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CHAPTER 2

1. Moses’ Birth and Adoption

A man and woman from the tribe of

Levi got married and had a son.

Guzik’s notes, “ Exodus 6:20 tells

us the names of Moses’ parents:
Amram and Jochebed…Moses was
not the firstborn in his family. He had
at least an older brother (Aaron) and
an older sister (Miriam).”

When the woman saw that her baby

was healthy and beautiful she hid him
for three months.

Guzik also points out, “The parents

of Moses did not do this only
because of the natural parental
instinct; they did it also out of faith in
God. Hebrews 11:23 describes the
faith of Moses’ parents: 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.”

When she couldn’t hide him any longer,

she placed the baby in a papyrus basket
that she had waterproofed by coating it
in tar and pitch.

She then put the basket with the baby

in it in the reeds beside the bank of the
Nile River. His sister stood a nearby,
watching to see what would happen to
him.

“In a literal sense, Moses’ mother did

exactly what Pharaoh said to do: put
her son into the river (Exodus 1:22).
However, she took care to put him in
a waterproofed basket and
strategically floated him in the river.”
(Guzik)

Pharaoh’s daughter went to bathe in

the river and her servant girls walked
along the riverbank.

She saw the basket in the reeds and

sent one of her girls to get it.

When she opened it, she saw a baby

boy crying and felt sorry for him saying,
“This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

The NLT Illustrated Study Bible

provides some cultural context,
“Much like the Ganges River in
modern India, the Nile was
understood by the Egyptians to be a
goddess who had life-giving and
healing properties. When Pharaoh’s
daughter came down to bathe in the
river, she was not merely washing
but completing her morning
devotions. The discovery of the baby
floating on the river, in the embrace
of the Nile goddess (as she saw it),
would be very significant to her. It is
also natural for a young woman to
feel sorry for a crying baby. The
combination of factors may account
for her rescuing the child, though
she recognized that he was Hebrew
(Hebrews and Egyptians practiced
circumcision differently.)”

Then the baby’s sister said to Pharaoh’s

daughter, “Should I go find a Hebrew
woman to nurse the baby for you?”

Pharaoh’s daughter agreed so the girl

brought her mother. Pharaoh’s
daughter said, “Take this child and
nurse him for me and I’ll pay your
wages.” So the woman took him home
and nursed him. When the boy had
grown old enough, she brought him
back to Pharaoh’s daughter. She
adopted him as her son and named him
Moses because she “drew him out of
the water.”

“Using both the clever initiative of

Moses’ family and the need of
Pharaoh’s daughter, God arranged a
way for Moses’ mother to train him
in his early years and be paid for it.”
(Guzik)

Some skeptics raise an issue with

the idea that the Pharaoh’s daughter
would have given her adoptive son a
Hebrew name (Moses means
“drawing out” in Hebrew), but HCSB
commentary has this explanation,
“…the name she chose was both an
Egyptian word and a Hebrew word.
In Egyptian the root word means
“born”, and was commonly used as
an element in personal names (e.g.
Pharaohs Ahmose, Thutmose). In
Hebrew it means ‘to draw out [of
water].’ This bilingual wordplay fit
Moses in both ways, especially since
he was ‘drawn out’ of the Nile.”

“No doubt it was in these early years

that Moses learnt of the ‘God of the
fathers’ (Exodus 3:15) and realized
that the Hebrews were his fellow
countrymen (Exodus 2:11).” (Cole
quoted in Guzik’s commentary)

“ Being the adopted son of

Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses was in
the royal family. The ancient Jewish
historian Josephus wrote that
Moses was heir to the throne of
Egypt and that while a young man he
led the armies of Egypt in victorious
battle against the
Ethiopians…Certainly, he was raised
with both the science and learning
of Egypt. Acts 7:22 says, Moses was
learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians, and was mighty in words
and deeds. Egypt was one of the
most academic and scientific
societies among ancient cultures. It
is reasonable to think that Moses
was instructed in geography, history,
grammar, writing, literature,
philosophy, and music.” (Guzik)

