God's people need a Deliverer

At this time (about 1400 BC) in Egypt on the Nile Delta in the land of Goshen, lived Amram and his wife Jochebed. They were from the tribe of Levi of the Israelites which were a sizable nation now.

They had 2 children, Aaron and Miriam. When the cruel edict of the Pharaoh came out to throw all the male children in the Nile, Jochebed delivered a son and hid him while she could, but when she could no longer hide him, she put him in the river, according to the Pharaoh's command.


                           

However, she put him in a little ark with a lid she had made from reeds covered with pitch, and made him safe and comfortable with a blanket and floated the little boat among the reeds along the river.

Pharaoh's daughter came down to wash in the river and saw the little ark floating in the reeds and sent her maidens to fetch it. When she opened the ark and saw the baby and him crying, she wanted him for her own. She knew that it was one of the Hebrew children.

Miriam was watching from a distance and came and asked if she wanted her to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. Pharaoh's daughter answered and said to take the child and nurse it and she would pay wages. Because the child was drawn out of the river, she named him Moses. So Miriam took Moses back to his mother to nurse and collect money for doing so. Moses was raised in the Pharaoh's house as royalty.

God had heard the cry of His people, and now the one who would deliver them was being raised and educated in the royalty of the Pharaoh. Moses grew up as a Prince of Egypt, yet in his heart he knew he wanted to deliver his people Israel from their taskmasters.

When Moses was 40 he went into Goshen and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew....these were his people! So, he killed the Egyptian task master and hid his body. When Moses went out the next day, he saw 2 Hebrews striving with each other and when he went to break it up, they said, "Who made you a Prince and Judge over us? Will you kill me like you did the Egyptian yesterday?" Moses knew that this was not a secret. When the Pharaoh heard of it, he wanted to kill Moses. So Moses fled from Egypt and went to dwell in the land of Midian, which is in present Saudi Arabia. There he met Jethro the Priest of Midian who had 7 daughters. Moses helped the daughters water their stock and fought off some of the herdsmen who were driving them away from the water. He was taken home to present day Al Bad and lived there with Jethro. He married one of his daughters, Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, Gershom which means stranger, for Moses said I am a stranger in a strange land.

           Moses' well in Midian (present day Al Bad, Saudi Arabia)
                     



Dwellings at Al Bad, Jethro's home.

 God still had Moses in training for his great task of delivering Israel from Egypt. Moses had jumped the gun when he killed the Egyptian, he was seeking his destiny. Now he would live in the desert here in Midian (Saudi Arabia) and learn the land in preparation for the great Exodus event, Exodus 2.



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