In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Welcome to Purify the Heart. I’m Pastor Zachary Courie. Yesterday, we began our journey through Exodus by looking at Israel’s oppression under Pharaoh. Today, in Exodus 2, we see God begin to raise up a deliverer—Moses.
Exodus 2
2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. 18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. (Exodus 2:1–25, ESV)
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Exodus 2 is filled with divine providence. Pharaoh sought to destroy Israel’s future, but God was already at work to raise up their deliverer. Here’s what we see happening:
* Born into a death sentence, Moses is hidden by faith (Hebrews 11:23).
* His mother places him in a basket—a word in Hebrew that’s the same as “ark” in Genesis 6, linking him to Noah’s deliverance.
* He’s drawn from the water by Pharaoh’s own daughter, becoming a grandson of the one who wanted him killed!
* Because of that, he’s raised as an Egyptian prince.
* His attempt to deliver his fellow Hebrews by force ends in failure—he kills an Egyptian and flees because he made himself untrustworthy to his own people.
* In Midian, he defends the weak, foreshadowing his role as deliverer.
* Then also, in the grander scheme of things, Israel’s groaning reaches God.
* The Lord “remembers” His covenant, which means He applies His promises to the Israelites’ situation.
* In v. 25, we’re told “God knew” (v. 25)—a profound statement of intimate concern.
Now, what are some ways that Exodus 2 points us to Christ?
* Like Moses, Jesus was born under a death sentence—Herod sought to kill Him (Matthew 2:16).
* Just as Moses was drawn from the waters, Jesus passed through the waters of baptism to begin His ministry (Matthew 3:13-17).
* Moses left Pharaoh’s palace to suffer with his people; Christ left His heavenly throne to save us (Philippians 2:5-8).
* Israel groaned under Pharaoh’s bondage—humanity groans under sin’s slavery (Romans 8:22-23), and greater than Moses, Christ is the Deliverer who leads us all out of bondage to sin, death, and devil, and into the true freedom that is Christ’s own.
Takeaways
* In Moses’ salvation through the waters of the Nile in a basket/ark that points us back to Noah’s ark, we are seeing the real salvation that the Lord gives to all in the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
* Man’s plans cannot overcome God’s purposes: Pharaoh sought to kill, but God was already raising a savior, pointing us forward to the Savior of mankind.
* God hears the cries of all His people and knows our suffering, and for us today, reminds us how He took action for all our suffering in the person and work of Christ. The Lord remembers and applies His mercy toward us for Christ’s name’s sake.
Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Thanks for joining me to Purify the Heart! Join me again tomorrow as we continue with Exodus 3—Moses and the burning bush. Until then, grace be with you. Amen.
