Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Moses gets out of Egypt in a hurry! (Exodus 2)

 Last time we saw that Moses was pulled from the Nile River by the king’s daughter.  He was 3 months old. He was raised like the king's son. Moses had the best of eveyrhing, but he was sad for the Hebrews.
When Moses grew up, he went out to visit his people, the Hebrews. He saw how they were forced to do hard labor. He even saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.  Moses looked all around, and when he saw that no one was looking, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. 


The next day he went back and saw two Hebrew men fighting. He said to the one who was in the wrong, "Why are you beating up a fellow Hebrew?” The man answered, "Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me just as you killed that Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and said to himself, "Oh No! People know what I have done. When the king finds out, he'll have me killed!" Moses was right. When the king heard about what had happened, he sent orders to have Moses arrested and killed, but Moses got out of Egypt quickly and went to live far away, in a land called Midian. 
One day, when Moses was sitting by a well, seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, came to get water for their father's sheep and goats.  But some shepherds drove Jethro's daughters away. Then Moses went to their rescue. He chased the bad shepherds away and got some water for their animals. When they returned to their father, he asked, "Why have you come back so early today?”                                                                                    


"An Egyptian (they thought Moses was an Egyptian) rescued us from the bad shepherds," they answered, "and he even got water for us and watered our animals." "Where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him out there in the desert? Go and invite him to eat with us."  So Moses came to dinner. He must have liked the cooking, because he decided to live there. Moses ended up marrying one of Jethro's daughters. Her name was Zipphorah which means "bird”.  



 Years later the king of Egypt died, but the Israelites were still slaves and still groaning. They cried out to God for help. God heard their cries and prayers. He remembered the promise that He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He saw how badly they were treated. God had already planned on using Moses to fufill His promise....but not until the timing was right.


 Sometimes we keep asking God over and over for something good. God has already planned on answering our prayers, but He makes us wait for a couple of reasons.
1: God wants us to keep asking. The more we come to Him, the better we get to know Him. God does not want to be our magic genie... he wants a relationship with each of us.
2: God wants us to learn patience. Waiting for something makes us a better person.
3: God has perfect timing. Sometimes if we get what we want right now, it may not be as good as if we get it later. Would you rather get an egg, some flour and oil now....or a cookie later?  I'd rather wait for the ingredients to be mixed and baked. See waiting on God is good!

1 comment:

  1. Loving reading about Moses. Can't wait for my daughter to be a little bit older and enjoy your posts/illustrations too. I've featured you in my Three Blog Thursday post this week.

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