Unsung Heroes in Scripture: The Women Who Rescued Baby Moses
Unsung Heroes in Scripture: The Women Who Rescued Baby Moses.
“The Lord made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He hid me. And He made me as a polished arrow; in His quiver He concealed me.” (Isaiah 49:2).
There are so many characters in the Bible that have been hidden from us, so many unsung heroes who have been destined to be underappreciated and overlooked. Like Ananias, they have a pivotal role in a limited event and then they disappear from us. Like Abigail, they are often celebrated by one group of believers and completely ignored by another group of believers. Like Barnabas, they might be overshadowed by a strong, more compelling personality. Like Cornelius, they might have set the stage but were not the main event. Like Bezalel, they might be supremely gifted for one particularly crucial task, after which their usefulness seems to end. Like Shiphra and Puah, they might rise heroically to the challenge of becoming human saviors but then humbly point to the person that they saved. Like Caleb, they might have their moments of profound faith and courage and then seem to be written right out of the script. The Scripture is full of unsung heroes, relative unknowns, hidden in God’s quiver. These polished arrows are actually more numerous and often more significant than the heroes who are more commonly sung by the faithful. After all, where would the skyscrapers be were it not for the hidden pillars of support?
Moses. He was and still is considered the greatest hero of the Jewish faith. He was the most excellent teacher, the most profound prophet, the most powerful miracle-worker. He was used by God to deliver his Hebrew people from Egyptian slavery. Moses was unique in Hebrew history, truly one-of-a-kind. But he wouldn’t even have existed had it not been for the clever bravery of the women in his life while still a defenseless baby. Born to enslaved parents in Egypt, his mother was Yocheved, his father Amram, and he had two older siblings, Aaron and Miriam. We would never have had a Moses were it not for the heroics of Miriam, the two midwives Shifra and Puah, and the Princess of Egypt. They formed a small, formidable group of women that enabled Moses to survive the dangers of his birth.
Pharaoh. The royal power in Egypt at that time of Moses had no historical memory, didn’t even know about Joseph and his family moving into Egypt and then protected by the royals of Joseph’s time, 400 hundred years earlier. All this Pharaoh knew was that the Hebrews were multiplying and, in his mind, could easily form a formidable military before long. So the Pharaoh did the unthinkable… He issued a decree that demanded every Hebrew baby boy born in Egypt was to be killed. This has been called a slow genocide, since the boys were killed and the girls were spared. This was blatant infanticide, something that is seen by Creator God as an abomination, and by the civilized world as a crime against humanity.
A Contemporary Look at Infanticide. It has been traditionally defined as the killing of a child within one year of its birth. A relatively new term, Neonaticide, is now used to refer to an infant being killed within 24 hours of its birth. Infanticide, neonaticide, is unthinkable to civilized people, but the U.S. has a very spotty history regarding this grotesque way of denying the right to life of a newborn. The infamous case of “Baby Doe’’ in 1982 was a situation in which a newborn with Down’s Syndrome was rejected by the mother and allowed by the medical personnel to place the baby in another room and left alone to die of starvation. The case was brought to the County Courts, and they approved of it. And then it was brought to the Indiana State Supreme Court, who once again approved of that act, making it perfectly legal to commit infanticide. At that time, a doctor was quoted as saying that it was not at all uncommon, with many prestigious hospitals allowing newborns with a disability to die, a passive infanticide. This highly immoral act was brought to the surface once again in 2019 when Virginia Governor Raph Northan calmly explained how he approved of the infanticide of an impaired newborn. He was a pediatric surgeon of all things, and he saw no moral problem with denying life-giving care to a newborn. To this day in 2025, there are seven states that have legalized late-term abortions up to the point of birth, and each year there are a reported 13,000 deaths of preborn babies due to late-term abortions. We would have thought that modern science would have complicated things for him and many others… Surgeons are now able to perform life-saving surgery on unborn babies while still in utero. So on the one hand, a doctor can offer heroic surgeries on preborn babies, but on the other hand the doctor can simply sit on his hands and watch a newborn starve to death. Apparently, if a baby is wanted, it has inherent value, and save the baby at all costs. On the other hand, if the baby is not wanted, the baby has no value, and just let it starve and throw it out with the trash. And still on the other hand, a person responsible for the death of an unborn child within the pregnant mother will be charged with manslaughter. And science raises another question in this matter… If a viable unborn is delivered, no matter how many months of development, is it considered infanticide to perform an abortion on that baby?
