Exodus 2
1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Chapter two opens with the story of Moses’ birth. He is born into an unwelcome world. This is typical of every birth. We are all born into a world of joy and chaos. He is born into a world of slavery. In the last chapter, we learned that Pharaoh is still after the newborn male Israelites, he wants them killed, drowned in the Nile By faith, as Hebrews 11:23 tells us, the parents sent him in a basket onto the Nile river, not because of fear but because of faith.
What does Moses’ mother do? She puts her son in the river. But not exactly how the Pharoah wished. Moses’ parents (Amram and Jochebed) had the faithto let their son go and know that he would be provided for. Butthey also knew that God would deliver through this act. Noah’s sister watched what would happen to her brother. This is Miriam, and she is the witness to Moses being delivered to the Pharoah’s palace.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
The Pharoah’s daughter fishes Moses out of the river, and there is a need fulfilled by God for both the diligent parents and the Pharoah’s daughter. Since she has found the baby, she claims the baby, and Miriam cleverly is there to ask if she would like someone to nurse the baby. When the daughter says yes, Moses is brought back to the mother, who nurses him for the next three months. Some traditions show that it took two years to wean Moses. Now she knows that God has provided. He will be brought up in the Pharaoh’s palace, educated and provided for. She names him here, a name that means “his rescue.”
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
Moses’ life in the palace is largely unknown. It skips forward in time to when he is an adult. Moses’ life is sliced in three sections of forty. His first 40 years in Egypt is the first 40 (Acts 7:23). The second 40 is when he leads the Israelites out of Egypt and the third when he wanders the desert and ultimately dies at 120. Forty, in scripture, is the symbolic number for a time of testing.
This is the first spiritually significant moment in his adult life. He knows, from his mother, that he is genetically a Hebrew. Hebrews 11:24-26 tells us that by faith Moses identified by his Hebrew heritage rather than Egyptian. Therefore, when he saw a Hebrew slave beaten, something cracked in him.
12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Moses looks around, makes sure no one sees, and kills the Egyptian. This is the action of a man knowing what he is doing is wrong. He wants to hide his crime. Perhaps, still chained to his upbringing, Moses yearns to do the right thing but is still holding onto everything he was born into- the riches, the position, his very future. Whatever the case, he follows through.
13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
But Moses’ plan is not airtight. Someone has seen the murder. It comes to light the very next day, when he goes to break up a fight between two Hebrews. One already knows what has happened. In this moment Moses must have recoiled and his very soul must have dropped. They know! Murderers in Egypt are dealt with harshly.
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
Moses’ preparation in the first part of his life must have seemed like a failure to him. He had the best education, training, he dealt with science and politics. Yet, none of that prepared him when he was boots on the ground trying to help his fellow man. He runs away, to Midian, east of the Sinai Penninsula near the Red Sea, part of modern day Saudi Arabia), which was beyond the reach of the Egyptians. This becomes a new preparation period for Moses.
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,[c] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
He meets a priest with seven daughters. This priest is named Reuel (Jethro) who gives him a job herding sheep. This is a new training for Moses, a training in humility. Long gone is the palace and the opulent lifestyle. In the first part of his life Moses was served. Now he has to learn how to become a servant. He is a stranger (Gershom) in this new land.
During the time Moses is away, the king dies. This means that Moses is most likely forgotten and he could return to Egypt. Also during this time God hears the cries of the Israelites, whose slavery has persisted. But God remembers the covenant of His people and although life is hard for many, Moses’ training continues. God’s timing is not man’s, and before Moses can rescue his people, he must come into maturity to do so first.
During the second 40 years, Moses’ life had changed drastically. He went from a life of privilege and learning to becoming a farmer/shepherd, husband and father, living with normal and ordinary people and learning to be a servant instead of a master.
1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Chapter two opens with the story of Moses’ birth. He is born into an unwelcome world. This is typical of every birth. We are all born into a world of joy and chaos. He is born into a world of slavery. In the last chapter, we learned that Pharaoh is still after the newborn male Israelites, he wants them killed, drowned in the Nile By faith, as Hebrews 11:23 tells us, the parents sent him in a basket onto the Nile river, not because of fear but because of faith.
What does Moses’ mother do? She puts her son in the river. But not exactly how the Pharoah wished. Moses’ parents (Amram and Jochebed) had the faithto let their son go and know that he would be provided for. Butthey also knew that God would deliver through this act. Noah’s sister watched what would happen to her brother. This is Miriam, and she is the witness to Moses being delivered to the Pharoah’s palace.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
The Pharoah’s daughter fishes Moses out of the river, and there is a need fulfilled by God for both the diligent parents and the Pharoah’s daughter. Since she has found the baby, she claims the baby, and Miriam cleverly is there to ask if she would like someone to nurse the baby. When the daughter says yes, Moses is brought back to the mother, who nurses him for the next three months. Some traditions show that it took two years to wean Moses. Now she knows that God has provided. He will be brought up in the Pharaoh’s palace, educated and provided for. She names him here, a name that means “his rescue.”
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
Moses’ life in the palace is largely unknown. It skips forward in time to when he is an adult. Moses’ life is sliced in three sections of forty. His first 40 years in Egypt is the first 40 (Acts 7:23). The second 40 is when he leads the Israelites out of Egypt and the third when he wanders the desert and ultimately dies at 120. Forty, in scripture, is the symbolic number for a time of testing.
This is the first spiritually significant moment in his adult life. He knows, from his mother, that he is genetically a Hebrew. Hebrews 11:24-26 tells us that by faith Moses identified by his Hebrew heritage rather than Egyptian. Therefore, when he saw a Hebrew slave beaten, something cracked in him.
12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Moses looks around, makes sure no one sees, and kills the Egyptian. This is the action of a man knowing what he is doing is wrong. He wants to hide his crime. Perhaps, still chained to his upbringing, Moses yearns to do the right thing but is still holding onto everything he was born into- the riches, the position, his very future. Whatever the case, he follows through.
13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
But Moses’ plan is not airtight. Someone has seen the murder. It comes to light the very next day, when he goes to break up a fight between two Hebrews. One already knows what has happened. In this moment Moses must have recoiled and his very soul must have dropped. They know! Murderers in Egypt are dealt with harshly.
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
Moses’ preparation in the first part of his life must have seemed like a failure to him. He had the best education, training, he dealt with science and politics. Yet, none of that prepared him when he was boots on the ground trying to help his fellow man. He runs away, to Midian, east of the Sinai Penninsula near the Red Sea, part of modern day Saudi Arabia), which was beyond the reach of the Egyptians. This becomes a new preparation period for Moses.
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,[c] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
He meets a priest with seven daughters. This priest is named Reuel (Jethro) who gives him a job herding sheep. This is a new training for Moses, a training in humility. Long gone is the palace and the opulent lifestyle. In the first part of his life Moses was served. Now he has to learn how to become a servant. He is a stranger (Gershom) in this new land.
During the time Moses is away, the king dies. This means that Moses is most likely forgotten and he could return to Egypt. Also during this time God hears the cries of the Israelites, whose slavery has persisted. But God remembers the covenant of His people and although life is hard for many, Moses’ training continues. God’s timing is not man’s, and before Moses can rescue his people, he must come into maturity to do so first.
During the second 40 years, Moses’ life had changed drastically. He went from a life of privilege and learning to becoming a farmer/shepherd, husband and father, living with normal and ordinary people and learning to be a servant instead of a master.