Exodus chapter 2 picks up immediately after Pharaoh’s decree to kill every male Hebrew child. We are told a man from the “house of Levi… married a Levite woman” and gave birth to a son. While it may be pointing out the obvious, notice the sequence is marriage first, then giving birth. In our society, it is quickly becoming less understood that this is God’s design. Even in the midst of captivity, the Israelites honored God. We read the child was beautiful and his mother hid him for three months, but when she could hid him no longer, she placed him in a basket that had been coated with tar to make it waterproof and placed it among the reeds along the Nile river. We also read, “his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen“. Next, we read, “Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe… she saw the basket among the reeds… she opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies”, she said“. The sister who was watching from a distance approached Pharaoh’s daughter and asked if she needed a women to nurse the baby for her and “the girl went and got the baby’s mother“. She told the mother, “Take this baby and nurse him and I will pay you“. We are not told how long he was raised by his Hebrew mother, but it was likely years. Undoubtedly, she taught him everything possible about their history and faith in that time. We read, “When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses“.
The next verse tells us, when Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. There is nothing mentioned about his training, but Acts 7:22 tells us, “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians and was a man of power in words and deeds“. It also tells us he was “about the age of forty” when he went to “visit his brethren“. The chapter continues, “He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew… glancing this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand“. Then we read, the next day he came upon two Hebrews fighting, and feeling like quite a powerful instrument of God, asked, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?“. The man answered, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?“. That one question exposes the arrogance and pride that drove Moses. He may have believed he was the one and only person qualified to free his people from captivity, but without God’s leading, his imperfections were glaring. When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses, so Moses fled to Midian.
We read, “a priest in Midian had seven daughters” and they came to draw water for their father’s flock, but some shepherds came along and drove them away, “but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock“. Moses, perhaps for the first time in his life, learns to serve. This priest of Midian is likely a descendent of Abraham, and probably worships the God of Abraham. Moses agrees to stay with them and marries Zipporah and has a son named Gershom. Then we read, “During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out…God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob“. God loves His children, but it is His Word that is faithful. God is preparing Moses to be His instrument. Great knowledge, wisdom or strength are not enough without the humility to accept we belong to God. It is only when we can say “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me“, (Philippians 4:13) that we truly become useful to God.