January 18 A READ EXODUS 1–2
Birth of Moses
OVERVIEW
Exodus opens where Genesis left off: with Jacob’s descendants multiplying in Egypt. A new ruler emerges who respects neither Joseph’s memory nor the Israelites’ human rights. Though Pharaoh attempts to kill all newborn Hebrew males, the infant Moses is providentially spared and raised in the very palace of the one who sought his death. At the age of forty, Moses seeks to bring about the right thing (deliverance) in the wrong way (murder) and spends the next four decades of his life in exile, tending sheep in the Midian wilderness.
MY DAILY WALK
The man sitting by the well was lost in his thoughts. Dejection on every line of his face, he felt much older than his forty years. Moses was miserable—and with good reason.
He had been the one man in all of Egypt who might have had a chance to bring relief to his people. He had position, training, natural ability, and the desire to help. But in one foolish act, he killed a man and forfeited all the advantages he might have used.
Satan delights in convincing believers that they are of no use to God. And God delights in building cathedrals out of rubble. Moses’ life needed reconstruction, to be sure. But when that rebuilding process was complete, he was a monument to God’s grace.
Where in your life have you nearly given up hope that God could ever salvage the situation: your job? schooling? marriage? ministry? Before you give up, walk a mile in Moses’ sandals. Study his failures. Learn about God’s patience with him.
OUR GOD HAS A BIG ERASER.
INSIGHT
Portrait of a Savior | Exod. 2:23-25
As with Joseph, the life of Moses foreshadows the life of the Messiah. Moses was sent by God to redeem Israel from slavery (2:23-25); Jesus was sent by God to redeem and deliver his people from the bondage of sin. Moses revealed God’s Word; Jesus is the Word. Moses was teacher, judge, and ruler. Jesus is teacher, judge, and the King of kings. As they looked for the Messiah, the Jewish people awaited one who would have the greatness and stature of Moses.
The Israelites in Egypt
1These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5In all, Jacob had seventy* descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there.
6In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. 7But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.
8Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 9He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.*”
11So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 13So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. 14They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.
15Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16“When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver.* If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” 17But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.
18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?”
19“The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.”
20So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.”