About this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married. The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a special baby and kept him hidden for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she got a 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 bank of the Nile River. The baby’s sister then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen to him. Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the riverbank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This must be one of the Hebrew children,” she said. Then 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. “Yes, do!” the princess replied. So the girl went and called the baby’s mother. “Take this baby and nurse him for me,” the princess told the baby’s mother. “I will pay you for your help.” So the woman took her baby home and nursed him. Later, when the boy was older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her own son. The princess named him Moses, for she explained, “I lifted him out of the water.”
Exodus 2:1-10
Dear God, isn’t it interesting that Moses’s mother’s name seems to be lost to history. His father too. It’s also interesting that we don’t get much about the father here, but who knows what his life was like. He might have been in hard labor and hardly around. No, these names are lost to history, but the are as important as any two people I read about in Genesis. They are responsible for saving the life of the boy/man who would lead your people out of Egypt.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like for the Israelite women to have to see their baby boys killed. Oh. Here’s a question I’ve never thought of before. I suppose that they circumcised Moses, meaning that’s probably how Pharaoh’s daughter knew immediately that the boy was a Hebrew. As mothers go, she’s as critical of a part of this story as Moses’s Hebrew parents. She was his adopted mother, and I don’t think we get her name either. In fact, the only name we get in these verses is Moses’s.
Why do I bring that up? Well, because we tend to think so much of ourselves, but it’s our actions that matter more than our words. These people all did the right thing. They had decisions to make and they did them. Whereas Jacob was so worries about his own name and his own convenience, these names are lost. It’s a reminder to me that my life isn’t about my name living forever, but the actions I take trickling through history.
Father, help me to do the right thing. Help me to be the husband, father, son, brother and uncle you need me to be. Help me to willingly decrease so that you can increase. Love through me above all else. Help me to stay in each moment and not be distracted by the future. Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth through my life as you will.
In Jesus’s name I pray,
Amen
Emails to God 