Moses Is Born — TDW Kids

A family of Levi. “And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi” (2:1). Later the Bible tells us their names: Amram and Jochebed (Exodus 6:20). A dangerous time. Pharaoh had commanded, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river” (1:22). Every Hebrew baby boy was in danger. A beautiful child. “So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months” (2:2). She saw what Pharaoh refused to see. This baby mattered. Precious to God. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). A heritage is a gift passed down. God gives every child, and every child is precious to Him. By faith. “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's command” (Hebrews 11:23). Faith over fear. Moses' parents trusted God more than they feared Pharaoh. That is what faith does. Pleasing to God. Stephen said, “At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God” (Acts 7:20). What this means for you. God sees you and values you, just as He valued baby Moses. When you feel afraid, you can choose to trust God, the way Moses' parents did.

The house of Levi (2:1). Both parents came from Levi, the tribe that would later serve God as priests. Exodus 6:20 names them Amram and Jochebed. Moses grew up in a family that belonged to God. The decree (1:22). “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river.” Pharaoh turned the Nile, the river that gave Egypt life, into a place of death for Hebrew boys. “A beautiful child” (2:2). The Hebrew tov (say: TOVE) means good. It is the same word God spoke over creation: “God saw that it was good.” Moses' mother saw God's goodness in her son. Acts 7:20 says he was “well pleasing to God.” Three months (2:2). Hiding a crying baby for three months was risky. Every day the family chose to protect life at the risk of their own. Hebrews 11:23. Moses' parents stand in the Bible's list of people who lived by faith. Faith is trusting God and acting on it. They “were not afraid of the king's command.” Faith did not remove the danger, but it removed the fear. The value of life. Pharaoh valued Hebrew babies by how useful or dangerous they were. God values every person because He made them. “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb” (Psalm 139:13). Obeying God rather than men. Like the midwives before them, Moses' parents refused an evil command. Peter would later say, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Why it matters. God's rescue of a whole nation began with one family who trusted Him with one baby. Small acts of faith matter to God.

Moses' mother and father loved God. They lived when life was very hard for God's people. The king had ordered baby boys to be thrown into the river. That was a terrible thing to do. But Moses' mother looked at her son. She saw that he was a wonderful baby. Every baby is precious to God. So she hid him for three months. That took a lot of courage. The Bible says his parents were not afraid of the king. They trusted God more than they feared the king. God was with them the whole time. You can trust God when you feel scared too.

Moses' mother loved her baby. The king wanted to hurt him. She hid him and trusted God. God loves every baby.

She could hide him no longer. “But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him” (2:3). Bulrushes are tall reeds that grow by the river. Made to float. She “daubed it with asphalt and pitch” (2:3). Daubed means smeared. Asphalt and pitch are sticky, black tar that keeps water out. An ark. The word for this basket is the same word used for Noah's ark (Genesis 6:14). God's ark carried Noah's family safely over the flood. Many Christians see this little ark as a sign that God was saving again. In the reeds. She “put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank” (2:3). The river Pharaoh used for death became the place God used for rescue. A watching sister. “And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him” (2:4). The Bible later tells us her name was Miriam (Numbers 26:59). Doing our part. Moses' mother worked hard, planned carefully, and then let go. She did what she could and trusted God with what she could not do. What this means for you. When you face something too big for you, do your part and pray. Then trust God to do what only He can do.

“An ark of bulrushes” (2:3). The Hebrew word is tevah (say: teh-VAH), a box or ark. It appears in only two places in the Bible: Noah's ark (Genesis 6:14) and this basket. Both carried someone God was saving through the water. Pitch. Noah was told to cover the ark “inside and outside with pitch” (Genesis 6:14). Moses' mother “daubed it with asphalt and pitch” (2:3). Many Christians see God telling the same kind of rescue story a second time. Papyrus. Bulrushes were papyrus reeds, the same plant Egyptians used to make paper and light boats. A mother's small boat went where Pharaoh's law had sent the babies. Into the river, safely. Pharaoh had said to cast the boys into the river. In a way, Moses' mother put her son in the river, but in an ark made for saving. Miriam (2:4). His sister “stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.” Exodus 15:20 calls her Miriam the prophetess. The girl watching in the reeds would one day lead Israel in song after crossing the sea. Faith that acts. James says faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Jochebed's faith was not only a feeling. It wove reeds, spread pitch and set a basket in a river. Why it matters. Trusting God does not mean doing nothing. It means doing what is right with all your strength and leaving the outcome in God's hands.

The baby grew, and hiding him got harder. So his mother made a basket from tall river grass. She covered it with tar so water could not get in. It was like a tiny boat. The Bible uses the word ark for it. That is the same word used for Noah's ark! God kept Noah safe in an ark on the water. Now God would keep this baby safe in an ark too. His mother set the basket in the tall grass by the river. His big sister stood nearby to watch. Moses' mother did everything she could. Then she trusted God with the rest. We can do our part and trust God too.

