I’m so excited to jump into another post about a woman in the Bible. If you haven’t yet noticed, we are trying to help you become more familiar with women mentioned in the Bible that aren’t as well known. Some aren’t even mentioned by name. Yet, their impact is great; and the ways that they were used by God are inspiring. 

Let’s dive on in to the passage for today: 

Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?”

“Go,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. When the child grew older, she 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.”
Exodus 2:5-10 CSB

Background

After the death of Joseph, the family of Jacob is in Egypt being ruled by a new Pharaoh. Ex 1:11 tells us that the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. This new Pharaoh was unfamiliar with Joseph and all he had done for the people in the past. (How often does our culture treat people differently than they would if they were familiar with their past?) 

We don’t know for sure who this Pharaoh was, but he was clearly scared that the Hebrew people would stage a coup of some sort and take away his power. What does a man in charge do when he gets scared like that? Have all the baby boys killed of course. (Go back and check out our post on the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah for more info on this.)

One Hebrew couple defied the law to kill their newborn child and instead chose to place him in a small basket in the river.  This child would be found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who would also defy her father’s law and choose to rescue and raise the child as her own. The child in this story is Moses, who played a very important role in the story of the Bible.

What do we know about her?

There are a few basic things we know about Pharaoh’s daughter. One, she was kind, full of compassion, and brave. She rescued baby Moses, knowing he was a Hebrew that Pharaoh had commanded to be killed. She bravely and boldly disobeyed her father to save the child. There are no indications that Pharaoh’s daughter was, by any means, a believer. Yet her simple compassionate action had lasting consequences as Moses would become the prophet who God used to free the Hebrews from Egypt’s control. God used the right woman at the right time to accomplish His plan and save baby Moses; God alone opened her heart to him.

Pharaoh’s daughter essentially adopted and raised Moses after he had been weaned. She gave him the opportunity for education which was a huge part of the Egyptian royalty’s life. They used education to separate the powerful from the slaves and commoners. While this was well over 3500 years ago, the Egyptians had a lot of real knowledge. It’s easy for me to assume that anyone that long ago wouldn’t have known how to read, write, or solve simple mathematical equations, let alone know there are other planets. But that is simply a false assumption as they knew a great bit about various sciences. The Egyptians are the first to create papyrus, a paperlike substance used for writing on. Some sources say that they would begin education about the age of four. 

When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son. So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions. Acts 7:21-22 CSB

We now know that Moses was the person who wrote the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. There is no doubt that Moses’ education and time in Egyptian learning played a huge factor in his ability to know how to read and write. Also having been raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses would have learned some leadership skills, which no doubt helped him later in life lead the Hebrews in the wilderness. 

What can we learn from her?

Pharaoh’s daughter was not a believer- she wasn’t even a Hebrew. Yet, God used HER to accomplish His plans. We may be familiar with someone who doesn’t know God but helps enable us to fulfill God’s will for our lives. God uses different people in accomplishing His goals, but He never forces people to believe in Him. I am so grateful for this fact. There’s a chance that the unbeliever who unknowingly helps us in our walk with God will see our faith and believe because of it. 

I am also so grateful that God alone is omniscient! He knows all things. He knows how one action by an unbeliever will have both positive and negative consequences. We don’t know these things. So we must rely on God’s knowledge and prompting to follow His will and His ways.