Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Live Courageously | Torah | Exodus 2:1-10

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

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Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller, and right now we're going through the Book of Exodus. Everybody loves a good hero myth. If you go to a church with a big celebrity pastor, they'll tell you stories about how they got their church started. If you read history, there's stories around who George Washington was and how he became who he was, who Abraham Lincoln was, how he became who he was. And so we love these stories, learning how someone maybe of humble origins became someone significant. And in Exodus 2, verses 1 to 10, we read the story of Moses's birth.

And in some ways, that's exactly what we expect. We expect to learn a hero's origins. Where did he come from? What made him so special? And what's amazing about this story is that it's exactly not that. From the very first moment that Moses is born, he really has no volition, no decision-making power. Moses lives because of the heroic actions of women. Now, that might not surprise us to hear something like that today in today's cultural context

because we live in a culture that is much less patriarchal, much less misogynistic than cultures in the past. But in the ancient world, women were not treated with the same dignity, respect, and honor as men. And so it's a real shocker when the Bible opens up and it says that not just men are made in God's image, but male and female, both are made in God's image. And it's no small thing that the greatest hero of the Old Testament, that's Moses. His story begins not with the heroics of men, but with the heroics of women.

It starts with the passage that we read last week, which describes how these Hebrew midwives, they protected the Hebrew children from the Egyptians. You'll remember, Pharaoh said that he wanted the midwives to kill all of the boys being born to the Hebrews because he was terrified of the Israelites. But these midwives, they refused to do it. It's the first example of civil disobedience in human history that's at least written down. But then when we get to chapter two, we meet a number of other women who again show great courage. The first person that we meet is actually Moses's mother.

So let's pick up the story in verse one. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that this was a fine child, she hid him for three months. So let's just pause here for a second. This was a courageous act. Moses' mom's name was Yaakoved. We get her name later in the story.

His dad's name was Amram. And it's interesting. In Jewish tradition, there's actually this story that Moses's father was trying to convince all of the people to not have children so that their kids wouldn't be killed. But it's his own daughter, Miriam, who comes along and says, no, dad, we need to keep having children, whatever Pharaoh says. And whether or not that happened, it probably didn't happen, you have to think about the courage it took for his wife to get pregnant.

I mean, you can't hide it. a pregnancy. Everybody knows that you have a baby. Everybody's expecting what's going to happen. And while they didn't know whether it was a boy or a girl, whether this child she conceded would be killed or would be spared, it was an incredible act of courage to have this baby in this moment. And it doesn't stop there because she courageously hides him. Now, I've had a baby. I know how loud and difficult and challenging a baby can be during this first three months. I know as a parent, how frustrated you can get when they won't sleep or they won't eat or they want to do all the things that you think you need them to do. Now, try doing that when you have a nefarious

dictator who wants to murder your child. Imagine the bravery. Imagine the patience. Imagine the tenacity that she had to have to hide that baby. But the bravery doesn't stop there because after three months, probably baby's getting too loud. She doesn't know what to do. And the story gets a little strange. Verse three, when she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and dobed it with bitumen and pitch, and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the riverbank. Now, again, this is a sad, tragic moment. She doesn't want to get rid of her baby, but she doesn't know what to do. And at first, you think she's just abandoning the baby. But if you've read the Bible, you know that's not what's happening. The ingredients, or I should say the parts that were used to build this little basket for Moses, they match what was used to create the ark.

