Unit 2: Out of Slavery to Nationhood
Key Verse:
Exodus 2:2 NLT
2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.
“Behind every great man is a woman…” In Moses' case, there are several.
What you need to know
Genesis 47:11-12 NLT
11 So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt—the region of Rameses—to his father and his brothers, and he settled them there, just as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph provided food for his father and his brothers in amounts appropriate to the number of their dependents, including the smallest children.
I have written before on the role of Joseph in the salvation of Egypt up to and during the great seven-year famine. In today’s lesson on the birth of Moses, I simply want to establish a timeline from Joseph to Moses. Between Josep and Moses are eight Egyptian pharaohs spanning three distinct Egyptian dynastic periods. Joseph’s time in Egypt under the Pharaoh, Sosestris II, Sosestris III, and finally Amenemhat III mark the end of the 12th dynasty which along with the 11th and 13th dynasties, make up the period known as the Middle Kingdom. Many other theories place Joseph at different times; however, my belief is that the ‘Canal of Joseph, built during the time of Sesotris III around 1900 BCE, places Joseph in the time of Sesostris !! and Sesostris III.
The dynasties of the Middle Kingdom were followed by what is called ‘The Second Intermediate period” which included the 14th through the 17th dynasty plus the Abydos dynasty. What sets this period apart is that it is believed that Egypt was overthrown by a people from the Near East called the ‘Hyksos’. That period ended around 1550-1500 BCE, right around the time of the life of Moses.
Exodus 1:8-10 NLT
8 Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10 We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.
So then, it seems that, at the time of the birth of Moses, Egypt had come under the authority of a Pharaoh of foreign origin who knew nothing of Joseph and deemed the children of Israel as a threat. It was in this time of political upheaval and war that the child, Moses was born. Not only would he deliver his people from the grip of a heathen nation. He would deliver that very nation from the grip of foreign despotism. This was a time of great duress for the children of Israel. It is believed by some historians that the last of the Hyksos Pharaohs was the unnamed pharaoh who drowned in the Red Sea when the children of Israel departed Egypt. The Pharaoh who “knew nothing about Joseph…”
Exodus 1:11-13 NLT
11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 13 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy.
So we see that the Israelites are feared and hated by the people who control Egypt. Their answer to the ‘Hebrew problem’ is to oppress the children of Egypt to the point of death by slavery and affliction. Think of it as ‘minority rule’ or ‘Apartheid’, both terms that are familiar to the general populace today within the context of the social justice conversation that has been going on in this nation (America) for some 400 years.
Exodus 1:15-17 NLT
15 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver.[c] If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.
In fact, the ruling class became so fearful and afraid that they decided to incorporate a ‘final solution’. Pharaoh instructed the two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah to kill all of the male children born to the Hebrews. Why these two women? Obviously, it was beneath the Hyksos/Egyptian people to mingle with the Hebrews, so much so that it stands to reason that the Pharaoh would order that the health and welfare of the Hebrews would be seen to by the Hebrews, much the same way that segregation of healthcare was/is practiced in our own country. I’m not done.
Exodus 1:18-21 NLT
18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?”
19 “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.”
20 So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
But God… So it was that Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives, feared God more than they feared Pharaoh. They refused to kill their own. Because of their courage in the face of possible death, God rewarded them greatly and also allowed them to see the proliferation of the Israeli people, even under such austere conditions.
Hebrews 13:6 NLT
6 So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper,
so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?”[c]
Exodus 1:21 NLT
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.”
But the ruling class would not be deterred. Pharaoh deputized the citizenry, authorizing all of ‘his people’ to throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile river. Again, I draw a parallel between what was happening then and the present day, where ‘open carry’, and ‘constitutional carry’ gun laws have been enacted in communities nationwide in order to quell the fears of the minority ruling class. Also make note of the rise of anti-democratic groups in an increasingly partisan atmosphere who align themselves with forces who would rather see the country overthrown than see it fulfill its charter to “...form a more perfect union…’, as stated in the preamble to our nation’s constitution. Pharaoh instituted and legalized the lynching of every newborn Hebrew child, thus instituting the first pogram, the organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, recorded in Scripture. Again, note the similarities between then…, and now. It was into this spiritually dark atmosphere that Moses was birthed. Let’s get started.
