A Bloody Robe, A Tiny Ark, and the Vessels of Salvation

Rescued from a ruler bent on his destruction.

Restored in the house of the king.

Released to bring redemption and liberation to the masses.

And it begins with a bloodstained robe…

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Genesis chapter 37 tells the story of Joseph. The 11^th son of Jacob, Joseph grew to be treasured in his father’s eyes. As a physical sign of his favoritism, Jacob bestowed upon Joseph a beautiful robe; a symbol of what would be his place in the family and an emblem of the growing envy of his brothers. When Joseph began having dreams in which his siblings were bowing down to him, envy gave birth to hatred, and hatred led to a plot against Joseph’s life. Far from home they stripped the young boy of his robe and abandoned him in an empty cistern.  One of his brothers thought better of killing him and managed to persuade the others to merely desert him in the reservoir. Instead, tempted by a passing caravan, they sold him as a slave to the traveling merchants. Joseph was transported to the land of Egypt and auctioned to the highest bidder. The brothers, having rid themselves of the favored child, dipped his robe in the blood of a goat and returned to their father with evidence of Joseph’s demise and the tale of his slaughter by a wild animal. In the land of Jacob, the father grieved his thought to be dead son. In the land of Egypt, Joseph began a slow ascent to redemption.

Years later famine enveloped both the lands. In an act of desperation Jacob sent his sons in search of assistance outside their borders, a search that would eventually take them to Egypt, where they would unknowingly encounter the favored child once more. In Egypt, Joseph had risen to power alongside the Pharaoh and ruler of the land. Because of Joseph’s wisdom and foresight, Egypt was equipped to deal with the same hardships, having stored up grain to survive the years of deprivation. Joseph would eventually reveal himself to his brethren, forgive them for their act of betrayal, reunite with his father, and welcome Jacob and his people into the land of Egypt.  All told, the people of Jacob, the Israelites, some 70 in total, relocated to the land of the Pharaoh and began a new life in Egypt as the book of Genesis comes to a close.

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As the years passed Israel swelled in volume in their now adopted land. 70 had become hundreds of thousands now occupying foreign soil.

They…”multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.” (Exodus 1:7)

But as their numbers grew, their favor shrank. A new pharaoh rose to power and brought with him no connection to the events of the past and no knowledge of the man that was Joseph (Exodus 1:8) To this new ruler, the Israelites were nothing more than a resource, nothing more than a mass of potential workers and laborers. He was convinced, perhaps with merit, that if these people were allowed to continue growing and expanding, eventually they would be the majority. They would be capable of joining with the enemies of Egypt, and they would be the new rulers of his land. 

Some time earlier Egypt itself had fallen victim to an invading force know as the Hyksos, a people who poured into Egypt from the land of Canaan, overthrew the governing pharaoh, and ruled for over a century before being driven back out. Would this pattern repeat itself? Would Egypt be overthrown again?  This time, was Egypt’s biggest threat growing freely within its own borders?¹

In pharaoh’s mind, the fate of his country and his people were hanging in the balance, and an intervention was needed. A plan was formed; it was time to cull the growing herd.

“Come, let us deal wisely with them.” (Exodus 1:9-10)

The plan was simple but brutal. Work them to death. The Israelites were marched out to sites around Egypt and tasked with building and manual labor. Taskmasters were ordered to lay the whip to them and required unceasing toil.²

“They made their lives bitter with heavy work at mortar and brick, and with all kinds of labor in the field. All the work they exacted of them with ruthlessness.” (Exodus 1:14)

Israel in Egypt by Sir Edward John Poynter, 1867

 It was common practice for Egypt to enslave a people for public works and expanding of territory, but Pharaoh’s real motive was simple population control.³ Philo, an ancient Jewish chronicler, described the scene as such,

“And so they died, one after another, as if smitten by a pestilential destruction. And then their taskmasters threw their bodies away unburied beyond the borders of the land, not suffering their kinsmen or their friends…” to even attempt to bury them, nor weep over them.“⁴

In the Talmud, a piece of Jewish oral tradition, a story exists of Pharaoh forcing the people to build their beds next to the work sites, claiming that walking to and from the job site was a waste of valuable time. But the underlying rationale is even more sinister. By keeping husbands away from their wives, there exists no possibility of procreation.

Yet, even this wasn’t enough to quell the population growth. Pharaoh was forced to take a more direct approach. A degree was issued; any male baby born to an Israelite would be immediately killed. To accomplish the task, the king recruited the midwives charged with assisting in births to act as immediately executioners.

“When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him, but if it is a girl, let her live.” (Exodus 1:16)

This idea of mass genocide was not new to the ancient world.  But the midwives refused, afraid of the divine punishment that might follow such an act. When Pharaoh learns that his plan is faltering he orders the midwives to answer for the failure.

“Why have you done this thing, why have you let the boys live?” (Exodus 1:18)

The midwives understand that their own lives are at stake with the answer to this question. So they make an excuse.

“Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” (Exodus 1:19)

The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptians, they claim. Once in labor, they drop their babies so quickly that mother and child are finished and gone by the time we’ve even heard of the labor. They assert that they’ve tried. They claim it’s impossible.

Pharaoh, like most men at the time (and perhaps even now), would know very little about the ways of childbirth. Naturally, he accepted their excuse.⁵

Undeterred, Pharaoh turned his attention to the public and tasked them with fulfilling the command the midwives had been unable to follow.

“And Pharaoh gave this order to all people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (Exodus 1:22)

And in this, pharaoh succeeds. Jewish oral tradition passes along 2 particularly disturbing tales from this genocide.

According to one story, the Israelite men would be given a daily quota of bricks, and the result of each days work was calculated at sunset. If he were found to be even one brick short, the youngest child of the Hebrew worker would be seized and built into the wall in place of the bricks. The child was entombed alive into the wall.⁶

Another story has squads of soldiers roaming house to house in search of male babies. They would bring with them an Egyptian mother and her child. When they entered a home, they would pinch the Egyptian baby, forcing it to cry. The bawling of the child would prompt any hidden Hebrew babies to begin crying as well, and the soldiers could easily locate it and take it away.⁷

It is into this environment that the boy Moses was born. It is into this these turbulent times that Israel’s immediate salvation found his way into the world.

“And the woman conceived, and bore a son,; and when she saw him that he was a godly child, she hid him for three months.” (Exodus 2:2)

The nightmare of these 3 months is unknown and left to our imagination. Any parent can attest however, to the difficulty there would be in trying to keep a 3-month-old child a secret from the world. Newborns aren’t particularly known for being quiet.  I cannot begin to imagine however, the fear that a mother and father would live with, knowing that any moment someone could come to take their son. Every noise, every knock on the door, “is this the moment they’re coming to take my child.”  

And yet miraculously, Moses survived those 3 months. Unfortunately as a child grows, so does the inability to keep him hidden. Relying on God, on faith, and on courage and ingenuity, she developed a plan to give her child one last chance at life.

“And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. “(Exodus 2:3) KJV

Moses' Mother by Alexey Tyranov, 1808

Imagine the pain in a simple push. Imagine the emotion that must come from launching a tiny vessel containing your child and not knowing whether you are sentencing him to life or to death.

The Bible records his sister following at a distance, watching to see what will happen with this little boy. Will the boat stay upright? Where could it possibly end up?

“Still, the Bible offers a subtle signal that predicts the success of their daring ploy. Like the ark itself, the baby would be picked up and carried along by the current of a freshening stream of sacred history. The Hebrew term used by the biblical author to describe the frail little boat of woven reeds in which the baby was sheltered is teba, a word that appears elsewhere in the Bible only once, and then to describe the mighty vessel in which Noah and a precious remnant of human and animal life sought refuge from the flood that destroyed the rest of life on earth. Something momentous was at stake, we are meant to understand: the survival of an enslaved people and the destiny of humankind would depend on the ark that now floated in the shallows of the Nile and the goodly child who was sheltered inside.”⁸

And the ark would provide. It would shelter Moses; carry him to a better life. The tiny vessel led Moses into the outstretched arms of the Pharaohs daughter. She would gather him from the river, rescue him from the genocide, and raise him as an Egyptian prince. He would be restored in the house of the king; clothed, educated, disciplined, and cared for. He would grow in knowledge and compassion. And eventually, he would be released to return to his people and be the leader God appointed to rescue them from their own slavery.

A massive ark provided salvation for a remnant of humankind in the flood. A frail and miniature ark provided that same opportunity for what would be the salvation of the Israelites in Egypt. Both were vessels of hope.

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In 1995 Children of Promise began in Tanzania, offering food, clothing, healthcare, education, and spiritual nurture to children in need. At the time it was customary for countries to choose a name under which COP would operate, a moniker to describe in national terms what Children of Promise was striving for in their host country. A patriarch of the church in Tanzania, Eliezer Mdobi, christened the newly founded program, “Safina.”

“Safina” is a Swahili word, and a direct reference to the Biblical narrative.

Quite simply, it translates to, “Ark.” 

The “teba.”

From the mighty boat that sailed through the flood to the tiny basket that lapped through the waves of the Nile, “Safina” was to be a vessel that carried children out of unfortunate circumstances and into a hope filled future. “Safina” was to be both a physical and spiritual vessel of salvation.

Like the arks of Noah and Moses, Safina was to Rescue children from desperate situations. Safina was to Restore them both physically and spiritually. And Safina was to Release them into a life of providing those same services to others in need.

Outside the Safina Offices in Tanzania, 2011.

 Since then thousands of children have been carried along through the work of Children of Promise, not only in Tanzania, but also in 28 other countries around the world. Children who, through no fault of their own, have been born into often times hopeless situations and environments. COP has been the vessel that has carried them through the rough waters of life. Each of these children has been supported, sheltered, protected, and guided by individuals on the other side of the world in the form of their sponsors, and in the folks from their own countries who have invested their lives in offering the same hope they once found.

If you are currently sponsoring a child through the work of Children of Promise, or any organization that provides hope to children in need, thank you. Thank you for being a part of this vessel, and for being a part of introducing children and their families to the love of God.

If you haven’t got involved yet and you’re interested in learning more about the life changing work Children of Promise is doing around the world, please visit our website at echildrenofpromise.org or call us at 765.648.2190.

Change a life. Sponsor a child.

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1.  Kirsch, Jonathan. “Born at the Right Time.” Moses, A Life. New York: Ballantine Group, 1998. 31. Print. 
2. Kirsh, 1998, 31.
3. Kirsh, 1998, 33.
4. Philo of Alexandria, The Essential Philo, ed. Nahum N. Glatzer, New York: Schocken Books, 1971. 200.
5. Kirsh, 1998, 36.
6. Kirsh, 1998, 37 citing Angelo S. Rappoport, Ancient Israel, London:Senate, 1995. Vol. 2, 237, citing, inter alia, Shemot Rabbah.
7.Kirsh, 1998, 37 citing Louis Ginzbert, The Legends of the Jews, trans Henrietta Szold. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1909-1938. Vol. 2, 257, n. 23, citing, inter alia, Midrash Shir Ha-shirim Rabbah. 
8. Kirsh, 1998, 43.