His Encouragement #185

Welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

And these were the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took.
I Chronicles 4:18b

Bithiah is one of my most favorite names in the whole Bible.

In Exodus 2:1-10, Bithiah is never referred to by name. Instead, four times she is referred to as Pharaoh’s daughter. I have often wondered about this daughter of Pharaoh. She is never named in Exodus. Why? Is it because she is a mere woman who dared go against her father’s wishes when she took in a Hebrew baby? Is it because she was nothing more than property to Pharaoh? Then my brain goes to other questions and thoughts about this amazing person. What was her life like in the home of a mass-murderer? She clearly was 100% against her father’s decree to murder Hebrew babies, so there must have been palpable tension. Was she a young girl, like Miriam was, when she found the Hebrew baby? Is that why she was still at her father’s house? Maybe she had some kind of defect and her father couldn’t marry her off at this time? Or maybe, she just appeared too insignificant to name at this point in the story? Who knows? What is known is that she matters to God.

We may not know her name when we read the Exodus story, but there are some things we can glean about her from her actions. Bithiah saves a Hebrew baby, and not just some random Hebrew baby, but the savior (for the time) of the entire Hebrew nation. That’s a pretty big deal. God wouldn’t put Moses into the hands of just any old Egyptian either. She would have needed certain characteristics: bravery, honor, compassion, selflessness, and a strong sense of morality to name a few. All of these qualities she passed on to her son, Moses, as he grew up right in front of Pharaoh. We know from Numbers 12:3, that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth, so Bithiah clearly was exactly the mom Moses needed in order to navigate his time in Pharaoh’s court and later as the leader of the Hebrews through the Exodus period.

Another thing we know about Bithiah is that she leaves Egypt. Depending on your research, you may find that she fled with Moses when Moses first flees Egypt for Midian after he kills the Egyptian, or that she left in the actual Exodus when Moses took all of Israel out of Egypt. It sort of doesn’t matter when she left Egypt, only that she did. There was something about Yahweh that called Bithiah to Him. Something about loving and obeying and honoring the One True God that made her leave everything she knew behind. How beautiful!

We may not know her name in Exodus, but God knew her. God, the God who Sees (El Roi), saw this woman WAY before she ever became Moses’s mother. He saw her heart. He knew that her earthly father’s ways hurt her deeply. He knew that to Pharaoh she was just another commodity. He knew and called to her … and she listened. She left her earthly father and walked away with her Heavenly Father, and for that choice God gave her a new name — Bithiah. You know what Bithiah means? It means, “Daughter of God.” Isn’t that the BEST?! And He didn’t just give her a new name. No, He gave her a new family. In Rabbinic commentary, it is believed that Bithiah married a Judahite named Caleb*. Yep, that Caleb. One of the twelve spies who brought back a good report. One of the only twelve spies who got to enter the Promise Land. I wouldn’t be surprised if that meant Bithiah got to enter the Promised Land as well. OH! And she got to have babies. too. Cause God is not just good, He’s AMAZINGLY GOOD.

So what is our take away? How should we be encouraged by Bithiah today?

There are a lot of us here on earth who come from homes that weren’t so loving and awesome. Many of us maybe never had a good father or mother to turn to when we needed someone. Maybe we come from a home that had a lot of abuse. Maybe we come from a place that was super worldly and secular. Maybe we just never felt noticed. Bithiah’s story, and her name, proves that God sees everyone and everything, and He provides exactly what we need when we need it. Maybe we don’t have the type of parents we dreamed of, or the life we assumed we would have, but we do have God and He is the BEST Father anyone could ever ask for. If you have a need, dear reader, go to God today. He sees you and He loves you more than anyone ever could.

*If you’re like me, then you may be confused by Caleb being Bithiah’s husband when the Bible says her husband’s name is Mered. According to my research, Caleb was called Mered. Mered means “rebellion.” It was a nickname for Caleb since he was one of two spies who returned with a good report. He essentially rebelled against the mainstream crowd. His reward for that was entry into the Promised Land. The Jews believe that Bithiah was the perfect wife for Caleb because she, too, was a rebel in her own right. Makes sense!