Exodus 2: 1-25 – “Taken From The Water”
I.) Intro.
There is a twofold danger in looking at Bible heroes, or for that matter, any person we greatly admire:
- 1.) First is what I call deifying them. What I mean by that is when we only look at their success & not their failures. We can see this to the extreme in some churches where they refer to certain men & women of the Bible as “Saint so & so.” You can even pick up in some commentaries the excusing away of bad behavior. When we fall into this danger, we elevate the man above God & begin to worship the creation or the instrument above the Creator.
- 2.) The second danger is equally bad yet is the opposite. This is what I call demonizing the hero. You can see this attitude in the hearts of the Pharisees as they attributed the actions of Jesus to the Devil. Many biographies of heroes only point out their shortcomings to the exclusion of what they did right. The danger in this is pride in ourselves.
The Bible does not make this mistake with its heroes of the faith—we see them warts & all. It is for this reason that I approach today’s study with great caution & prayer. What I desire for us is that we will be overwhelmed not with Moses the instrument, but with God the Master, who played so well with the instrument of His choice. Next, it is my prayer that we will see the instrument as special, not because of the qualities of the materials used, but because of its willingness to allow the Master to make the changes necessary to get the sound right for the song He wished to play. Without any more metaphors, we can both worship God & look at ourselves as instruments in the hands of the Master.
There are in this chapter three incidents in the life of Moses which show us the hand of God & the hand of Moses:
- a.) First, the birth of Moses.
- b.) Second, his attempt to deliver his brethren.
- c.) Third, his life in Midian.
II.) Vs. 1-10 On The Water
Vs. 1 It is amazing to me that as Moses sat down & wrote his own story, he does so without much fanfare. We are not even told the names of his parents until the sixth chapter. There, in verses 18-20, we are told that Moses’ father’s name was Amram, which meant “High people,” & his mother’s name was Jochebed, which means “Jehovah glorified.” It is there in the 6th chapter that we are told that Amram married his aunt on his father’s side, thus they were both descendants of Levi.
Vs. 2 The scene is now set for the birth of the deliverer. We left off in chapter 1 with the command of Pharaoh that every newborn boy be cast into the river. That then serves as the context for the birth of Moses.
We are not told here that Moses’ parents already had two children—the sister in verse 4, Miriam, whose name we are not told until chapter 15, was most likely 12 years older. Also, Aaron, whose name we are not told until the 4th chapter, was three years older (Ex. 7:7) & born before the decree of Pharaoh.
Why does God not see fit to include the names of the family members until later? Well, it is my opinion that God is saying to us that what is important for the making of the instrument of God is the character of the servants, not their family background, something that is further illustrated in verse 2. I’m always amazed at the British over their worship of the Royal family. It is not the bloodline that makes an instrument of God—it is rather God’s bloodline. OK, you say, why then does the Bible declare in verse two that Moses’ mother declared him as beautiful? Clearly, she saw some wonderful qualities in Moses at his birth that caused her to notice.
In all the verses which describe his birth, we are told something similar:
- Ex. 2:2 “She saw he was beautiful”
- Acts 7:20 “well pleasing to God;”
- Heb. 11:23 “because they saw he was a beautiful child;”
But what exactly does this mean? Does it mean, as some suggest, that Moses was a “beautiful baby” & that it was the outward qualities of Moses that spurred the faith of his parents to hide him for three months? Or does it mean that somehow they were told by God that Moses was to be an instrument of God, therefore he was worthy of saving?
The key to understanding this lies in the original language & how that word is used elsewhere. Literally, the verse reads that “she saw that he was good.” The word is used frequently in the O.T., specifically in the writings of Moses, where it carries the idea of goodness as the result of being made or declared good by God. In fact, it is the same word used in the creation account where God declared what He had created “good.”
Stephen’s words in Acts 7:20 point to this fact, where we are told again that Moses was, “well-pleasing to God.” It was not that Moses’ parents recognized some inward or outward significance in Moses, but rather they recognized that Moses was God’s child—that is what prompted them to faith.
So? Folks, God does not value us based on outward or inward qualities. He does so because of Who He is & the fact that He created us. Simply put, we are special to Him because we are His creation. Moses’ parents acted in faith because they saw him as God saw him.
