ON EAGLES’ WINGS
II. “Moses: Unlikely Deliverer”
9-18-05
Ken Peterson
Exodus 2
INTRODUCTION
The appeal of our story this morning of the baby Moses in his little papyrus boat being rescued from the Nile river by Pharaoh’s daughter to children is obvious. It has the sub-theme of an obedient older sister caring for her little brother. And, our Sunday School curriculums cover it often. Yet while the basic facts are familiar to all who grew up in Sunday School, it is a story that has dimensions of meaning we can only begin to understand as we experience some of the major losses in life, those times we have to let go of that which is most precious to us. It is a story of beautiful faith, resourcefulness, courage and pain.
Before we begin this morning’s story, we need to put ourselves into the context of last Sunday’s sermon. Genesis ends with the ancestors of the nation of Israel all coming to Egypt as part of God’s sovereign provision for them in a time of famine. But now, almost 400 years later, the circumstances are desperate. A cruel Pharaoh has taken away their freedom, forcing them into cruel slave labor. Fearing their numbers, he has demanded the two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill every male child born as it emerges from the womb. But, because Shiphrah and Puah fear God, they courageously refuse to carry out this infanticide. When Pharaoh demands an explanation for their defiance, they offer the excuse that they often don’t make it in time for the births. Apparently Pharaoh believes them, so instead of using the midwives, he now makes a general proclamation to all the Hebrews, with which chapter one ends,
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live." (Ex 1:22)
Last week, we considered how God chose two lowly midwives to begin the great story of God’s salvation of His people– delivering them from impossible bondage and bringing them into their own promised land. Shiphrah’s and Puah’s courage and obedience to God formed the necessary beginning of this great story of redemption. Without them, there wouldn’t be a Moses.
This morning, we have another courageous woman, against impossible odds, defying Pharaoh. Remember, this is a highly patriarchal society– and it’s all women in the beginning of Exodus who thwart the plans of Pharaoh to suppress Israel. In that day, women had little importance or value except in bearing children. But here we see what God thinks of all that. This is an incredible elevation of the importance of women. And it is also a witness to the inspiration of Scripture, for no one in that day would write an account like this, giving women such crucial roles.
Exodus 2:1-10
MOSES’ MOTHER
Our text begins with the ordinariness of life, Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son (1-2). A marriage and a birth to two people of no particular importance. They are not even named. It is only later, in Moses’ genealogy in chapter 6, that we learn the names of Moses’ parents, Amram and Jochebed. Here the emphasis is clearly on God taking an everyday happening and through the courage and resourcefulness of an unnamed woman bringing into the world the child whom God would anoint and empower to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt. Can’t you feel the weakness, the vulnerability of this slave woman with no rights and no power?
Can you imagine taking a newborn child to the edge of the Nile and throwing it in to drown and be devoured by crocodiles? Mothers and fathers, think of that moment when you first held your newborn baby. Then think of taking him to the edge of the Nile and throwing him in. Well, Jochebed simply could not do that. No matter what the king ordered, she feared God more than the king. She hid the child as long as she could, for three months. During this time, she came up with a carefully crafted plot– one that had to be born out of a lot of serious prayer.
I’m assuming Jochebed did some careful research and found out the time and place where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed in the Nile. She carefully constructed a papyrus basket, coating the outside with tar and pitch to make it waterproof. Then tearfully, she and her daughter Miriam journey to just the right place at the edge of the Nile. We aren’t told how old Miriam is, but I picture her at five or six– and in my mind’s eye (I hope you understand) a lot like my granddaughter Hannah with her engaging eyes, sincere face, and (in Hannah’s own words) “the gift of talking a lot.” Imagine the heartbreak as Jochebed nestles little Moses in his tiny boat, snuggled in with his favorite blanket and launches the boat out into the reeds where it will be stuck and hopefully seen by Pharaoh’s daughter. Then she carefully repeats the hoped-for scenario to Miriam, with her instructions. Then Miriam is left with this awesome responsibility to act like she is an innocent child who “just happens” to be playing along the edge of the Nile. Jochebed knows this could result in Miriam having to witness the drowning of her baby brother at the hand of Pharaoh’s people. Now, she has to walk away, releasing that which is most precious to any mother, knowing the outcome is wholly within God’s hands.
