Pharaoh And The Israelite's

Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh and spoke to him, saying: "These are the words of the God of Israel: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'"
But Pharaoh said:
"Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. Why do you, Moses and Aaron, interfere with the work of the people? Get back to your tasks. The people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labors."
 The same day pharaoh gave orders to the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying:
 "you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as you have done in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks which they made before, you are still to demand of them. You shall require as much from them as before, for they are idle. That is why they cry out saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Let the men be given more work, so that they may have no time to listen to empty talk."
  The taskmasters and officers went out and spoke to the people, saying:
"Pharaoh says, 'I will not give you straw. Go out and get straw where you can find it, for you shall make no fewer bricks than before.'"
  So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt. And their taskmasters kept after them, saying, "Fulfill your works and your daily tasks, as when there was straw." And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and asked, "Why have you not fulfilled your task of making bricks both yesterday and today, as many as you have made before?"
 So the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying:
 "Why do you deal with your servants in this way? No straw is given to us, and we are told, 'Make bricks.'
We are beaten, but the fault is with your own people."
 "You are idle," Pharaoh answered.
"That is why you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.'"
"So go now and work. There shall be no straw given to you. And still you shall have to make us many bricks as before."
 The officers of the children of Israel, seeing that the numbers of bricks to be made was to be no less, went forth from Pharaoh. On their way, they met Moses and Aaron, and they said to them:
"May the Lord look upon you and judge you, because you have made us hateful in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of is servants, so that they want to kill us."

God Calls Moses

At this time Moses was keeping the flock of this father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb, There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. Moses looked and saw that the bush burned with fire, but it was not destroyed.
And he said:
"I will stop here and see this great sight, and discover why the bush is not burnt."
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, he called out of the middle of the bush and said:
"Moses, Moses"
"Here am I," answered Moses.
"Do not come near." God said.
"Take your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
And God said further:
"I am the God of your father, the God Abraham, the God Isaac, and the God Jacob."
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
And God said:
"I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt and I have heard their cries because of their taskmasters. i realize their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a land good and large, into a land flowing with milk and honey."
"Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may lead forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
But Moses said to the Lord:
"Who am I, that I should go to pharaoh, and that I should lead forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
And God said:
"Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be a token that I have sent you:
When you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God upon this mountain."
Then Moses said to the Lord:
"When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your father has sent me to you' and they say to me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"
And God said:
"This you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The Lord God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you."
"'Yahew is my name for ever, and by this I will be remembered to all generations.'"
"God and gather the elder of Israel together, and tell them all that I have said to you. They shall listen to your voice, and you and the elder of Israel shall go to the king of the Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us, and we beg you to let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, so that we may worship the Lord our God.'
 "And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, but I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders. And after that he will let you go."

Moses In Midian

One day, when Moses was grown up, he went out among his kinsmen and watched them labour. And he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. He looked this way and that way. When he saw that there was no one near, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting each other. He said to the one who was in the wrong:
"Why are you srtiking your own comrade?"
The man replied:
"Who made you a prince and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?"
And Moses was afraid and said to himself, "What I have done must be known."
When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses escaped from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.
There one day he sat down beside a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water from the well, and filled the throughs to water their father's flock. Shepherds came and tried to drive them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
When they came home to their father, he said:
"How is it that you have come back so early tody?"
And they answered:
"An Egyptian protected us from the shepherds, and also drew enough water for us, and watered the flock."
"Where is he?" their father asked.
"Why have you left the man behind? call him to eat with us."
Moses was happy to live with this man, and the man gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife.
Zipporah bore Moses a son, and he called him Gershom, which means "a srtanger there," for he said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land."
And in due course it came to pass that the king of Egypt died. But the children of Israel were still oppressed and in slavery. In their suffering they cried out, and their cry carried up to God. He heard their groaning and remembered his promise to Abraham to Isaac, and to Jacob.
And the Lord looked down upon the children of Israel and had pity on them.

Moses In The Bulrushes

Now there was a man of the family of Levi whose wife bore him a son. And when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months. Then, when she could no longer hide him, she took a basket made of bulrushes, daubed it with pitch and put the child into it. She took it and laid it in the reeds by the river's edge. And the baby's sister stood far away to watch what was done to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maids walked along by the river's side. When she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maids to fetch it.
When she opened the basket, she saw the child, and he was crying. So she took pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."
The baby's sister came forward and said to Pharaoh's daughter:
"Shall I go and find a nurse from the Hebrew woman to look after the child for you.?"
"Go," said Pharaoh's daughter, and the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to the woman: "Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages."
So the mother took her child and nursed it.       

The Birth Of Moses

The children of Israel were fruitful. They increased greatly in number and prosered , and the land of Egypt became filled with them.But there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph and the great work he had done. This new Pharaoh said to his people : 

"The children of Israel are more and mightier than we are . Let us deal wisely with them. For, if they continue growing in numbers , they may join our enemies and fight against us in time of war and go away from our land."
Therefore the Egyptians set taskmasters over the children of Israel and forced them to work for them. They built for Pharaoh the treasure cities of Pithom and Rameses. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them , the more the Israelites grew in strength and increased in number.
So the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, saying :
"When a Hebrew woman gives birth and you see that it is a son , then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter , she shall live."
But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. Instead , they let the men children live. So the king called the midwives and said to them :
"Why have you done this thing?
Why have you let the men children live?"
"Because", answered the midwives , "the Hebrew women give birth without our knowing of it before we come to them."
God was pleased with the midwives and dealt well with them. And the people continued to increase and grow stronger. So Pharaoh commanded his people , saying :
"Every Israelite son that is born you shall cast into the river , and every daughter you shall let live."

The Visit Of The Wise Men

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, asking: "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him."

  When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he asked them where Christ should be born. "In Bethlehem of Judea," they said: "For thus it is written by the prophet:

'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are not the least among the prince of Judah.

For out of you shall come a Governor, that

shall rule my people Israel.'"

  Then Herod sent secretly for the wise men, and asked them that time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search carefully for the young child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I may come and worship him also."

  When they had heard the king, they departed. And, lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over the place where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great joy. And when they came into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worship him, and presented to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned by God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed and returned to their own country by another way.

The Birth OF Jesus

It came to pass in those day that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, the emperor in Rome, that all the world should be taxed. This taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.

Everyone went to be taxed, each to his own city. And Joseph went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be axed with Mary his wife who was soon to have a child.

So it came to pass that while they were there the day arrived for her child to be born. She brought forth her firstborn son , and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

There were in the same country shepherds staying in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were much afraid.

 "Fear not," the angel said to them.

"For I bring you good tidings of a great joy that is coming to all people.  For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savoir who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you: You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

"Glory to God in the highest

and on earth peace, good

will toward men."