Vs. 3 This brings me to another point that is often overlooked. The faith spoken of here & elsewhere is that of the hiding of Moses for three months, not that of placing him in the basket & into the Nile. Again, go to Heb. 11:23 and read with me, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.” The high point of faith that the author of Hebrews points to is not the placing of Moses into the water, but rather the hiding of him for three months. The passage on faith in Heb. 11 does not even mention the placing of Moses into the basket & on the river. Acts 7:18-21 is the same, where we read, “he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.” In fact, as Stephen tells this story, he uses a word to describe the act of the parents as “putting Moses out to die.”
So? What this suggests to me is that the remarkable story of Pharaoh’s daughter saving Moses has much more to do with God’s faithfulness & goodness than it does with the faith of Moses’ parents. That encourages me, for God is the One who is faithful—He is the Savior of His people—all the more we ought to look to Him & not the faith of others!
Moses was placed where other baby boys were placed—right by the river bank. Now Moses’ mother fulfilled the intent of Pharaoh’s law, but not the letter of it. The word “basket” is the same word used for Noah’s craft, “Ark.” From a parent’s perspective, there is hope, yet desperation, as they placed their three-month-old son in a basket. They made sure that it would float, & we are told that Miriam watched, but not the mother. Oh, the pain of human sorrow. She could not bear the thought of watching her child float downstream, but neither could she stand the thought of not knowing what had become of her son.
Vs. 4-10 Here is where the story takes an interesting twist. As Moses floats along in his ark & his sister looks on, who would be the worst person to find baby Moses? Why, it would have to be the family of Pharaoh who made the decree to begin with—that would mean instant death. Yet we are told that it was Pharaoh’s daughter who went down to wash when the ark came floating towards her. Can you imagine Miriam’s horror? “Oh God no, not this woman! Please God, not this woman!”
Yet we are told in verse 6 that at Moses’ weeping, her heart was melted. Yet she clearly knew that this was a Hebrew child. It is here that I want to stop & marvel at God, who takes the worst of possible situations & turns them into a glorious blessing. We are so tempted to rule God out based on the situation rather than trusting in His ability. We read Paul’s words in Eph. 6:20: “to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” The salvation of Moses would be enough to serve as an example of Eph. 6:20, yet there is still more.
Vs. 7-9 We are told that Miriam sprang into action, seeing the compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter, & suggested her mother as a nursemaid. So not only is Moses saved from certain death, he goes back to stay with his family for some years, for which they are paid. Man, is God ever good!
Vs. 10 It gets better yet! Here we are told in verse ten that Pharaoh’s daughter names the child Moses, which means “because I drew him out of the water.” Now think of this for a moment. All Hebrew male children are being drowned in the Nile river under direct command of the Pharaoh. Yet the daughter of Pharaoh saves a Hebrew male child in direct disobedience to his command & names the Hebrew male child “drawn from the water.” So, folks, it is not a leap of faith here to see that no doubt the command was abolished, for if not, the daughter herself would have to be put to death.
Simply put, God delivers the deliverer & in so doing delivers all the male children in Egypt. Wow! What does that suggest to us? Well, it shows us that even if we are the instrument of God, it is God who is doing it all. Folks, the key for us by way of application to being an instrument of reaching the world is to simply allow God to move us by His Holy Spirit as He sees best. What if Moses had the mindset of an adult & looked out of his little ship to see that he was heading straight for the last person he wanted to be heading towards? I can tell you right now that he would have started paddling in the opposite direction. The fact that he was an infant saved his life & the lives of the nation. Man, I’m always trying to see where I’m heading, & what God is saying to us this morning is not to worry about that as long as you are riding with Him!
Now, I want to take up some background study here before we get into the next section. You see, there is a 40-year gap between the 10th verse & the 11th verse. If we are not careful here, we lose sight of all that Moses did right, as well as what he did wrong. So, let’s finish this morning with some N.T. verses that will tell us what happened during those forty years.
- 1.) Acts 7:22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” Sometime after he was weaned, Moses went to school. Now, Egypt was the most technologically advanced nation of its time. In fact, the sciences, arts & engineering of that time have not been duplicated even in our day. Moses became equipped with all the wisdom that Egypt possessed. Now we are told in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus that Pharaoh had no sons & that his daughter’s first son would have been heir to the throne. We are also told by him that Moses had become quite the war hero. It would be easy if I were Moses here & say, “Man, I can be a deliverer of my people in a few years when I’m made the new Pharaoh.”
