Exodus 2 - The Birth of Moses (Bible Study)

Moses’ Birth, Preservation, and Early Life in Exodus 2

Before we listen to the book of Exodus chapter 2 let's open in a word of prayer. Our Father you've brought us together once again to enjoy this time in your word and in prayer. We just enjoy this time together and we ask that the things that we would hear and read and study it would be for our admonition and our encouragement.

Lord cleanse us of our sins calm our spirit and cause our minds to focus on what you have for each one of us. We pray all these things in Christ's.

Name amen.

They're on their way in. Exodus chapter 2.

She took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him.

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maids walked along the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to gate it. And when she opened it, she saw the child.

And behold, the baby went. So she had compassion on him. This is one of the Hebrew's children. And 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?

Go. So the maid went and called the child's mother. And 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. And the child grew. And she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, Because I drew him out of the water.

Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting. And he said to the one who did the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?

Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?

So Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

Now the priests of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock.

When he came to the ruler of their father, he said, How is it that you have come so soon today?

An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.

And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him that he may eat bread.

Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses, and she bore him a son. He called his name Gershon, for he said, I have been a stranger in a foreign land. Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died.

Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

Pharaoh’s Decree and the Midwives’ Defiance

Okay, so we ended chapter one last week talking about the midwives. You remember how Pharaoh had decreed that all the Hebrew male Hebrew children were to be killed, and the midwives defied Pharaoh. And because they defied this unjust order, God blessed the midwives.

And the chapter ended, Exodus 1, 22, Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive. So no longer is Pharaoh relying on the midwives to do his dirty work.

Now all of his servants, all of his subjects, basically anyone in the land can kind of watch what's happening. And they're all responsible to make sure that the male children of the Hebrews all die. They're tossed into the river.

Moses as a Type of Christ and the Pattern of Divine Providence

Before we get into the text here, back in Genesis, you remember that we looked at many of the similarities between Joseph and Jesus. And there were so many. I think Joseph, more than any other biblical figure, foreshadows the coming Messiah.

But there's going to be a lot of similarities between Moses and Christ as well. We see a few here. When Jesus was born, what happened? A decree went out in the land that all the male children in Bethlehem were to be killed.

So now, surrounding the birth of Moses, a similar decree is sent out. The male children must die. Also, Moses is the deliverer. He delivers the people from bondage. Well, Christ delivers his people from the bondage of sin.

And then, of course, Moses will be the mediator of the old covenant. Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. So there's just a few similarities. We're going to see a lot more as we go along. So chapter 2 begins with verse 1.

It says, And a man of the house of Levi went and took a wife, a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months. So one thing we're going to notice about this chapter, it's a very fast-moving chapter.

A lot of time goes by, and it's about 80 years total, to make a long story short. So what do we see? The tribe of Levi. So what do we know about the tribe of Levi? They are the priestly tribe. And since this chapter is so fast-moving, we're not getting all the details.

We'll get details later on. We know a few things about Moses' parents. Their names are Amram and Jochebed. Okay, so Amram's his father. Jochebed's the mother. And they already have two children as of right now.

I mean, it's only covering the birth of Moses, but there's already two children. Who are the children?

Mary and Aaron.

Okay, so Aaron, Moses' older brother, who will be the first high priest of the nation of Israel. And then Miriam, his older sister. And Miriam is only one of a handful of women that the Bible describes as being a prophetess.

So that's very rare. So once again, we see the people of God resisting this order from the governing authorities. Specifically, Pharaoh himself, who says that all the male children are to be thrown into the river.

And of course, we talked about this last week. And this defiance of the midwives. And we're all very aware of what the scripture teaches. Romans 13 is at 1 Peter 2, I believe. It talks about that believers should submit to the governing authorities.

And we do that for our good. We do it for the common good. And Romans 13 says that the governing authorities, we obey because the governing authorities are not a terror to good works, but to evil. And we said, but at this point, Pharaoh is just a terror.

So because of how evil he is and what he's asking people to do, it's actually the right thing to disobey. There does come a time for that. And notice what the mother of Moses does. So she hides Moses as long as she can.

Three months. Look at verse 3. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an arc of bulrushes for him, dabbed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it and laid it in the reeds by the river.

The river's back. So she's like, Pharaoh. Okay, you want my baby in the water? I'll put them in the water. Just not the way that I'm going to do it my own way. So she's sort of obeying.

Not really.

I wonder if that was her mindset. Probably not. But so she builds an arc and we know of Noah's Ark, right? This massive vessel. Well, this is basically just a little basket to hold a little baby, and it's able to float and go down the river.

