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T h e
K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
June 1932
And so it happened that, when baby Moses was born, his mother had to think o f a plan to hide him from the wicked Pharaoh. She made a little basket of grasses and covered it with pitch so it would be water tight. In this little boat, she placed her baby and hid it among the tall grasses at the water’s edge. Miriam, the little baby’s sister, stood near by to watch him. Now God had a very special work for Moses to do. It was he who should lead the children o f Israel out o f the land of Egypt. One day, when the daughter o f Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river, she found the baby in the basket. When she heard Moses cry, she decided to keep the baby for her own. How afraid Miriam must have been when Pharaoh’s daughter found the little brother! But she had a plan. Pharaoh’s daughter would need a nurse for the child. Miriam asked if she might find a nurse for her. So Miriam brought the baby’s mother to be his nurse. Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s home where he was treated like the king’s son, but he was brought up by his own mother, too, so he never forgot his own people. them could be seen the roots o f weeds which had been pulled up in the field to help bind the bricks together. What a re markable evidence this is of the record in Exodus 5! Outline and Exposition While “Moses was learned in all the wis dom o f the Egyptians, and was mighty in word and deed” (Acts 7:22), he had to learn the wisdom which cometh from above, and the might which belongs to the Almighty One. In order to learn these things, in the providence of God, he was moved out to the backside o f the desert. There, keeping the flock o f Jethro, his fa ther-in-law, in the midst o f the solitude of the wilderness, he obtained the proper per spective for the wisdom and the might o f God. It was there, too, that he acquired the necessary, patience and humble meek ness which fitted him to occupy the place for which he had been chosen by God. A f ter the excitement of the royal court of Egypt, the loneliness and the solitude o f the wilderness may have sat heavily upon him, but he was there to learn, and school ing days are sometimes as tiresome as they are necessary. We, too, are now in train ing, and however slowly time may move, or however tiresome the schooling may be, we shall one day thank God for every part of the training. In the midst o f Moses’ solitude, God suddenly appeared to him in the flame which burned within the bush, and yet did not consume it. Moses turned aside to ex amine the great sight o f fire existing with out fuel, and then God spoke to him. He was told that God had heard the cry of his oppressed people and had come down to bring them out of the land o f bondage and into the land of freedom, and that Moses himself should be their leader. I. T he H onor for M ose S ( 3 :10). 1. Moses was called into association with God. The word . “come” implies that God would go with’ Moses, and that he would
The Baby Moses E xodus 2 :1-10 Memory Verse: “Jehovah is thy keeper” (Psa. 121:5). Approach: For two hundred years, Jo seph’s family lived in Egypt. By that time there were a great many of them. They were called the children o f Israel, because God had promised Jacob, whose, other
As the Egyptians at this time had a culture which was superior, in many respects, to that which we have today, Moses was ex ceedingly well trained. That he was mighty in word, we have only to read the Penta teuch to discover; and that he was mighty in deed, the record o f his physical achieve ments fully reveals. He was a great scholar, writing by the Holy Spirit, o f cosmogony, astronomy, geology, and other erudite subjects, and writing o f them so exactly that what he wrote needs no revision to this day. He was also a great patriot, with a love for and devotion to his people which lifted him out of the mass and set him in a place with all the famous patriots o f the ages. Furthermore, he was a great prophet, speaking the truth o f God to men of all times. Finally, he was a great philosopher, and the threefold secret o f his philosophy was an unfaltering faith, an unwearied pa tience, and an unwavering obedience to his God. Lesson Questions Ex. 2:1-4. What indicates the severity of the oppression o f the children of Israel at the time o f the birth o f Moses (cf. Ex. 1 :11-14) ? Who were Moses’ parents? Un der what social conditions did they live? Was there anything unusual about Moses as a babe (cf. Ex. 2 :2 ; Acts 7:20) ? Was Jochebed alone in her act o f faith in en trusting the child to the ark o f bulrushes (c f. Heb. 11:23) ? Vs. 5-9. Do you think the daughter of Pharaoh happened upon the scene by chance, and that the child coincidentally began to cry just then? Give reasons for your answer. What example o f quick thought and excellent tact does the les son offer? How does this passage prove that God always gives the best to those who trust Him? V. 10. What part in Moses’ education did his own parents doubtless have? Acts 7 :20-22. Can you prove that Moses was a well educated man, even according to present-day standards ? Golden Text Illustration At the breakfast table, each o f the fam ily, even the tiniest one, who was but four years old, repeated a verse from the Bible. Then, joining hands as they stood around the table, they repeated together the Lord’s Prayer, closing with a few words of prayer by the father. A guest was much impressed by the scene. A few months la ter, he was in a university town where the eldest son o f the family was attending col lege. The man talked with the boy o f his pleasant visit in.his family, and then asked, “Would you mind telling me what you miss most, now that you are away from home ?•” Just for a minute, the boy hesitated. It is not easy for a boy to speak his deepest thoughts. But after a little, he looked up directly into the eyes of his questioner, and answered, “ I miss most the handclasp at the break fast table. I f I could feel the close grasp o f my father’s hand, and repeat with them all the Lord’s Prayer, it would begin the day right, and nothing would matter then.” He halted a moment, then went on, his tones a bit husky. “ The remembrance o f those breakfast scenes at home stand be tween me and more than one temptation. It’s what keeps me going straight.” — N. C. T. M onthly .
name was Israel, that he would be the foun der o f a great nation. Although they had grown into a big and p o w e r f u l family, Egypt was no longer a good dwelling place for the children of Israel. The Pharaoh who had been Jo seph’s f r i e n d was dead, and the new
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Pharaoh was afraid o f these people who were scattered all over his land. So he planned to get rid of some of them. Lesson Story : First he ordered all the little Israelitish boy babies to be killed.
JULY 10, 1932 THE CALL OF MOSES E xodus 2:11 to 4:20
Lesson T ext: Exodus 3:10-15; 4:10-12. Golden Text: “ Certainly I will be with thee” (Ex. 3:12). . Israel’s Bondage oses was forced to flee to the wil derness because of his assault upon an Egyptian who was beating one o f Moses’ own countrymen. At that time, the Israelites were virtual slaves. There had arisen a “ Pharaoh who knew not Jo seph,” who was not sympathetic with the Hebrew shepherds as were the H 'y k s o s kings. He forced the Israelites to work at h a r d labor, giving them just enough to subsist upon. Nom inally, they were free and were working for the government. Actually, they were gov ernment serfs. Most o f the government work at that timé was building. In the delta region, where stones were scarce, buildings were made o f sun-dried brick. In the first chap ter of Exodus, we are told that the Isra elites built the “ store city” o f Pithom. Many years ago, when Professor Naville was searching through the delta region, he discovered this very city. An inscription over one of the doorways bore the name of Rameses II, or Rameses the Great, and de clared, “ I built Pithom in the mouth of the East.” If we compare this inscription with the Biblical record, we learn that Rameses II forced the children o f Israel to build Pithom. , The city was evidently a city for storing grain. There were many grain pits, lined with sun-dried brick. Professor Naville discovered a remarkable thing. The lower courses of brick were made with plenty of good straw and were in good condition. Those about the middle were made with less straw, which was o f an inferior qual ity. The top layers o f brick were made with very little straw, and in many of
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