- 2.) Heb. 11:24-26 “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, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” Here, then, we are told that Moses, at some period of time, refused his position & rather chose his people. Folks, Moses did not lose his status as the future Pharaoh—he gave it up. Wow, what an important work God was doing!
- 3.) Acts 7:23 “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.” There came a point in time where Moses began to realize God’s call upon his life, but this was after he had made his decision to follow the people of God.
It is here that we come into the 11th verse. So? Well, again, may I just say that God was at work during those 40 years, & God is at work right here & now in your life. He desires to equip you for that which He has called you. Are you aware right now that He is doing just that? So do not despise the days of small things!
Exodus 2: 1-25 – “Taken From The Water” (Part 2)
I.) Intro.
We now come to the second & third events in the early life of Moses. By way of review, we saw that it was not Moses’ upbringing or characteristics that set him apart to be a deliverer; rather, it was clearly God’s handiwork. As we saw last week, there is a gap not filled in by the text of some forty years. According to Stephen’s words in Acts 7:22, “…Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” So the intellectual development of the man Moses was clearly influenced by the time he spent in the courts of Egypt, as he was trained & raised in their culture. In fact, according to verse 19, Jethro’s daughters all mistook him for an Egyptian, which can only mean that he looked like an Egyptian, talked like an Egyptian & acted like an Egyptian. When Moses went anywhere as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he would hear the words of his personal bodyguards as he stepped out of the princely chariot, “bow the knee,” and everybody would have to bow.
Yet, with that said, at some time according to the author of Hebrews, 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, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” There is little doubt that Moses’ parents had told him of his heritage as well as the promises of God towards the Israelites. What’s remarkable here is that at some point in time, Moses was going to be recognized as the next Pharaoh of Egypt, to which we are told in Hebrews that he refused. What did Moses turn down? Wealth, power, and popularity. So Moses turned down all the best that Egypt had to offer for all the worst it had to give! He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Suffering was not put upon him; rather, he made a conscious choice to leave the lap of luxury for a life of hardship. Folks, in this world, people don’t go with losers—they stay with winners. But Moses wanted to be with the losers, and he left everything to be on their team.
Those are the facts, but why? The *why* will tell us much more about his spiritual development: “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” Simply put, Moses placed the right value on the right things. There was a point in Moses’ spiritual development where he backed up his belief by how he chose to live his life—”reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” And, as we are told in Hebrews, he looked to his reward.
Folks, that is the background to what takes place now in Moses’ life. Here is a guy who has been living under the world’s way of thinking & doing things. He makes a conscious choice to become a believer & follower of the Lord at great cost to himself, yet joyful, knowing the riches in Christ. But how will that all play out in everyday life?
II.) Vs. 11-15 Without Water
Vs. 11 In Acts 7:23, we read Stephen’s account of this: “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.” There ought to be a time in every believer’s life when just saying you are a Christian is not enough—when just going to church once or twice a week isn’t doing it. Sometimes this is gradual, as you begin to pull away from the things of Egypt. For others, it is almost instantaneous. Moses had grown, not just physically but spiritually as well, & just understanding the truths about his people was not enough—he had to go see for himself.
Notice what it was that Moses observed: he noticed their burdens, and we are told here that their burdens are best explained as that of an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Now, we don’t know how it came to be, but Moses could not stand for the oppression of his people—not even one of them.
Vs. 12 So with all the training of the Egyptians behind him & a passion for what God wanted, Moses does what a lot of immature Christians try to do—conquer the world with the principles of the world.
What is it in your life right now that is oppressing you? What of the old nature are you battling with? Are you trying to conquer the flesh with the flesh? All you’re going to end up doing is burying it in the sand, & what you think you have gotten rid of will be very visible to all.
On a Christian front, I see this all the time. The Church has the right desire—“to reach a fallen people in bondage to the world”—yet they do so by employing the world’s ways.
Two ladies told me on Friday, “We want to reach college-age folks for Jesus!” “Great!” I said, “How are you going to do this?” “Well,” they said, “we are having a special event that we would like you to tell all your folks about. It’s called a Gymboree & it’s going to be a lot of fun. There are going to be prizes just for showing up, food, & crazy games.” Yet on their flyer, I noticed that Jesus’ name is not mentioned, neither is the Bible or prayer. Now, I’ve got to wonder how Jesus ever reached people without having a gymboree?
