The Story of the Chosen People (Yesterday's Classics) (7 page)

The nurses who received these orders were God-fearing women, and did not obey them. Then Pharaoh sent his officers to throw all the boy babies into the Nile River.

There was, in those days, a descendant of Levi, who married and had two children,—Miriam and Aaron. Shortly after Pharaoh had given orders that all the boy babies should perish, a third child was born to this Levite. As this baby was a son, the anxious mother hid him for three months, lest the officers should find and kill him.

At the end of that time the mother felt that she could not keep the babe hidden much longer. So she placed him in a little ark, or cradle, among the reeds by the side of the river, and bade Miriam stand close by to watch over her baby brother.

Soon after, Pharaoh's daughter, the haughty Egyptian princess, came down to the river to bathe. Her glances were caught by the strange object in the bulrushes; and when it was brought to her, and she saw the smiling baby, she said that she would adopt it.

Miriam then stepped forward and offered to find a nurse for the child. Her offer was accepted, and thus the boy Moses grew up in the king's palace under the care of his own mother, who had saved her child to become one of the greatest men the world has ever known.

We know nothing about the early youth and manhood of Moses, but his mother must surely have taught him to honor God. She ako told him the story of his adoption, and of the Chosen Race of Israel, to which he belonged.

Moses received an Egyptian education in Pharaoh's palace, where he became "mighty in words and in deeds." He was about forty years of age, when he once saw an Egyptian overseer beating one of the poor Israelites, whose lot had daily grown harder to bear.

In a fit of anger, Moses fell upon the cruel Egyptian, and killed him. No one saw the murder, but the deed was soon found out, and Moses fled into the desert, near the Red Sea. Here he took refuge among the Midianites, who were descendants of Abraham and his last wife, Keturah. While there, Moses saw that some rude shepherds would not allow Jethro's daughters to come near the well to water their sheep. He helped the maidens, and then went home with them and became their father's shepherd. Soon after this Moses married one of these girls, and became the father of two sons.

Moses remained here in the desert forty years, and during that time the Egyptian king died and was followed by another Pharaoh fully as cruel as he. This new ruler oppressed the people of Israel so greatly that they began to pray to be set free; and God, remembering his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prepared to help them.

One day, when Moses was alone with his sheep, he saw a bush near him all wrapped in flames. Strange to relate, however, the dry branches were not burned up; so Moses drew near in wonder to examine the bush.

Suddenly he heard a voice, telling him to take off his shoes, because the ground whereon he stood was holy. Then God spoke to him, gave him a message for Pharaoh, and bade him go and lead the chosen people out of the land of Egypt, and into the desert.

This was a very hard task, and Moses, who had grown old and prudent, was afraid to undertake it. As he did not dare to refuse openly, he began making excuses; but God now cut these excuses short and bade Moses throw down his rod. As soon as he had done so, God changed the stick into a serpent. Then he restored it to its usual form, and made Moses a leper. God soon cured him of this loathsome disease, however, and promised to perform many miracles to help him.

Moses was encouraged by this promise, and by the permission to have his brother Aaron act as his spokesman, for he himself was slow of speech; so he now undertook to carry out the Lord's commands. Armed only with rods, he and Aaron presented themselves before Pharaoh. There they told the king that the Lord had ordered them to lead the Israelites into the desert, to celebrate a feast.

The King of Egypt, who did not worship God, haughtily asked, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" And he said that he would not let the people go.

To force him to obey God's command, Moses raised his wand, and called down, one after another, ten terrible plagues upon the Egyptians. Thus the waters were changed into blood; frogs overran all the land; lice, flies, and sickness tormented man and beast, and all the people suffered tortures from boils.

Then came terrible plagues of hail, locusts, and darkness so intense that people still use the expression "as dark as Egypt." The king, frightened by each new plague, always promised to let the people go as soon as it was removed; but, when all danger was over, he as often broke his promise, and kept the Israelites at work.

Finally, God sent an angel to kill all the firstborn of the Egyptians, and in the darkness of the night this messenger passed from door to door, doing as the Lord had commanded. By Moses' order, all the Israelites had smeared their doorposts with the blood of a lamb; so wherever the angel saw this sign he passed over the house without doing any harm to the people in it.

Pharaoh lost his firstborn too, on this occasion, and now he no longer dared resist, but gave Moses permission to lead the Israelites into the desert.

T
HE
Israelites, having finally got Pharaoh's permission to go out into the wilderness, made ready to start. First they borrowed all the golden ornaments of the Egyptians, and then they roasted and ate the lambs whose blood had marked their doorposts.

When they set out, they carried with them some dough which had not had time to rise; and they baked bread from it at their first halting place. In memory of this flight from Egypt, the Jews, at the yearly celebration of the feast of the Passover, still eat the flesh of a lamb and unleavened bread.

