Tales from the Bible
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Tales from the Bible’
Spies are sent out to scout the Promised Land, but their report shows that Israel is not yet ready to inherit it.
After fleeing slavery in Egypt, the Israelites have been living in the empty wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. On Mount Sinai itself, God has met with their leader Moses and given his people a law to live by and a promise of a land of their own. In the meantime, however, life in the desert is punishingly hard.
Moses is allowed to look upon the Promised Land for the first and last time.
Moses has brought the Israelites to the very borders of Canaan, the land promised to them by God, but with their prize in sight the Israelites have fallen prey to doubt, disconcerted by the Canaanites’ fortresses and warriors. For that, all Israel has been forced to wait even longer in the wilderness.
A reluctant Moses is sent back to Egypt on a delicate diplomatic mission.
A Hebrew boy has been adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, and brought up to be an Egyptian prince named Moses. But to save the life of one of his own Israelite people, he has committed murder, and has been forced to flee the country with Bithiah.
Pharaoh dismisses Moses’s embassy for the last time, and Moses prepares the Israelites for a hasty departure.
With every miracle shown to him, Pharaoh’s heart has become harder towards the Israelites, and now he tells Moses that his embassy to Egypt’s court is at an end. Moses accepts the decree, knowing that more much is to come.
Pharaoh has the Israelites trapped on the shore of the Red Sea, but God has yet another surprise for him.
Moses has failed to persuade Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt, so he has taken matters into his own hands and brought them out anyway. Pharaoh quickly puts aside grief for his firstborn son, taken by God’s angel of death, and rides after the escaped slaves with vengeance in his heart.
Jochebed hides her baby son from Pharaoh’s soldiers, only for him to be discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter.
The story of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt begins long ago, perhaps as long ago as the 13th century BC. The children of Jacob have come with Pharaoh’s blessing to Egypt to join their respected brother Joseph, but their descendants have multiplied, and later Pharaohs see them as a burden, even a threat.