In Exodus chapter 2 Moses is introduced to the story. He will serve as the God-appointed deliverer of the people. We also read of God’s protection of his appointed deliverer from Pharaoh’s wicked edict of death. Moses is rescued through the faith of his parents, who hide him and entrust him to God’s providential care. Such faith is exemplary for us today. To walk in faith is to trust in God, even though we cannot see him. We trust in him, knowing that the God who has delivered us in the past will deliver his people again.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
THINKING: Questions aimed at our minds to help us understand God’s word.
The Hebrew word for the “basket” in which Moses is placed (Ex. 2:3) occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament only to describe Noah’s “ark” (Genesis 6–9). In what other ways does Noah’s life foreshadow Moses’ life?
Since Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s household, away from the slave labor, some Israelites likely viewed him as more Egyptian than Hebrew. However, the text twice refers to Israel as “his people” (Ex. 2:11), and Moses even kills an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew (v. 12). Then, when he arrives in Midian, although the women refer to him as an Egyptian (v. 19), he names his son “Gershom,” saying, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land” (v. 22). Based on these observations, what is this section emphasizing?
FEELING: Questions aimed at our affections to help us love God.
In Exodus 2:24–25, God is the subject of four successive verbs (“God heard . . . God remembered . . . God saw . . . and God knew”). What does this tell us about God?
What do you think it means for God to “remember” his covenant with the patriarchs?
DOING: Questions aimed at our hands to help us live for God (Personally, Communally, and Missionally).
Hebrews 11:23 says, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” How does this act of faith motivate you to live by faith in a world opposed to God?
What does the groaning of God’s people (v.23-25) teach us about prayer? How does this motivate you to cry out to God in prayer?
Some questions adapted from Knowing The Bible: Exodus
