The Birth of Moses: Exodus 1: 8 - 2: 10

Here is a condensed version of the Old Testament reading for August 21, 2011—the story of the enslavement of the people of Israel, and the birth of Moses found in Exodus 1:8-2:10.

It might be useful if you’re concerned about the length of the full text, or if you’re working in an intergenerational context.

If you prefer to read the full text, you might want to take a look at this Readers’ Theatre setting of Exodus 1:8-2:10.

The Birth of Moses

A Scripture Telling based on Exodus 1: 8 - 2: 10

At the beginning of Exodus, we find the people of Israel in the land of Egypt.  You may recall that Jacob and his family had come to Egypt from the land of Canaan, looking for food during a time of great famine.  They had settled there and raised their families. And over the years that followed, the number of Israelites in Egypt continued to grow, and they became a great and powerful people.

In time, a new king came to power in Egypt.  This new king felt very threatened by the Israelites.  He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and they are stronger than we are. We must stop them from growing even stronger.”

So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They put brutal slave drivers in charge of them, and tried to crush them with hard work – making them build their cities and work in their fields.  But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread…and the more alarmed the Egyptians became.

The king decided to take drastic action. He commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill all baby boys as soon as they were born. But the midwives knew this was wrong, and they refused to do it.  So the king told his soldiers to find every newborn Hebrew boy and drown them all in the river.

Well, one mother was determined that the soldiers wouldn’t find her son. She managed to keep him hidden for three months.  When she couldn’t hide him anymore, she placed him in a waterproof basket, and hid him in the reeds along the bank of the Nile River.  The baby’s sister Miriam kept watch.

One day, as she was watching, the king’s daughter came down to bathe in the river – and what did she find?  The baby in the basket.  He was crying, and the princess felt sorry for him.

The baby’s sister ran over to the princess and asked: “Would you like me to go find someone to take care of the baby for you?”

“Yes!” said the princess. So the girl ran home and brought her mother back. The princess arranged for the baby’s mother to look after the child until he was older.  She even paid the mother for her help.

When the boy had grown, his mother brought him to the palace, and the princess adopted him as her own son.  And she gave him the name Moses.

For more worship resources related to this text, or other texts for August 21, 2011 (the tenth Sunday after Pentecost), click on Proper 16A in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.