Exodus 2:3
But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
Sermons
A Devoted SisterH. O. Mackey.Exodus 2:1-4
Children in Need of Preserving MercyA. Nevin, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
Divine Ordering of EventsG. Bush, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
God's Providence in Our Family LifeW. M. Taylor, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
LessonsG. Hughes, B. D.Exodus 2:1-4
MiriamJ. Wells.Exodus 2:1-4
Miriam's TactJ. Parker, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
Moses and ChristH. Wonnacott.Exodus 2:1-4
Parental Instruction BestCawdray.Exodus 2:1-4
Sisters and BrothersDr. Talmage.Exodus 2:1-4
TheJ. S. Exell, M. A.Exodus 2:1-4
The Ark of BulrushesJ. C. Gray.Exodus 2:1-4
The Babe in the BulrushesC. S. Robinson, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
The Beautiful Ministry of a Youthful LifeJ. S. Exell, M. A.Exodus 2:1-4
The BulrushW. M. Taylor, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
The Cradle on the WatersJ. S. Exell, M. A.Exodus 2:1-4
The Events of Life Under a Divine ProvidenceT. De Witt Talmage.Exodus 2:1-4
The Faith of Moses' ParentsH. Cowles, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
The Infancy of MosesCaleb Morris.Exodus 2:1-4
The Minute Providence of GodW. M. Taylor, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
The Mother of MosesJ. O. Davies.Exodus 2:1-4
The Mother Remained At Home, ShowingJ. S. Exell, M. A.Exodus 2:1-4
The Watching SisterJ. Parker, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
Training of ChildrenDr. Payson.Exodus 2:1-4
Weak Links UsefulJ. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.Exodus 2:1-4
The Infancy of MosesD. Young Exodus 2:1-9
A Picture of True FaithJ. Urquhart Exodus 2:1-10
By Works was Faith Made PerfectG.A. Goodhart Exodus 2:1-10
The Child of the WaterH.T. Robjohns Exodus 2:1-10
A Child of ProvidenceJ. Orr Exodus 2:1-11
Moses and ChristJ. Orr Exodus 2:1-25














This section recounts the birth, deliverance, and upbringing at the court of Pharaoh, of the future Deliverer of Israel. In which we have to notice -

I. AN ACT OF FAITH ON THE PART OF MOSES' PARENTS. The faith of Moses' parents is signalised in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:23). Observe -

1. The occasion of its trial. The king's edict threatened the child's life. The ease of Moses was peculiar, yet not entirely so. No infancy or childhood but lays a certain strain upon the faith of parents. The bark of a child's existence is so frail, and it sets out amidst so many perils! And we are reminded that this strain is usually more felt by the mother than the father, her affection for her Offspring being in comparison deeper and more tender (cf. Isaiah 49:15). It is the mother of Moses who does all and dares all for the salvation of her babe.

2. Its nature. Both in Old and New Testaments it is connected with something remarkable in the babe's appearance (Acts 7:20; Hebrews 11:23). Essentially, however, it must have been the same faith as upholds believers in their trials still - simple, strong faith in God, that he would be their Help in trouble, and would protect and deliver the child whom with tears and prayers they cast upon his care. This was sufficient to nerve Jochebed for what she did.

3. Its working. Faith wrought with works, and by works was faith made Perfect (James 2:22).

(1) It nerved them to disobey the tyrant's edict, and hide the child for three months. Terrible as was this Period of suspense, they took their measures with prudence, calmness, and success. Religious faith is the secret of self-collectedness.

