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The Sons of Israel become a Nation and Moses is Born

Exodus Chapter 1 and 2

Lesson 22

Exodus 1

Verses 1-7 The sons of Israel who came to Egypt are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. Joseph was already in Egypt. Joseph and all his brothers died, but the family was fruitful and became a exceedingly mighty, “so that the land was filled with them.”

Verses 8-14 A new King is in power over Egypt who did not know Joseph. This King worries that Israel will decide to go to war against Egypt, so he devises a plan to deal with them. The King implements a system of work and taskmasters to put the people of Israel to hard work. This effort built the storage cities of Pithom and Raames. Despite all the work, the people of Israel continued to increase. The Egyptians were in dread of Israel so they worked them more vigorously and made their lives bitter by much hard work.

Verses 15-22 The King attempts to control the growth of the nation of Israel by another means. He tells the Hebrew midwives to kill any boys that are born, but baby girls are allowed to live. “But the midwives feared God” and did not kill the baby boys. God blessed these women and the nation of Israel continued to multiply. Pharaoh tells all people to throw the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile River but to keep the girls alive.

Exodus 2

Verses 1-4 A man and woman of the tribe of Levi conceive and have a son. She hides the baby for three months. A time comes when she can hide him no more, so makes a wicker basket that is covered with tar and pitch. She puts her son into the basket and sets the basket among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. His sister stands watch to protect him.

Verses 5-10 The daughter of Pharaoh comes to the river with her maidens to bathe. She sees the basket and sends a maid to get it. She opens the basket and sees the baby and realizes that he is one of the Hebrew babies. The baby’s sister comes up to Pharaoh’s daughter and offers to find a nurse among the Hebrew women to care for the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter accepts this offer. The girl goes and brings the baby’s mother to Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter agrees to pay the baby’s mother to care for him until he is weaned. When he is weaned, his mother takes him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She names him “Moses” because she drew him out of the water.

Verses 11-15 When Moses grows up he goes out and sees the hard labor to which his brethren are put. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He sees that no one is around and so kills the Egyptian and buries him in the sand. The next day he finds two Hebrews fighting with one another and tries to break up the fight. One of the men wants to know if Moses is going to kill him in the same way that Moses killed the Egyptian. Moses realizes that his secret is known. Pharaoh hears of the matter and tries to kill Moses, but Moses flees and settles in the land of Midian.

Verses 16-22 The priest of Midian had seven daughters who went to draw water at the well where Moses was resting. The shepherds tried to drive the girls away, but Moses stood up and helped the girls. The girls went home and told their father what had happened. He invited Moses to come and eat with them. Moses stayed and married one of the girls, Zipporah. He and she had a son named Gershom.

Verses 23-25 The Pharaoh died. The sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, so that God heard them and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In Your Bible:

Acts 7:1—29