Hello and welcome to today’s bible study on Exodus 2 where we will read about Moses’s early years. According to Bible scholars, the events of Exodus 2 took place in 1525 B.C. – 1446 B.C. approximately.
As usual, I encourage you to turn to Exodus 2 in your Bible. Kindly invite the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read and study Exodus 2. I mention this in all the Bible Studies because it is only through the Holy Spirit that we get fresh revelation and knowledge to understand the word of God. No one else can teach you better than the Holy Spirit Himself. I am using the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible, just in case you want to know.
In the Bible Study on Exodus 1, we read about Israel’s suffering in Egypt. Well, in today’s bible study on Exodus 2, we will read about Moses’s birth, his adoption, and his refuge in Midian.
Backstory on Exodus 1
In Exodus 1, God multiplied the descendants of Joseph and his brothers, causing them to grow exceedingly in number. This induced fear in the Egyptian Pharaoh, who worried that they might join his enemies in the event of war and fight against him. To counter this threat, he devised a plan to impose harsh labor on the Hebrews and ordered two midwives to kill every Hebrew male infant as soon as they were born. However, the midwives feared God more than they feared Pharaoh and refused to carry out his orders. As a result, God blessed them for their courage. When Pharaoh questioned them about their disobedience, they provided an excuse for their actions. Ultimately, he ordered that all Hebrew male newborns be cast into the river.
Without any further delay, let us study together Exodus Chapter 2, shall we?
Exodus1 Summary
A Levite man married a Levite woman, and they had a beautiful son whom she hid to protect him from being killed. When she could no longer conceal him, she made an ark of bulrushes, placed her son inside, and set it by the riverbank. His (the baby’s) sister watched from a distance.
Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe in the Nile and discovered the ark. She opened it, saw the crying child, and felt pity, recognizing him as a Hebrew boy. Moses’s sister offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse him, so she called their mother. Pharaoh’s daughter paid Moses’s mother to nurse him. Moses grew and when Moses was older, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and named him Moses because she drew him out of the water.
Moses, upon growing up, witnesses an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and kills the Egyptian in secret. The next day, he intervenes in a fight between two Hebrews, but one confronts him about his act of killing the Egyptian. Realizing that his actions are known, Moses flees to Midian to escape Pharaoh’s wrath. There, he helped the daughters of the priest, Reuel, by watering their flock. Reuel then invited Moses to their home and he was content to live with Reuel. He married Zipporah, and they had a son whom Moses named Gershom, which signifies Moses’s status as a stranger in a foreign land.
As time passed, the king of Egypt died. The children of Israel groaned under their bondage and cried out. Their cries reached God due to their suffering. God heard their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked upon the children of Israel and acknowledged them.
Exodus 2 Commentary
1. Exodus 2:1-10
Moses’s mother was paid by Pharaoh’s daughter to nurse him. If she had kept him and nursed him as her own son, no one would have compensated her. However, she was compelled to place Moses in the river. Trusting in God, she put him in the water.
Bulrushes are long and flexible, making them suitable for this purpose. She also sealed the ark with a pitch to ensure it wouldn’t break apart in the river, preventing the child from drowning. This demonstrates the divine wisdom behind her actions. While there were likely Hebrew women who did throw their sons into the Nile due to Pharaoh’s command, Moses’s mother took a different approach.
2. Exodus 2:11-14
Even though Moses was adopted into the royal family, he remained true to the covenant his ancestors had with God. He could not bear to see a Hebrew being mistreated by an Egyptian, and in a moment of anger, he resorted to the extreme measure of killing the Egyptian. In my opinion, he could have avoided this act and sought a better way to address the situation. However, he renounced his pagan Egyptian royal status for the sake of his fellow Hebrews, thereby also indirectly defending his covenant with God.
3. Exodus 2:16-22
Moses fled from Egypt to the land of Midian to seek refuge and start a new life, escaping from Pharaoh after killing an Egyptian. Staying in Egypt would have put his life at risk due to Pharaoh’s wrath. Similarly, Jacob fled from Esau to escape being killed and ended up in a different land. We also see that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had to flee to Egypt to avoid being killed by Herod. Persecutions have always been similar; the same enemy has employed the same strategies across different timelines.
Exodus 2 Lessons
1. What the enemy meant for evil, God will turn it around for good
Moses’s mother had the opportunity to nurse her son while being paid for it. Although Moses was adopted into a royal family, he did not share their bloodline. When the enemy sought to kill Moses, God granted his mother divine wisdom. She used this wisdom to create an ark and reinforced it with asphalt and pitch, ensuring it was sturdy enough to protect her son and allow him to be spared from being drowned in the Nile River. God made the enemy pay for his actions by turning the situation around in Moses’s favour thereby placing him directly inside Pharaoh’s palace as adopted grandson.
2. Defend your faith rather than defending religion and status
Moses defended his brethren even if it meant killing an Egyptian. Many Egyptians would have likely killed Israelites too, but they were not punished because they believed they were superior. Pharaoh himself ordered that all newborn males be killed, fearing they might rise up against him, but he was wrong in God’s eyes and was not punished by any authority on the earth because he was the highest authority in Egypt. When Moses killed the Egyptian though, Pharaoh sought to kill him, forcing Moses to flee the land. However, Moses didn’t hesitate to renounce his royal status and high position of being Pharaoh’s grandson. He could have been in line to the throne of Egypt when Pharaoh died. He renounced it all to defend his people because of their covenant with God. This instinct to protect his people was ingrained in him. Although his action of killing the Egyptian may be questionable, his heart’s posture was right.
3. God keeps His covenant for all generations
The Israelites groaned under their burdens. That generation was not the one with whom God made a direct covenant, but they were still covenant people because of their bloodline. Similarly, we are also in covenant with God through the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and God will always keep His covenant with us.
Conclusion
This concludes the bible study lesson on Exodus 2. I hope you enjoyed this free bible study and found it helpful in your Bible study journey. Feel free to share it with your friends and family. Also, share your thoughts and what the Holy Spirit has revealed to you about Exodus 2. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Until next time!