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Summary
We are reminded that the story of Moses is ultimately a story about God — his sovereign faithfulness, his covenant-keeping power, and his unstoppable purposes. Through the early chapters of Exodus, we see that no human scheme, however cruel or powerful, can derail what God has promised. Pharaoh’s escalating attempts to destroy Israel are met again and again with divine reversal, and the very household of Pharaoh becomes the unlikely refuge for Israel’s deliverer.
Key Lessons:
- God keeps his covenant even when circumstances make it appear otherwise — Israel’s suffering in Egypt was not a sign of God’s absence, but the unfolding of exactly what he had foretold to Abraham.
- The fear of God, not the fear of man, is the foundation of righteous action — the Hebrew midwives defied Pharaoh not out of cleverness but because they feared God more than the most powerful ruler on earth.
- Lying is never justified because God himself cannot lie — even when the midwives’ deception preserved life, the Bible commends their faith and disobedience to evil, not any falsehood they may have told.
- God sovereignly works through imperfect people and imperfect choices — Moses’ murder of the Egyptian was sinful, yet his turning from Egyptian privilege to stand with his Hebrew brothers was a righteous act of faith.
Application: We are called to trust God in suffering, to obey God rather than men when commanded to sin, and to repent of opposing God’s purposes — knowing that he is faithful, sovereign, and will bring his plans to pass regardless of the obstacles.
Discussion Questions:
- When life feels like God is not keeping his promises, how can the pattern we see in Exodus — where God’s faithfulness was hidden but real — strengthen your trust in him today?
- The midwives feared God more than Pharaoh. In what areas of your life are you tempted to fear people or consequences more than God, and what would it look like to act from the fear of God instead?
- Moses had righteous impulses but expressed them through murder. How do you discern when your motivations are good but your methods are wrong, and how do you course-correct?
Scripture Focus: Exodus 1–2 forms the foundation, showing God’s covenant faithfulness through Israel’s multiplication, the midwives’ defiance, and Moses’ birth and protection. Hebrews 11:23–26 confirms that Moses’ parents and Moses himself acted by faith. Genesis 15 and God’s promise to Abraham provide the covenant backdrop against which all these events are understood.
Outline
- Introduction
- Series Overview: Moses, Minister of the Covenant
- Israel in Egypt: From Blessing to Bondage
- God’s Faithfulness Hidden in Suffering
- Pharaoh’s Schemes and the Hebrew Midwives
- Who Were the Midwives?
- Did the Midwives Lie? Truth, Deception, and Conscience
- Principle 1: Withholding Truth Is Not Always Sinful
- Principle 2: God’s Character Is the Standard of Right
- God’s Sovereign Faithfulness Prevails
- The Birth and Protection of Moses
- Moses Chooses His People and Flees Egypt
- Key Themes and Application
- Discussion and Questions
Introduction
Welcome back to Sunday school. We are back. The ministry season is in full swing and Sunday school is back online.
Yes, thank you, Skip. Praise the Lord.
Series Overview: Moses, Minister of the Covenant
We are beginning a new series today where we are studying the life and ministry of Moses. We’re calling this “Moses, Minister of the Covenant.”
As I said in my introductory email, this series, while entitled “After Moses,” is really a study about God as we go through the books of Exodus and Numbers.
Moses was a great prophet. He led Israel out of Egypt. He gave Israel God’s law.
Yet Hebrews 3 says that Moses was only a minister or a servant of God’s house and was not the builder.
Don’t misunderstand. This study of the life and ministry of Moses is really about God. And that’s good because otherwise these events wouldn’t be very relevant for us today.
Hearing about the plagues of Egypt or the miraculous provision in the wilderness may be interesting, but we’re not Israel. Why would this matter for us today?
It matters because we know the same God who accomplished these mighty acts and who has covenanted with us in a similar yet greater way in our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, as we simply get to know God better in this study and his powerful sovereignty, his fearful holiness, and his faithful love, I trust that we, like Moses and like the original hearers of these texts, will be emboldened to accomplish the good works of faith that God has marked out for us.
“As we get to know God better, we will be emboldened to accomplish the good works of faith that God has marked out for us.”
Our study will start with the birth of Moses in the book of Exodus and we’ll end with Israel in Numbers, about to enter the promised land after Moses’ death.
This is the foundational section of the Bible and one to which the various authors of the Bible in the Old and New Testaments often refer. We’ll be investigating this part of the Bible using the assistance of the Answers Bible curriculum from Answers in Genesis as well as the Patterns of Evidence Exodus documentary film.
This means you should expect not just meaningful application from this study, but also apologetic equipping.
Probably most historians and archaeologists today would argue that we cannot trust the Bible when it comes to these events. We cannot trust the Bible and what it says about Israel’s history.
But I will look to provide you with answers as to why we can and why we must.
For today’s lesson, we are at the beginning of the book of Exodus, looking at how God uniquely raised up and protected Moses as a deliverer of God’s people. Yet this protection strangely involves child abandonment, lies, and murder.
What was God doing in all this? And what are we to learn from it for our lives today? Let’s pray and then we’ll investigate.
Lord God, cause us to behold wonderful things in your law. These things, yes, they were written for ancient Israel, but they were written for us too.
God, help me to be able to explain it. Help us to be able to hear it and put it into practice by your spirit in Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you would please take your Bibles and open to the book of Exodus, chapter 1.
