The Child Moses
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
"God works in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." As this study opens, we find the Children of Israel in dire distress because of the rigor with which the Egyptians compelled them to serve. The lives of the Israelites were "bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field" where they were made to serve.
1. We have a lesson concerning childhood. Who would have thought that a little babe would be chosen of God to bring deliverance to Israel from the wrath of Pharaoh, yet even so it was. We remember how Christ said, "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones."
The Lord, in His earth-life, delighted to take the children in His arms. He blessed them, and He said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God." He said again, "Whoso shall receive one such little child in My Name receiveth Me." He further said, "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea."
This love of God toward the child is a message easily caught from the Scripture which will be developed today. The Lord Jesus went so far as to say, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." There was something about the simplicity of faith and the comforting trust of a child which appealed to the Lord.
2. We have a lesson concerning our Savior. When we think of the infant, Moses, hid by his mother from the wrath of Pharaoh, we cannot but remember how our Lord in after years was, Himself, hid under the Father's direction from the wrath of Herod. Moses was hidden in Egypt; Jesus Christ was hidden in Egypt. The Bible tells us of how our Lord grew "up before Him (the Father) as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." There never was a moment during the life of our Lord that He was not under the tender and compassionate eye of His Heavenly Father.
3. We have a lesson concerning Fatherhood. Let us who are fathers consider God's attitude toward the infant Moses, and toward His own Son, in His infancy, that we may learn something of our responsibility to those whom God has given to us.
I. NORMAL LIFE IN THE FACE OF A KING'S WRATH (Exodus 2:1)
1. An inside picture from the finger of God. As we think of the agony brought upon Israel by Pharaoh's tyranny, we would very much like to pierce the darkness of those olden days and see how family life took its course. We read, "And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi." Here is a picture of family life facing the edict of the king without fear. The fact is that God said that Moses' parents feared not the wrath of the king. It was not that the king did not have power, but the eye of faith knew that God had more power. It was not because Pharaoh was not humanly able to break up every home by the death of the male children; but it was that God was Divinely able to stay the wrath of the king.
2. That which faces the family of today. We read in the Bible that Satan goeth about seeking whom he may devour. The sentence of death has been pronounced by the devil, and his supreme effort is to slay every son so far as any spiritual life or fellowship with the Father is concerned.
II. A GOODLY CHILD (Exodus 2:2)
1. A mother's eye of faith. We read in our key verse, "She saw him that he was a goodly child." In Hebrews we read that she saw that he was "a proper child." We doubt not that every mother believes that her child is "goodly," and some may believe that they are "proper." However, here was a woman who looked with an eye of faith. She was not a builder of glass houses, nor one who harbored fanciful dreams. She saw that her child was a child of destiny, a child elect of God, and she saw this with an eye of faith.
2. A mother who shielded her offspring. For three months she hid him from the wrath of Pharaoh. Somehow, or other, she knew, as faith always knows, that God was with her. She did not fear the wrath of the king because she believed in the power of God. Nevertheless, she did hide her child, and she hid him diligently. Faith is never reckless, but takes every wise and rightful precaution against Satan and his wiles.
Jesus Christ did not ruthlessly throw Himself into the face of danger. He had all power and knew no fear, and yet, when the Nazarenes would have cast Him down from the brow of the hill, He quietly withdrew Himself.
3. A mother who dedicated her child to God. We have no doubt whatsoever but that Moses' mother felt deeply the world conditions under which she moved. If she had the faith to fear not the king, she had also the heart to present her offspring to her Lord. She felt that all she was and all she had belonged to God.
All is on the altar laid
With no reservations made,
All in all;
Never more mine own to be,
For Thy Blood hath purchased me,
Happily I follow Thee
At Thy call.
III. AN IMPROVISED SHIELD (Exodus 2:3)
When Jochebed, Moses' mother, found it impossible to hide her child any longer, then it was that she took "an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink."
1. We wonder if she did not think, as she prepared the tiny ark, of that greater ark which housed Noah and his family against the ravages of the flood. We wonder if she had any conception of that which comes to our minds of how we are all safely shielded in the ark, Christ Jesus.
2. We should prepare the ark of prayer. In our day the family altar is all but depleted and broken down. Does the home not need an ark of prayer in which to shield its children from a world filled with temptation and sin, and from Satan who seeks to devour?
3. We should prepare the ark of an holy example. Too many parents are living any kind of life before their children. We need not to say, "Do this" or "Do that." We need to live out in holy words and deeds, the doctrine we profess.
IV. A BABE DELIVERED TO DEATH (Exodus 2:3, l.c.)
Here is one of the striking statements of Scripture; speaking of the ark which Moses' mother had made we read "she laid it in the flags by the river's brink."
1. The river stood for death. We remember how Pharaoh had charged his people that every son that was born was to be cast into the river. Is it not strange, therefore, that the mother of Moses placed her ark in the flags by the river's brink? Evidently she had no fear of the king's command. Evidently her faith was not afraid to face the waters which were supposedly to effect her child's death.
2. The ark was an emblem of security from death. We have a babe in the river of death, yet securely housed against death. Once more our minds go to the ark which Noah built. It, too, was placed in the waters of destruction. The very waves which overflowed the earth, even to the top of the highest mountains, however, did no more than to bear up the ark in safety. Thus it is that in the midst of death we are in life. That which means certain death to those out of Christ, means certain life to those who are in Christ, He took our death and the waters passed over Him; therefore we are borne up in the power of His resurrection life.
3. The basis of her faith. To Moses' mother the fears of the river were allayed by the fact of an ark which bore up her child. We can almost see Abraham as he took his own son, Isaac, out to the place of death and of sacrifice. As he was about to go he said to the young men, Tarry here, and "I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Abraham even prepared the altar, placed Isaac upon the wood. He lifted his hand to slay his son. He did all of this believing that though he slew him he should yet receive him alive. The Bible says he received him from the dead in a figure. In these days of death and destruction about us, let us have the faith of resurrection life and glory.
V. WAITING UPON GOD (Exodus 2:4)
After the mother of Moses had blessed her child in the ark and committed it to the river, Moses' sister stood afar off to see what would be done to him. Faith had gone as far as faith could see. Now from her distant place Miriam watched. From her home farther away the mother of Moses prayed. The wrath of king Pharaoh was unabated, and the waters of the Nile which had claimed so many of the Hebrews' sons had lost none of their power. However, a mother and a daughter, who could no longer see, trusted on. They had done what they could. They depended upon God to do the rest.
1. Thus it was that Abraham led Isaac forth. He knew not how Isaac, who was about to be delivered to death, could return with him to the young men, but he knew that he would return. All that his human eye could see was an altar built, the wood placed in order, a knife upraised, and a writhing, dying son; but faith saw more. It saw God able to deliver. Abraham also stood waiting and anticipating what would happen. And what did happen? A ram was soon discovered, caught by its horns in the thicket. This ram was then offered in the stead of his son.
2. Thus we go forth. The wages of sin is death, and yet we are not afraid. The curse of God against sin has been pronounced. However, during the centuries saints have stood off to see what would happen. They did, of course, have the promise that Christ would go forth to die, and they stood by to see what would happen. In the case of Moses, something wonderful happened, and this will be brought out by the next division.
VI. THE DIVINE PROVISION (Exodus 2:5-9)
From a distant viewpoint Miriam watched. In the home, the parents prayed and waited as they prayed. It will be interesting to see what happened.
1. Pharaoh's daughter enters the scene. Down to the river, accompanied by her maidens, she came to wash herself. Her maidens protectingly walked along the river's side. By and by Pharaoh's daughter caught sight of the ark, and she sent her maidens to fetch it. Little did they realize that they were moving step by step under a Divine commission. Little did Pharaoh's daughter realize that she was to play the part of a savior to a babe destined to death.
2. The babe's cry. We read that when Pharaoh's daughter had opened the lid of the ark that "she saw the child; and, behold, the babe wept." Here was another step in this Divinely ordered episode. The cry of a little child is appealing. Its innocency, its helplessness, and its plea touched the heart of the daughter of Pharaoh. A woman's sympathy was brought to play, and we read that "she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children."
The daughter of Pharaoh knew the orders of her father that the baby should be thrown into the waters and drowned. However, she rescued the child.
3. A mother's care. The time had come for faith to act. Miriam hurried down from her place of hiding. She quickly proposed, what had evidently been pre-planned, that she should go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for the king's daughter. The daughter of Pharaoh acquiesced It was thus in the providence of God that Moses' mother was hired to nurse her own babe until it should be grown sufficiently old to be delivered to Pharaoh's daughter. Once more we say, "God works in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."
VII. THE PERSECUTOR MADE A PROTECTOR (Exodus 2:10)
We now find the child, Moses, delivered unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.
1. The importance of his name. Pharaoh's daughter called his name "Moses" "and she said, Because I drew him out of the water." She thought that she had saved the child, and so she had. Little, however, did she realize that her arms were none other than the arms of God, that back of her rescue was the all-rescuing prayer-answering and faith-responding Jehovah.
Have not we, too, been drawn out of the water? Were we not consigned to death? The Word of God says: "I, if I be lifted up * * will draw all men unto Me."
We have not only been drawn unto Him, but we have been drawn out of the waters of death and of hell. We are saved with an everlasting salvation, and safe in His arms.
2. Pharaoh's home afforded protection from Pharaoh's wrath. Once more we stand amazed at the prowess of the eternal God. The man who had consigned the sons of the Hebrews to death in the river drew out from the river of death the greatest of Israel's sons. Not only that, but the hand that sought to destroy that son, guarded him and protected him during the years of his growth. Pharaoh, himself, prepared Moses, from every human viewpoint, to be the deliverer of the Israelites.
We read in the Bible that Moses was taught in all of the learning of the Egyptians. Where could God's deliverer have been better trained than in the home, under the tutelage of Pharaoh's daughter and of Pharaoh, himself? Pharaoh, therefore, unwittingly was working out his own undoing. In what he thought was his kingly sagacity to keep Israel as his vassals, he was paving the way for the deliverance of the people whom he so greatly desired to hold as his slaves.
Too hard for God? Nay, it cannot so be,
There is nothing, hard, too hard, for Thee.
AN ILLUSTRATION
"Mother, you have forgotten my soul," said little Anna, three years old, as her mother was about to lay her in bed. She had just risen from repeating the Lord's Prayer. "But, mother, you have forgotten my soul!" "What do you mean, Anna?" "Why
'Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep;
And if I die before I wake,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.'
We have not said that" The child meant nothing more, yet her words were startling. How many mothers, busy hour after hour fashioning pretty garments and caring for the bodies of their little ones, forget their souls. Sunday at Home.