The Lesson
Exodus 2:1 NLT
1 About this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married.
Yet, in spite of the oppression suffered at the hands of the Egyptian regime, the Hebrews continued to marry; they continue their hold fast to the traditions of raising families, and life went on according to the plan and purpose of the Lord, God. Amram and Jochebed, Moses’ father and mother, were content to marry and begin a family under God’s watchful gaze.
Exodus 2:2 NLT
2 The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a special baby and kept him hidden for three months.
The third influential woman in Moses’ life was perhaps, the most influential. In the face of the legalized genocide ordered by Pharaoh, Jochebed chose to bear a child. And the Bible says that when she (and her husband, Amram) beheld the child, they saw something special in him. I would argue that, because Miriam and Aaron preceded Moses in birth, and that, according to the biblical chronology, perhaps they were born under the same edict to ‘throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River’. In spite of the fact, that even a neighbor could act on this order, the fact that the Hebrew population continued to grow speaks to the unity within the Hebraic community. They held to the notion that they would become the nation of promise, even in the face of persecution.
Beloved, in times past, the elders of my community would look at a child and pronounce a blessing upon them. Oftentimes, led by the Spirit of God, they were not afraid to ‘prophesy’ over infants and toddlers they encountered. They could ‘see’ something in the child’s countenance that set that child apart. They were duty-bound to open their mouths and ‘speak’ the blessing. Beloved, that tradition began with God, our Father, and continues to this day. Don’t be afraid to speak what you believe about the youth in your midst. Your words will remain with them for a lifetime, providing the boundaries necessary to avoid the obstacles they encounter and reach the potential that God has placed before them.
Hebrews 11:23 NLT
23 It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.
Exodus 2:3 NLT
3 But when she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River.
Jochebed understood that her newborn baby’s life was at risk, but rather than shrink in despair, she called forth the courage to defy the political atmosphere of her day for the sake of her son, in whom she could see God’s purpose. He was set apart. She went to work, fashioning a boat of reeds and tar; an ark. In the same way that God had preserved humanity by the Ark of Noah, he would now preserve His people by the ark…of Moses. In the same way that Noah, by faith, built an ark, though there had never been rain upon the earth, now Jochebed, by faith, built an ark that she hoped would deliver him to safety.
Beloved, a step of faith involves a ‘letting go’. It involves trusting in the unseen. Faith is greater than hope, in that, it sees that which cannot be seen or perceived naturally. Hope desires. Faith sees. Both are important. Both are necessary. And…both are powered by love. Jochebed loved Moses. She hoped for a better life for him; a life filled with possibility and promise. By faith, she released him into God’s hand.s, knowing that God with her was greater than all that was against her. And Beloved… God didn’t fail her. God never fails.
Exodus 2:4 NLT
4 The baby’s sister then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen to him.
Miriam, Moses’ older sister followed the ark containing her baby brother, so as to see what would happen. It is here that we perceive the providential will of God at hand. Had Miriam not followed along, well… God would have found a way. But we must assume that God was about to use this very young maiden, a fourth woman, to further carry out his purpose to make the children of Israel a great nation.
Exodus 2:5-6 NLT
5 Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. 6 When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This must be one of the Hebrew children,” she said.
I find it interesting that Pharaoh’s daughter bathed in the Nile river, rather than the royal palace. She must have had access to the very finest of royal accouterments, yet she chose to bathe in the River. The Nie river was thought to be sacred, a source and replenisher of life itself. While there is no record of a tradition involving some sort of ritualistic bath associated with the royal family and the Nile river, we see that Pharaoh conducted himself similarly in Exodus, Chapter 7, verse 15. Whatever the case, She was providentially placed in the very place where she would make a divine intersection that would change world history.
Exodus 7:14-15a NLT
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn,[b] and he still refuses to let the people go. 15a So go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes down to the river. Stand on the bank of the Nile and meet him there…
____________
Pharoah’s daughter, the fifth woman of prominence in this narrative, and the one upon whom the narrative pivots, saw the ark and sent one of her maidservants to retrieve it from among the reeds along the banks. Scripture informs that she saw it, she sent for it, then she opened it. When she opened the ark, she heard the baby crying. Perhaps the light of the morning and the rush of cool air into the basket startled the infant. Whatever the case, the infant began to cry. Baby Moses’ cry stirred the heart of a princess and changed the course of two nations.