Shifra and Puah. And now back to baby Moses… There were two midwives at this time of Pharaoh’s orders of infanticide, and they were either Hebrew midwives or midwives to the Hebrews. The wording is ambiguous and it could be understood either way, evidently. At any rate, these two midwives “feared God” and courageously refused to obey the Pharaoh’s decree. “The midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.” (Ex. 1:17). Holy fear involves the raised hands of adoration; the knocking knees of apprehension; the bare feet of awe; the dry mouth of uncertainty; the quickened heartbeat of anticipation; the bowed head of reverence; the humbled spirit of devotion; the straight posture of respect; the closed mouth of deference; the open mind of discovery; the tender heart of gratitude; the open ears of full attention. Dr. Stuart Olyott puts fearing God this way: “To fear God means having a reverent respect for him, because of his greatness and glory. To this is added gratitude for his kindness and mercy, awe at his power, confidence in his wisdom, submission to his will, and delight in the experience of communing in him. Besides all this, the person who fears God has a deep affection for him, such as a child might have for a parent.”
Midwife Courage. Shifra and Puah decided that God’s moral demands outweighed Pharaoh’s royal decrees, so they quietly defied Pharaoh’s commands and allowed the Hebrew baby boys to survive their birth. Sure enough, once the Pharaoh understood what they were doing, he called them to account and asked them why they weren’t obeying his command. The long and the short of it is, they lied to Pharaoh, face to face. They told him that these Hebrew women were so vigorous and strong they all quickly delivered their babies before the midwives could even get there to help them! As many have said, they did the right thing when told to do the wrong thing. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks highlighted the virtues of these two midwives, saying, “In this first example of civil disobedience, they redefined the moral imagination of the world, and so were heroines of the spirit, giants in the story of humankind.”
God Rewarded Shipra and Puah. God blessed these two holy rebels… “And God dealt well with the two midwives, and the Hebrew people multiplied and increased greatly. And because the midwives feared God, He established them with their own houses, blessing them with families of their own.” (Ex. 1:21). Rabbinic tradition translates “families” as meaning “dynasties,” and that Shipra and Puah became the matriarchs of important priestly and royal bloodlines.
Yocheved and Miriam. Moses’ mother and sister were in a plot to defy the King’s orders in order to protect the life of Moses. There was Yocheved, a Hebrew slave who had the courage to deliver and keep a baby boy. And there was Miriam, a young child, who plotted to defy the king to protect her newborn brother. When Moses was three months old, he was placed in a floating basket (the Hebrew word here is “ark”) to escape the Pharaoh’s edict, trusting in God’s will to protect Moses. It was Miriam who kept track of where the basket traveled, and it was Miriam who shrewdly developed a plan to save Moses. Rather audaciously, she proposed to the King’s princess, who found Moses in the water, that Miriam take the baby to a nursing mother who would care for the child until the princess could care for him. When the boy Moses was weaned, Miriam agreed to return Moses to the princess to be raised by her in the palace. The compassionate princess was persuaded to go with Miriam’s plan, so Moses’ sister merely took him back to his original mother to be nursed. Miriam showed inspired ingenuity, not to mention great courage, to succeed in delivering her brother from certain death. By doing this, Miriam ensured that Moses in his younger days would grow up being aware of his family, his heritage, his Hebrew identity.
