Article December 16, 1985 Issue

Moses and the saving Christ

ALBERT G. NELSON

Perhaps it was Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives, who first broke the news that Pharaoh had ordered that all sons newly born to Hebrew mothers be killed at birth by the midwives. But being good, God-fearing women, these two midwives did not carry out the order. The Egyptian king then charged his own people to implement the decree.

It was a time of hardship for the Israelites in Egypt. Joseph and his contemporaries had passed from the scene, and the king ruling over the land was quite different from the one who had trusted and honored Joseph. Seeing the growing numbers and strength of the children of Israel, whom he held captive and cruelly exploited as slave labor, this Pharaoh feared for his dominion. Hence his decree that all newborn male Hebrew children be drowned.

A woman of Levi (one of the tribes of Israel) resolved to thwart the king's instruction. She constructed an ark from papyrus reeds, sealed it with bitumen, and placed her precious son in the vessel. Then she laid it among the reeds growing in the water by the riverbank.

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