Moses is Born
“And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.” (Exodus 2:10)
Pharaoh had commanded, “Every [Hebrew] son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.” (Exodus 1:22) Imagine being an Egyptian soldier. You go past the home of a Hebrew family and hear a baby cry. You walk in the door. Warrants likely were not required. The family tries to hide it, but you find it. It’s a boy. You take him to the river and toss him in. After a few seconds the crocodiles approach, slivered eyes just above the surface. The family watches in horror.
Were the consciences of the Egyptians pricked, especially if they had babies that age? Or did they risk death if they disobeyed? Or did they say they were just following orders? Perhaps after the deaths of so many babies, their consciences didn’t bother them so much. Sin does that. It hardens your heart so that you justify something you used to think is wrong. Hebrews 3:13 warns us to “…exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Pharaoh justified his edict by saying the Hebrews outnumbered the Egyptians and were stronger. If war broke out, the Hebrews could join the Egyptians’ enemies. He had no evidence that the Hebrews were potentially hostile, but as the Pharaoh, he obviously felt accountable to no one, not even God.
What kind of leader would let innocent babies die? Could this happen in America today? In a way, it did. H.R. 26, called the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, was introduced in Congress in January 2023. It would not have outlawed abortion, but it would have given a baby born alive after an abortion or attempted abortion the same status of a legal person and protection under the law as any other newborn. Yet many leaders voted against it. It ultimately failed.
Back to the story. Moses was born. His parents hid him for three months. When they could no longer do so, his mother made an ark of bulrush plants, waterproofed it, and put it “…in the flags [reeds] by the river’s brink.” (Exodus 2:3) His sister watched from a distance to see what would happen to him.
Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river with her maidens to bathe. She saw the ark. A maid retrieved it. “And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” (Exodus 2:6) No doubt she was smart enough to realize quickly that Hebrew parents don’t put their babies into an ark like this for no reason.
She was also decent enough to ignore her father’s edict. The Bible does not say how many boys were killed under this edict, but Acts 7:23 says Moses visited his enslaved people forty years later “…when he was full forty years old,” Israel’s exodus from Egypt forty years after that included “…six hundred thousand on foot that were men,” (Exodus 12:37) With so many Hebrew men alive eighty years later, many Egyptians may have also ignored the edict when it was issued, or it may have been terminated.
Moses’ sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter if she should go and get a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. Pharaoh’s daughter said yes. The girl got their mother. Pharaoh’s daughter paid Moses’ mother to nurse and care for her own son. No doubt Moses’ parents also took the opportunity to teach him about the true God before they gave him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, who was the one who named him Moses.
Moses would be used by God to save Israel from slavery. Jesus, God the Son, also died, was buried, and rose again to save us from sin and hell. To learn how to receive Jesus as your personal Saviour, please go to www.clevelandbaptist.org, click “Helpful Links,” then “How Do I Go to Heaven?”
Brian Miller 11/4/2023