The Birth of Moses (2:1-2)

Moses is born at a time when newborn Hebrew babies were to be thrown into the Nile to drown. He was a handsome boy, and his mother hid him for three months until she could no longer. How many baby boys went into the Nile we are not told.

The Parents of Moses (2:1-2)

The command from Pharaoh now is to throw the Hebrew infants in the Nile and reduce them to water. This has the potential of the flood in Genesis to destroy Israel as a nation and the end of the world for them. The miracles are very similar to the story of Noah.  There is on person who is saved from this catastrophe and that is Moses.

The descendants of Cain created these great cities which became wicked, violent, and dangerous for the people which leads to a catastrophic event leading to the survival of one person (Noah) and his immediate family. This story of Moses is a mini version of this.

The parents of Moses are mentioned but there is nothing outwardly special about them. Like Jesus it is a lowly birth. Moses was their youngest son. They had the courage to hide Moses for three months from those who sought to kill the male Hebrew newborns.

Moses on the Water (2:3-4)

The “basket” is essentially a “little boat”. It is the same word used for Noah’s Ark. It was designed to float in the water. Like the flood this is saving the word again. It is a feminine image as the Ark is like a box/womb that protects the world and carries the seed of the man in her body and transitions it into the new world as the child is born. Moses will be allied with water throughout the narrative. While Pharoah and Egypt will be allied with stone. Stone seems permanent and immovable, but it is brittle, hard, and lifeless. Water can eventually wear down stone.

Moses through the power of God can master water and transformation in the text. However, water is his undoing when he hits the rock and misuses his relationship with water. Moses is the master of chaos (water) and Pharoah is the master of order (stone). It is Pharoah’s overuse of order that makes him into a tyrant.

Moses will act as a mediator between what is above and what is below. The ark is a return to the beginning. Moses will eventually go up the mountain and create a pyramid structure for the nation of Israel. On Mount Sinai the people sin with Aaron’s compromising and God wants to consume them and start again. Moses stands in the gap and acts as a mediator to allow God’s Word to fall down (like rain) to the world.

Pharaoh’s Daughter rescues Moses (2:5-6)

It is ironic but no coincidence that it is Pharaoh’s daughter that has compassion on a Hebrew infant son. It is properly placed good that can overcome the tyrant. There is heavy responsibility to do good for those who are well placed in society. Like the midwives we have another woman who comes to the rescue. The role of a woman is to nurture and look after their child until it finds its independence. Moses had ordinary parents but is now found and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter for a royal lineage. Christ was born lowly but had a Davidic royal lineage.

All the heroes of this narrative so far are women. Pharaoh’s daughter even sends her female servant to get Moses out of the water! The compassion is not misplaced. It is towards those that are truly helpless. This is a correct feminism that that does good. It is true maternal instincts to help the helpless and those being oppressed. All the dead Hebrew babies are at the bottom of the water while his guardians are his mother, his sister and Pharaoh’s daughter.

The Two Mothers of Moses (2:7-10)

Moses has two mothers who loved him. One real and one adopted. Pharaoh’s daughter is not related to Moses by blood but in Jewish tradition she is Moses’ mother. Pharaoh’s daughter is a non-Jewish moral agent who acts in a good way. Morality is not bound by ethnicity. In Romans 1-2 we read that God’s Word is written on all people’s hearts. This is unique among all other religions and cultures that there is this moral code that knows no boundaries. It rises above tribalism.

The real mother of Moses can only save her son by giving him up and commending him to the enemy (River/Egypt). We must let the world take our son as God sacrificed His Son for the world. It is a sacrifice of the child. Mary had to let go as the mother of Jesus. We need to prepare our sons and daughters for their adulthood into a world that may hate them.

It is odd when you read the genealogy of Moses later in Exodus that you find he is the child of incest as his father married a woman who was his aunt. However, this was before the law was given. Abraham had this problem too of being too close to his wife (half-sister) and caused problems when he attempts to deceive the Pharaoh at that time. We need to find the stranger whom we can have a loving relationship with rather than get too close and lose our identity.

The Faith of Jochebed (2:1-10)

We find out the name of Moses’ mother in Exodus 6:20. In Hebrews 11:23 we read – “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”

There are some strong lessons we can learn from Jochebed.

1. A godly mother – Jochebed – her name means “glory of Jehovah” or, “Jehovah (is her or our) glory.” She was a member of the tribe of Levi from which would come the priests and those who would carry out the duties of the Tabernacle and later of the Temple. Like the midwives she knew this genocide was evil.
2. Faith over Fear – During the time of pregnancy it would have been a concern if it was a boy and then it happened! We know in Hebrews 11:23 that this one who would not obey Pharaoh.  She refused to go with the flow. She refused to consider her own life, comfort, convenience, or safety. She refused to bow to Egypt’s demands.
3. Trusted in God to save – We are told in verse 3 that “when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch”. The word used in Genesis 6-9 for the gopher wood vessel built by Noah is the same word used for the basket vessel in which Moses was placed. It seems certain that she knew the story of Noah and did this mini “ark” in faith. She cast her child in the Nile but with a waterproof ark and trusted in God to save him from death.

Categories: Exodus

Tags: bible, Exodus, faith, god, moses