Resource Detail

She Named Him Moses

Exodus 1:1-2:10

Key Verse 2:10

I. The faith of Hebrew Midwives

1. Read verses 1:1-14. How did the Egyptians treat the Israelites? Why did they treat the Israelites in this way? 

2. Read verses 1:15-21. Why did the Hebrew midwives defy the king’s order? (Genesis 1:28; 12:2-3)

II. The Faith of Moses’ Parents

3. Read 1:22-2:2. This passage indicates that it seemed impossible to keep any Hebrew boy alive. Yet how were Moses’ parents able to do the impossible (i.e., hiding the boy for three months)? (Hebrews 11:23)

4. Read 2:3-4 and think about the actions Moses’ mother took. What enabled her to do this? 

III. The Faith of Moses’ Sister

5. Read verses 5-10. What did Moses’ sister do? How was she rewarded? 

6. Read verse 10 again and think about the meaning of the name “Moses”. What does the name Moses indicate about the child?

She Named Him Moses

(The Hope of Redemption)

Exodus 1:1-2:10 

Key Verse 2:10

When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."

Today we would like to meet a few people who by faith lived against the stream of the generation, and rekindled the hope of redemption in unusually difficult times. 

The title, “She Named Him Moses” indicates that God has a great sense of humor. For those who live by faith in the Lord God, he has a wonderful way to make them burst into laughter even amidst the most despairing circumstances. 

In honor of the holy acts of faith, the Lord God reached into the deep pockets of the enemies of God’s people and secured a powerful provision for the hope of redemption to grow. Note that it was Pharaoh’s daughter who gave the name Moses, and Moses’ name reminds us of the fruit of faith, that is, the riches of grace that is powerful enough to save a multitude of people out of slavery to the freedom of God. How did it happen?    

First, these are the names of the sons of Israel (1-7) 

In order for us to see the hope of redemption grow, we must first learn to appreciate the value of each person in the Lord. Look at verses 1-7. This passage begins with the expression, “These are the names of the sons of Israel…” [This is an exact repetition of Genesis 46:8.] What is the point of repetition? In the first place, why names? A number of people get turned off when they open the Bible only to run into a bunch of names. Think about the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel. The whole chapter is filled with a bunch of names, some of which are hard to pronounce. But we admit that these are the Holy Scriptures. So what is the deal? 

The deal is this: the absolute value of a soul in the Lord. In the eyes of the people of the world, the sons of Israel may have looked like a bunch of nobodies. In the eyes of the Egyptians, they might have looked like a bunch of illegal immigrants. But in the eyes of the Lord, they are all valuable, as valuable as the stars in the sky. Psalm 147:4 says, “He determines the number of stars and calls them each by name.” In the same way, Jesus said, “[The shepherd] calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:3). In this way Jesus regards each person equally valuable. 

In what respect is each person in the Lord so valuable?  The way the Lord calls his children “sons of Israel” gives us a hint.  Israel is a “Christian” name for Jacob. It refers to the new creation, whereas Jacob refers to the old person. 

This indicates that in order for us to see and work on the hope of redemption for each person, we need to appreciate the (equally) absolute value of each person in the Lord.  For Jesus Christ shed his blood for all of them, and he did this to redeem all of them.

Second, a new king who did not know about Joseph (8) 

The next point for us to remember in seeing and working on the hope of God’s redemption on each person is to understand the root cause of man’s down fall, that is, the loss of faith in the Lord. It has been said that knowing the cause of a problem is half way to the solution of the problem. The same is true in working for the redemption of mankind.  

Look at verse 8. “Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.” We can characterize verses 8-14 as “the picture of a savage nation.” We can divide this passage into two parts: the cause (8) and the effect (9-14). Verse 8 describes the cause of the Egyptian Empire becoming a savage nation. Verses 9-14 talk about the effect (or result) of the cause. 

So what made the nation Egypt become a savage nation? What made her turn from an otherwise civilized nation to a virtual animal farm, a virtual living hell? Verse 8 answers the question: a king who did not know about Joseph came to power. What didn’t the king know about Joseph? 

The life of Joseph described in the book of Genesis stands out for explanation. According to Genesis 39:2 and 23, all the days of his life in Egypt, Joseph “walked” with the Lord. As he walked with the Lord, the Lord was with him, so he prospered, for the Lord gave him success in whatever he did. 

Most dramatically are the two dreams the Lord gave to Pharaoh. (Joseph alone was able to interpret these dreams - the dreams of the two sets of seven cows and two sets of seven heads of grain as described in Genesis 41:18-24). These two dreams represented seven years of prosperity and seven years of famine. What do the dreams teach us about the God Joseph believed in? The two dreams tell us that God is in control of all things on earth. He is the God of providence. This practically means that God is greater than all resources that are visible and invisible. So in God we can be truly sufficient. As we are, we are not sufficient. We are all “self-deficient.” But in Him we are all sufficient. Our cup overflows within him both in thick times and thin times.  Joseph proved this truth through his life at the Potiphar’s house, at the prison house, and in the royal palace. In good times and bad times the source of true satisfaction for him was the Lord, not his external conditions such as a status, a job, or a family. The Apostle Paul explained the same concept when he said, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:12).

In many ways, a lot of people are well endowed; they are from well-to-do families. They have good looks, a good education, a good career, and live in a good neighborhood. But still they feel horribly empty inside. But Joseph was different. He lost his mother at an early age. He lost his father’s support. At a young age his step brothers lynched him. He got sold into a slave farm. He was torn apart from his father who loved him. And yet he withdrew lots of comfort through his personal walk in the Lord. No wonder the nation, and yes, the whole empire, and her people living under his leadership remained happy and well provided for in both thick and thin times. 

