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The
story of Moses
Baby
Moses cast adrift in the Nile
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| Faience
fragment with bulrushes, circa 1350BC. Papyrus bulrushes were
used in many ways, as the story of Moses shows |
Moses
was born at a bad time. The Jewish population in Egypt was
growing too rapidly, and Pharaoh ordered that all male Jewish babies be killed at birth -
this would control their population.
Moses' mother hid her baby, putting him in a
papyrus basket and pushing the little Ark on the Nile river. God would decide his fate.
The baby's sister Miriam
followed, watching. The basket drifted towards a bathing party - one of the
Pharaoh's daughters was there with her slaves. When they looked in the
basket they found a live, apparently abandoned baby.
The little baby was adopted by the royal
women, and Moses was brought up in the court.
Moses
Leaves the Safety of the Palace
One day Moses sided with a Hebrew being beaten by
an Egyptian, and he killed the Egyptian. To avoid imprisonment he headed out into the desert, where he
lived as a shepherd. He married and became a father, his father-in-law
being
the priest Jethro.
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| Brick-making
in ancient Egypt |
At about this time there was a mass movement of
the Jewish people out of Egypt.
According to the Bible story, Moses led this movement.
In a vision, Moses saw God in the form of a
burning bush. God commanded Moses to 'bring my people out of Egypt'.
When Moses pointed out that this might not be easy, given the relative
social standing of himself and the Pharaoh, God revealed his
identity - 'I Am Who I Am' and gave instructions on how Moses should
proceed. He also gave Moses the power to perform miracles. Thus fortified, Moses
confronted Pharaoh.
The
Ten Plagues
Not surprisingly, Pharaoh did not
agree to Moses' demand, so in a final confrontation
Moses imposed ten
plagues on the Egyptians:
-
water which turned to blood;
-
swarming frogs;
-
gnats and biting insects;
-
disease-carrying flies;
-
diseased cattle and
livestock;
-
eruptions of boils on the skin of people;
-
hailstorms that
destroyed crops;
-
locusts that ate any crop that had survived;
-
unexplained
darkness over the land;
-
and the last and most terrible, the death of every
firstborn member of a generation, a repetition of the killing of the
Hebrew babies of Moses' generation
(go to Bible
Plagues
for some ghastly images of the Ten Plagues.)
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Image of
Pharaoh, Egyptian mural |
During the
last plague, the death of every firstborn, the first Passover
was celebrated by the Hebrews. Under the barrage of misfortune and plague,
Pharaoh conceded defeat and agreed to let the Hebrews go. They left Egypt,
following a pillar of cloud - God in earthly form. The pillar appeared as
a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They were led by Moses and his brother and sister, Aaron and
Miriam.
The
Parting of the Red Sea
But Pharaoh regained his composure and
pursued them, triggering another disaster - the drowning of his army in
the Red (Reed) Sea.
Then began
the long wandering in the desert, where the Hebrews became what they had
once been - nomadic herdsmen.
The
Ten Commandments
Eventually they came to Mount Sinai, where
Moses received the Ten Commandments, (see How
To Get To Heaven for a modern reworking of the Ten Commandments). This complex system of laws would serve the Hebrews
throughout their history.
The
Golden Calf - A False God
Moses was focused on the God he had found, but the people were not. They remained loyal to
the ancient gods of fertility and agriculture, and were reluctant to
abandon them. In the desert they continued to worship a god of plenty who
they imaged as a a young calf.
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Phoenician
image of the god Baal as a young calf; it was originally covered
with gold leaf |
While Moses was away in the mountains they
designed and made a golden image of this god, probably Baal, and
worshipped it with orgiastic rituals.
When Moses discovered what they had done, he
was furious. He smashed the image and forbad them ever to worship in this
way again.
Mission
Accomplished
The group of Hebrews moved northwards into
Canaan. This is where the Hebrews, now the
first Israelites, would put down roots.
Moses was not to see this happen.
He died on the borders of the new land, in Moab - but his work
and faith produced a people who remembered not only slavery in Egypt, but
freedom under God.
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The
Bible text
Moses
Saved From the Nile - Exodus 2:1-10
1 Now a man from the house
of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 The woman conceived
and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him
three months.
3 And when she could hide him no longer she took for him a
basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she
put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river's brink.
4
And his sister stood at a distance, to know what would be done to him.
5
Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her
maidens walked beside the river; she saw the basket among the reeds and
sent her maid to fetch it.
6 When she opened it she saw the child; and lo,
the babe was crying. She took pity on him and said, "This is one of
the Hebrews' children."
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter,
"Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the
child for you?"
8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go."
So the girl went and called the child's mother.
9 And Pharaoh's daughter
said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will
give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.
10
And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he
became her son; and she named him Moses, for she said, "Because I
drew him out of the water."
The
Burning Bush - Exodus 3:1-15
1 Now Moses was keeping
the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Mid'ian; and he led
his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the
mountain of God.
2 And the angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a flame of
fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was
burning, yet it was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, "I will turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."
4 When
the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the
bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here am I."
5 Then
he said, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for
the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
6 And he said,
"I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to
look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, "I have seen the affliction of my
people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their
taskmasters; I know their sufferings,
8 and I have come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that
land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the
place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per'izzites, the
Hivites, and the Jeb'usites.
9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of
Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the
Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may
bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt."
11 But
Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring
the sons of Israel out of Egypt?"
12 He said, "But I will be
with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when
you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon
this mountain."
13 Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the
people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to
you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say
this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
15 God also
said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The Lord, the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, has sent me to you': this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be
remembered throughout all generations.
The
Tenth Plague: Death of the First Born
- Exodus
12:29-32
29 At midnight the LORD
smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of
Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in
the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle.
30 And Pharaoh rose up
in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there
was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where one was not
dead.
31 And he summoned Moses and Aaron by night, and said, "Rise
up, go forth from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and
go, serve the Lord, as you have said.
32 Take your flocks and your herds,
as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!"
Crossing
the Red Sea - Exodus 14:21-25
21 Then Moses stretched
out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong
east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were
divided.
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God's Eye View of the Parting of the Red Sea |
22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry
ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their
left.
23 The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of
the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
24 And in
the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down
upon the host of the Egyptians, and discomfited the host of the Egyptians,
25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily; and the
Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel; for the Lord fights
for them against the Egyptians."
The
Ten Commandments - Exodus 20
1 And God spoke all these
words, saying,
2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 "You shall have no
other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself a graven
image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5 you shall
not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third
and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing steadfast
love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the
Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall
labor, and do all your work;
10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your
daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the
sojourner who is within your gates;
11 for in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh
day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
12
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the
land which the Lord your God gives you.
13 "You shall not kill.
14
"You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 "You
shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's
wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or
anything that is your neighbor's."
The
Golden Calf - Exodus 32:1-8
1 When the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered
themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Up, make us gods, who
shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of
the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
2 And
Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears
of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."
3 So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears,
and brought them to Aaron.
4 And he received the gold at their hand, and
fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said,
"These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of
Egypt!"
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron
made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord."
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt
offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and
drink, and rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down;
for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have
corrupted themselves;
8 they have turned aside quickly out of the way
which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and
have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O
Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'
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