19. This king tricked our people and was cruel to our ancestors. He forced them to put their babies outside to die.
20. This was the time when Moses was born. He was a fine child. For three months Moses was cared for in his father’s house.
21. When they put Moses outside, the king’s daughter took him. She raised him as if he were her own son.
22. The Egyptians taught Moses all the things they knew. He was a powerful man in the things he said and did.
23. “When Moses was about 40 years old, he thought it would be good to visit his brothers, the people of Israel.
24. Moses saw an Egyptian doing wrong to a Jew. So he defended the Jew and punished the Egyptian for hurting him. Moses killed the Egyptian.
25. Moses thought that his fellow Jews would understand that God was using him to save them. But they did not understand.
26. The next day, Moses saw two Jewish men fighting. He tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why are you hurting each other?’
27. The man who was hurting the other man pushed Moses away. He said, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?
28. Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’
29. When Moses heard him say this, he left Egypt. He went to live in the land of Midian where he was a stranger. While Moses lived in Midian, he had two sons.
30. “After 40 years Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai. An angel appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush.
31. When Moses saw this, he was amazed. He went near to look closer at it. Moses heard the Lord’s voice.
32. The Lord said, ‘I am the God of your ancestors. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses began to shake with fear and was afraid to look.
33. The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals. You are standing on holy ground.
34. I have seen the troubles my people have suffered in Egypt. I have heard their cries. I have come down to save them. And now, Moses, I am sending you back to Egypt.’
35. “This Moses was the same man the Jews said they did not want. They had said to him, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’ Moses is the same man God sent to be a ruler and savior, with the help of an angel. This was the angel Moses saw in the burning bush.