8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not
know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people
are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal
shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our
enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore
they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built
supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they
were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came
to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians became ruthless in
imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14 and made their lives bitter
with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They
were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives,
one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act
as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a
boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17 But the
midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but
they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the
midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to
live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women
are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before
the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives;
and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the
midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh
commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall
throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a
Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw
that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could
hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with
bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the
bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what
would happen to him.
5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at
the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket
among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it,
she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him.” This must be one
of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7 Then his sister said to
Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to
nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.”
So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter
said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your
wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child
grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son.
She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
In Exodus
1:8-2:10, we have an account of the birth of Moses that scholars will say
reflects the J, E, and P documents that represent differing traditions within
Israel that the canonical text unites. The setting provides yet another
opportunity in our reflections upon the Bible to consider the silence of the
Lord. In Isaiah 45:15, we read that the God of Israel is one who hides himself.
We find it difficult to perceive God in the midst of troubled situations. In II
Samuel 22:12, darkness gathers around the Lord. In Job 9:11, the Lord passes by
Job, but he cannot see or perceive the Lord. In Psalm 10:1, the Lord seems to
stand far away during a time of trouble. In Acts 17:27, Paul observes that
people grope after God as in the dark, even though God is not far from each of
us. We have a passage before us that will refer to a time of trouble that
involves political oppression through slavery and the death of male infants.
Pharaoh terrorizes the people of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have
a holocaust, and God provides no comfort or help. Yet, maybe another way to
think of this is that in a time of trouble, God is at work quietly, in a way
you will not expect. In the time of terror, the Lord is preserving the life of
an infant who will become the deliverer of the Hebrew people. To use a computer
analogy, the computer has many programs, especially anti-virus programs,
working in the background. They work in ways most of us do not understand nor
care to understand. They help the computer function better by doing so. This
passage suggests that sometimes, the activity of God is like that, working
quietly and silently in the background. In the story of the liberation of the
Hebrew people from Egypt, moments come when God is obviously present and
active. However, that period follows a long number of years when God is working
silently and quietly. Part of having faith in God is to live in the confidence
that God is active in ordinary and troubling times, even when we have
difficulty perceiving it, just as much as when divine activity seems quite
obvious.
We begin with a
consideration of the setting of oppression. In Exodus 1:8-12, from J, the
biblical setting for such reflections is that a new king, likely Rameses II,
who reigned in Egypt from 1279-1213 BC, arises who did not have the benefit of
knowing Joseph. He is fearful of the number and power of the Israelites. His
fear is that they could join with the enemies of Egypt. We learn that the clan
has become a large people. Little of consequence occurs between 1700 and 1300
BC. Scholars know from other sources that Egypt had to deal with “resident
aliens” in their midst, due to migration and prisoners of war. In this new
historical moment, Egyptian leaders drew upon them for slave labor. Yet, among
the arts the new king needed to learn is to keep the peasant class happy enough
not to rebel. Yet, the leaders will want as much wealth and comfort for
themselves as they can get. If the upper three per cent of the population makes
the mistake of pushing a large number of their people into a type of unclean or
expendable class, they run the risk of creating the environment for revolution.
In addition, “Sea peoples” settled along the coast and created some problems
for Egypt. Even though the new king oppressed the Israelites, the number of
Israelites expanded. If we remember the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the Lord promised their descendants would be numerous. In this historical
moment, we find the fulfillment of that promise. In Genesis 51:2-7, after
giving the names and the small number of the family of Joseph, we find the
Israelites grow fruitful and strong to the point where the land of Egypt was
full of them. In Psalm 105:23-25, the Lord made the Israelites fruitful and
stronger than were their enemies. In Deuteronomy 26:5-7, their ancestor Jacob
went to Egypt, lived as a resident alien as few in number, but grew to become a
great, mighty, and populous nation. Oppression by Egypt is also a theme of
these two texts, referring to the hatred Pharaoh would have for the Israelites
and the harsh treatment and affliction he imposed on them through forced labor.