Before we hear about Moses, we need to get up to speed with what’s going on with the people of Israel between the time of the patriarchs, especially under Joseph, and Moses.
There’s considerable discussion, even among conservative evangelical teachers, regarding the exact timing of the events of the patriarchs in relation to the Exodus.
I’m not going to get into all those details, but I have provided on the slide two proposed timelines from some trustworthy resources. You can look at this more later. The slides will be posted to our website.
But whatever the exact dates of Joseph and the Exodus, what we want to find out now is what happens between those dates.
Israel in Egypt: From Blessing to Bondage
And to do this, we can go right to our passage. Let’s begin reading our passage. Our first passage that we’re looking at today is Exodus 1:1-14.
Follow along with me as I read. Exodus 1:1-14.
Now, these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. They came each with his household.
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, Naphali, Gad, and Asher. All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were 70 in number. But Joseph was already in Egypt.
Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty so that the land was filled with them.
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land.
So they appointed task masters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh stored cities, Pithom and Rameses.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously, and they made their lives bitter with hard labor and mortar and bricks, and all kinds of labor in the field, and all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.
Now, we’re not going to focus too much on this passage today, but we do need the background that we see here.
Let’s notice a few details. Notice that in the years after Joseph, the people of Israel are multiplying greatly.
Consider verse 7. It’s incredible repetition. Five different ways God says through Moses the same idea: Israel is growing.
“Five different ways God says through Moses the same idea — Israel is growing.”
Moses is trying to make a point.
But verse 8 presents a turn in the narrative. There’s a new king, a new pharaoh who arises in Egypt who did not know about Joseph. It may be that this is not just a new pharaoh but a whole new dynasty of pharaohs.
This pharaoh looks at the situation with Israel and he becomes afraid. He thinks according to verse 10 that Israel will unite with an enemy during war and destroy Egypt.
This is a big deal because in verse 9, he says there are actually more Israelites than Egyptians. There could be some hyperbole there, but certainly he sees that the Israelites are an increasingly large portion of the population.
So, what’s Pharaoh’s strategic solution? Enslave the Israelites. Take away their wealth and independence and keep strict controls on them. Force them to work hard so that they don’t have time to think about rebellion and maybe won’t multiply so much.
Meanwhile, Pharaoh will have a large, strong, if not very motivated, workforce.
But what is the unexpected result of Israel’s enslavement? Notice verse 12. The Israelites multiplied even more and they filled the Egyptians with even more dread.
Still, this incessant hard labor made the lives of the Israelites very bitter. According to verse 14, actually living in brutal slavery may be hard for us to imagine.
God’s Faithfulness Hidden in Suffering
And there probably were some people asking in those days, where is God?
Where is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in all of this? How could he let this happen? Why isn’t he keeping his covenant that he had sworn to our fathers?
But we as readers by this point in the Torah, the five books of Moses, we know, and perhaps some of them knew and trusted that God was indeed keeping covenant.
Because think back, what had God promised to Abraham in Genesis 15 and elsewhere?
Tell me to the promised land and all his children.
So they fulfill what God said.
Exactly. Yeah. One of the main promises that God says to Abraham in Genesis is you’re going to have multiplied seed more than the stars in the sky if you can count them and he’s going to bring them to the land of Canaan. Those were promises. But Judy, I saw your hand.
Exactly. He told them that they would be enslaved, but also that they would be brought out of slavery and God would judge those who oppress them when they leave.
Really, everything is happening just as God foretold. God was keeping covenant, but the blessed purpose of it all had not yet been manifest. They had not yet come to the end of God’s dealings.
“Everything is happening just as God foretold. God was keeping covenant, but the blessed purpose had not yet been manifest.”
And this is similar to the kinds of things we’ve already seen in the Torah if we’ve read through the book of Genesis. Consider why the barrenness of Sarah, why Esau’s wrath? Why Joseph’s enslavement and imprisonment?
Wasn’t that God not keeping covenant?
No. As we read through Genesis, we saw that was God keeping covenant. God was working. He was bringing to pass his great and glorious plan.
Though there is suffering in the meantime, you can trust God. That’s the message we’re seeing so far in the Torah.
“Though there is suffering in the meantime, you can trust God.”
Pharaoh’s Schemes and the Hebrew Midwives
Pharaoh’s first strategy of limiting Israelite growth by cruel enslavement does not work. So he’s going to try something else. Let’s look at our next passage: Exodus 1:15-22. We will investigate this in more detail.
Follow along as I read the next passage, Exodus 1:15-22.
Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiffra and the other was named Pua. And he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthtool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.
So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and let the boys live?” The midwife said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.” So God was good to the midwives and the people multiplied and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, he established households for them.
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born, you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”
Let’s make some basic observations on this new section. Pharaoh’s new approach to dealing with Israel is to act through two midwives, Shiffra and Pua. He directs them to kill any boys born to Hebrew women and let the girls live.
However, these midwives do not obey Pharaoh’s command. We see why in verse 17: because they feared God.
The king confronts them about why they disobeyed. The women respond by telling Pharaoh that the Hebrew women are more vigorous than Egyptian women. The Hebrews always give birth quickly without the help of a midwife. A midwife can’t even get to them in time.
Now notice verses 20 to 21. God blesses the midwives and gives them families of their own. Meanwhile, the Israelites continue to multiply.
