The King James in a Nutshell

By Malloy West Brandt

This work attempts to cover the substance within each book of the Old Testament. Much of the language is taken directly from the King James Version, while much of the conversation attributed to the participants is not direct quotations. Personal names are added when God and other biblical characters address one another, as I suspect was done. Other expressions are used to express certain events. All variations express scriptural truth. This is not the work of a scholar, but neither is every Bible reader a scholar. I would guess that there are many who would have wished to know the content of the Old Testament but found the language dry, the passages convoluted, and the conversations baffling. It is my sincere hope that these pages will give insight into the events and create an interest to know the details found within the scriptures and will inspire others read the King James Version, for there is no more beautiful language than found within.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098054045

Book preview

Chapter 1

Genesis

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was without form, and empty. Darkness was upon the surface of the deep water, and God’s spirit was moving over the surface of the waters.

So it begins, and in six days, the earth was formed with land and waters, and a sun and moon to separate the days and nights, the seasons, and the years. The waters were supplied with swarms of living things, the sky with flying creatures, and the earth with beasts of every kind. Next, man was made, and everything needed to sustain life was given to him. God looked around, probably nodded. Then, satisfied with his handiwork but in need of a lie down, declared a day of rest. The seventh day, he made sacred.

Presently, God made a perfect little garden in a spot called Eden. It had every kind of tree imaginable for beauty and food source, plus one right in the middle of the garden that bore the knowledge of good and bad. He settled man in the garden as caretaker and gave permission to eat from every tree but the last.

Adam, he said, feel free to eat your fill but stay away from the tree in the center. Eat from that one and you’ll surely die.

God went on to say that it was not good for man to be alone and commenced making every kind of beast and fowl. He brought samples to Adam, asking, What name do you give this? Whatever name Adam supplied was accepted without quibble.

While Adam slept, God took a rib from him and went on to fashion a woman called Eve. Any attribute the woman may have had was obscured by the fact that it was she who got man into his initial trouble. It began by a snake in the grass telling her she positively would not die from eating the fruit of the tantalizing tree Adam had been forewarned.

Actually, it will make you smart. Smart as God is, the serpent said, convincing the woman. She bit into the fruit.

Hmm. Hmmm. Here… Eve offered the fruit to her husband. Taste this, honey, she said. It is absolutely delicious.

The bite was a real eye-opener. They saw themselves naked and grabbed a few fig leaves for cover. Then they hid.

God was mad. He was really mad. He threw the couple out of the pleasant garden along with a warning of what could be expected from disobeying him.

Adam and Eve were clothed and sent to cultivate their own field. From then on, life was not going to be a picnic. Adam would grub the earth for as long as he lived; Eve’s job was to be the mother of everyone living. The birthing was going to be anything but pleasant.

Right away, Eve got pregnant. The son was named Cain. Then Eve conceived again, giving birth to son Abel. Cain grew up to become a farmer; Abel, a herder. Both boys brought an offering to the Lord. Abel’s offering was liked most. Why, is debatable. This made Cain angry. God scolded him, telling him to get mastery over his madness. But Cain didn’t; instead, he killed his brother.

God’s punishment was severe: banishment from the good of the earth, a wanderer and a fugitive. That scared Cain. Someone will kill me for certain, he said. Well, if they do, their own punishment will be seven times as much as you’re getting! God retorted.

Adam and Eve had one more son, Seth. They all lived long lives. One hundred years was nothing. Enos was Seth’s son. It was about the time of his birth that a start was made to call on the name of the Lord. Enos lived to be 807 years old. Methuselah was a descendant of Seth too; he lived 969 years.

Naturally, those long lives were filled with a lot of begetting. As the numbers grew, these sons began to take note of the good-looking daughters of men. They began to take wives for themselves among any they chose. Badness was abundant on the earth. Every inclination and thought was bad; God didn’t like it. He said, I’m sorry I ever made them. I’m going to wipe everything I’ve made off the face of the earth!

But then Noah, a man from the ninth generation after Adam, found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He was a righteous man. God told him his plan. He gave complete instructions to Noah for surviving the deluge of water that was coming in seven days.

Noah set to work building an ark according to God’s directions. He gathered a pair of every living creature, some of every kind of food eaten, took seven sires and mates of all flying creatures, and of every clean beast. But take only one sire and mate from every unclean beast—hear? God was clear in what he expected.

