Moses’ Birth | Baby Moses Story

A long, long time ago, there lived a family of Israelites in the land of Egypt. The Israelites were descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they had moved to Egypt when times were tough in their homeland of Canaan. At first, the Egyptian pharaoh welcomed the Israelites, and they lived in peace. But over time, a new pharaoh came into power who feared the Israelites were growing too numerous. 

“If the Israelites join with our enemies during a war,” this cruel pharaoh worried, “they might turn against us too!” So the pharaoh decided to oppress the Israelites by making them slaves. He forced them to work long, backbreaking hours building cities and monuments with bricks made of mud and straw.

Despite their difficult lives, the Israelites continued to have many children, and the pharaoh became more threatened. He issued a terrible command to the midwives who helped the Hebrew women give birth.

“When you attend the Hebrew births,” the pharaoh ordered, “if the baby is a son, you must kill him. But if it is a daughter, you may allow her to live.”

The midwives, however, feared God more than they feared the pharaoh’s orders. They did not follow the evil command to kill the baby boys. Instead, they helped the boys and their mothers stay safe and healthy.

Around this time, a man from the tribe of Levi married a woman from his own tribe. They had a son, but the mother saw that he was a beautiful, healthy baby boy. She loved him very much and decided to hide him, disobeying the pharaoh’s cruel law.

For three months, the mother kept her precious newborn son hidden and safe. But babies quickly grow bigger and start making noises that are hard to conceal. She knew she couldn’t keep him hidden much longer. So she made a careful plan.

Down by the river bank, the mother wove a small basket out of papyrus reeds and coated it with sticky tar to make it waterproof. She gently laid her baby inside the tiny ark and set it afloat amongst the tall reeds in the river shallows, leaving her daughter to watch over him from a distance. The girl stayed hidden, her eyes never leaving the basket bobbing on the river’s currents.

It just so happened that on that very day, the pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bathe, accompanied by her maids. As they strolled along the water’s edge, the princess noticed the strange little basket caught in the reeds.

“What is that over there?” she asked one of her maids. “Go and get it for me.”

The maid waded into the shallows and brought the basket to the princess, who opened it curiously. And there, nestled inside, was one of the cutest, most adorable babies she had ever seen! The little boy looked up at her and started to cry.

“This must be one of the Hebrew babies,” the princess said. But instead of being disgusted or angry, she felt a warm love swelling up inside her for the helpless child.

Just then, the baby’s sister, who had been watching everything from a safe distance, gathered her courage and approached the princess.

“Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse this baby for you?” the girl asked.

Surprised but delighted at this helpful suggestion, the princess agreed.  

The girl ran as fast as she could back to her home and brought the baby’s own mother to the princess.

“Take this baby and nurse him for me,” the princess told the Hebrew woman. “And I will pay you for your service.”

The mother could hardly contain her joy at being allowed to care for her own precious son once again! From that day on, the princess treated the boy as her own, and when he grew older, she brought him to live at the palace. She named him Moses, which means “drawn out of the water.”

The years passed, and Moses grew into a fine young man, raised as an Egyptian prince with the finest tutors and privileges. Yet somehow he always knew he was different – that he was truly a Hebrew, one of the enslaved Israelites. His heart longed for the freedom of his people.

One day, as Moses was out among the work sites, he witnessed an Egyptian overseer mercilessly beating an Israelite slave. Moses was so angry at the injustice that he struck the Egyptian dead and hid the body in the sand.

When Pharaoh learned what Moses had done, he condemned him to death. But Moses fled Egypt and ended up far away in the land of Midian, where he settled down and married a woman named Zipporah.

For many more years, Moses lived peacefully as a humble shepherd in Midian. He might have spent the rest of his life that way, if not for something amazing that happened one day while he was tending his sheep in the wilderness…