2 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

We read here about baby Moses that “he was a fine child” (2). To every parent their baby is special. But it is as though this couple discerned something more.

“At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child” ( Acts 7:20).

“By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict” (Hebrews 11:23).

As with Shiphrah and Puah, here were two more people from the margins of society (Amram and Jochebed 6:20) who were prepared to resist the king’s decree.

Faith works. Moses’ mother had faith, but that did not mean she sat on her hands. To take practical steps doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not trusting God.

Papyrus was a plant with strong stalks suitable for boat-building. The Hebrew word for “basket” is the same word used for the ark built by Noah (Genesis 6:14). It is used only these two times in the Old Testament. As God used the ark to save Noah and his family, so he used an ‘ark’ to protect baby Moses.

‘Jochebed obeyed the letter of the law when she put Moses in the waters of the Nile, but certainly she was defying Pharaoh’s orders in the way she did it. She was trusting the providence of God and God didn’t fail her.’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘Old Testament Commentary’, p.149.

PRAYER: Lord God, as I seek to walk with you by faith, please show me the ways I ought to work out this faith in practice.