Noah was already six hundred years old. He had a wife and three grown sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth, when the deluge began. He did as God said. Safe and dry inside the ark, the family of man and creatures waited through forty days of rain. The ark rode high above the earth while everything of the earth was being destroyed.

When the rains ceased and the water began to recede and the ark came to rest on a mountaintop (thought to be Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey), Noah opened a window and sent out a raven. It found no place to land and returned. Noah continued to test with the raven. Next, he sent out a dove to see if the water had abated from the earth. The dove also returned. Seven days later, sent out again, the dove returned with an olive leaf in its beak. When, seven days later the dove was sent out and didn’t return, Noah waited for God’s instructions.

That the earth be replenished from the ark was God’s intent. From Shem, Ham, and Japheth, all the earth’s population would spread abroad. From all the creatures leaving the ark, their kind would multiply. And God made a covenant, the sign of a rainbow, never to deal every living thing a blow on man’s account. God thought to himself how the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up, but he vowed that no more would all flesh be cut off by waters of a deluge, no more would he bring such ruin to the earth.

The seeds of the three sons and their descendants would eventually spread in every direction on the earth. But when the progeny of the three had progressed through several generations, all speaking the same language, something happened that would cause misunderstanding between the peoples of the earth forevermore.

In their nomadic life, the seeds of Noah happened upon a pleasant valley and decided to settle. They thought to build themselves a city with a special tower that would reach high toward the heaven. We’ll choose a good name for all of us for fear that we’ll be scattered all over the earth.

The idea was not pleasing to God. He figured that there was no telling what they might be able to do. He proceeded to babble their language. Now, satisfied that one family could not understand the other, he scattered them over the surface of the earth, each to their own nation. Work ceased on the Tower of Babel.

This is the story of descendants of Noah’s son Shem. It is known as the time of the patriarchs/matriarchs, about 2000 to l500 BC. They are the following: Abraham (Abram)/Sarai (Sarah), Isaac/Rebekah, Jacob (Israel)/Rachel and Leah. Ten generations separate Noah and Abraham.

First there was Seth; later, Nahor, who was father to Terah. Terah became the father of Abraham and Haran and also to Nahor, who was named after his grandfather. Marriages within families were common. Certainly it was in this one. For instance, Abraham married his half-sister Sarai. They shared the same father, but not mother. Nahor married Micah, the daughter of his brother Haran. Haran was also the father of Lot. Lot’s place in the Bible is significant.

It is generally believed that this family lived in Ur of the Chaldees, located on the Euphrates River near to its intersection with the Tigris River, which places it in present-day Iraq. History records the first true Mesopotamia civilization of Sumer having its beginning there. Ur was a chief city.

The family was a semi-nomadic people who probably lived on the outskirts of Ur. For reasons unknown, Terah took family, livestock, and possessions some six hundred miles north to Haran in the Euphrates River Valley. It is here that God speaks to Abraham, after the death of his father: Go your way out of your country to a place where I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless thee.

Now, Abram—as he was then called—was, by that time, seventy-five years old. He took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot—the son of his deceased brother Haran—and all the goods he had acquired and took off on a long journey. The travel took them west toward Palmyra, on to Damascus, across the Jordan River, down past Jerusalem (known then as Jebus), across the upper Sinai Peninsula into Egypt, near Memphis. Then the caravan doubled back to stop near Beersheba, a settlement below Jerusalem. They were now in the land of Canaan but still under the rule of the Egyptians.

On their trek down, even before they had reached Jerusalem, God said to Abraham, something like See. I’m going to give this land to your seed. So far, Abraham didn’t have any seed. His beautiful wife Sarai was barren.

Once, Sarai’s beauty made him lie. She’s my sister, he said to one of the princes of Pharaoh just so he wouldn’t kill him and take the comely Sarai for his own. It was only a partial lie, Sarai being his half-sister.

The traveling party was large. The herds of both Abraham and Lot had grown considerably since leaving Haran. The two decided to part company. You choose, said Abraham.

I’ll take that well-watered region close to Sodom and Gomorrah. See? Look yonder, Uncle. That part, over there by the great, salty sea.

You mean that Dead Sea?

Yeah. That’s it.

God told Abraham to go up and down the breadth of the land because he was going to give it to him someday. So Abraham remained a nomad all his life, living in tents. The only land he bought was near Hebron. It was purchased from a Hittite for a burial place for Sarai, who by that time was called Sarah.

