A long, long time ago, a woman lived in Egypt. She was an Israelite, because the people of Israel lived in Egypt as slaves at that time. The woman had a little boy whom she loved very much. But there was a big problem: Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had ordered that all Israelite boys should not survive.
The woman knew that she had to hide her young son so that he was safe. When the boy was three months old, she could no longer hide him in the house. But the clever mom had a plan. She took a basket of reeds and made it waterproof by smearing it with tar and pitch. Then she put her little boy in the basket.
Carefully she placed the basket in the middle of the tall reeds on the bank of the Nile, a large river. The river was peaceful, and the reeds protected the basket so that it did not drift away. The mother told her daughter Miriam to stay nearby and watch what happened to the basket.
One day the daughter of the Pharaoh, the princess, came to the bank of the river to bathe. Suddenly she discovered the little basket in the reeds and sent a servant to fetch it. When the princess opened the basket, she found the little boy inside. The little boy cried, and the princess took pity on him. “That must be one of the Israelite children,” she said.
Then Miriam came out of hiding and courageously said to the princess: “Shall I call an Israelite woman who can nurse the baby for you?” The princess nodded, and Miriam hurried to fetch her mother. The princess instructed the child’s mother to take care of her own son for her, not knowing that it was his own mother. She promised to pay the woman for it.
When the boy grew up, his mother took him to the princess, and he became her son. The princess named him Moses, which means “pulled out of the water”.
Message of history
God takes care of us, even when everything seems difficult. He has a wonderful plan for each and every one of us, just as He had a plan for Moses.
Bible passage
The story of Moses in the basket is found in 2. Moses 2:1-10:
*”And a man went out of the house of Levi, and took a daughter Levi. And the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And when she saw that he was handsome, she hid him for three months. But when she could no longer conceal it, she took a casket of reeds, and bound it with asphalt and pitch, and laid the boy in it, and set it in the reeds on the bank of the Nile. But his sister lined up from afar to find out what was going to happen to him.
And Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the Nile, and her maidservants walked on the bank of the Nile. And she saw the casket in the midst of the reeds, and sent her maid to fetch it. And she opened it and saw the boy; and behold, the boy wept. Then she took pity on him, but she said, “It is from the Hebrew children!” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call for you a nursing wife of the Hebrews to nurse your boy?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” Then the girl went and called the boy’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this boy with you and nurse him for me, and I will give you your reward.” And the woman took the boy and nursed him.
And when the boy had grown up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son; and she called his name Moses, saying, “I have pulled him out of the water.” *
