From a basket on the Nile to the edge of the Promised Land — the life of Moses, broken into clear steps.
Born to Hebrew slaves in Egypt during a time when Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew baby boys killed, Moses is hidden for three months, then set adrift on the Nile in a basket. Pharaoh's own daughter finds and adopts him — and, without knowing it, hires his birth mother to nurse him. Moses grows up in the Egyptian palace despite his Hebrew birth.
As an adult, Moses kills an Egyptian he sees beating a Hebrew slave and flees to Midian, where he becomes a shepherd for 40 years. There, God speaks to him from a bush that burns without being consumed, calling him to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery. When Moses asks who he should say sent him, God answers, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14).
Moses and his brother Aaron repeatedly ask Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, met each time with refusal. Ten plagues strike Egypt before Pharaoh relents — and even then, his army pursues the fleeing Israelites to the Red Sea, which Moses parts so the people can cross on dry ground, the defining miracle of his life.
Moses leads the Israelites toward the land God promised them, receiving the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law at Mount Sinai along the way. A journey meant to take a short time stretches to 40 years after the people refuse to enter the promised land out of fear — a whole generation, including Moses, dies in the wilderness as a result.
Because of an act of disobedience at Meribah (Numbers 20), Moses himself is told he won't enter the promised land. God lets him view it from Mount Nebo before he dies at 120. Deuteronomy closes by calling him a prophet unlike any other, “whom the LORD knew face to face.”
Jewish and Christian tradition credits Moses as the author of the first five books of the Bible, though Deuteronomy 34 — which records his own death — was clearly added by someone else.
Moses repeatedly objects to his calling, citing a speech impediment and asking God to send someone else (Exodus 4:10–13) — a detail often left out of retellings that make him look naturally heroic.
Jesus and New Testament writers refer back to Moses and the law he delivered more than almost any other Old Testament figure.