Baby Moses in the Basket

Exodus 1:1–2:10

Pharaoh ordered death. Three women chose life.

The Israelites have multiplied so greatly in Egypt that the new Pharaoh is terrified. He enslaves them. When that doesn't slow them down, he orders every newborn Hebrew boy thrown into the Nile. A Levite woman hides her son for three months, then waterproofs a basket and sets it among the reeds. His sister Miriam watches from a distance. Pharaoh's own daughter comes to bathe, finds the crying baby, and knows he's Hebrew — but takes pity. Miriam appears and offers to find a Hebrew nurse. She fetches the baby's own mother. Moses is raised in the palace of the man who ordered his death.

• Courage
• Providence
• Defiance
• Motherhood