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. [Illustration: Pharaoh's Daughter finds Moses in the Ark of Bulrushes.] 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. [Illustration: Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh] [Illustration] 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.