The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States "Desperate mother, compassionate princess" for Friday, 19 August 2016
Exodus 2:1 A man from the family of Levi took a woman also descended from Levi as his wife. 2 When she conceived and had a son, upon seeing what a fine child he was, she hid him for three months. 3 When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket, coated it with clay and tar, put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the riverbank. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river while her maids-in-attendance walked along the riverside. Spotting the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave-girl to get it. 6 She opened it and looked inside, and there in front of her was a crying baby boy! Moved with pity, she said, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 At this point, his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Would you like me to go and find you one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes, go.” So the girl went and called the baby’s own mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter told her, “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will pay you for doing it.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 Then, when the child had grown some, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter; and she began to raise him as her son. She called him Moshe [pull out], explaining, “Because I pulled him out of the water.”
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Against the backdrop of oppression and hatred, Exodus recorded a close-up of one Hebrew woman’s response. She had a “healthy and beautiful” baby boy. But babies are hard to keep secret. In desperation, she placed him in a basket, and placed it in an area of reeds where (it seems) she knew one of Pharaoh’s daughters often bathed. The princess recognized the child as a Hebrew, but felt compassion and ignored her father’s vicious orders. God cared for Moses and his birth mother—Pharaoh's daughter even paid his own mother to nurse him!
• Focus first on Moses’ mother and sister. Even when trapped in dreadful circumstances not of their own making, how did they show initiative and ingenuity instead of throwing up their hands in despair? When they placed their precious baby among the reeds, do you believe they had any guarantee that the baby would be safe? Imagine the range of emotions
Moses’ mother must have felt when she received the job offer from the Egyptian princess!
• If you were “casting” this story, do you think you would have chosen Pharaoh's daughter as the most likely person to save Moses from the river? What qualities of character did she show when she spotted the strange basket floating among the reeds? Are you aware of other times in history when good character qualities thwarted tyrants who ordered people to set aside curiosity or compassion?
Prayer: Lord God, when life gets hard (as, sooner or later, it always does), help me to have the determination to keep trying that Moses’ mother showed. And keep my heart always open and compassionate, like Pharaoh’s daughter. Amen.
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Insights from Ginger Rothhaas
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river while her maids-in-attendance walked along the riverside. Spotting the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave-girl to get it. 6 She opened it and looked inside, and there in front of her was a crying baby boy! Moved with pity, she said, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 At this point, his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Would you like me to go and find you one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes, go.” So the girl went and called the baby’s own mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter told her, “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will pay you for doing it.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 Then, when the child had grown some, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter; and she began to raise him as her son. She called him Moshe [pull out], explaining, “Because I pulled him out of the water.”
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Against the backdrop of oppression and hatred, Exodus recorded a close-up of one Hebrew woman’s response. She had a “healthy and beautiful” baby boy. But babies are hard to keep secret. In desperation, she placed him in a basket, and placed it in an area of reeds where (it seems) she knew one of Pharaoh’s daughters often bathed. The princess recognized the child as a Hebrew, but felt compassion and ignored her father’s vicious orders. God cared for Moses and his birth mother—Pharaoh's daughter even paid his own mother to nurse him!
• Focus first on Moses’ mother and sister. Even when trapped in dreadful circumstances not of their own making, how did they show initiative and ingenuity instead of throwing up their hands in despair? When they placed their precious baby among the reeds, do you believe they had any guarantee that the baby would be safe? Imagine the range of emotions
Moses’ mother must have felt when she received the job offer from the Egyptian princess!
• If you were “casting” this story, do you think you would have chosen Pharaoh's daughter as the most likely person to save Moses from the river? What qualities of character did she show when she spotted the strange basket floating among the reeds? Are you aware of other times in history when good character qualities thwarted tyrants who ordered people to set aside curiosity or compassion?
Prayer: Lord God, when life gets hard (as, sooner or later, it always does), help me to have the determination to keep trying that Moses’ mother showed. And keep my heart always open and compassionate, like Pharaoh’s daughter. Amen.
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Insights from Ginger Rothhaas
Ginger Rothhaas is a seminary student at Saint Paul School of Theology and is serving in Congregational Care at The Church of the Resurrection.As I read the story of Baby Moses today, I am struck by the theme of women making really tough decisions.
A mother decides to put her baby in a basket and place him in the river current to drift away out of sight.
A sister decides she can thoughtfully manipulate the situation to save her brother and help her mother keep her baby near.
A princess decides to do the right thing and save a baby, defying her father’s order to murder baby boys.
All of them chose love instead of fear.
It would have been more comfortable for these women to look away. It would have been safer for them to follow the rules, to not do the right thing. But how would this story end if they played it safe?
Each of these women did the brave, loving thing. And it saved the life of a baby who grew to become one of the greatest Scriptural figures in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We all share the Moses story in our sacred traditions. We get to share the inspiration found in the life of Moses because these women each did the brave, loving thing.
The women who acted to save Baby Moses remind us that every decision we make stems from love or fear. Imagine if our decisions began with a reflective pause to ask: in this moment do I chose to think, act, and/or speak from a place of love or from a place of fear? Imagine the possibilities if today we actually do that brave, loving thing we feel called to do!-------
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