God’s Irony at Work

Have you ever talked to a skeptic about prayer? “I’ve prayed and prayed and it doesn’t help. I’ve never seen God do anything.” I hear this somewhat frequently. Let me just begin by pointing out that we should hear the pain underlying this skepticism. I have also shouted out to God, “Why won’t you do anything about this?” in my pain and frustration. But there is something else lying beneath this doubt. I sat across from a young man who said that God never answered his questions. I responded with the somewhat bold, “Maybe God sent me to talk with you and you are just not listening to what God has to say.” Okay, there was a relationship there that allowed me to make the statement. I didn’t just throw that out there the first time I met the young man. And my point was not that I am a modern day prophet sent to answer the burning questions of hurting people. My point is that God is often working in ways that we miss because we are looking for him to do what we want and in exactly the way we expect. Or we are waiting for the spectacular and we miss the glory of the everyday. The burning bush moments are really quite rare. So we are left to sift through the every-dayness of our lives to try our best to see God moving. The only question is, “Will we see it?”

Exodus 2:1-10 is full of irony and mystery. The main characters are not even named. We are told of a man and a woman, both from the tribe of Levi who come together and have a male child right in the middle of the horrible death decree of the Pharaoh. We aren’t told their names. We don’t know that they are aunt and nephew until chapter 6, which our culture would give a big bold label of “Creepy!” It is significant that they are of the tribe of Levi since Moses will be seen as the Torah giver and his brother is the first high priest. Okay, so these Levites have a son when sons were to be cast into the Nile and drowned. But Moses’ mother sees that the lad is “beautiful” and therefore decides to “hide” him. Here’s a question, if Moses happened to be an ugly baby would she have chucked him in the Nile herself? Most mothers’ hearts see their babies as beautiful. But the word “beautiful” means “good, agreeable”. It can mean the baby was healthy and happy and this inspired her to strive with more zeal to save his life. And the word “hide” can also mean “treasure” and isn’t this a description of a mother’s heart? So for three months she hides her precious treasure. But no matter what you do, babies grow up and become more active and noisy.

Hiding her treasure in the house is no longer viable. So, she makes herself an ark. Yep! It is the same word used for Noah’s little boat in Genesis 6-9. She then hides her treasure in the ark and puts it in the Nile. And isn’t that all kinds of ironic? In a sense, she is obeying the Pharaoh’s decree. She has cast her male child into the Nile. Most likely the plan was to hide him in the Nile for as long as possible, watching and feeding him when the situation allowed. It was, no doubt, a desperate plan. But what else was a mother to do? Out of the blue we are told that the treasure has a sister old enough to be given the task of watching over the child. Again, no name is given.

Pharaoh’s daughter comes down to bathe. This can refer to a religious cleansing ceremony in the sacred waters of the Nile. The maidens walk along the banks of the river, probably watching out for Nile crocodiles. It doesn’t seem tenable that Moses’ mother planned this all along. Being found by any Egyptian would be extremely dangerous. But he is found and that by the Pharaoh’s daughter. The boy’s sister boldly and ingeniously asked the princess if she needed a wet nurse for the baby. And again, irony abounds. The mother is hired to nurse her own son. When he is weaned, he is sent to live with Pharaoh’s daughter. She named him Moses. Some sources claim this is an Egyptian name which meant “child, son” while others claim it is Hebrew meaning “draw”. The Hebrew word for draw is masha. Maybe it is both. It doesn’t seem likely that Pharaoh’s daughter would give her adopted son a Hebrew name. But it is similar to the Hebrew.

The deliverer of Israel was cast into the Nile, in keeping with the decree, but instead of drowning, he was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter. And notice all of the heroes of the story thus far are women. This deliverer was drawn out of the very death sentence and given the name “son”, which should have also been a death sentence. And the condemned deliverer is being raised in Pharaoh’s house. And God is not mentioned once in this part of the tale, but his finger prints are all over the place. Can you see them? And can you see God’s sense of humor here? Keep your eyes open. You just may see God working. Walter.