The Ark, the Irony, and the Tyrant's Wages Text: Exodus 2:1-10
Introduction: The Kingdom of the Nursery
We live in an age that is besotted with the idea of top-down, centralized power. Our political masters, like Pharaoh before them, believe that history is shaped by decrees, by legislation, by executive orders, and by the brute force of the state. They issue their edicts from on high, fully expecting reality to comply. Pharaoh, the great god-king of Egypt, the master of the most powerful empire on earth, decreed death for the Hebrew boys. From his throne, he commanded the Nile, a god in its own right, to be the instrument of his genocidal policy. This is the world's way. It is loud, arrogant, and murderous.
But God's way is entirely different. While Pharaoh is making his grand, public pronouncements, God is working quietly in the private spaces, in the homes, in the nurseries, and in the hearts of faithful women. The kingdom of God does not advance like the kingdom of Egypt. It advances through a faithful marriage, a mother's tears, a sister's watchfulness, and a baby's cry. This passage is a master class in divine providence. It is a beautiful and devastating satire on the impotence of tyranny. God will not only rescue His chosen deliverer from the tyrant's decree, He will make the tyrant pay for his upbringing. He will use the tyrant's own daughter, the tyrant's own river, and the tyrant's own treasury to accomplish His purposes. Pharaoh thought he was the master of Egypt, but he was not even the master of his own household.
This is not just a charming story for a flannelgraph board in Sunday School. This is a paradigm for spiritual warfare. It teaches us that the power of a faithful family is greater than the power of an ungodly state. It teaches us that God delights in using the weak things of the world to shame the strong. And it teaches us that the plans of wicked men are always, ultimately, subservient to the secret counsel of God. The world thinks history is written in the halls of power. The Bible teaches us that it is written in the cradle and at the cross.
The Text
And a man from the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as a wife. And the woman conceived and bore a son; and she saw that he was beautiful, so she hid him for three months. But she could not hide him any longer. So she took for him an ark of papyrus reeds and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and put it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her young women walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the ark among the reeds and sent her maidservant, and she took it to her. Then she opened it and saw the child. And behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
(Exodus 2:1-10 LSB)
Covenantal Defiance (vv. 1-2)
We begin with the simple, foundational act of faith.
"And a man from the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as a wife. And the woman conceived and bore a son; and she saw that he was beautiful, so she hid him for three months." (Exodus 2:1-2 LSB)
In the face of a state-sponsored culture of death, Amram and Jochebed do the most ordinary and most rebellious thing possible: they get married and have a baby. Their faith is not flashy; it is domestic. They are building a family, a little embassy of the kingdom of heaven, on the soil of the kingdom of death. This is the fundamental building block of a godly society, and it is always the first target of a tyrannical one.
When their son is born, we are told that "she saw that he was beautiful." The Hebrew here is the word tov, which means good. This is the same word God used in Genesis 1 to describe His creation: "And God saw that it was good." Jochebed is not just admiring her baby's chubby cheeks. She is looking at him with the eyes of faith. She is making a theological assessment. In a world where Pharaoh has declared this child's life to be worthless and disposable, she declares him to be tov, a good gift from a good God. This is a direct contradiction of the state's evaluation. And on the basis of this faith, she acts. She hides him.
The author of Hebrews tells us this was a deliberate act of faith-filled civil disobedience: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict" (Hebrews 11:23). They were not afraid. This does not mean they didn't have butterflies in their stomachs. It means the fear of God was greater than their fear of Pharaoh. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and it is also the beginning of all true courage. They knew that God's law to be fruitful and multiply trumped Pharaoh's law to be sterile and murderous.
Desperate Faith and Strategic Hope (vv. 3-4)
When concealment is no longer possible, faith moves to its next, audacious strategy.
"But she could not hide him any longer. So she took for him an ark of papyrus reeds and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and put it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him." (Exodus 2:3-4 LSB)
Jochebed's actions here are dripping with covenantal significance. She builds a vessel for her son, and the word for this vessel is tebah. This word is only used in one other place in the entire Old Testament: for Noah's ark. Just as God delivered Noah and his family through the waters of judgment in a tebah, so Jochebed commits her son to the waters of judgment in a miniature tebah. This is not an act of abandonment; it is an act of profound faith. She is placing her son into a story that God has already written. She is entrusting him to the God of Noah, the God who saves through water.