(2) It enabled them, when concealment was no longer practicable, to make the venture of the ark of bulrushes. The step was bold, and still bolder if, as seems probable, Jochebed put the ark where she did, knowing that the princess and her maidens used that spot as a bathing-place. Under God's secret guidance, she ventured all on the hope that the babe's beauty and helplessness would attract the lady's pity. She would put Pharaoh's daughter as a shield between her child and Pharaoh's mandate. Learn -

1. Faith is not inconsistent with the use of means.

2. Faith exhausts all means before abandoning effort.

3. Faith, when all means are exhausted, waits patiently on God.

4. Pious parents are warranted in faith to cast their children on God's care.

It was a sore trial to Jochebed to trust her child out of her own arms, especially with that terrible decree hanging over him. But faith enabled her to do it. She believed that God would keep him - would make him his charge - would provide for him, - and in that faith she put the ark among the rushes. Scarcely less faith are parents sometimes called upon to exercise in taking steps of importance for their children's future. Missionaries in India, e.g., parting with their children, sons leaving home, etc. Sorest trial of all, when parents on their deathbeds have to part with little ones, leaving them to care of strangers. Hard, very hard, to flesh and blood; but God lives, God cares, God will provide, - will watch the ark of the little one thus pushed out on the waters of the wide, wide world.

II. AN ACT OF PROVIDENCE ON THE PART OF MOSES' GOD. The faith of Moses' parents met with its reward. Almost "whiles" they were yet "praying" (Daniel 9:20), their prayers were answered, and deliverance was vouchsafed. In regard to which observe -

1. How various are the instrumentalities employed by Providence in working out its purposes. A king's edict, a mother's love, a babe's tears, a girl's shrewdness, the pity of a princess, Egyptian customs, etc.

2. How Providence co-operates with human freedom in bringing about desired results. The will of God was infallibly accomplished, yet no violence was done to the will of the agents. In the most natural way possible, Moses was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, restored to his mother to nurse, adopted by the princess as her son, and afterwards educated by her in a way suitable to his position. Thus was secured for Moses -

(1) Protection.

(2) A liberal education.

(3) Experience of court-life in Egypt.

3. How easily the plans of the wicked can be turned against themselves. Pharaoh's plans were foiled by his own daughter. His edict was made the means of introducing to his own court the future deliverer of the race he meant to destroy. God takes the wicked in their own net (Psalm 9:15, 16).

4. How good, in God's providence, is frequently brought out of evil. The People might well count the issuing of this edict as the darkest hour of their night - the point of lowest ebb in their fortunes. Yet see what God brought out of it! The deliverance of a Moses - the first turning of the tide in the direction of help. What poor judges we are of what is really for or against us!

5. How greatly God often exceeds our expectations in the deliverances he sends. He does for us above what we ask or think. The utmost Moses' parents dared to pray for was doubtless that his life might be preserved. That he should be that very day restored to his mother, and nursed at her bosom; that he should become the son of Pharaoh's daughter; that he should grow to be great, wise, rich, and powerful - this was felicity they had not dared to dream of. But this is God's way. He exceeds our expectations. He gives to faith more than it looks for. So in Redemption, we are not only saved from perishing, but receive "everlasting life" (John 3:16) - honour, glory, reward. - J.O.

Sighed by reason of the bondage.
The Israelites were to be a witnessing nation — a nation in which the worship of the true God was to be maintained, while other nations were sunk in idolatry; and the revelation which God gave of Himself preserved, while all the worm was sunk in grossest darkness; and the humane principles of the Divine law, not only taught, but practised, in a world where injustice and violence and cruelty were rampant. And it requires no very acute or penetrating discernment to perceive how their experience under the Egyptian bondage was likely to conduce to the fulfilment of their mission.

I. It was an illustration to them of THE TREATMENT WHICH THE CHURCH MIGHT EXPECT FROM THE WORLD, FITTED TO PROMOTE IN THEM THE ISOLATION which it was necessary they should maintain. Egypt was the world in its best state. They saw in her an illustration of what the intellect and muscle of man may accomplish when his heart is alienated from God. She was a learned and powerful nation, great in war and advanced in art. The Israelites were thus brought in contact with the world in its best and most attractive form, and thereby taught, by bitter experience, what treatment they might expect from the world, and what relation to it it behoved them to sustain.

II. In another way their bondage experience would tend to the same result, BY PROMOTING THAT MUTUAL SYMPATHY WHICH IS THE NECESSARY BOND OF NATIONAL LIFE. Great troubles and great deliverances shared in common have the effect of fusing into one body those who before were only an aggregate of individuals without any uniting tie.

III. But there was yet another end to be served by their bondage — THE TEACHING AND PRACTICE OF THE HUMANE PRINCIPLES OF THE DIVINE LAW, IN THE FACE OF THE OPPRESSION and violence and cruelty which were then prevalent throughout the world.

(W. Landels, D. D.)

I. THE KING DYING.

1. He was despotic in his rule. Unmoved by human suffering.

2. He was vindictive in his temper.

3. He was altogether out of sympathy with the providential arrangements of God. And now he dies. The despot meets with the conqueror. He must appear before the God whose authority he has tried to dethrone. The folly — woe — eternal ruin of sin.

II. THE PEOPLE SUFFERING.

1. Their suffering was tyrannic. Freedom lost. Spirit broken.

2. Their suffering was intense. "Sighed."

3. Their suffering was long continued.

4. Their suffering appealed to the Infinite.Suffering should link our souls to God. It should be an inspiration to prayer.

III. GOD REIGNING.

1. God reigns, though kings die. Wisdom of trusting only in the Infinite.

2. God reigns, though men suffer. Realize the Divine Rulership.

3. God reigns in harmony with His covenant made with the good.The Divine will is not capricious, but benevolent in design, and continuous in operation. Let every nation and family have a covenant with God. Lessons:

1. Do not despond in times of affliction.

2. Afflictions are designed to bring us into harmony with the requirements of God's covenant for our good.

3. It is the purpose of God to work the freedom and welfare of men.

(J. S. Exell, M. A.)

1. Oppressors may die, and yet persecution not die with them.

2. Cries to heaven are often extorted from God's persecuted children.

3. If men want freedom, they cannot do better than direct their attention to God.

(J. S. Exell, M. A.)

Death is so dim-sighted and so blundering-footed that he staggers across Axminster tapestry as though it were a bare floor, and sees no difference between the fluttering rags of a tatterdemalion and a conqueror's gonfalon. Side by side we must all come down. No first class, second class, or third class in death or the grave. Death goes into the house at Gad's Hill, and he says, "I want that novelist." Death goes into Windsor Castle, and he says, "I want Victoria's consort." Death goes into Ford's Theatre, at Washington, and says, "I want that President." Death goes on the Zulu battle-field, and says, "I want that French Prince Imperial." Death goes into the marble palace at Madrid, and says, "Give me Queen Mercedes." Death goes into the almshouse, and says, "Give me that pauper." Death comes to the Tay Bridge, and says, "Discharge into my cold bosom all those passengers." Alike! Alike! By embalmment, by sculptured sarcophagus, by pyramidal grandeur, by epitaphal commemoration, by mere intoxicated "wake" or grander cathedral dirge, we may seem to give a caste to the dead, but it is soon over. I took out my memorandum.book and lead-pencil in Westminster Abbey a few weeks ago, and I copied a verse that it would interest you to hear: —

"'Think how many royal bones

Sleep within these heaps of stones;

Here they lie — had realms and lands —

Who now want strength to stir their hands."

(T. De Witt Talmage.)

God heard
I. SALVATION BEGINS WITH A SIGH. Until a sinner is weary of sin, it is of no use to bring the tidings of redemption to him.

II. GOD HEARS THE GROANINGS OF POOR SINNERS. Psalm 18:6; Psalm 34:6; Psalm 77:1; Joel 2:32; John 6:37.

III. HE SEES OUR AFFLICTIONS AND KNOWS OUR SORROWS.

IV. HE REMEMBERS HIS COVENANT.

(G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

At last they remembered God and His promises. They thought of their ingratitude towards Him and towards Moses, and they began to sigh after God. This was what God was waiting for in order to show them mercy. He was waiting for their humiliation, their return to Him, their aversion to Egypt, their fervent prayers. It is to this frame of mind that God wishes to bring His children when He corrects them, and leaves them for a time in the hands of the wicked. You will find immediately afterwards, in the following verses, four expressions, which describe the goodness of God towards this unhappy people. "God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them." Remark that the name of God is repeated four times in these verses, as if to express with greater force the free grace and sovereignty of His merciful dealings with the Israelites. It was not because of their merits that He had pity upon them, any more than it is because of ours that He sends His gospel to us who have broken His law, neglected Him, and insulted Him by our ingratitude. But to us He calls, and says, "Come unto Me, that ye may have eternal life."

