Thought from a member of the congregation Inspirational women from the Bible - part 2, from Sandra
We do not know the given name of the inspirational woman I have chosen. Like many women in the Bible we only know her in her relationship to a man - in this case her father . My inspirational woman is the daughter of pharaoh whom we meet in Exodus 2.5 when she spots a basket caught amongst the bulrushes, a basket containing a baby.
We know very little of her . Was she a young woman, a teenager perhaps, that’s how artists have depicted her but the account in Exodus doesn’t tell us. Was she the pharaoh’s only daughter as the use of ‘ the’ rather than ‘a’ implies or was she one of a hoard of siblings?
We do know, however, that whatever he was like within the confines of the palace, her father was a cruel man. Fearful of his country, Egypt, being overrun by immigrants, he ordered midwives to kill all newborn boys, deliberatively depriving a child of his life ahead, and a mother of the child she had carried in her womb for nine months. Fortunately the midwives outwitted him.
The pharaoh’s daughter is inspirational because she is compassionate and because she used her wits and thought quickly as indeed did the baby’s sister who had been watching over him and ran offering her mother, the baby’s mother, as a wet nurse.
The pharaoh’s daughter had the power, she used it in naming the baby ‘Moses’ , she had the money, she used it generously in supporting him and she was wise. She must have guessed that the ‘ foster’ mother was the baby’s mother but she wisely stayed silent.
And she was brave, accepting the child when he had been weaned and raising him as her son. Just imagine the gossip in the palace and the kingdom!
