many years after joseph son of Jacob was given the gift of reading dreams and putting control of all of Egypt
a new pharaoh had taken the throne of Egypt but this pharaoh was not kind
he had made god's people the Israelites into his slaves
he forced them to work all day and treated them very badly
they were made to do heavy work and not given any respect
the other Egyptians were also unkind to the Israelites and made their difficult lives even worse
the Egyptians made them carry heavy rocks day and night and work in dangerous building sites
many Israelites were injured either by the work or by the cruelty of the Egyptian slave owners
the Israelites suffered greatly
and this was far from the glory that Joseph had brought to the Israelites in the land of Egypt
the Israelites worked hard and suffered under their slave masters
but as Egypt prospered there was more and more work that the Egyptians needed the Israelites to do for them
over time the number of Israelites enslaved in Egypt grew and grew
until eventually, their number became large enough that the pharaoh started to have second thoughts
the number of Israelites continues to grow with every year
soon there will be too many and they may start to want power
this cannot happen
the pharaoh became deeply scared that if the Israelites continued to grow a number
that they may try to seek some power and could even take over Egypt
he wanted to do whatever he could to make sure this did not happen
something must be done I will make sure that the Israelites will never grow too powerful
I will rid the Israelites of all their young boys
to make sure they cannot continue to grow in numbers
and so the pharaoh gave the terrible order that all the baby boys born to the Israelites must be thrown into the mighty river
the Israelites were heartbroken as their beloved children were taken away from them
they could not believe the cruelty of the pharaoh had come this far
to ensure that his cruel plan could not possibly fail
the pharaoh instructed his servants that this must be done every time a new baby was born
each and every one of them was to be thrown into the river
one day an Israelite woman named Jochebed gave birth to a beautiful baby boy
she was terrified of the pharaoh's evil rule that all baby boys must be thrown into the river
she decided she would not let her precious son suffer the same fate as the other Israelite boys
and that she would do whatever it took to spare her precious baby's life
she decided not to take him to the river and to hide him instead
however, as time went on she realized this plan could not last forever
after three months she finally accepted that she could not keep her sweet baby hidden from the Egyptians
she thought long and hard about what to do to keep her son alive
after careful thought, she had an idea
Jochebed decided to fix her baby's basket to make sure no water could enter it
she put her precious baby inside the basket and secretly took him to the river
with great sadness, the baby's mother placed the basket into the river and watched as her son drifted away
although it was painful she hoped she had done the right thing
and that this would be enough to save her son's life
as the baby drifted down the river his older sister Miriam followed his basket
watching closely to see what would happen to her baby brother
she wanted to make sure that he would be safe and that god would not let any harm come to him
as the baby drifted down the river Nile
the daughter of the pharaoh happened to be getting ready to take a bath in the river's waters
just as she was getting ready to bathe she spotted something floating down the river
and realized that it was a baby in a basket
Miriam secretly watched on as the princess ordered her servants to fetch the baby in the basket
the baby was crying and the princess could not help but take pity on the poor young boy
she knew that this baby was one of the Israelite boys
and decided that she would save his life and would adopt him as her own son
the baby's sister Miriam could see that the princess was going to spare her brother and approached her to share the truth
she told the princess that he was indeed one of the Israelites
and asked if it would be possible for the princess to have him raised by an Israelite nanny
the princess agreed and ordered for an israelite woman to be brought to nurse her newly adopted son
amazingly when Miriam went with the Egyptians to the Israelites to look for a nurse for the princess's new baby boy
the woman they selected was Jochebed the baby's true mother
Jochebed was brought to the royal palace to help raise the baby boy
the princess decided to call her new adopted son Moses and declared it to all of Egypt
the name Moses meant he who was pulled from the water in Hebrew the language of the Israelites
it also sounded a lot like the Egyptian word for sun so nobody noticed the hidden meeting
the baby Moses had been spared from the pharaoh's cruel plan to rid Egypt of all Hebrew baby boys
God had saved Moses his life and allowed him to be raised by his own mother as a prince of Egypt
nobody knew it when he was pulled from the water as a baby
but Moses would go on to become one of the most important of God's people
eventually, little baby Moses would grow up to be an important prophet and bring the word of god to his people
he would help the Israelites break free from slavery in Egypt
and take them back to their homeland god spared this little baby's life for an important reason
as he was to serve an important role in spreading god's message to all
god felt that Moses was so important
that it was he who received the ten commandments and was charged with teaching god's wisdom to his people
Moses is one of the most important figures in the bible
and just as he was saved by being pulled from the water
he would later go on to save the rest of the Israelites by leading them out of Egypt through the red sea