(Prof. Gaussen.)

My little boy has three calls. He opens the study door and calls, "Papa." I pay no attention to him because I know it is merely to attract notice. Again he comes throwing the study door open, and running in, he calls, "Papa, look here, I have something to show you." I know by his call that he is really in earnest, and I turn to share in his joy. He has still another call; when he is in the garden he may meet with an accident; in a quick and distressed voice he calls, "Papa." I know by the call that my child is in trouble, and I am out of the house in an instant, and by my boy's side, doing what I can to help him. In like manner God deals with us. We sometimes call to Him, scarcely meaning anything by our call, and never looking for or expecting a reply. Then, again, we wish to call the Lord's attention to some unexpected joy or pleasure which we have received. He listens to us because He delights to share in all that concerns us. But, dear friends, how quickly the Lord will come to the call of one in distress! He knows all the different calls of His children, and specially those in trouble, for has He not promised, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee."

(D. L. Moody.).

People
Gershom, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Levi, Moses, Pharaoh, Reuel, Zipporah
Places
Egypt, Midian, Nile River
Topics
Able, Along, Ark, Baby, Bank, Basket, Bitumen, Brink, Bulrushes, Child, Coated, Covered, Daubed, Daubeth, Edge, Flags, Got, Hide, Lad, Laid, Longer, Nile, Papyrus, Pasting, Pitch, Placed, Placing, Plants, Plastered, Putteth, Reeds, Resin, River, River's, Rushes, Secret, Sedge, Slime, Stems, Sticky, Taketh, Tar, Therein, Water-plants, Weeds, Wicker
Outline
1. Moses is born, and placed in a basket in the reeds of Nile.
5. He is found, and brought up by Pharaoh's daughter;
7. who employs his mother to nurse him.
11. He kills an Egyptian.
13. He reproves a Hebrew.
15. He flees into Midian, and marries Zipporah.
22. Gershom is born.
23. God respects the Israelites' cry.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Exodus 2:3

     4306   minerals
     4402   plants
     4494   papyrus
     5259   coat
     8300   love, and the world

Exodus 2:1-3

     4309   bitumen and tar
     5102   Moses, life of

Exodus 2:1-6

     4502   reed

Exodus 2:1-8

     5737   sisters

Exodus 2:1-10

     5652   babies
     7775   prophets, lives

Exodus 2:3-5

     5227   basket

Library
The Ark among the Flags
'And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. 4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Home as a Stewardship.
"Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."--EXODUS II., 9. "For look, how many souls in thy house be, With just as many souls God trusteth thee!" The Christian home is a stewardship. The parents are stewards of God. A steward is a servant of a particular kind, to whom the master commits a certain portion of his interest to be prosecuted in his name and by his authority, and according to his laws and regulations. The steward must act according to the will of his
Samuel Philips—The Christian Home

The Upbringing of Jewish Children
The tenderness of the bond which united Jewish parents to their children appears even in the multiplicity and pictorialness of the expressions by which the various stages of child-life are designated in the Hebrew. Besides such general words as "ben" and "bath"--"son" and "daughter"--we find no fewer than nine different terms, each depicting a fresh stage of life. The first of these simply designates the babe as the newly--"born"--the "jeled," or, in the feminine, "jaldah"--as in Exodus 2:3, 6, 8.
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The Secret of Its Greatness
[Illustration: (drop cap G) The Great Pyramid] God always chooses the right kind of people to do His work. Not only so, He always gives to those whom He chooses just the sort of life which will best prepare them for the work He will one day call them to do. That is why God put it into the heart of Pharaoh's daughter to bring up Moses as her own son in the Egyptian palace. The most important part of Moses' training was that his heart should be right with God, and therefore he was allowed to remain
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

