Five Women and a Baby: Exodus 1:8-2:10
Rev. Deborah Troester, STHPC, August 27, 2023
Some of you will have noticed that the title of my sermon, “Five Women and a Baby” is a play on words on a movie title from 1987: “Three Men and a Baby.” In this film, starring a young Tom Sellek, three bachelors find a baby on their doorstep. She turns out to be the daughter of one of them, who didn’t realize he was a father, after having had an affair with an actress the previous summer. In the meantime, there’s lots of comedy involving the three men who have never cared for a baby before. If you want to watch a funny movie, check it out.
In our story today, we don’t have three men and a baby, but rather five women: two midwives, a mother, a daughter, and an Egyptian princess, and they do know how to take care of a baby, although putting a baby in a basket in the Nile River is not exactly standard procedure. The story of Moses’ birth is a favorite of children and grown-ups alike. Maybe it’s the element of danger and suspense – first Baby Moses is threatened by Pharaoh, then he is put afloat in the Nile, in a waterproofed basket, at the mercy of the currents and the hungry crocodiles. His sister Miriam watches over him. We hold our collective breaths until finally Pharaoh’s daughter sees the basket and sends her maids to fetch it out of the water. She feels compassion for the baby, and raises him as her own, thus setting the stage for the Hebrew’s liberation from slavery many years later. The baby is rescued, and there is a happy ending. Kind of a scary story for children, but everything turns out OK. When I was a kid I really liked this story. Since I’m a big sister with two younger brothers, I imagined myself as Miriam, watching over my baby brother. To me she was the hero of the story.
And maybe I wasn’t far from wrong – this story is full of heroes, and interestingly enough, all of them are women. First we have the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah, who refuse to kill the newborn boys, even though Pharaoh commanded them to. Then we have Moses’ mother Jochebed and his sister Miriam, who find a way to hide him and watch over him in the basket. Finally, we have Pharaoh’s daughter and her attendants, who rescue Baby Moses from the waters of the Nile. Then Miriam steps in and gets Moses’ own mother to nurse him for the princess. Without any of these women, the story of Moses leading the slaves to freedom might never have happened.
Let’s start with the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. Midwives have had an important part to play in human civilization for millennia. Long before modern medical practices, certain women who were knowledgeable about childbirth assisted mothers in labor and delivery. This practice is very much alive today in most of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa. While we might all wish that women could deliver their babies in modern maternity clinics, such as the one in Buea that our congregation supports, many women in rural areas do not have easy access to a doctor or hospital. In these situations, midwives can make a huge difference in both the mother’s and the infant’s health. I did some research and found out that The Presbyterian Church, USA, supports a midwives training program in Ghana, among other projects, so some of your offerings probably helped with that.
But back to our story of Moses: if Shiphrah and Puah had not disobeyed Pharaoh’s order to kill all the baby boys, Moses would not have survived to be put in the basket in the first place. Pharaoh is like many rulers who have jealously guarded their power. He is a prime example of how fear of foreigners can make people do irrational and downright evil things. There is no indication in Exodus that the Hebrews had any intention of overthrowing the government, or helping Pharaoh’s enemies, yet he treats them harshly, making them slaves, and even committing genocide against innocent children.
It is ironic that the most powerful ruler of that age was defeated by a couple of midwives – who were both slaves and women, members of two groups thought of as being powerless. But when they obeyed God rather than Pharaoh, and saved the lives of the male babies, there wasn’t much Pharaoh could do. Men did not attend births at that time; so Pharaoh had to take their word for it that the Hebrew women were vigorous and gave birth before the midwife arrived.
Another hero in this story is Moses’ mother, Jochebed. We don’t know much about her, but she and her husband must have been good parents, because they had three children who stand out in Jewish history: Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. All three were leaders when they grew up. Jochebed was probably desperate to hide her infant son from Pharaoh’s people, who had been commanded to throw into the Nile every new-born Hebrew boy. Ingeniously, she thinks of a plan: She will not disobey Pharaoh; she will throw her son into the Nile, but not without giving him a chance for survival.
She weaves a basket and coats it with pitch to waterproof it. Then she sets the basket in the Nile, in a reeded backwater. Did she know that this was the place Pharaoh’s daughter, and maybe other wealthy Egyptian women, came to bathe? Probably. Where people bathe in a river or lake, they will choose a place where it’s easy to get into the water, or where there is less current, or maybe fewer crocodiles (!) Jochebed took a real risk here, for the sake of her son. Desperate mothers take desperate measures. People wonder why Central American mothers send their children on a dangerous journey to the U.S. to escape poverty and violence, but sometimes people do difficult, even dangerous things, to keep them safe and give them a better chance at life. That is what Moses’ mother did.
Moses was found in a basket, and the person who found him was a woman of privilege and power – the daughter of Pharaoh himself. But unlike Pharaoh, this young woman “took pity on him” and decided to adopt him. Thus Pharaoh’s evil plan was thwarted by someone from his own family. Position and power can be used for evil or for good; to further one’s own power and plans, or to help others and to further God’s plans for justice and peace. Our world today needs good leaders more than ever, and young women and men need education and training so they can use their talents to contribute to a better future for themselves and their families. If we have had the privilege of a good education, a good job, and a bit of money left over at the end of the month, we need to think about how we can use these blessings for the good of others, our community and our world, not just selfishly for ourselves.
Sadly, there are still many “Pharaohs” today. I don’t necessarily mean powerful, evil rulers, although there are plenty of those. Rather I am talking about things like war, famine, disease, and climate change, which kill millions every year, and are especially hard on babies and small children. We need more people like the midwives Shiphrah and Puah, Mother Jochebed, Sister Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter, as well as men –fathers, brothers, uncles, and sons – to step up and do their part. If there is one lesson we can learn from the story of Baby Moses it is that God can do great things through ordinary and even unimportant people: slave women, poor mothers, even a princess whose value was probably measured in what kind of political alliance or wealth she could bring through marriage. Theology Professor Brian Bantum, writes: “The women in these stories love and fear their God—a God who has heard their cries…In their participation with God, Moses’ life is made possible. Through their everyday actions…their desperate acts of faith—they plant a seed of God’s freedom in the very heart of the empire’s power.”
These five women show us that we can do more good in our world than we dare think, if we are willing to obey God and act out of love and compassion. A few people working together can make a difference. Evil will not have the last word. Despite all the Pharaohs in the world, God’s love will win in the end. Amen.
©Deborah Troester, 2023