The Birth of Moses - God Saves the Baby in a Basket

Hi, kids! Today I’m going to tell you a story about a baby who was put inside a basket. So why do you think somebody would put a baby in a basket? Let’s find out who is this baby and why he was put in a basket.

 Do you remember the story of Joseph forgiving his brothers? Our story today is the continuation of what happened to Joseph's family after they lived and died in Egypt.

After Joseph, his father Jacob (also called Israel) and his family died, their descendants lived as slaves in Egypt. But God still blessed the children of Israel so they grew in number. They became so many that they outnumbered the Egyptians.

This made the Pharaoh afraid. “There are already too many Israelites in our land! We must find a way to control their growth, or else they may side with our enemies and conquer us!” So they treated the Israelites very badly and gave them a lot of work to do. 

The Pharaoh also commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill every baby boy that is born by an Israelite woman but leave the girl alive. But the midwives feared God and did not follow the Pharaoh. So Israel continued to grow in number.

There was a Hebrew husband (Amram) and wife (Jochebed) from the tribe of Levi. The wife had given birth to a beautiful baby boy. They hid the baby so that the Egyptians won't find him.

After three months, they could not hide him anymore so they thought of a clever way to save the baby. The mother wove a basket and coated it with tar so that it would float on water. Then she put her baby in the basket.

The baby's mother and his sister named Miriam went to the shore of the river Nile. They put the basket with the baby inside and let it float on the water. The mother prayed to God to take care of his son. Then she told Miriam to watch over the baby to see what will happen.
God kept watching over the baby boy because He had a special plan for this baby. Soon the Pharaoh’s daughter came to the Nile River to bathe. The princess saw the basket and sent her servant to fetch it for her. When she looked inside, she was surprised to find a baby inside! The princess said: “This must be one of the Hebrew’s children.” She felt sorry for the baby, so she decided to keep him. “I need a nursing woman to feed him and look after him.” Miriam who was hiding saw everything that happened. She jumped out of hiding and told the Princess, “I know a nursing woman who can help you.”

“Go, bring her to me, then.” The princess ordered the little Miriam. So Miriam ran back home to her mother and said happily, “Mother, I came to tell you that the Pharaoh’s daughter found my little brother, and she told me to come with someone who could nurse the baby. So I’m bringing you to her right now!” So they went to see the Princess.

When the Princess saw the Hebrew woman, she told her: “Take care of this baby, and I will pay your wage.” So the baby boy was raised by his own mother. And when the baby grew up, her mother took him back to the Princess. The Princess treated the boy as his own son. She said: “I have brought you out of the water, so I will call you Moses.” What’s so special about this baby boy Moses? Why did God keep him alive? Well, that’s another Moses story to tell! What's important is you know that God took care and saved baby Moses.
Read this story from Exodus 2:1-10.

KIDS DISCUSSION:

Let’s try to remember what happened in the story.
1. From what tribe of Israel did the Hebrew couple came from?
2. Where did the people of Israel live during this time?
3. Why was the Pharaoh afraid of the people of Israel? What did he do?
4. Did Israel become less in number because of Pharaoh’s order? Why?
5. Who put the baby in the basket? Why?
6. Did the baby die? Why?
7. Who found the baby?
8. What did the Princess do with the baby?
9. How did the boy ended up being raised by his mother?
10. Who gave the baby his name? What is his name? What does it mean?

MEMORY VERSE: Exodus 2:10

When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses ... “I drew him out of the water.”

KIDS ACTIVITY:

1. Tell the story. Print out the complete set of pictures of this story (including the three above) from this page. Give each child a picture then let them arrange the pictures according to the sequence of the story while still holding the picture. Let each child tell the story of the picture he/she is holding.

2. Coloring pages. You can find free baby Moses coloring pages here. You can print them for personal use, meaning not to be sold.

3. Baby on a woven basket.

• You need one blue-colored paper, white bond paper, one brown colored paper, blue crayon, scissor, glue and a picture of a baby. Prepare one set for each kid in class.
• Cut out the biggest oval shape you can in the middle of the blue-colored paper. You can also use white bond paper then simply color it blue after cutting out the oval shape from the middle.
• Cut some brown and white paper strips. Lay the strips of brown paper side by side over the oval shape until it is covered. Glue both ends of the paper strip to the edge of the oval shape. Then, get 1 strip of white paper and weave it through the glued strips of brown paper. Weave other strips of white paper until the oval shape is covered.
• Glue the baby picture on top of the woven basket. You can print out the baby picture shown below from this page or just manually draw one. The kids could also draw their own baby pictures if they like.
• Let them write something on the paper to remind them of today's story like "God saved baby Moses. God saved me, too."

This is how the finished craft will look like.