Exodus 2:1-10
Exodus 1 starts out by naming all of Jacob’s family who came to Egypt, establishing a continuity with the end of Genesis. It tells of how God blessed them and multiplied them, to the point where “the land was filled with them.”
Then a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. It worried him that the Israelites now outnumbered Egyptians and thus represented a clear danger if they rebelled. So, the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and oppressed them. But God was with them, and the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied.
The king ordered the Hebrew midwives to let the girl babies live, but to kill the boy babies by throwing them into the Nile. But the midwives, who feared God more than they feared the king, let the boy babies live.
Into this situation Moses is born of parents, who were both of the tribe of Levi. The parents hid the child as long as they could, and then placed him in a basket and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. Moses’ older sister watched the baby being found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who apparently decided to keep him. The sister intervenes and the result is that not only Moses’ mother got to raise him, but even got paid for it. Moses grew up as a prince of Egypt.
While they had him, Moses’ parents must have taught him about the history of his people – How they have a land waiting for them and that their God was one day going to take them there. Moses must have learned about Joseph and how he ended up saving the family and having them settle in Egypt. He may have felt that he was in his special privileged situation because he had a role in leading his people to the Promise Land – Similar to Joseph.
When Moses sees a fellow Hebrew being beaten by an Egyptian, he comes to the rescue and ends up killing the Egyptian and hiding the body. The next day, Moses tries to break up a fight between two Hebrews and realizes that people are aware of what he did to the Egyptian. Fearing being arrested, he flees to the land of Midian.
In Midian, he settles down, marries and becomes a shepherd. He spent his first forty years as a prince, and then the next forty years as a herder of sheep. We will soon see him herding people in the next phase of his life.
The last three verses of Exodus 2 anticipate that God is going to take strong actions going forward:
23After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. 24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.
Pharaoh is worried about the ever-increasing population of Israelites. He tries oppression but they increased even more. He is not aware of Israel’s God and does not realize that he is fighting a losing battle. He then orders that while female babies be allowed to live, all male babies should be killed.
This is a real crisis for the Israelites and their future. If male babies are not allowed to live, eventually the population will only decrease, since population cannot be kept stable nor grow without males.
It is interesting that women take action to save the future of Israel, even though they themselves are not aware that that is what they are doing:
- The two midwives, at the risk of being punished or killed, defy Pharaoh’s order to kill all male babies.
- The mother of Moses keeps him hidden and when this was no longer possible, rather than killing him, puts him in a basket and places the basket on the banks of the Nile.
- Pharaoh’s daughter finds the baby and decides to keep him and raise him as her son.
- The baby’s older sister, who Pharaoh allowed to live, intervenes and arranges for the baby to be raised by his mother.
- His mother nurtures and raises the baby through his youth.
Each of these women are not acting because they are trying to save the future of the nation of Israel. They are driven by a sense of compassion, justice and courage. And God uses them to keep His promise of a great nation in the promised land.
In this time of great danger to their people/nation, the two midwives risk their lives to do what they believe is right. Instead of succumbing to fear or paralysis or losing faith in God, they choose to act in faith.
This reminds me of Micah 6:8, which answers the question of what God requires of us – “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
From this, we can learn that when we are faced with dark times, whether for us or for the church or for the nation or for the world, we can take hope in the fact that God is working, and His plan is going forward. What we can do is to continue to walk in faith and keep in mind what God requires of us – To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
(the above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano during worship on March 10, 2024.)
Japanese Congregational Church 