Episode 53: Exodus 2

Exodus chapter 2 verse 1. And there went a man of the house of Levi and took a wife, a daughter of Levi. So both the husband and wife are from the priestly tribe too. And the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she'd hit him three months. So it must be that he was healthy. There was nothing wrong with him. And she thought this was even more of a reason not to let the Egyptians kill him. So she hid him from the Egyptians. And of course the midwives didn't stop her, did they? Three. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bull rushes and dobbled it with slime and with pitch. And she put the child therein and laid it in the flags by the rivers' brink. So what's the difference between a boat and an ark? An ark isn't an enclosed covering type of boat, a little bit like a cruise ship because you know cruise ships have a top. A cell boat. It doesn't really have much of a top. So you're kind of exposed to the elements. But in an ark you're enclosed like in a cocoon, there's no exposure to the elements. Moses, his ark, had a top that protected them from all the rain. And she made a baby sized ark for her baby so that the water wouldn't come in and fill up the boat and drown the baby. By it being cocoon-shaped, it would stay afloat. And if a little water splashed over the top of it, the water would just run down. So she went to the bull rushes to get the material to make the ark and dobbled it with slime and with pitch. You know those, the end of the plant looks like a corn dog. That's what it means is that she put him in that area for and his sisters stood afar off to know what would be done to him. So obviously his sister is at least probably seven or older. Who knows how old she is, but she's a much older child. Five, and the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river. And her maidens walked along by the river side and she saw the ark among the flags and sent her hand made to fetch it. Pharaoh's daughter sent to get the baby six and she opened it and saw it even the child and behold a boy that wept and she had compassion on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews children." Obviously because she knew the child was being hidden so that it would survive. But the Lord allowed her to feel compassion for it and compassion is not the same thing as sympathy. Sympathy is when you feel sorry for somebody but you don't do anything. You just let them suffer even though you feel bad. Compassion is what Jesus felt for the people in the New Testament. There's two times where it says that he had compassion and compassion is when you take action to change somebody's life. That's when you not only feel bad, you feel the sympathetic feeling but you actually act on it and you do something to make their life better. So she, by having compassion on the baby, she has already decided in her heart to make his life better to save him. Seven, then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call the a nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee?" So the sister is watching this whole time and now she just speaks up because she's there and she says, "You want me to go get him a wet nurse?" Now remember a wet nurse is a woman who's hired to nurse your child. Well-fea women typically had wet nurses and then that wet nurse would become a surrogate mother and that's why I think it was Rebecca's wet nurse when Rebecca's nurse died. It was a big deal because that was her surrogate mother who stayed with her for life. So the girl without saying that's my brother. She's being very intelligent because she's not calling out her family as the ones who hid the child which could get them in trouble. She's just saying, "Let me go get a wet nurse for you." Eight, and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." And the maiden went and called the child's mother. Now this is Miriam that we're talking about and she will be there when the children of Israel come out of Egypt and she'll be an adult by then. But you can see how intelligent Miriam was. She had a plan to get her mother so that her mother could keep taking care of her brother and they would still be a family. Nine, and Pharaoh's daughter said under her, "Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages and the woman took the child and nursed it." So now Miriam brought her mother, which is Moses' mother, to the woman and nobody's identifying anybody. Pharaoh's daughter may have figured it out and she may know that they're the real family but nobody is saying it because nobody wants the real family to get in trouble. Pharaoh's daughter is paying the real mother to breastfeed her own child. So this is pretty awesome. Moses' mom was actually able to take him home and wean him and then bring him back to Pharaoh's daughter after he was weaned, which is phenomenal. And this is part of the reason that explains why Moses always knew he was a Hebrew because Pharaoh's daughter stated openly that he was a Hebrew so she wasn't hiding it and then the woman who weaned him told him he was a Hebrew and that she was his mother so she wasn't hiding it. So Moses knew from a very early age who he was. Ten, and the child grew and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son and she called his name Moses and said, "Because I drew him out of the water, so Moses in Egyptian language must have something to do with coming from the water." And notice that it starts with an M and all M names come from Mure which means bitterness. It also means sea of tears and the sea is water. Because you have bitterness you will cry so many tears that it will make a sea. That's the idea. All the M names usually have something to do with the ocean, something to do with bitterness and sorrow. And that's why when Jesus died there were three Mary's who attended his dead body, three women named Mary because all of their names meant Mure which is bitterness and sorrow. And when Jesus was a toddler the wise men gave him Mure a precious oymet which is bitter and it's a healing oymet. So then you get more meaning because we get healing through our tears and Jesus through his tears healed the whole world. He brought salvation to the world by his own tears on the cross. So anyway here is Moses meaning from the water. 11 and it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown up that he went out onto his brethren and looked on their burdens and he saw an Egyptian smiting Hebrew, one of his brethren. He went and watched the Hebrews who were in slavery. He was watching them doing their hard labor because he knew that he was one of them and he cared about them. And while he was watching them in Egyptian taskmaster killed one of the slaves. 