Who Am I?
Moses’ identity crisis
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. (Exodus 2:1–3, NASB)
If you’ve read the book of Exodus, or, for that matter, the title above, you know who the child in the basket was. But what of his family? We know his mother was the motherly type — she thought her son was beautiful. It seems she was quite adventurous because her scheme to save her son was quite unorthodox and doesn’t seem quite safe. And the father? We know he was a descendant of Levi named Amram and that’s it — that’s all the Scriptures say. We’re introduced to the baby’s big sister who watched over him as he floated among the reeds. She was, it seems, one smart cookie because she hatched a plan to get the baby back into his mother’s arms while earning some income on the side.
We also meet the daughter of Pharoah who, upon seeing the baby in the basket, recognized him as a Hebrew child. I’m not sure if that was because he looked like a Hebrew or because not many Egyptian boys were found floating around in reed baskets. Either way, the pharaoh’s daughter…