Exodus Chapter 2 Deep-Dive: The Birth of Moses

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EXODUS CH 2

Ex 2:1Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child HEALTHY, she hid him for three months. 3But when she could hide him no longer REMEMBER, IT’S OPEN SEASON ON MALE HEBREW BABIES, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. THINK NOAH’S ARK Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4His sister MIRIAM stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

·        Heb 11:23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict

·        Interesting that Moses here does not name his father (Amram Ex 6:20).

·        Observe the beauty of Providence: just when Pharaoh’s cruelty rose to this height, the deliverer was born.  Note the cruelty that surrounded Jesus’ birth when Herod ordered the slaughter of the boys 2 yrs old and younger in Bethlehem after he had been visited by the magi.

·        Among the reeds, supposedly so that it would not float away so she could return and nurse the child after dark.  Also, she might have thought that Pharoah’s da

Ex 2:5Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. MOSES WAS CIRCUMCISED 7Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”  PHAROAH’S DAUGHTER COULD NOT NURSE HIM BECAUSE SHE HADN’T RECENTLY GIVEN BIRTH SO MIRIAM BROUGHT A WETNURSE WHO HAPPENED TO BE MOSES’ MOTHER   8“Yes, go,” she PHAROAH’S DAUGHTER answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”  THIS IS WORDPLAY THE EGYPTIAN WORD FOR CHILD IS MOSES AND IT ALSO SOUNDS SIMILAR TO THE HEBREW WORD FOR DREW OUT OF THE WATER.

·        Barnes’ notes;

o   Egyptian princesses held a very high and almost independent position under the ancient and middle empire, with a separate household and numerous officials. This was especially the case with the daughters of the first sovereigns of the 18th Dynasty.

o   Many facts concur in indicating that the residence of the daughter of Pharaoh and of the family of Moses, was at Zoan, on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, near the sea, where crocodiles are never found, and which was probably the western boundary of the district occupied by the Israelites. The field of Zoan was always associated by the Hebrews with the marvels which preceded the Exodus. See Psalm 78:43.

o   To wash - It is not customary at present for women of rank to bathe in the river, but it was a common practice in ancient Egypt. The habits of the princess, and her character, were most likely well known to the mother of Moses.

·        And he became her son — The tradition of the Jews is, that Pharaoh’s daughter had no child of her own, and that she was the only child of her father, so that when he was adopted for her son, it was possible that he might be Pharoah, however, he definitely had the best education in world and Egyptian culture … God is preparing Moses to serve him.

o   Moses, by having his education at Pharoah’s court, is prepared to be a leader, a prince and/or king and, in a sense, he does become the first ruler of Israel, Deut 33:4 …the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob. 5He was king over Jeshurun (UPRIGHT ONE-ISRAEL) when the leaders of the people assembled, along with the tribes of Israel NIV.

o   Acts 7:22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action … ready to be God’s ambassador to Pharoah’s court, and to write the first 5 books of the Bible supposedly while the nation was parked by God in the wilderness.

o   She called his name Moses, either from the Hebrew word משׁה, masha, to draw out, or from two Egyptian words, “Mo uses” which means child in Egyptian, of the same import … a play on the two words which sound slightly similar, but, Moses was an Egyptian name.

Ex 2:11One day, after Moses had grown up (40 YEARS OLD), he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  

SO, MOSES WAS AWARE OF HIS HERITAGE AND HIS BIOLOGICAL FAMILY AS WE LEARN LATER THAT HE KNOWS WHO HIS OLDER SIBLINGS ARE; MIRIAM AND AARON.

MOSES APPEARS TO HAVE HAD ANGER MANAGEMENT ISSUES, AND NOW, AS PHAROAH’S GRANDSON, HE KILLS AN EGYPTIAN IN ORDER TO DEFEND A HEBREW, SO HE DEMONSTRATES THE VERY ISSUE PHAROAH WAS CONCERNED ABOUT … THE HEBREWS TURNING AGAINST THE EGYPTIANS

Ex 2:13The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”  14The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”  15When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

Acts 7:25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.

