Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Exodus 2:1-10
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  December 8, 2021

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Moses in the Bible. Through God’s power he brought plagues upon Egypt, led God’s people out of slavery, parted the Red Sea, spoke with the Lord on Mt. Sinai, received the 10 commandments, and remained a faithful mediator for the Israelites for 40 years in the desert, finally delivering them to the promised land. Along the way he was also inspired by the Holy Spirit to write down the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. His qualities as a leader are displayed on almost every page—his impassioned sense of justice, his easily-ignited temper, his steadfast obedience and faith, his selfless compassion, and his humility. But for all these qualities, he assigned himself very common titles, calling himself “The Lord’s servant” (Num. 12:7–8; Deut. 34:5; Josh. 1:1) and in other places, “the man Moses.” (Deuteronomy 33:16, Josh. 14:6; Ps. 90:1; Ezra 3:2; i Chron. 23:14; ii Chron. 30:16) As forger of a nation and the prince of prophets, Moses did want to be worshiped as such. He was just a man like other men, with all-too-human weaknesses. No, Moses only pointed to someone greater. Moses simply obeyed and the Lord accomplished great things through him.

We see that principle right from the beginning of his life. Exodus chapter two records the birth and protection of Moses primarily by three women who simply obeyed God. It was the Lord who was in control, powerfully at work to save his people. Let’s start with verse 1: Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman. Moses is from the Levites, the right tribe if he’s going to be a mediator and intercessor for God’s people—a sort of priest before there were priests. The line of priests will formally start with Aaron, his older brother.

Verse 2: The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. Pharaoh’s decree, that we read at the end of chapter 1, was to throw all the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile. Pharoah was afraid that the Hebrew people were too numerous, so he first made them slaves, he increased their workload hoping to simultaneously drive production and decrease the population, but the Lord continued to bless his people and the Hebrew population continued to swell to roughly 2 million people. Pharoah now decides the horrific decree of infanticide is the only logical option. And this decree must have been issued pretty close before Moses’ birth, because Aaron, his brother, was three years older and seems to not be in danger at all. 

Pharaoh has tried everything to stop the Hebrews from multiplying. He’s insecure and worried about losing control of his slaves. So first he tried to get the Hebrew midwives involved and said, “If the child is a boy, kill him.” But the Midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, feared God more than they feared Pharoah, and they would not kill the babies. So finally, at the end of chapter 1, Pharaoh tells all his people that they must throw any Hebrew baby boy into the Nile. That’s when Moses was born and that’s why his mother kept him hidden. Verse 2 describes Moses as being a “beautiful’ child. The word “beautiful” translates the Hebrew adjective good (טֹוב), which most likely means that he was healthy. We may forget just how dangerous childbirth was in those days and how a majority of babies, if they didn’t die at birth, often had physical issues due to lack of medical technology. There are so many problems which can affect a baby in the first few days of life which modern medicine, by God’s grace, easily remedies. But more importantly, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that it was because Moses’ parents trusted in God that they chose to hide Moses: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the Pharaoh’s edict. (Hebrews 11:23)

Verse 3: But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. It would be easy for Jochebed to hide Moses for three months since during this time a newborn would be sleeping extensively. Also, he would be small enough to hide in the home and would not move around much. However, after three months it would be very difficult to hide baby Moses especially since his cries would be getting much louder.

Interestingly, “basket” is the noun tevah (תֵּבָה), which only appears twice in the Bible, here and many times in Genesis 6-8—It’s only used in one other place in the Old Testament: Genesis 6-8, where it’s translated, over and over again, as “ark”. Surely, this is a deliberate connection: just as the Ark saved 8 of God’s faithful people who would become the entire human race, so the small ark which now saves Moses leads also to the salvation of all God’s people through Moses. Needless to say, God is powerfully at work here.

Now, the fact that Jochebed hid Moses in this tiny little ark does not imply that the child was floating down the Nile. In fact, it seems most logical from the text that Jochebed had perhaps done this multiple times. She probably would only put Moses in this little vessel and set it among the reeds of the Nile when the Egyptian military would be making their sweeps in the Israelite towns. Undoubtedly, the Israelites developed a warning system and had look-outs who would signal when the Egyptian army was headed toward Goshen. 

Verse 4: Then his sister stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him. Miriam was probably between 6 and 12 years old and the fact that Miriam was watching over Moses while he was hidden indicates that this was a concerted family effort to protect him. On that note, Moses’ father, Amram, is not mentioned in this account primarily because at this point Pharoah had him working as a slave for long hours. No doubt he commended and encouraged his wife and daughter on their bravery in saving baby Moses. I can imagine long nights of prayer and a father and mother huddled with their two young children and the newborn Moses. Each day was a gift. 

Verse 5-7: Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, 6 opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?” 8 “Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. I can only imagine Miriam’s terror as she sees Pharaoh’s daughter and her servants approaching, and how she must have held her breath with apprehension as they begin looking through the reeds to find the source of crying. But when Pharaoh’s daughter sees the little baby she has compassion on him. And then Miriam proves herself incredibly resourceful. She jumps in and suggests a Hebrew woman be brought in to nurse the child. What looked like sure death turned into salvation. Remind you of anyone else? 

I imagine that the Pharaoh’s daughter could put two and two together. Here’s a baby and then, out of nowhere, here’s a little girl who just happens to know a nursing mother? I’m sure she understood what was going on. We don’t know all of the details. But what we can say for sure is that she must have hated her father’s monstrous decree of infanticide, in fact she not only saves the baby, but adopts the child and agrees to pay his mother to nurse him. This speaks of her character, which is exactly what history records of an egyptian princess named Hatshepsut. She was the daughter of Thutmose I (1526-1512) and in the thirteenth year of her father’s reign, she appears to be the woman referred to in the text. It also appears that she had her father in her back pocket because Moses received an Egyptian education. In fact, Hatshepsut was the half-sister of Thutmose II who died early under mysterious circumstances. Thutmose II named his child, his young son from another woman, Thutmose III as his heir when he knew he was dying. But being too young to assume control, his stepmother Hatshepsut, controlled Egypt during the first twenty years of his reign. So Moses wasn’t just a son of Egypt, he was the adopted prince of the queen! It is a rags to riches story. Moses went from being a slave to being royalty. He went from death to life. It’s a picture of our life in Christ. It is the grace of God at work in both situations.

Last but not least, verse 10: When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” Verse 10 records the adoption of Moses, which involves the reception of an Egyptian name. In Egyptian the name means “a son born.” But this Egyptian name, Moses, sounds just like the Hebrew verb ‘to draw out’. It’s uncertain if she meant this wordplay or if she thought it was a suitable name for she pulled him out of the water of the Nile, the source of all life in Egypt. In any case, from our perspective we see God gave him the perfect name as he was drawn out of water by Pharaoh’s daughter so as to draw his people out of Egypt, again through water.

Arent’ the first 10 verses of Exodus 2 striking? The whole story moves forward on women simply trying to care for children: Shiphrah, Puah, Jochebed, Miriam, Pharaoh’s daughter were all looking after children, and God uses all of them in mighty ways—ways they could not fully understand at the time. All of that came by simply loving children and protecting their little lives.

This is a lesson for us as well. We sometimes don’t think what we doin faith will ever amount to much because we are only trusting in our ability. But you and I are simply called to obey God and trust that he is at work in mighty ways. God can do more than we hope or imagine with ordinary people simply acting in faith. Some of the most important things you do will be the most ordinary things, like loving your children, or inviting someone to church. Through God’s power these everyday acts of faith have eternal implications. What might God be doing right now by your presence in worship for the good of his people, the growth of his church, and the glory of his name?

Have you heard of the Butterfly Effect? A scientist was trying to predict weather patterns, and he put in a figure that was rounded to the nearest thousandth, instead of giving the figure to the nearest hundred-thousandth. Just rounding to that tiny degree threw off the entire model. So he postulated that even the flapping of a butterfly’s wings somewhere far off in the Amazon could affect the wind patterns and atmospheric pressure, eventually sending a hurricane to a different location somewhere in the United States. That’s the Butterfly Effect. Well, you can maybe think of this as the “Bulrushes Effect”. One little baby—because his parents believed and his sister was brave—was placed into a little box. Pharaoh’s daughter had compassion and took the child. That was the beginning, as the butterfly flapped its wings, of the redemption of 2 million people from Egypt. That’s how God works. 

That’s how he worked with Jesus, too. In a tiny stable in Bethlehem a normal-looking little baby was born. And he faced the same thing: a tyrannical king who ordered that all the baby boys must be killed. But his parents believed, so they fled to Egypt. Just as God saved Moses to save his people, so God saved the baby Jesus to save his people. Moses set his people free from slavery in Egypt through the blood of a lamb and the death of the firstborn. Jesus set us free from slavery of sin and death through his own blood. Jesus, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, died to set us free and bring us to the promised land of heaven.

When death looked imminent, when the world’s power seemed impressive, and God’s people seemed so vulnerable, the Lord was completely in control working out his plan for the good of those who love him. That is his promise, fulfilled time and time again. Trust that God has amazing things planned for your life too, and whatever those plans may be, know that you will shine brightest, like Moses, when you point to Christ. Let’s give thanks that we, like Moses, are Children of the Promise. Amen.