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Pharaoh's daughter loved Moses,
and she told the wise men of Egypt to teach him all they knew: for
she wished Moses to be wise. The Egyptians knew many things, and had
much wisdom; but not the best wisdom; they did not know nor worship the
true God. They worshiped animals; bulls, and sheep, and dogs, and
cats, and crocodiles, and insects. But the Israelites, who lived in
Egypt, remembered the God of their fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob;
and the mother of Moses, no doubt, taught him holy things, true wisdom,
when he was a very little boy; and she prayed for him, that he might be
kept from sin, and that he might love and serve the Lord. And God
heard her prayer; and taught Moses by the Holy Spirit, that riches and
worldly things could not make him happy, nor save his soul: that God
alone could keep him from sin; and that he could be saved only by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, who should at a future time, come down from heaven,
and die for sinners. Pharaoh's daughter called him her son, and
wished to give him great riches; but Moses did not wish to be rich:
he chose "rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Hebrews
11:25. St. John says, "Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world." 1 John 2:15. If we love
pleasure, or riches, or power, or sin, more than we love God, we cannot be
His children. We must give him all our thoughts, all our affections,
all our love. Jesus said to his disciples, "Lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do
not break through, nor steal." Matthew 6:19, 20. When
Moses was grown up, he went to visit his brethren the Israelites, who were
suffering so much in Egypt. One day he saw an Egyptian cruelly
beating an Israelite; they were alone, but God's eye was upon them.
God saw the wicked Egyptian, and the poor Israelite, and sent Moses to
help his suffering brother. Moses ran to the two men, and saved the
Israelite, and killed the Egyptian, and hid the body in the sand.
The next day, Moses went out again, and saw two men fighting. Were
they Egyptians? No, they were both Israelites. Moses was
grieved to see them so wicked: for God's people ought to be kind and
gentle; brothers ought to love one another. So Moses went to them,
and tried to make peace between them. But the one who did the wrong,
would not attend to Moses; and said, "Who sent thee to be a
judge? Wilt thou kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian
yesterday?" When Moses heard this he was very much afraid, for
he thought the people knew what he had done; and the king might be angry,
and seek to kill him. So Moses fled from Egypt, and went to Midian,
and sat down by a well. As he sat there, some young women came to
the well to water their sheep; and Moses helped them and drew water for
them. When they went home, they told their father how kind Moses had
been: their father's name was Jethro; and when he heard about Moses,
he sent for him, and gave him food, and asked him to live with him in
Midian. Moses did so; and sometime after, he married one of Jethro's
daughters, who was named Zipporah. Moses had not now the riches of
Egypt, which he had when he lived at the king's house; he was a poor man,
keeping Jethro's sheep in the wilderness. But Moses knew that God
would take care of him; and he loved God better than all the fine things
in Egypt. But did God
forget the Israelites, when Moses was gone? No; He heard them cry,
and remembered His promise to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.
"God looked upon the children of Israel." We may be sure
that God's eye is always upon us: He knows all our sorrows, and sees
all our tears, and, in due time, He will comfort and deliver us, if we
trust in him.
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