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Exodus 2 · a question people ask

Was it right for Moses' parents to disobey the king?

In the text

Pharaoh had ordered every Hebrew son thrown into the river (1:22), and Moses' mother hid him instead (2:2-3). Hebrews commends it: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment" (Hebrews 11:23). The midwives did the same, and "God dealt well with the midwives" (1:17, 20). When the apostles were ordered to stop teaching about Jesus, they answered, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

The verses

“But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.”
Exodus 1:17 · World English Bible
“God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty.”
Exodus 1:20 · World English Bible
“Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.””
Exodus 1:22 · World English Bible
“The woman conceived and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.”
Exodus 2:2-3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Exodus 2

Exodus 2: Drawn out of the water

The basket Moses was laid in has the same Hebrew name as Noah's ship, and the Hebrew Bible uses that word for nothing else. His own mother was paid to nurse him. His first try at rescuing his people ended in flight, yet Stephen says God later sent that refused man "as both a ruler and a deliverer" (Acts 7:35).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions