“For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time–to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.” ~ 2 Timothy 1:9
It’s not hard to see in the life of Moses how the sovereign Hand of God saved him as a baby. God had a plan for Moses. God would use him to deliver His people out of Egyptian slavery.
Although Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew baby boys be killed, one Israelite couple dared to defy the king.
Why?
The book of Hebrews provides further insight:
“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.” ~ Hebrews 11:23
Moses was no ordinary child. His parents saw it.
When it was no longer possible to hide the baby, the mother, Jochebed, did something most mothers cannot fathom. She put him in a woven basket and placed it in the banks of the Nile River.
How she must have agonized over the decision.
How many times did her tear-stained lips kiss his plump, little face before she finally released the basket into the river?
By faith, his mother placed Moses in the water to save him.
Sometimes, God asks us to let go of the very thing that is most precious to us. It is in those difficult moments that we learn to trust in His sovereignty.
Ironically, Pharaoh had ordered that all Hebrews boys be drowned by throwing them in the Nile (Exodus 1:22).
To Pharaoh, water was to be the source of death. Yet for Moses, water became the source of life.
While Moses’ sister, Miriam, watched anxiously nearby, Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the baby and her heart was filled with compassion. Miriam quickly offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. That women would be her mother.
It was a brilliant plan that only God could orchestrate. Moses’ mother was paid to to care for her own son.
That day, baby Moses went into the water of the Nile as a slave and came out a free man, a future heir to the throne.
From birth, God providentially preserved Moses’ life. It was the unfolding of a plan to deliver God’s chosen people out of Egyptian bondage.
The plan did not come easily. It came on God’s timing.
There were apparent failures. After all, Moses killed an Egyptian task master and had to run away from Egypt.
By grace, God saved Moses for a purpose. By grace, He also saved us for His purpose.
His purpose is being worked out in ways we would have never expected and through people we would have never chosen. When Jochebed placed her baby son in the Nile, who would have ever thought that Pharaoh’s daughter would end up raising him?
Every detail of our lives, every incident, every failure, can be beautifully used by God to further His purposes.
Will you trust in His providence? Will you trust in the unseen work of God which moves men and history toward the goal which He has foreordained, and which He has purposed and promised?
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