By the river

Linda Pollock August 21, 2023 2 0

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Exodus 2: 1-10 (NRSVA)

1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

Did Moses’s mother keep her pregnancy a secret?

Did she wear bigger than usual clothes, pretend she was gaining weight?

Was she bursting at the seams to share her great joy at being pregnant, but daren’t, because she was afraid of telling anyone outside her family circle just in case she gave birth to a boy who would have to be drowned in the Nile?

How did she keep from crying out in labour?

Who helped deliver her of Moses?

How did she keep him quiet, for surely he cried and laughed and burped?

Did she swear his siblings to secrecy?

What had her husband to say in all this?

Did she, with tear-filled eyes, craft the wee basket, each weave made with a loving blessing?

Did she make the bitumen, and plaster the basket herself?

Did she tell his sister – Miriam? – to hide, and watch, and wait to see what happened to her wee brother?

Moses was born into a habitat of oppression, of slavery, and into a family who loved him. Loved him enough to risk their all as they risked their beloved son’s life in a basket. They couldn’t have done that without some sense of God, without believing that God would care for their helpless child. His habitat was a basket in a river — their habitat was hope. Hope in the God of Abraham and Sarah, Who provided a ram to sacrifice in place of their beloved son, Isaac. Surely this same God would provide for their beloved son too!

PRAYER:

Eternal God, the same yesterday, today and forever. Thank You for Your faithfulness to us for generations. Give us courage to trust You with our most precious ones, help us to risk all for You, as You gave Your all for us. Amen.