Miriam. The name means bitter waters, or perhaps waters of strength. Her life span was approximately from around 1400 – 1300 BC. The Greek version of the Hebrew name Miriam is Mary. The root word for myrrh is used in the name, a bitter and fragrant spice used for anointing oil or for embalming. Sheridan Larson noted that when Miriam was named, she was born during a time when the children of Israel were in bondage to Egypt. Her parents were making a statement about the bitterness of life in captivity. It is ironic that Miriam, known in history for her uplifting praise and worship, did not spread bitterness associated with her name. Jewish tradition says that Miriam prophesied to her parents, that they were to give birth to a special boy to be used by God for something important, and she was surely guided by the Spirit to put together such a clever scheme to care for her baby brother Moses. Miriam displayed an amazing amount of responsibility, shrewdness and ingenuity for a young girl when it came to caring for and protecting her special brother Moses. Her instinct to cleverly plot a scheme to care for Moses was savvy, and street-smart. She was truly “clever as a snake and innocent as a dove” (Matt. 10:16). She no doubt nurtured Moses as he grew up before being returned to the princess. And she helped to guide his development in his early years. Miriam was never shy about taking charge when the situation called for it. She led the way in devising the ways to protect and guide baby brother. In some ways, Moses’ character reflected Miriam’s character.
The Princess of Egypt. The princess, while bathing in the Nile River, observed a floating basket, looked inside the basket, and saw a beautiful baby Hebrew boy. The baby was crying, and the princess “had compassion on him” (Ex. 2:6). The princess knew about her father’s strict orders to kill baby boys coming from Hebrew households, but she bravely defied those orders, arranged with Miriam for a time of nursing, and raised Moses as her son in the palace. The princess had a generous heart as she looked at the baby in the basket, and she became determined to rescue that baby and adopt him as her son. There were two brave girls, not yet women, who were responsible for the eventual liberation and redemption of the people of Israel. One wonders what would have happened if Moses, the man of God’s choosing, had not been rescued as a baby by the “good eyes” of his sister Miriam and the Egyptian princess from the Pharaoh’s household. Both girls defied the Pharaoh’s orders at the risk of their lives as they saved baby Moses from certain death at a time when all Hebrew baby boys were being executed at birth by the orders of Pharaoh. “I am profoundly moved by that encounter on the banks of the Nile between an Egyptian princess and a young Israelite slave-child – The contrast between them – in terms of age, culture, status and power – could not be greater. Yet their deep humanity bridges all the differences, all the distance. Two heroines. May they inspire us.” (Rabbi Sacks, from his commentary on Exodus).
Another Slaughter of the Innocents. Just as Moses the deliverer had to be rescued from an evil massacre of innocent babies, so did Jesus, the prophesied New Moses, have the same experience as a baby in Bethlehem much later. St. John even had a frightening vision about this after the fact…. “And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads! And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” (Revelation 12:3-5). According to the vision, one could rightly imagine a sign in front of the sweet little stable in Bethlehem… Caution: Baby At Risk. There is a fierce and murderous dragon, the devil himself, who is crouched outside the stable, intent on destroying this Child born to be King. In the spiritual realm, one could probably see the smoke coming from the dragon’s nostrils, billowing into the stable while Mary is giving birth. This birth has cosmic implications. It is a moment of ultimate good versus unthinkable evil. This Child must survive, yet there is acute danger to His life. The dragon will do anything to devour this Child.
Herod, Just like Pharaoh. After Jesus was born, while still in Bethlehem, the Magi from the East arrived and asked to see the newborn King of the Jews. When the despicable Herod the Great found out about another king being born, he discovered Bethlehem was the place of this king’s birth, and Herod did the unspeakable… The Massacre of the Innocents. Every child less than two years old in Bethlehem was slaughtered. Herod thought this new king would be competition for his throne, so he committed Evil to the extreme. Before the slaughter began, though, Joseph had another significant dream. “When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you to leave, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.” (Matthew 2:13).
Kill the Child. In John’s dramatic flashback, the devil has already been defeated in the ancient war in heaven (Rev. 12:7). Michael and his angelic soldiers rendered Satan powerless in the heavens after much fighting. Satan was able to take a third of the angels with him in his rebellion against God and His throne, and they were all cast down onto the earth. They were powerless in heaven, so they had no choice but to wreak havoc and bring evil to this world. Killing the Child Christ would be his most significant victory, and he will stop at nothing to do so. One can easily see Herod enacting the the Slaughter of the Innocents in Bethlehem, and how Satan was fully behind that rampage of death in order to destroy that Child.
What appeared to be a quiet, humble birth in a lonely little town, actually was loud and busy in the spiritual world, with a fierce battle between the forces of good against the forces of evil. The holy night was penetrated by sinister powers. But, praise God, the Child was victorious, and we know that the dragon will eventually be slain.