I.
This week we read of the birth of “a fine baby” whose mother placed him in a basket, and set the basket afloat in the river. What drives a mother to such? If you turn to Exodus 1 you will find the setting for such including this – “Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, ‘Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.’” (Exodus 1:22)

As you read the focus passage, take note of each person mentioned and their part in this account.

II.
Exodus 2:1-10 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 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. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

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. 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. 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?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 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. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

III.
So who do we see? The mother, the infant son, the sister, the daughter of Pharaoh and her attendants. Yes, the father is mentioned, but all the action is centered around the women and one crying infant boy.

Who saves the infant?

How?

How many rescuers does the infant have to thank for his life?

What has been your experience in being the one rescued or the one rescuing another?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}