The Israelites numbered more than six hundred thousand men, without counting the women and children; but they all followed Moses into the desert, the Lord himself showing them the way by going before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

The Israelites had not been gone long when Pharaoh regretted having allowed them to depart. So he gave orders that an army should set out in pursuit of them, with "six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them."

The Egyptian cavalry soon came in sight of the host of fugitives, who had stopped near the shores of the Red Sea. Pharaoh rejoiced, for he imagined that it would now be a very easy matter to force them to turn around and come back.

But the Israelites, who had never been very anxious to leave their homes in Egypt, although they had been so badly treated, were terrified when they saw the sea in front of them, and Pharaoh's army behind them. In their fear, they began to murmur against God, and found fault with Moses for bringing them there only to perish.

But when Moses raised his rod, the waters of the sea parted, and allowed the Israelites to go across dry shod. The waters were held back by a high east wind which God had sent for that purpose, and the gale blew all night, until all the people had passed over.

Morning came, and Pharaoh and his army pursued the fleeing host. But now the wind ceased to blow, and the waters, no longer held back, rushed upon the Egyptians and drowned them all.

The Israelites, who had seen the "great work which the Lord did," now believed the Lord and his servant Moses; and the latter celebrated their deliverance by a grand song of triumph and thanksgiving.

Next Moses led the people southward, into the wilderness, where they suffered greatly from thirst, because they could find no water. At last they came to Marah, where there was water in abundance; but they were greatly disappointed when they found that it was bitter and not fit to drink.

The people began to murmur sorely, but Moses, advised by God, sweetened the water by a miracle, so that they could drink to their hearts' content. From Marah the Israelites now wended their way through the desert once more, until they came to an oasis, where they rested for a while.

When they began their journey again, they passed into another part of the wilderness, where the food which they had brought with them soon gave out. As the Lord did not wish his people to starve to death, he now sent them plenty of quails, and rained down their daily bread from heaven in the form of Manna.

On this occasion God reminded the Israelites that they were to do no work on the Sabbath, for no manna fell then, while a double portion was given them the day before.

By Moses' order a measure of this heavenly food was gathered and carefully kept, so that the Israelites, in years to come, might show their children a sample of the wonderful food upon which they had fed all the time that they were in the desert. Strengthened by this food, they journeyed on in comfort, until they again began to suffer from lack of water.

The ground was hard and dry, and there was not a stream to be found where the people could quench their thirst. They were in despair, and Moses, not knowing what else to do, began to pray for water. In answer to this prayer, God bade him strike a certain rock with his wonderful rod. As soon as Moses had done so, there gushed forth from it a stream of pure water. The people, who saw this miracle with delight, could now satisfy their great thirst, and as they did so they thanked God for giving them plenty of water in time of need.

Danger of death from lack of water was scarcely over, when the Israelites saw the army of the Amalekites coming to meet them. As soon as Moses saw these foes, he bade his captain, Joshua, lead the fighting men against the enemy, while he himself knelt on a hill near by, fervently praying for victory. There he soon noticed that as long as his hands were uplifted his people were strong, but that the Amalekites had the best of the fight as soon as he let his hands fall. So, fearing that his arms might drop from weariness, Moses bade his brother Aaron and another man stand on either side of him, and support his hands, while he fervently prayed until the victory was won.

S
HORTLY
after the battle with the Amalekites had been fought, Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, came to the Israelite camp, bringing Moses' wife and sons to him there. He then gave Moses very good advice, and bade him select judges, who would help him to govern his followers.

After parting from Jethro, Moses and his people resumed their journey, and in the third month after their flight from Egypt, they reached the awful wilderness around Mount Sinai. There they lingered at the foot of the mountain, while "Moses went up unto God," and received a solemn promise that if the Israelites would only obey him, he would make of them "a peculiar treasure . . . above all people, . . . a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation."

The elders, in the name of all the people, promised obedience, and after three days of purification "Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire." The people, frightened at this sight, drew back from the mountain in terror, crying, "Let not God speak with us lest we die."

As they were afraid to hear the voice of God themselves, they asked Moses to go up on the mountain, and speak with the Lord. There, on Mount Sinai, Moses received from God the ten commandments, and when he came down he bade the people build an altar, and offered up a solemn sacrifice.

Then, leaving Aaron and another man to govern the people during his absence, Moses went up the mountain once more, where he staid without food for forty days and forty nights. This time he received many directions from God concerning the Tabernacle, or holy tent, and the way in which he wished the people of Israel to worship.

TABERNACLE

At the end of the forty days, Moses came down the mountain side, carrying two stone tables, upon which God himself had written the ten commandments that he wished his people to keep.

Moses had just come within sight of the camp, when he dashed these tables on the ground at his feet; for there, before him, he saw Aaron and the people worshiping a golden calf, which they had made from the spoil they had carried away from the Egyptians.