A Prince of Egypt

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This is Day 11 of my 40 day Lenten Blog.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel, who became known as the Israelites or Hebrews, continued to live in Egypt after the death of Jacob and his sons. God blessed them and they multiplied quickly and grew very strong. But then a pharaoh who did not remember Joseph and all Joseph had done for his country took over Egypt and he made the Hebrews slaves. But the Hebrews continued to multiply and the Egyptians feared they would take over Egypt. So the pharaoh ordered that every baby boy born to the Hebrews be cast into the Nile River to die.

But there was a mother from the tribe of Levi who hid her baby son for three months. When she couldn't hide him anymore, she placed him in a basket on the river's bank. The boy's sister, Miriam, stood at a distance and watched him. Soon the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river and she found the boy there. She realized that he was one of the Hebrew children, but she had pity on him. Miriam came forward and asked the princess if she should go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child. The princess told her to do so, and so Miriam fetched her mother who took the boy and nursed him, her own son. And when he grew she gave him to the princess to raise as her own. And the princess named the boy Moses.

Moses grew up in the royal court, but he knew that he was a Hebrew. One day he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave savagely. Moses waited until no one was watching and he killed the Egyptian. Later when Moses saw two Hebrews fighting he asked them, "why do you fight your brother?" The Hebrews asked, "Who made you prince over us? Are you going to kill us like you did that Egyptian?"

This terrified Moses because he thought no one had seen him, and so he fled Egypt and went to the land of Midian. There he stopped to rest and drink by a well. While he was resting the seven daughters of the priest of Midian came to water their father's flock, but the shepherd's drove the women away. Moses stood up for the women and watered their flock for them. When their father heard about this he invited Moses to come and eat with them. And Moses married his daughter Zipporah and they had a son.

While Moses was in Midian, the king of Egypt died, and the Lord God, hearing the cries of his people who were slaves to the Egyptians, decided it was time to lead them to freedom.

Next: The Burning Bush!

R.C. VanLandingham is a Catholic homeschool dad just trying to make it through this life and into the next! He has written a Christian children's fantasy series about a boy named Peter Puckett!