Reading Plan: Exodus 2:1-10
Author: Austin Sines Delivering the Deliverer
Moses is born! This would be great news if there wasn’t an edict from the pharaoh to kill all Hebrew boys. Yet it says in verse two that Moses’ mother hid him for three months. I like to imagine she put big bows on Moses' head and dressed him in pink to hide him from the Egyptians, but I’m sure it was much harder than that. The mother did this because she saw that Moses was a special baby. The word used to describe Moses in Hebrew was “Towb” which translates to good, which might mean something a little bit more than we think. The goodness that these parents saw in Moses was not in his external beauty, but they understood that this child was special. This child was beautiful and good in God’s sight and he was going to do something in service to God.
If you have read any devo I’ve ever written, you know by now I love to pause and reflect. Let's do that now. Brace yourselves because this is going to get intense. Picture the context of what is happening when Moses is born. Israelites are slaves, and all of their baby boys are thrown into the Nile River. Being a father of a boy, it's hard for me to imagine him being taken from me and thrown into a river while my wife and I watch. I can hear the cries and splashes of water as the babies break the surface of the water and then the worst part, silence. After 3 months, Moses’ mother wasn’t able to hide him anymore. To me, the last thing I would do is take Moses to the place where so many babies have been murdered. This is exactly what Moses' mother did. I think she understood the goodness she saw in her son. She knew that God was greater than the odds against her, Moses, and the rest of the Israelite people. She put Moses in a basket and released him off into the river. I’m not saying this wasn’t hard for her, but imagine how much harder it would be if we didn’t have a faithful God. As she watched that basket float away, she gave God all of her trust. A couple of verses later we read that no one but the daughter of Pharoah finds Moses and decides to save his life. If we could take one thing out of this amazing chain of events, it should be that God is always in control no matter the circumstances.
God is the Chief Orchestrator of everything that goes on in our lives. All we must do is submit to His plans and understand our season and time. Then we can rest assured that He will make all things beautiful in His time!
Reflection & Response:
• What situations in your life do you need to release to God today?
• What is one thing you can do to give that situation over to God?
• I want us to try something together. Grab a piece of paper or a notecard and write down whatever you need to release to God. Fold it in half and place it in Exodus 2 in your Bible. If you think you’re alone, you’re wrong. If you think your circumstances are too big, you’re wrong. This burden isn’t yours anymore. The same God that delivered Moses will deliver you from your circumstances too.
• Prayer: God, help us not to look at situations the way they are, but to recognize the greater calling you have for us, so we can see our situations and circumstances as You see them. Help us to trust you with our lives and not what we think we see; you have a greater plan. We release these things to you because we know that you have already defeated all things for us. God, if we start to doubt, I pray that you remind us of Moses and the faith it took for his mother to release him into the river that had been such a horrible place for the Hebrews. God, you turn horrible places into a place of deliverance. We praise you and we love you. Amen
|