#13 - Moses is born in Egypt: Exodus 1, 2; Reflection by Neil Howard

painting by Marc Chagall

Exodus 1 & 2 Reflection

It seems to me that the whole cause of this calamity is that the latest king of Egypt didn’t know Joseph. Although Joseph was a Hebrew, he worked well with the previous kings of Egypt and there was a peaceful and symbiotic relationship between the Israelites and the Egyptians. I wonder why the latest king suddenly became fearful of the relationship with the Israelites? They had worked together pretty well with the Egyptians for at least a generation. Could it be that the sheer increase numbers of Israelites started to make him fearful that his Egyptian way of life would be overrun by the Hebrew immigrants? I can see why someone would start to become uncomfortable with this type of change. The same thing happens today. Pharaoh’s response seems pretty harsh, however, enslaving the Hebrews and killing off all the male children. At this point you know that the Hebrews will have to get out of Egypt to avoid annihilation. They aren’t strong enough to defeat the Egyptians in their own land, so they are going to have to leave to survive. But the Hebrews had lived in Egypt for several hundred years and it isn’t easy to pick up and leave, even if you are being oppressed. They need a leader with a plan, in this case a leader with God’s Plan.

The amazing irony of Moses’ birth and survival has to be God’s Plan. No human mind or Hollywood script could possibly come up with the sequence of events that takes Moses from imminent death, to survival, to being nursed by his own mother while simultaneously being elevated to Pharaoh’s step grandson. Moses’ mother even got paid to nurse him! How good a deal was that! The story says that Moses was a Levite, from the priestly clan. So you know that he is going to be special at least in that way. The fact that Moses’ name means “drawn out of the water” reminds me of our baptism. We are all drawn out of the water to be children of God. Something important and good is going to happen to Moses. No way that you can put the book down at this point. You have to keep reading to see how the story unfolds and see what is going to happen to Moses!

Exodus 1

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. ⁶Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. ⁷But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
⁸Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. ¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. ¹³The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live. ¹⁷But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?" ¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." ²⁰So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live."

Exodus 2

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. ²The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. ³When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. ⁴His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
⁵The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. "This must be one of the Hebrews' children," she said. ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" ⁸Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes." So the girl went and called the child's mother. ⁹Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."