Moses’ Birth Exodus 1: 8-2: 10 – 2024/9/8

September 8, 2024

Anything but Ordinary
“Moses’ Birth”
Exodus 1: 8-2: 10

Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl

Exodus 1: 8-2: 10

Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 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.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” 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.” So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 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. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

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. 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. 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?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 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. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

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Moses’ Birth Exodus 1: 8-2: 10

The timing of this text does not go unnoticed by me. The same week we as a community of faith are talking about the genocide which happened to the Hebrew male babies, there was another school shooting in the United States, an event which could be called a generational genocide, an event which is happening to the children of our nation. The same week we as a community of faith are talking about how the political powers of Egypt played upon the people’s fears, filling their heads with false information and disgusting stereotypes, there was another school shooting in the United States where the political powers of this nation offer their thoughts and prayers while creating and crafting a narrative of fear to influence the policies of our nation. The same week we as a community of faith are talking about how some two thousand years ago, a destructive regime was created because their leaders forgot or intentionally ignored the relationships which strengthened their community, relationships which literally saved their community from death and starvation is the same week we as a nation hear once more about how red flags which were missed or intentionally ignored. The same week we as a community of faith are talking about what it means for generations to come, that two powerless individuals chose life over death is the same week we as a nation hear once more about how ineffective gun laws are implemented, laws which create loopholes, laws which create a system which invites individuals to choose death over life again and again.

I do not think the timing of this text is a coincidence. Nor do I think it is divine intervention that on the same week we as a community of faith are hearing about a reign of terror for thousands of people, we are also hearing about another school shooting, the 44th in 2024. No, I think the timing of it is simply the fact that we live in the United States, where children have easier access to guns than they do free meals, where the power and might of this nation make policies which reinforce a narrative of fear rather than to work to create policies which break the cycle. No, I think the timing of it is simply the fact that we live in the  United States where news of schools shootings no longer phase us, where school shootings are a part of who we are, where children lay dying because of the choices made by the powers that be…just like they did all those years ago when the Pharaoh ordered Hebrew baby boys to be thrown in the Nile. 

No, I do not think the timing of this text is a coincidence.  I think the timing is simply the fact that we live in the United Speaks. The fact that this text written some two thousand years ago still speaks to us today, still speaks to what we as a nation have chosen to live with as acceptable is prophetic and pathetic. 

Here in the United States, we have chosen systems of death over life each and every time. We have chosen to feed the narratives of fear and hate rather than engage in the long faithful work of building up the Beloved Community here on Earth for all of God’s people. Here in the United States, we say we love Jesus but we would rather support policies based on money and greed. We would rather make judgments based on people’s skin color or their sexuality rather than embrace them as Beloved Children of God. We would rather put laws into place which punish the homeless, costing us more money to house them in prison than find or build affordable housing in our communities.  We would rather tear families apart rather than embrace them as our neighbors who are fleeing from war and death. Here in the United States, we say we love Jesus, and that we are a Christian nation, but we create systems which make life bitter for the least of these.

There are no words. There are no words which I can offer to change the fact that four people died this past week because a young man decided to bring a gun to school. There are no words which I can offer to change the fact that I too am complicit in this system. After each school shooting, I offer my thoughts and prayers. After each school shooting, I feel angry and helpless. After each school shooting, I give thanks that it wasn’t my children or my children’s schools. And after each school shooting, I move on with my life…until the next school shooting.

There are no words that I can offer to change any of that this morning so I will do what I can to find a glimmer of hope in all the hurt and hate. I will do what I can to find the good news of the Gospel message, the message which reminds me, reminds us as people of faith, love and light will overcome, that there is hope, that the arch to the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice but only if we pull it. So, in addition to my thoughts and prayers, I invite us to action this morning. I invite us to look at an image.

The artwork for the text this week is two faces broken, stressed, traumatized. It is titled, “The Midwives Decision”. The author starts her explanation for this artwork with these questions… “Fear God or fear people? Do I risk my life by saving the lives of all the Hebrew baby boys? Or do I shed the blood of my friends’ children because the ruler told me to?” The author goes on to say, “The wise women look both ways, up to the grandeur of God, and down to the flow of blood. The options seem more simple to me from afar than I think they were in the moment. Of course they should break the edict of the king. However, it takes incredible bravery to stand up to human power. It is incredible that they were fearless enough to defy and lie to the king. The moral is easier said than done; we must always do the right thing, even when it puts our lives in danger. Be brave.” May it be so. Amen.

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