Is there something wrong with doing fun events? No! I don’t think so at all. But if the only way the Church thinks that it can reach people is by doing fun events, then it has missed the boat. The world has been in the entertainment business a lot longer than we have & they know how to appeal to the flesh. What brought me out of the world of sin & bondage was not entertainment—it was TRUTH! And my Bible says that faith comes by hearing, & hearing by the Word of God. So if I want to reach college kids or anybody else, then to me it must be about Jesus & His Word.
Notice here, Moses “looked this way & that way, & saw no one.” Simply put, Moses acted with premeditation. Oh, this was an act of passion, but it was also an act of forethought. Moses was trying to fulfill the call on his life by the energy of his own flesh. He had man’s wisdom & man’s power, & all it did was kill & bury. If what Moses had done was what the Lord wanted, why did he attempt to hide it? So, you see, Moses knew that this was not of the Lord.
Again, I always wonder why the Church feels it needs to make Jesus more presentable? “We’ve got to make Him just a little more exciting & fun to be around, otherwise no one will want to come to church, you know?” You see, I’m not interested in getting people to come to church—I’m interested in getting them closer to Jesus, & He is the most exciting & fun person I’ve ever spent time with.
Now, Stephen in Acts again gives us insight into Moses’ thinking in killing the Egyptian: “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.” Let’s see if we get the picture here: an Egyptian is persecuting a Hebrew, an Egyptian prince who is Hebrew kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew. “Yeh, that does it for me and the rest of the three million sheepherders turned bricklayers—we’re ready to follow you! Oh, by the way, what was your name? Moses? Well, you only have a few million more to kill & we’re right behind you!”
Vs. 13 Now Moses goes out the next day & sees two Hebrews fighting, one of them oppressing the other, & stops the fight. The word in verse 11 rendered “beating” & the one here rendered “striking” is the same word. Yet this time, both are Hebrews, & Moses can’t understand why one would beat the other. Moses has not learned that you cannot lead people you are not among. It is a simple truth, but a profound one: “You can’t lead people if you are not following God.” Did you notice the way Stephen words this: “that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.” Yes, God would deliver them, but it would be His hand working through an ex-Egyptian prince turned shepherd. Now follow me closely on this one: what did the people do while they were in Egypt? Why, they were shepherds! Moses had to learn how to follow before he could learn how to lead!
Vs. 14 Look at their response to Moses’ attempt: “Who made you Prince & Judge over us?” How funny! Moses was the prince & judge over all of Egypt, which would include them as well, yet the example Moses had shown them was that of killing an Egyptian. The bottom line is that Moses came in as an Egyptian, trying to lead the people by the ways of the Egyptians, but they could only be led by the ways of a shepherd.
What this speaks to me is that you can have all the credentials, but that does not make you a man who can lead others—only God can do that, & it is always the way of humility, not power & authority!
What was lacking in all of this? Passion? Effort? Forethought? No, Moses had all of this—what he did not utilize was the Holy Spirit. You can never do the work of God in the energy of the flesh—it will only kill!
Simply put, all the training to lead Egyptians did nothing to help lead Hebrews. Again, we read that Moses looked this way & that way, but he did not look up towards God. Had he done so, he would have found out that God was going to deliver His people His way in His time. Folks, it is great to have sincere motives, but if those God-given motives are not tempered by total dependence upon God, the end result will be death.
Vs. 15 Often, you can learn a lot more about a person in defeat & failure than in victory, & what we learn about Moses is that God has more work to do in his life. Look here at what Moses does with his failure:
- a.) Vs. 14b Moses feared: The self-confident Moses is now afraid. Folks, when we get out of the plan of God, all our confidence goes. Now, I’m not so sure that this is a bad thing, for our confidence is not to be in ourselves but rather in the Lord.
- b.) Vs. 15 So Moses flees from his grandfather: Now notice this—all the passion for his people left him when he failed. Folks, simply put, he quit & ran! Man, does that ever sound like me. I see this a lot with Christians—we even have a word for it, “burnout.” It happens when people with a passion for something do it with all they have, only to not achieve what they wanted fast enough. Moses failed, & his failure was because he attempted to do God’s work in his power—now he has lost his taste for God’s call. Yet God is not done with him.
