Exodus 02

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:30:56utc

3. "Unto us a child is born." ch. 2:1-10

Under the circumstances described in the last verses of the preceding chapter, a son is born into a family of the tribe of Levi. At this point no names are mentioned. We learn later that the father's name is Amram and the mother's Jochebed. ch. 6:20 says: "Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses." We are told later that two children were born before the birth of Moses: Mariam and Aaron. Aaron was three years old when Moses entered the family, according to ch. 7:7.

Probably when Aaron was born the decree to drown all male babies in the river had not been issued yet. But now Jochebed becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son under the most terrible circumstances one can imagine. The baby is condemned before it is born.

During the Second World War, a pregnant Jewish woman in Germany gave away her baby carriage to a neighbor, saying that she would not need it. She knew that soon she would be taken to one of the death camps and that her baby would be killed with her. This is human despair to the limit! Under such circumstances Moses was born.

But Jochebed was a woman of faith. The testimony about her faith is sparse but clear. We read that she saw that her baby was "a fine child." Few mothers think their baby is ugly, even if it is. It seems, though, that Moses was exceptionally handsome and well built. She and her husband clearly understood that God would not give them such a fine specimen of manhood to give it up for destruction. The writer to the Hebrews says: "By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict."[ 1 ] It was not just natural parental love that made them decide to make every effort to spare their son's life but faith.

Even in a world that is polluted by sin the birth of a child is one of the most moving miracles to behold. There is the wonder of one living being bringing forth another. There is the beauty of a little body with all its members. If we are moved in seeing the birth of a little baby that comes into the world with a sinful nature and a capacity to kill, what would it be like to see sinlessness being born, such as Joseph and Mary saw when God became man in Jesus Christ? The birth of Moses was a vague image of the birth of Jesus. And in the same way as the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born,[ 2 ] so Pharaoh meant to devour Moses. But God intervened.

Evidently it was not too difficult to hide the baby for the first few months. Even if he cried, they could pass him for a girl. We do not know if Egyptians soldiers regularly swept through the neighborhood to look for children, or whether the ghetto was interspersed with informers, but hiding Moses became more and more difficult. Although the Bible speaks of the faith of the parents, it must have been sheer agony to surrender the little child to the river. What actually happens is a strange mixture of divine humor and human despair. If only Amram and Jochebed could have known how it would end, it would have been easy to abandon Moses the to the water of the river. But how could they know what God would do? They had no guarantee that all would end well; no guarantee but God!

It seems that Jochebed took the initiative, although we can hardly assume that her husband would have been left out of the plan. He may have been absent because of his forced labor assignment. We are given no details about how the plan was conceived and why it was carried out the way it was. Probably Jochebed's abandon of her baby was an even greater act of faith than keeping him in hiding. Jochebed's sense of realism indicates a high degree of spirituality. Blind motherly instinct would have kept the baby at all cost until it was taken from her by force. But she said to herself: "If I try to keep him, I lose him." She discovered one of the most fundamental laws of spiritual life.[ 3 ] The plan and its execution suggest divine guidance. She must have prayed and God must have shown her what to do.

The plan was laced with irony though; because of the tension of the moment, probably Jochebed did not appreciate this. Her son had to be thrown in the river; but not to drown. Moses was, in a certain way, given over to death, and thus his life was saved. Although it is not symbolic in itself, Jochebed did literally give her son to the river. Her action was certainly full of symbolism and deep lessons. Death surrounds us in this world. Death is our final destination on earth. The only way to escape death is to surrender to it. If we fight death, we will be conquered by it and our life is made meaningless. If we surrender to death, we overcome it and our life becomes meaningful.

Moses' death in the river was an image of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our life is in our fellowship with Him in His death. Moses was given over to death by his mother. If we want to keep our children, Jochebed's example is the only way.

The means used were very simple. Papyrus grew in abundance along the side of the river, and tar and pitch were also available in large quantities. Similarly, the means of salvation are never far. It is as Moses himself said later: "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, 'Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, 'Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."[ 4 ]

Presumably, the plan was carried out by night or very early in the morning. Jochebed herself placed the basket in the reeds along the river, and Miriam hid in the vicinity to see what would happen. Whether they knew that Pharaoh's daughter was in the habit of taking a bath at that very spot, we do not know. If they knew, they would probably have considered it unwise to put the basket there. That would have been too much of a gamble. But there came her royal highness! The basket was spotted, and opened and Moses cooperated by crying his lungs out, making his way right into the princess' heart.

