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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Exodus 2:7
“Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?’”
The beginning of Exodus is all about God-fearing, cleverly-scheming, risk-taking women. Oh, that we had a few more of them around today.
First, it was Shiphrah and Puah, then it was Jochabed and Miriam. Jochabed had a son – it was her third child after Miriam and 3-year old Aaron. A boy – and the decree was that all sons had to be drowned in the River Nile. However, she was a Jewess and knew her God and the promise of God that one day a deliverer would come. She feared God more than men and so hid him for three months. (I wonder what she named him. I also wonder how she hid a crying baby for three months – she must have been very resourceful.)
This is proved again when she builds him ‘an ark’ and releases him to the mercy of God. However, she does it very cleverly. Pharaoh is a hard, frightened man but his daughter is a woman and what woman can resist a beautiful baby? So Jochabed places him close to Pharaoh’s daughter’s ‘bathing patch’. But, rather than watching over the basket herself, she organises with Miriam for her to be the baby’s ‘guard’. An older woman might have reminded Pharaoh’s daughter of the decree – but much less likely a young child – a girl.
They agree on their scheme and Miriam plays her part like a pro. Her timing was impeccable. Not too early, not too late. She waits for the ‘ark’ to be discovered and for Pharaoh’s daughter’s heart to be opened and then calmly asks if she should get a Hebrew woman to nurse him. Note that: not shall I get his mother but just “one of the Hebrew women?” Pharaoh’s daughter falls for it hook, line and sinker and Jochabed gets royal approval and paid to bring up her own son.
Guess what Moses was taught through his early childhood? Never underestimate the influence of a mother. It is not a second-class, unpaid, thankless task, however denigrated and daunting it may seem. It is the most important, significant, influential and satisfying role on the face of the earth.
Mothers are really the ones who create society, who maintain moral values, who continue the faith heritage. Never ever underestimate the God-given role and privilege of motherhood. As my wife reminds me – I may act as head of the home, but she is the neck that turns the head. (Every time I see her, she turns my head.)
What values, attitudes and principles are you investing in your offspring? Don’t leave it for others; it is your divine, God-given right and privilege.
The chapter opens with a tiny helpless baby being protected by his sister and ends up with the same baby as a murderer in hiding in the wilderness. What a great introduction to Moses.
However, it closes with him protecting the daughters of Jethro, marrying Zipporah and the birth of their firstborn son. The final verse ends, “God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” (v 25).
God does that for all of us. Even you, today.
So look up. No matter your past or present, God is concerned about you.
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