After Joseph died, all of his relatives stayed in Egypt. They and their descendants continued to live there for many years and had many children. They were called the Israelites.
After hundreds of years, the number of Israelites had become very large. The Egyptians were no longer grateful that Joseph had done so much to help them. They became afraid of the Israelites because there were so many of them. So the Pharaoh who was ruling Egypt at that time made the Israelites slaves to the Egyptians.
The Egyptians forced the Israelites to build many buildings and even whole cities. The hard work made their lives miserable, but God blessed them, and they had even more children.
Pharaoh saw that the Israelites were having many babies, so he ordered his people to kill all Israelite baby boys by throwing them into the Nile River.
When the boy’s parents could no longer hide him, they put him in a floating basket among the reeds along the edge of the Nile River in order to save him from being killed. His older sister watched to see what would happen to him.
A daughter of Pharaoh saw the basket and looked inside. When she saw the baby, she took him as her own son. She hired an Israelite woman to nurse him without realizing the woman was the baby’s own mother. When the child was old enough that he no longer needed his mother’s milk, she returned him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who named him Moses.
Moses was taking care of his father-in-law’s herd of sheep. One day, he saw a bush on fire, burning without being destroyed. He went close to the bush to look at it. When he was very close, God spoke to him. He said, “Moses, take off your shoes. You are standing on holy ground.”
God said, “I have seen the suffering of my people. I will send you to Pharaoh so that you can bring the Israelites out of their slavery in Egypt. I will give them the land of Canaan, the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Moses asked, “What if the people want to know who sent me, what should I say?” God said, “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ Also tell them, ‘I am Yahweh, the God of your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ This is my name forever.”
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