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And she called his name Moses... water. - Exodus 2:10. Save Jesus, Moses is the greatest name in history. Compare with it Mahomet, or even that of Paul. As the founder of the Jewish religion - under God - his influence is felt to-day, not only by 6,000,000 Jews, but throughout the Christian Church. Here is the beginning of his career. This mighty stream of influence we can trace to its source; not like the Nile, whose origin is still in debate, a mystery. The text gives the name and its reason. The derivation is either Hebrew, and then = "Drawing out," so designating the act of the princess; or Egyptian, and then = "Saved from the water." The name a memorial of salvation. Happy, when children bearing distinguished names, shame them not in the after-years. We treat the subject in the order of the story: so its suggestiveness for heart and life will appear.

I. THE FAMILY OF THE CHILD. Amram and Jochebed, the father and mother; Miriam, much older, and Aaron, three years older, than Moses. Note: Moses owed -

1. Little to his family. Look at ver. 1. But the pre-eminence of Levi was not yet. The tribe did not make Moses; rather Moses (with Miriam and Aaron) the tribe. "Blue blood?' Yes! and No! There is a sense in which we may be proud of ancestry, a sense in which not. What to me that I descend from a Norman baron? Everything to me that I come from able, gifted, saintly parentage. See Cowper on "My Mother's Picture," lines 108-112.

2. Little to his home. Only a slave but; the scene of toil, poverty, suffering, fear. Out of it brought one thing - sympathy with suffering.

3. Little to his parents. Biographers usually give us the attributes and history of ancestors, and show how they account for the career of the child. Nothing of that here. Even the names of the parents do not appear. Note omission in ver. 1. "A man," etc. "A daughter," etc. No doubt here a mental and moral heritage; but little training, because little opportunity. Generally, there is, under this head, a lesson of encouragement for those who have, or fancy they have, hard beginnings in life. Some of earth's noblest have risen out of disadvantage.

II. THE APPEARANCE OF THE CHILD. For traditions of predictions of his birth see Jos. Antiq. 2:9. 2-4. Moses was -

1. No common child. Scepticism objects that Miriam and Aaron are not mentioned in vers. 1, 2 by name. But the motive and impulse of inspiration are to be taken into account. The object was to give the event which led to the Exodus, and to the constitution of the Jewish Church. From this point of view interest concentrates on Moses. Hence we infer the extraordinary greatness of his character and career.

2. Born at a critical moment. See Acts 7:20. So the Jewish proverb: "When the tale of bricks is doubled, then comes Moses." Note: -

(1) At the moment of deepest darkness God sends deliverance.

(2) When he wants instruments he creates them.

3. Of no common beauty. Not only in his mother's eyes, which would be natural enough, but absolutely. See Acts 7:20, as well as Exodus 2:2; and for interesting illustration, Jos. Antiq. 2:9.6. All this the promise of a higher beauty of character that opened out with the years.

III. THE DANGER OF THE CHILD. The child born to great issues, and therefore must run the gauntlet of peril. Compare Jesus under the edict of Herod with Moses under that of Pharaoh. No sooner born than a battle for life. The two only infants, but full of possibilities. Pharaoh! the babe you may crush; hereafter the man shall ruin you. A seeming law in the ease, to which witness the legends of many nations, e.g. Romulus and Remus, Cyrus, King Arthur.

IV. LOVE FENCING FOR THE CHILD.

1. Of the mother.

(1) Concealing. Hebrews 11:23. How by faith? Went right on in the discharge of common duty to the child, not turning aside to observe the king's commandment. Then the love went to the other extreme: -

(2) Exposing. Here narrate the facts, for which see the text and commentary above; e.g. impossibility of longer concealing a growing child, form and material of the ark, laid in a place of comparative safety, "in the flags" at "the lip of the river," the elements of danger - starvation, discovery - not crocodiles on the Tanitic branch of the river. But observe the feeling behind the facts. A mother's despair becoming hope, and then faith; but a faith provident and workful, for, living in the neighbourhood, she could not fail to know where the childless (so says tradition) princess was wont to bathe. Just there she placed the child.

2. Of the sister. Imagine her anxiety! The mother-heart in every girl. She was

(1) Watchful: over the ark, against an enemy, for the princess;

(2) Active;

(3) Clever, full of resource;

(4) Successful;

(5) Became eminent; a prophetess, Exodus 15:20.

One of the three deliverers, Micah 6:4. The adored of the people, Numbers 12:10-15. In childhood are laid the foundations of character.

3. Of God. Before all, over all, and behind all! Love to the child, sister, parents, to Israel, and to the world to be blest through him.

V. THE DELIVERANCE OF THE CHILD. This of God, but note the part played by each of the following instruments: -

1. The princess. Note the independent status of an Egyptian princess, the custom then of bathing in the open river, the probable locality, Zoan (Psalm 78:43), that compassion was inculcated by the Egyptian religion, and the probable application to her of Acts 10:35.

2. The sister.

3. The mother.

4. The princess again; and possible lifelong parting from the mother. Finally, observe -

1. The deliverances of God are wonderful. Only one person in all the land of Egypt that could save Moses, and she came to the river.

2. The object of God's deliverances does not centre and rest on the delivered. It passes beyond: Moses for Israel, Israel for the Messiah, Messiah for the world. So Abraham, Genesis 12:2. So with elect spirits and elect nations in all ages. None for himself.

3. So is it with the great salvation. Wonderful! The benediction thereof unresting, passing on from the first recipients.

4. But the retributions of God are just as marvellous. Moses was to be the ruin of the house of Pharaoh, and deservedly so. But in the providence of God the tyrant is made to pass by and even protect the instrument of his future punishment. - R.

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KJV: And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

WEB: A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife.