Part 4

Then Jacob divided his band into two companies, thinking that at least one might escape. He then sent servants with splendid presents to Esau, hoping thus to touch the heart of his brother.

Jacob had now done all that he could do. Then he went by himself to spend the night in prayer. He knew that God could touch the heart of his brother, and this was his only hope.

While praying he suddenly felt a hand laid upon him. He thought it was an enemy seeking his life. He put forth all his strength to escape, but could not. Jacob struggled and wrestled until near morning.

Then the stranger touched him on the hollow of his thigh, and his thigh was put out of joint. Then Jacob knew that he had been struggling with an angel, and not with a man. It was the Lord, his Saviour.

Jacob ceased to struggle, and clung to the Angel. He knew he must have divine help or perish. Unless God should work for him, his brother Esau would overcome and destroy him.

But Jacob's faith must be fully tested. The Angel said, "Let me go, for the day breaketh." With the realizing sense of his sins and of his deep need, he clung to his Lord the closer, and cried, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me."

And "he had power over the Angel, and prevailed; he wept and made supplication unto Him; he found Him in Bethel." And the Angel said unto him, "What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel [A prince of God]; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

If we come to God as Jacob did, with confession, with tears, and a perseverance that will not be denied, we can prevail with Him also.

The Lord sent an angel to soften the heart of Esau. At sight of Jacob "Esau ran to meet him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept."

Jacob journeyed to the Jordan, which he crossed, and "came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan." Here he erected an altar which he named "El-elohe-Israel," which means, "God, the God of Israel."

Joseph in Bondage.

JACOB had twelve sons. The ten elder sons were shepherds. They often went far from home to find grass and water for their father's flocks. Joseph and Benjamin, the two younger sons, remained at home with their father.

The elder sons were quarrelsome, and gave their father much trouble. But Joseph was gentle, kind, and truthful. And Jacob "loved Joseph more than all his children." To show his love, Jacob made him a beautiful coat of many colors. These things made his brothers jealous, and they hated him.

But the Lord was pleased with Joseph because he loved to do right and obey his father. God had a great work for Joseph to do. So He gave him two dreams which came true many years afterward.

In his first dream Joseph saw himself and his eleven brothers in the field binding grain into bundles, or sheaves. And his bundle arose and stood upright, and his brothers' bundles bowed down to his bundle.

Probably Joseph did not know what his dream meant. Had he known, he would not have told it to his brothers. When he did tell it to them they hated him more than ever, and said, "Shalt thou indeed rule over us?"

Some time after this Joseph dreamed another dream. In this dream he saw the sun, moon, and eleven stars. And they all bowed down to him. He told this dream to his father and to his brethren. And his father said to him, "Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" But years after, when the famine came, the father, brothers, and their families had to depend on Joseph for even the food which they ate.

One day Jacob sent Joseph to find his brethren, for he wanted to know if they were well. They were many miles away caring for the sheep.

When they saw Joseph coming, these wicked brothers said one to another, "Behold, this dreamer cometh. Let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams."

But Reuben would not consent to have Joseph killed, so they took off his beautiful coat, and cast him alive into a pit. Soon a company of Ishmaelites came along on their way to Egypt. Then the brothers drew him out of the pit and sold him to be a slave.

After Joseph was gone, the brothers began to think of their father, and what they should tell him. Then to hide their sin they did another wicked thing. They killed a young goat and put its blood all over Joseph's coat, so it would look as though some wild beast had slain him.

Some of the brothers then took the coat to their father, and told him they had found it. They said they had brought it to him to see if it was Joseph's coat.

And Jacob said, "It is Joseph's coat; some evil beast hath devoured him." And Jacob rent his clothes and mourned for his son many days. The wicked brothers deceived their father then, but many years afterward the truth came out, and they had to confess their sin.

Joseph was sold to a rich man in Egypt, by the name of Potiphar. The Lord blessed Joseph, and Potiphar saw that whatever he did prospered. So he made him steward of all that he had.

But God had a higher place for Joseph, and he must reach it through affliction. In all his troubles it was the Lord who was giving Joseph just the training he needed to fit him for the great work before him.

Through a wicked and false charge of Potiphar's wife, Joseph was cast into prison. But by his honesty he gained the confidence of the keeper of the prison, and was given charge of the prisoners.

