CHAPTER IX.
THE CRADLE THAT WAS ROCKED BY A RIVER.
After Joseph and all the sons of Jacob had grown old and had pa.s.sed away, their children"s children grew in numbers until they became a great mult.i.tude.
The Pharaoh whom Joseph had served also died, and the king who followed him did not like the Hebrews. He feared them because they had grown to be strong, so he set overseers to watch them, and make them work like slaves.
He treated them cruelly, and made them lift the great stones with which they built the tombs of the kings and temples of the G.o.ds. He also tried to kill all the little boys as soon as they were born, but the Lord took care of them. Also, the king told his servants, that wherever they found a baby boy among the Hebrews, to throw him into the river Nile, but the little girls, they should save alive.
There was a man named Amrom, who, with his wife Jochebed, had a beautiful little boy whom they tenderly loved. They hid him as long as they could, and then when he was three months old and she could hide him no longer, she made up her mind to give him into the care of G.o.d.
She made a little boat, or ark of stout rushes, that grew by the river.
She wove it closer than a basket, and then covered it with pitch that the water might not enter, just as Noah covered the great ark before the flood.
Then she wrapped her baby carefully and laid him in the little boat, and set it among the reeds at the edge of the river Nile. G.o.d and His angels watched the cradle of the child, and the river gently rocked it.
Jochebed told the baby"s sister to wait near by and see what might happen to him, and this is what happened, or rather what G.o.d prepared for the baby in the boat of rushes.
The king"s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and as her maidens walked up and down by the riverside, she called one of them to bring to her the little ark that she saw rocking on the river among the reeds.
When she had opened it she saw a beautiful little child, and when it cried her heart was touched, and she longed to keep it for her own.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Pharaoh"s daughter finding Moses]
"This is one of the Hebrew"s children," she said, and as the baby"s sister came near she asked the princess if she should go and get a nurse from among the Hebrew women to bring it up for her, and the princess said to her, "Go," and the maid went and called the child"s mother. The princess said: "Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."
And the mother took her baby joyfully though she hid her joy in her heart, and carried him home to nurse and bring up for Pharoah"s daughter.
And the child grew, and when he was old enough his mother took him to the king"s palace, and he became the son of the princess. She called his name Moses, which means "drawn out," because she drew him out of the water.
CHAPTER X.
MOSES IN MIDIAN.
Moses had teachers, and was taught all the learning of the Egyptians, but his heart was with his own people. He was grieved when he saw their burdens, and heard their cries when their taskmasters struck them.
Once, when he was a grown man, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and he struck the Egyptian and killed him, for he thought he ought to defend his people: and when he saw that the man was dead, he buried him in the sand. In a day or two Moses tried to make peace between two Hebrews who were fighting, and they answered him roughly, and one of them said:
"Who made thee a ruler over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?"
Then Moses was afraid, and when the king heard of it, and tried to take his life, Moses fled away out of Egypt, through a desert into Midian.
There he found a well and sat down by it to rest. While he sat there the seven daughters of the priest of Midian came to draw water for their father"s flocks, and some rough shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flocks.
When their father knew that a n.o.ble stranger had been kind to his daughters, he asked him to come into his house, and eat bread with him, and stay as long as he would. So Moses stayed and Zipporah, one of the seven sisters, became his wife.
But Moses did not forget his people. G.o.d was preparing him to lead them out of bondage, and he learned many things, during the years that he kept the sheep of his father-in-law in the wilderness.
One day he led his flocks across the desert to Mount h.o.r.eb or Sinai.
There he saw a bush all bright within as if it burned. He drew nearer to see why the bush was not consumed, and heard the voice of the Lord calling him. The Lord told him to come no nearer, and to put off his shoes, for he stood on holy ground. Then the Lord told him that He was the G.o.d of his fathers, and that He had heard the cry of his oppressed people in Egypt.
"I know their sorrows," said the voice from the midst of the fire, "And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land, and a large--unto a land flowing with milk and honey."
Then the Lord said that Moses must go to the new Pharaoh, for the old king was dead, and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses was a very humble man, and he could not believe that Pharaoh would listen to him or that the Hebrews would follow him, but the Lord said,
"Certainly I will be with thee."
And as a sign that it should be so, He said that after Moses had brought his people out of Egypt, they should serve G.o.d in this mountain.
But Moses had many fears. He knew that he had been brought up as an Egyptian, and he feared that his people would not listen to his words.
Then the Lord showed signs to Moses to help his faith.
He turned the rod in Moses" hand into a serpent, and then when he was afraid of it, the Lord told him to take it in his hand and it became a rod again.
He also turned his hand white with leprosy, and then changed it again to natural flesh, and told Moses, that these, and other signs he should show in Egypt--to prove that he was sent of G.o.d.
But Moses felt himself to be so weak and faithless as a leader of his people, that he still cried out that he was "slow of speech, and of a slow tongue," and when the Lord said, "I will teach thee what thou shalt say," he did not believe, but begged the Lord to send by whom he would, only not by him.
Then the Lord said that Aaron, the brother of Moses could speak well, and that he should go with him to Pharoah and to his people, and should speak for him, but that the wisdom and power of G.o.d should be with Moses, and that he should do wonders with the rod in his hand.
CHAPTER XI.
THE ROD THAT TROUBLED EGYPT.
So Moses took his wife and his sons and returned to Egypt, and the rod of G.o.d was in his hand; and Aaron, sent of G.o.d, came to meet him in the wilderness, and there Moses told him all that was in his heart, and all that G.o.d had sent him to do.
When they came into Egypt they gathered the Israelites together, and Aaron spoke to them, and they believed his words, and the signs that Moses showed them.
Afterward, they went to Pharoah and gave him the message of the Lord, and Pharoah said:
"I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go."
And he began to oppress the Israelites more than he had ever done before. They made bricks of clay mixed with straw, that hardened in the sun, and were as lasting as stone, but he forced them to find the straw wherever they could, and make as many bricks as before. This they did until no more straw could be found, and their Egyptian masters beat them cruelly because they failed to make the full number of bricks. Then they turned upon Moses and Aaron and said, that they had put a sword in the king"s hand to slay them.
Where could Moses turn except to the Lord who had sent him? The Lord heard him and made to him again the great promise, as he did at the burning bush, and Moses told the people, but they could not believe it, for they were crushed under their cruel burdens.
And now the Lord sent Moses and Aaron again to Pharoah, to show by sign and miracle, that their message was from Him. They took the rod that Moses brought from Mount h.o.r.eb, and Moses told Aaron to cast it down before the king, and it became a serpent. Pharoah called his wise men and wizards, and they did the same, only Aaron"s rod swallowed up their rods, and Pharoah would not listen to their words.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The rod that troubled Egypt]
But in the morning when Pharoah walked by the river the two men stood by him and said again:
The Lord G.o.d of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee saying: