Hebrews Chapter Eleven, Preserving Moses' Life

 

Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.

 

It ought to be noted that this verse technically isn’t about Moses, but his parents. This episode took place in Exodus, chapter 2. Little is written about Moses’ mother and father. His father was of the tribe of Levi, as was his mother, verse 1. We know in verse 4 that the infant Moses had an older sister, who would later be revealed as Miriam, who would become a prophetess, Exodus 15:20.

Moses was not their first child, but unfortunately he was born when the edict came from Pharaoh to kill the firstborn sons of the Hebrews, Exodus 1:16, 22. This exposed him to the imminent threat of being murdered in Pharaoh’s bid to curb the Jewish population. Truly, Pharaoh’s contempt for life was disgusting; it reflects the modern ideology of abortion or infanticide. The children were viewed by Pharaoh as too expensive of a commodity to retain, and also too dangerous, should the Hebrews become too populous. When a culture can casually justify the death of the next generation, it teeters upon collapse. Notice also the correlation between Moses and Jesus, regarding their births.

 

Moses was hidden from Pharaoh to protect him from death, and was preserved by the daughter of the very man who sought to kill the Hebrew infants. Herod, who feared the Christ’s birth would threaten the forfeiture of his reign, sought Jesus to put Him to death, Matthew 2:3. When Herod could not locate Jesus, he satisfied himself with the death of every male child two years or younger, Matthew 2:16. Joseph, to protect Jesus, fled to Egypt, ironically the very land in times past that was responsible for the mass slaughter of the Jewish people under their yoke, Matthew 2:14.

 

In the original Hebrew text, which this verse is based off of (Exodus 2:2), the term beautiful literally means, “good.” The KJV renders the term more closely, using the word, “goodly.” Oxford has a number of definitions one may apply to good, but the one I believed most worthily fits, is, “enjoyable or satisfying.” Moses’ parents saw in him qualities that deeply satisfied them, and they became emboldened to hide their son from Pharaoh and his edict for three months. Undoubtedly, this was also the providential hand of God upon them, since the Lord had plans for Moses.

 

Like Paul, Moses was going to be mightily used for the sake of His purposes, always directed at His glory and His peoples’ benefit. On a side note, it is lovely to see God’s care for Moses and his mother, in that she was immediately reunited with her son by the hand of Pharaoh’s daughter (and Miriam’s cunning), Exodus 2:8. Like Hannah, who would later devote her son Samuel to God for life after nursing him (1 Samuel 1:23, 28), Moses’ mother was blessed with the opportunity to care for her child and watch him grow into a man: a blessing denied many a grieving parent in that time, due to the actions of one man’s callousness.