However, that came later. Sarai feared she would not have children because she was getting quite old. She asked Abraham to take Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant and impregnate her so the child might be her own. Sarai’s generosity was not uncommon. Abraham did as Sarai bid, and a child was born. He was named Ishmael.

Some thirteen years later, God appeared to Abraham.

Abram. From now on your name will be Abraham. Don’t call yourself Abram anymore. I have something in mind for you. If you prove yourself a faultless man, I will make you the father of many nations.

The stipulation was for Abraham and all his seed to walk favorably with him forevermore. To prove that they intended to do so, God asked, as a sign, that all from that day on, be circumcised.

By the way, don’t call your wife Sarai anymore. Her name will be Sarah.

Sarah?

Yes. And she is going to give you a son.

When Sarah overheard a visitor—who had been sent by the Lord—speaking to her husband, saying that before another year had passed she would have a child, she laughed and asked, Am I to have a child in old age? And then, Why, I don’t even have a period anymore!

It was during this time that God destroyed the wicked cites of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham intervened on Lot’s behalf. Two angels appeared and told Lot to take his wife and two daughters and get out quick! Don’t look back, either! they said.

Lot’s wife did. She was turned to a pillar of salt. The cities were destroyed. Lot hurried on with his daughters. They were forced to live in caves in the mountainous region. The daughters despaired.

There is not a man alive who will have us now!

The first daughter suggested, Why don’t we get father drunk and sleep with him? At least, we would preserve an offspring by him.

The sister was in agreement. Both did sleep with their father, but Lot didn’t know. In time, the girls became pregnant. The first daughter gave birth to a son. She called him Moab. The second, to a son named Benammi. The district of Moab was set aside for the first child; the district of Ammon, the second.

Sarah did deliver a son. They called him Isaac. Jealously had arisen between Sarah and her handmaiden Hagar since the slave was first offered to Abraham. Sarah’s jealously was now directed toward the child. She wanted Ishmael and his mother sent away. Abraham was very fond of his thirteen-year-old son. Told that Sarah would bear him a son, his first inclination was to implore God on the boy’s behalf.

Oh, that Ishmael might live before you!

Look! I will bless him. I will make him fruitful and will multiply him very, very much. I will make for him a great nation.

Abraham listened and obeyed God and did as Sarah asked. He sent the boy and Hagar away with a skin of water and some bread. Hagar feared death for the boy. She put him under some protective bushes. Seating herself away from him, she began to weep. Let me not see it when the child dies, the mother pleaded.

The angel of God called to her, repeating what was told to Abraham—that Ishmael would be father to a great nation. In future years, Hagar’s son would become known as the father of the Arabian people.

Isaac was the son chosen to carry Abraham’s seed into the next generation. But God tested Abraham, asking him to sacrifice the boy as a burnt offering on a mountain that he would specify. Sadly, Abraham obeyed. He took Isaac, along with wood and a slaughtering knife, and proceeded to the designated spot. He was ready to do the deed when the angel of God stayed his hand. Then he was told how, by means of his seed, the nations of the earth would bless themselves because of his obeying the voice of the Lord.

When it was time for Isaac to take a wife, Abraham sent an old servant back to the land of his relatives to select a bride. He did not want one chosen from the land of Canaan. The servant stopped at a well outside the Mesopotamia city of Nahor.

His instructions were to ask a drink from the young women who came to draw water. The first to offer would be the one to take back as a wife for Isaac. Rebekah came first to the well. She was very accommodating. Not only did she give the man a drink from her water jug, but she drew water for all the camels too. She was also pretty, a virgin, and the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor.

The Lord has led me to the house of my master’s brother, said the old servant. Tell me, if I may take her with me for the son of my master.

Rebekah’s brother Laban (who would play a big part in her son’s later years) gave permission for her to proceed to Canaan to meet the bridegroom. It was love at first sight. Soon they were married. Marital happiness softened Isaac’s grief when his mother died. Abraham also mourned Sarah’s death, but soon he was seeding the earth again with new wife Keturah.

Keturah bore him three sons. In time, he would give everything he had to Isaac. But to these sons and the sons of his concubines, he gave gifts and sent then away to the land of the east. At the age of l75 years, Abraham died, satisfied with his life. Ishmael and Isaac buried their father in the cave of Machpelah, the place purchased long ago when Sarah died.

