Moses, the Leader of God’s People
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service in the field.” “But the more they afflicted them, the more they
multiplied and grew.”
The king and his counselors had hoped to subdue the Israelites with
hard labor, decrease their numbers, and crush out their independent
spirit. Orders were now issued to the women whose employment gave
them opportunity, to destroy the Hebrew male children at their birth.
Satan knew that a deliverer was to be raised up among the Israelites,
and by leading the king to destroy their children he hoped to defeat
the divine purpose. But the women feared God and dared not execute
the cruel mandate.
The king, angry at the failure of his design, made the command
more urgent and extensive. “Pharaoh charged all his people, saying,
Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter
ye shall save alive.”
Moses Born in the Worst of Times
While this decree was in full force, a son was born to Amram and
Jochebed, Israelites of the tribe of Levi. The parents, believing that the
time of Israel’s release was drawing near and that God would raise up
a deliverer for His people, determined that their little one should not
be sacrificed. Faith in God strengthened their hearts, “and they were
not afraid of the king’s commandment.”
Hebrews 11:23
.
The mother concealed the child for three months. Then, finding
that she could no longer keep him safely, she prepared a little ark of
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rushes, making it watertight by means of slime and pitch; and, laying
the babe therein, she placed it among the flags at the river’s brink. His
sister Miriam lingered near, anxiously watching to see what would
become of her little brother.
And there were other watchers. The mother had committed her
child to the care of God; and angels, unseen, hovered above his lowly
resting place. Angels directed Pharaoh’s daughter thither. Her curiosity
was excited by the little basket, and as she looked upon the beautiful
child within, the tears of the babe awakened her compassion; her
sympathies went out to the unknown mother who had resorted to this
means to preserve her precious little one. She determined that he
should be saved; she would adopt him as her own.