Exodus 2 – May 2

Moses and the Ark

Moses was born during the time that a genocidal order was in effect that required all Egyptians to throw any Israelite baby boy they found into the river. Moses’ parents saw the beauty and intrinsic value of their son’s life, so they hid him. Eventually they did place Moses in the river, but not in the way Pharaoh demanded. He was placed into a basket made of bulrushes. However, the word that the Hebrew uses for that basket is the word ‘ark.’ At the end of his life, when Moses was writing down these events, he was intentionally drawing our attention back to Genesis. He is paralleling the fact that both Noah and Moses were brought safely through the water. God preserved His promise to Abraham by delivering Moses through the water.

Delivered out of the Water

It is an astounding thing that the Lord guarded and protected an infant in a basket. But, the providence of God is clearly seen in more than just the physical protection against waves and boats and animals. The Lord also caused the tiny boat to wash up into the shallows exactly at the time and place that the daughter of the Pharaoh was going to be there to bathe. The Lord also caused the Pharaoh’s own daughter to undermine his plan to wipe out the Israelite boys. She asked to keep the child. When she named the child, she named him “drawn out” or “delivered out” because he was drawn up out of the water. This was to foreshadow that Moses would later be drawn out of Egypt along with the entire nation of Israel.

Delivering the Wrong Way

There is a great deal about Moses’ childhood and early life that is left unstated in Scripture. However, we do know exactly what kind of mindset he had during his upbringing in the palace. “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” (Heb. 11:24-26)

Moses rejected the easy path of living as Egyptian royalty. He identified himself with the weak and the helpless. He was clearly enraged by the oppression that his people were suffering at the hands of Pharaoh. Eventually, Moses took measures into his own hands and killed a slave driver who was abusing an Israelite. You may have noticed that this act did not produce the kind of outcome Moses was likely expecting. The next day, one of the men of Israel asked him, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

In a much greater way, Jesus left the royalty of His heavenly home and condescended to identify with people who were enslaved to sin. But Jesus did not deliver by force. He did not kill. He was killed for us.

Moses in Midian

Notice the wording of the young women after Moses helped them at the well. “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” Moses continues to be a deliverer who draws out, even though he had left Egypt. The chapter closes not with Moses committing to delivering the Israelites. As far as Moses was concerned, that ship had sailed. The chapter ends by revealing that God did not forget the people of Israel. He heard their cries. God still hears His people. He never abandons them. For Israel, their help will come when God sends the drawn out deliverer back to them.