Moses' mother made a little basket. She put her baby in it. His sister watched over him. God watched over him too!

Down to the river. “Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river” (2:5). Of all the places on the Nile, she came to this spot, at this time. She saw it. “When she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it” (2:5). A maid is a servant girl. The baby wept. “And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept” (2:6). Wept means cried. Compassion. “So she had compassion on him” (2:6). Compassion means feeling sorry for someone and wanting to help. She knew. She said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children” (2:6). She knew about her father's law. She chose kindness anyway. God's hidden hand. No one heard God speak at the river, and no one saw a miracle. Yet God was guiding every step: the place, the time, the tears and a kind heart. Unexpected helpers. God used Pharaoh's own daughter to save the boy her father wanted dead. God can use anyone to do His work. What this means for you. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). God is working in your life, even on ordinary days.

Pharaoh's daughter (2:5). Her heart is plain to see. She was the daughter of the man who gave the death command, yet she became the baby's protector. Providence. Providence (say: PRAH-vih-dense) means God's wise care and rule over everything that happens. He does not only work through miracles. He also works through ordinary events, such as a bath, a basket and a baby's cry. “Behold, the baby wept” (2:6). A crying baby could have meant discovery and death. Instead, his tears moved her to compassion. God turned the very thing his mother feared into the thing that saved him. Compassion (2:6). The Hebrew chamal (say: khah-MAHL) means to pity and spare. She spared the child her father had ordered killed. “One of the Hebrews' children” (2:6). She knew exactly who he was. Her kindness was a choice against her father's law. Joseph's lesson. Joseph told his brothers, “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). The same God was at work in Egypt again. Proverbs 19:21. “There are many plans in a man's heart, Nevertheless the Lord's counsel—that will stand.” Pharaoh planned death. God planned a deliverer. Why it matters. God is never absent, even when He is unseen. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Then the king's daughter came to the river. She came at just the right time. She saw the basket in the tall grass. When she opened it, the baby was crying. She felt sorry for him. She knew he was a Hebrew baby. Her own father wanted Hebrew boys dead. But she wanted to help this one. Who planned all of this? God did! No one saw God at the river that day. But God was guiding every step. God works in quiet ways we cannot always see. He is working in your life too.

The king's daughter found the basket. The baby was crying. She felt sorry for him. God was taking care of him.

A brave question. “Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, ‘Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?’” (2:7). A nurse here means a woman who feeds a baby. “Go.” “And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, ‘Go.’ So the maiden went and called the child's mother” (2:8). Paid to love her own son. “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages” (2:9). Wages means pay. The mother who had to hide her baby now cared for him openly, under Pharaoh's own roof of protection. Back to the palace. “And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son” (2:10). Moses was adopted. Adopted means taken into a family as a son or daughter. His name. “So she called his name Moses, saying, ‘Because I drew him out of the water’” (2:10). The name Moses sounds like the Hebrew word for drawing out. Prepared for later. Moses “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). God was getting him ready to lead. What this means for you. God had a plan for baby Moses long before Moses knew it. God has a good plan for you too. Trust Him, and be brave when He gives you a chance to help.

Miriam's courage (2:7). A Hebrew slave girl spoke to Egypt's princess. Her question was wise and quick. She did not ask the princess to break her father's law. She simply offered a nurse. “Go” (2:8). One word from the princess opened the way for a mother to raise her own son. The word for maiden, almah (say: al-MAH), means a young girl. Wages (2:9). Pharaoh's household paid Moses' mother to raise the boy Pharaoh had ordered drowned. God protected him and provided for his family at the same time. Early years (2:9-10). In those years at home, Moses' mother could teach him about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Hebrews 11:24-26 shows that Moses later chose God's people over Egypt's treasures. Adoption (2:10). “He became her son.” Moses was raised as a prince. Acts 7:21-22 says Pharaoh's daughter “brought him up as her own son,” and he “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” The name (2:10). Moses, Moshe (say: moh-SHEH), sounds like mashah (say: mah-SHAH), to draw out. The one drawn out of the water would one day draw Israel out of Egypt through the sea. Saved to save. God rescued Moses so that Moses could be used to rescue others. Many Christians see in this a picture of Jesus, who was also rescued from a king's death order as a baby (Matthew 2:13-16). Why it matters. God was preparing a deliverer while Israel was still suffering. God's answers often begin long before we see them.

Moses' sister saw the princess with her brother. She did something very brave. She walked up to the king's daughter. She offered to find a Hebrew woman to feed the baby. The king's daughter said yes. So the sister brought their own mother! Now Moses' mother got to care for him safely. She was even paid to do it! Only God could plan that. Later Moses went to live with the king's daughter. She named him Moses because she drew him out of the water. One day God would use Moses to lead His people out. God had a plan for Moses. He has a plan for you too.

Big sister was brave. Moses went home to his mom. Then the princess named him Moses. God had a big plan.