AFTER the death of Joseph "there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." This king did not wish to remember the good that Joseph had done.
The children of Israel had increased in numbers; "and the land was filled with them." The Egyptians feared that if there was a war the Israelites would join their enemies and fight against them.
So the king made them slaves, and set taskmasters over them to make them work. "And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field."
They thought that by their cruelty and the hard work in the fields, they would stop the Israelites from increasing in the land. "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew."
Then the cruel king commanded that all the boys should be killed at their birth. But even this plan did not succeed. The Israelites still increased in the land.
It was at this time that Moses was born. For three months he was carefully hidden at home and cared for by his mother. But she dared not keep him there any longer. So she made an ark of bulrushes, and laying the babe in it, hid it among the flags by the river.
His sister Miriam anxiously watched the little ark while the mother prayed earnestly that her child might not be destroyed. God heard the mother's prayer, for the babe in the little ark was to be used by the Lord to deliver Israel from bondage.