The ancestors of the nation that was later called Israel had gone to Egypt in a time of famine. They were later oppressed as slaves by the pharaoh of Egypt. God chose Moses to free his people and to lead them to a better life in the Land that he had promised to their ancestors centuries earlier.
The pharaoh did not want to let the Israelites go, and so God sent disasters to him. Then the people were allowed to leave and they travelled through the desert. Because the Israelites failed to obey God and often broke his commandments, they were punished with 40 years of wandering before arriving in the Promised Land.