“The midwives feared God — and God blesses them and gives them families of their own.”
Pharaoh, seeing that his second plan has failed, moves to plan three. What’s plan three? Verse 22. This time, all the Hebrew boys are to be killed, whether they survive birth or not, while the daughters are allowed to live.
Who’s responsible to carry out this third plan? According to verse 22, all his people. Who’s that? The Egyptians—probably the soldiers, but the Egyptians as a people are called to carry out this command.
Let’s ask some questions of interpretation based on this section. Why does Pharaoh want to kill just the Hebrew boys? What do you think?
Strong forces. The males will typically be strong enough to resist, to become soldiers, to join an army. That’s one of Pharaoh’s great concerns. Any other reasons?
It’s reproduction. If you kill all the males and only the women survive, what’s going to happen to the Israelite people? It’s going to disappear. If lineage and culture is passed down through the male, then eventually the Hebrews will disappear. They’ll be integrated into the Egyptian population.
So it’s strategic to get rid of the males. That should help Pharaoh preserve Egypt.
Who Were the Midwives?
Who exactly are these midwives?
Only two meet with Pharaoh. But surely a burgeoning Hebrew population needed more than just two midwives. So who are they? Why would Pharaoh meet with only two?
What do you think, Glenda?
Is it because you might have heard that these two are very good midwives and they carry out their work well?
Okay. So he may have heard that they are particularly skilled, or he may have thought that they would be particularly pliable. Maybe he could get these two to do his will. Other ideas?
Yes, Magda.
Were they Egyptians?
Okay, we’re going to come back to that question. That’s actually a good one. Are they Hebrew midwives or are they Egyptian midwives serving the Hebrews? I’m not going to answer that yet because we’ll say more about that in just a second.
Are we sure he just addressed the two? I mean, he said he spoke to the midwives and he just gave the names of two of them. He didn’t necessarily say that he only spoke to them.
That’s a good point. Let me look at it again. So it says he spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiffra and the other was named Puah.
Actually, that’s a good observation. It doesn’t say that they were the only two that he spoke to in verse 15. It just says he spoke to the midwives and then these are two of them. I actually hadn’t noticed that before, but that’s an interesting observation.
If he did indeed just speak to these two, it could be that they were a test case. Maybe, as Glenda said, they were particularly notable and particularly pliable. Or maybe they had an influential role. Maybe they were superintendents among midwifery when it comes to the Hebrew people.
But as Magda was asking, where it says Hebrew midwives, some have suggested that these women were not actually Hebrew. They were Egyptian women who served as midwives to the Hebrews. It would be odd for Pharaoh to expect ethnic Hebrew midwives to betray their own people and murder boy infants.
Though Egyptian midwives might be loyal and trusting enough to do Pharaoh’s will. Moreover, Pharaoh likely intends for these murders to be secret. That is, these midwives will pass off the dead boys as accidents or as stillborn children and therefore lessen the chance of provoking a Hebrew rebellion. Native Egyptians would be more likely to keep that secret.
However, others argue that the names Shiffra and Puah are Semitic, not Egyptian in origin, and these women must then be ethnic Hebrews. We can’t say for sure.
In either case, God uses these obedient women to sovereignly protect and preserve his people, including Moses. Now, if there were other midwives, the way the passage unfolds, it seems like whatever Pharaoh is able to accomplish with this is negligible. So he has to move to plan three. These two midwives play a large role in thwarting Pharaoh’s plan.
“God uses these obedient women to sovereignly protect and preserve his people, including Moses.”
Did the Midwives Lie? Truth, Deception, and Conscience
When confronted by Pharaoh, the midwives present an excuse. But are they lying to Pharaoh? And if they are, are they justified in their lie?
It’s worth noting the passage does not say explicitly that they lied.
Some interpreters therefore contend that the midwives are actually telling Pharaoh the truth. God could have caused the Hebrew women to bear so easily and quickly that these god-fearing midwives were never even faced with the choice of murdering or not murdering an infant.
After all, we’ve already seen that God was providing astounding population growth for the Hebrews, and easy births—quick and easy births—may have been part of that.
However, though the passage does not directly mention lying, the passage does indicate some level of deception toward Pharaoh because verse 17 says, as we noted, the midwives did not do as the king commanded them. That is, they chose to disobey the king because they feared God.
Therefore, this means that the midwives had some opportunity to obey and they did not take it, which is why God blesses them. It’s not like God simply gave the midwives no opportunity to make a choice.
Therefore, their excuse to Pharaoh does not tell the whole truth, if it is truthful at all. The reason for their disobedience to Pharaoh is not simply quick births, but because the king’s command was evil and because these women feared God more than him.
“The reason for their disobedience was not simply quick births, but because the king’s command was evil and they feared God more than him.”
Some have suggested that the midwives purposefully delayed going to Hebrew women in labor and had people pray for quick deliveries, making it so that the children were inevitably born before the midwives arrived.
This would make their statement to Pharaoh true from a certain point of view.
Or maybe the midwives simply lied to Pharaoh. And there are plenty of interpreters who say this.
So what to make of it all? Did the midwives lie? Would the midwives have been wrong to lie? And would they have been wrong to deceive by not giving the whole truth?
And we’re not talking about lying about somebody’s surprise birthday party here.
We’re talking about the lives of potentially thousands of Hebrew boys.
