Resource sheet: Moses and Miriam
Moses and Miriam
In the limelight
Moses is one of the most famous people in the Bible, and probably in history too. He
is a hero to both Jews and Christians. Here is a very brief summary of his life and
what happened as a result, as told in the Bible:
MOSES
Remember Joseph and his coat of many colours? Well, dial forward a
few years and Joseph’s descendants are no way near as welcome in
Egypt! In fact, they’re being used as slaves to build key cities. But
they’re still growing in number and the Egyptians are very unhappy
about this. So the new Pharaoh orders all the baby boys to be killed.
© 2016 Scripture Union
www.schoolslive.org
Moses is one of these babies but he’s saved from being killed when
he’s found by Pharaoh’s daughter. Although she knows he’s Jewish,
somehow, she’s allowed to keep him and he grows up in the royal
household.
There isn’t time to tell all the famous stories about him, but one day,
when he is a grown man the Bible says he saw a strange burning bush.
A bush on fire in a hot country is quite normal, but this one wasn’t
burning up – which is not! When he got closer to the bush he heard
God speak to him.
The Bible says that God called Moses (with the help of his brother
Aaron) to challenge Pharaoh to let his people go free from slavery and
to leave Egypt. To cut a very long story short, ten plagues later that’s
exactly what happened and Moses led his people out of Egypt to
freedom. He then led them for a further forty years during which time
many amazing and miraculous things happened before they entered
their new land just after he died.
Thousands of years later, people are still talking about him because
was so, so important and made such a huge difference to Jewish
history and – as a result – Christian history. He was a proper hero.
Resource sheet: Moses and Miriam
Behind the scenes
The Bible also introduces us to Miriam – Moses’ big sister. Imagine having a little
brother who was such a hero! She wasn’t adopted into Pharaoh’s household. She
didn’t see a burning bush or receive a mission to deliver the Jewish people. She
didn’t visit the new Pharaoh and convince him to let the Jewish people leave Egypt.
She didn’t lead the people for years, hear direct from God or do any miracles…
She sang a song when they were all free from Egypt, but that’s hardly a big deal is
it? But there is just this one other little thing she did, way back when Moses was a
baby – here’s the bit in the Bible (from Exodus 1:8–11,22 and 2:1–10 in the New
Century Version), which explains everything you need to know:
MIRIAM
Then a new king began to rule Egypt, who did not know who Joseph
was. This king said to his people, “Look! The people of Israel are too
many and too strong for us to handle! If we don’t make plans against
them, the number of their people will grow even more. Then if there
is a war, they might join our enemies and fight us and escape from
the country!”
So the Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They put slave
masters over them, who forced the Israelites to build the cities
Pithom and Rameses as supply centres for the king…
…The king commanded all his people, “Every time a boy is born to
the Hebrews, you must throw him into the Nile River, but let all the
girl babies live.”
Now a man from the family of Levi married a woman who was also
from the family of Levi. She became pregnant and gave birth to a
son… she got a basket made of reeds and covered it with tar so that
it would float. She put the baby in the basket. Then she put the
basket among the tall stalks of grass at the edge of the Nile River.
The baby’s sister stood a short distance away to see what would
happen to him.
Then the daughter of the king of Egypt came to the river to take a
bath, and her servant girls were walking beside the river. When she
saw the basket in the tall grass, she sent her slave girl to get it. The
king’s daughter opened the basket and saw the baby boy. He was
crying, so she felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew
babies.”
Then the baby’s sister asked the king’s daughter, “Would you like
me to go and find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for you?”
The king’s daughter said, “Go!” So the girl went and got the baby’s
own mother.
The king’s daughter said to the woman, “Take this baby and nurse
him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took her baby and
nursed him. When the child grew older, the woman took him to the
king’s daughter, and she adopted the baby as her own son. The
king’s daughter named him Moses, because she had pulled him out
of the water.”
© 2016 Scripture Union
www.schoolslive.org