One morning he met the chief butler and the chief baker of the king. They had been cast into prison for some offense, and were looking very sad. He kindly asked the cause, and each said that he had dreamed a strange dream, and could not tell what it meant.

Joseph then said, "Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray thee." Then they told their dreams, and the Lord told Joseph their meaning. In three days the butler was to go back to his place with the king, but the baker would be put to death.

Then Joseph told the story of his wrong treatment to the butler, and asked him to tell the king, and try to get him out of prison. But the butler was like many other people who soon forget those who were their friends in trouble. When he got out of prison he forgot all about Joseph and his request.

But God was working all the time in His own way. The king had two dreams in one night, which seemed to mean the same thing. He wanted to understand them, so he called in the wise men of his kingdom, but they could not tell what the dreams meant.

Now get your Bible and read the forty-first and forty-second chapters of the book of Genesis, and see what these dreams were, and how the Lord got Joseph out of prison and made him ruler of Egypt.

When the dreadful famine came, he had corn saved up to keep the Egyptians from starving. Thus the Lord often uses good people to provide for the needs of those who are evil.

But God had another reason for delivering Joseph from prison. What do you think it was?

Joseph and His Brethren.

WHEN food began to be scarce with Jacob's family, he sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy corn. Joseph knew his brethren when he saw them, but they did not know him. He did not look like the boy whom they had sold.

As they bowed before him, the ruler of Egypt, he remembered his dreams of many years before. He saw them fulfilled completely. As the sheaves had bowed to his sheaf, so his brethren were now bowing to him.

His heart went out in love for them, but before he should tell them who he was, he wanted to know if they were still wicked, or if their hearts had been changed since he had been separated from them.

Joseph accused them of being spies. But they denied the charge, and said that they were true men, and a family of twelve brethren. Ten were in Egypt, the youngest was with their father, and one was dead. They had never heard of Joseph since they had sold him, and supposed he was dead.

But Joseph still accused them of being spies, and shut them all up in prison for three days. These days in prison were days of sorrow. They felt that they were being punished for their cruel treatment of Joseph.

Finally Joseph called them from prison. He told them that all but one could return to their father. He would keep Simeon in prison until they should come back to Egypt, but they must bring their youngest brother when they came, or Joseph would not even see them.

Joseph chose Simeon to remain because he had been the chief actor in their cruelty to him in the past. They returned to their home with heavy hearts.

When the food brought from Egypt was nearly gone, Jacob said to his sons, "Go again, buy us a little food." But they dared not go unless Benjamin should go with them. To this the father at last consented, and they again went to Egypt, taking with them presents for the great governor.

As they started, the sorrowful father raised his hands to heaven and prayed, "God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your elder brother, and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."

When they reached Egypt, their brother Simeon was released, and all were brought to dine at the house of the governor. According to the customs of Egypt, Joseph must eat at a table by himself, and the eleven brothers at a table by themselves. They had been jealous of Joseph in his home, and he wanted to know if they had become better men. So he sent five times as much food to Benjamin. They showed no jealousy now.

But Joseph desired to test them once more. So when the sacks were filled with corn he had his silver drinking cup put secretly into Benjamin's sack.

The eleven brothers departed joyfully, and felt that they had escaped all the perils which they feared. But they had hardly left the city when they were overtaken by the governor's steward.

He said to them, "Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?" He then accused them of stealing the cup. They all denied taking it, and felt so sure that they said if it was found with one of them he should die, and all the rest would become servants of the governor.

But the steward would not agree to this. He said, "He with whom it is found shall be my servant; and ye shall be blameless." So all the sacks were opened, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

What will the brothers do now? If still selfish, they will leave their brother to his fate, and go back home. But no, they were changed men. They would now face any peril to save their brother. They rent their clothes to show their grief, and all went back with him to the city, and met the governor.

Then Judah offered to become a slave in the place of Benjamin. This test was enough. Joseph now _knew_ that his brothers were changed.

Did he make slaves of them because they had sold him into bondage when he was a boy?

Find the forty-fifth chapter of Genesis and read what he did, and how the king felt about it when he heard the news, and what became of Joseph's brothers and their father's family.

Moses.

AFTER the death of Joseph "there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." This king did not wish to remember the good that Joseph had done.

The children of Israel had increased in numbers; "and the land was filled with them." The Egyptians feared that if there was a war the Israelites would join their enemies and fight against them.

