So what happens next would seem to be a good way to bring a non-native ethnic group more firmly under control—except it's very vivid and very specific (let the reader understand): First, the Hell-bent king orders the Israelite midwives to be an accessory to post-birth abortion of all Israelite male babies. But the two heads of the Guild of the Midwives—Shiphrah & Puah, fearing God rather than men, acted shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves in saving the lives of these children. (For defying the heinous Devilry of the tyrant against His Church, GOD rewards these two leaders with blessings and households.) His wickedness not to be thwarted, unhinged Pharaoh commands the Israelite males to be thrown in the Nile by anyone who finds them. An edict that does not seem to have been given much deference either by the majority of Egyptians, who abide by GOD’s law written on their hearts, if the numbers of Israelites at the Exodus is indication. Still, there were enough pagan zealots to carry out these murders so as to cause the Levite household to take the actions they did with baby Moses. Why death-by-drowning in the Nile? Strictly in terms of their pagan beliefs, there is nothing like sending a message to a group that you dread that you're not messing around— one that comes with an overt message that they're not just dealing with pragmatic political policy. Religion is always the top-tier level-up: In this context, it is to bring about death via the river that was seen as the source of Life to ancient Egyptians; the irony is the emphasis. But since this is the Bible, there's always something more going on. (Like, JESUS will turn this ‘River of Life used for death’ imagery on its head when He institutes Holy Baptism.) For the Egyptians this is a way to maintain power, and do it in a way that they believe appeases their rogues’ gallery of idols; because child sacrifice always speaks louder than rote ritual. More important: Their father is the Devil, and he's operating on a completely different level; he's got Genesis 3:15 (JESUS) living rent-free in his mind, hence the obsession with male newborns. Perhaps he wants to send a message to the Cosmic Throne as well: ‘You killed my children in the Great Flood, I'm going to kill yours in a similar way— and maybe I'll get your Seed of Woman as well.’ Satan nearly succeeds; that's why he's a dangerous foe not to be underestimated, even as he's already been thoroughly judged and defeated by JESUS, who rebukes him (and his minions) as he awaits the execution of his sentence. He's dangerous in that he is glad to see it all burn down in his reckless hate: he (probably) hopes GOD will get triggered and annihilate him, but this won't happen before the appointed time. The Arch-Dragon Foe is ticketed for an eternity in the Abyss of the Outer Darkness. The promised Seed of Woman was never in danger here, but the chosen seed of a woman that GOD intends to raise up to be a type of the Seed-to-come was—purely from our perspective, mind you; nothing of GOD's plan for His people is ever truly in jeopardy; nothing the Devil is allowed to do is ever outside the overall purpose of God's will: which is to give the royal brothers and sisters in Christ the eternal Kingdom. There are some neat Christological and Sacramental parallels in the next details about Moses' early life, from the infant Moses surviving "the flood" on a mini-ark (Moses uses the same Hebrew word for his basket as he uses for the saving-vessel in the story of Noah & the Flood), to his being hidden for three months and then discovered alive to a new life, from Moses being brought up by an adoptive royal family (his name means "drawn from the water") to his sister's name (Miriam) being the same as the Theotokos. If there's one thing to take from this section it is this: When reading the Old Testament, pay attention to patterns of the Economy of Salvation, which is what the Cosmic War is all about; some of the big clues are often hidden in plain sight— in the meaning of so many of those unpronounceable proper nouns, as we have seen and will continue to see. +++ Quest Waypoint {Read Exodus 3-4}
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