Midian (250-300 miles from Egypt – across the Arabian peninsula & into Asia / Arabia

The people of Midian were relatives of the Israelites – which may explain why Moses (born of Hebrew parents) fled from the well-watered lands of the Nile Delta to the semi-arid coastal lowlands of Midian and remained there for many years. The Midianites were descended from Midian, the fourth son of Abraham and his second wife Keturah, born in c.1819BC  (see Genesis 25:1-6). During Abraham’s lifetime, Midian and his five brothers were sent "to the east" (Genesis 25:6), and settled in territory to the east and south of the Dead Sea. It was Midianite traders-slavers who took Joseph to Egypt as a slave in c.1679 BC, and sold him to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard (see Genesis 37:36).

By the time Moses fled from Egypt in c.1508BC, the people of Midian occupied both the coastal strip of the Sinai Peninsula and parts of the Arabian Peninsula on the opposite side of the Gulf of Aqaba. Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro (or Reuel), a priest of Midian, and lived here for fifty years before God appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush (see Exodus 3:1-10). After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in c.1447 BC, they headed across the Sinai Peninsula to Midian, where they were welcomed by Moses’ father-in-law and their distant relatives, the people of Midian (see Exodus 18:1-12). Here, God again appeared to Moses on Mt Sinai and gave the ‘Ten Commandments’ and other laws for the people to follow (see Exodus 20:1-21).

In later times, the Bible records that relationships between the Israelites and Midianites were not so cordial. When Moses and the Israelites arrived in the Plains of Moab in c.1407 BC after forty years in the Negev Desert, Midianite women were amongst those accused of leading the Israelites into sexual immorality and idolatry (see Numbers 25:6-17). As a result, all the towns of Midian were destroyed, and only the young girls were spared (see Numbers 31:1-18). Later still, during the time of the Judges, Midianite raiding parties devastated Israel for seven years until Gideon roundly defeated the Midianites near the spring of Harod in c.1200BC (see Judges 6:1-6 & 7:1-25).

BACK TO MOSES FLEEING AND NOW SITTING BY A WELL … SO, God guided Moses to Midian, because the Midianites were of the seed of Abraham, and retained the worship of the true God; so that he might have not only a safe, but a comfortable settlement among them; and through this country he was afterward to lead Israel as they journeyed to Canaan, the land promised to Abraham.

16Now the priest of Midian (SPIRITUAL LEADER OF MIDIAN – NOMADIC PEOPLES) had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. 18When they came home to their father Reuel (JETHRO = TITLE “PRIEST”), he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” 19They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” 

23 During those many days (MOSES IS IN MIDIAN FOR THE SECOND 40 YEARS OF HIS LIFE) the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.  GOD INTERACTING WITH HIS CREATION.

SO, WHERE WAS GOD WHILE ISRAEL WAS IN EGYPT?  Duet 33:1 This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death. 2He said: “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of holy ones (ANGELS) from the south, from his mountain slopes.  HE PRESENTS HIMSELF AS BEING IN EDOM, OR, COMING FROM EDOM (ESAU – SINAI, SEIR & PARAN) WHICH INCLUDED WHERE THE MIDIANITES WERE LOCATED.  SO, WHEN MOSES RETURNS TO EGYPT, AT GOD’S DIRECTION, HE BRINGS THE PEOPLE BACK TO THE AREA WHERE HE HAS BEEN LIVING FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS … HE KNOWS IT WELL … GOD HAS BEEN PREPARING HIM, NOT JUST DURING HIS TIME BEING TRAINED IN EGYPT, BUT ALSO THROUGH THE 40 YEARS HE’S SPENT WITH THE PRIEST OF MIDIAN, JETHRO-RUEL, A GODLY MAN.

END EXODUS CH 2

 

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