Makers of Civilization – MOSES (about 1300 B.C.)

Many years ago a little boy called Moses was growing up in the palace of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. He was not an Egyptian. His tribe, the Jews, were foreigners who had come to Egypt for food in time of famine. They had stayed there and had in- creased and become very strong, so that Pharaoh was afraid of them and had given a very cruel order that all boy babies should be killed so as to make the tribe weak.

So when Moses was born his mother tried to save his life. She took a basket, made it watertight with clay, put the baby in it, and one morning left him floating on the River Nile at the place where Pharaoh’s daughter came down every morning to bathe. When the princess saw the baby she was so pleased with him, as he lay laughing there, that she wanted him for her own. She told her women to pick him up and carry him to the palace and find a nurse for him. His mother’s sister was hiding by the river- side and when she heard what the princess said she came out and said she could find a nurse for him. She went away and found the baby’s mother, and so she came to the palace to look after him.

The princess loved him and treated him as her son, but in his heart Moses was not at peace because he knew that he was not an Egyptian and he knew that his people, the Jews, were being cruelly treated. One day when he was grown up he saw a Jew being flogged by an Egyptian. He was so angry that he rushed up and killed the Egyptian. He thought no one had seen him, but the next day someone said to him: ‘Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ Then he knew that he had been seen and so he must run away.
He went into the desert and there he looked after the flocks of a man called Jethro. He served him so well that he was allowed to marry his daughter. One day when he was out with his sheep he saw a strange sight-a bush which was on fire and yet the bush was not being burned up. He was so curious about it that he went up to it and when he got near it, he heard God speaking to him: ‘Moses! Moses!’ So he said: ‘Here I am,’ and God said: ‘I am sending you back to Egypt to lead my people, the Jews, out of Egypt into a rich land which I am going to give  them, called the land of Canaan.’ Moses was very much afraid, but God said He would take care of him and that his brother, Aaron would help him.

So they returned to Egypt and went to Pharaoh and asked him to let the Jews go. Pharaoh at first said ‘Yes’, and then changed his mind and refused, so God sent terrible plagues to frighten him. He sent locusts once to eat up all the growing things in Egypt, and another time a terrible storm which destroyed all their crops and another time a terrible sickness. Still Pharaoh said ‘No’, so in the end God killed all the first-born sons in Egypt and then Pharaoh was frightened and begged the Jews to go. This time he did not change his mind and the Jews set off.
But after they had gone Pharaoh was sorry. The Jews were many-hundreds and thousands of them -and they had worked very hard for him. So he sent soldiers after them to bring them back. Moses prayed to God and asked Him what to do because the Red Sea was in front of them and the Egyptians were be- hind them. God told him not to be afraid but to send the Jews forward. When they came to the edge of the Sea a great wind came and the Sea was rolled back and the Jews crossed over on the dry land. But when the Egyptians tried to follow them the wind changed and the Sea came back and all the Egyptians were drowned.

So the Jews got safely out of Egypt, but between them and the Land of Canaan lay miles of desert. Moses had a hard task because the people grumbled at him and refused to do what they were told. The country was a hard one. Every now and then they came to an oasis with palm trees, grass, and water- springs, but most of the time they were wandering in the hard, burning desert.
and Babies were born and the children grew up the people grew more in number and the work that Moses had to do grew too much. There were so many disputes to settle and so many law-breakers to be punished. One day Moses’ father-in-law came to see him and he was troubled because Moses looked so tired and old. He drew Moses apart and gave him some good advice. He told him to divide the Jews up into companies and to choose a trustworthy man to be head of each, so that they could deal with all the small cases and only bring the very big ones to Moses. So he took his father-in-law’s advice and the first system of government was set up for the Jews.

After the Jews had been wandering in the desert for a long time they came to a very high mountain called Mount Sinai. While they were encamped at the bottom of the mountain, a great cloud came down over the mountain, and God told Moses to come up into the mountain to speak to Him. So Moses went up and was in the mountain for forty days while God gave him ten commandments and many other rules and directions for the people.

He was so long away that the Jews became im- patient. They said Moses was dead and God had forsaken them and they asked Aaron to make them a god. So Aaron ordered all the people to bring him their ear-rings-even the men wore ear-rings-and he melted them down and made an image of a calf from the gold. He told the people that this was their new god and they began to offer sacrifices to it. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai he heard the dancing and the drumming and the singing and when he got near to the camp he saw the golden calf. Then he was very angry and took the calf and ground it to powder and threw it into the drinking water and made the Jews drink it and he put to death about three thousand men who had taken part in making the calf.

At last after many years the Jews came near to the Promised Land. Moses sent men to spy out the land and bring back a report of it. They came back saying what a rich land it was-‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ they called it-and they brought back reports of how strong the people were. They said they were like giants. They told such frightening stories about them that the Jews refused to go into the Promised Land. Only two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb, urged them to go on and said that they were sure that God would help them to conquer Canaan. But they could not persuade them and so the Jews turned away from the Promised Land and it was many years before they came back again.
Moses became a very old man, weary and tired, and most of the Jews who had left Egypt with him died. The young man Joshua became Moses’ helper and at last he persuaded the people to turn back to- wards Canaan. With him as their leader they began to win great victories, so their confidence grew and at last they were ready to cross the River Jordan into the Promised Land. But Moses was too old to go with them. One day he knew his end was near, so he climbed up a very high mountain and from the top of it he looked out across the River Jordan into the Promised Land, with its fields and its palm trees stretching away into the distance. He saw the land towards which they had been travelling for so many years but he was not allowed to enter it. He died there on the top of Mount Nebo and Joshua led the Jews into the Promised Land.

THINGS YOU CAN DO

1. Find in your atlases Egypt and the Red Sea. 2. Read some of the stories of Moses in
your
Bibles:
Exodus ii. 1-10.
Exodus iii. 1-12
Exodus xiv. 1-31.
3. Learn as many of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses for the Children of Israel as you can. Exodus XX 1-17.

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