Now, we read here that Moses fled to Midian. This land was most likely chosen by Moses for several reasons:
- 1.) It was the land of Abraham’s younger sons through Keturah, his wife after Sarah died. They settled on the southeastern Sinai in what today we would call west-central Arabia.
- 2.) The people of that land, the Midianites, were monotheistic & believed in the same God as the Hebrew people did. In fact, his father-in-law’s name (Reuel) means “friend of God.”
- 3.) The land of the Canaanites had an extradition treaty with Egypt, so Moses knew that if he had fled there, he would have been brought back to justice.
Now, Moses must have felt like one big failure at this time, a big loser. He had abandoned his people, his call, his way of life. He left with nothing but the clothes on his back. I think that we all at times experience Midian. The name Midian means “strife,” and I think here that the strife was warring in Moses’ members. At the time we find ourselves there, we are certain that we will be there for the rest of our lives, but the desert is part of God’s plan. For it is out in the desert that Egypt & its ways get stripped off of us. I have come to realize that though I may not like the strife in the desert, it is here that victory is won! If you are in Midian right now, learn the lessons of it, for you won’t be leaving until you do. You see, Moses came to Midian a prince, but he would leave it a shepherd. He came to it a son of the queen, but he would leave it a son of a slave. He came to it wealthy, but he left poor. He came to it a mighty warrior, but he left it a meek man. Oh, may we thank God for the Midian experiences in life as they fit us for service.
III.) Vs. 16-25 Drawing Water
Vs. 15b Now symbolically, I like this picture. Moses failed because he went away from dependence upon the Holy Spirit, & right after this failure, he ends up at a well of water. Nothing like blowing it to make us realize that we need the Holy Spirit. The word “dwell” means to make your home there or to settle there. Folks, may I make a point here before I move on? The key to Christian living is sitting down & making your home by the well of the Holy Spirit. As I’ve heard Pastor Chuck put it, “We need to keep ourselves under the spout where the Spirit comes out!”
Vs. 16-17 Now I love this, for God does not put Moses on the shelf here. No, you see old Jethro had seven daughters & no sons, so they would get to the well real early & remove the stone that covered the well & start watering the sheep, only to be bullied by the other shepherds who would come later. It appears that this was an everyday occurrence until Moses stepped in to deliver them. So, you see, God is showing Moses that His call on his life is still there, but he needs to learn how to lead. The word here “helped” means to deliver in Hebrew. And how did he do that? Well, you see, he took it upon himself & killed one of them! No, he just stood up. The root word here means to “abide.” Do you get it? Moses abided by the well!
So? Simply put, Moses just refused to move from the place of the well—he stood his ground. I love the simplicity of the victory—it was not about Moses kicking some bully shepherd tails, no, he just abided by the Holy Spirit & let Him do the work.
Vs. 18-20 So the daughters tell Jethro the story, & he gets dinner & more out of it. Do you see here in verse 19 what Moses does? He drew water for all of them—the ladies & the sheep. Man, Moses is starting to change already, & it’s only been a short time. He has gone from doing it his way to doing it God’s way, & more than that, he has become a servant. People will follow a servant before they will ever follow a prince. Then in verse 20, Moses is so humbled out that he does not even ask for anything in return.
Vs. 21-22 Yet we see in the taking of Zipporah (“Lady Bird”) & the naming of his son Gershom (“an alien here”), Moses still has more to learn, & it will take 40 more years for him to be prepared. Moses still thought of himself as an Egyptian, but in time, he would see himself not as an Egyptian but as a Hebrew, longing to take his people home to Canaan.
It appears at this point in the story that Moses, the baby deliverer, has faded into obscurity until we read the final verses. Not only was God preparing Moses, He was busy preparing the people to be delivered as well.
Vs. 23-25 When Moses left, they fought with each other, & in time, they only cried to God. That suggests to me that they moved from trying to do things by themselves to realizing only God could save them! Notice the basis of God hearing their cries: the covenant between Abraham & Him. Folks, it was not their faithfulness that came into God’s heart—it was His own agreement He made with Abraham, their forefather.
As we close this morning, I pray that in the life of Moses you will see God at work in your life, & that in so doing, it will encourage you to keep up the good fight of faith, for God is at work. There is a true statement that each of us as Christians should remind ourselves of, & that is we are all “UNDER HIS CONSTRUCTION!”