the Egyptian king, the Pharaoh.  In an effort to control the problem, he ordered that all Hebrew boys be killed at birth.  This decree was widely ignored by the Hebrew midwives, but there was still great fear among the Israelites whenever one of the women gave birth to a boy child, because the Egyptians were also ordered to follow the decree.

When a couple of the tribe of Levi had a son, the boy's mother put him into a basket of reeds, and set the basket in the bulrushes at the edge of the Nile.  The boy's sister, Miriam, waited nearby to see what would happen to him.  Pharaoh's daughter, a princess of the royal household, had a tender heart.  When she saw the basket, she sent one of her maidservants to bring it to her, and opened it to see the baby inside.  Though she knew very well the baby was Hebrew, and what her father's decree was, she could not bring herself to harm him.  Seeing her reaction, Miriam came to the princess and asked if she should find a Hebrew wet nurse for him.  On the princess's approval, she went and called her mother.  The boy was cared for in his own home, under the protection of the princess, until he was weaned, then he went to live in the palaces of the Pharaoh.  The princess became as his own mother, and he grew up amidst wealth and privilege.

Despite his upbringing, the child, named Moses, or Drawn Out (of the water), did not lose sight of his heritage.  It pained him to see the oppression of his people, who were treated as slaves now by their Egyptian masters.  Seeing an Egyptian overseer beating a Hebrew one day, he killed the offender, and buried the body in the sand.  He thought no one had seen him, but when he tried to make peace between two of his Hebrew brethren the next day, the one in the wrong asked, "Are you going to kill me, too, like you did the Egyptian?"

Realizing that he had been found out, and that his own life was in danger, Moses fled into the wilderness of Sinai, to the east.  While there, he was befriended by a Midianite girl, Zipporah, and her father, Reuel, or Jethro.  Moses was content to settle there, and tend his father-in-law's flocks, and even had a son.  Back in Egypt, the old Pharaoh died, and God set his plan in motion to free his people from their bondage, in answer to the prayers and pleas they raised to him.

One day, as Moses was doing his usual job of herding, as he had for the past forty years, he saw a bush which seemed to be on fire, yet did not burn up.  Curious, he went to see what was going on, but as he arrived, God spoke to him, "Remove your shoes, Moses, for you are standing on holy ground".

Now that He had Moses' attention, God told him his plan.  "I have heard the prayers of my people, Israel, who are slaves among the Egyptians, and I have decided to deliver them out of the hands of Pharaoh.  You will be my spokesman before Pharaoh.  Go, and tell him to let my people go".

Moses made many excuses as to why he wasn't the right man for the job.  The people of Israel wouldn't believe him, to begin with.  God showed him miraculous signs he could in turn show to the people, from a hand which became leprous and was healed again, to a stick that turned into a snake, and became a stick once more.  Moses then protested he had a speech impediment, and neither the people nor Pharaoh would pay attention to him.  In spite of God's assurances he would be fine, he persisted in protesting.  Finally, exasperated, God told him he would send Aaron, Moses' younger person, to speak the words Moses heard.  "He's on his way to meet you," God said.  "It's time for you to go back to Egypt."