A Story of God and All of Us Young Reade - By Roma Downey Page 0,8

time even more terrified than before.

"I am told that this man is the guilty party," Joseph tells them, staring at Benjamin. He has carefully selected the youngest to blame, for he alone among the brothers was blameless when Joseph was sold into slavery.

"Benjamin would never steal," Simeon begs.

"Silence!" barks Joseph. "Go home. All of you. But this one stays--as my

slave."

The brothers all raise their faces, begging together. "No!" they cry out.

"Please! We beg of you!"

Joseph surveys them with amusement.

"We cannot leave him," protests Judah.

"It would destroy our father!" agrees Simeon.

"I will be your slave instead," adds Judah. To which Simeon protests that he should be the one taken into slavery.

"Silence!" Joseph commands once again. He struggles to remain composed. All the brothers fearfully press their faces to the floor. With a wave, Joseph dismisses all his guards. They leave. He stands alone, towering over his brothers.

"Bring our father here," he says in a hoarse whisper.

A mystified Simeon sneaks a look at Joseph, who has removed his wig.

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"Joseph?" asks Simeon, stunned. The others raise their eyes.

Joseph has longed so many years for this moment. "What you did to me was wrong," he tells his brothers. "But God made it right. He watched over me. I have saved many lives, thanks to him."

The brothers do as they are told, returning home and bringing Jacob to Egypt so that he might be reunited with his son. The entire family is together again--all of Israel's children. But they are in the wrong place, and they know it. For while they now live in luxury, this is not the land that God promised Abraham.

Even worse, over the generations that follow, the drought Joseph predicted means that thousands upon thousands are forced to leave. The people of Israel travel to Egypt in search of food, and eventually become enslaved.

They build the great palaces and monuments of Egypt, working all day

under the blazing desert sun. They are slaves of a great Pharaoh.

But they will be saved by an outcast, a man who will have an extraordinary relationship with God.

This man's name is Moses.

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PART TWO

EXODUS

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Almost five hundred years have passed since Abraham died. His descendants are hundreds of miles from the Promised Land, and a generation from ever setting eyes upon it. They are slaves in the land of Egypt, but they are also a proud and strong people. As God promised, they have become as numerous as the stars in the skies--so numerous, in fact, that the Egyptian Pharaoh is afraid there will be a rebellion. So he has sent his soldiers throughout the land--village to village, house to house--to kill every Hebrew baby boy.

Yet one brave Jewish woman is taking extraordinary measures to save her child. For three long months she has successfully hidden her boy from the Egyptian soldiers. Now she fights for her baby's life by wrapping him in a blanket and concealing him in a basket. The simple basket is this nameless mother's version of

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Noah's ark. Just as God sent Noah to save the world, she has fashioned a second ark that will carry a boy who will become a man and continue the job that Noah began.

Then comes the hard part--so hard that she cannot bear to witness it herself.

Instead, she sends her daughter, Miriam, to hide the basket in the reeds along the Nile's edge, knowing that a number of terrible things might happen to her child.

Miriam doesn't want to do this, but she has no choice. Either she hides her brother in the reeds, or he is sure to die at the hands of Egyptian soldiers.

Better to do something--even something foolish--than to let her brother be pulled from her mother's breast and hurled into the dark blue waters of the Nile. Now she watches helplessly. She tries to remain calm as she follows the little ark along the water's edge.

Miriam bites her lip in anticipation as the basket holding the boy bobs nearer and nearer to where the Pharaoh's daughter Batya bathes.

Miriam's heart soars as Batya lifts the young boy from the basket and clumsily attempts to cradle him. Batya is too young to have a child of her own, knows nothing about holding or taking care of a baby, and immediately knows that this child is an Israelite slave.

"Please put it back, my lady," requests a maid.

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Miriam, a girl of great faith, begins to pray. The princess could easily toss the baby back into the river.

"Please, God, help him," begs Miriam.

God hears Miriam's prayer.

Batya smiles at the baby boy.