In writing this story Moses did not identify the princess. There is a rich variety of traditions about this person, none of which is historically verifiable. The Pulpit Commentary says that she was "probably a daughter of Seti I, and a sister of Ramses the Great. Josephus calls her Thermuthis."

What had happened must have been immediately obvious to her. She was looking at one of the Jewish babies that had been condemned to die by her father. Whether her father's edict had touched her or not, we do not know. But there is quite a difference between hearing and seeing. She may have been vaguely upset about the fact that little babies were being killed, but seeing this beautiful baby makes the thought that he too should be killed unbearable to her. When the baby's sister appeared with the suggestion that she find a Hebrew wet nurse, the princess consented immediately.

It is quite possible that the princess saw through the plot, but if she did she did not show it. Moses' mother receives back the son she had given up and from that time on she was paid for nursing her own child. Who says God does not have a sense of humor! Not only is one single boy saved from death, but the boy was the one who would be the undoing of Egypt and all its evil power. And now the crown was paying for his food and later for his education. The devil must have been furious. This story shows that there is no doubt as to who is actually in charge of this world.

A few years later, probably after the baby was weaned, the princess adopted him officially as her son and gave him his name "Moses." He probably had a Jewish name also, but we are not told what that was. The Hebrew form "Mosheh" may have been used for him at home. The Egyptian name would have been "Mesu." There is a name "Mesu" on some Egyptians monuments under the nineteenth dynasty, according to The Pulpit Commentary, but there is no proof that it would be the same Moses from Exodus. In Hebrew "Mosheh" has a wide meaning of "born, brought forth, child." It could be that the princess was childless and that in adopting Moses she was saying, "My child was born from the water."

We do not know anything about the lady who was the instrument in God's hand for saving Moses, but she gives the impression of being an intelligent and reliable person. Adam Clarke suggests that she may have been instrumental in abolishing the murder of the babies. We quote: "It has already been conjectured that the cruel edict of the Egyptian king did not continue long in force. ... And it will not appear unreasonable to suppose that the circumstance related here might have brought about its abolition. The daughter of Pharaoh, struck with the distressed state of the Hebrew children from what she had seen in the case of Moses, would probably implore her father to abolish this sanguinary edict."

4. The disgrace of Christ ch. 2:11-25

In the text of Exodus itself Moses withholds information regarding his years in the palace. We read some of the details about this period of his life in the New Testament, where the tradition, which must be considered reliable, since the Holy Spirit incorporates it into the Word of God, is preserved.

Stephen tells us that Moses was forty years old when he started to get involved in the suffering of his people. During those forty years he had been "educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."[ 5 ] Undoubtedly, Moses was aware of his Jewish roots. We read in Hebrews: "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time."[ 6 ] These verses suggest that there may have been a struggle in Moses' heart when he came to the point where he had to identify himself either with Egypt and the palace or with the suffering Hebrews. There must have been affection for Pharaoh's daughter who had saved his life. But that had been forty years before. If the princess was still alive when Moses turned forty, she would have been in her late sixties or early seventies. Moses identity crisis may have occurred at the moment of her death. These thoughts are mere speculation, but they could make us appreciate the fact that Moses must have gone through a struggle before he came to the point where he stated clearly, "I am a Jew."

When he came to that point he went beyond mere identification with the suffering nation; he became convinced that God had called him to be their Messiah. It took another forty years before he was proved to be right in this assumption, a long period in which he must have gone through another identity crisis. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it there was faith involved. He knew fellowship with God and understood that God had saved his life and put him where he was for a purpose. As Stephen testified: "Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not."[ 7 ] I remember a sermon by Leroy Webber about being misunderstood by others. Webber edited the above verse effectively by reading it as follows: "He supposed his brethren would have understood ... but they understood not" (KJV).

