Chapter 2

Exodus Chapter 2

Commentary:

2:1- We are not given the names of Moses’ parents until Exodus 6:20. We’re told there that his father was Amram and his mother, Jochebed. A weird fact you’ll likely never hear a preacher mention is that Ex 6:20 also says Amram married his own aunt (Jochebed). That becomes awkward when Moses records a law in Leviticus 18:12 that you are not to marry your own aunt.‌ We often speak of Aaron as a Levite, but we forget that means Moses was a Levite too. They were brothers, so they come from the same family line. With the benefit of hindsight, we think of the Levites as the priestly tribe, but God didn’t pick the Levites out as priests until Exodus 28. At this point, all we know about Levi is what we have in Genesis 34 when Levi (the actual ancestor, 1 of Jacob’s 12 sons) along with his brother Simeon killed an entire city’s worth of males after the prince of that city raped their sister. In Genesis 49, Jacob speaks prophetically about each tribe, and he describes Levi this way:

‌Genesis 49:5–7

Simeon and Levi are brethren; Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; Unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: For in their anger they slew a man, And in their selfwill they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

‌Not exactly the picture we usually have of the priestly tribe. Jacob’s prophecy comes true as they turn out to be one of the most violent tribes in Israel and are not given a portion of the promised land. So, if we imagine we’ve never read this story before and we don’t know who the characters are, we might actually be a little wary of what’s going on, wondering if this descendant of Levi will carry on Levi’s. violent legacy or start a new one. As you already likely know, Moses kind of takes a road between the two. He has times when he lashes out violently. In fact, the first recorded action we have of Moses is his committing manslaughter. But the next 40 years of his life seem to mellow him out to where he becomes a meek and patient man. He’s a step in the right direction but still not the redeemer we’ve been looking for to restore Eden.

‌2:2- Sometimes you’ll hear preachers say Moses was a particularly handsome or cute baby, trying to make sense of “he was a goodly child,” but that is not the point at all. The verse says they saved him because he was good, not that he behaved well or looked good. They understood that the child was good, that he had a purpose in life. The Bible never says they had foreknowledge of what he would do. Hebrews says they had faith. They just knew he was good because even though he came in a bad time, God would use him for a good purpose.

‌“Pharaoh orders that all the Israelite sons be executed by having them tossed into the Nile river. Try to imagine the horror. This Pharaoh is the worst, sub-human character in the biblical story so far, and so his third and most heinous act of evil is met by God’s third and most remarkable response. One particular Israelite boy, Moses, is born, and the story pauses for a moment to describe what he looked like. This is odd and rarely happens in biblical narrative, so you should know to pay attention: The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was good...‌ Do you get it? Do you remember how Genesis 1 repeated this same phrase, seven times over! This repetition is the author’s invitation to see the birth of this baby as yet an - other divine intervention into human evil. This baby will be thrown into the river just as Pharaoh commanded, and he’s going to float right into the royal palace, into Pharaoh’s family, and so become his downfall. Pharaoh planned it for evil, but God…you know how to finish the sentence by now.”

“IN JEWISH LORE, MOSES’ NATIVITY is said to have filled his house with light. Such a tradition likely derives from the language of his birth in Exodus. When Moses’ mother conceived and bore a son, we are told that “she saw him that he was good” (Exodus 2:2), words that follow the creation account closely, when “God saw the light that it was good” (Genesis 1:4). Later on in his life, Moses’ face would indeed radiate light, shining with the reflected glory of God (Exodus 34:29-35). Legends about his birth were one way the ancient rabbis sought to express the greatness of the historical figure of Moses, a standing that has even led some scholars to view the Pentateuch as something of a biography of Moses.