Since I’m a proponent of a literal

interpretation of the Bible I’ll add here
Guzik’s excellent example of the
dangerous trap of interpreting the Bible
in an allegorical way. Obviously, I’m not
insinuating that every single word of
the Bible is meant to be interpreted
literally. The Bible makes use of all kinds
of literary devices, however, it is
generally apparent by noting the
context when a literary device is being
employed. The slippery slope of
applying allegory to historical accounts
is illustrated perfectly in Guzik’s
following example of the early Christian
writer, Origen:

“An ancient Christian writer

named Origen had a fanciful
allegorical way of interpreting
the Scriptures, and what he does
with this account of Moses and
Pharaoh’s daughter is a good
example of the peril of over-
allegorizing the Scriptures. In
Origen’s take on this passage:

· Pharaoh represents the devil

· The male and female Hebrew children

represent the animal and rational aspects
of the soul

· The devil wants to kill the rational

character of man, but keep alive his animal
character

· The two midwives are the Old and New

Testaments

· Pharaoh wants to corrupt the midwives so

that the rational character of man will be
destroyed

· Because the midwives were faithful, God

builds houses of prayer all over the earth

· Pharaoh’s daughter represents the

church, and gives refuge to Moses – who
represents the law

· The waters of the Nile represent the

waters of baptism

· When we come to the waters of baptism

and take the law into our heart – the royal
palaces – then the law grows up into
spiritual maturity.

Guzik then includes Clarke’s

admonishment regarding this
manner of Scripture
interpretation, “Every passage
and fact might then be
obliged to say something, any
thing, every thing, or nothing,
according to the fancy,
peculiar creed, or caprice of
the interpreter.”

2. Moses in Midian

Years passed, and when Moses had

grown up, he went out to his people and
saw how hard they were being forced to
work as slaves to the Egyptians.

“Acts 7:23 says this happened when

Moses was forty years old. Up until
then, he was trained and groomed to
become the next Pharaoh of Egypt
(according to Josephus), all the while
aware of his true origins because of
his mother.” (Guzik)

Cole notes, “The phrase means

more than ‘to see’. It means, ‘to see
with emotion’, either satisfaction
(Genesis 9:16) or, as here, with
distress (Genesis 21:16). Moses is
one who shares God’s heart.”

“Hebrews 11:24-26 tells us some of

what happened in the heart and
mind of Moses as he looked at their
burdens. It says that by faith, Moses
deliberately decided to identify with
the people of Israel rather than his
Egyptian prestige and opportunity.”
(Guzik)

He saw an Egyptian beating one of his

fellow Hebrews. He looked around and
didn’t see anyone. Moses then hit the
Egyptian, killing him, then hid his body
in the sand.

Guzik notes the New Testament

insight into why Moses did this, “The
Bible itself explains some of Moses’
thinking behind this action. Acts
7:23-25 explains that Moses did this
to defend and avenge the beaten
Israelite, but also with the
expectation that his fellow Israelites
would recognize him as their
deliverer. Now when he was forty
years old, it came into his heart to
visit his brethren, the children of
Israel. And seeing one of them
suffer wrong, he defended and
avenged him who was oppressed,
and struck down the Egyptian. For
he supposed that his brethren would
have understood that God would
deliver them by his hand, but they
did not understand. (Acts 7:23-25)…
Just like Jesus, Moses could not
deliver when he lived in the palaces
of glory. He had to come down off
the throne, away from the palace
and into a humble place before he
could deliver his people.”

When Moses went out the next day he

saw two Hebrews fighting and he asked
the one who was in the wrong, “Why are
you fighting your friend?”

The Hebrew man responded, “Who

made you a leader and judge over us?
Are you going to killed me like you killed
the Egyptian?”