The issue here was not that Moses was misunderstood by his compatriots; Moses misunderstood God. He was right about the fact that God had called him, but he launched himself into this "call" without taking time to find out prayerfully and patiently how and when this call should be worked out in practice. Waiting for God is one of the most essential features of the life of a Christian. It is also the hardest thing one can do. Wrestling with his blindness, John Milton wrote: "They also serve who only stand and wait." David says: "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."[ 8 ] It takes strength of heart and character to wait for the Lord. Moses botched his call and probably prolonged the suffering of his people by acting in his own strength and not waiting for God. My own experience has taught me that the working out of God's call for me meant bumping into closed doors and waiting for others to open. The Gospel entered Europe because both Satan and the Spirit of Christ closed the doors for Paul and Silas in Asia, and it took them some time to discover this.

So Moses went out on his own. He saw an Egyptian slave driver beating one of the Hebrews. In his anger he killed the Egyptian. Adam Clarke justifies Moses' act by saying that the Egyptian had probably beaten the Hebrew to death. However, the Bible does confirm that; therefore, legally Moses had the right of revenge. It is easy to look at this incident from a distance and to decide that Moses was wrong. Obviously he was! But should he have turned around and gone home? The Egyptian was wrong, just as wrong as the guards in the Nazi concentration camps. But more was wrong than just the behavior of one individual. The system was wrong. Moses did not change the system by killing one person. It would take nine plagues and the killing of thousands of first born Egyptian children to change the system. The enemy should not be underestimated.

What Moses did was an act of terrorism. He killed one man, thinking that nobody would know. "Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand." He may have thought that, if he could surreptitiously kill one here and there without being discovered, he could sow panic among the Egyptian taskmasters. It didn't work.

Moses probably hoped that the Israelites would appreciate his intervention. Stephen hints at this incident in the verse we quoted above. There may have been other episodes that are not mentioned in Scripture by which Moses wanted to prove that he was running for the presidency of Israel. If no, the question, "Who made you ruler and judge over us?" does not make much sense. One murder does not mean leadership.

The irony of the situation is that Moses was right in principle. He recognized the plight of his people better than they did themselves. He realized that their slavery and oppression was unbearable. That is why he was so upset when he saw that among themselves the Israelites did not form one united front against Egypt. When there is infighting there is a lack of sense of reality. When soldiers fight each other instead of the enemy they do not realize what war is all about.

This lack of realism is amply illustrated in the history of the church also. The devil has managed to draw the eyes of God's children away from the real enemy to concentrate on peripheral differences. That is why we see churches split and church leaders go on ego trips. Moses was absolutely right when he interfered with the two men who were fighting, reminding them that they were brothers. The fighting men did not share his vision. The man who answered him insinuated that Moses did not stand for a righteous cause but that he just liked killing people.

Jesus picks up this man's reply rather sarcastically in Luke's Gospel, when someone comes and asks Him to mediate in a dispute about an inheritance. We read: "Jesus replied, 'Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?' "[ 9 ] In this quote Jesus draws the parallel between Moses' rejection as leader of Israel and His own rejection by the people He came to save. It is hard to save people who are not aware of their need of salvation.

Why Moses ever thought that the killing of the Egyptian would remain a secret, even among the Israelites, is not clear. The man who was beaten by the Egyptian knew what Moses did. Why would he keep quiet about it?

Interestingly, the Bible says that it was the man who was in the wrong who answered Moses. Evidently Moses must have investigated the cause of their quarrel and pronounced a judgment. Hence the mans answered: "Who made you ruler and judge over us?" According to Stephen, Moses thought that his fellow Hebrews would recognize his authority as coming from God. But when this authority was tested, Moses buckled with fear. It is important that others recognize God's call in our life, but our assurance of this call should not rest on this recognition. If we depend upon people's opinion we will fear. We can only be fearless if our assurance is of God.

There seems to be a contradiction between Moses' fear for his life and the comment of the writer to the Hebrews: "By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible."[ 10 ] Adam Clarke circumvents the problem by saying that the verse in Hebrews does not speak of Moses' flight to Midian but of the Exodus of the people. If that is true, the author of Hebrews would have reversed the chronology. Fear for one's life and faith in God do not necessarily exclude one another. Having faith in God does not always mean that we shouldn't flee either. It would have been foolishly daring and, maybe, tempting God if Moses had stayed and defied Pharaoh, unless God had clearly told him to do so. Fleeing does not strike us, though, as an example of faith.

