After Joseph’s father, Jacob, and his brothers and their families settled in Egypt, their future generations, known as the Hebrews, lived very happily there. However, after many generations, during which time the Hebrews grew more numerous, things changed.

A new Pharaoh rose to power and feared that the Hebrews’ growing numbers gave them too much strength. Because of this, the Pharaoh ordered a terrible deed to be carried out. He gave orders for every newborn Hebrew boy to be killed by being thrown into the Nile River.

But one baby boy survived. Due to the prayerful intervention of his mother, and through God’s miraculous protection, this baby boy was saved from the river and taken into the care of Pharaoh’s own daughter. Through an amazing turn of events, the baby, whom Pharaoh’s daughter named Moses, was raised in Pharaoh’s palace. The baby grew to be the man God used to free the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage.

Many chapters in the Bible cover the life and journeys of Moses’ life as he led the Hebrews through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, including the receiving of the Ten Commandments that God wrote on two stones for Moses. You can read the details about baby Moses in Exodus chapters 1–2:10, and about Moses receiving the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 31.