Through studying Shiphrah and Puah last week, we found out that the Pharaoh reigning at the time of Moses' birth gave a command that all Hebrew sons be killed at birth. This is because he was afraid that the Hebrews' great number and might would mean that they would one day "join [Egypt's] enemies and fight against them" in the event of war (Exodus 1:9-10). However, these two midwives did not do as Pharaoh said and "saved the male children alive" because they "feared God" (Exodus 1:15-17).
As a result of Shiphrah and Puah's brave act of civil disobedience, Moses' mother was able to keep him. Scriptures such as Exodus 6:20 and Numbers 26:59 let us know that she was called Jochebed, although in Exodus 2:1-11 (which is the scripture that we will be delving into today) she remains nameless. According to this passage:
"...when she saw that [Moses] was a beautiful child. she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, 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 bank. And his sister (Miriam) stood afar off, to know what would be done to him" (Exodus 2:2-4).
To cut a long story short, God had it so that the person that discovered Moses was Pharaoh's daughter. However, although she realised that he was a Hebrew child, Exodus 2:6 says that "she had compassion on him". I think that it was because of this that Miriam was bold enough to approach her and ask if she should go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse him for her. But there are two things that are especially remarkable to me:
- The fact that Pharaoh's daughter was willing to go against her father's orders by giving Miriam permission to find Moses a nurse, thereby preserving his life even further (Exodus 2:7-8)
- The woman that Miriam called was Jochebed and, not only did the Pharaoh's daughter give her permission to nurse him, she paid her to do so until he was old enough to be weaned and brought back to the palace- making Pharaoh's daughter Moses' adopted mother (Exodus 2: 8-10)
Point number 1 I will discuss in another devotional, especially about Pharaoh's daughter, soon. Point number 2, on the other hand, reminds me of a concept that I like to call "balancing the risk and the reward":