But the new leader of the nation lost what kept Joseph up, that is, faith in God who provides. That was the cause of the tragedy. That was the beginning of an otherwise civilized nation becoming a savage nation. 

Third, they put slave masters over them (9-14)

What then was the effect of the whole empire losing the kind of faith Joseph lived by? How miserable did all become? Look at verses 9-14. “‘Look,’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.’ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.” Here we have a complete list of the policies that made the life of the Israelites a living hell. We can call these seven items on the list as “Satanic Verses.” 

We must deal shrewdly with them…(human beings are no longer an end but a means)

If war breaks out, [they] will join our enemies…(panic attacks)

[They] will leave the country (fear of loss)

So they put slave masters over them (system for exploitation)

[They started] to oppress them with forced labor (oppression)

The Egyptians came to dread the Israelites (phobia)

[And] worked them ruthlessly (slavery) 

If you think about it, any individual, family, fellowship, or nation that does not go by faith in the Lord, will end up operating according to any or all of these satanic policies at least to a certain extent. The degrees of severity might vary, but the nature remains the same. When situations arise, people will end up behaving more or less like the new king of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 

Fourth, heroes of faith 

It has been said that heroes are born out of adversity. In times of great adversity, we see several heroes of faith revolting against the satanic rule of the generation. 

(1) Shiphrah and Puah (15-21)

In verses 15-21, we see two Hebrew female characters Shiphrah and Puah. They were midwives. Most likely they were on a government payroll. The king of Egypt said to them, “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” In those days, the Egyptians belonged to the ruling class, whereas the Hebrews belonged to a “slave class.” Slaves are programmed to obey their slave masters. Pharaoh was the master of all slave masters. His power was absolute. Disobedience to his order directed at the Hebrew midwives might have easily cost them their lives. 

And among slaves, it is rare that a slave is kind to another fellow slave. This is just like what goes on in prison. In prison, inmates are rarely kind to their fellow inmates. Yet, slaves are even worse than criminals, confined in a prison. It is not unlikely that since Pharaoh gave the Hebrew midwives a special task, they had been relieved of their hard forced labor under the scorching sun. Maybe they were given special privileges like having access to a soda machine or the time to enjoy a long break in the shade, while the other slaves were sweating in the slave farm. So, in order to save their skin, they could have been tempted to do whatever their slave masters asked them to do. 

However, they feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live. Then, the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?" Goose bumps must have broken out all over their bodies. But they did not chicken out. They must have prayed to the Lord. And the Lord gave them wisdom: they answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” This was a lame excuse, but it worked. They saved their fellow Jews. At the same time, they saved their own lives! They saved their jobs too! In this way, God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 

(2) Moses’ parents 

Hebrews 11:23 reads, “By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.” Obviously, Moses’ parents consist of both Moses’ father and his mother. Both of them were heroes of faith. How so? Look at verse 22, “Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: ‘Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.’” Now the king’s order was on the heads of Moses’ parents. Look at Exodus 2:1-2. “Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.” Torah Anthology, by Meam Loez, says that upon being born, Moses’ parents saw that the boy looked so fine (or “good”) that they named the boy “Toviah” meaning, “God is good.” [Moses is not the name Moses’ birth parents gave; Hebrew parents have the custom of naming the baby even before birth.] To parents, every child is lovely, even though they may look ugly in other people’s eyes. But in the case of Moses’ parents, the boy was born not in a peaceful time, but in a cruel time. In times of adversity, they could have easily doubted God’s goodness for them. Yet, in naming the baby they expressed their faith in God’s goodness. 

How could they see God’s goodness in the boy born in such a terrible time? Why did such a good God allow such a terrible edict to come down on them? Hebrews 11:1 answers the question: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith sees what is unseen. By faith they saw God’s goodness which was unseen. 

Consistent with this faith then what did Moses’ parents do? Look at verses 2b-4 again: “When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.” By faith they believed that God had a reason to ask the Israelites to put the boy in the Nile River. So they made a special boat for the boy, and obeyed the King’s edict, believing that the Lord God would show his hands of protection and provision.  

Lo and behold, the Lord God synchronized all events. All of a sudden, Pharaoh's daughter felt the urge to go swimming in the Nile River. She went down to the Nile to bathe and her attendants were walking along the river bank. According to the perfect time schedule, the basket floated down to a place close enough to be seen by Pharaoh’s daughter. So, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said. 

Then Miriam his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?" Pharaoh’s daughter was the richest girl in the whole empire. Being a rich girl from an absolutely wealthy family, she was even trained to be benevolent to all those who were poorly endowed. So, without further thought, she said, “Yes, go.” And the girl went and got the baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. And that was Moses’ mother. 

Look at verse 10a. “When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” The princess’s adopted son was later to be the redeemer of Israel. The Lord God blessed the faith of Moses’ parents, so that the hope of redemption was growing up within the royal palace of the Egyptian Empire. For those who believe in the Lord, then, the Lord grants them great victories even in times of great adversities.  

In conclusion, many people, especially young ones of our generation, go through unusually difficult times. Many parents have already given up on them. Those who are responsible for preserving the physical and spiritual wellbeing of the growing generation have largely abandoned their duties to shepherd over them. In their sense of drift, a majority of people are literally throwing their children into the Modern day Nile River, that is, the drug culture and the wicked and adulterous environment of this world. 

What should we do then? First of all, we should not despair. Like Moses’ parents, by faith we must take responsibility for them. By faith we must work to make good environments for them, such as making spiritual baskets for them. Let us then pray to raise our children to be the Moses of our generation and the generations to come, and let us work to establish future leaders, one by one. With the holy faith, let us pray to get ourselves engaged in the great one to one Bible studies, teaching the Bible to our children so that in each of their lives, the seed of God’s hope of redemption would be planted and grow.  

One word: I drew him out of the water 

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