Exodus 1:22; Exodus 2:1-10
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): If Pharoah had not been transported with wrath and struck with blindness, he would have seen that the hand of God was against him; but the tyrant, finding that his snares and deceit availed nothing, now shakes off fear and flies to open violence, commanding the little ones to be torn from the breasts of their mothers and to be cast into the river. Lest there should be any lack of executioners, he gives this charge to all the Egyptians, whom he knew to be more than ready for the work.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): This was, most probably, enjoined under severe penalties, and not only upon the Egyptians, who were to see the order executed; but also upon the Israelites, who were to execute it themselves.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Here a mother’s love is seen scheming for the life of her child.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We ought to recognize God’s hand in everything.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Are we to suppose, for a moment, that this “ark” was the invention of mere nature? Was it nature’s mere thought that devised it, or nature’s ingenuity that constructed it? Was the babe placed in the ark at the suggestion of a mother’s heart, cherishing the fond but visionary hope of thereby saving her treasure from the ruthless hand of death? Impossible.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The writer of Hebrews lifts it beyond the category of instinctive maternal affection up to the higher level of faith, “By faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment,” Hebrews 11:23.
THOMAS COKE: The tender mother laid the ark in the flags or reeds, which grew in abundance by the side of the Nile; hoping, possibly, that they would detain it, so that she might come occasionally and suckle the child; or, if otherwise, that it would be borne safely down the stream, and would preserve the infant from drowning. They were not without hope, as the watch they set intimated, that in some way God might save him.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Had Moses been left to lie there, he must have perished in a little time with hunger, if he had not been sooner washed into the river or devoured by a crocodile.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Observe the gracious interposition of God. Moses shall not only be preserved in the moment of danger, but preserved by the very daughter of the man who sought his life.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): She was brought hither at this time by a special providence, to do that which she little dreamed of.
MATTHEW HENRY: Had he fallen into any other hands than those he did fall into, either they would not, or dared not, have done otherwise than have thrown him straightway into the river; but Providence brings no less a person than Pharaoh’s daughter just at that juncture, guides her to the place where this poor forlorn infant lay, and inclines her heart to pity it, which she dares do when none else dared. Never did a poor child cry so seasonably, so happily, as this did: The babe wept, which moved the compassion of the princess, as no doubt his beauty did.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: She sees the child is a Hebrew. Her quick wit understands why it has been exposed, and she takes its part—still, it was bold to override the strict commands of such a monarch. But it was not a self-willed sense of power, but the daring of a compassionate woman, to which God committed the execution of His purposes.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Little did she think that she was helping forward the purpose of “the Lord God of the Hebrews.” How little idea had she that the weeping babe, in that ark of bulrushes, was yet to be Jehovah’s instrument in shaking the land of Egypt to its very centre!
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: The great lesson of this incident is the presence of God’s wonderful providence, working out its designs by all the play of human motives. Around that frail ark, half lost among the reeds, is cast the impregnable shield of His purpose. All things serve that Will. The current in the full river, the lie of the flags that stop it from drifting, the hour of the princess’s bath, the direction of her idle glance, the cry of the child at the right moment, the impulse welling up in her heart, the swift resolve, the innocent diplomacy of the sister, the shelter of the happy mother’s breast, the safety of the palace—all these and a hundred more trivial and unrelated things are spun into the strong cable wherewith God draws slowly but surely His secret purpose into act.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: The beautiful faith of Moses’ mother here meets its full reward; Satan is confounded; and the marvelous wisdom of God is displayed…The devil was foiled by his own weapon, inasmuch as Pharaoh, whom he was using to frustrate the purpose of God, is used of God to nourish and bring up Moses, who was to be His instrument in confounding the power of Satan. Remarkable providence! Admirable wisdom!
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: It was needful that the deliverer should come from the heart of the system from which he was to set his brethren free. The same principle that sent Saul of Tarsus to be trained at the feet of Gamaliel, and made Martin Luther a monk in the Augustinian convent at Erfurt, planted Moses in Pharaoh’s palace and taught him the wisdom of Egypt, against which he was to contend. It was a strange irony of Providence that put him so close to the throne which he was to shake. For his future work he needed to be lifted above his people, and to be familiar with the Egyptian court and Egyptian learning. If he was to hate and to war against idolatry, and to rescue an unwilling people from it, he must know the rottenness of the system.
ROBERT HAWKER: May all believers learn from this how certain God’s purposes are!
JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): How great a pleasure is it to discern how the most wise God is providentially steering His people’s happiness, whilst the whole world is busily employed in managing the sails, and tugging at the oars, with a quite opposite design and purpose! To see how they promote His design by opposing it, and fulfill His Will by resisting it.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): What exactly do we mean by providence? I cannot think of a better definition than this: “Providence is that continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the Creator preserves all His creatures, is operative in all that comes to pass in the world, and directs all things to their appointed end.”*
ZACHARIAS URSINUS (1534-1583): What advantage is it to us to know that God has created, and by His providence doth still uphold all things? That we may be patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love; since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.**
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*Editor’s Note: Lloyd-Jones is quoting from Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof.
**Editor’s Note: Zacharias Ursinus is quoted from the Heidelberg Catechism. John Trapp’s mention of God’s providence concerning Pharaoh’s daughter, also notes this example of special Providence: “When Heidelberg was taken by the Imperialists, the copy of Ursinus’s Heidelberg Catechism enlarged by Pareus was among many other papers carried away by a plundering soldier; but happily it was dropped in the streets, and found the next day by a young student, who, knowing his master’s hand, restored it to his son Philip Pareus, who afterwards published that golden book, to the great glory of God, who had so graciously preserved it.”
