John wants to address the confusion in the body of Christ that is caused by the working of false spirits, and false inspirations within the church.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit.
John is concerned for their spiritual welfare. He begins with a command not to believe every spirit, every pneuma, every wind of new doctrine yes, everything that promises to be a breath of new life. Remember that John’s just told us in 1st John 3:24 24 The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. So John is contrasting the Spirit of Truth, this Life-Giving Spirit from God with the false spirits that come from the evil one. And the implication here is that these believers were becoming confused by believing deceiving spirits who where lying and trying to impersonate the Holy Spirit. So John is warning them, and warning us, don’t do that!
The churches that John is writing to were in danger of coming under the influence of the false doctrines and heresy of Gnosticism, which tended to diminish the person and work of Jesus. Faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus is absolutely essential to Christianity, and any attempt to deny them can only come from the pit of hell. So John is warning them, and us not to be open to just any inspired word of doctrine—make sure that it is True Doctrine inspired by the Holy Spirit, not inspired by the one of these false spirits. They were committing themselves to believing teachings without testing them, and that was the problem. And this was causing a lot of confusion in the church, just as it does today.
Test Every Spirit to See if they are from God
Remember that God never demands blind faith, He provides us the evidence of His Word, and of changed lives, and says decide whether you want to believe and see the truth or not. Luke gave the Berean people praise as they judged the teaching of Paul and Silas: 11 Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. The question, when it comes to Christian teaching, is whether it lines up with the Word of God, or not! Every teaching, every doctrine claiming to be the Truth must be tested. We have a responsibility to be discerning in understanding the spiritual motivation of teachers. We are to be vigilant, allowing the Holy Spirit to give us discernment, chiefly by hiding the Word of God in our Heart, so that the Holy Spirit can remind us of the Word, when discernment is needed.
So, what exactly are we supposed to be testing? In context, it appears to be saying to test the spirit behind the teaching that we hear, their ultimate source. Just as Truth is Sourced in God, and the Holy Spirit of Truth, Error and deceit is sourced in Satan and his emissaries the fallen angels or demons. Later in 1st John 4:6, John is going to continue this contrast saying 6 We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; the one who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I believe that this is a warning to test teaching and doctrine, just as Paul gives us in Timothy 4:1-2 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, He’s warning against joining this crowd who will follow false teaching, and guidance of spirits who are not from God. These are the teachers who are influenced strongly by the “spirit” of this age (the world’s values, their culture) which is continually being influenced by the servants of Satan.
But we must continue sharing the hope of Jesus Christ in the face of increasingly difficult circumstances. If you cave in, and don’t talk about sin or don’t “preach the gospel” then you’ll face less pressure here, but risk being one of those who falls away from the faith. Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-15 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. We can’t be the light of the world if we let the world dim or put out our light by compromising with the darkness! We must stand for the truth during the storm.
Standing in the storm of false teaching
For those of us who will walk with Him, Jesus has demonstrated to us over and over that He will keep us through the storm. And it has built our faith in Him, our foundation. He has the power. In Matthew 8:23-27 God allowed a storm to come upon Jesus and the apostlesThen He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. 27 The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” Jesus demonstrated His power over the storms in their lives, literally! And there’s another reason for the storm. 6 Chapters later in Matthew 14:22 we find out that Jesus made his disciples get on a boat without him and go on ahead across the sea of Galilee In Matthew 14:24 we read 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. The storm was a test of faith, just as the other had been. Jesus had told them that He would meet them on the other side, so if they really believed in Him as they should, then they should have known that they’d make it to the other side. Even with the wind and the waves against them, they had already been shown that even the wind and the sea obey Jesus, and He had assured them they’d make it. And notice that when their attention was on the storm around them, it produced fear. That’s why we shouldn’t spend our time listening to the spiritual storm coming from our televisions and computers, on the news which is controlled by the prince of the power of the air, the enemy over the airwaves. We’re not going to be able to discern if that’s what we’re paying attention to. Instead we must listen to Jesus when He tells us too in Matthew 14:27 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Now this is a command to look to Jesus for courage. It demanded faith in order to overcome fear. One disciple out of twelve understood what was going on. 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. People ask what was different about Peter? He had discernment to know Jesus when he saw him, and was not confused, thinking that it was a ghost or spirit. And once he knew it was Jesus, it was only THEN that he took his eyes of the storm, and actually listed to what Jesus had said—Take Courage. Rom 10:17 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. It was listening to the Word of God, Jesus in faith that made the difference. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:9 we read that faith is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Faith comes from God, and Peter was looking to Jesus for it. Faith is defined biblically in terms of the action that it produces—we are not called to create faith within ourselves, but to look to Jesus for it. He found that because He listed to the Word of God, and put his trust in it, that he could walk on water just as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus 2 looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith as Hebrews 12:2 tells us. That’s what made the difference—that He looked to, and placed his trust in Jesus.