Isaac and Rebekah became parents of twin sons. Esau was born first, kind of red and hairy. Then Jacob came out clutching Esau’s heel. Esau was a hunter, a man of the field; Jacob hung around in the tents, probably helping his mother. Rebekah certainly liked him best. Isaac was closer to his firstborn, who was entitled to inherit from the father. One day, Esau came in from the fields very hungry; famished, it would seem, for he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew that Jacob had prepared for his own meal.

A famine occurred in the land; Isaac moved into the area of the Philistines and was plagued with the same problem as his father. These men began to cast eyes at the fine Rebekah, asking who she was.

My sister, he said, giving the same answer as had his father, Abraham. His fib was soon noted by the Philistine king who happened to be looking out the window and saw the two of them frolicking about.

What’s this? She’s not your sister! Why did you say such a thing? he asked. Isaac said it was because he was afraid someone might desire Rebekah to the extent of knocking him off. To this the king replied, What have you done? It’s likely someone would have lain down with her—then you would have brought guilt upon all of us! He then told all concerned that anyone touching the man and wife would be put to death.

When Esau was forty, he married Judith the daughter of a Hittite. Isaac and Rebekah didn’t approve. Still, he was the first son, and when Isaac grew old and his eyes dim, he asked Esau to go find a deer and make him a tasty dish so that he might eat and give him his blessing. Esau did as he was told. But Rebekah overheard and had ideas of her own.

Quick, Jacob. Find two fine kids of the goat and I will make the dish that your father so loves. He will bless you—not your brother.

But, Mama, Esau is a hairy man. My hands are smooth.

Never you mind, Jacob. We’ll suit you up in some of your brother’s clothes… That way you’ll have his scent, and we’ll put the skin of the kid goats on your hands. Why, your father will not know the difference. Now hurry!

Well, Jacob got the blessing meant for his brother. When Esau went in with his own tasty dish, kissed his father, and asked for his blessing, Isaac said, Who are you?

I’m your firstborn, Esau.

Well, I’m sorry, Son. But there is nothing I can do about it. I’ve already given my blessing to Jacob.

Esau began to cry. He already has my birthright and now he has my blessing too. Don’t you have anything for me?

Sorry. You’ll have to live on the fat of the land and by your sword. Oh yeah, you’ll serve your brother too.

Shoot!

I know. But someday when you have your own ownership, you will break his yoke from your neck.

Even though the area of Edom would be the land provided for him, at the moment, all Esau could think on was that his father’s days were few and when that happened, he was going to kill his brother!

Rebekah knew what her older son was thinking. She told Jacob to go visit her brother Laban until Esau calmed down. To Isaac, she whined, I abhor this life of mine, and it’s all due to those Hittite daughters-in-law of mine. I can’t stand the thought of Jacob marrying one of those girls. If he does…why…oh, Isaac, my life wouldn’t be worth living!

Now, don’t fret, Rebekah. I’ll see what I can do. Isaac called Jacob to him and cautioned not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. It’d kill your mother. You get yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

When Esau saw how the Canaan women displeased his parents, he marched straight away to his uncle Ishmael and took one of his daughters, Mahalath, for a wife to add to his other wives.

Jacob took off at once for Haran. Near the small village of Luz, he spent the night in the open, using a few stones for a pillow. During the night, he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels going up and coming down. At the top stood the Lord, speaking,

I am the Lord God of Abraham and your father, Isaac. This land, right where you lie, I am going to give to you and your seed. Like dust, they will spread in every direction. All the families of the earth will be blessed by what I will give to you. What is more, I am going to be with you wherever you go, and I will bring you to this place again.

Jacob, thinking he’d stumbled upon the house of God and the gate to heaven, consecrated the stone he’d used for a pillow and set it as a pillar there, calling the place Bethel and God’s house. He vowed if he were kept and returned safely to his father’s house, he would return a tenth of everything the Lord would give him. He then continued on to Haran and inquired of Laban.

As luck would have it, Laban’s daughter Rachel was bringing the sheep to water. He identified himself, kissed her, and burst into tears. Her father was delighted to see his sister’s boy. He introduced his older daughter Leah. Her eyes lacked luster, or so it seemed to Jacob. He had already set his heart on the lovely, sparkling-eyed Rachel.

Jacob offered to serve Laban seven years for the hand of Rachel. When the seven years were up, he was surprised to find her older sister in the marriage bed.

