Like a certain other Israelite child 1500 years later, a boy child survives against the odds due to a combination of his family's human cleverness and God's protective hand, symbolized by the ark (little basket-boat, in this case) that carried him in the flood. Moses is often spoken of as a "type" of Jesus, a previous person whose life events would mirror the greater glory of Jesus. The Ark secured Noah against the raging waters, just as the new little ark secured Moses. The Ark of the Covenant would secure the law of the kingdom of David and protect his warriors, and the body of the Blessed Mother would finally be the Ark of all Arks, securing the growing Son of God. Hiding from infanticidal tyrants, both Moses and Jesus would find protection and grow.
It strikes me as more than a little awesome that, in a moment in history when Hebrew women's babies were being torn from them left and right, Jocheved was allowed not only to publicly keep her son, but was PAID to breastfeed him. She was paid to change his diapers, burp him, rock him, to get up in the middle of the night with him. Yes, she had to give him away eventually, but when? The phrase used was "when he grew." Interpret this as "when he didn't need a wet-nurse," then she only got to keep him for about two and a half years or so, which would be sad but still far better than Jocheved's countrywomen. Interpret this as "when he grew up," an interpretation which makes some sense, then she got to keep him for his entire childhood. Those movie moments where the young-adult Moses in the palace suddenly realizes that he is Hebrew after years of not knowing this...might not make sense. The Bible doesn't say anything about a sudden realization. It is very likely that Moses absolutely knew who he was and was taught something of The God of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob as he grew up. Then, when he had to be given away, no matter what exact age, he was given away to a "better life," a life that gave him familiarity with power, an intimacy with the Egyptian royal court, politics, warfare, and religion that God knew would be absolutely necessary to extract His Chosen People from this situation.
Then, however, God had to mold Moses some more. He had to experience hardship and suffering, to be brought out of his comfortable life and have all else stripped away in the desert so he could be touched by God. A prince of Egypt with some vague sympathy for the Hebrews could not do what needed to be done...he had to be drawn closer to God to be able to look with true compassion on his people. He had to suffer and be tested to have strength for the fight against a Pharaoh he knew all too well and strength to be a just lawgiver to a difficult, disheartened nation.
God started close to his heart, when a nameless, faceless Egyptian struck a Hebrew kinsman of Moses. Like most people, his family meant more to him than mere ethnic identity, and like many people of the time, he did not hesitate to act with violence in a situation like this. He believed himself to be doing the right thing by standing up for the Hebrews, but it becomes quickly and painfully clear that this Moses isn't ready yet. He reacts to violence against his tribe with retaliatory violence, which makes a sort of brutal sense. It's the way organized criminals and ancient tribes acted. This retaliatory violence, he believes, is the solution to ending Egyptian cruelty and he assumes that the Hebrews will immediately recognize that he is bidding to be their leader and savior. They don't. They merely begin to wonder when this violence will be turned against them. He's hunted down by the legitimate authorities, as criminals should be, and also rejected in his attempt to become an organizing leader of the Israelites. Nobody wants a Mob boss as self-proclaimed chieftain and liberator...they need a more righteous, mature, formed leader.
He runs off to let the situation die down, and in doing so, he finds himself stripped of everything he thought made him a good potential leader. His Egyptian ties and Egyptian clothing mean nothing to the women he meets at the well, except a mistaken identity. The only thing that gets their attention, and their father Jethro's, is his bravery and helpfulness in protecting them and their sheep. Yet another time in scripture, an important man sits down at a well and finds a loving woman there. Zipporah is yet another "woman at the well," like Rebekah and Rachel. Meanwhile, it is becoming time for God to take decisive action. And His timing is always perfect.
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