"Truly, it would be difficult to underscore properly the significant role and unique status of Moses in the life of Israel. His role encompasses every conceivable office, that of deliverer and paradigm of the Messiah, lawgiver, prophet, priest, psalmist, sage, and king. Above all, no other man in the Old Testament era was nearer to Yahweh God, a relationship described as “face to face” (Exodus 33:11); to no one else did Yahweh God reveal himself as fully.” -Michael Morales‌

2:3- What do you think this would have felt like for Moses’ mother? Imagine yourself being in a situation where you felt your child had a better chance at survival if you put them in a box in a river than if you kept them in your own house. What was she hoping would happen? “The word for “ark” (tevah) appears only here and in the [Flood] story, where Noah constructs an ark, and seems to be an Egyptian loan word signifying a chest or coffin. Clearly, the ark encloses the babe completely for Pharaoh’s daughter will need to open it in order see what is inside.‌ Among the treasures of the Cairo museum there is an elongated reed basket containing the body of a child from around 10,000 BC, perhaps reflecting funerary practice in Egypt, so that some have surmised the Levite mother may have put on a funeral ruse. Whether or not this is so, James Gray’s understanding of the story’s symbolism remains:

“The Savior of Israel was laid in a coffin, and taken from a watery grave.” As with the flood story, however, the ark is a means of salvation from the waters of death. In Genesis 8:15-19, Noah and all his household, along with a remnant of every living creature—birds and animals and every creeping thing—emerge out of the ark’s door to populate the newly cleansed earth, so that the ark functions more like a womb than a tomb. In the first half of the deluge narrative the waters represent death and destruction, prevailing over the earth so that all flesh dies (Genesis 7), only to give way to the idea of life and new creation in the second half (Genesis 8), beginning with God’s sending of a wind (ruakh) over the waters so that dry land appears (Genesis 8:1). Similarly, the imagery in Moses’ rebirth story transitions from death to life when the daughter of Pharaoh descends into the river to cleanse herself (Exodus 2:5). Her maidens, like attendant midwives, bring the ark to her and when she opens it, she sees the child. In this beautifully crafted account, the word for “child” (Exodus 2:6) is the exact center of the story, with seventy words on either side.” -Michael Morales

‌Bulrushes are papyri. Slime is bitumen, a thick sealing residue kind of like an oil. Pitch is very similar, almost a synonym as far as we can tell. They’re both pretty rare words. The idea is that she was waterproofing the ark. Flags are reeds.

2:4- This is the first we hear of Moses having siblings. We don’t learn her name until later in the book, but Miriam will come back into the spotlight at key moments of Moses’ story. I find it interesting that she wanted to know what would happen to Moses. Did Jochebed feel like she couldn’t bear to find out? Was Miriam better at hiding than her mom? Did Jochebed even know Miriam was there? The Bible doesn’t say how much older Miriam was than Moses, but tradition suggests around 7 years.‌

2:5- We don’t know exactly which Pharaoh this was, so we can’t know for sure who his daughter was or how old she would have been at this time. Some have suggested that she was bathing as part of a purification ritual, perhaps inclining her to see the appearance of this baby as a sign from the gods. We can’t know for sure.

‌2:6- “By use of “look!” the same verse directs readers to see through the eyes of Pharaoh’s daughter, giving prominent attention to what happens next: “the babe was crying.” This is the first activity ascribed to the infant; previously, the baby was merely a passive object. On his rebirth, however, it is as if he is only now truly born: he cries, a wet-nurse is called for, he grows, and finally he is given a name by the young woman, the daughter of Pharaoh, who in drawing him out of the waters of the Nile had given him a kind of rebirth. On his deliverance through the waters, Moses is transferred out of the household of Hebrew slaves under Pharaoh’s threat and enters the Pharaoh’s Egyptian household as a royal son. Indeed, the narrative resolves with a stunning statement: “he became her son” (Exodus 2:10).‌ By describing Pharaoh's daughter as having compassion, she is set in stark contrast to her father who exhibited none. She is the first person to have her compassion highlighted in the Biblical narrative.

2:7- What boldness on Miriam’s part! She probably could have been killed for approaching the princess of Egypt like that. Later on in the Biblical story, Esther exhibits similar boldness to save her people.

‌2:8- You gotta love the irony here. Learn from this that God always has an answer and it’s always as good or better than what we could have imagined, but it also almost always includes facing and even experiencing your worst fears before you get an answer. I can only imagine how Jochebed and Amram must have felt. You leave your child, assuming they’re going to die only to bring them back home with royal blessing before the end of the day. Remember these were real people. They felt the same emotions you and I do.

