Eh... Sorry, but that isn't how it happened exactly. First, there was Abraham. He was called by God out of the land of the Babylonions, to a Promised Land.Things happened to him, and he never made it. His son, Isaac, had two kids, Jacob and Esau. They fought and Jacob got Esau's birthrite. Jacob had 12 sons, who were all the fathers of the twelve tribes. The brothers got mad at Joseph because his father loved him so much. They were jealous, so the sold him into slavery. He found his way to Egypt, and there a load of things happened to him. Soon he was put in charge of almost all of Egypt. He was Pharoah's right hand man. Back home, things weren't good. Jacob and his other sons were starving, because of a famine in the land. Eventually Joseph brings all his brothers and his father into Egypt where they can live peacefully.
Skip ahead a few centuries, and the twelve brothers and their wives have turned into a whole civilization. The Egyptians feel threatened by them to due their large numbers, so they make slaves out of them. Eventually they start killing the firts-born sons, and this is where Moses comes into the picture. He gives Pharoah a hard time, via the power of God, and Pharoah agrees to let them go. The whole of Israel makes its way to the Promised land. They find that races of huge and powerful people live there, so they turn back. They are forced to wander the wilderness for 40 years, because of their disobediance to God's command. Soon Moses dies and Joshua comes into leadership. He leads them into the land of Israel and they fight off the people that were disobeying God. Then they settle.
Sorry for the long post, I just saw your post, rjgo and had to say something.