These questions are not very different from the old ethical quandary: would you lie to the Nazis about hiding Jews in your house? We could spend a really long time discussing that, but we won’t.
Principle 1: Withholding Truth Is Not Always Sinful
However, I do want to emphasize to you two biblical principles when it comes to thinking about this situation.
First, withholding part of the truth from someone is not necessarily sinful. You sometimes hear people say a half-truth is a whole lie.
Well, we’ve got to nuance that saying a little bit because of 1 Samuel 16:1-4.
What is 1 Samuel 16:1-4 about? Well, it’s where God tells the prophet Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint a new king in place of disobedient Saul.
But Samuel, hearing this command, expresses fear to God that Saul will hear of it and kill Samuel.
Does anyone remember what God then commands Samuel to do?
Yeah, Glenda.
Call the men of Israel.
Exactly. He says, “Go get a female cow. Go get a heifer. Go to Bethlehem and say, ‘I’m here to sacrifice to God.’ Oh, and invite Jesse to the sacrifice and do whatever I tell you to do.”
So, would Samuel be truthful in saying, “I’m here to sacrifice”? Yes. And that’s why he’s taking a heifer. He’s going to sacrifice it.
But is that the only reason he’s there? Is that even the main reason that Samuel goes to Bethlehem? No. But Samuel doesn’t have to give the whole reason.
Now, if you’re saying, “No, no, no. That’s deception. That’s a lie.” If you hang on to the idea that a half-truth must be wrong, well, what’s the big problem?
Who told him to do it? God did. And so you make God party to the deception. You make God a liar.
So clearly it is not wrong to withhold part of the truth. We see godly people doing that throughout the scriptures.
“It is not wrong to withhold part of the truth — we see godly people doing that throughout the scriptures.”
On the other hand, if withholding the truth—part of the truth—would be unloving to someone, it would dishonor your parents or your spouse, or would result in some other sin, then you can’t withhold that truth. You must share it.
Proverbs 3:27 says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.” A good example of this was when Abraham neglected to share that tiny insignificant detail that besides being his half-sister, Sarah was also his wife.
I think Pharaoh and King Abimelech, who both tried to take Sarah as wife because they thought she was free, would have appreciated that information.
So, bringing this back to Exodus, maybe this is what the Hebrew midwives did. They told Pharaoh the truth, but they left out some details that they didn’t have to give.
Perhaps that’s what’s happening here.
But in my opinion, it’s more likely that the Hebrew midwives just lied.
Principle 2: God’s Character Is the Standard of Right
And is lying ever justified? Here’s my second principle for you to think about.
God’s own character is the standard of what is right. God’s own character is the standard of what is right.
Might it be ever right to lie? Could saving a life or saving many lives justify lying?
Well, let’s see. Can God lie?
Titus 1:2. In the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago.
Okay, that’s pretty clear. The scripture says God cannot lie.
Yet, we also know from scripture that God is all goodness, all justice, all love in his being, in his very self.
So, can lying ever be right if God cannot do it?
No, it can’t because otherwise God would be lacking in goodness, justice, or love.
And if it is never good for God to lie, why would we say it is ever good for us to lie?
Over and over in Leviticus, God says, “Be holy, for I am holy. Be like me. I am the standard.” Matthew 5:48, Jesus repeats this concept in a different way.
You are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Ephesians 5:1 Paul says, “Be imitators of God.” Telling the truth imitates God.
Thus it is right.
But telling a lie imitates whom?
Satan.
John 8:44. Whenever he, Satan, speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. For he is a liar and the father of lies.
So brothers and sisters, save yourself the college philosophy or ethics course.
Lying is never justified because lying is fundamentally unlike God.
“Lying is never justified because lying is fundamentally unlike God.”
You say, “But what about hiding the Jews? What do I say?” I don’t know. But you can be strategic.
Think how Jesus answered difficult questions in the New Testament. They gave him a choice between A and B. And what does he pick? C.
More to the point, if Jesus were hiding Jews, do you think Jesus would lie?
If you say yes, you have to check your Christology because Jesus is God and God cannot lie.
So, back to Exodus. If the Hebrew midwives indeed lied, and I believe they did, they sinned in doing so.
It doesn’t matter their intentions. It doesn’t matter the good results.
Lying is always a defamation of God’s character because through lying, you assert that there is something good that is lacking in God. You cannot lie.
But the question that naturally arises: well, if they did wrong in lying, if they sinned, why does God approve and bless these midwives?
Well, it’s like Rahab and Jericho later.
God does not commend the midwives for their lie, but for their faith demonstrated in their main and other actions.
Disobedience to Pharaoh was the important part for the midwives, just as welcoming the spies was the important part for Rahab later.
Lying was not the righteous part. And the Bible never specifically commends these ladies for lying, just as it doesn’t do for Rahab. But God does commend these ladies for the more fundamental actions they did, which were righteous.
Now, I know all this is a bit of a rabbit trail. The point of the passage is not to provide moral instruction about truthfulness.
God’s Sovereign Faithfulness Prevails
What is the point of the passage?
This whole thing with the midwives and Pharaoh telling them to do this and they don’t do that and then the babies multiply. What is the point of this passage, Danny?
Exactly. We’re seeing once again the sovereign faithfulness of God. God keeps his promises. Whoever is in power, whatever schemes they are enacting, God will undo it. God will make sure that he stays faithful to his people.