So the thing that happens here is, once again, the providence of God, like with Joseph. He's thrown into the pit. He sold his brother, sell him to the Midianite caravan, which just comes through at the right time.

It brings him right where God wants him in Egypt. And the providence of God is at work again. Of course, the providence of God is always at work. But the baby Moses passes by just at the right time, the right place, with the right woman there, Pharaoh's daughter, Jim.

I looked at some of the information through some of the commentaries. And the place where the Egyptian woman came out to bathe was not the actual river.

It was a little pool.

And it's where the women that were in the hierarchy. And I think that Moses' mother knew that. And I might be stepping on your toes right now.

You're always stepping on my toes. It's like Jim reads my mind. He knows what I'm going to say next, and then he says.

She sort of planned it that way.

Okay.

Because she sent out Miriam to watch the thing. And then when the Egyptian woman discovered it, Miriam was right there.

Yeah.

So I think you have to think that it was probably a planned event to some extent.

Okay.

Who thinks it's a planned event? Raise your hand. That's the majority. No, not planned. Planned by Miriam and her mother. Who says they don't think it's a planned event?

Who says what?

That it wasn't planned.

All right.

Planned by God.

Yes.

Everyone agrees with that.

All right.

Well, let's keep that in mind. Let's continue. Verse four. Address that in a second. Verse four. And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river.

And her maidens walked along the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.

Then his sister, that's Miriam, said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse for you among the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. So the maiden 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. So now not only is Moses protected, his life is now safe.

Jochebed gets paid now by Pharaoh's daughter to nurse her own son. I mean, this is just the perfect scenario planned by God to be sure. But yeah, that's the question. Did they know what time Pharaoh's daughter came to the river?

And they were hoping. Obviously, this is a risk. I mean, let's say they were planning this. There's no way you can know that she's going to. I mean, maybe the current will take the baby. I mean, this could have gone very bad.

So there's nothing that says it was planned, right? That's an assumption. Okay, so me and Larry seem to be the minority thinking that it wasn't planned.

I don't know.

It could have been. But whatever the case, they didn't really have many options, right? They're running out of time. They can't hide the baby anymore. So planned or not planned. This is a risky thing.

Yeah.

Crocodiles in the Nile.

Right. Yeah.

Well, I didn't think of that. But here's what I want to say. I think his mother and Miriam were happy to leave it in God's hand.

Okay.

And we're going to read about this in Hebrews. This is a great act of faith by putting the baby in God's hand and let God do what he will.

Moses’ Name, Privilege, and Divine Favor

All right.

Verse 10, it says, and the child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. So she that is Pharaoh's daughter names the baby Moses, which literally means to draw or to draw out of the water.

So now Moses is going to be brought up in this very unique situation. He's going to have this unique privilege. Not only is his life safe being adopted by the king's daughter. It's interesting. There's no comment from Pharaoh about this.

Like, what did Pharaoh think of this? She recognizes it's one of the Hebrews children. She probably knew what was going on. You could figure it out. But there's nothing about Pharaoh. Did Pharaoh know that his daughter adopted a Hebrew son?

We don't know. It doesn't say. But even if Pharaoh did, Pharaoh is the king. He can make exceptions. He can kind of do what he wants. And he does obviously do whatever he wants. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews 11.

So while Moses was a Hebrew, his mother knew it as he grows up. He knows who he is. He probably learned all about his people's background. The children of Israel, their history. But not only was he a Hebrew, he's being raised by Pharaoh's daughter.

So that makes Moses an Egyptian prince.

Okay.

So you have a Hebrew who's now an Egyptian prince. Sort of like Joseph goes from being a Hebrew to being Egyptian royalty, basically. So this is a great privilege. You hear a lot about people today talking about privilege, right?

And how much privilege the average citizen has, I suppose, is debatable. But there's one thing we know for sure.

Moses.

I mean, this young child, he has privilege. His upbringing, his education, all the things that were available to him. Without a doubt, it's top notch. Everything he needs. As a matter of fact, in Acts chapter 7, you don't have to turn there, but Acts chapter 7 says about Moses that he learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds.

So Moses is very well educated in the Egyptian system.

Larry.

And I believe Josephus, the historian, accounts him as quite a military leader and commander and mighty and won many battles for Egypt and for Pharaoh. And so he really rose very high in standing.

Right.