‌2:9- We have dreams and desires that we think are so good, and we hold onto them like we’ll lose everything if we don’t get them. God asks us to let go of our dreams so He can give us what we’re asking for plus more. I’m sure Jochebed prayed and tried to bargain with God just to keep her little baby Moses alive in her house. Once she was willing to let him go, she got him back and got paid to do what moms do every day. Don’t be afraid of handing over your dreams, your future, your life to God. He’s not going to give you some horrible fate. Jesus said the Father loves to lavish gifts on His children. He’s just waiting for you to give up demanding such small things so He can bless you with more.‌

2:10- While many commentators note that Moses’ name in Hebrew means something along the lines of “to draw out of water,” remember that this was an Egyptian who named him. “The word mose in Egyptian means “son” or “born.” It is a very common element in Egyptian [names connected to gods] such as Thutmose, “Son of Thoth” (or “Thoth is born”), Rameses (Son of Ra), Ahmose (Son of Ah), etc. In Moses’ case, it simply means, “Son” or “Born.” His name, which lacks a patronymic (father’s name), works well for him since he was a foundling, a son of nobody.” It seems there is a play on words in Moses’ name that works well in both Egyptian and Hebrew.

2:11- Roughly 40 years go by in between verses 10 and 11. Imagine the friendships he formed with Egyptian royalty in that time. He would have likely been in line to become Pharaoh eventually. What made him decide to go out and observe the Hebrew slaves that day? Did he do this previously? What snapped in him this time that he felt he needed to act? Surely he saw Hebrews being mistreated before that day. The Bible doesn’t say for sure if he knew he himself was a Hebrew, but the text seems to suggest it as a motivation. Perhaps he found out shortly before that, like someone who finds out they were adopted, goes to find their biological family, and as soon as they drive up to the house, they see someone else beating up the people they now know are family. How would you feel?‌

2:12- Remember how we said before that Moses’ story often foreshadows Israel’s story in the rest of the book? He looks this way and that, left and right, then he moves forward. Kind of similar to how the Red Sea waters would part on the left and right and Israel would take the path in between. He was trying to be a savior like Abel, but he became a murderer like Cain. That word sand is almost always used in Scripture to describe the descendants of Abraham as being “more in number than the sand of the sea.” A word that was often used of how Israel was to a blessing is used only here in a negative sense as Moses actually becomes a curse upon the land.

‌2:14- That word prince is translated “captain” in Genesis 37-41 to describe Potiphar, an Egyptian general over soldiers and prisoners. The question is rather ironic since Moses does indeed become both a general and a judge over Israel later in the book.

‌2:15- Moses was 40 here. Did he have a wife and kids he left behind? I can’t imagine a royal grandson of Pharaoh would have remained unmarried for 40 years. We know he marries and has children in the next 40 years (actually just a little later in this chapter), but think about what and whom he must have left behind in Egypt in haste. Yet again, his life foreshadows the story of Israel later as they will one day leave Egypt in haste.

‌Wells are very significant in Scripture. They’re water in a place without water. Rest in place of unrest. Little Eden oases. You should be thinking back to the last time an Israelite sat by water and found a bride (Jacob). How intriguing then too that Jesus, the bridegroom, went to a well in John 4 to find a woman who had been married already in order to bring her to Himself spiritually.

‌2:16- Normally we would be skeptical of a priest of a foreign nation; we wouldn’t think he’d be on the same side or worshipping the God of Abraham. But this guy is going to surprise us in a lot of ways. The first clue that he is more than you might think is that the story says he has 7 daughters. Seven is frequently used in Scripture to link you back to Creation with the rest and completion Yahweh enjoyed on the 7th day of Creation. The text never says he didn’t have any sons or maybe even more daughters, but it focuses in on these 7 in particular to make a theological point that this was someone in sync with Yahweh’s mission.

‌There’s only 2 other times that word troughs is used in Scripture, and they’re both in Gen 30 when Jacob cheated his father in law out of a large portion of his herd. There it’s translated “gutters,” but it’s the same word. We’re hyperlinking again back to Jacob’s story. Is Moses going to deceive this new family and scheme to make life work in his favor, or will he trust Yahweh to provide? Which will you choose?

