The Basket in the Reeds

The river laps softly against the reeds. Tucked among them, a little basket rocks on the water. Inside, a baby is sleeping. And hidden a little way off, a girl crouches in the rushes, holding her breath, watching to see what will happen to her brother.

Years after Joseph, the family of Jacob has grown into a great people in Egypt, the Israelites, or Hebrews. But a new Pharaoh has come to power who knows nothing about Joseph. He sees how many Hebrews there are, and he is afraid of them. So he makes them slaves, forcing them to make bricks and build cities. Still the Hebrew people keep growing. So Pharaoh gives a cruel order to all his people: every Hebrew baby boy is to be thrown into the river Nile.

Right then, a man and woman from the family of Levi have a baby boy. His mother looks at him and sees that he is a fine, beautiful child. And she will not give him up. For three months she hides him. Think how hard that must have been, hushing every cry, jumping at every knock at the door. But babies grow, and they get louder. She cannot hide him much longer.

So she makes a plan. She takes a basket woven from papyrus reeds and coats it with tar and pitch so that no water can get in. She lays her baby inside, carries him down to the river, and sets the basket among the reeds at the water’s edge. The very river where Pharaoh wanted Hebrew boys to die becomes the place where she hides her son. Then the baby’s sister stands at a distance, to see what will be done to him.

Footsteps. Voices. Pharaoh’s daughter comes down to the river to bathe, with her servant girls walking along the bank. She spots the basket among the reeds and sends a servant to fetch it. She opens it up, and there is the baby, crying. And she feels sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she says. She knows exactly what her father has ordered. And she chooses to have pity.

Now the sister steps out of the reeds. It takes real courage to walk up to a princess. “Shall I go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” “Yes, go,” says Pharaoh’s daughter. And who does the girl run to fetch? Her own mother. Pharaoh’s daughter tells her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” Imagine that mother’s face. She gets her son back, safe, and she is paid to look after him. When the child is older, she brings him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he becomes her son. She names him Moses. “Because,” she says, “I drew him out of the water.”

Here is a detail you can only see in Hebrew. The word for this little basket is tevah. It appears in only one other story in the whole Bible. It is the word for Noah’s ark. Both are sealed with pitch. Both carry someone through deadly water. And both carry someone through whom God will rescue others. Boats made from papyrus reeds really were used on the Nile; the prophet Isaiah even mentions vessels of bulrushes upon the waters.

The baby in the basket. You’ll find it in Exodus chapter 2, verses 1 to 10. A mother, a sister and a princess each made a brave choice, and God used all three to save the boy who would one day lead his people to freedom. So here’s a question to carry with you. What small, brave thing could you do this week to protect someone who needs help?