Episode 345 "Moses is spared" - Exodus 2:1-10
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 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.”
The first chapter of Exodus reveals a sharp contrast in the attitude of the Pharaoh of Egypt (whom we read about in Egypt) toward Jacob’s family and a later Pharaoh who knew nothing about the events that brought Jacob’s son Joseph to Egypt and, in turn, his whole family. The earlier Pharaoh and all of Egypt had been blessed because God used Joseph to provide for them during a severe famine. Jacob’s family was a blessing to Egypt, and Pharaoh and Egypt had become a blessing to them. This was the outworking of the positive side of the Abrahamic Covenant. But the new Pharaoh had no knowledge of those things and became paranoid of the ever-growing number of Israelites in Egypt. That ignorance and fear led to a genocidal mandate to all Egypt to throw every newborn male Hebrew baby into the Nile River. This is the conflict of the next epic narrative that we encounter in Exodus.
We read that a Levite man married a Levite woman. In other words, they had both descended from Jacob’s son Levi. What do we know about him? We know that he and his brother Simeon murdered a community of Hitites whose men had agreed to be circumcised, the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, in order to live in a peaceful arrangement with Jacob’s family. One of their prominent men had raped Jacob’s daughter Dinah and wanted to marry her. Dinah’s brothers concocted this plan, and when the men were sore a few days after the circumcisions, Levi and Simeon went into their village and massacred them. (Gen 34) Not only did they murder these people in vengeance, but they also abused the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant to do it. Jacob was not pleased with this and, on his deathbed, pronounced that the descendants of Levi and Simeon would be “divided” and “scattered.” (Gen 49:5-7)
In light of this mandate to kill all male Hebrew babies, I suspect that we’re supposed to understand this detail of a Levite man and a Levite woman having a male baby might be an instrument of God’s wrath against this Pharaoh. But, of course, the first thing that needs to happen is that this male Hebrew baby is delivered from this edict.
The story moves quickly, explaining that his mother successfully hid him for a few months. Then, knowing that it couldn’t last long, she contrived a plan that, ideally, would protect her family from retribution by Pharaoh and possibly spare her baby as well. She made a floating basket, put him in the basket, and put the basket in the Nile among the reeds. Once again, I’m conjecturing. But it seems to me that her plan was a clever loophole because if she were found out, she could say, “I put my baby in the Nile as commanded.” Putting him in the reeds may have offered more protection from crocodiles and the dangers of a swifter current. We’re then told that the baby’s sister watched to see what would happen. My guess is that it was too much for his mother, having just made the most difficult decision of her life.
The story moves quickly from telling us about this baby boy who was a Hebrew and a Levite. His life was preserved and even returned to his own family until he was weaned. I would guess (once again) that he was even circumcised. Later in Moses’ life, God almost struck Moses dead because his own son was not circumcised. Moses’ wife Zipporah circumcised the boy. This suggests that Moses had already been circumcised. Surely, the LORD would not have given him an exception to the command.
Scholars debate the origin of the name Moses. Since Pharaoh’s daughter was Egyptian, some scholars point to a similar Egyptian name meaning "child." They also assume that Pharaoh’s daughter could not understand Hebrew. Even if she did, would she have given him a Hebrew name since she was going to raise him as her own child in the house of Pharaoh? Moses’ Hebrew name means " to draw out.” Pharaoh’s daughter had drawn him out of the water. God was drawing him out from among the Hebrews for a purpose. While I’m inserting much of my own reasoning into the interpretation of this text, perhaps Pharaoh’s daughter gave him the Egyptian name inspired by the LORD, with the view that there would be a double entendre, and later Moses and the Hebrews understood the Hebrew meaning.
So far, this story has established the scene and the conflict, and is clearly introducing us to a major character. But what we should recognize most of all is that God is in control. This new Pharaoh has already revealed that he is not learning this lesson and is inclined to do things his own way. Since God, hundreds of years earlier, had foretold to Abraham this oppression of his descendants and promised to deliver them back to the promised land, we should anticipate that this promise is about to be fulfilled. There will be much more conflict and trouble. But God is in control and will fulfill his promises. We can never hear this too much.