The Baby Saved from the river Exodus 2
THE cruel king of Egypt made a law that every boy born to the Hebrews should be cast into the river to drown. We are not told how many suffered this early death. But there was one family who trusted in God to save their baby. They kept him hid in their house until he was three months old, and could not be hid longer. Then, it seems the Lord put in the mother’s heart a way to save him. She took what is called an ark, perhaps what we would call a basket, made from the rushes which grew along the river, and were so strong they were used even for large boats (Isaiah 18:22That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! (Isaiah 18:2)). She covered this with pitch to keep out water and laid her little one within, covered it, and carried it to the river, and set it in the rushes at the edge, leaving the baby’s sister where she could watch what would happen to their loved baby.
This must have been an anxious time, but their trust was in God, and He used the king’s own daughter to save the tiny boy. She came to the river with her maids, and seeing the ark, sent a maid to bring it to her. When opened and she saw the young baby, she knew it must be one her father had ordered killed, and she felt very sorry. The sister must have seen that the princess felt kindly toward the baby, as she came to her and asked if she could go for a nurse for it, and was told to go. You could guess that she would go for the baby’s own mother, and that the family would be happy to have their dear baby. But he really belonged now to the king’s daughter and, when old enough, was taken to the palace to live, and was named Moses, which means “drawn out of the water.”
The name of the baby’s father was Amram, and his mother’s Jochebed. They were of the family of Levi, one of Joseph’s older brothers. The baby’s sister was named Miriam, and there was a young brother, Aaron (Numbers 26:5959And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister. (Numbers 26:59)),
You will hear much more about Moses after he grew up, for he was the one God used to save the Hebrews from the power of the cruel king.
ML 01/10/1937