Exodus
Studies in Slavery & Redemption
Chapter 2
- A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife.
- The woman conceived and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
- When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.
- His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.
- Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her servant to get it.
- She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
- Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”
- Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.”The young woman went and called the child’s mother.
- Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.”The woman took the child, and nursed it.
- The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses,* and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
- In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
- He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
- He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?”
- He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?”Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.”
- Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
- Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
- The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
- When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, “How is it that you have returned so early today?”
- They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock.”
- He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
- Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.
- She bore a son, and he named him Gershom,† for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.”
- In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
- God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
- God saw the children of Israel, and God understood.
New Light 2:
Elohim ALWAYS sees, and has full control of your situation.
It really is as simple as that. He knows that you are in the midst of a comic battle and have the capacity of being taken prisoner and pressed into mental, physical and definitely spiritual slavery. But take heart, delivery sometimes comes in small baskets.
Think about it...the child Moses was placed in an ARK, yes an ark, because his mother was a woman of faith, and she was so full of faith that she placed that ark directly in sight of a member of the royal family. This is TRUE Faith - she believed in her God to save.
She took a basket of woven reeds and coated it with the exact same waterproofing substances prescribed to Noah and set her child on the water right under the nose of the daughter of the man who commanded that her son be killed (along with all male children).
And as she had believed, the child found favor in the eyes of the princess and no father argues with his daughter (especially over a child) and wins. Certainly Pharaoh heard of the events of the day and said to himself, "what harm can a single child bring?"
Pharaoh sentenced hundreds of boys to death and it was all for naught, while the one - the promised one - child was raised directly under his own royal roof. And the mother of faith? Well she received her wish and was rewarded with an income for doing what she would have done for love alone - nurse her child.
But the reality is, just like faithful Mary of Nazareth,
The Child that Jochebed delivered from certain death, in a small basket, became the Deliverer that Yahweh sent to deliver her people.
There is more to this chapter that could be discussed, if this was intended to be a full study of the book, but I really want you to move along to see the depth and effects of generational slavery. Suffice it to say that when the first signs of redemption appeared, the elimination of the Egyptian that was beating on the Hebrew, the services rendered by Moses were rejected and scorned - complacency had already set in and there was still another 40 years to pass before their full redemption would come.
