The Women Who Saved Moses

As we think of the book of Exodus, the first person to come to mind is of course Moses. The book focuses much on his great work to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But the story starts with two heroes who are women who refuse to slay the innocent. We read, “And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.” But they would not do it, and “the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.” Despite the fact that this powerful king had commanded them, they feared God more than him and did not take innocent life as he demanded. We read, “Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses” (Exodus 1:15-21). Exodus never gives us the name of the king of Egypt, but we have the names of these two courageous women Shiphrah and Puah who feared God above all else and saved the Egyptian nation before Moses did. They were instrumental in preparing the way that his life could be preserved before he was even born.

The next chapter continues this theme of the power of faithful women to save life. We read of Moses’s birth to Jochebed who fearlessly sought to save his life despite the Pharoah’s order to slay all male children born: “the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.” She saved his life as long as she could, and in faith she sent him down the river. It was another woman who then saved his life again: “And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Yet a third woman stepped in to continue the efforts to preserve Moses’s life—this time it was his sister Miriam who “stood afar off” and said to Pharoah’s daughter, “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?” (Exodus 2:2-7). This must have taken great courage for this young Hebrew girl to even speak to the daughter of Pharoah, but she did it and accomplished a great work in motivating the Egyptian princess to save the life of Moses. The daughter was permitted to go and get the true mother of Moses to care for him as the son of Pharoah’s daughter. And so in just two chapters we have five women who all played a part of preserving the life of Moses: Shiphrah, Puah, Jochebed, Miriam, and the daughter of Pharoah. Though we often focus on the great men of the story of Exodus, we must remember that it all began with faith of these courageous women who saved the life of Moses so God could raise him up to save His people.