Exodus 1:22; 2:2-3, 5-6, 10 (NRSV)
Read Exodus 1:22; 2:2-3, 5-6, 10 on biblegateway.com
Verse 22Then 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." Verse 2The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. Verse 3When 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.
Verse 5The 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. Verse 6When 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. Verse 10When 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."
Devotion
In the story of God's people, water becomes a threat in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh threatens to drown all newborn Hebrew boys. God blesses a Hebrew woman with a child, and she builds a basket (ark) to hide him. In Hebrew the word for this basket is the same as the one used for the saving ark of Noah.
It is Pharaoh's own daughter who comes to the river to bathe and takes compassion on the child. This daughter of Pharaoh is adopted into the people of God. She adopts and names the child "Moses (mosheh), which in Egyptian means "son" and also sounds like the Hebrew word for "I drew out" (mashah). Moses is drawn out of the water and stamped with a name forever. This same Moses will lead his own people through the waters of death into new life.
It's like the story of baptism. It is in these waters that we are adopted into God's family and named into a calling of service.
Prayer
Lord, we give you thanks for mothers and all women who are moved by compassion and insight. May we also draw others out of danger and despair. Amen.