Well, son-in-law, she is the eldest. That’s the custom here. Laban said it would take another seven years of service before he could have Rachel. And so it did. Jacob knew all along he would love her best. He served seven more years in this state of happiness.

God saw that Leah was hated, so he opened her womb. She called the first child Reuben. The next one was named Simeon; the next, Levi. With every son, Leah thought, Now my husband will love me. The fourth son was named Judah. After that, she left off giving birth.

Rachel became jealous. Give me children, Jacob, or I’m a dead woman!

Do you think I’m God? Jacob burned with anger. Is it I who held back the fruit of your belly?

Well…here, take my slave girl! Take Bilhah. Let her give birth upon my knee so that I may have her child.

Rachel named Bilhah’s first child Dan, the second child, Naphtali. These children caused Leah to see that she was no longer bearing children; she, straight away, took Zilpah her maidservant to Jacob.

Zilpah bore Jacob two sons. Leah named them Gad and Asher.

Now, Reuben, Leah’s first son, was gathering mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother. Rachel asked for some and Leah said, You’ve taken my husband, now you want my son’s mandrakes?

Don’t worry. Jacob is going to lie down with you tonight.

Oh? Leah went to meet Jacob as he came from the field. She told him he would lie with her that night because she had purchased him outright with her son’s mandrakes. The son she bore from her purchase was called Issachar. She became pregnant again, calling the sixth son Zebulun. Finally, there was a daughter. She was called Dinah.

At last, Rachel bore a son. His name was Joseph. When this child was born, Jacob had enough of serving Laban.

Give me my wives and children, he said. I want to go home.

But I like the way you manage things here. What would it take to make you serve me longer?

Not a thing. Just give me any speckled or splotched sheep or goats in the flock. I’ll keep shepherding your flock.

That sounds good to me! We’ll set a distance of three days between the flocks. Okay?

Jacob always was crafty—his brother Esau would vouch for that—so he devised a way to get the rams to mate and produce speckled and robust sheep. In time, he had the more sheep and the best flock. He figured it was time to go. Laban caught up with him, but in the end, after a hassle over the images of some household gods that Rachel had stolen unbeknownst to Jacob, he gave his blessing to the departing group.

Rachel was as good at conniving as mother-in-law Rebekah. She stuffed the revered items in a saddlebag and sat on them while her father ransacked Jacob’s possessions. She said to Laban, Don’t be mad at me, Daddy, because I can’t get off this camel and stand. I’m…er—uh…you know, having my monthly visit.

As they neared Canaan, Jacob feared Esau’s reception. He sent servants ahead with gifts for his brother. God spoke to him, giving him a new name, Israel. God also let it be known just how he expected Jacob (or Israel) to behave. PUT AWAY ALL FOREIGN GODS.

That was one thing the seeds of Abraham could never get through their heads. Jehovah God meant business, but they never took it seriously for very long at a time.

Do as I say, God continued, and the land promised to your grandfather’s seeds will continue through the seeds of your loin.

Jacob had one more seed to spend before he reached home. Rachel gave birth to a second son, Benjamin, but she died in childbirth and was buried at Bethel.

Jacob was surprised when Esau came running to meet him. His brother embraced him, kissed him, and fell into tears. In time, the two brothers would part company because each had great numbers of livestock. Esau went to Edom in the mountainous region of Seir. His descendants were many, most were sheiks.

Jacob continued to live in Canaan. His sons bore names that would be attached to twelve tribes who would one day inhabit the land that God promised. Years later, Jacob would die in Egypt. His sons would bring him back to Hebron to be buried beside his kin in the cave on the parcel of land that Abraham purchased when Sarah died.

Except for Benjamin, the sons were grown men. Joseph was seventeen, the favorite of his father. Isaac had a pretty coat made for him. He’d not gifted the other boys with coats. And this one was not your average coat, being long and brightly striped. His brothers were jealous.

Besides, Joseph was always having dreams that clearly gave him the advantage. The brothers saw that he was likely to be their king. If those dreams of his mean anything, they reasoned. They began to hate him.

One day, the brothers were in the fields herding the flock. Joseph, at his father’s bidding, had come to check on them. They saw him approach. Probably, it was the coat that caught their eye first.

Let’s kill that dreamer, pitch him in a water pit, smear a little blood on that precious coat and tell Father Isaac that a wild beast ate him.

No! Just pitch him in the pit, said Reuben, the eldest brother. His idea was to go along with them for the moment but return Joseph safely home. But the others spotted a caravan of Ishmaelites on a trading expedition to Egypt.