12 and he looked this way in that way. Obviously he knows that what he's going to do is illegal. And when he saw that there was no man he smoked the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. This is called premeditated murder. If you look this way in that way that means that you are planning to kill. He thought about it. He decided to kill the Egyptian and then he buried the body which means he knows that what he's doing is illegal. Later on in the Bible it actually explains that he did that out of love for the Hebrews which is certainly true. The Bible never condemns him for it but the fact that he's acting guilty means that his conscience was troubling him and he felt guilty. 13 and he went out the second day and behold two men of the Hebrews were striving together and he said to him that did the wrong. Wherefore smite us thou my fellow. The next day he sees two Hebrews fighting and he says you guys should be loving each other not fighting. Why did you hit this man? Because one of them hit the other one. 14 and he said the one who hit said. Who made the erruler in a judge over us? Think us thou? To kill me is thou didst kill the Egyptian and Moses feared and said surely the thing is known. And that's because if this complete stranger knows that he killed somebody yesterday then there must be a lot of people who know because he looked both ways and he didn't see anyone. But there must have been somebody watching and they must have told the whole community. Now Moses knows that he can get arrested and in huge trouble for murdering an Egyptian. It's interesting that the one Hebrew said who made the erruler in a judge over us and this is exactly what will happen to Moses 40 years later he will become the chief ruler and judge over Israel. Not just that man but all of Israel. This man is actually prophesying without knowing it. And also there's a time in the New Testament when somebody came to Jesus in the New Testament and said you need to judge between me and my brother because my brother wants to take the family inheritance. And Jesus said am I a judge over you? And Jesus when he said that he wasn't saying that he can't judge because he will judge on the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus will judge and when we all come before his throne he will judge. So he is a judge over us but that wasn't his time to judge. That was his time to save, to spread the gospel about himself and save people. 15. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing he sought to slay Moses but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and fled in the land of Midian and he sat down by a well. So now Moses is a fugitive running from the law. 16. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came in Drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham through his second wife, Cattura. Cattura was the wife the Abraham had after Sarah died. She had Midian and that's where these people descend from but they're not the line of promise that was Isaac's line. These are the same guys who But Joseph and sold him into Egypt now they're taking care of in harboring Moses who will take the Israelites out of Egypt like two bookends of a story. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 and the shepherds came and drove them away, but Joseph stood up and helped them and watered their flock. Here's another story where a man is helping a woman with her flock at the well. We saw this with Jacob and Rachel. We're now seeing it with Moses and his soon to be wife. Her and her six sisters were trying to water their flock, but the shepherds drove them away and then Moses drove the shepherds away and helped water them. 18 and when they came to rule their father he said, "How is it that year comes so soon today?" 19 and they said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and more over he drew water for us and watered the flock." So this shows you that Moses still didn't have hair because remember the Egyptians shaved themselves. They shaved all their hair off their eyebrows off and everything and Moses most of his life since after he was weaned by his mother. From that time on he looked like an Egyptian even though he was a Hebrew. 20 and he said unto his daughters, "And where is he? Why is it that he have left the man? Call him that he may bread." 21 and Moses was content to dwell with the man and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. So one of those seven daughters he gave to Moses as a wife. 22 and she bore a son and he called his name Gershim. For he said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land." So Gershim means something to do with being a foreigner. Gershim is from the tribe of Levi because Moses is from the tribe of Levi. And his child is fully Hebrew even though he married a midianite because remember it only matters if the father is Hebrew. It doesn't matter if the mother is or not because Moses is fully Hebrew. Gershim is fully Hebrew. 23 and it came to pass in the course of those days that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel side by reason of the bondage and they cried and their cry came up under God by reason of the bondage. Now if one king died that means another king has now been installed and it's going to turn out that the new king hates the Hebrew as much as the old king did. The woman who raised him was Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh is king. Her father died. But now her brother is going to become king of Egypt and Moses must have known her brother but her brother would have been a lot older than Moses because the daughter was older than Moses. Probably by 20 years or something. Now this man who's about 20 years older than Moses has now become king and he's somebody who actually knows Moses because Moses was raised in the same palace that he lived in. So now the Israelites are crying to God because they see that the king has died and they're like now can we be free? 24 and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob 25 and God saw the children of Israel and God took cognizance of them. Their prayers are reaching God and he is thinking about delivering them. Now it isn't like he forgot them. He never forgot them. It isn't like he never had a plan to deliver them but he told Jacob 400 years ago when Jacob was alive that all of this was going to happen. So it isn't like God is just now noticing the Israelites even though the wording in the Bible makes it seem that way. To the Israelites themselves they're just now being noticed because from their perspective God has been ignoring them for 400 years and that shows you with you and I. A lot of times we think God is ignoring us when he knows all along what his plan for us is and his plan for us was from day one even before we were born he had a plan and he's been just waiting for the right time to carry it out. Don't get impatient with God and don't think that he's not paying attention to you. He is and so all of this time he's actually been waiting more than they have been waiting to deliver them and that concludes Exodus chapter 2.