Was there a movie that came out with Moses sometime in the past? No, not the Ten Commandments. This is sometime in the last ten years. I watched it. I forget the name of the movie. I don't want you to think I'm worldly or anything watching Hollywood movies.

But it talked about or showed Moses as a military leader, and he had an Egyptian brother, half-brother, well, adopted brother-in-law.

What would it be?

Half-brother?

Step-brother.

Step-brother.

Whatever.

Doesn't matter. But some of that stuff. I mean, how do you know? Again, some assumptions, but not unlikely.

All right.

But still, when the time came when Moses grew up and was of age, look at Hebrews 11, verse 23. It says, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw that he was a what?

Beautiful.

Beautiful child. Now, does this mean that if his mother looked at him and said, well, he's not very beautiful, let's put him back in the river. Obviously, that's not what's going on. Yeah, but there's something more to it than that.

We'll look at that in a moment. Because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's command. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. So when it says that Moses was a beautiful child, the Hebrew term there translated beautiful means favored.

Now, obviously, a mother is going to have favor on her child, but it's more than that. It's divine favor. Acts chapter seven. Remember when Stephen is preaching to the Jewish council, and he's going through Israel's history.

What does he say about Moses? Acts 7 verse 20 says, At this time, Moses was born and was well pleasing to God. So Moses had upon him from the time he was just a little baby. He had God's divine favor upon him.

Now, you could ask the question, well, wait a minute, but he's just a little baby. He hasn't done anything. He hasn't been able to express faith or to show obedience or anything like that. He's a baby.

How can a baby have God's divine favor? Well, we know, right? Going through the book of Genesis. Remember when Jacob and Esau were born? God chose Jacob and not Esau. We covered that. So same thing here.

God chose Moses. God's hand was upon Moses from the time of his birth, and you could make the argument before he was ever born. So this decree that Pharaoh made, the midwives disobedience, the putting the baby in the ark, sending him down the river, all of these free will actions by men, God and his sovereignty.

He had a plan from the start, and he just brings it all together to fulfill his will in purpose.

I don't know.

That stuff just gets me excited.

Larry.

Well, talking about he had divine privilege or Ephesians 1,.

Starting in verse 3,.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. Who's he talking to? Believers. With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

Amen.

That we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

Yeah.

And second, Peter 1, 3, as his divine power has has given us all that we need for life and.

Godliness.

So talk about privilege. We got it as believers in Christ.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So do you want God's favor? Trust in Christ and all those who are in Christ have God's favor.

Now,.

Does that mean everything's going to go wonderful for you and you're not going to have any hardships in life?

Well,.

That's not the case with Moses.

I mean,.

He had a lot of hardships in life, but God,.

If you make,.

If you trust in Christ, make yourself available. God will use you in a grand way that he used Moses. Probably not, but God can.

Yeah. Yeah.

God can use. It wasn't Moses.

I mean,.

He had this upbringing and he had a lot going for him, but what happened was the power of God. Not so much.

Moses,.

The man,.

Did you have something. That term favor is typically synonymous with grace,.

Right?

Which is undeserved.

Absolutely.

It's just guns.

Amen.

You're also running into another characteristic of both Jesus Christ and.

Moses already.

He announced a greater power.

God.

Okay.

Christ could have had all the power of heaven.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He left heaven, set aside his divine privileges. And Moses had all the privileges of Egypt and set that aside to suffer. And they both, they both suffered.

Yeah.

It's a good,.

Very good point.

All right.

So the book of Hebrews says, when Moses became of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. So instead of enjoying all the sinful pleasures that Egypt, which Egypt is a picture of the world, but instead of enjoying all the sinful pleasures the world has to offer, what does he do?

He chooses to suffer with the people of God.

Uh,.

The sermon this Sunday is going to be from second Corinthians 11, talking about the sufferings,.

Um,.

Suffering for Christ. So the apostle Paul, I remember he's being attacked by the false teachers. And how does he justify himself or prove his,.

Uh,.

Apostolic authority? He points to all the things that he suffered. Look what I've gone through. Look what I'm willing to go through.

Um,.

Are the false teachers willing to suffer for Christ's sake?

No,.

They are in it for themselves.

So,.

You know,.

This is something that's been lost in modern Christianity. The idea of suffering for Christ's sake.

Um, Russ,.

I was going to say along that same line, if the church is to grow, it needs to be persecuted. We see that in, in the start of the early church in,.

In,.

Uh, Acts.

We see it here in this world.

Right. Uh,.

I keep wondering how much longer before we have to suffer for the Lord.