“Moses had reason to believe that

his education, royal background,
success, and great sympathy for the
people of Israel would give him
credibility among them. He here
tried to intervene in a violent dispute
between two Hebrew men…We
could say that Moses was first a
murderer, and then a meddler…
Moses seemed to act like a prince
given his royal background. He acted
like a judge in that he determined
that one of these men did the
wrong. He seemed to be the perfect
prince and judge for Israel, but they
did not want him.” (Guzik)

Then Moses realized that everyone

knew what he had done and he became
afraid.

When Pharaoh found out about what

Moses had done, he tried to kill Moses.

So Moses ran away and went to live in

Midian. When he got to Midian, he sat
down beside a well.

Guzik makes a hilarious observation

in his Exodus sermon series. He
notes that God’s plan almost always
plays out in a way that no man would
ever plan. Guzik comically notes that
God’s plans are never notable for
their efficiency. And that is
undoubtedly because He is teaching
us valuable lessons along the way.
The story of Moses perfectly
illustrates this point. Moses’ plan to
deliver his people from slavery in
Egypt made perfect sense to him.
He assumed the Israelites would
accept him as their savior and follow
him. But they didn’t. They rejected
him, and he ended up on the run to
escape death from Pharaoh.
Instead, according to God’s plan,
Moses was to spend 40 years in the
desert. Then, he and his brother
Aaron would return to Egypt with a
special stick that transformed into a
snake to present to Pharaoh in order
to convince him to release the
Israelites. An impressive array of
supernatural plagues would follow,
culminating in the Israelites’
ultimate escape across an ocean
path created by miraculously parted
waters. Guzik ends by saying, “Such
an unlikely plan would never come
from man.”

As Moses was sitting there, the seven

daughters of the priest of Midan came
to draw water from the well to water
their father’s flock. Some shepherds
came and tried to chase them away, but
Moses came to their rescue and
watered their flocks.

“Moses probably had little idea of it

at the time, but he was too big for
God to use. Moses tried to do the
Lord’s work in man’s wisdom and
power and it didn’t work. After 40
years of seemingly perfect
preparation, God had another period
of preparation for both Moses and
the people of Israel, to make them
ready to receive Moses.” (Guzik)

“In that day Midian described the

area on both the west and east sides
of the Reed Sea, land that today is
both Saudi Arabia (on the east of the
Reed Sea) and Egypt (on the Sinai
Peninsula, on the west of the Reed
Sea).” (Guzik)

When the girls returned home they told

their father, Reuel, he asked why they
had come back so early that day.

They explained that an Egyptian had

rescued them and Reuel told them to
go back an invite him to eat with them.

Kaiser explains, “Since Moses still

had his Egyptian clothing on, they
judged him to be Egyptian in
nationality.”

Moses came and ate with them, then

agreed to stay with the man. After a
time, Moses married Reuel’s daughter
Zipporah.

– Wait; wasn’t Moses’ father-in-law named

Jethro? NLT Illustrated Study Bible offers
this insight, “The priest of Midian was
named Reuel (2:18), but later he is called
Jethro (18:1). It was common for a person
to have both an official name and a
personal name, though in this case it is not
clear which is which.”

Moses and Zipporah had a son that

they named, Gershom, because Moses
said, “I have become a stranger in a
foreign land.”

I like what Trapp says about Moses’

time in Midian, “In Egypt Moses
learned how to be somebody. In
Midian he learned how to be nobody.
“Much he had learned in Egypt, but
more in Midian.”

A long time passed and the Pharaoh in

Egypt died. The Israelites struggled
with their burden of hard work and they
cried out to God for help.

God heard them and remembered His

covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob.

“If Moses ‘forgot’ about Israel in

Egypt (in the sense of turning his
active attention away from them),
God did not. God remembered
(again, in the sense of turning His
active attention towards them)
Israel and their affliction…God did
not turn His attention to Israel
because they were such good
people, but because of the covenant
He made with them. He gives His
love and attention to us on the same
basis – the covenant relationship we
have with God through Jesus.”
(Guzik)

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