09-01

the Israelites

God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. Therefore, Jacob’s descendants were called the Israelites.

09-02

Joseph had done so much to help them

Joseph warned the Egyptians about the famine so they could store up grain in advance (See: 08:08). In this way, he saved the Egyptians.

09-03

God blessed them

The Egyptians made the Israelites slaves so they would become weaker. But God blessed the Israelites so they became stronger instead.

09-07

she took him as her own son

Pharaoh’s daughter treated Moses as if he were her own Egyptian son. For that reason, the Egyptians did not kill him as they killed the other Israelite baby boys (See: 09:04).

09-09

buried his body

Moses buried the Egyptian’s body to hide it. Moses did not want anyone to know that he had killed an Egyptian.

09-10

He tried to kill him

Pharaoh realized that Moses was helping the Israelites and was against the Egyptians. That is why he wanted to kill Moses.

the wilderness

The wilderness where Moses fled was a desert area that was east of Egypt. This area today is called the Sinai.

09-12

take off your shoes

God told Moses to take off his shoes to show his respect for God. The ground around the burning bush was a special place because God was there.

holy ground

The term holy refers to the character of God. He is totally set apart and separated from everything that is sinful and imperfect. The place where Moses stood was also set apart for God.

09-13

my people

God said the descendants of Abraham were his people. God wanted to say that the Israelites were special to him. He would treat them better than other people because Abraham honored him (See: 05:10).

I will give them the land of Canaan

God was going to keep his promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, even though they were slaves at that time (See: 08:15, 09:02).

09-14

I AM WHO I AM

God wanted to say that he has always existed as God, and was not created by anyone else.

Yahweh

This is the name that God has chosen for himself. Hebrew was originally written without vowels, so the letters written for this name were YHWH, which would be spoken as Yahweh.

09-15

did not want to go to Pharaoh

Moses knew that Pharaoh wanted to kill him (See: 09:10).

he thought he could not speak well

Moses said this was why he did not want to go to Pharaoh, but the real reason was that Moses was afraid of Pharaoh.