Exodus 02

The Birth of the Deliverer

1A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi. 

 

The man was Amram. He married a woman named Jochebed. They were both from the tribe of Levi. Jochebed was the aunt of Amram. This was not illegal, because the Mosaic Law had not yet been given to Moses. However, Moses would later write a law that would make this type of birth immoral. The first 15 verses of this chapter cover the first forty years of Moses life.

 

2The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months. 

 

The Hebrew word for “healthy” is ט֣וֹב (tov), meaning beautiful, good, desirable, or pleasant. Jochebed was apparently given some spiritual insight, causing her to see a special, beautiful and unique destiny for her child. There was a prophecy to Abraham that Israel would be afflicted in Egypt for 400 years. The Israelites were looking for a deliverer to remove them out of bondage and bring them back to the Promised Land. She may have seen this deliverer in her son.

 

3But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile. 

 

Jochebed built a miniature ark for her child, similar to that of Noah's ark.

 

4His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

 

Miriam was the sister of the nameless baby. She was about 13 years old at this time. She watched from a distance.

 

5Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it, 

 

The Pharaoh was Thutmose I. His daughter was Hatshepsut. After Thutmose I died, Hatsheput co-reigned with her husband (Thutmose II). After her husband died, she ruled alone as the first female pharaoh for 20 years.

 

6opened it, and saw the child – a boy, crying! – and she felt compassion for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

 

She knew that the baby was Hebrew.

 

7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get a nursing woman for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse the child for you?” 

 

Miriam was a brave teenage girl. She went up to the Pharaoh’s daughter and asked for permission to find her a Hebrew nursing mother.

 

8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, do so.” So the young girl went and got the child’s mother. 

 

Miriam went and asked her own mother to nurse the Hebrew baby.

 

9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

 

By divine irony, Jochebed was paid for nursing her own son! Ancient Jewish mothers usually nursed their children until five years of age. During this time, Jochebed instilled the Jewish religion into Moses. She may have even told him that he would be the one to deliver Israel out of slavery. Moses will not forget these Biblical lessons 35 years later.

 

10When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “Because I drew him from the water.”

 

Moses was the name of the Egyptian god of the river. 

 

The Presumption of the Deliverer

11In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and observed their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking a Hebrew man, one of his own people. 

 

After Queen Hatshepsut died, her nephew reigned as the next pharaoh. His name was Thutmose III. He hated his aunt, so he smashed all of her statues and plastered all of her inscriptions. He attempted to erase her name from the history of Egypt. This may have been a satanic ploy to get rid of the historical evidence of Moses as well. He also began to purge all of the Hatshesput followers.

 

12He looked this way and that and saw that no one was there, and then he attacked the Egyptian and concealed the body in the sand. 

 

Moses remembered his Hebrew teachings from 35 years earlier. He knew the messianic plan of God. He may have even known that he was the prophesied deliverer who would bring Israel back into Canaan after their 400 year slavery. According to Hebrews, he decided to leave the riches of Egypt for the riches of Heaven. At this time, his mother had died. Thutmose III was in control. Moses was interested in being identified with his people who would usher in the Messiah.

 

13When he went out the next day, there were two Hebrew men fighting. So he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your fellow Hebrew?”

 

Moses asked them why they were fighting each other, since they were both Hebrew. They were both a part of God's chosen people.

 

14The man replied, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Surely what I did has become known.” 

 

Moses was ready to lead the slaves out of Egypt, but he learned quickly that he was rejected by them. He feared that his own Jewish nation would reveal his murder to Thutmose III.

 

15When Pharaoh heard about this event, he sought to kill Moses. So Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he settled by a certain well.

 

Thutmose III probably heard of this report from fellow Jews. This gave Thutmose III a legal reason to kill Moses. Moses was the adopted son of Queen Hatshesphut. Moses fled to Midian. Moses completed the first 40 years of his life living in royalty, thinking that he was someone.

 

16Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw water and fill the troughs in order to water their father’s flock. 

 

Verses 15-22 deal with the next 40 years of the life of Moses. Midian is in the south Peninsula. Mount Sinai is located in this area. The priest of Midian was Reuel, meaning the friend of God, He will later be called Jethro, but this is his priestly title, not his proper name. Midian was the son of Abraham and Keturah. He would know the one true God, the Abrahamic Covenant, the 400 year affliction, the prophecy of the deliverer, and the Messianic plan of the ages.

 

17When some shepherds came and drove them away, Moses came up and defended them and then watered their flock. 

 

Apparently Midian had seven daughters and no sons. The daughters were easy prey for male marauders. Moses protected the women and the flock from these marauders.

 

18So when they came home to their father Reuel, he asked, “Why have you come home so early today?” 

 

Moses helped the ladies water their sheep, so they were able to return home earlier in the day.

 

19They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds, and he actually drew water for us and watered the flock!” 

 

It was rare for an Egyptian man to be in the wilderness of Sinai. It was even more rare that he would risk his life to help shepherds, because Egyptians despised shepherds.

 

20He said to his daughters, “So where is he? Why in the world did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat a meal with us.”

 

Moses was invited to fellowship with the Midian priest.

 

21Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 

 

Zipporah means “bird.”  Moses agreed to become the son-in-law of Reuel.

 

22When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land.”

 

Gershom means “banishment.” Moses was banished from Egypt, so that he could become a shepherd in the Sinai wilderness.

 

 

The Call of the Deliverer

23During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God. 

 

While Moses was shepherding in Sinai for forty years, Thutmose III was ruling Egypt until he  died. The Hebrews began crying out to God about their horrible condition of slavery.

 

24God heard their groaning, God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, 

 

God told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved for 400 years. Now, God was ready to bring them back into the land.

 

25God saw the Israelites, and God understood…. 

 

God understood the horrible condition of the Israelites. He was ready to answer their prayer and move in their behalf. He was going to give both the Israelites and the Egyptians a unique experience. Both nations would see the miracles of God.