The Birth of Moses

Pharaoh was attempting genocide of the Hebrews.  When the midwives failed to kill newborn boys, He ordered the Egyptian people to kill them when they found them, In Exodus 1:22.  “And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”  It was under these conditions that Moses was born.  Exodus 2:1-4.  “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.  And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.  And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.  And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.”

People have a natural instinct to survive and protect their young that danger activates.  For the first three months, Moses was too weak and inactive to draw much attention to himself, but after three months, as he became stronger and more active, it became impossible to conceal him at home.  His mother made him a basket or box of bulrushes sealed with pitch.  She hid the basket in the bulrushes along the river hoping the movement of the water would keep him quiet and the basket would blend in and not be seen.   His sister Miriam was assigned to keep watch from a distance and let her mother know if anything happened.

It wasn’t long before the baby was discovered, as Exodus 2:5-6 tells us.  “And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.  And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.”

God has placed an instinctive desire to protect a baby in human beings and it is even stronger in women than in men.  Only those who have lost all natural compassion and human decency are not moved by the plight of a baby in danger.  Even hardened criminals and murderers will often go out of their way to protect a small child.   Pharaoh’s daughter had a normal healthy reaction, concerned when she realized the baby had been placed there in an attempt to protect him.  Even her father’s law could not overcome her instincts.  She wanted to protect him as well.  As Pharaoh’s daughter, she had the wherewithql to protect him when his parents could not. 

Seeing that she had no intention of killing Moses, Miriam came to ask if she would need someone to care for the baby.  Exodus 2:7-10 describes what happened.  “Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.  And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.  And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.”

God had brought the one person who was in a position to protect Moses.  Pharaoh would hesitate to deny anything his daughter wanted, even if it meant ignoring his own laws.  He used that natural instinct to save Moses’ life.  Moses’ mother was hired to serve as his nanny, teaching him about his own people.  Later, as the adopted son of the princess, he was given the finest education available in Egypt.   God used the natural instincts of his own daughter to defeat Pharaoh’s evil plan.