Application:
God has a plan for children's lives, wants to use them one day in a
special way.
Bible Text:
Exodus chapter 1 and 2:1-10.
Lesson:
Long ago there lived a very wicked Pharaoh in Egypt. He hated
God's people, the Israelites, so he made them slaves. He
made their lives as hard as he could by forcing them to work in the
fields and to build cities. One day he decided to get rid of all
their baby boy. So he made a rule that all the boy babies born
to God's people had to be killed. They were to be thrown in the
Nile river and only the girls were to be allowed to live.
What would you do if someone wanted to throw your baby brother in a river?
I'm sure it made the Princess very sad. But, one mother hid
her child for three months after he was born. When she could hide
him no longer she was anxious to save him. Pharoah's soldiers
would come searching for babies and the mother knew they would find him
because all babies cry, don't they?
A Special Baby:
She knew her baby was very special and had to be saved from death.
After much thought, she decided to weave a basket of bulrushes.
She made it waterproof by coating the bottom of it with mud and tar.
She then put the baby in it and placed the basket in the bulrushes
at the Nile river's edge. She had done her best for her baby and
with a prayer for his safety, she left him there. His sister kept
watch as to what would happen to him. Would her baby be saved?
After all, there were many hungry crocodiles in the river that could eat
him or perhaps the basket would sink and drown poor Moses. Well,
what do you think happened? No, he was not eaten by a huge
crocodile, and no, he did not sink in the water and drown!
A Good Child:
God guarded Moses and one day Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river's
edge to bathe. As she and her maidservants wandered along the bank
she saw the basket and the baby in it. She sent one of her maids
to fetch the basket. When she saw that he was a good child, she
took pity on him. "This is one of the Israelite's children," she
said.
Just then the baby's sister came along. "Shall I go and fetch a nurse
from the Israelite people to nurse the child for you?" she asked.
"Yes go!" replied Pharoah's daughter. And so she went and fetched
the baby's mother to care for the baby. "Take the child and nurse
him for me," ordered Pharoah's daughter, "And I will pay you wages."
She did so and when he was a toddler she brought him to the palace
where Pharoah's daughter adopted him as her own son. She named him
Moses, because she said, "I drew him out of the waters.
Special Children:
God will also keep you and guard you, just as He kept Moses safe from
Pharaoh's soldiers who went from house to house to kill off all the baby
boys. We can pray every day and ask Jesus to keep us safe from all
harm, danger and evil. God will keep us safe, just as he kept Moses
safe from all those hungry crocodiles!
And that little baby boy grew up to be Moses, the mighty leader of God's
people who helped them escape from Egypt. Just by being kind to a
little baby, the princess played an important part in God's plan for
Israel. God has a plan for your life too, and someday He will use
you in a special way, just as He used the kind princess.
God bless!