STORY OF MOSES

Moses was first introduced to us as a helpless baby floating in the nile. Because of the rapid
increase of population of the israelites, the egyptian pharaoh decided to slaughter the hebrew
boys. After being placed in the basket and put onto the nile, moses was spotted by the
pharaoh's daughter who took pity on him and drew him out of the river. Moses lived as a prince
in egypt.

One day, moses saw an egyptian beating a hebrew slave, he immediately killed him and the
next day, out of fear, he ran into the wilderness. There, he encountered 7 women by the well
who were being bullied by shepherds. Moses not only drew water for them, but also watered the
flock. Jethro, the father of the 7 young women was very impressed, and welcomed moses into
the family. Jethro even offered his daughter, zipporah's hand in marriage. Moses went from
prince of egypt to herding sheep of midian. But god had more plans for him.

Moses received a call from god near horeb (sinai). He was met by a burning bush, the bush was
burning but not consumed. God told moses about the people who were suffering and how he
wanted to bring them to "a land flowing with milk and honey". God wanted moses to persuade
the pharaoh to let his people go, but at the same time, god was going to harden the pharaoh's
heart.

God gave many signs to persuade the pharaoh. Which are the 10 plagues. The pharaoh had a
very hard heart and dismissed moses each time he pleaded. But the 1oth plague changed it all.
The 10th plague, which is celebrated as the passover today, was when all the egyptian
firstborns were killed. This made pharaoh let all the israelites leave.

Moses started bringing the people to the promised land that god had gave them. But they
encountered many hardships such as the egyptian armies at their backs. However, god was
always following moses's footsteps and when they were surrounded by the army and the red
sea, god had responded to moses's cry and parted the red sea using moses's rod. Another
hardship was the wilderness they had to walk through. There is no doubt that the wilderness
brought out the unfaithfulness of the israelites. The israelites began cursing god and compared
their life during the exodus to the life they had as slaves, they said they were fine living as
slaves with plenty of bread to each, it was better than the wilderness starving to death. God had
listened to moses and his peoples' words and sent down bread from heaven. This bread is
called manna. When they finally reached the promised land forty years later, many of the people
were not able to enter. Not even moses. It was because of the sins they have created whilst
coming to the land. Moses, had broken the rock in order to get water, much to god's dismay.

Nevertheless, moses was the greatest prophet, who was chosen by god to lead the israelites
out of slavery from egypt. He was given a hard task that he, himself did not have any faith in
doing, which was to persuade the pharaoh to let the israelites go. He fought through the
wilderness and accepted his fate; that he was not able to enter the promised land.
 Story of Abraham

Abraham is remembered in the Bible as the father of faith and the ancestor of the Israelites (Gen 12-24;
Rom 4:1-12). According to Genesis, God called him from his home in Mesopotamia to journey to the
promised land, where God promised to multiply Abraham’s offspring and make them into a great people
and a blessing to the nations. The three major monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—
call Abraham their father. The importance of Abraham to these religions raises many questions, both
theological and historical.

God calls Abraham and enters into a covenant with him and his family (Gen 12, Gen 15, Gen 17). This is
an exclusive relationship between one god and a particular family. In the ancient world, these features
belong to the category of family religion, in which the family god is often called “the god of the father.”
In addition to the customs of family religion, ancient people also worshiped the gods of tribe, city, or
state. In the stories of Abraham, however, the god of the father is also “God Most High, maker of
heaven and earth” (Gen 14:19). In other words, the Abraham story shows the merger of family and state
religion, yielding the worship of a single god. From the biblical perspective, Abraham was the first
monotheist.

The Call of Abraham Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your
father's house to the land that I will show you.2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and
make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who
curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”4So Abram went, as the
Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from
Haran.5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had
gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of
Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,6Abram passed through the land to the place at
Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.7Then the Lord appeared to
Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had
appeared to him.8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his
tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the
name of the Lord.9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the
famine was severe in the land.11When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know
well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance;12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say,
‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live.13Say you are my sister, so that it may go
well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.”14When Abram entered
Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.15When the officials of Pharaoh saw her,
they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.16And for her sake he
dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys,
and camels.17But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's
wife.18So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me
that she was your wife?19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then,
here is your wife, take her, and be gone.”20And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they
set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had.

God's Covenant with Abram 1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not
be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”2But Abram said, “O Lord GOD,
what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”3And
Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”4But the
word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be
your heir.”5He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able
to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”6And he believed the Lord; and the
Lord! reckoned it to him as righteousness.7Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur
of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”8But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I
shall possess it?”9He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a
ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”10He brought him all these and cut them in two,
laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.11And when birds of prey
came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.12As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell
upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.13Then the Lord! said to Abram,
“Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves
there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years;14but I will bring judgment on the nation that
they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.15As for yourself, you shall go to
your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.16And they shall come back here in the
fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”17When the sun had gone down
and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.18On that day the
Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt
to the great river, the river Euphrates,19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,20the
Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

The Sign of the Covenant 1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and
said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.2And I will make my covenant
between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”3Then Abram fell on his face; and God
said to him,4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of
nations.5No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you
the ancestor of a multitude of nations.6I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of
you, and kings shall come from you.7I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your
offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to
your offspring after you.8And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are
now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”9God said to
Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their
generations.10This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after
you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.11You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and
it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.12Throughout your generations every male
among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and
the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.13Both the slave born
in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in
your flesh an everlasting covenant.14Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”15God said to Abraham, “As for
Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.16I will bless her, and moreover
I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come
from her.”17Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a
man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”18And Abraham said
to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!”19God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a
son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for
his offspring after him.20As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and
exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.21But
my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”22And
when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.23Then Abraham took his son
Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of
Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to
him.24Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.25And
his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.26That very
day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised;27and all the men of his house, slaves born in the
house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.