It seems that Moses, in describing his own conduct in the killing of the Egyptian and in his flight to Midian, sees himself as a failure and that both Stephen and the writer of Hebrews are saying that his relationship with God was basically right. God evaluated Moses' life differently from the way Moses did. It is, of course, ultimately God's evaluation that counts. We should not abolish self-evaluation, but we must be aware of snares. Paul speaks about this evaluation and he says: "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself."[ 11 ] On the other hand, without self-evaluation we would be unable "to take the plank out of our own eye," as Jesus says.[ 12 ] We should only examine ourselves in the presence of the Lord. We cannot trust our own heart.

Vs. 15 says: "When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses." It does not sound as if Pharaoh wanted to arrest Moses and take him to court. It seems to be more a covert operation in which the king wanted Moses to be assassinated. The Jewish question may have been a sensitive issue in Egypt. Putting Moses on trial would have opened a can of worms in which the cruel and inhumane treatment of the Israelites would be exposed. We do not really know what Egyptian justice was like.

This Pharaoh was probably a relative of Moses by adoption. If he was the son of the Pharaoh whose daughter adopted Moses, he would have been Moses' step-uncle. This relationship may have made it difficult to have Moses executed publicly.

Moses fled to Midian before the arm of justice could reach him. Midian was probably located in the vicinity of Mount Sinai. The Pulpit Commentary says: "The land of Midian is a somewhat vague expression, for the Midianites were nomads, and at different times occupied distinct and even remote localities. Their principal settlements appear to have been on the eastern side of the Elanitic Gulf (Gulf of Akabah); but at times they extended northwards to the confines of Moab (Gen. xxxvi. 35; Num. xxii. 4, 7, etc.), and westward into the Sinaitic Peninsula, which appears to have been 'the land of Midian' whereto Moses fled."

When the text says: "Moses went to live in Midian," it shows a sense of purpose and probably of guidance. But as soon as Moses arrived where he knew he was supposed to be, he sat by a well as a forlorn fugitive. He may have known that God wanted him in Midian, but when he arrived there, he says: "Now, what?" I picture Moses fleeing Egypt in the middle of the night at great speed. Things happened almost too fast. And here he sat by a well, several miles from the inhabited world, not knowing what to do. And God let him sit there, so to speak, for forty years, according to Acts.[ 13 ] Things happened in those years, of course, but nothing comparable to the sophistication and high speed of life in Egypt. I believe we can use such modern expressions and apply them to the Egypt of forty centuries ago, because such was life for Moses. Often, when God calls a man, episodes of endless waiting are interspersed with moments of breathtaking speed. We have trouble to adapt to either, but they are typically the way God deals with us.

Moses eventually was invited by a priest in Midian, whose name is Reuel, or Jethro. The editors of The Pulpit Commentary surmise that Reuel and Jethro were not the same person, but that after Reuel's death Jethro became the head of the tribe and took over the functions of Reuel. We have saw in Genesis that in the heathen world of the Middle East there remained pockets of worship of the true God. God did not appear to Abraham as a stranger in Ur. In Canaan there were Melchizedek and others who worshipped God. The Bible says nothing negative about Jethro's priesthood, so we suppose that he did not serve idols, but God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Moses' act of courtesy for Jethro's daughters established the contact with Jethro. The seven daughters of Jethro who shepherded their father's flock were discriminated against by some male shepherds when they came to water their animals at the well. Moses did basically the same thing that he did in Egypt; he took the side of the underdog. He must have had quite some authority, though, to stand up as a single individual against several rough men. Moses did not lack courage.

There are other pictures in the Bible of men who sat beside a well at a crucial point in their life. Abraham's servant, Eliezer, sat at the well when God answered his prayer regarding a wife for Isaac. Jacob sat at a well, probably the same well, when he met his cousin Rachel with whom he promptly fell in love. And centuries later Jesus sat at the well that Jacob had dug in Sechem when the Father opened the hearts of the Samaritans for the Gospel.

