Children

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MOSES:
HE OBEYED GOD

The story of Moses began two hundred years earlier when Joseph invited his family to live with him in Egypt. The Egyptians welcomed Jacob and his family to live there. Then, there were seventy family members (later called Israelites). For a long time there was no problem. After 200 years this family grew to be larger in number and this worried the Egyptians. Later, a king of Egypt arose ((called Pharaoh) who did not know how Joseph saved Egypt. This new Pharaoh became concerned the Israelites would become greater and stronger and take over the kingdom. Over this past 200 years the people of Israel grew to six hundred thousand so you can see why this was a problem.

To solve this problem, Pharaoh had a plan. First he would make slaves out of them. He forced them to make bricks to build his kingdom telling them to make a certain amount in a short time. He punished them through whippings and beatings if they slowed down. The people that God had promised to bless were now slaves in Egypt suffering because of who they were.

A second way that Pharaoh solved this problem was to kill all the boy children born to the Israelite woman. This would keep them from growing.

Now the Israelites might have been thinking that God had forgotten His promise to them. As we will see, God, not Pharaoh, was in control. Moses’ mother put him in a floating basket and sent him downstream on the River Nile. The daughter of Pharaoh saw him and took him home to be her adopted son.

While living in the palace of Pharaoh Moses was treated as one who would later become one of Egypt’s leaders. That’s how they did it back then. God, however, had other plans for Moses. While he lived-in Pharaoh’ house he learned how to follow instructions, and this was part of God’s training for him. From the time that he was born, God had a plan for how Moses’ life would turn out. It was not an accident when Moses was born, nor that he was raised in Pharaoh’s house. Sometimes we may feel that our lives have no purpose but if we love and serve God faithfully, the opposite is true. We will discover more as we continue our story.
One day Moses saw an Egyptian beating up on one of the Israelite slaves. Moses came to the rescue and killed the soldier and buried him so no one would find out. Later Pharaoh learned about it, and tried to destroy Moses, but by that time Moses had left. He knew that once anyone knew, he would be killed He left before anyone discovered. Moses fled into the desert where no-one could find him.

While he was traveling in the desert he saw some wicked shepherds trying to keep a woman from giving her sheep water. He drove out the shepherds and helped her. The woman went home and told her father and they invited Moses to come and live and work for them. Moses later took this woman to be his wife.

One day while taking care of the sheep, Moses saw something strange. Far off he noticed a bush that was on fire burning for a long time. He left the sheep to see this interesting sight. As he got closer he heard a voice telling him to take off his shoes and approach carefully. He was now face to face before God. Moses was now about to find out that seeing the burning bush was no accident either. The time had come for Moses to learn what God wanted Him to do.

God told Moses that He had seen the terrible times that Israel was having and wanted Moses to lead them out of Egypt. I can hear Moses saying “who am I Lord to do such an awesome thing?” He began to tell God why he could not do it. Second “ what shall I tell them when they ask me what your name is?” Third Moses said, “Suppose they won’t believe me and refuse to follow?” Finally Moses had one more reason why he could not do it. He said, I have not been a person with great speaking ability, how will I persuade them to follow? All of these excuses were true, except for the fact that God was going to be with him all of the time and cause it to happen. All God wanted from Moses was a willing heart and a desire to obey.. God promised that He would be with him and He kept His promise.

The day came when Moses stood before Pharaoh. And commanded him to let Israel go to worship God. Pharaoh was angry and refused to let Israel go. God began to work by sending plagues and performing miracles. Pharaoh finally agreed to release all six hundred thousand Israelites. It took a long time for Pharaoh’s stubborn heart to soften, and it did; long enough for God to finish His final work on the Egyptians.

God did not call Moses to do something easy. The children of Israel had a lot of doubts about Moses and could not understand why God’s ways. God does not always answer questions about why, or how He does things. He just asks us to realize that He loves us and will always keep His promise. Sometimes place a time limit as to when we need something done. God always knows and His timing is perfect.

Now as they journeyed, the hard part lay before them, The Red Sea was in front of them and Pharaoh’s army behind chasing after them. To protect them God sent a pillar of fire to guide them at night and a cloud to guide them by day. The pillar of fire guided the Israelites but the armies of Pharaoh had darkness and couldn’t see them. As they approached the Sea God commanded them to stand still and watch for the power of God to take place. They watched in amazement as the Sea departed. God gave them a pathway of dry ground to pass through. As the soldiers followed after, God caused the waters to close and the Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea.

Now that Israel was safe and away from Egypt some new difficulties began to take place. What were they going to eat? What were they going to drink? Where were they going to live? God knew all along what He was going to do and how He was going to provide for them. Even though they experienced God’s great power in Egypt, they forgot His promises to them. They thought that God was leaving them to survive by themselves. God was leading them into the land that He promised to them. While they wandered in the wilderness He provided food from Heaven and water to drink. He made it so that their clothing and shoes did not wear out.

There were a great many of these people who didn’t like how God provided for them and said, “we want to go back to Egypt”. Moses did his best but he had a stubborn people who did not understand God’s purposes. Because of this, God told them that they would remain in the desert until they died. They were only a few days journey away from the Promised Land but because of their selfishness, they remained in the desert for forty years.

Shortly after crossing the Red Sea, God met personally with Moses. God gave Israel instructions, on how to deal with sin, and to find forgiveness. He did this through giving Ten Commandments to follow and a Priesthood to help them find forgiveness when they broke the commandments.

Being obedient to God did not make Moses Popular with those he was leading. Moses knew that following God was more important than popularity. When we are obedient to God we are popular with Him. When we obey God, we often stand out as different from others. It is this difference that causes people to wonder why. It is then that we can share God’s love with others.

Our story ends with Moses choosing one to take his place as Israel’s new leader. Joshua was now to take Israel out from the desert and lead them to a land full and prosperous. We shall learn about Joshua in our next study.

What lessons can we learn from Moses that will help us.

1. God has a plan for everyone to make life more meaningful.
2. God’s plan has to do with helping and assisting others. (it is never selfish)
3. Like Moses we may feel that we have nothing to offer.
4. When God asks us to do something He will always provide the way for us to do it.
WHEN WE DECIDE TO OBEY GOD WE CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON HIS PRESENCE TO HELP US

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