Now whether these midwives were Egyptian or Hebrew, truthful or false, justified or unjustified, God arranges that the very people that Pharaoh commissions with this undercover murder scheme, they refuse to carry it out.
God is going to remain faithful to his covenant with Abraham and Israel, like Balak’s later attempt to curse Israel.
All of Pharaoh’s schemes to weaken and destroy Israel prove useless, even counterproductive.
God wants to remind Israel and he is teaching us that he has always been in control. And he will always keep his promises even when people directly oppose him.
This is still true, brothers and sisters. This is still our God. Whether people disobey, whether they compromise to do what’s right, God’s purposes will still come to pass on behalf of his people, even on your behalf.
You say, “Oh, I got this boss or this person sinned against me in this way.” Or, “Oh, even I did something sinful. Oh, I ruined it. God’s purposes can’t come to pass anymore.” No, God is faithful. God is sovereign.
You want to align with his purposes, but don’t be dismayed when things don’t look like they’re working out. God will yet bring it to pass. You can trust God. You are freed up to obey him.
“God has always been in control and will always keep his promises, even when people directly oppose him.”
But you may have noticed that even in this passage, Pharaoh is not done trying to oppose God. At the end of chapter 1, Pharaoh shifts from covert ops to a public decree to murder the Hebrew boys.
And I should say, by the way, that I know I’m being somewhat matter-of-fact in discussing slavery and infanticide, but let’s remember that these are atrocious and abominable acts before God.
They are utterly heinous, even for a king to attempt to decree. They were terrible, terrible sins against God’s people.
Yet even these things God was using for his own good purposes.
Purposes that involved a certain man named Moses.
Speaking of Moses, let’s meet the little lad.
The Birth and Protection of Moses
We’ll now examine the account of Moses’ birth in Exodus 2:1-10. Follow along with me as I read our third passage.
Exodus 2:1-10.
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son.
And when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. And she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile with her maidens walking alongside the Nile. And she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her.
When she opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the boy was crying.
And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
Then 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.
The child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
Let’s start our investigation of this passage with more observations.
Remember, at this time, phase three of Pharaoh’s plan to weaken the people of Israel is enacted. He’s commanded all his people to throw the Hebrew infant boys into the Nile River to kill them.
It so happens that a man and a woman from the house of Levi marry and have a son.
We actually get the names of Moses’ parents later in the Torah, in Exodus 6. Does anybody know their names? Amram and Jochebed. Yes, Amram and Jochebed.
Now, Moses’ parents, unnamed here as yet, they do not obey the command to destroy the baby boy. And why not? The text says because they saw Moses was a beautiful baby, but certainly they also feared God.
Now that’s an interesting detail that the text says he was a beautiful boy. Was he particularly beautiful? Or is this simply the way that any parent would feel toward his own child as the parent’s own image bearer and as an image bearer of God?
Though not mentioned here, Hebrews 11:23 does give a little bit of extra information.
Hebrews 11:23: “By faith, Moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents — they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”
This hiding, this keeping of the son, this was the parents believing in Yahweh and they would not kill or abandon their son. So they hide him for three months. As the baby grows, however, they realize they can no longer hide him and they decide to make a little ark for him.
That’s actually what the Hebrew word that’s translated “basket” in our text is. It’s the word tebah. It’s the same one used in Genesis for the ark that carries Noah and his family. So they make this little ark and they put him in the Nile.
Then Moses’ sister Miriam stands at a distance to watch what will happen to her little brother. And what obstacles does baby Moses encounter as he floats down the Nile? None, as far as we know, despite what movies may imagine for this part of the story.
In fact, verse three says the basket is set among the reeds, and so it’s probably not moving very much at all. But it just so happens that Pharaoh’s daughter comes to bathe in the Nile at this moment while her attendant maids are walking along the Nile.
Pharaoh’s daughter notices the ark and calls one of her maids to bring it to her. And what does Pharaoh’s daughter notice when she opens the ark? Verse six: the boy is crying. It’s a Hebrew boy.
And how does she respond? She has pity on him. She has compassion on him.
Noticing the princess’s compassion for the baby, Moses’ sister offers to find a Hebrew nurse for Pharaoh’s daughter. And Pharaoh’s daughter accepts. Miriam promptly gets Moses’s real mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter agrees to pay Jochebed to nurse and raise Moses.
And when Moses grows a little more, Jochebed brings him to the princess. And the boy receives his famous name, Moses, which means “drawn out from.” That’s why the text says, “For I drew him out of the water.” And remember, Moses is an Egyptian name. It’s not a Hebrew name.
If you learn about ancient Egyptian history, you’ll see that name actually appear elsewhere in even the names of Pharaohs like Thutmose and things like that.
Okay, we observed this passage. Let’s ask some questions of interpretation once again.
Why does Moses’ mother decide to put Moses in the ark on the river? We don’t know. That’s kind of a strange thing to do, right?
Perhaps it was in hope that God would provide something miraculous. After all, they hid him for three months by faith. So this decision, too, was likely born out of faith, even if desperate faith.
Additionally, perhaps Moses’ mother knew that Pharaoh’s daughter was coming to the Nile to bathe. So Jochebed plants Moses intentionally in the princess’s path in hope that Pharaoh’s daughter will have pity on the baby and let him live.
