Bible Story Lessons

Long ago there was this lovely princess who lived in a beautiful palace in Egypt.  The Bible does not tell us her name, only that she was Pharaoh's daughter.  The king of Egypt was called Pharaoh and he also lived in the palace.  But, he was a wicked king.  The princess wasn't like her father at all, as she was warm and kind.

But, Pharaoh hated God's people, the Israelites, so he forced them to be slaves.  He made their lives as hard as he could, by making them work in the fields and build big cities. One day he decided to get rid of all their baby boys.  So he made a rule that all the boy babies born to God's people were to be killed, by being thrown into the Nile river, and only the girl babies were to be allowed to live.

What would you do if someone wanted to throw your baby brother in a river?  (Let the children respond).  I'm sure this 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?

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 wrapped up her baby carefully, and put him in the basket and closed the lid.  She carried the basket down to the river and placed the basket in the bulrushes at the Nile river's edge.  She whispered a prayer as she sadly walked home, "God, please take care of my little baby."  The mother left her daughter by the river to watch the baby and she trusted that God would take care of her baby.  His sister sat on the bank watching to see 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?  (Let the children respond).  No, he was not eaten by a huge crocodile, and no, he did not sink in the water and drown!

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.  "Look!" she cried, "There's a basket floating in the reeds.  Please bring it to me!"  One of her servants rushed to bring the basket to her.  When the princess opened the basket and looked into it, she found a baby boy!  He was crying, and the kind princess felt sorry for him.   "This baby must belong to one of the Hebrew's," she said and decided that she wanted to keep the baby.

Just then a young girl ran up and asked, "Princess, would you like me to find someone to nurse the baby for you?"  "Yes, please," replied the Princess.  She didn't know it, but the girl was the baby's sister and the woman the girl brought was his own mother.  "Take care of this baby boy for me," the princess ordered, "And I will pay you wages."

So the woman took the baby home and nursed him.  When the child was four or five, she brought him to the palace where Pharoah's daughter then adopted him as her own son.  She named him Moses, because she said, "I drew him out of the waters.

That little baby boy grew up to be Moses, the mighty leader of God's people.  Moses 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 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.  There were also many hungry crocodiles in the River Nile, but God kept Moses safe while he in the basket.  We can also pray every day and ask Jesus to keep us safe from all harm.  And someday God may use you in a special way, just as He used the kind princess.

God bless!