Wednesday: Moses Is Born
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 2nd of July 2025
Read Exodus 2:1-10. What role did God’s providence and protection play in Moses’ birth story?
The historical background of Moses’ birth and life is thrilling because he lived during the time of the famous Egyptian eighteenth dynasty. One king during this dynasty—Thutmose III, called the “Napoleon of Egypt”—is considered one of the most famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt.
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Though under a death sentence at birth (see Exodus 1:22), Moses was born as a “special” son (NLT; Hebrew tob, lit. “good”; Exodus 2:2). The Hebrew term describes more than external beauty. This word is used, for example, in characterizing God’s work during Creation week, when He declared everything was “good,” even “very good” (Genesis 1:4,10,31).
As a new creation, this “good” child will, according to God’s plan, become the adult who will lead the Hebrews out of their bondage. At this baby’s birth, especially under such dire circumstances, who could have envisioned his future? Nevertheless, God will fulfill His words to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He covenanted with them that He would give their descendants the Promised Land (Exodus 2:24-25). And, yes, He would use this tob infant, decades later, to do just that.
Until then, the Egyptian princess Hatshepsut adopted Moses as her son. The name given to Moses has an Egyptian origin, meaning “son of” or “born of,” as reflected in the names of Ah-mose (“son of Akh”) or Thut-mose (“son of Thoth”). His name is, thus, rendered in Hebrew as Mosheh, namely “drawn out.” His life was miraculously spared when he was “drawn out” of the river.
We know only a few things about his early life. After being miraculously saved and adopted by Hatshepsut, Moses lived for his first 12 years with his original family (Exodus 2:7-9; Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 244). Moses then received the best Egyptian education, all in order to prepare him to be the next pharaoh of Egypt (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 245). How fascinating that, ultimately, so much of this education would be useless for, or even work against, what really mattered: the knowledge of God and of His truth.
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How much are you learning that is ultimately useless for what really matters? |
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Moses was born as a “special” son (NLT; Hebrew tob, lit. “good”; Exodus 2:2). The Hebrew term describes more than external beauty. This word is used, for example, in characterizing God’s work during Creation week, when He declared everything was “good,” even “very good” (Genesis 1:4,10,31).
As a new creation, this “good” child will, according to God’s plan, become the adult who will lead the Hebrews out of their bondage. At this baby’s birth, especially under such dire circumstances, who could have envisioned his future? Nevertheless, God will fulfill His words to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He covenanted with them that He would give their descendants the Promised Land (Exodus 2:24-25). And, yes, He would use this tob infant, decades later, to do just that.
Until then, the Egyptian princess Hatshepsut adopted Moses as her son. The name given to Moses has an Egyptian origin, meaning “son of” or “born of,” as reflected in the names of Ah-mose (“son of Akh”) or Thut-mose (“son of Thoth”). His name is, thus, rendered in Hebrew as Mosheh, namely “drawn out.” His life was miraculously spared when he was “drawn out” of the river.
The birth of Moses is indeed one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible, set in a time of great danger and divine purpose. Born during a period of oppression when Pharaoh ordered all Hebrew male infants to be killed (Exodus 1:22), Moses entered the world under threat but was preserved by God’s providence. His mother, Jochebed, hid him for three months and then placed him in a basket along the Nile, where he was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2:1–10). This act of courage and faith allowed Moses to survive and grow up in the Egyptian royal household, giving him access to education, power, and privilege—despite being Hebrew by birth.
Moses was truly a man of two worlds as he was born a Hebrew slave but raised as an Egyptian prince. This dual identity shaped his leadership and deepened his sense of justice. Though he was raised among the elite of Egypt, he never forgot his people’s suffering. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he acted in defense of the oppressed (Exodus 2:11–12), signaling the beginning of his calling. Moses’ life reflects God’s ability to use someone uniquely placed between two cultures to lead with compassion and strength. His story demonstrates how God can raise deliverers from unlikely circumstances, using even least expected to protect and prepare them for divine purpose.
You wrote
That's what Moses thought, but that's not what God had in mind. God did not intend to lead the Israelites out in military style as an army with Moses as its head. Moses had yet to learn humility and the necessity of depending wholly on God. Those were lessons he learned by spending 40 years in the desert herding sheep.
After that, God called Moses!
The story of Moses birth is a reminder that even among the Egyptians there were people with compassion and a sense of the value of humanity. The Egyptian Princess who rescued Moses from the papyrus reeds in the wetlands of the Nile Delta was not a naïve person with a soft spot for little babies. I am sure that she knew exactly what was going on and was determined to do her part in acting against oppression.
In Australia, the nearest thing to oppression was the incarceration of Lindy Chamberlain, wrongly accused of murdering her baby Azaria in the 1980s. Of course, Seventh-day Adventists protested her innocence, but the real encouragement was the people, not of our faith, who stood up and worked to prove her innocence. There were scientists, lawyers, Aboriginal leaders, and even newspaper journalists who persistently worked to show that there had been a miscarriage of justice. I think particularly of Malcolm Brown, a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, who, in contrast to journalists from the tabloid newspapers, reported the case accurately and without sensationalism until she was finally released and ultimately cleared.
We sometimes adopt a “them versus us” attitude that overlooks individuals in high places and influential positions who have a keen sense of justice and fair play. They may not recognise it but that sense ultimately comes from God.
God's people may not always look like "one of us" but they are there true to the sense of love and compassion and it shows at the appropriate time.