Notice the cunning. She places the ark "among the reeds." This is not some random detail. It is a calculated placement in a specific, known location. And she stations her daughter, Miriam, at a distance to watch. This is not a desperate, last-ditch gamble. It is a plan. It is a prayer with legs on it. They are obeying the letter of Pharaoh's law, putting the child in the river, but they are doing so in a way that utterly subverts the spirit of that law. This is sanctified shrewdness, the wisdom of the serpent combined with the innocence of the dove.
The Calculated Catch (vv. 5-6)
Now the providence of God, which has been working behind the scenes, steps onto the main stage.
"And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile... and she saw the ark among the reeds... Then she opened it and saw the child. And behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, 'This is one of the Hebrews’ children.'" (Exodus 2:5-6 LSB)
Of all the people who could have come to that spot on the Nile, it is the daughter of the tyrant himself. This is not luck. This is an appointment. God orchestrates the steps of kings and princesses. The reeds that hid the baby now reveal him at the perfect moment. And what is the trigger for this pagan princess's defiance of her father's law? A baby's cry.
God uses the most basic, human, creaturely thing, the cry of a helpless infant, to move the heart of a powerful woman. Her pity overrides her politics. This pity is a common grace, a remnant of the image of God that even the pagan possesses, and God fans it into flame for His own purposes. She knows immediately what this is. "This is one of the Hebrews' children." She is not naive. She understands the entire situation. She knows this baby is a fugitive, a piece of contraband according to the law of the land. And in that moment, she chooses to defy that law. God can raise up allies in the most unlikely of places, even within the enemy's own family.
The Tyrant's Wages (vv. 7-9)
Here the divine comedy reaches its glorious punchline. God's joke on Pharaoh is about to be delivered.
"Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, 'Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?'... Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, 'Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.' So the woman took the child and nursed him." (Exodus 2:7-9 LSB)
Miriam, who has been watching, sees her opening and steps in with breathtaking courage and genius. She doesn't panic. She doesn't beg. She offers a practical, helpful solution. "You've got a baby, you need a nurse. I can help with that." It is a brilliant move. And Pharaoh's daughter agrees.
And so, Jochebed, the mother who was forced to give up her son under penalty of death, is now brought back and officially hired by the state to do what her heart was longing to do all along. And she is paid for it. "I will give you your wages." The house of Pharaoh, which was trying to exterminate the Hebrews, is now funding the preservation and nurture of their future deliverer. This is the magnificent irony of God's providence. God makes His enemies pay for the rope that will be used to hang them. He turns their own resources, their own systems, their own money, against them. Every coin that passed from the princess to Jochebed was a token of Pharaoh's defeat and God's triumph.
A Prophet in the Palace (v. 10)
The final verse sets the stage for the next forty years of God's plan.
"And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses and said, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'" (Exodus 2:10 LSB)
Jochebed gets to keep her son through the crucial nursing years, pouring the knowledge of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into him. Then, as arranged, he is brought into the court of Pharaoh. He becomes the son of Pharaoh's daughter, educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, trained in the ways of the court, and given access to the highest levels of power. God was not just saving a baby; He was training a general. He was preparing a leader who would know his enemy from the inside out.
And his very name is a monument to God's victory. Moses. "Because I drew him out of the water." The water that was meant to be his grave became the instrument of his salvation. Every time his name was spoken in the palace, it was an unwitting testimony to the failure of Pharaoh's plan and the power of the God who delivers. The deliverer was living in the house of the destroyer, and his name was a constant reminder of how he got there.
The Gospel in the Reeds
This entire narrative is a beautiful, living parable of the gospel. We, like Moses, are born into a world ruled by a tyrant, Satan, who has issued a decree of death against us all. The wages of sin is death. We are all, by nature, children of wrath, floating toward destruction.
But God, in His rich mercy, has a plan of deliverance. The church, our mother, sees us and, by faith, knows that we are made in the image of God and are tov, good, and worth saving. She places us in the Ark of our salvation, who is Jesus Christ. We are placed in Him, and He carries us safely through the waters of judgment, which we see pictured in our baptism. In baptism, we are drawn out of the waters of death and brought into a new life.
And what is the result? We are adopted. God, the great King, sends His own Son to find us, and He has pity on us. He makes us His own children. "He became her son." We become sons and daughters of the King of Heaven. And wonderfully, He then gives us back to the church to be nursed and nurtured on the pure spiritual milk of the Word. The kingdom we were born into as slaves is made to pay the wages for our upkeep in the kingdom of God.
The story of Moses is our story. It is the story of a God who overturns the decrees of death, who uses the enemy's own plans against him, and who, through the foolishness of a baby in a basket, prepares a deliverer for His people. Pharaoh's plan was loud, public, and powerful. God's plan was quiet, domestic, and invincible. And God's plan always wins.