Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Exodus 1:15-2:10


15Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16"When you help the Hebrew women give birth, kill all the boys as soon as they are born. Allow only the baby girls to live." 17But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king and allowed the boys to live, too.
 18Then the king called for the midwives. "Why have you done this?" he demanded. "Why have you allowed the boys to live?"
 19"Sir," they told him, "the Hebrew women are very strong. They have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time! They are not slow in giving birth like Egyptian women."
 20So God blessed the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
 22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Throw all the newborn Israelite boys into the Nile River. But you may spare the baby girls."
 1During this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married. 2The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw what a beautiful baby he was and kept him hidden for three months. 3But when she could no longer hide him, she got a little basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile River. 4The baby's sister then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen to him.
 5Soon after this, one of Pharaoh's daughters came down to bathe in the river, and her servant girls walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the little basket among the reeds, she told one of her servant girls to get it for her. 6As the princess opened it, she found the baby boy. His helpless cries touched her heart. "He must be one of the Hebrew children," she said.
 7Then the baby's sister approached the princess. "Should I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?" she asked.
 8"Yes, do!" the princess replied. So the girl rushed home and called the baby's mother.
 9"Take this child home and nurse him for me," the princess told her. "I will pay you for your help." So the baby's mother took her baby home and nursed him.
 10Later, when he was older, the child's mother brought him back to the princess, who adopted him as her son. The princess named him Moses, for she said, "I drew him out of the water."

Points of Interest:
• ‘Hebrew’—another name for the Israelites, most often the name used by the Egyptians. Apparently, it means ‘descendents of Aber,’ who was an ancestor of Abraham (Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

• ‘kill all the boys’—Pharaoh’s fear of the Hebrews and his disdain for them bring him to the point of planning genocide. Now, not only are the Israelites in slavery, but they are in real danger of being completely wiped out as a people. Pharaoh is probably content with killing the boys for a couple of reasons: the boys are more likely to grow up to be warriors; and the girls could be married into other families, gradually diluting their identity as a people. We see in these first two passages the precariousness of the Israelites’ situation as a relatively powerless minority in a foreign land: they are vulnerable to being overlooked and misunderstood; they are an object of suspicion; they are taken advantage of; they are treated harshly; and, eventually, they are almost eliminated. Because of God’s general concern for justice, and in memory of the Israelites’ treatment by the Egyptians, God later commands his people to make especially certain that they treat foreigners in their midst well (e.g. Exodus 23:9). But such good treatment of foreigners has very rarely been the case, either in the history of Israel or in world history in general. Pray that God would show mercy to our own country, forgiving us for the many times we’ve unjustly treated the strangers in our midst with suspicion, neglect, or abuse; and ask God to make our nation a truly welcoming place to those who are seen as different.

• ‘because the midwives feared God’—here is the first sign that everything is not going to go Pharaoh’s way. The midwives are more afraid of God than they are of Pharaoh. In faithfulness to God and out of a refusal to take part in Pharaoh’s wicked plan, they make the risky choice to disobey and deceive Pharaoh—and as a result, they find themselves rewarded by God.

• ‘she got a little basket —in Hebrew (which was the original language of Exodus), the word used here for ‘basket’ is the same as ‘ark,’ as in Noah’s ark, the boat Noah, his family, and the animals used to escape the flood. Moses’ mother is trying to save her son from the destruction faced by most of the Israelite boys, just like God used the ark to save Noah from the destruction of the flood.

• ‘laid it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile River’—Moses’ mother puts him in the Nile, just like Pharaoh commands—except for the fact that he’s in a basket.

• ‘I will pay you for your help’—the way things work out, Moses is indeed saved; and, in fact, his own mother is paid to raise him.

• ‘the princess, who adopted him as her son’—because the pharaohs had large harems, they would have many, many children; and the daughters especially would not necessarily have very high status in Pharaoh’s court. So, there is no reason to believe that Moses or his adoptive mother would have had any influence over Pharaoh (or that Moses would be the best friend and nearly equal of the heir-apparent, as the movies portray). Nonetheless, living in the palace as a relative of the Pharaoh would have given Moses access to a level of comfort, luxury, and education available to only a very few others in the world at the time. Moses has an extraordinary bi-cultural childhood: exposed to (and most likely aware of) his Hebrew roots, while at the same time living as part of the Egyptian elite.

Taking it home:
For you: Shiprah and Puah, by bravely ignoring the command of Pharaoh, rescue many Hebrew families from tragedy; in response, they are given families themselves. Is there something you are hoping for from God? Is there a way you could help someone else get that very thing? Jesus promises that he notices and rewards even the smallest acts of generosity toward others. We can expect that if we give to others, God will generously give to us—perhaps even in the exact same area of our life, like he did for Shiphrah and Puah.

For your six: The Egyptian princess allows her heart to be touched by a baby’s cry. We don’t know much about what happened in this princess’ life because of that choice, but we do know that that choice had huge, wonderful consequences for one family in particular, for an entire people, and for the world. Compassion is a powerful thing. Pray for more compassion in the lives of your six. Ask God both to give them hearts of compassion toward others and to make them the recipients of compassion from others. Pray that that compassion would have a powerful effect on their lives and the lives of the people around them.

For our church: Pray that our church would be a place where marginalized people would be welcomed, treated well, and appreciated; ask God to make us a good example to our city and our country in our treatment of ‘strangers.’