Hey! Look, coming yonder! Let’s sell him?

So they did. But they took the striped coat, smeared it with blood and told Isaac that wild beast had killed his favorite son. Isaac was beside himself with grief. He couldn’t be comforted.

Joseph wound up in Egypt and was purchased by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And lucky was he that the Hykos, a Semitic people like his ancestors, were in control of the country. He found favor among them. Joseph was a little too well liked by Potiphar’s wife. She spread tales when he refused her advances, which resulted in a little prison time.

He continued to have prophetic dreams that were in his favor. They predicted famines and ways to counteract them, all beneficial to Pharaoh. Joseph’s great insight was from God and was recognized as such by Pharaoh. He showed his appreciation by naming Joseph overseer of all Egypt, second only to himself. Joseph was given all the royal attributes of his new position, including a wife from a priestly family. He became the father of two sons. All in all, life was not bad.

The foreseen famine came to pass. While the Egyptian granaries might be full, the neighboring lands were in dire need of food. People were coming to Egypt to buy grain. Isaac sent ten of his sons on such a mission. Before long, the brothers were bowing down to a brother they didn’t recognize (exactly as his old dreams implied) because Joseph was in charge of distributing the grain.

After submitting them to several harsh tests and finding the brothers trustworthy, admitting to a nasty trick played on a lost brother, with one brother willing to become a slave for the sake of little brother Benjamin, Joseph identified himself.

Now don’t be hurt or angry with yourselves because it was God, not you, who put me in the land of the Pharaohs.

The end result was Pharaoh instructing Joseph to bring all his family to Egypt. So they came with all their possessions and prospered in the land of the Pharaohs.

And that was the reason Abraham’s seeds were in Egypt instead of the promised land of Canaan.

Chapter 2

Exodus

Abraham’s seed continued to dwell in Egypt’s land of Goshen during the time-frame c. 1700–1290 BC. The tribes of his twelve sons multiplied and spread abroad. So much so, the land began to be filled with these sons of Israel.

The years of settlement had seen changes in government, along with temperament. The Hykos (or the pharaohs who accommodated the Hebrew people) no longer dominated Egypt. There was a new kingdom and a pharaoh who did not know of Joseph. He saw the awesome growth of these foreign people and suspected the time might come when they would join themselves with Egypt’s enemies.

Enslavement was the pharaoh’s solution. Life may have been made miserable by the forced labor of the Hebrew people but high birthrates continued. Harsh measures were taken. The king had a word with the midwives of the people. Listen, he said. When you help your women with their birthing, if the child is a boy, kill it! He added, But a girl, she can live.

The midwives balked, afraid of God. Saying, when the king questioned as to why they were not obeying his order, Well, these Hebrew women are quite sprightly. By the time we get to them, they’ve already delivered.

The king went before the people commanding them, Throw every newborn son into the Nile River. He cautioned, concerning the girls, But…now, you keep them alive.

In the meantime, Amram, a grandson of Levi, married Jochebed, Levi’s daughter. They were parents to Aaron and Miriam. After the king’s new rule went into effect, Jochebed became pregnant, giving birth to a fine-looking baby boy. She kept the child hidden for three months. Knowing that his presence could not be concealed much longer, she devised a plan and set to work constructing a small ark of papyrus leaves.

Jochebed used slime and pitch to waterproof the basket and placed the baby inside. At some point, she probably told Miriam of her idea. Come with me, sister. I’m placing this in the reeds by the side of the Nile. I want you to stay close by. I understand that Pharaoh’s daughter comes down here to bath. Watch for her.

As planned, Pharaoh’s daughter caught sight of the ark and sent her maid to investigate. When she saw the baby inside and it in tears, she felt very sorry, saying, This is one of the Hebrew children.

Miriam came from where she was watching. Shall I go and fetch a Hebrew nursing woman for you? she asked.

Go. Take this baby and nurse him for me and I will pay you wages.

So Miriam took her little brother back to their mother where he would be nursed and cared for until he grew up. Only then would Jochebed give over the boy to the daughter of Pharaoh, who would say at the time, I will call him Moses because I drew him out of the water.

Life as a son in the royal household would be much different than that of the boy’s own people. As a youth, wealth and privilege were probably taken for granted and enjoyed. As a grown man, though, Moses would see the suffering of his people. He became outraged on seeing an Egyptian mistreating a certain Hebrew. Thinking that no one would see, he killed the man.

