Message: We read yesterday that because of the
king’s fear of the Hebrew people multiplying he had commanded the midwives to
kill all of the Hebrew baby boys. They feared God more than the king so they
didn’t do this, and when the king asked why, they told him that the Hebrew
women delivered too quickly and the babies were born before they could get
there. Since that plan didn’t work the king made a new command to all of the
people of Egypt to throw any Hebrew infant baby boy they saw into the Nile
river. Today in Exodus 2 we read about a Hebrew couple who had a baby in the
middle of the slavery and oppression in Egypt. This passage tells us that the
mother of the baby “saw that he was special”. I’m curious as to what she saw that
was special but the scripture doesn’t tell us that. Because of the king’s
commands the Hebrew parents were faced with a very difficult decision. The
mother hid her baby boy for three months and then did something extremely bold
and scary. She made a basket out of papyrus, sealed it with tar and put her baby
boy in the basket and floated him down the Nile river. Reading this stops my heart
because I can’t imagine putting my baby alone in the very place that was
intended for his death…on purpose!! The scripture doesn’t tell us whether she
had an encounter with God or an angel telling her to do this, or whether she
was inspired by the Holy Spirit but I can’t imagine how this must have felt!
The baby’s sister followed from a distance and was able to not only watch where
he went without suspicion, but she was there to suggest and orchestrate his
care when the princess found the baby. This brought baby Moses right back to
the safety of his own mother and gave his mother the ability to care for her
son without fear of his death.
Command: Cooperate with the vision that God
has marked my life with. It may not be what or how I think it is and I need to
communicate with God to stay on track with where he is leading me. Even when it
looks like he is leading me to place that vision in the path of disaster.
Promise: God will fulfill the things in us
that he marked our lives to accomplish.
Warning: When I acknowledge that my life is
marked with vision, I have to be careful that pride doesn’t come in and make me
believe it is about me.
Application: This whole story amazes me because I
think about what I would have done as a mother. Run away? Hide a baby? Who
knows! When I think of this story I think about what we all do as parents to
try to protect our children and shield them from danger. I’m not suggesting we
all take our children and leave them in the middle of danger. This was
obviously a plan that God orchestrated and every last detail was covered. This
got me thinking about the fact that his mother knew he was “special”. Obviously
we believe that all babies and all people are special but in this case, Moses
represented a plan that was much bigger than his tiny infant self being rescued
from death in the river. He represented the deliverance of Israel from the
oppression of Egypt. This whole plan was larger than him and he had done
nothing to choose it. He was simply born for it. Literally! When I think about
my own life and the plans and desires I have for it in contrast with this story
I realize that there is a bigger picture that is so much more than what it
might do for me. The things God has called me to do and to be aren’t just for
the sake of blessing me or making me feel special. They are intended to impact
people. In Moses’s case his life impacted not only the tribes of Israel in
their deliverance, but he also impacted Egypt also. God used Moses to show
Egypt that he was bigger than all of the gods they were serving. My challenge
to myself is to put my dreams, plans and visions into proper perspective. I
know that God loves me and is for me, but when I am praying for these things, I
need to remember that they aren’t for my own sake, or for my own glory. They
are for the sake of other people. This is humbling and keeps pride from
hijacking the vision for a wrong purpose.
