He was born in the worst of times.  Not only were his people, the Hebrews, slaves in Egypt; the Pharaoh had decreed that because the slaves were multiplying so fast, every newborn Hebrew boy must be drowned in the Nile.  Therefore, Moses' mother kept him hidden for the first three months of his life.  When she could keep him no longer, she set him adrift in a reed basket along the edge of the Nile river.  The basket was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter.  After Moses' own mother raised him, he was adopted into the royal family.
      One day, the young man Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave.  Moses rushed to his kinsman's defense and killed the Egyptian.  Fearing he would be reported and executed, Moses buried the Egyptian in the sand and fled to the land of Midian.  There he married and settled down to work as a shepherd.  But God had a very important task in mind for Moses.  God's people, the Hebrews, were slaves in Egypt and desperately needed a leader to confront Pharaoh and demand their release.
      Moses was quietly tending his father-in-law's livestock on Mount Sinai one day when God appeared to him in a burning bush.  God commanded the exile to return to Egypt and lead the Hebrews to freedom.
      Moses protested, "Who am I to do this?"
      "I will be with you," the Lord replied, and commissioned Moses to go in the name of the great "I Am." Then Moses complained that he was not a good orator.  So God agreed to let Aaron, Moses' older brother, be his spokesman.  God spoke to Moses and Moses relayed God's messages through Aaron.
      Moses and Aaron appeared boldly before Pharaoh.  The Lord punished Pharaoh's stubbornness by singular means, and the Hebrews ultimately escaped under the leadership of Moses.  The Red Sea waters opened and the people were free.  This story is an unparalleled epic.  Of equal impact is its sequel: The freed masses were mutinous and contentious.  Even Moses' own brother Aaron and his sister Miriam joined in their antics.  As this horde wandered toward the Promised Land, God, through Moses, gave them the Ten Commandments and other laws.
      Moses was faithful to the Lord.  But there was an occasion in the Zin Desert when Moses disobeyed the Lord.  This failure bred disrespect for God among the people so God did not allow Moses to enter Canaan, the land he had promised to Israel.  Before Moses died, however, God let him glimpse the land from the top of Mount Nebo across the Jordan River from Canaan.  So Moses died in Moab, and his successor Joshua led the Hebrews into Canaan.