Providence in Pharaoh’s Own Household
Whatever the reason, God uses this choice and Moses’ parents’ faith not only to let Moses survive, but to plant Moses in Pharaoh’s household. What a development.
Now, we should ask: why exactly does Pharaoh’s daughter decide to take Moses as her own son? That too is quite surprising.
We can’t say for sure, but we can make some educated guesses. It may be that Pharaoh’s daughter was somebody we know from history, such as Nefertiti, or maybe she was some other childless princess who saw in Moses a divinely appointed heir.
Moses to her could be a gift from the god of fertility, the god of the Nile who was named Hapi. This would also explain why she is bathing in the Nile. This isn’t just her trying to get clean. This is an act of worship. This is a rite of fertility.
She’s seeking a child. She’s seeking fertility. And look, here’s a child in the water. Maybe she’s childless and sees this as an answer from her god.
However, the text tells us that Pharaoh’s daughter recognizes that this is a Hebrew boy. She knows that. Thus, maybe it would have been difficult for her to interpret this circumstance as being divinely wrought by Hapi the Nile God.
But God caused her to have compassion on this boy, drawing on her natural maternal instinct. So either way, whatever her justification, what happened was no coincidence. Pharaoh’s daughter was guided by the true God to do the unexpected: to adopt a Hebrew as her child and consequently a potential heir to Pharaoh.
Talk about irony. Pharaoh commands Egyptians to kill the boys, and his own daughter saves a boy and makes him a prince of Egypt. Only God can do this. This is because God, our God, is in control and he is faithful in covenant.
God moves people. He moves circumstances to accomplish his good plans and fulfill his promises to his people. What a great arrangement for Moses’ family. Not only does Moses live, but the parents get more time with him as they raise him. And they even get paid for it.
“God moves people and circumstances to accomplish his good plans and fulfill his promises to his people.”
Jochebed may have even sensed that her son one day would be in the perfect position to deliver the Hebrews out of bondage.
Moses Chooses His People and Flees Egypt
Yet let’s see what further unfolds in our last text for today. Look at the next passage: Exodus 2:11-15.
Now it came about in those days when Moses had grown up that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that. And when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
He went out the next day. And behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other. And he said to the offender, “Why are you striking your companion?” But he said, “Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
Some quick observations here.
Moses grows up and grows up to be about 40 years old according to Stephen in Acts 7. At this point, he’s been raised as royalty, enjoying all the pleasure and the education of the Egyptians.
Moses decides, however, that he wants to get more acquainted with the hard lives of the Hebrews.
While doing so, Moses encounters an Egyptian beating a Hebrew.
What word do you notice is repeated in verses 11 and 12?
He went out to see doesn’t say merely the Hebrews, but his brethren. And then when he sees a Hebrew being beaten, it says again, “One of his brethren.” When he sees this beating, Moses takes a look around, sees that there’s no one, and then Moses strikes down the Egyptian. That is, he kills him, and he hides the Egyptian’s body in the sand.
The very next day, Moses goes to break up a fight between two Hebrews. And notice the words of the one in response in verse 14: “Who made you a prince or a judge over us?”
What does this response communicate?
Well, the theological answer, yes, is that God is raising him up to be the leader and judge. But by saying this, what is the man really communicating?
Yeah, I reject you.
Maybe he rejects him as a brother, but certainly he rejects him as a leader. No, I’m not going to follow you. I’m not going to listen to you. I reject your authority.
Then the Hebrew mentions Moses’ day-old murder and Moses realizes that the word on what he did is out and he knows he must flee to avoid recompense from Pharaoh. Pharaoh indeed tries to kill Moses, but Moses leaves Egypt and he goes to Midian. The land of Midian was most likely on the southwest coast of the Middle East, part of Arabia.
Well, what to make of this? Let’s ask some interpretation questions.
Why does Moses kill the Egyptian?
The answer may seem obvious, but let’s fully tease this out. Why do it?
One sense of justice.
Yeah, this is an administration of vengeance or even justice. Why else?
To stop the beating. Let’s end this oppressive act. Let’s protect this Israelite. I’m going to kill the Egyptian. What does this action indicate about Moses’ attitude toward the Hebrews?
Yeah, that word brethren was not accidentally used. He sees them as brethren. Brethren to be protected, brethren to be delivered, brethren even to be avenged.
“Moses saw the Hebrews as brethren to be protected, delivered, and even avenged. These were righteous impulses.”
These are righteous impulses.
But Moses’ application of these impulses is murder.
Now, was the Egyptian doing wrong?
Yes, as was Pharaoh for letting it happen.
But that did not give Moses the right to murder. Surely, as a prince of Egypt, Moses could have done something in the situation besides kill.
And does not God take seriously all murder, even if done for a good reason?
According to Genesis 9, those who murder are themselves to be put to death. You shed man’s blood. By man, your blood will be shed.
Moses’ Sin and Righteous Turning
Still, this moment of killing the Egyptian was a very significant moment for Moses. Because on what is Moses turning his back here?
His Egyptian inheritance.
He turns his back on his Egyptian inheritance. This fundamental aspect of Moses’ actions is righteous. Just as the book of Hebrews says, Hebrews 11:24-26, by faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For he was looking to the reward.
Hebrews 11:24-26: “By faith, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.”
