9. The Baby Brother in a Basket-Boat

(Exodus 2)

Long, long ago, a little boy was born in a Hebrew home, at a time when a cruel king of Egypt ordered all Hebrew boys that were born, to be thrown to the crocodiles in the great river Nile. But this little babe was so beautiful that his mother hid him in the house and prayed God to keep him safe. She hid him carefully for three months. Then, being afraid some one might hear him, she went to the river and gathered some long, strong grasses that grew there and braided them together, making a small basket and shaping it like a boat. To make it warm and dry inside, and to keep it from sinking when placed in the water, she painted it with black paint inside and out. Early one morning, when all was ready, the mother took her baby boy quietly sleeping in the basket-boat, and went down to the river Nile, the little baby’s sister, Miriam, following closely behind her. The mother hid the basket among the tall grasses near the shore, and again prayed God to keep her baby safe. Miriam was left hiding in the tall grass near-by to see what would happen to her little brother in his new bed. Very soon the princess, the daughter of the cruel king of Egypt, with her maids, came down to the river to bathe. Quickly she spied the basket-boat and cried, “What is that floating on the water among the tall grasses? Bring it to me.” One of her maids ran and picked up the basket and brought it to the princess. When she opened it, there was the most beautiful baby boy she had ever seen! The child was wide awake, and seeing the strange face, began to cry. “It is one of the Hebrew babies that my father ordered drowned!” she said. “But I have found him, and I will keep him as my own little baby boy. I will call his name ‘Moses.’”

Miriam was watching from her hiding-place in the tall grasses. She ran out and said, “Shall I bring a nurse for the baby?” “Yes,” said the princess. Miriam ran home as fast as she could, and whom do you suppose she brought? The baby’s own mother! And the princess told her to take him home and nurse him and care for him for her, for she loved him as her very own, and the king would not harm him.

So the prayer that Moses’ mother made to God to take care of her little baby boy in the basket-boat was answered. And Moses grew up to be a great and good man.