STORIES FROM THE BIBLE---4--3

                                            MOSES--3

 

   The little girl -who was Miriam, the baby's sister - ran as quickly as she could  and brought the baby's own mother to the princess. Miriam showed in this act that she was a wise and thoughtful little girl. The princess said to the little baby's mother: "Take this child to your home and nurse it for me, and I will pay you wages for it." How glad the Hebrew mother was to take her child home! No one could harm her boy now, for he was protected by the princess of Egypt, the daughter of the king.

 

   When the child was large enough to leave his mother Pharaoh's daughter took him into her own house in the palace. She named him "Moses," a word that means "drawn out," because he was drawn out of the water. So Moses, the Hebrew boy, lived in the palace among the nobles of the land, as the son of the princess. There he learned  much more than he could have learned among his own people; for there were very wise teachers. Moses gained all the knowledge that the Egyptians had to give. There in the court of the cruel king who had made slaves of the Israelites, God's people, was growing up our Israelite boy who should at some time set his people free!

 

   Although Moses grew up among the Egyptians, and gained their learning, he loved his own people. They were poor and were hated, and were slaves, but he loved them, because they were the people who served the Lord God, while the Egyptians worshipped idols and animals. It was strange that so wise a people as these should bow down and pray to an ox, or to a cat, or to a snake.