Exodus 2: Provision in Pain & Problems

​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.” 
Moses Flees to Midian
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.” 
God Hears Israel’s Groaning
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. 
 
Meditation
God’s covenant faithfulness provides rescue for His people and redemption of the pain and problems of life.
 
The often-romanticized narrative of Moses being drawn from the water (1-10) has a dark backdrop. Pharaoh’s government policy to kill male Israelite babies forced the unnamed Levite woman to hide her newborn son for three months before hatching a crazy plan to send him down river in a basket during princess bath time. God provided, and Moses was “drawn out” from the water.
 
Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s palace before “he saw” an Israelite being beaten. Moses’ solution was pain for pain, murdering the Egyptian before fleeing to Midian (11-22). Merely human solutions to pain only causes more problems. God “saw” the pain and problems for the people of Israel, He remembered His covenant relationship with Abraham, and He knew it was time to raise up a deliverer (23-25). God’s solution to pain and problems is to provide rescue.
 
Moses was found in a basket covered with bitumen and pitch (3), a verbal echo harkening back to the ark that saved Noah and hinting that Moses, too, was a deliverer. But God’s people need more than a murderer called from Midian for rescue from physical slavery because pain and problems extend beyond the borders of Egypt. God’s covenant faithfulness ultimately provides a greater deliver to rescues His people from the root of all pain and problems, Jesus Christ.
 
God’s covenant faithfulness provides rescue for His people from sin and through His victory we will see how Jesus will redeem all the pain and problems He allows. 
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you from this narrative, especially seeing God’s heart to rescue?
 
-Where do you identify with Moses who saw pain and murdered, adding to the problems of Israel over and above trusting God’s covenant faithfulness to provide for the pain and problems of life?
 
-How does the provision of God through the person and work of Jesus not only provide rescue but also fuel hope that God will redeem all He allows? Where do you need to hold onto this hope? Be specific.
 
Key Verse
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.