Moses

Famine

After they had been in Canaan a long time there was a great famine in the land and it was very difficult to get enough to eat.  Only in one place was there sufficient food and that was the land of Egypt.  So the tribe went there with all their flocks and herds and settled down in a part of the country called Goshen.

Slavery in Egypt

They lived there quite happily for about 400 years until a new Pharaoh, or King of Egypt, came to his throne.  He didn’t like the Israelites because by now they had become a strong nation of 12 tribes, and he was afraid that they might join his enemies and fight against him.  He therefore made them slaves and set them to work on making great public buildings.

Escape from Egypt

God decided that the time had come for them to leave Egypt as they had left Haran, and to settle in Canaan for good.  They could not escape without a leader and so God chose a man named Moses who asked Pharaoh to let the people go.  Pharaoh refused but one night Moses led them out.  In the morning Pharaoh found that they had escaped and sent his army after them to catch them.

When the Israelites got to the Red Sea they saw on the skyline behind them the cloud of dust thrown up by the wheels of the Egyptian war chariots as they came racing towards them.  The Israelites, however, were able to cross the Red Sea during the night because God sent a strong east wind to keep the tide back.  But when the Egyptians tried to cross, the tide came up, their chariot wheels stuck in the sand and they were drowned.  “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.  Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians.  So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (NRSV, Exodus 14: 30-31).

SUMMARY

1. Before he was born into the world as Jesus Christ, God had to prepare the world to receive him.  His ‘Chosen People’ were the Hebrew people, also known as the Israelites, and later the Jews.

2. First God brought Abraham from Ur to Canaan or Palestine where Abraham’s family became a tribe known as the children of Israel or the Israelites.

3. Because of famine they went to live in Egypt where later they were enslaved, but God rescued them through Moses, their leader.