Beloved, all of this foreshadows the unction of the prophetic ministry that Moses would eventually be called into. It also foreshadows, the prophetic unction of the Gospel of Christ, by which the hearts of men and women through the ages have been stirred unto salvation. All of this is …awfully good news.
Isaiah 9:6 NLT
6
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,[d] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Exodus 2:7 NLT
7 Then the baby’s sister approached the princess. “Should I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” she asked.
Ever the opportunist, Miriam seizes the opportunity, even before it is fully considered by Pharaoh’s daughter. “Should I go and find a Hebrew nurse for the baby…?”, she asks. Most certainly, she has discerned the providence of God. Her actions are not unlike those of other women we observe in Scripture, who discern the Presence and will of God, even as it is revealed in the moment. I am reminded of a young Hebrew slave who told her master’s wife that if her master would reach out to the prophet Elijah, he would be healed of Leprosy. Like that young slave girl, Miriam simply recognized and seized the opportunity provided to her by the Lord.
2 Kings 5:2-3 NLT
2 At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. 3 One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”
Exodus 2:8 NLT
8 “Yes, do!” the princess replied. So the girl went and called the baby’s mother.
Miriam dared to speak up. For that, she was rewarded with the life of her brother. This seed of faith that Jochebed cast into the Nile river, began to sprout in the heart of the princess. “Yes, go fetch a Hebrew woman to nurse this child …for me. For, I will make him my son snd ... a Prince of Egypt!”
Exodus 2:9 NLT
9 “Take this baby and nurse him for me,” the princess told the baby’s mother. “I will pay you for your help.” So the woman took her baby home and nursed him.
And so now, the mother and adoptive mother meet. Suddenly, Jochebed is thrust into the presence of royalty. And suddenly, the entire nation of Egypt is made available for care and provision not only of Moses but of his family. While Pharaoh intended that the resources of Egypt be used for the oppression, slavery, and murder of the Hebrews, God most certainly turned the tables on Pharaoh in such a way that now those same resources would be used to feed, clothe and educate this child, favored of God. Not only that but his birth mother would be paid to nurse him and continue to raise him under her own roof until such time as he would be called to the palace to live under the care of the princess.
I opened this lesson on a bit of a rant as I described the fear and hatred that led a Pharaoh and a nation to so severely threaten a people of a different ethnicity than they. I drew several parallels to the times we live in, with our country’s own history of racism, slavery, and oppression. Allow me to draw a new comparison for your perusal. Imagine a nation’s tax dollars being used to feed and educate all of its citizens, rather than just the ruling minority. Imagine a nation welcoming immigrants, as it once did, instead of building walls to prevent their safe passage to a place that, in the past, was a beacon of hope to so many. We claim to be a ‘Christian nation’, but more and more our actions do not reflect the heart of Christ. Scripture instructs us to care for the widow and the orphan, to feed and care for the strangers (immigrants) in our midst, remembering, in humility, that we were once strangers to the promises of God. The very promises of which we are now heirs.
Exodus 2:10 NLT
10 Later, when the boy was older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses,[a] for she explained, “I lifted him out of the water.”
After Moses was weaned, Pharaoh’s daughter brought him into the care of the palace and raised him as her own. For years, Moses was afforded the very best of Egypt. Pharoah’s daughter delivered Moses from the waters of the Nile and eventually, Moses would deliver the Hebrews from bondage. All by God’s great love and providence. Pharaoh’s daughter is unnamed in this narrative, but her actions are forever preserved in Eternity, as are the other women of note who were participants in the events surrounding the birth of Moses. And we find, within this narrative and through their voices and actions, the tools for turning a nation, an entire nation, toward…justice. Beloved, in this day, we can do no less. Let us lift our voices toward justice.
Selah,
wb
“When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.
Let us realize that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Let us realize that William Cullen Bryant is right: “Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again.” Let us go out realizing that the Bible is right: “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” This is our hope for the future;..”
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - 1967
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