MOSES
After Joseph saved Egypt from starvation (Genesis 41), the Israelites lived in Egypt as guests. Eventually, the Egyptians forgot about Joseph and enslaved the Israelites (Exodus 1:6-14). For many years the children of Abraham suffered under Egypt’s slavery.
God blessed his people, so they became many. Out of fear from this growth, the Pharaoh issued a decree to kill all Hebrew boys. Within this context, Moses was born to a Hebrew slave family in Egypt. Moses’ mother put him in a basket and placed it in the Nile. He was rescued by an Egyptian princess and was raised in the palace.
When Moses was 40, he went out to his people. He murdered an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. Fearing Pharaoh, Moses escaped to Midian, where he was married and became a sheherd.
When Moses was 80, God called to him from a burning bush and commanded him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses felt inadequate, so God revealed his divine name to Moses and provided him with the ability to perform several miracles to prove his authority.
Moses reluctantly obeyed, and he wet to confront the powerful king of Egypt. The Egyptians regarded the Pharaoh as a god, the incarnation of the god Horus. In the eyes of the Egyptians, it was a battle between two gods. The plagues and the Exodus showed that God is the only, sovereign ruler of the universe.
While the plagues demonstrate God’s power in judgment, the Passover shows God’s mercy and grace. During the last plague, God provided a way for his people to be spared from his killing of the firstborn son. The children of Israel were to sacrifice an animal, which was to take the place of the firstborn from each family.
With a mighty hand, God delivered his people from Egypt. He took them from being slaved to a false god to being servants of the true God of heaven and earth.
DEUTERONOMY 34:10-12 – 10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,
11 In all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,
12 And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.