For any of us who have sons, brothers, fathers, how can we begin to understand an edict that any male babies had to be thrown into the Nile? How can we begin to understand that kind of cruelty? That comes from a heart that does not know love. We’ve all read the story in Exodus 2, we’ve even seen it portrayed in a movie. It took courage to keep her beautiful and loved child safe for three months. It took courage for her to fashion a basket of reeds that grew along the banks of the Nile and prepare it so it would float. Was her son awake looking at her as she placed him inside? She did the only thing she could do to obey that cruel edict. She placed him in the Nile but only after she made it as safe as she could. She did her part without killing her precious child. God did the rest. He orchestrated events so that it was Pharaoh’s own daughter who discovered him v. 5. He orchestrated events so that Miriam, his sister, could approach Pharaoh’s daughter to suggest a Hebrew woman to nurse the child and that happened v. 7. When next Moses’s mother relinquished her precious child, it was to the daughter of Pharaoh where he would be brought up in Pharaoh’s court and be taught there. He was safe. He was being prepared.

The next we read about Moses, he had intervened when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people v. 11. He must have been made aware of his heritage even living in Pharaoh’s daughters home. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” v. 12-14.

Who made you ruler and judge over us? An interesting question. Moses ends up fleeing before Pharaoh could have him killed for killing the Egyptian. He flees to Midian and to a family of shepherds. He marries the oldest daughter and bears a son named Gershon saying, I have become a foreigner in a foreign land. v. 22. Just like Abraham centuries before, Moses is now a foreigner in a foreign land.

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. v. 23-25. Something tells me that God didn’t forget one person or their hardship.

Do you ever wonder what God feels when we suffer? Do we think about how what we do affects Him? Do we suffer when our own children make choices that end up hurting them? Do we stop loving them? I was so blessed to be raised in a home by loving parents. They didn’t hover or direct my every thought and action….but they were always there and home was always my safe and loved place. They felt acutely any pain I went through. I feel acutely any pain my own children experience. It goes deep into my heart. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Matthew 23:37. Jesus words that can be said to any family, any city, any nation. He longs to gather us together to Him and protect us but we are not willing. Can you imagine the longing Moses’ mother must have felt wanting to gather him to her to protect him? She was one mother longing for her one son. Our Creator longs for each of us.

As I sat and thought about this chapter, I couldn’t help but think about God’s heart. I wanted to ease some of the sorrow He must feel. He reminded me in this quiet we share our love grows strong and deep. No words are needed here.