We are all subjected to rules from those who govern us. Mostly they govern with thoughts of our best interests in mind. But there are ruthless governments in the history of mankind and Egypt was no different. Their leader, Pharaoh, was terrified of the growing number of Israelites and so he them work harder then he made them slaves. This still didn’t minimize their growth so he sunk to even more barbaric methods by murdering their male babies.
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Exodus 1:22 – 2:4, ESV.
What a miracle that this child should be saved, nursed by his real mother for a while longer and then raised in royalty to eventually become a great leader. When the child grew older, the birth mother brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” Amazingly, just over 80 years later, Moses led the people of Israel “out of the water” of the Red Sea toward the Promised Land.