Exodus 1:15-2:10. Moses’ mother has a plan to save him.
Why it is important
I dare you to argue that today is the worst time to raise a child. These Jews obeyed their God even in extreme adversity.
What is in this story
- The Jews do not have a home of their own (hence the Exodus later)
- They live in Egypt, which was good while Joseph was their inside man, but it’s a few hundred years later now, and they are treated horribly as slaves (Ex 1:10)
- The pharaoh at the time tries to kill all Hebrew (Jewish) babies at birth but the God-fearing midwives refuse* (Ex 1:16-7)
- Pharaoh’s plan B: throw all the children into the Nile River (from that point on, I guess, since there seems to be no threat to Miriam, for example)
- Moses is born, and his mother, Jochebed, places Moses in a waterproof basket in or near “the river” (undoubtedly the Nile) (Ex 2:3)
- Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses and adopts him (Ex 2:5-6)
- Yet Jochebed manages to become his “nurse” and help raise him anyway (Ex 2:9)
Things that are not so well-known
- Miriam’s role in all of this – what an awesome little kid! Miriam (without her mother, maybe?) was watching her brother Moses in the reeds (Ex 2:4), and she apparently just strikes up a conversation with Pharaoh’s daughter and offers that she should hire a Hebrew woman to care for Moses (Ex 2:7).
- Moses is not a newborn when he is given away; he was three months old (Ex 2:2)
- Aaron is three years older than Moses, so I suppose the edict came out between their births.
Moses did not float on down the river!
Oh, this is such a pet peeve of mine. Moses’ mother did not put him in the river to die nor even to hope for God to intercede in a miraculous way. This is all an elaborate plot to get the pharaoh’s daughter to find him. His mother stages Moses and the basket right where pharaoh’s daughter would find it. And her daughter (Miriam) just “happens” to be in the area when pharaoh’s daughter comes by. (Who can resist a kid?) I imagine mom told her to say, “Oh hey, I just happen to know a Hebrew woman who had a kid not three months ago and is still nursing!”
- The basket was placed “among the reeds by the river bank” (Ex 2:3) – not in the open water; perhaps a marshy area
- Miriam “STOOD at a distance” (Ex 2:4) to see what would happen – she didn’t run alongside the Nile as he floated away
- The “daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river” (Ex 2:5), and I would have to guess she doesn’t pick a different spot every time. It sounds like someone has been doing recon and gathering intel to see exactly where she bathes.
Theology and doctrine
- Despite my rant above, there is still clearly a ton of providence in this story.
- Also, I do find it interesting that Moses was saved up out of the water (Ex 2:10). It makes you think of baptism, the exodus, and especially Noah. I have been saying “basket,” as the ESV has it, but the word is “ark.” It’s the same Hebrew word in Genesis 6. Both Noah and Moses were saved in an ark on water!
Footnote
* I think the midwives refused. But they tell Pharaoh an excuse (Ex 1:18-19) that is not exactly “No way, Pharaoh!” I suppose both could be true, but I’m just not exactly clear on this.
No responses yet