So the king made them slaves, and set taskmasters over them to make them work. "And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field."

They thought that by their cruelty and the hard work in the fields, they would stop the Israelites from increasing in the land. "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew."

Then the cruel king commanded that all the boys should be killed at their birth. But even this plan did not succeed. The Israelites still increased in the land.

It was at this time that Moses was born. For three months he was carefully hidden at home and cared for by his mother. But she dared not keep him there any longer. So she made an ark of bulrushes, and laying the babe in it, hid it among the flags by the river.

His sister Miriam anxiously watched the little ark while the mother prayed earnestly that her child might not be destroyed. God heard the mother's prayer, for the babe in the little ark was to be used by the Lord to deliver Israel from bondage.

One day the daughter of the king came to the river to bathe. She saw the ark, and sent one of her maids to bring it. When she opened it and saw the beautiful child, she knew why it was there, and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." And the child wept, and Pharaoh's daughter pitied it.

Then Miriam came near and said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.

"And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."

How glad the mother was to again have the care of her own child. He was now safe, for he was the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. And better still, he was in the home of his own parents.

The mother had the care of her boy until he was about twelve years old. During these years she taught him carefully about the true God. These lessons he never forgot. They kept him pure and free from the wickedness and idolatry which surrounded him in after years.

From his humble home he was taken to the royal palace, and became the son of Pharaoh's daughter. "And she called his name Moses," which means, _drawn out_. For, she said, "I drew him out of the water." In his royal home he was trained in all the learning of the Egyptians.

This training fitted him for the highest position in all Egypt. He was the leader in Pharaoh's army, and became a great general. Pharaoh determined that when he died, his daughter's adopted son should be king. But all the plans of man were "overruled by God for the training and education of the future leader of His people." Moses was not to shine as king of Egypt.

One day, when Moses was forty years old, he saw an Egyptian smiting an Israelite. He thought the time had come for him to help his people, so he slew the Egyptian and buried him.

Here Moses made a mistake. He took into his own hands the work which God had promised to do. He supposed his people were to be delivered by warfare, and that he, a skillful general, was to be the leader of the Hebrew armies.

But God had a different plan. By His own hand He would bring His people out of bondage. In the delivering of Israel, He would teach the Egyptians the knowledge of the true God by such wonders and plagues as they could never forget.

When King Pharaoh learned that Moses had killed the Egyptian, he commanded that he should be slain. But Moses fled toward Arabia, and the Lord led him to Jethro the prince of Midian, whose flocks he cared for during the forty years in which God was preparing him to lead the Israelites out of bondage.

The Plagues of Egypt.

ONE day as Moses was leading Jethro's flocks near Mount Horeb, he saw a strange sight. A bush was on fire, but it did not burn up. So he went to see what it should mean.

As he came near, a voice from the bush said to him, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Then Moses knew that it was the Lord who was talking to him from the bush.

The Lord told Moses that the time had come for the Israelites to go free from their bondage in Egypt. He told Moses to start for Egypt, and that his brother Aaron would meet him on the way and go with him.

They were then to go to Pharaoh and tell him that the God of Israel had sent them to him, and that he must let His people go. And he gave Moses wonderful signs to show to Pharaoh, so that he would know that God had sent them.

When Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and told him what the Lord had said, he answered, "Who is the Lord that I should let Israel go?" The Hebrew slaves were very valuable to the Egyptians, and they wanted to keep them, and make them do their hard work.

Pharaoh asked them to show a miracle to prove that their God had sent them. Then they performed one of the wonders that the Lord had given to Moses. Aaron cast down his rod, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called in his sorcerers, who were wicked men claiming to have power to do wonderful things. He showed them what Aaron had done with his rod, and asked them if they could turn their rods into serpents.

Then the sorcerers cast down their rods, and they appeared to become serpents also. But while they were looking at them, Aaron's serpent swallowed the serpents of the sorcerers.

But the work of the sorcerers was only a deception of their master, the devil. God only could really give life to the staff of Aaron. Neither the devil nor his servants can give life to anything. But the sorcerers had deceived the people and made their work look like God's work.

By thus deceiving Pharaoh they destroyed the effect of God's miracle, and so the king's heart was hardened against letting Israel go. Satan is ever counterfeiting, or imitating, the work of God. He often makes his lies appear like God's truth. In this way he leads many away from God.