The girls report to their father what Moses did for them, calling him "an Egyptian." And so Moses is invited in for a meal and he becomes a member of the household for the next forty years, marrying one of the girls, Zipporah.

Gershom is born. Actually, the birth of Gershom is the only detail Moses himself gives about this dramatic and important part of his life. In naming his son, Moses expresses his deepest feelings of being an alien. The question arises: "Where is home?" It was not the palace, nor the slavery of Goshen and, although he had a wife and family in Midian, it wasn't Midian either. I wonder if Moses wanted to express more in the name of his son than a displacement on earth. He may have come to the same conclusion as the author of Hebrews when he writes in his biographical sketch of the patriarchs, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own."[ 14 ] And, "For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."[ 15 ]

Later, in ch. 4:24-26, we shall see that Moses and Zipporah did not see eye to eye concerning rearing their son, and that Zipporah's influence was the stronger one in the family.

From Stephen we learn that Moses lived in Midian for forty years. Our text simply says, "During that long period ..." (vs. 23). The death of Pharaoh did not bring an end to the persecution of the Israelites. It seems that their condition got even worse and they started to pray and cry to God.

The last verses of this chapter show the depths of God's compassion. They also give us insight in the workings of God's redeeming intervention. We do not know when, during that long period, Pharaoh died. The Pulpit Commentary takes it for granted that God called Moses immediately upon the death of the man who had tried to kill him and so they looked for a Pharaoh (who reigned for forty years or more) and they chose Rameses II. But nothing in the text assures us that God acted promptly upon the death of Pharaoh. There are in the Bible episodes in which God waited and acted with a slowness that is inexplicable to us. In John's Gospel we read: "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. [Yet] when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days."[ 16 ] And the Apostle Peter writes: "They will say, 'Where is this ''coming'' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.' But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."[ 17 ] It could well be that Pharaoh died a decade or more before the Lord called Moses. We are not told why. God's deliberation can be a source of frustration and even despair to us.

We have to realize that only God has the whole picture. In looking at God's way of acting we have to start from the premise that all God's dealings are dominated by love and perfect wisdom. God only waits when that is the best thing to do. Letting the evil of Egypt turn into a boil and letting it ripen till it burst brought about a great demonstration of God's power and glory. This gave Israel the impetus it needed to get out of Egypt and on its way to Canaan. History shows that even this impetus was barely enough; for only the second generation actually reached the goal.

When God's patience is put in historic perspective, it shows itself as the perfect way. That is why David says about the kings of the earth: "And they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD."[ 18 ]

God never acts on the basis of deep emotions alone. The emotions are there, as we also learn from ch. 3:7. He bases His actions on the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He takes legal steps against the enemy. The relations between God and Satan are too complicated for us to understand. Yet, the whole of history is built upon this mystery. From Adam to Job and all the way to the book of Revelation, there is a clear line that shows that a cosmic "chess game" is being played in which sacrifices are brought, the depth of which the human mind cannot grasp.

The expression "God remembered" is, of course, an anthropomorphism. The all-knowing God cannot forget so He does not have to remember. Moses used those words, or rather, the Holy Spirit used them, to make us understand that there is the similarity between our reactions, feeling and reasoning and God's. As persons made in the image of God we act similarly to the way the One after whom we are modeled acts. He is moved by our suffering and afflictions.

[ 1 ] Heb. 11:23

[ 2 ] Rev. 12:4

[ 3 ] See Luke 9:24.

[ 4 ] Deut. 30:11-14

[ 5 ] Acts 7:22

[ 6 ] Heb. 11:24, 25

[ 7 ] Acts 7:25

[ 8 ] Psalm 27:14

[ 9 ] Luke 12:14

[ 10 ] Heb. 11:27

[ 11 ] I Cor. 4:1-5

[ 12 ] Matt. 7:1-5

[ 13 ] Acts 7:30

[ 14 ] Heb. 11:13,14

[ 15 ] Heb. 13:14

[ 16 ] John 11:5,6

[ 17 ] II Pet. 3:4-9

[ 18 ] Ps. 138:5 (RSV)