The story is so familiar that most church members could narrate it from their pews. How would you describe the role of water in this story, and in the life of faith?ĥ. How do you think God works in difficult situations?Ĥ. Who are “small” people who do big things that transform situations?ģ. Where do you find God in the worst of times?Ģ. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”ġ. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. The woman conceived and bore a son and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.” And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and became very strong. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. Accept our worship, our living sacrifice, and transform us by your Spirit, that, being many members of one true body, we may dare to pray together in the name of Christ the Lord. God of Miriam and Moses, you are our help from age to age.
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