Motives to Holy Mourning
Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears! Christ's doves weep. They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity' (Ezekiel 7:16). There are several divine motives to holy mourning: 1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like a shower
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Faith of Moses.
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

Jesus Sets Out from Judæa for Galilee.
Subdivision B. At Jacob's Well, and at Sychar. ^D John IV. 5-42. ^d 5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 and Jacob's well was there. [Commentators long made the mistake of supposing that Shechem, now called Nablous, was the town here called Sychar. Sheckem lies a mile and a half west of Jacob's well, while the real Sychar, now called 'Askar, lies scarcely half a mile north of the well. It was a small town, loosely called
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Consolations against Impatience in Sickness.
If in thy sickness by extremity of pain thou be driven to impatience, meditate-- 1. That thy sins have deserved the pains of hell; therefore thou mayest with greater patience endure these fatherly corrections. 2. That these are the scourges of thy heavenly Father, and the rod is in his hand. If thou didst suffer with reverence, being a child, the corrections of thy earthly parents, how much rather shouldst thou now subject thyself, being the child of God, to the chastisement of thy heavenly Father,
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Man's Misery by the Fall
Q-19: WHAT IS THE MISERY OF THAT ESTATE WHEREINTO MAN FELL? A: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever. 'And were by nature children of wrath.' Eph 2:2. Adam left an unhappy portion to his posterity, Sin and Misery. Having considered the first of these, original sin, we shall now advert to the misery of that state. In the first, we have seen mankind offending;
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Genealogy According to Luke.
^C Luke III. 23-38. ^c 23 And Jesus himself [Luke has been speaking about John the Baptist, he now turns to speak of Jesus himself], when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age [the age when a Levite entered upon God's service--Num. iv. 46, 47], being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son [this may mean that Jesus was grandson of Heli, or that Joseph was counted as a son of Heli because he was his son-in-law] of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Adoption
'As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' John 1:12. Having spoken of the great points of faith and justification, we come next to adoption. The qualification of the persons is, As many as received him.' Receiving is put for believing, as is clear by the last words, to them that believe in his name.' The specification of the privilege is, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.' The Greek word for power, exousia, signifies
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Appendix xii. The Baptism of Proselytes
ONLY those who have made study of it can have any idea how large, and sometimes bewildering, is the literature on the subject of Jewish Proselytes and their Baptism. Our present remarks will be confined to the Baptism of Proselytes. 1. Generally, as regards proselytes (Gerim) we have to distinguish between the Ger ha-Shaar (proselyte of the gate) and Ger Toshabh (sojourner,' settled among Israel), and again the Ger hatstsedeq (proselyte of righteousness) and Ger habberith (proselyte of the covenant).
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Appendix ii. Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology.
(Ad. vol. i. p. 42, note 4.) In comparing the allegorical Canons of Philo with those of Jewish traditionalism, we think first of all of the seven exegetical canons which are ascribed to Hillel. These bear chiefly the character of logical deductions, and as such were largely applied in the Halakhah. These seven canons were next expanded by R. Ishmael (in the first century) into thirteen, by the analysis of one of them (the 5th) into six, and the addition of this sound exegetical rule, that where two
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

John the Baptist's Person and Preaching.
(in the Wilderness of Judæa, and on the Banks of the Jordan, Occupying Several Months, Probably a.d. 25 or 26.) ^A Matt. III. 1-12; ^B Mark I. 1-8; ^C Luke III. 1-18. ^b 1 The beginning of the gospel [John begins his Gospel from eternity, where the Word is found coexistent with God. Matthew begins with Jesus, the humanly generated son of Abraham and David, born in the days of Herod the king. Luke begins with the birth of John the Baptist, the Messiah's herald; and Mark begins with the ministry
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage,
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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