And so, in our verses today, we find that it’s recognizing whether the teachings line up with the Word of God—are the teachings sourced IN God, that lets us know whether it is something that we should accept or reject the teaching. John calls us to evaluate teachers and teachings in order to discern the source of that teaching, whether it is of God or from elsewhere, just like Peter discerned that the person coming to him over the sea in the wind and the waves was Jesus, and not a ghost. Faith is only valid if it’s faith in God, so we must be sure of the Word that we stand on, the truth it is based on. Just as Peter examined the person coming to Him on the Lake, and knew it was the Word, just as the Bereans Examined the Scriptures to know that the word from Paul and Silas was according to the scriptures, “True faith examines carefully what or who it’s putting the faith and confidence in, before placing faith in them. Otherwise it is only self-deception, that will fail in time of trouble.
I believe that John is asking us to look at the Word to examine teachings and teachers so we won’t be mislead. So what is to be evaluated? Just as Jesus said: their fruits (Matt 7 vs. 15-20. These “fruits” may be visible conduct, but may also include their teachings. So, we don’t look at what they say about themselves, but at what they teach about the Bible, and how they conduct themselves (see Rev 2:20-22). It is not a small thing to put your lot in with those who hate God! It is not a small thing to ignore and wink at evil, refusing to call it sin. It is not a small think to tolerate and participate in evil, because it brings you financial benefits, or social acceptance, or popularity among your friends. We must stand up and be counted with the people of God, against this evil tide, or we will find ourselves counted amongst those who stand against God, and be destroyed! Which means we are to live our lives instead in righteousness, doing right before God. As John says in 1st John 3:10 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. This is what we’re supposed to spend our time doing.
“because many false prophets have gone out into the world”. Don’t spend your time trying to sniff out false teaching and false prophets, or you’ll miss a lot of good teaching, because you’re always looking at all teaching with a critical eye. Don’t be fearful, have faith in God. Instead, focus on keeping your eyes upon Jesus, and trust the Holy Spirit to give you the discernment to easily identify the false teaching, call it deception and sin, reject it, and focus your eyes upon Jesus. Don’t pay attention to the waves, Keep your eyes upon Jesus.
23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
When we obey the Holy Spirit’s urging and Jesus’ command to love one another by fellowship with each other and meeting each other’s needs, then the practical effect is that it is proof to us that we are saved. We have convincing evidence of a life spent in service to other believers as we are brought into the presence of our Creator at death. Our love for Jesus; our faithfulness in obedience to Him as our bridegroom, affects our relationship with Him. John 14:23-24 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. 24 The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. And as we have allowed His love to pour through us, as a clean vessel, pouring His true love to those around us, we will be in utter delight and joy when we meet Jesus.
It’s the living out of the word in our lives that causes us to see whether we’ve actually incorporated these truths that we’ve learned into our character and manner of living. James 1:22-25 says 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.
23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
Commanded to believe
There are two important commandments in this first. The first is the essential gospel message of belief in Christ. John 3:16 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” Romans 10:9-10 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. In John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. Or John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent”. In fact, John gives us the reason for writing his gospel in John 20:31 saying but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. We are to believe in His name and have life eternal. “Believe in the name” means to believe in the person, Jesus, and His authority as God the Son to save you—a right legally purchased by Him when He died on the cross for your sins. We must believe in Jesus, in His Name, in His Work of salvation, to be saved, and keep on believing on the basis of Who Jesus is, as He is revealed to us more and more by the Holy Spirit.
Second, John emphasizes that as believers we are “to love one another, Just as Jesus commanded us.” We read this command in John 13:34 34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.” Jesus’ commandment to love other believers is a commandment to follow Him serving our brothers and sisters in Christ. The command to love one another is so important, that Jesus repeats it twice more in John 15:12, and John 15:17!
Sometimes it’s difficult to show love in the families that we were originally born into, and likewise sometimes it’s going to be tough sometimes to demonstrate Christ’s love to our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. We all have our flaws and faults, and that makes us difficult to love sometimes. And others do too, and that makes it more difficult to love them. Eph 4:2 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Just like our own original birth families, our church family is a mixed bag of people with different backgrounds, experiences, hurts, habits, and hangups, but also talents, abilities, giftings and abilities. John is encouraging himself, the other Christians that he’s talking to and US to “to keep loving. We need to ACT on Jesus’ command to love each other, and to humbly receive love from other Christians. As Col 3:12-14 reminds us 12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and [l]patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so must you do also. 14 In addition to all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. All the people sitting around you on a Sunday morning are your spiritual close relatives—brothers and sisters in Christ. And loving them is one of the reasons that we’ve been left on earth for. We’re here to care for each other, and meet each other’s needs. And, as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s urging in this, we’ll find that we get closer to God, and our relationship with Him becomes richer and deeper. You cannot believe without loving nor love without believing.
24 The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
John is stating another principle that governs the believer’s relationship with God and connects the Spirit’s indwelling with our mutual abiding relationship with God. In this verse he describes the mutual indwelling relationship between the obedient believer and Jesus. This is reminiscent of Jesus’ words in the Upper Roomin John 15:4–7. 4 Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so [g]prove to be My disciples The believer “abides” through obedience and Christ “abides” in the obedient believer in the person of the Holy Spirit. This use of “abide” is not related to the question of whether one is a believer or not, but whether Jesus is influencing our lives as believers or not.
“And he who keeps his commandments abides in Him and He in him.
Abiding in the love of Christ involves habitual obedience to God and His commandments. It is a life lived like Christ lived. Though habitual obedience is not automatic in the life of the believer, we have an obligation through what Christ has done for us to make it more automatic through habitual imitation of Christ. Ephesians 5:1-2 says 5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. The one who says that he abides in Him, to have a relationship with God should imitate the character and the lifestyle of Jesus, who always and only did the Will of the Father, continually serving God and meeting the needs of others. Realizing what Jesus has done for us, we have a moral obligation that drives us to live our life as Jesus did, because we realize more and more the Goodness and Righteousness and Love of the God we serve, and love Him for what He has already done for us, demonstrated most clearly at the cross. Knowing God creates this inner desire on our part to serve God, just as He did. Our walk is in obedience to God, obeying His commands, and it results in the best life we could live. We see this again in Deuteronomy 10:12 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?
Abiding results in Joy
John 15:10-1110 If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
So, we see that obedience to God, and abiding in His love is the other means by which we receive the Joy of the Lord. We can only abide, remain, and have fellowship with Jesus if we walk in the Light, just as He is in the Light. We remain and dwell in the Father’s love through obedience to Him in our daily lives.
To Abide is to Love our Brothers and Sisters
John consistently refutes the claim to be able abide in Christ, while living in disobedience in verses like 1 John 2:4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;. Those who refuse to love their brothers and sisters in Christ, he similarly calls false-brethren, in verses like 1 John 2:9 9 The one who says that he is in the Light and yet hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. and expressing hatred toward brothers and in 1 John 4:20 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. In other words, our love for God will be revealed in our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, since we can easily express that love that God has for them through caring and loving them ourselves. He’s saying that it’s easy to claim to love God, but if we really do, then it’s going to show by our willingness to care for and help our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. So, those characterized by obedience experience a mutual abiding relationship with God.
“and by this we know that he abides in us.”
Since the Holy Spirit accomplishes this work in us of loving our brothers and sisters and encouraging us to obey and abide in Christ, then this also proves to us by this evidence that we are His! We know that He abides in us by the proof of the influence that He has in our lives. We can know we are experiencing Christ’s presence within us precisely BECAUSE of the obedience and love. We have this assurance by the evidence of our actions inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is knowledge gained by experience, not just knowledge gained by instruction. This is something we experience, not just believe to be true because we were taught it, which is much more valuable in the day of adversity!
2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi.2 And the woman conceived and gave birth to a son;
Now, we learn that both of Moses’ parents, Amram and Jochebed, were from the tribe of Levi. Since Aaron was 3 years older than Moses, Aaron was likely one of the boys saved by those faithful midwives.
A second thing to notice is that Moses was a chosen child from the only tribe called to the spiritual leadership of Israel—the Levites. Moses was pre-ordained for the leadership role that God would have for him later in his life, even before God revealed that the Levites were to be the priests.
and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.
Moses was beautiful. This word Towb is the same word that God uses over and over in Genesis chapter 1, starting in Genesis 1:4 when God saw that the light was good, and ending in Genesis 1:31, when God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Like His creation of the world, the birth of Moses was a part of His plan to deliver Israel, to fulfill His promises to Abraham, and to bring forth the Messiah.
