After Pharaoh gave his order to have all boys born killed, a Levite woman had a son. She hid him for three months, but could no longer make the ruse work. She made a basket out of papyrus, coated with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter found him and immediately knew that it was a Hebrew baby. Moses' sister asked if she "should go get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby." This way Moses was actually raised by both his real mother and his new adopted one.
Moses means "I drew him out of the water." That's interesting. My name, Douglas, supposedly means "out of the dark waters." Hmmm.
After Moses grew up he went out to where his own people were slaving away. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, who he knew to be one of his own people (I guess his mom or moms had clued him in to his heritage), and he looked around to see if he'd be caught (that's the moment to stop doing what you're about to do, by the way), and he killed that Egyptian and hid his dead body in the sand.
The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He questioned them and one of them said, "Who made you the boss? Are you going to kill me like you did the Egyptian?" At that moment Moses knew he was busted. Pharaoh found out about this and tried to kill his own grandson, but Moses fled into Midian. While there Moses rescued a family's flock and was rewarded with a job, a place to stay and a wife.
Later on the king of Egypt died and the Israelites groaned and cried out to God about their conditions.
God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Thus His plan was about to be speeded up (for it had already been set in motion with the birth of Moses).
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at May 3, 2007 09:14 AM