April 14, 2024
Reading: Exodus 2:1-9
Focus: Exodus 2:3 – But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
Father God, thank You for your blessings. Help us to see how Moses’ mother stood up against a law that went against Your laws. Help us to be as courageous as she was. In Jesus Name, Amen.
We are now about 80 years before the Israelites get to leave Egypt. The Israelites have been in Egypt for 350 years. But as I have said before, they were not slaves for the whole of those 350 years. But by this time, they had been enslaved and were being brutalized and beaten. Their sons were to be killed at birth. They were forced to make bricks. Their skills as craftsman were used without payment for the goods they were producing. They had moved from honored guests to pariah to the Egyptian people. The time was ripe for a savior. They probably felt that God had forgotten them. Their cries reached to heaven. So, God put into motion His plan for their salvation from Egypt.
Exodus 2 begins with a birth announcement. A man and woman of the tribe of Levi had a child. A baby boy. Jochebed and Amran had two children before this baby. Aaron and Miriam. All of these children would be used of God over the next 120 years. We’ll see just how in our study of Exodus.
Jochebed knew that killing her baby boy was wrong. In so many ways. So, she hid him for as long as she could. Can you imagine? Trying to keep a baby from making any noises. But she was successful for three months. Now she had to find a way to continue to protect him. How could she hide him? She decided to hide him among the reeds that grew along the Nile. Now these reeds sometimes grew as tall as 16 feet. Good place to hide. But full of crocodiles. Really? What was she thinking? But her faith was stronger that her fear. She had seen boats made of reeds moving up and down the Nile. They were covered with tar, both inside and out. She took the idea of a reed boat and wove a basket with reeds and covered it inside and out with tar. This was not an unknown skill to her. She probably had a lot of experience making baskets and this one was a very special basket.
Once the basket was finished and she was sure it was waterproof, she put the baby into the basket and floated it among the reeds at the side of the river. His sister, Miriam, stood watch by the side of the river. One day, it seems that the basket had floated close to where Pharoah’s daughter chose to bathe along the shores of the Nile. The basket was noticed by the princess. The Bible says that the baby was crying when she opened the basket. So, she sent her handmaid to retrieve the basket from the water. I wonder what she thought she was going to find. I can just hear the gasp, “A baby!” His tears softened her heart and she decided to keep him and she recognized that he was a Hebrew baby. Miriam ran up and offered to find a wetnurse for the baby. The offer was accepted, and Miriam fetched her mother. The princess asked the baby’s mother to take care of him. So Jochebed had her baby back. He would be safe because he “belonged” to the daughter of Pharoah. And she would be paid for taking care of her own child. How perfect was that? Even then, Jochebed knew that she would not have him all his life. When he grew old enough, he was taken to the palace to be raised by the Egyptian princess.
It would come as no surprise to me that Jochebed taught Moses of his heritage as an Israelite. She would have taught him about God and who He was. She would have told him the history of his people. She would have schooled him in the faith of his fathers. She would have given him a foundation that would serve him for the rest of his life. Then, he went to the palace and learned all the wisdom of Egypt. Reading, writing, accounting, warfare and ruling. He was trained as all the other princes of Egypt were trained. So many times I’ve read that Moses could not have known how to write but they forget that he was raised in the palaces of Egypt. I feel that the secular world underestimates the skills and knowledge that Moses actually had. More on that at a later date.
When we are between a rock and a hard place and have no idea which way to go. Look for ways to rise above the evil around you. Then trust God to use your efforts, no matter how useless they seem. Remember He sees that whole puzzle and we only see just a small part of it. So Jochebed trusted God to take care of her child, both in and out of the Nile.
Miriam was right on the spot when the princess found the basket. She had no idea what the princess would do. I’m sure she probably held her breath as the princess opened the basket. The woman could have done two things. She could have tossed the baby into the river as per the law of her father. But she didn’t. She fell in love with the child. (my opinion) There is no indication whether she was married or not or whether she had any children at all. But suffice it to say, she took Moses as her son and gave him all the benefits of being a prince of Egypt.
Miriam approached the princess and offered to find a nursemaid for the baby. The girl and the baby may have had similar features or not. We are not told. Nor are we told that the princess knew that the nursemaid was none other than the baby’s natural mother. At any rate, she hired her, right then and there.
Jochebed courageously stood on her faith in God to protect her son. God used that faith to begin His plan to rescue the Israelites from Egypt. God doesn’t need much from us to accomplish His plans for our lives. When we focus on our predicaments can paralyze us because it seems humanly impossible to get out of it. When we concentrate on God and His power, we will see a way out and God will be glorified in the end. There are times that we are totally unable to see a way out. Jesus says in Matthew 6:25-34, that God knows what we need when we need it. He feeds the sparrows and the lilies of the field are dressed in splendor. Jesus says we are more valuable that they are. He also asks, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Worry doesn’t do anything but stress us out.
How big is your faith?
Father God, thank You for the example of faith that is Jochebed. Help us to trust You as she did.
In Jesus Name. Amen.
Food for Thought
- Do you think that Jochebed worried about her baby in the river? Why or why not?
- Would you have been able to do what Jochebed did if you were in the same situation? Why or why not?
- Are there things in your life that you do not ‘bother’ God with? Why?
- Do you believe that God cares about everything that you care about? Why or why not?
- What do you trust God with?
