Saturday Sisters: The Women in the Time of Moses' Birth

Hard times demand hard decisions.

The Midwives:

"The Boss is Interfering with My Job!"

In ancient Egypt, the king feared the Hebrews and demanded the baby boys be killed.
Girls can live; boys, no.

A tough decision.  Pharoah might not have accepted their response, but they held to their convictions, and stood ready to take whatever consequences.

The Parents:

Crisis in the Family

How could they hide a contraband baby for three months?  The equivalent maybe of pink ribbons and frilly dresses?
Why would they defy the king, who had the authority to kill them for doing so?  Was this baby exceptional?  Did they just love him to pieces?  Or did they, like the midwives, hold newborn life so dear as to be worth the price?
It was an act of faith.
Was putting him in the river also an act of faith?  It was after all nominal compliance with the law.  Maybe we can't say from our point in time.  No doubt something had to be done; was it a moment to be proud of?
In her anxiety, the mother sent her older daughter to watch.

The Princess:

Scandal in High Places

Who was this princess?  Probably the last person Big Sister wants to see.
Who was this princess?  Can we give her a historical name?  Scholars try.  Hatshepsut seems to have the requisite personality, but this does not mean she was the one.
This was a woman who could say to the man who ordered all the babies drowned, "I am so totally keeping this baby!" She made it stick too.
Picture this: Daddy says, Throw the boys in the river.  And, right in the palace, there's a boy growing up whose name means,  in plain Egyptian, Drawn from the River.
Can Daddy still enforce his edict?  Maybe he'd even become a laughingstock.  What kind of woman is this?  Did  she fall in love with the "totally cute baby," or was there more?

Moses' Mom

thought she had lost her son, but was given him back for a season, with benefits unexpected.
She knew how to take advantage of those benefits, giving him the training of faith.
Do we know how to do that?

What About Us?

So maybe the midwives were merely motivated by Hippocratic reasons of preserving life.  Maybe the parents merely were expressing a natural love for their own child, and the princess a scandalous diva-like whim.
 All at once?  In the face of the wrath of such a powerful king?
It ended up well for these people, but going in, they no more knew the outcome than we do.
Maybe there was more.

some convictions are pricklier than others

 Do you hold your faith and convictions?  It's easy to drop that kind when the heat's on.
 Or do your faith & convictions hold YOU?