Like the Hebrew midwives, it’s hard not to see that Moses commits a great sin even from righteous motivation. Nevertheless, his turning his back on Egypt and standing with the Hebrews was fundamentally a righteous action and one to be imitated.
Key Themes and Application
Now standing back from this passage and considering all four that we’ve seen today, what main themes do you notice are consistent in these passages?
What’s one of them?
Sinfulness of man.
Okay. The sinfulness of man makes something happen.
Yeah. Especially those in power, those opposed to God, they will commit great acts of evil even against God’s people.
For sure. Danny, something else.
You may have good intentions, but they’re not always.
Okay. Yes. There. You may have good intentions, but that doesn’t mean that what you do from that is right. But we can still connect that to another theme from this and that is God sovereignly works all things together for the good of his people. Even the sins of others, even your misguided actions.
Now again, that doesn’t justify your sin. That doesn’t justify you being reckless, but it does mean you have something solid that you can put your trust in.
You can’t ruin God’s plan, not even by your own sin and stupidity.
God is faithful. God will protect his people. God will keep his promises. God will frustrate and limit evil purposes where he needs to because God will keep covenant.
“God is faithful. God will protect his people. God will keep his promises and frustrate evil purposes. God will keep covenant.”
We will see many of these same themes going forward.
God is going to continually frustrate and humiliate Pharaoh and all the gods of Egypt in their dealings with the people of Israel.
There is only one true God and he is the true king.
Moses’ message to the Israelites and to us is if you honor and obey King Yahweh, you may suffer temporarily, but you will be blessed in the end when you see God keep his promises. But if you oppose and repudiate King Yahweh, you may seem to get away with evil in the short term, but God will not let you do any more than what he allows you for his own good purposes. And in the end he will bring your evil deeds to judgment.
So what are some ways that we can apply what we’ve seen today?
We’ve already seen several applications, especially in terms of broad principles, but here are three other applications in summary.
If you’re suffering, wait on the Lord. He is faithful. He is working all things for your good. If you’re ordered by man to sin, obey God instead. He will take care of you. And if you’re opposing God, repent now. Don’t follow Pharaoh’s foolish way. Don’t follow the people of Egypt’s foolish way. They were judged.
“If you’re suffering, wait on the Lord. He is faithful. He is working all things for your good.”
Submit to God and let him take care of you. All right, we have a little bit of extra time at the end of the lesson.
Discussion and Questions
What are some questions or comments you have based on what you’ve heard today?
Magdaurious.
Good question, Magda. How did Moses find out about his heritage? Let me see again what the text says. Back in Exodus 2:10, it says, “The child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son and she named him Moses.” It doesn’t say how old Moses was when he was brought to Pharaoh’s household.
I’m guessing it probably would be when he was weaned because that was the whole point of Jockabed being hired, right? To nurse the child. Typically for the ancient Hebrews, a child would be weaned as late as three years old. So probably around that time.
Three-year-olds.
I’m no doctor. I’m no expert. But from what I seem to understand is that the memories of before you’re five years old tend not to stick around. So it’s doubtful to me that he would have remembered his Hebrew mother or that he used to not live in the palace. I bet he didn’t remember that at all.
So he must have learned some other way. Maybe it was some continued contact with Jockabed and Miriam. Or maybe it’s something that his mother made known to him at a certain point. Or maybe he just looked at himself and he looked at the Egyptians around him and said, “I don’t look like them, but I do look like those slaves that we’re keeping around Egypt. Why is that?” Maybe he then inquired of his mother and she admitted the details.
It’s an interesting question, but we ultimately don’t know the answer. Dwayne says that he understood that God was granting them deliverance through him. But they did not understand.
So he had a delivery.
Yeah.
Dwayne is bringing up the statement from Acts 7:25, Stephen’s speech specifically about Moses killing the Egyptian. Moses supposed that the brethren that he was rescuing would realize that he was the deliverer for them. But they rejected him, especially in the words of the man the next day.
Stephen brings it up in his speech to indicate, “This is Israel’s pattern. We reject the God-sent deliverers.” Stephen doesn’t make a specific comment as to whether Moses’ killing was righteous, but broadly, he indicates for us there from Acts that Moses did not only see the Hebrews as his brethren, but himself as a raised up deliverer.
But the interesting thing is God doesn’t let it work out, right? That seems like the perfect point for Moses to initiate a revolution, a rebellion of the Hebrew people against Egypt and lead them out. But God says, “Nope. This is not my way. This is not my timing. And you’re not ready.”
He takes him over to Midian. As we’ll see next time, he spends, I think, 40 years over there living as a shepherd. By the time God does come around to say, “I’m sending you to Egypt to go deliver the people,” what’s Moses’ response?
Anybody but me. I can’t do it. I’m not qualified. I’m not going to be able. Please, God, send somebody else.
That’s totally different than what he said 40 years earlier. I think that’s because God was humbling Moses to make him into the proper leader for the Israelite people. Glenda.
Okay. I’m going back to chapter one. A new king arose. We know ancient Egypt always kept records. Was it right there that he knew nothing about Moses? If he knew that about Joseph, but he didn’t take the record into play. Is it right here? You think that God put this out of his mind because this is the king and I want to judge.
So is it that nothing?
Okay, it’s a good question. Glenda is bringing up back in chapter one this new king of Egypt, this new pharaoh who knew nothing about Joseph. How is that possible when the Egyptians were maintaining records and Joseph had such an influential role? Did God cause this pharaoh to forget because he says now it’s time for me to advance the next stage in my plan and even to judge Egypt?
