Knowing The Word: Exodus 2:1-10, The Birth of Moses

From the beginning, Moses’ parents understood he was special, hiding him for three months against Pharaoh’s edict to kill all Hebrew male children at birth. Unable to hide him any longer, Moses’ mother placed him in the Nile in a basket. The Hebrew word translated as “basket” is the same word used for "ark" in the Noah story in Genesis. Consider the significance of Moses’s mother protecting him from death in a small ark, just as God had protected Noah and the animals in a great ark. Discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses is blessed by God because the princess is not a cold-blooded murderer like her father. In an ironic twist, Moses ends up being raised by his parents until he comes of age and moves into Pharaoh’s palace. Like Moses, Jesus was threatened by a ruler at his birth. Mary and Joseph hid him by taking him to Egypt where Moses had been saved.

1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.”7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. 9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Lord, all human life is precious because we are created in your image. (Take time to pray for the weak and vulnerable, especially for children who are maltreated and malnourished.)