HOW MOSES WAS SAVED
: Stories To Tell ChildrenThousands of years ago, many years before David lived, there was a very
wise and good man of his people who was a friend and adviser of the king
of Egypt. And for love of this friend, the king of Egypt had let numbers
of the Israelites settle in his land. But after the king and his
Israelitish friend were dead, there was a new king, who hated the
Israelites. When he saw how strong they were, and how many there were of
the Egyptians, and might take his land from him.
Then he and his rulers did a wicked thing. They made the Israelites
slaves. And they gave them terrible tasks to do, without proper rest, or
food, or clothes. For they hoped that the hardship would kill off the
Israelites. They thought the old men would die and the young men be so
ill and weary that they could not bring up families, and so the race
would dwindle away.
But in spite of the work and suffering, the Israelites remained strong,
and more and more boys grew up, to make the king afraid.
Then he did the most wicked thing of all. He ordered his soldiers to
kill every boy baby that should be born in an Israelitish family; he did
not care about the girls, because they could not grow up to fight.
Very soon after this wicked order, a boy baby was born in a certain
Israelitish family. When his mother first looked at him her heart was
nearly broken, for he was even more beautiful than most babies are,--so
strong and fair and sweet. But he was a boy! How could she save him from
death?
Somehow, she contrived to keep him hidden for three whole months. But at
the end of that time, she saw that it would not be possible to keep him
safe any longer. She had been thinking all this time about what she
should do, and now she carried out her plan.
First, she took a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it all over with
pitch, so that it was water-tight, and then she laid the baby in it;
then she carried it to the edge of the river and laid it in the flags by
the river's brink. It did not show at all, unless one were quite near
it. Then she kissed her little son and left him there. But his sister
stood far off, not seeming to watch, but really watching carefully to
see what would happen to the baby.
Soon there was the sound of talk and laughter, and a train of beautiful
women came down to the water's edge. It was the king's daughter, come
down to bathe in the river, with her maidens. The maidens walked along
by the river side.
As the king's daughter came near to the water, she saw the strange
little basket lying in the flags, and she sent her maid to bring it to
her. And when she had opened it, she saw the child; the poor baby was
crying. When she saw him, so helpless and so beautiful, crying for his
mother, the king's daughter pitied him and loved him. She knew the cruel
order of her father, and she said at once, "This is one of the Hebrews'
children."
At that moment the baby's sister came to the princess and said, "Shall I
go and find thee a nurse from the Hebrew women, so that she may nurse
the child for thee?" Not a word did she say about whose child it was,
but perhaps the princess guessed; I don't know. At all events, she told
the little girl to go.
So the maiden went, and brought her mother!
Then the king's daughter said to the baby's mother, "Take this child
away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee wages."
Was not that a strange thing? And can you think how happy the baby's
mother was? For now the baby would be known only as the princess's
adopted child, and would be safe.
And it was so. The mother kept him until he was old enough to be taken
to the princess's palace. Then he was brought and given to the king's
daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses.
But the strangest part of the whole story is, that when Moses grew to be
a man he became so strong and wise that it was he who at last saved his
people from the king and rescued them from the Egyptians. The one child
saved by the king's own daughter was the very one the king would most
have wanted to kill, if he had known.
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