| BIRTH OF MOSES |

Welcome back to the third week of our reading at BibleTogether!

More Courageous Women

We ended last week with a story of two courageous midwives risking their lives for the sake of the Hebrew boys whom Pharaoh was murdering. This short passage mentions three more women involved in Moses’s rescue. First, Moses’ mother hides Moses. Then, she trusts the Lord with the life of Moses when she hides him in a basket on the river. The second woman is Moses’ sister, who watched over her defenseless little brother. Finally, it is Pharaoh’s daughter herself who steps in to rescue the child, Moses. What a kindness and provision for Moses’ family! Not only do they get to save and even raise their own child, but Pharaoh’s own daughter would pay her to nurse the child.

Moses, the Rescuer

We will quickly see, in the second half of the chapter, that Moses is disposed to try to rescue people. First, you have his failed rescue attempt of the Hebrew enslaved people. In his rescue attempt, Moses goes all the way to kill an Egyptian. This Moses, who fails miserably to rescue and unite his people in this rescue attempt, will be the same Moses whom God calls to be his instrument of rescue and redemption of his people out of Egypt.

In this short chapter, the event where Moses attempts to rescue the Hebrew being beaten is only the first of two rescue attempts. In Exodus 2:17, Moses rescues the seven daughters of the priest of Midian from a group of rogue shepherds. It is out of this encounter that Moses is invited into the home of Reuel (known elsewhere as Jethro) and is ultimately given his daughter, Zipporah, in marriage.

Who is the Redeemer?

We see that Moses is disposed to be a rescuer, but he has also shown that he is ultimately powerless to rescue truly. The slavery of the Hebrew people in the land of Egypt was not merely a servitude to the Egyptians, but their hearts were also wicked. Moses can go on a rampage and try to take on Egyptian thugs, but he cannot rescue the Hebrew people from themselves.

At the end of chapter 2, we are finally given God’s perspective on his chosen people’s enslavement and suffering. We are given four verbs: God hears, remembers, sees and knows. God remembers his promise to Abraham. God is set upon forming a people for himself. The way he will form this people is by redeeming them from slavery both to foreign masters and to indwelling sin.