He was mistaken. Later, he was intervening between two Hebrew men when one asked, Who do you think you are! Who appointed you as prince or judge over us? Are you going to kill us like you did the Egyptian?

Uh-oh! I’m in big trouble was probably in the thoughts of Moses.

It would not be long before Pharaoh heard of the murder and attempt to kill Moses. Moses fled across the Sinai Peninsula to the land of Midian (Arabia) and dwelt as an alien in a foreign land. He took a daughter of the priest of Midian as his wife. In due time, he became a father.

Back in Egypt, the king died. The sons of Israel moaned in their bondage, they cried to God of their plight. God heard. He remembered his covenant with the patriarchs of old. Moses would be the instrument he would choose for their deliverance.

God spoke first to Moses from a flame in the midst of a thorn bush. The bush kept burning yet was never consumed. When Moses went to investigate, God told him to take off his shoes for he was standing on holy ground. Then he further explained, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I’ve seen the suffering of your people and I am going to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians into a land flowing with milk and honey. He added, And you will be the one to lead the children of Israel away from Egypt.

Me! How can I do that?

Because I will be with you, Moses, God answered. And afterward, your people will serve God upon this mountain.

Questions flooded the mind of Moses. What if I go and they ask who sent me? What if they don’t believe me?

Tell them I AM sent you. I AM, always have been, always will be. Tell them I am the God of your fathers. The name GOD will be my name forever. And look here—

He proceeded to turn the rod that Moses held into a snake and back again to the rod. He made the hand of Moses white with leprosy—then normal again. "If those two signs are not enough to make the people believe, then take some water from the Nile and sprinkle it on the sand, the drops will become blood upon the sand.

Well, um… I’m not much of a speaker.

I’ll teach you to be fluent of words.

Still Moses hem-hawed; God grew angry. He asked, How about your brother Aaron? He can speak, I know! I’ll teach you both! He can serve as a mouth for you and you as God to him.

Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and gathered all the older sons of Israel together to hear how the God of their fathers would end their bondage.

However, Moses was forewarned that God would make Pharaoh’s heart obstinate in order that he and the people could see the miracles that would be performed. When the king was first approached about letting the Hebrews go into the wilderness to celebrate a three-day feast in God’s honor, he refused. Instead, with every request, he toughened their workload.

Why did you send me? Moses asked of God. From the time I’ve been here speaking in your name, Pharaoh has done nothing but evil to the people and you have not delivered them. The people don’t understand.

Now you will see what I shall do to Pharaoh because of his strong hand, for I do intend to rid the people of their bondage.

At God’s bidding, Moses showed the signs of power granted to him to Pharaoh but the king had no regard of any. Moses tried again, saying the words God asked that he say, This is what the Lord has said, ‘Send my people away that they may serve me, and if you refuse me—’

Those words began a tug-of-war between God and Pharaoh. All would observe the capabilities of the true God. He promised to send frogs, gnats, gadflies, pestilence, boils, swarms of locust, and darkness—all afflictions upon the Egyptians. The Hebrew people would not be affected.

The onset of each new plague would send Pharaoh to Moses, saying, Entreat the Lord to remove these frogs (gnats, gadflies, etc.) then I will send the people away that they may worship the Lord. The particular scourge would abate; his consent would be withdrawn. Again, Moses would warn of pending plague; one would descend. Pharaoh would entreat and promise only to have the promise remain unfulfilled.

God said to Moses, "I have one plague more to send on Egypt. After it, Pharaoh will literally drive every one of you out. Tonight, I am going within their midst and every firstborn must die, be it the firstborn of Pharaoh or his maidservant. Likewise, every firstborn of beast shall die. There will be an outcry in the land as has never been heard.

"Here is what you must do. Listen to these specific instructions: Alib is the beginning of the months for you. On the tenth day, every man must take a lamb from his ancestral tribe and keep it until the fourteenth day. On that day, the whole congregation of Israel must kill the lambs and splash some of the blood upon the doorpost of the houses where it will be eaten.

"See that the lamb is cooked by roasting and every bit should be eaten. Your hips should be girded, and you should have your shoes on, for you are to eat in haste.

"You see, tonight I will pass through the land of Egypt and leave behind every firstborn of both man and beast dead. Your houses will not be harmed. I will see the blood on the doorpost and