Theme: Mothering Sunday

Reading: Exodus 1:8-2:8

Trouble for the Israelites

⁸ Then a new king began to rule Egypt. He did not know Joseph. ⁹ This king said to his people, “Look at the Israelites. There are too many of them, and they are stronger than we are! ¹⁰ We must make plans to stop them from growing stronger. If there is a war, they might join our enemies, defeat us, and escape from the land!”

¹¹ The Egyptians decided to make life hard for the Israelites, so they put slave masters over the people. These masters forced the Israelites to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses for the king. The king used these cities to store grain and other things.

¹² The Egyptians forced the Israelites to work harder and harder. But the harder they worked, the more they grew and spread, and the more the Egyptians became afraid of them. ¹³ So the Egyptians made them work even harder.

¹⁴ They made life hard for the Israelites. They forced the Israelites to work hard at making bricks and mortar and to work hard in the fields. The Egyptians showed no mercy in all the hard work they made the Israelites do!

The Nurses Who Followed God

¹⁵ There were two Hebrew^[a] nurses who helped the Israelite women give birth. They were named Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt said to the nurses, ¹⁶ “You will continue to help the Hebrew women give birth to their children. If a girl baby is born, let the baby live. But if the baby is a boy, you must kill him!”

¹⁷ But the nurses trusted^[b] God, so they did not obey the king’s command. They let all the baby boys live.

¹⁸ The king of Egypt called for the nurses and asked them, “Why did you do this? Why did you let the baby boys live?”

¹⁹ The nurses said to the king, “The Hebrew women are much stronger than the Egyptian women. They give birth to their babies before we can go to help them.” ^20-21 The nurses trusted God, so he was good to them and allowed them to have their own families.

The Hebrews continued to have more children, and they became very strong. ²² So Pharaoh gave this command to his own people: “If the Hebrew women give birth to a baby girl, let it live. But if they have a baby boy, you must throw it into the Nile River.”

Baby Moses

2 There was a man from the family of Levi who decided to marry a woman from the tribe of Levi.^[c] 2 She became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. The mother saw how beautiful the baby was and hid him for three months. ³ She hid him for as long as she could. After three months she made a basket and covered it with tar so that it would float. Then she put the baby in the basket and put the basket in the river in the tall grass. ⁴ The baby’s sister stayed and watched to see what would happen to the baby.

⁵ Just then, Pharaoh’s daughter went to the river to bathe. She saw the basket in the tall grass. Her servants were walking beside the river, so she told one of them to go get the basket. ⁶ The king’s daughter opened the basket and saw a baby boy. The baby was crying and she felt sorry for him. Then she noticed that it was one of the Hebrew^[d] babies.

⁷ The baby’s sister was still hiding. She stood and asked the king’s daughter, “Do you want me to go find a Hebrew woman who can nurse the baby and help you care for it?”

⁸ The king’s daughter said, “Yes, please.”

So the girl went and brought the baby’s own mother.

 

Prayer for the week:

Dear God,

We pray for all the people who don’t have a mother this Mother’s Day.

Remind them that you are their father and love them deeply.

Help us to look out for anyone who might find Mother’s Day more difficult.

And thank you for all the people in our lives who look after us.

Amen

 

Song for the week: Send Us On