The tradition of Egyptian oppression is comparable to that of the enslavement
of non-Israelites by Solomon. Further, in I Kings 11:14-22, David committed genocide against Edom Solomon , this
does not mean that oppression did not occur. The Pharaoh needed to suppress the
population and thus perform hard labor to construct the store-cities. In 1:13-14,
from P, we find reinforcing the notion of oppression and therefore invites us
to consider the ambiguity of the relationship between God and the faithful. At
the same time, we might wonder why Pharaoh would behave this way toward his
labor supply. In 1:15-20, E provides a description of the second stage of the
oppression of the Hebrews. We learn that Egyptians were midwives to Hebrew
families. The fear of the “king of Egypt” in the growing power of the Hebrews
leads him to urge them to kill the male babies. In such a time of terror, we
can see the biblical story dealing again with the perceived absence of God to
the faithful. Yet, part of the faith of the faithful involves confidence that
God is active, even when we have difficulty perceiving it. Thus, we learn that
the midwives to the Hebrews had grown to fear God. God was working quietly and
silently in the lives of the Hebrews and in the lives of these gentile midwives
to prepare the ground for the preservation of the deliverer of the Hebrew
people. God gives them courage to disobey their king. Later Jewish practice
would refer to them as “righteous gentiles.” When Pharaoh asks why, they lie to
him. Luther would refer to this example to say that this is how Christians
should act in persecution. Yes, in certain situations, God is at work in a lie.
God blesses these righteous gentiles. In verse 21, from P, we learn that God is
active in the midwives who fear God. We can imagine that their fear of God
arose out of their relationship with the Hebrew people. God was active in the
ordinary character of these relationships. In verse 22, from E, the result was
that Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw Hebrew male infants into the
Nile. This act would keep the population down. It would also deprive the
Hebrews of the primary source for soldiers. Yet, in this context, such genocide
makes little sense, since the Hebrews had become a primary source for labor on
the important building projects of Pharaoh.
We now move to the
quiet way God is at work in contrast to the impressive and terrorizing power of
Egypt. In 2:1-10, from J, out of this context, two Levites marry who become the
parents of Moses. While the powerful Pharaoh is at work in oppression, God is
at work quietly and silently in the preparing of one who, many years later,
will be the agent of deliverance. The pattern for this story appears to be the
birth of king Sargon that dates from 2334 to 2279 BC. The function of the
oracle was to determine the future by binding it to the past. It was an
introduction to a blessing oracle. In the biblical story, however, it prepares
us for the future by showing the special care the child will receive. Such a
story would arise within the wisdom tradition. Divine activity is implied
rather than stated directly. Moses is “a brand plucked from the burning,” as
John Wesley would refer to himself. What this infant becomes as an adult is
what will matter. In Disney ’s animated film based on
the story of Moses , The Prince of Egypt (1998), young Miriam , Moses ’
older sister, sings this song as she watches the princess take her baby brother
from the basket in the river to adopt him as her own:
“Brother, you’re safe now
And safe may you stay
For I have a prayer just for you:
Grow, baby brother,
Come back someday,
Come and deliver us, too ...”
Moses will be similar to Joseph in
that he rises to heights within the house of Pharaoh. Its portrait of the
Egyptian princess is positive. We could say that God is at work in her,
preparing her to receive this Hebrew infant. We even see the child returns to
the mother who sought to save her child by putting the child into the Nile. God
is silently and quietly at work in these circumstances. God is at work behind
the scenes, preparing the stage for the primary activity in the deliverance of
the Hebrew people. God is making sure that Moses and the Hebrew people will have
the best light and the best props available. God is providing everyone with
what they need to “perform” on stage, when deliverance will come. However, at
this moment, a time of terror and incredible suffering, faith says that God is
still working, even if quietly and behind the scenes. This story will provide
the biblical and theological context for Matthew 2 and the story of the birth
of Jesus. We learn that the plan of God has a fragile beginning, even while the
powers of this world seem impressive. We see an unexpected rescue. When
redemption comes, the price is the senseless murder of children. The
deliverance that will come is not one the powerful will welcome. In Matthew, of
course, the antagonist shifts from the Egyptian king to the Jewish king. If you
want to continue this line of thinking, Revelation 12 will have this story in
the background as well.
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