In one sense the answer has to be yes. There’s nothing that happens unless God ordains it. God is the ultimate cause even though he’s not the chargeable cause of anybody’s sin. But as to practically how that happened, we don’t know.
Did he know about the record and he’s just like, “Whatever, I’ve never heard of it”? Or he wasn’t Egyptian and I like Egyptians so I’m not going to pay attention to that? Or did somehow the records in the change of dynasties get destroyed or he’s trying to clean out the old and begin with the new? He’s like, “It doesn’t really matter what came before. We’re a new dynasty. Who cares about Joseph and anybody who he served? We’re the new and improved.”
Whatever the rationale was, he did not pay attention to Joseph’s good service on behalf of Pharaoh in the past and therefore felt freed up to oppress Israel.
Well, plus it was 400 years earlier. I’m sure there was a lot in the records that he would not necessarily remember.
Okay, that’s true. Certainly some time has gone by since Joseph’s good service. Mark is pointing out how much time exactly? Again, go back to the original slide about potential chronologies. Was it exactly 400 years since Joseph or was it some time earlier? It was some large amount of time. So surely that played a part in it too. Joseph’s service seems less relevant the more time goes by.
I think about like with Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, one of the kings found in the records. He couldn’t sleep. He was reading through the records and he found that Mordecai had intervened to save his life from an assassination plot. That was during his life.
Oh yeah.
And he didn’t remember that.
Right. Right. Okay, Mark is bringing up another instance maybe to shed more light on this. In the story of Esther, the account of Esther, we have the Persian king saved by Mordecai, but he doesn’t know about it or doesn’t remember it until he happens to hear the record being read while he’s trying to go to sleep one night.
So yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot of information for new rulers to absorb. Even if the record was there, maybe he just never heard it or he did hear it and he’s like, “Okay, I’ll try and remember that,” and then he just forgets. Yeah, Danny, I saw your hand.
Yeah. Pharaoh’s daughter.
Good question. Danny says, “How did she know he was a Hebrew baby? Was that because he was circumcised?”
Possibly. We don’t know for sure. We do know later on that Moses is almost killed by God because he doesn’t recircumcise his own children. So how faithful were the people of Israel in circumcising their children? We don’t know.
It did seem to be something that they were marked by. The other part of that is did the Egyptians practice circumcision at all? There seems to be some evidence that there were other cultures that at times practiced circumcision in the ancient world and I don’t know how much or if at all the Egyptians did.
So it could be yeah, she’s like, “Oh, that boy, that’s a boy and he’s circumcised so he’s definitely not Egyptian,” or she says, “That’s a boy and he does not look Egyptian. This has got to be one of the Hebrew boys.” Either way, she was able to recognize.
Yeah. Something else.
Okay, let me see if I can try to answer that question. Danny is saying the Hebrews multiplied. They seem to multiply greatly. Was that at all due to circumcision? Is that because of circumcision?
Again, I’m no doctor. But from my understanding of circumcision, it does not seem to make an impact in terms of the sexual relationship. It’s in some ways maybe more convenient because they’re able to keep things a little bit cleaner, but it apparently does not impact the ability to have children or even to experience pleasure in the sexual relationship.
Rather than saying this is a physical thing that God did and it resulted in all this multiplication, I think this is really more about God’s providential blessing. Muslims are multiplying pretty quickly and they’re not circumcised.
Okay. Yeah, Mark’s saying, “Yeah, plenty of uncircumcised persons seem to also multiply pretty quickly.” But considering all the things that the Hebrews went through, especially the oppression that Egypt is putting on them, you think like surely that’s going to dampen the birth rate, but the scriptures say they multiplied all the more. The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied.
So it’s like that’s not normal. That’s not natural. That’s got to be God at work. Okay, that’s it for the time that we have today.
Next time we will see, or let me say this, my little outro here. God has protected both his people and his chosen deliverer from destruction. But salvation has not yet come to Israel in bondage. The people are still crying out to God because of their suffering in Egypt. Whereas Moses is now in exile far from Egypt.
When would God’s deliverance come and the prophecy to Abraham be fulfilled? Next time we’ll see God appear to Moses in the wilderness from the burning bush and commission Moses to go back, confront Pharaoh, and lead Israel out of Egypt. So hope you’ll come back next time. Let’s close in prayer.
God, you are faithful. Wow, God. We’ve seen it in the book of Genesis, but we’re seeing it again. Even when the situation seems impossible, even when evil men are so directly opposed to you, you are not thwarted in the slightest. You keep covenant with your people. And you provide deliverance at exactly the right time and in exactly the right way.
God, we need this truth because we are tested day after day after day, God, with the simple question of will we trust you? Will we trust you, God? Here’s a new situation. Here’s a new difficulty. Here’s a new problem. Can I trust you, God?
And your testimony to us from the scriptures, your loving testimony is yes, you can trust me. You can trust me. I love you and I keep covenant with you. So you can trust me.
God, help us to trust you. Help us to believe in you. Forgive us for where we have not done that. And anything, God, that’s holding us back from doing that, Lord. Any idols in our heart. Cause us to repent so that we may be freed up to obedience and joy just like you have meant for us to do.
Please bless the rest of this service today in Jesus’ name. Amen.