DAY SIXTEEN: 

Birth of Moses 

Exodus 1:1-2:25

We left off last week with Joseph reunited with his father and brothers in Egypt. Joseph arranged for them to live in Goshen, the Nile Delta region, where there was plentiful grass for their flocks. Chapter 1 verse 5 says, "The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt." God's promise came to one man, Abraham. Then it passed to another, his son Isaac. Jacob, whose name means cheater, received a new name, Israel, he who wrestles with God. His descendants numbered 70 when they arrived in Egypt. Still not a nation, but a whole lot bigger than at the start. That all changed in Egypt. Over the next several hundred years the children of Israel prospered and multiplied. That nation promised to Abraham is taking shape!

In time Joseph and his generation died. Joseph commanded that his body be preserved and then carried back to Canaan when the people of Israel leave. Egypt was not to be their home. It was a place of safety for a time.

Verse 8 says, "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph." Just who was this Pharaoh, and how could he possibly not know about Joseph, Egypt's savior? Shortly after Joseph died a group of Asiatic invaders known as the Hyksos moved into Lower Egypt (the Delta region) and ruled it for around a hundred and fifty years. I think there's a link between the Hyksos and the Amalekites who caused all kinds of trouble in the time of the Judges. The Israelites got along with these new rulers and went on with life as usual. The Egyptians retook the Delta in the mid-sixteenth century BC under Ahmose I (1550-1525), founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. After this the Egyptians viewed Israel with suspicion. They were foreigners who had lived alongside the invaders who occupied the land. Over 300 years had passed since Joseph saved Egypt from famine, and he faded from memory. Thutmose III (1479-1425) was one of Egypt's most prolific builders and he is likely the Pharaoh of the Exodus (more about him in the next few days).

Ahmose I- the Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph?

Pharaoh thought that the harsh slavery he imposed would reduce the Hebrew population. The opposite happened. God prospered them and they increased in number. Pharaoh ordered the Israelite midwives to kill all boy babies. They didn't obey this ghastly order. When questioned they said that the Hebrew women were so tough that they gave birth without their help. Pharaoh then ordered the Egyptians to take any Hebrew boys and throw them in the Nile!

It was in this context that a couple from the Tribe of Levi had a baby boy. We learn from chapter 6 that their names were Amram and Jochebed. They already had two children, a daughter named Miriam and a son named Aaron. The parents tried to hide their newborn son, but soon it grew too risky. She took a reed basket and daubed it with pitch to waterproof it. Then she put her little son into the basket and with a prayer pushed him out into the river to drift downstream. She sent Miriam to follow along. The basket drifted by the place where Pharaoh's daughter bathed. She saw the basket and had a servant bring it in. When she opened the basket she saw the baby boy, crying from hunger and cold. Immediately she loved him and claimed him as her own. There was just one problem: how would she nurse him? Miriam overheard Pharaoh's daughter say that she'd like to find a Hebrew woman to care for him. She popped out and said "I know someone who would be perfect!" She brought her mother to Pharaoh's daughter and not only was she entrusted with her own son, she was paid to raise him! When the time came she surrendered her son once again, this time to live in Pharaoh's palace. His adoptive mother named him Moses, from the Egyptian word for "drawn," for she had drawn him from the river.

Moses learned all that the Egyptians had to teach. He dressed in a way befitting a member of the royal household. Yet he knew that he was a Hebrew. He looked like a Hebrew, not like an Egyptian. And he remembered his mother, father, sister and brother. He saw his fellow Hebrews suffering under their burdens and it stirred his conscience. One day he saw an Egyptian taskmaster mercilessly beating a slave. He rose up and killed the Egyptian. He thought that no one had seen him, but the next day when he tried to break up a fight between two slaves one of them said, "Are you going to kill me, like you killed that Egyptian?" Moses' blood ran cold as he realized his crime was not a secret. Egyptian law required death for someone who murders an Egyptian. Moses fled, heading toward the Sinai Desert.

It was essential that Moses find water if he wanted to survive the desert. In the distance he saw trees that indicated water- an oasis, a spring, or maybe a well. When he arrived he found a group of women who were trying to water their sheep. Some men giving them a hard time. It was hero time for Moses! He stepped in and protected the women. Then he helped them to water their sheep. It turned out that they were the seven daughters of Reuel, a priest of God in the land of Midian. The Midianites were also descendants of Abraham. After Sarah died he married again, a woman named Keturah, and had five sons with her, one of whom was named Midian. Isaac was Abraham's heir, so he gave his other sons gifts and sent them off on their own. These other sons of Abraham would have known of Abraham's God and many of them worshipped Him. In addition to Reuel (also called Jethro) we see other God-fearing people outside of Israel.

Reuel was happy to receive Moses. He gave his daughter Zipporah to be Moses' wife. They had a son whom they named Gershom, which means "foreigner." Moses was a man without a home. He settled into the life of a nomadic shepherd and thought that would be his lot for the rest of his life. But God had some surprises for Moses. Stay tuned!

We read at the end of the chapter that Pharaoh died. The new Pharaoh was even more cruel toward his Hebrew slaves. They cried out for help and God heard them!

Again we come face to face with God's providence! Baby Moses was under the sentence of death. His mother did the only thing she could think to do. God caused Pharaoh's daughter to see the beautiful little boy, fall in love with him and take him for her own. All that Moses experienced, both in the luxury of the palace and the poverty of the desert, prepared him for what God had in store.

I'm also struck by Jochebed's faith and how God answered her prayers. God brought Moses back to her and she could raise him openly. Certainly giving him back to Pharaoh's daughter was difficult, but again she trusted God and gave up her son. Children are God's precious gift to us. They're also His, not ours. Our parenting is an act of stewardship, preparing the little ones entrusted to us to trust in Christ and to live as His disciples.

Someone once said that Moses' 120-year-long life divides neatly into three forty-year periods: for the first forty he thought he was somebody, a member of Egypt's royal family; for the second forty years he learned that he was really a nobody, just some guy chasing sheep around the backside of the desert; and the last forty years he learned the vital lesson of how God can use a nobody. We'll see this play out the rest of this week and into next week.

And just one more thing: this passage led to the discovery of oil in the Middle East. John D. Rockefeller Sr., founder of Standard Oil and the world's first billionaire, was a Bible reader. He saw this account of how Moses' mother waterproofed his basket with pitch. Pitch is oil that has bubbled to the surface and thickened up. Where there is pitch there is oil! He sent his top engineer to do a survey and sure enough, he found oil! The Word of God is indeed profitable, sometimes even in material ways!

I leave you with a catchy children's song about today's passage, in the hope that it will give you a "holy ear worm!"