Yeah.

It's like just in your personal life, adversity,.

You know,.

Drives you sometimes and it, and it tests you and it can make you overcome challenges when everything's going fine. You kind of can get complacent and yeah,.

Right.

Don't give the glory to the Lord.

Yeah,.

Absolutely.

All right. So this is a picture of the gospel. The fact that Moses was willing to forsake,.

Uh,.

All the,.

All the pleasures that Egypt and the world had to offer. How is it a picture of the gospel? Look at verses 25 and 26. So he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

Notice what it says, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. So I know,.

Um,.

False versions of Christianity percent present things in such a way,.

You know,.

Believe in Jesus and your life will be better. Now that's true.

I mean,.

You're,.

If you believe in Jesus, your life will be better. Just not in the, the carnal materialistic sense.

Uh,.

But believe on Jesus. You've heard the guys on TV believe in Jesus. You'll get that promotion at work.

You know,.

You're,.

You're,.

You're a champion, a champion of what? That's what I always think of. What are you a champion of?

But,.

Um,.

That's the,.

That's the common message you hear out there about health and wealth. And if God wants to bless one of his children with health and wealth, that's his prerogative,.

Uh,.

To do that. But if the scripture indicates anything, it's that there is often, if not always a cost, there's always a cost to serving and following Christ.

You know,.

You can have,.

Um,.

All that the world offers and experience those pleasures and, and go through that and go down that path, or you can accept what Christ has to offer.

So,.

I mean,.

This is the choice everyone has, what the world's got, what Christ has. So what's more valuable to you?

I mean,.

That's, that's the question. What is more valuable to you?

Well,.

In a spiritual sense, Moses is saying,.

You know,.

I'm forsaking all of that. I'm following Christ, even though he did not have that terminology in his mind.

All right.

So the world has things to offer. Christ has things to offer.

You know,.

You just look at Moses, his life and where he started. Could his parents,.

Uh,.

Could his parents have imagined,.

Uh,.

What he would have gone through and what he became. They had no idea,.

But they,.

They put it in God's hands and hopefully as believers, we are willing to just put our life in God's hands and follow him wherever, wherever he leads us right now. Turn back to Exodus chapter one.

So again,.

It's a fast moving chapter. We don't see any of Moses childhood. He goes from a baby to an adult life, just like that. And his adolescence, none of that is mentioned. And wait a minute. That sounds familiar too, doesn't it?

We don't see anything other than Jesus in the temple at 12 years old. We don't see anything about Jesus and his childhood or adolescence. Nothing about Moses. Why people get hung up on it?

Well,.

Yeah,.

Sure. But God, I guess decided it's not important or it's not relevant.

Um,.

You know,.

There's probably some of us, if our life story was ever told, we'd just assume those years are skipped over to,.

You know,.

But,.

But that wasn't the reason for Moses. Although he's writing Exodus, he gets to write his own story so he can skip over whatever he wants. But we're going to see in the next passage,.

Uh,.

Starting in verse 11, this is one of the great things about the Bible. It paints the men of God works at all. So you see,.

Um,.

Joseph,.

He was above reproach,.

Daniel,.

Job.

There's certain men that are really above reproach and scripture.

Moses.

He had some falls. We're going to read about that.

All right.

Did I see a hand?

Yeah. Okay.

My hand up in regards to,.

You know,.

There wasn't anything said about his childhood or adolescence, but right here in the beginning of verse seven,.

11,.

Now it came to pass. There it is. His childhood.

That's going to skip over all of that.

I heard yesterday I was listening to the radio and, and a man was asked,.

You know,.

What's your favorite verse in the Bible? And he said, and it came to pass. And the guy, the other guy's like,.

What,.

How is that your favorite? He said, because it didn't come to stay.

Yeah.

Every trial or tribulation that you go through, it'll pass. So it came to pass.

Hey,.

That's good.

I think I'm going to use that.

All right.

Look at,.

Look at verse 11. Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and he looked that way.

And when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out on the second day,.

Behold,.

Two Hebrew men were fighting. And he said to the one who did the wrong, why are you striking your companion? And he said,.

Well,.

Who made you a Prince? And you wonder if there's some bad blood between Moses because of his upbringing and the Hebrews, maybe they don't fully trust him.

Maybe,.

But who made you a Prince in a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? So Moses at this point, now he's, he's afraid. He realizes that the word got out. Whether somebody saw him or the man that he saved went and told the wrong person, whatever the case he knows now he's in, he's in a lot of trouble.