Then God sent ten terrible plagues upon the land of Egypt. Each one was more awful than the one before it. They were sent to teach the Egyptians that the God of Israel was the only true God, and to punish them for refusing to obey Him.

_The First Plague._--The River Nile, which they worshiped, was turned to blood.

_Second Plague._--An army of frogs, which the Egyptians considered sacred, came up from the river. They went into all the houses, and even into the ovens and the troughs where they made their bread.

_Third Plague._--The very dust of Egypt became lice on both man and beast.

_Fourth Plague._--Swarms of flies came up until "the land was corrupted" because of them.

_Fifth Plague._--A "grievous murrain" came upon the cattle, so that a great many of them died.

_Sixth Plague._--Moses sprinkled dust into the air, and it became boils on man and beast.

_Seventh Plague._--An awful hail, mingled with fire, smote the land, and killed all men and beasts that were not under shelter.

_Eighth Plague._--Clouds of locusts came up and ate every green thing.

_Ninth Plague._--"Darkness which might be felt" covered the land for three days. It was so dark that the people did not dare to go out of their houses.

Through nine plagues Pharaoh's heart had remained hard and rebellious against God. Egypt was a ruined country because of this. Now the Lord told Moses that He would send one more plague, more terrible than all the others, and then they would be glad to let His people go.

But before it came, the Hebrews were to "borrow" from the Egyptians "jewels of silver and jewels of gold." For many years they had toiled without wages. What they received at this time was only a partial payment for their long years of service. This silver and gold would be needed when they should build the tabernacle in the wilderness.

_Tenth Plague._--At midnight the angel of the Lord was to pass through Egypt and slay the first-born in every house, and the first-born of beasts.

None of the other plagues had come near to the land of Goshen where the children of Israel dwelt. But now they had a part to act or they would suffer with the Egyptians when the destroying angel should pass through the land.

In order to escape, the Israelites must separate from the Egyptians, and come into their own houses. They were to kill a lamb, and, with a bunch of hyssop, strike some of its blood upon the door-posts of their houses. Wherever this was done the destroying angel would "pass over" the house, and all within it were safe.

They were also to roast the lamb whole, and eat it at midnight, while the destroying angel was doing his awful work among the Egyptians. They were to eat it standing, their shoes on their feet, their staff in hand, ready for flight.

This most solemn ceremony was called the "passover," because the destroying angel passed over the houses of those who had faith in God's commands and had put the blood upon the door-posts of their houses. The children of Israel were commanded to keep the passover each year as a memorial of their preservation in Egypt.

The passover was also a type of Christ, the Lamb of God. As the blood of the passover lamb upon the door-posts saved those in the house from death, so all will be saved now who confess their sins, believing that the blood of Jesus was shed to save sinners just as surely as the blood of the passover lamb saved those who trusted in it.

Out of Bondage.

"AND it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt; ... and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead."

And Pharaoh "called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people." And he hurried them out of the land of Egypt with their flocks and herds and all they possessed.

When Jacob went into Egypt his whole company numbered only seventy. When Israel left Egypt there were six hundred thousand men, beside women and children. The whole number must have been nearly three millions.

The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And the children of Israel went forward and camped by the Red Sea.

After Israel had left Egypt, Pharaoh became angry because he had let them go. So he took a very large army and pursued after them, and overtook them as they were camped by the Red Sea.

There seemed to be no way of escape for the Israelites. They were hedged in between the mountain and the Red Sea, and behind was the army of Pharaoh. But the Lord had brought them there to test their faith, and show once more how He would deliver them from their enemies.

Moses was commanded to stretch forth his rod, and as he did so the sea parted and left a dry road through which the Israelites passed over and were safe. And so blind and foolish was Pharaoh that he and his army followed after. When Israel was safe on the other side, Moses again stretched forth his rod, and the sea came back and drowned Pharaoh and all his army.

The Lord cared for his people wonderfully on their journey. At Marah the water was bitter, and they could not drink it. The Lord showed Moses a tree, and told him to cast it into the water; and when he did so it was made sweet and good.

By and by the food which they had brought from Egypt began to fail. The Lord wanted them to learn to trust Him, and so He was willing they should have difficulties to test them. But they did not trust the Lord. They began to complain and find fault with Moses. God had promised to care for them, and if they had only believed Him they would have learned precious lessons and received great blessings.