Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"Yes, go," she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him.When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water." Exodus 2:1-10
what a mother of faith! she is even recorded in the great chapter of heroes of the faith – Hebrews 11:23 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.
it must of taken a lot of courage to hide a newborn and then to place that newborn into a basket and into the river. we often have quite a sanitized picture of this in our head but as the mother of 2 i know babies are loud, sometimes hard to please, smelly and time consuming. i also, after watching a doco on egypt on tv, know that the river Nile has crocodiles and other creatures in it that could have overturned the basket and drowned (and eaten!) the baby. yikes!
but i love how God works.
God enabled this mother to care for her baby in secret.
again this is one of those life moments where the odds look impossible. there were few options available to moses’ parents. but they made a choice of faith. they made a choice to follow the nudge of God to save their child.
and then God guided this baby in a basket through the dangers of the river to the one person in all of egypt that could pronounce safety over him, the princess.
God had a plan and a purpose for this child and so He orchestrated his safety and his circumstances.
when i am facing obstacles and impossibilities i want to be like moses’ mother, resolved to find a way and resolved to trust God. i will let God and let God. sometimes that is the best course of action as God can guide the currents of my life and my circumstances to the right direction, forward into destiny.
God is awesome in his power to preserve and protect.
God is awesome in His ability to help us in our times of crisis. God is at his best when our circumstances are at its worst.
God is awesome in his ability to accomplish His will, regardless of the circumstances.
MOSES IN ACTS:
Acts 7:20-21 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.”
Moses was probably the only survivor of the holocaust of his time, all the male babies were executed by pharaohs order.
Acts 7:22 “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.”
Acts 7:23-29 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being ill-treated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defence and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realise that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’ But the man who was ill- treating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.”
Despite growing up in the palace Moses was aware of his heritage and who his real people were, and it seems he was aware of his call to some degree in that he tried to intervene and rescue the people through force – but it wasn’t the right time or way – and he wasn’t the right man yet – so he fled tot he desert and lived in Midian
* The Essential 100 Challenge (E100) helps you get an overview of the Bible… without getting bogged down. The Plan guides you through 50 Old Testament passages and 50 New Testament passages — The Essential 100 — so you can see the big picture of God’s Word, and form a daily Bible reading habit in the process. E100 is an achievable way to have a "through the Bible" experience; it’s the Bible reading plan people love to complete.
Leave a comment
Comments feed for this article