‌2:18- Here the priest of Midian is called Reuel. All the remaining times he pops up in the story, he’s called Jethro (Ex 3,4, and 18). For some reason, the KJ and Young’s Literal Translation alone choose to translate his name as Raguel only in Numbers 10:29. Raguel was the Latin spelling of Reuel’s name, found in the Vulgate from the late 300s AD. Wycliffe kept it as Raguel in Numbers 10:29 only when he translated the Vulgate into English in the late 1300s AD. And for some reason, the KJ decided to keep it there only as well. It’s the same spelling though, so we have 2 main names for this guy— Reuel and Jethro. But then it gets even funkier because Numbers 10:29 says Hobab was Moses’ brother-in-law, a son of ReuelJethro. Judges 4:11 says Hobab was ReuelJethro, Moses’ father-in-law. Some have suggested that Jethro was actually an honorific title more than a name, like Pharaoh or President. Then, with some extremely nerdy Hebrew grammar comments, they’re able to suggest that Hobab and Reuel were actually the same person just using different names. Perhaps one name was a personal name while the other was for official clan use. It is fascinating to note that only a couple people in the Bible have the name Reuel. One of them was a son of Esau (Gen 36). Perhaps the text is here introducing us to Hobab the Jethro, using his personal family name of Reuel first in order to clue us in to how he was familiar with the God of Abraham. Perhaps he was named after his (possible) great-great-great-great-great grandfather Reuel, son of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. We can’t know for sure, and the study will make your head hurt, but it’s a legitimate theory. If Reuel knew the shepherds were bothering his daughters, why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he send men to do the job or to protect them or why didn’t he go and work out a deal with the shepherds? We can’t know for sure, but it is fun to speculate.

2:21- That escalated quickly. We don’t know how long it took though. There could be several years in that one little verse. The story has to move forward. Exodus is not a biography of Moses but rather the story of how God frees His people in order to restore His relationship with humanity.

‌2:23- God hears the cry of oppressed people. He hears you when you don’t have the words to express your pain.

‌2:24- Don’t let the English wording throw you here. God didn’t forget about His people in those 400 years. The word translated remember actually means to name, mention, proclaim, or even take to court. The verse is telling you that God has surveyed the situation and decided it was time to act. It’s like Thanos during the end credit scene of Age of Ultron when he saw events were right for him to enact his plan and he gets up off his throne and says, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” God gave Pharaoh time to change his ways and will give him even more chances in the next chapters, but He’s setting in motion a plan that will change the course of human history.

‌2:25- KJ has kind of strange word choice in “had respect.” It literally means He knew them. He remembered them, took notice in respect to them. Similar to the statement in the previous verse, God has said that enough is enough and it is time to act. We’re being set up for all that is going to happen in the next chapters.

‌Next Week:

Divine real estate, how to approach deity, the name of God, and what it will take to free Israel—all this and more in Exodus chapter 3.

Key Thought:

Sometimes we think that the Christian life would be so much easier if we could live in Bible times. Back then God spoke. If I had a question, I could go ask Moses. Or I could go be one of Jesus’ disciples. But as we look at these stories, we find that times weren’t really that different from how they are today. God was silent for 400 years back then. And God still works miracles today. Having a person like Moses or even Jesus walking around near where you live wouldn’t solve all your problems. Look at how the people of those times responded to the revelation they had. They had doubts and fears and struggles and all the real human emotions you and I do every day too. They weren’t super Christians. They were just like you and me.

Take comfort in knowing that you’re not a bad person or a bad Christian if you have doubts, fears, and struggles. That just means you’re human. And being human means that God wants to be united with you and free you from situations that cause you to cry out to Him for help. He may not always answer in the timing we like, but when He does, His solution is so much more powerful than we could have imagined. I can’t imagine Jochebed had a darker moment in her life than the day she laid her little baby in that river and left him to God and fate. There is no way she could have thought he’d ever come back home or probably even live past the night. Take hope and encouragement from the fact that God works in the most incredible ways when we can think of no human answer or solution. The sooner you get on your knees and hold your hands up to heaven, releasing control of your situation to God, the sooner you will find His answer to be better than you could have ever imagined.