Slices
Prepare
‘The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles’ (Psalm 34:17). Tell God about your current situation.
Bible passage
The birth of Moses
2 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river-bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?’
8 ‘Yes, go,’ she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.’ So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’
Moses flees to Midian
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?’
14 The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘What I did must have become known.’
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, ‘Why have you returned so early today?’
19 They answered, ‘An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.’
20 ‘And where is he?’ Reuel asked his daughters. ‘Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.’
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, ‘I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.’
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Explore
Yesterday we met Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives who refused to put to death newborn Israelite boys. Today we meet Moses who survived birth because of them and who lives on because of the extraordinary actions of his mother and sister, quietly defying the orders of Pharaoh.
Despite his upbringing in the Egyptian court, Moses is aware of his Israelite origins and grows into something of a tough guy, killing an Egyptian taskmaster (v 12) and later rescuing Reuel’s daughters from some bullies (v 17). Yet neither the quiet defiance of the midwives nor Moses’ impulsive action can make a decisive difference to the plight of the community of Israelite slaves.
The slavery lasts until (and beyond) the death of this pharaoh, causing the Israelites to cry out (v 23). Then something happens. The Lord – so far hardly mentioned in the book of Exodus – hears their cry. His concern will lead to action: ‘It is the cry that begins the narrative of rescue and salvation.’* Sometimes it may seem as though God has forgotten us and needs to be reminded of our plight, but could it be that he is waiting for us to cry out for help?
*W Brueggemann, Delivered out of Empire: Pivotal Moments in the Book of Exodus Part 1, John Knox Press, 2021, p5
Respond
‘The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit’ (Psalm 34:18). Pray for a situation you know about where individuals involved feel crushed and hopeless.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Joshua 23,24; Romans 15
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for Nic Findlay, Revealing Jesus Pioneer, as she supports churches in the Liverpool area wanting to reach the 95, but who lack volunteers. Pray that small churches would find simple, creative ways of connecting with children and young people outside the church building even though they are short of people and resources.
