A Bad King Rules Egypt

THE men here are forcing the people to work.  One of the Egyptian men are hitting one of the workers with a whip!  The workers are the family of Jacob, and are called Israelite.  The Israelites have become slaves of the Egyptians. How did this happen?

For many  years Jacob's big family lived at peace in Egypt.  Joseph, who was the most important man in Egypt next to Phar'aoh the king, took care of them.  But then Joseph died. And a new Phar'aoh, who did not like the Israelites, became king in Egypt. 

So this bad Phar'aoh made the Israelite slaves. And he put the  men in charge of them who were mean and cruel. They forced the Israelites to work very hard building cities for Phar'aoh.  But still the Israelites kept growing in numbers. After a while the Egyptians became afraid that the Israelites would become too many and too strong. 

Do you know what Phar'aoh did? He spoke to the women who helped the Israelite mothers when they gave to their babies, and said:  'You must kill every baby boy that is born.' But these were good women, and they would not kill the babies.

So Phar'aoh gave this command to all his people: 'Take the baby Israelite boys and kill them. Only let the baby girls live.' Wasn't that a terrible thing to command? Let's see how one the baby boys was saved. 

Exodus 1:6-22. 

Next time: How Baby Moses Was Saved

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