In To The Water - Exodus 2:1-10

2:1-4 - The problem with starting into Moses’ story is that he’s such an important and epic figure that he’s the main player in a large world religion (Judaism), and crucial in main others (Christianity and Islam). The IM emphasizes his importance, saying, “So great was Moses that forever after the Lord and His people have used him as a standard, or model, of a prophet. Even Jesus Christ was called a prophet like unto Moses. Indeed, Moses was a similitude or living symbol of Jesus Christ… The key to Moses’ character is his meekness, the capacity to be molded by the Lord and His Spirit… The True Moses was one of the mightiest men of God in all time… He walked and talking with God, received of divine glory while yet in mortality, was called a son of God, and was in the similitude of the Only Begotten. He saw the mysteries of the heaves and much of creation, and received laws from God beyond any other ancient man of whom we have record.”

Not only was Moses a spiritual giant, but historically so important that even 4,000 years later we watch movies made about him. Unfortunately for me, my information on Moses came from two theatrical sources, The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston and Yul Brener, and The Price of Egypt with the amazing music. Much of my comparison will be done in the contrast of what I know from these sources, so it should be interesting.

As we can recall, there was a royal decree that all Hebrew baby boys were to be killed, and while the midwives were able to disregard Pharoah’s orders, the new batch of enforcers followed through with them. We don’t have any other examples of these baby boys being murdered except for the fact that a Levite woman “bare a son” and after three months of hiding him, “she took for him and ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the (reeds) by the river’s brink.” Clearly, she knew that if she kept the child in her household, he would be killed and that’s plenty of evidence that the order was in fact being carried out.

Unlike what the movies depict, it doesn’t seem like this woman just tossed the basket into the raging Nile and hoped for the best, as far as I can tell, she placed a waterproof container in a calm part of the water, where she knew that Pharoah’s daughter would find it. It wouldn’t have been the first time that Pharoah’s daughter came to this place surely, and the locals probably could predict with some reliability when she was going to be where. This wasn’t an accident, and the woman’s daughter stood by and watched the basket, to see what would happen.

2:5-10 - Sure enough, Pharoah’s daughter and all her “maids” came to the washing spot and saw the basket, “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.” We talked about this with the midwives, it is brutal business to murder newborn babies and their mothers scream and cry and fight to keep them, not many people are well suited for that work, and it appears that the Pharoah’s daughter was not the heartless type either. It’s really hard to hate a baby and condemn it to death, especially as a woman.

A huge difference between this account and both of the movies I referenced earlier is that in the movies, the fact that Moses was a Hebrew is kept a secret and nobody knew about it. It appears that in reality, everyone knew that Moses was a Hebrew, TB comments, “unlike for Charlton Heston there would have been no way whatsoever for Moses to have his Hebrew beginnings kept secret. The Egyptians knew he was a lowly Hebrew just by looking at him; and more importantly, HE knew he was Hebrew. Just as critical, the general Israelite population knew who Moses was… and to them, regardless of his Hebrew blood, he was now an Egyptian… a HATED Egyptian. Moses would not have been fully welcomed in either camp.” This would be a huge factor in Moses’ life and in who he ended up being.

In fact, this Hebrew-ness started immediately, with Miriam being so dang clever, because as Pharoah’s daughter took the baby out of the water, the baby was crying, surely because it was hungry, and Miriam saw the opportunity to say to Pharoah’s daughter, “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?” Miriam is cementing the bond now between the baby and Pharoah’s daughter, emphasizing that this favor of nursing would be done as a serve provided FOR the princess’s new child. This guarantees the baby protection from the murder mobs because suddenly, the baby is just a tenant in the Hebrew’s household and legally belongs to Pharoah’s daughter.

Additionally, not only did this legal relationship protect the baby, but it also obligated the princess to compensate anyone who provided care for the child for her. And guess who the Hebrew woman was who Miriam went and got? Her mother, the actual mother of the baby, and not only was she going to be able to get her baby back, that baby would now be legally protected and she would be getting PAID for caring for her son. If that’s not the perfect example of God taking something and giving back something better, then I don’t know what is. I can only imagine, the whole time between placing the basket in the water and when Miriam returns, the mother shaking and crying in uncertainty of what was going to happen to her baby. Then when Miriam comes back, suddenly she not only gets her baby back but is now also getting paid to care for that baby. I bet that didn’t even cross her mind in what the possible outcomes of this situation would be.

I had always imagined that this arrangement entailed Moses’ mother coming to the palace multiple times a day to feed the baby and then leave again, but it appears (and makes more sense this way) that she simply took the baby home with her, and gave him back later. At a later point, we’re not told exactly when, “the child grew,” and was brought back to “Pharoah’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.”

How long it was when Moses was returned to the princess can only be guesstimated by us, and TB reminds that historically, children would have been nursed for as long as possible, meaning “until at LEAST 3 years of age, though probably 5 years is more realistic… and there is ample proof it was significantly more. In fact, in tribal societies today, we average age of weaning is closer to 6 or 7! So, Moses was in the childhood development stage of a Kindergartener when he went to the Royal Palace to live.” Nursing a baby provides them with a nutrient rich meal that is always available regardless of drought or flood or rainfall. It also means that this is less actual food the child needs that can be consumed by an adult.

Kindergarten age children have bonded with their families, speak the language, love those around them, so for Moses to be that age when he’s removed from the custody of his true birth family and placed into a household where he is a foreigner, and a despised one at that, would have been so traumatic. Surely he played with Aaron and Miriam, surely he loved his parents, and I don’t know how the family dynamic was in the household of the Pharoah’s daughter. Just how much did she raise him hands on, how much did they tell him he was going to be leaving, how prepared was he? Did they just show up one day and yank him out or did his family give him a heads up that that day was coming?

TB notes, “that had to be a bittersweet moment for Jochobed, as she was giving up her child; but with her, his lot would have been slavery. With the princess, it would be a life of royalty.” And that’s another point as well, was Moses at the age where his would have been expected to go start mashing mud into bricks? Was this the turning point where childhood was over and it was either get in the pit with his family or go to school with his oppressors as he became one of them?