And yet, the more cruel the king of E'gypt became in his effort to destroy the He'brews, the stronger became their faith and courage. All through history members of the Jewish race have been hated and persecuted by people who were jealous of their success, but no tyrant has ever been able to destroy them. Through all the inhuman persecution which they received from Pha'raoh, the He'brews knew that the LORD was with them, He would surely find some way of delivering them from all their troubles.
Even the wicked order of the king to drown all the boys born to the He'brews could not prevent the LORD from raising up a savior for His chosen people when the proper time had come. Among the hundreds of devout families in Is'ra-el at the time there was one most noted for faith in the LORD. The head of this family was named Am'ram, the son of Ko'hath, who was one of the descendants of Ja'cob's son Le'vi. His wife's name was Joch'e-bed, and she was also of noble lineage through her descent from Le'vi. Two children had been born to them before the king had ordered the death of all male children born to the He'brews; one of them was a boy named Aa'ron, and the other was a very lovely girl called Mir'i-am. We shall learn much of the life and work of these two children in future stories.
In the midst of Pha'raoh's bitter persecution of the He'brews Joch'e-bed gave birth to her second son. The nurse who cared for her was gracious and God-fearing, and therefore failed to report this birth to the officers who were charged with drowning all boy babies. Joch'e-bed and her good husband managed to hide the child in their home for three months, but as time went on they feared that he would be discovered by the cruel E'gyp-tians. The mother was not only moved by natural love for a child, but by a divinely given feeling that her new-born son was intended for an important mission among her people.
After keeping the child safely hidden in her home for three months, Joch'e-bed began to search for some way of making sure that he would never be taken from her by the E'gyp-tian officers. As long as the child was kept at home there was always the danger that some unfriendly neighbor or E'gyp-tian spy would discover him, and then the innocent child would be drowned in the river Nile. One day the thought came to her that the daughter of the king came down to the river every day to bathe, and at once there flashed into her mind a way of giving the baby a home in which he would never be in danger. At once she decided to trust in the beauty of the child to win the favor of the king's daughter. The time had come when she had done everything in her power to save the child; from now on his welfare must lie in the hands of the LORD.
