When the
princess opened it, (basket) she saw the baby.
The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ”This must be one of the Hebrew children,” she said.
(Exodus 2:6 NLT)
The king’s edict said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to
give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put
him to death; but if it is daughter, then she shall live” (Exo. 2:16).
The boy babies were sentenced to
death. Why? Because the king feared the increasing Jewish
population growth. The “fly in the
ointment” so to speak was that the midwives feared God more than they did the
king and refused to kill the boy babies.
(Exo. 2:17) What a brave and
courageous group of women!
Many of our missionaries who are
serving in countries where their location and names cannot be mentioned for
fear of death are following the same principle.
They are adhering to the example of the Apostle Peter and the disciples
who said, “We must obey God rather than
men” (Acts 5:29).
I
find the birth of Moses an intriguing account for several reasons:
1.
It took
tremendous faith and courage for Amram and Jochebed to have marital relations
during that dangerous time when Jewish baby boys were subject to death.
2.
They saw that the
baby was no ordinary child (Acts 7:20
NIV). God gave them a special insight
into his divine purpose for the child.
3.
Jochebed obeyed
the letter of the law by putting the baby in the Nile, but trusted in the
providence of God in the way she did it.
4.
The oldest child,
Miriam, was dispatched to watch over the baby with instructions to intervene
should he be found. They were well aware
that the Princess came down to do her daily ablutions and trusted God to spare the
child.
5.
The Princess
found the basket and heard the baby cry and saw his tears. God used a baby’s tears to control the heart
of a powerful Princess, and he used Miriam’s words to arrange for the baby’s
mother to raise the boy, and get paid for it.
Don’t you just love this story? Can’t you just see God’s hand in every
detail? Who would be better able to
raise the boy and instill within him a love for God than his godly parents?
A Baby ’s tears were God’s first weapons in his war
with Egypt.
There’s a lot of recalculating going on from the time Moses
lay in a wicker basket in the Nile to the time he became a prince in Egypt, and
later when he took over the reins of deliverer to God’s people – Israel.
I can look back over my life and see how many times
God said, RECALCULATE – change direction.
That’s what my book: God’s Unfolding Plan is all about.
Thought
for the Day: God wants us to take time to recalculate on occasion.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, I thank you for the times when you caused me to recalculate and
change directions to get in line with your will and purpose.
