The Birth of an Unlikely Rescuer

Here's the second story that I've writen for my 7 year old.  

But I definitely want to give credit where credit is due. So, here's some context again:

I absolutely love the Jesus Storybook Bible. I have read it to my kids and have used it countless times in a class that I teach with Cru. I love its focus and its style and its simplicity and at the same time its depth.  

But the one thing I don't love about it is that there isn't enough of it.

So, I have begun writing stories that Sally Lloyd-Jones doesn't cover in the JSB for my 7 year old son. Because of how much my kids have loved the JSB, I have attempted to capture the tone and focus and style of Sally's writing (including some of her great phrases). Not sure if I have succeeded or not, but they have provided rich times of reading when I tuck my son in bed at night.

I wanted to begin to occasionally share these in case you wanted to share them with your kids (or enjoy them for yourself).


The Birth of a rescuer - Moses
Exodus 2; Acts 7:17-22; Hebrews 11:23-28

God’s people (the Hebrews) were living in Egypt and waiting and waiting and waiting. They had done so much waiting that it now didn’t feel like waiting anymore.  They were now just living - working and cooking and cleaning and having babies and playing soccer and chasing their dog.  

You see, they had been given a promise by God that they would one day get back to their very own home in their very own country.  But over time, their waiting had just turned into living.  They just kind of forgot about the promise.   But God didn’t.  

But life in Egypt wasn’t as fun as it sounded.  There was a new King in Egypt (called a Pharaoh) that did not treat the people of God very nicely at all.  He was mean to them and bullied them and treated them very, very rudely.  In fact, he was so mean to God’s people that he was making sure none of the baby boys would live.  

And so God had a plan...a secret rescue plan.  He was going to raise up a rescuer to get his people to their new home.  But who would be the hero that would rescue God’s people from the King of Egypt?  

One day, a beautiful baby boy was born.  From the moment his mom and dad took him in their arms, they fell deeply in love with him.  But, they knew that the mean King of Egypt didn’t want him to live.  They tried and tried to hide him, but it became harder and harder because, well, babies get noisy. So, after a few months, they made a little floating basket to hide him.  They cried as they bundled him up and laid him in the basket and ever so gently placed him in the nearby river.  His older sister, Miriam, watched closely by.  

His basket started floating down the river and Miriam kept her eyes fixed on her little brother as she ran along the river’s edge, trying desperately to keep up with him.  

Finally, the basket came to rest at a place in the river where the water became calm and smooth.  

Well, the mean King of Egypt had a daughter.  And she happened to be taking a bath in that smooth part of the river (they didn’t have baths or showers like we do today).  She saw the basket as it gently floated by.  When she opened it, tears filled her eyes as she saw the beautiful baby crying.  She couldn’t help but want to raise this lost baby as her own child.   

Just then, Miriam caught up with the basket and she had a wonderful plan.  (Now the King’s daughter didn’t know that Miriam was the baby’s sister.)

Miriam made a deal with the King’s daughter.  If she could take the baby and have her mom feed him for a while, then they would give him back to the King’s daughter after a few years to raise him as her adopted son in the king's palace.

And that’s just what happened.  

Joy filled the the faces of the baby’s parents as Miriam brought him home and as they saw their beautiful baby again.  They knew that God had rescued him.  

But this baby wasn’t only going to be rescued, he was going to be the rescuer of God’s people.  This little baby would be Moses, the unlikely hero that would carry out God’s secret rescue plan to get God’s people to their new home…

...a lot like another unlikely hero that would be born many years later.  He would be the hero who would carry out God’s ultimate secret rescue plan.  He was going to deliver God’s people from an even greater enemy than Pharaoh so they could be in their new home and live with Him forever.  

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