Baby Moses Bible Story for Kids.

A baby who needed protection

When Moses was still a baby, life was dangerous for Hebrew families in Egypt. A new king had come to power who did not like the Hebrew people. He did not remember Joseph or all the good he had once done for Egypt. He saw how many Hebrew families there were and how strong they were growing, and he was afraid they might one day join Egypt's enemies and fight against him. He made their lives hard with heavy work, and then he gave a terrible order against their baby boys.

Slave masters forced the Hebrews to make bricks and mortar, to work in the fields, and to build whole storehouse cities for the king. Yet the harder they were made to work, the more the Hebrew families grew. Even the Hebrew midwives, the women who helped mothers when their babies were born, feared God and would not obey the king's cruel command.

Moses was born into this frightening time. His father and mother both came from the family of Levi, and he had a big sister. His mother looked at him and saw that he was a beautiful, healthy baby, and she decided she would not let fear make her choices for her. For three whole months she hid him at home, soothing every cry, watching the doorway, holding him close through the night. When she could not hide him any longer, she made a plan to save him.

A basket in the reeds

She placed baby Moses in a basket woven from papyrus and coated with tar and pitch so it could float on the river. The sticky tar and pitch sealed every gap, so not a drop of water could seep in. It was a tiny boat, made by a mother's hands. She carried the basket down to the river's edge. She laid the basket where the reeds grew thick and the current could not pull it away. She left Moses there, trusting God to make a way for him.

While his mother was gone, Moses' big sister stayed nearby, standing at a distance where she could watch the basket without being noticed. She wanted to see what would happen to her little brother.

God provides help

Pharaoh's daughter had come down to the river to bathe when she found the basket floating there. Her attendants were walking along the riverbank. When she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her servant to bring it to her. When she looked inside, she saw a little baby crying and felt compassion for him. She knew at once that this was one of the Hebrew children, the very ones her father's law was against, and she chose kindness anyway.

Right then, Moses' sister stepped out from her watching place and asked a brave, clever question: should she go and find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for the princess?

The princess said yes, and the girl ran and brought their own mother. Pharaoh's daughter gave the baby back to her and even promised to pay her wages for nursing him. So Moses' mother carried her son home again. The same mother who had laid him among the reeds now held him safely in her own arms, with no more need to hide him.

A small beginning for a big story

His own mother had been given those precious first years to hold him, feed him, and sing to him. And then, when he had grown, she brought him to the princess, who adopted him as her own son. When Moses was a little older, Pharaoh's daughter raised him in the royal palace.

It was the princess who gave him his name, Moses, because she had drawn him out of the water. So the baby who had floated in a papyrus basket grew up in the grandest house in Egypt, learning and growing right under the roof of the king whose order had once put him in danger.

Later, Moses would grow up to lead God's people out of Egypt, toward the Promised Land.