Moses was a frightened and disillusioned fugitive running, escaping for his very life. His vaunted education now meant nothing to him. His knowledge of hieroglyphics and Egyptian culture gave him no comfort.

First surprise. Next confusion, followed by fear, like icy fingers around the heart. When Moses’ well-kept secret hit the prime-time networks, he got the shakes. And acting on fear, the biblical account states that “he fled from the presence of Pharaoh.” Why did he run? Verse 15 tells us, “Pharaoh tried to kill Moses.”

According to Exodus 2:12, Moses hid the body of the slain Egyptian. But by the next day, it was all over the papers. They found the Egyptian. Five inches of loose sand hid nothing.

Moses looked this way, and he looked that way. Isn’t it interesting? He didn’t look up, did he? He looked in both directions horizontally, but he ignored the vertical. And what did he do with the results of his murderous anger? Scripture says “he hid the Egyptian in the sand.”

I’m convinced Moses was doing more than grandstanding. I believe he was absolutely sincere. He didn’t see himself murdering a cruel slave driver as much as courageously striking a blow for God’s people.

Jochebed had faith. She also thought through a very creative plan. I’d like to pause to reflect on this tension between careful planning and full-hearted faith. Are they mutually exclusive? Not on your life! Yet to talk to some believers, you might be led to think otherwise.

When we come to passages like the first chapter of Exodus, we are reminded that God’s law always comes before man’s law. Scripture does not teach blind-and-blanket submission. The fact is, there is a time to submit, and there’s also a time to resist.

According to Pharaoh’s instructions, the Hebrew midwife was to watch closely as the baby emerged. She was immediately to discover the sex of the child as it came forth from the womb and to snuff out its life if she noticed it was a male—possibly suffocating the little boy before he ever uttered his first cry.