Civil Disobedience - Exodus 2.1-10

 August 18

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 for 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 she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

Exodus 2.1-10

This reflection follows the story of Exodus 1.8-22, which begins the Exodus story with civil disobedience of Shiprah and Puah.  

The first reading for this next weekend divides easily into two sections, so we are looking at the second half of that reading today.  We are in Exodus, the first chapter.  We learn the back drop for the Exodus story.  A new king.  A desire to enslave the Hebrew people.  The king of Egypt acts in fear that the Israelites will outnumber the Egyptians and revolt.  So he comes up with the idea to kill off the male children.  He orders the midwives to do just that.  But in a bit of irony here – Shiprah and Puah – and part of the irony is that these two midwives are named while the king – this great king – is not named.  And Shiprah and Puah defy the order of this great king.  And that leads to today’s reading.  Exodus 2.1-10

We have another example this morning of civil disobedience.  This one coming from the daughter of the Pharaoh.  She knows that this baby she has found is a Hebrew boy.  She knows that her father would have this baby killed.  She doesn’t.  In fact this baby’s sister comes forward, and as a result this baby’s Mom gets to nurse her own child a bit longer until she has to hand him over to Pharaoh’s daughter to raise.  And we know that child is Moses. 

A couple other things I want to mention here.  In verse two  we read:  “when she saw that he was a fine baby”  The word is a “tov” baby.  A “good” baby.  It’s the same word that God pronounced over creation.  Each day was “tov”  It was “good.”   

I know my girls have grown older now.  I do wonder how in the world she could keep her child quiet for so long!

When she can do that no longer, in a moment that I imagine must have been heart-wrenching, she places him in a basket and just send him down the Nile.  The word for basket here “tevah,” is used just one other time in Scripture:  Noah’s ark!  Like Noah’s ark, this tevah had no rudder or sail, it just floated down the river, and yet God’s hand was somehow in the midst of it. 

Our lives sometime feel like we are just floating down the river, with no rudder.  We don’t know where we are going.  We don’t know what we can expect.  Is God’s hand in it somehow? 

I think of Forrest Gump when he said:  “I don’t know if Momma was right, or if, if it’s Lieutenant Dan.  I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both.  Maybe both is happenin’ at the same time.”