GETTING STARTED
The book of Exodus begins like a plane flying at 30,000 feet. We are getting the macro, big picture view of what’s happening. The original generation of Israelites that migrated to Egypt is dead and gone. As we fly over Egypt we can see that there are masses of Hebrews who are enslaved. We see them working hard and building cities. Flying a little lower, we hear communication that the king of the Egyptians, the Pharaoh, has issued a death order for all Hebrew infant boys. In chapter two the plane lands and we are on the ground, stepping into the drama of one of these baby boys slated to die.
- Do you ever wish you could get a bird’s eye view of your life, to see how everything fits together?
READ THE WORD: EXODUS 2:1-10 (ESV)
2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
DIGGING DEEPER
- Count all of the different women in this passage. Why do you think none of them are named specifically?
- What can you deduce about Moses’ mother’s character from her actions?
- What specific actions attest to her faith, courage, and resourcefulness?
- Where do you see the protective care of God in this account of Moses’ first few months of life?
- Do the circumstances of your life seem out of your control sometimes? Do you believe God has a purposeful plan for your life? If you believed that God were truly in control of it all, how would your perspective be changed?
RESPOND TO GOD
This micro-story of Moses’ beginning fits into the macro-redemptive story of the Bible. God, in his sovereign love and care, saved Moses. It is ironic that God’s chosen deliverer of the Israelites was to defy Pharaoh’s death order and be brought up in the royal household. A mother’s loss gave way to a redemptive future. The micro and the macro are both God’s story. The things we understand and the things we don’t are all part of his plan. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, plans to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
- Talk to God about the parts of your life you don’t understand. Ask God for faith to trust him and to let him use your life for his story.