Exodus specifically says that it was Jochebed, his mother’s faith that saved him. She saw he was beautiful, and she hid him for three months. I mean, the author of Hebrews 11:23 is generous, crediting both his parents, saying 23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. But, Exodus 2 makes it clear that it was his mother’s faith in God’s purpose for Moses that drove these decisions. She was willing to risk all of their lives by defying Pharaoh in order to see God’s Will done. To do this, as always, she had to overcome her fear. It’s always, a case of faith vs. fear. Fear of not being enough, fear of messing things up, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of consequences, and of course fear of death. Faith and fear cannot coexist in the same place at the same time. 2 Timothy 1:7 says “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. 1 Cor 13 says “perfect love casts out fear”. And as we find so often in leaders who don’t know God, it was fear that was driving Pharaoh’s decision to persecute the Israelites. You would think that, all people the leader of the world at that time, the most powerful person on earth wouldn’t be afraid, but he was. We read in Exodus 1:8-11 8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”11 So they appointed taskmasters over them to oppress them with hard labor. It was fear that caused the oppression and persecution of God’s people. This Pharaoh knew not Joseph, but more importantly this Pharaoh knew not Joseph’s God, and so Pharaoh himself was a slave—to fear. If we put our faith in anything but God, then we will be slaves of fear. That is the status of humanity without God, no matter what their position. In fact, the primary motivation for seeking power and money and position and privilege is that when things go bad, these things can be a protection for you. But, it’s different for the people of God.
In Romans 8:15, Paul tells us that we “did not receive a spirit that makes us a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship”. We don’t have to be in slavery to fear again. That means that before we knew Jesus we were enslaved to fear. In fact, all in the world who aren’t following God live their lives enslaved by fear, but as believers we no longer have to be, we have been freed from a spirit of fear and given a spirit of sonship. So how did we live enslaved by fear, and how do we go about living out our freedom from it? Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that by living the perfect life without sin, Jesus purchased for us freedom from fear. How did He do that? 14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Did He destroy the devil physically at that time? Sadly, no. But He did destroy his power over death. The word translated destroy here is the Greek katargeo, to make useless or ineffective. Jesus holds the keys to death and the grave now. Through dying for our sins on the cross Jesus destroyed the power of death to cause fear in the life of believers. The enemy’s power over us, his hold on us, is made ineffective through what Jesus did on the cross. 1 Cor 15:56-57 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Freedom has been made possible, but it is up to every one of us to realize that freedom in our lives by choosing to live out the freedom we have been given. And how do we do that? We know longer allow ourselves to live in fear. We fight the battle against our flesh in our minds. 1 Cor 10:3-5 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but [b]divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, That means that we refuse to give in to the fear of our flesh.
3 But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus [d]basket and covered it with tar and pitch. The word for what Moses’ mother put him in is tebah, or ark. This word is only used one other place in the Old Testament: Noah’s Ark. Both Noah and Moses were deliverers , called to lead people and animals to a new location where they could be fruitful and multiply, and play their part in God’s redemptive plan for the world.
Then she put the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
So Jochebed did the best that she could and put the ark of reeds, this little basket among the other papyrus reeds by the bank of the Nile. Jochebed demonstrated faith in putting baby Moses in God’s hands. How hard it must have been for her to trust God with her little one, not knowing what was going to become of baby Moses. She demonstrated great trust in God.
4 And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
His sister Miriam (ex. 15:20) protects him by watching over him. The whole family is involved in protecting Moses. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her female attendants walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave woman, and she brought it to her.The Israelites lived in Goshen, so Pharaoh’s daughter would have had to have been in the region in order to find Moses. It was God that brought them together, and caused Mariam to witness the event.
6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
When the Egyptian princess opened the ark, and knew immediately that this was one of the Hebrew children. She must have known about her father’s cruel program of population control. The sight of little Moses touched her heart. She probably hated what her father was doing, and decided immediately to rescue this little baby.
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a woman for you who is nursing from the Hebrew women, so that she may nurse the child for you?”
Clearly, according to all evidence, the Hebrew women were having a lot of children, and it’s at least implied that the Egyptian women weren’t, since the Hebrews were becoming so much more numerous compared to the Egyptians. And, of course Miriam knew the perfect Hebrew woman to find.
8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.
And so, we can only imagine the excitement with which Miriam ran back to Jochebed with this amazing news of God’s provision. Moses’ protection was assured by his adoption by the Pharaoh’s daughter. And so, by trusting God, Jochebed not only made sure that Moses was safe, but also received back what she had given into God’s hands. God had turned horrible circumstances into hope, and ultimately salvation, because of the trust that this young Levite woman placed in Him. The only things that we truly get to keep are the things that we dedicate to God. If we give God our lives, our time, our resources, our love, our children, then God does not forget. God wants us to know that we can trust Him with what is most precious to us.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him [i]Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
Moses was given this Egyptian name, which means “son” or “to beget a son”. But, this word sounds a lot like Moseh, from Mashah, which means “to draw out”, which fits the circumstances of Moses being drawn out of the water. The Princess both honors his Hebrew family by giving him a name associated with the Hebrew language, and also makes him legitimately Egyptian by giving him an Egyptian name, emphasizing her adoption of Moses. And so, it was through the courage of women, doing the right thing even though it could cost them to accomplish His plan of deliverance for the Israelites.