She's using some of the same materials. And so the Bible reader has a hyperlink here all the way back to the ark, and we realize this is not her abandoning her child. This is her rescuing her child. And that becomes absolutely clear when we continue the story. And his sister, this is Miriam, stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. So it's obvious that she didn't just throw him out into the river and see what happened. She has her daughter following him. And now we're about to find out where she's trying to send the baby. We pick up in verse five. Now, the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river while her young woman walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant women and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child,

and behold, the baby was crying. And she took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. 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? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. So the girl went and called the child's mother. 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. Now, let's just pause. Again, all of the heroics here, first of all, Moses's sister, Miriam, she's following the baby down the river. What do you think would have happened if one of these Egyptian slave taskmasters finds Miriam with a baby she's not supposed to have? How do you think

they were going to treat her? Do you think they would have killed her? Do you think they would have whipped her? Of course, they would have done those things to her, but she had the bravery to walk alongside that basket. And it turns out they knew where that basket was going. They were trying to get it to the daughter of the Pharaoh. She must have had a reputation of being someone who is just, someone who is good and heart and soul, because they wanted that baby to come to the daughter. And you see what happens, because here's the next step of courage. She opens it up. And she doesn't try to drown the baby. She feels pity. She feels sadness. And she immediately acts to save that child. Now, just stop and think about this. Do you think the daughter of Hitler

would have brought a Jewish child into his house? He didn't have a daughter. But just imagine, do you think she would have done that? Do you think the daughter of Stalin would have brought the child of his enemies into his house? Do you think the daughter of Vladimir Putin would take a Ukrainian baby into his house? Of course they wouldn't. You see, dictators don't allow anyone to disagree with him, but that shows the absolute audacity and bravery and courage of Pharaoh's daughter. She says, whatever my dad does, whatever my dad wills, that's not what I will do. In fact, I will work actively against him to rescue the people that he is harming and hurting in the world. In the book of Chronicles, we meet a Egyptian female.

character named Baccia. She's in a list of names in the book of Chronicles. And according to Jewish tradition, Bataia was the daughter of Pharaoh. Now, here's what's so interesting. The name Bata means daughter of Yahweh. Just stop and think about it. That's what her name meant, daughter of Yahweh. And in Jewish tradition, they said that just as she looked upon Moses and said, though you are not my son, I will treat you as my son. So God looked on the daughter of Pharaoh and said, though you are not my daughter, I will treat you as my daughter. You will be Batya, the daughter of Yahweh. Now again, we don't know for certain that's who she really was, but I think it's a profound story for this reason. God is calling his children to profound bravery and courage. Part of being a part

of Jesus' family is having the audacity to do what's right in the face of tyranny. We're living in a cultural moment where it is becoming ever more challenging to follow. Jesus faithfully, to remain faithful to him in your worldview, to remain faithful to him in your sexual ethic, to remain faithful to him in word, in deed, and heart, and mind, all these things. Because we're living in a cultural moment that says that being a Christian makes you a bigot, or being a Christian makes you a backwards, backwater person. And of course, being a Christian should make us into loving people, people who resist injustice wherever it is and who will stand up for the truth no matter the cost. You see, that's part of what it means to.

to be a Batya, a daughter of Yahweh, or a son of Yahweh. It's to have this courage and this audacity. Now, here's the deal. Pharaoh's daughter, Miriam, Yaakoved, Moses's mom, none of them won the love of God with their courage. I think it was actually probably the other way around. Because they knew that Yahweh was the one who was in charge, they weren't afraid of Pharaoh. Because they knew that Yahweh was the one who had the power, they weren't afraid of Pharaoh's orders. Because they knew that Yahweh is the one who makes the ultimate judgments

and who has the ultimate justice, they weren't terrified of the injustices that Pharaoh was perpetrating. The only way that they had courage was because they knew the love and power of God. The only way you can have courage in your walk with Jesus is to know his love, is to know his power. These women, they set out a true origin story for all of us. You see, here's the truth. We're actually all a lot like Moses. We don't even control our own origin story. We aren't even the heroes of our own origin story. And yet, God is using the courage of people who came before us to bring us to himself. And so you stand where you are because you stand in a line of brave women, of courageous men who acted faithfully before Jesus so that you can know who he was

so that you could hear his name. And I think he's calling you to do the same. He's calling you to be a Baccia for someone, to be a Miriam for someone, to be a Yacavad for someone. He's calling you to walk in courage, not because you're proud, not because you think you can do it, but because you know that Yahweh, Jesus, he is king. He is in charge. So what do we have to fear from this world? Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.