Lesson:
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?
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 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!
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. "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.
Special Children:
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!