The Birth Of A Leader (Part 1 Exodus) Series

2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 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. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

5 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. 6 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. 7 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?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 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. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,[a] “because,” she said, “I drew him out[b] of the water.”

Over the next few weeks we will be studying Moses and the early part of the Exodus. As I explored options for this time following the Resurrection, I ran across the concept that the Exodus of the Israelites was noted as the Easter Story of the Old Testament.

It is an apt comparison for the following reasons:

The people are helpless from saving themselves, and God intervenes.

As a result, those who have been saved enter into a new covenant between them an God.

During their travels, God demonstrates that his love is greater than their sinfulness.

Just as the New Testament is written with the understanding that the Resurrection of Christ is the defining moment in God’s merciful dealing with humankind, the Old Testament defines this as the turning point in the relationship between God and the people of God.

Until now, the covenant was only between God and individuals. From this point on, the covenant is between God and the people of God.

And so we begin with today’s text – the birth of the hero of the Exodus. Like Jesus, the ruler of the land, Pharaoh in this case, sets out to destroy the male sons of the Israelites.

In the case of Jesus, Herod is given a distinct warning, someone has been born who is more powerful than him. And so he seeks to destroy what he does not understand.

In the case of Moses, there is no threat. The Israelites have done nothing to upset the status quo. And yet they become the people who Pharaoh uses as a scapegoat, enslaving and blaming them for the fears he and his people feel. They are, essentially, the ones who are different.

While we do not know the exact actual name of the Pharaoh who set the Israelites up as slaves, and then commanded that the infants be killed, we accept the story as real, in part because we have seen over the centuries that this is exactly what a corrupt leader does.

Leaders who have no real strength of character always choose to demonize one or more groups of people. This distracts others from their behavior, and it lets them be in control of the situation.

An example, also involving the Hebrew people is the growth of Nazi Germany during World War II. Hitler gained control first by choosing a people to become the problem and the enemy of the “normal” citizens of Germany. After World War I, inflation became rampant, and Hitler blamed the Jewish bankers, stating they were the ones controlling the economy. Since there had been Anti-Semitism in the past, it was easy to use the same people to make the Jews the enemy.

But we see it repeatedly in stories of “Ethnic Cleansing” in wars still going on around the world. Any time we see a leader blaming a group of people for the problems, we need to be a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and look to see what is behind the curtain.

And so we come to the story of Moses, which begins in chapter one, but comes to a climax here. God’s people are in trouble and they need someone to intervene. And while God’s name is never mentioned, God intervenes (with help from a few others) by having Moses rescued by one of Pharaoh’s own daughters.