Exodus 2

Exodus 2:1-25

Exodus 2:1-25(a) Moses’ Birth and Early Years (Exodus 2:1-25) Moses was the child of Godly parents (Hebrews 11:23-24). They saw and believed in the possibilities of their child. Here was a home in which faith reigned supreme, even in idolatrous Egypt. The faith of the parents was found in the heart of the child, a faith which even the training in the home of Pharaoh’ s daughter could not eradicate, for when the moment of choice came between the faith of his mother and the life in the royal palace, Moses chose the former. No doubt Moses kept in touch with his home during all the years in which he resided in the palace. He got his faith in God from his parents just as he got his learning in the palace of the Pharaohs. Undoubtedly God’ s providence was manifested in the early years of Moses. It certainly was in his deliverance in connection with the finding of Moses in the ark of bulrushes. God intervened and saved Moses out of the jaws of death, right in the very house of Pharaoh. After all, nothing really “ happens.” There is no such thing as chance. Hebrews 11:23 says it was a triumph of faith: “ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’ s commandment.” Thus was Moses trained in two homes for God’ s great work of the redemption of His people. It was necessary for the leader to come from the midst of a system from which he is to set the people free in order to be fully acquainted with it. This was true in the case of Saul of Tarsus, and Luther of the Reformation-close to the throne he is to shake. God is the principal worker in this bold scheme of redemption. It may be that for this reason the names in connection with the preservation of Moses are not mentioned. God Himself is the worker. Compare Psalms 18:16 -“ He drew me out of many waters” (literally, He “ moses” me out of many waters). Compare also 2 Samuel 22:1 -“ The Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies.” These are the only two other places in which this form of the word is used, and they signify a deliverance by God, a manifestation of God’ s hand. It was doubtless this divine purpose that the parents saw by faith in their son. It may be that they knew the promise that God had made to the patriarchs that He would visit them in their affliction and bondage. “ And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterwards shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:13-16; cf. Genesis 50:24-25). These godly parents may have seen in their child the one who, under God, was to fulfill this prophecy. We are delighted to note the mother instinct in the heart of the heathen daughter of Pharaoh. Our great cities swarm with children exposed to a worse fate than that baby among the bulrushes. Legislation and official charity are too cold to reach them. They need the bosom of a home. These children, like Moses, “ with no language but a cry,” are still in our midst. What are we doing for them? If fate hath given thee no child To lean upon thine arm, That by its presence undefiled Shouldst save thy soul from harm; If thou wert truly mother born, Thou wouldst have played the part, And found some little one forlorn To fold within thine heart. How wonderfully God cared for the child that those parents committed to Him! What they gave to God, that God returned to them glorified. God will do the same for us and for our children if we have like faith. The slaying of the Egyptian by Moses (Exodus 2:11-16) is an attempt at human redemption, to accomplish God’ s work by means of the flesh rather than by God’ s Spirit. It is a repetition of the mistake which Abraham and Sarah made when they resorted to Hagar to help fulfill the promise of God. The flight of Moses (Exodus 2:15-25) was also in the providence of God. It was the divine way of training Moses to be a leader. It was through this wilderness, in which he spent forty years, that he should lead the children of Israel for another forty years. The knowledge of the wilderness which Moses must have gained during his years of pilgrimage was of untold benefit to him in his leadership of the nation later.