Exodus 2

The Explanation

A man and a woman from the family of Levi have a baby. That should be happy news, but in Egypt it is dangerous news. Pharaoh has ordered that Hebrew baby boys must not live. So this mother hides her son. Three months long. Imagine keeping a baby quiet for three months while soldiers walk the streets.

Then she can no longer hide him. So she does something strange and brave at the same time: she makes a basket out of papyrus reeds, smears it with tar so the water cannot get in, lays her son inside, and sets him among the reeds at the edge of the Nile. She puts her child in the very river where babies were meant to drown. And his sister stands at a distance, watching.

Pharaoh's daughter comes to bathe. She spots the basket, opens it, and the baby cries. The text says something small but important: "She had compassion on him." She knows immediately what she is looking at: "This is one of the Hebrews' children." She knows her father's command. She takes the child anyway.

Then the sister steps forward. Nine or ten years old, maybe a little older, and she speaks to a princess. Shall I find a Hebrew woman to nurse him for you? Yes, says the princess. And so the baby's own mother gets her son back, and gets paid for raising him. Later the boy is brought to the palace and becomes the princess's son. She names him Moses, because, she says, "I drew him out of the water."

Then the story jumps ahead many years. Moses is grown. He goes out to his people and sees how hard they are worked. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers. Moses looks this way and that way, sees nobody, kills the Egyptian and hides the body in the sand.

The next day he tries to break up a fight between two Hebrews. One of them says, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses is afraid. His secret is out. Pharaoh wants him dead, and Moses runs, all the way to Midian, and sits down by a well.

There he helps seven sisters whose flock is being pushed away by shepherds. Their father invites him to eat. Moses stays, marries Zipporah, and gets a son. He names him Gershom, and explains why: "I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land." That is Moses now. Not an Egyptian prince. Not living with his own people. A stranger everywhere.

The chapter ends with four sentences that change everything. Israel groans under slavery. God hears. God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God sees. God is concerned.

What Does This Mean?

Notice what is missing from most of this chapter: God's name. Nobody prays out loud. No angel appears. No voice from heaven. And yet look at what happens. A basket floats to exactly the right spot. A princess feels pity instead of loyalty to her father. A sister happens to be standing there with exactly the right question. A mother gets paid to raise her own son.

The Bible does not say "and God arranged this." It just tells you. And then, at the end, it lets you know that God has been hearing and seeing all along.

The chapter is also honest about Moses. He is not a shining hero. He kills a man and hides the body in the sand, and he looks around first, which means he knows it is wrong. God will still use him. That is uncomfortable and comforting at the same time.

The Common Thread

A covenant is a promise God binds himself to. Long before Moses, God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a people and a land. When it says "God remembered his covenant," it does not mean he had forgotten. It means the moment has come to act on it.

And notice the pattern: a baby boy, threatened by a king who wants him dead, rescued, and later a rescuer himself. That happens again with Jesus. God's way of saving usually begins small, hidden, and easy to miss.

For You

You may wonder why God waited so long. Israel groaned for years. The text does not explain it, and I will not pretend I can. But this chapter does say that God sees before he speaks. If you are waiting for something, silence is not the same as absence.

And if you have done something you are ashamed of: Moses ran away, and God was not finished with him.

Talk About It

Why do you think this chapter hardly mentions God, and then suddenly says four times at the end that God hears, remembers, sees and cares?

Moses did something clearly wrong. Does that change what you think of him, or of God for choosing him?

Praying Together

God, you saw Israel long before they knew it. Thank you that you see us too, also when you seem quiet. Help us to trust you when we do not understand yet. Amen.