The Life of Moses

The Life of Moses

Moses probably has one of the most dramatic and powerful stories in all of the Old Testament. In the book of Exodus, it states that the name Moses means “I drew him out of water.” The bible explains that as a baby, Moses’s mother placed him in a basket and placed the basket in the river. She was attempting to save him from the orders of the Pharaoh to have all of the male children killed that were being born to the Israelites. His mother was an Israelite. When Moses was first born, his mother hid him for three months so he would not be found and killed by the Pharaoh. The daughter of the Pharaoh found and raised Moses. During his childhood, Moses was taught about his Israelite roots and his people from his Egyptian mother. He received the best training in Egypt’s palace. God had prepared him both for dealing with the Pharaoh in the palace and with the Israelites in wilderness.

As an adult, he became very distraught at seeing his own people suffer from the hands of the Egyptians. He saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrew men as he became so angry, he killed the Egyptian. When the Pharaoh found out he ordered for Moses to be killed. Moses went into hiding in the desert in a town called Midian. He lived in the desert for forty years until God called upon him to deliver his people from slavery under the Egyptians. God made contact with Moses and told him that He was going to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians through Moses. Initially, Moses felt that he was not worthy, but God assured him that he would be with him during the entire deliverance.

When Moses was eighty years old, he and Aaron went into Egypt to rescue their people from the Pharaoh. When Moses and Aaron first approached the Pharaoh, they told him that he was to let their people go so that they could go into the wilderness. The Pharaoh refused to give consideration to this request, so God does his first miracle in front of the Pharaoh and his court. God performed ten miracles to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites out of slavery and leave to go to the wilderness. Finally, it was number ten that forced the Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Not long after Moses left Egypt with his people, Pharaoh changed his mind once again and sent his soldiers after Moses and the slaves. God performed miracles through Moses to get them all to safety in the wilderness.