Not only is this a bold plot of faith, hoping for God to intervene, it is also very clever, for she is following the letter of the law– throwing her son into the Nile. When Pharaoh’s daughter arrives with her attendants, the prayed-for scenario happens. When Pharaoh’s daughter opens the basket, the baby is crying and “she felt sorry for him.” Yes, the crying of a baby can be a God-ordained event! Miriam reads the expression of sympathy on Pharaoh’s daughter’s face and courageously approaches, offering to find a nurse. So Miriam joyfully runs and brings Jochebed to Pharaoh’s daughter and she even gets a salary for nursing her own child. Yet, it is only a short reprieve. Again in verse 10 we get that pain of relinquishment, When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. Here is another sorrowful leaving that day as Jochebed journeys to Pharaoh’s palace to leave her son. We’re not told how old he is, but children in that day were nursed a lot longer than now. Even so, it seems unlikely he’d be more than four-years-old, perhaps only two or three.
Jochebed is a powerful model of the spiritual principle of relinquishment. When we are willing to let go of that which is most precious to us, surrendering it in faith to the Lord, He is able to take that offering and use it in His redemptive purposes. In fact, our whole life in Christ is based upon this letting go. Jesus’ most often repeated teaching is summarized in John 12:24-25:
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
It is only in relinquishing our lives to Jesus that we become Christians. We can be sure that, to Jochebed, the letting go of Moses felt like death. But God took that and out of it brought incredibly fruitful life as Moses led his people to the promised land.
The one sentence instruction from Pharaoh’s daughter to Jochebed, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages (Ex 2:9, KJV), has special meaning for our family. My mother had Alzheimer’s disease. After my father’s death, my sister Karen became the primary care giver for her, with Polly and I providing regular relief. Karen willingly took on this role, but a few weeks into it was feeling pretty overwhelmed. The constancy of the care, the nonstop activity had Karen crying out to the Lord, “Lord, I want to do this, but I’m not sure I can. It is like caring for a two-year-old.” She didn’t really even have time for devotions. But, in one of her hurried devotional time, the Lord made these words alive in her heart as a direct message from Him for her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. Now Karen felt she was commissioned by God and knew she would be able to do this.
Of course Karen wasn’t looking for wages, and that part of the verse didn’t seem significant. But, after mother’s death, she noticed a wonderful change in her teenage daughter, Kimberly. Her heart was different, soft, open to the things of God. Karen told her one day that she noticed such a transformation in her and was wondering what happened. Kimberly said it happened through grandmother. When she learned her grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease, she said she was so angry and bitter toward God she wanted nothing to do with Him. But, over the year of caring for her, as she saw her grandmother’s mind becoming more and more vague, Kimberly also observed that the spirit was very much alive. When they joined hands in prayer, mother’s face became radiant with the Spirit. Long after she could no longer put together even two or three words into a sentence in conversation, she could still pray in good sentences. As Kimberly saw that, she concluded that nothing mattered as much as our spirits and their relationship with God. Our minds could be gone, but that still remained. When Karen heard that story of the journey of her daughter from anger and rebellious bitterness toward God to having a heart after God, she thought of that word from the Lord given at the beginning, and I will give thee thy wages. Could there be better wages for any parent? Today, Kimberly is an ordained minister.
God works in amazing ways– ways we could never guess. But He needs our trust, our willingness to let go of our agendas and our ways. Is there something in your life you know you need to release to the Lord this morning? Don’t be afraid to do that. Jesus promises,
Give and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be poured back into your lap. (Lk. 6:38)
While Jochebed is an inspiring illustration of faithfulness and trusting God in horrendously difficult circumstances, Moses’ early debacle is an illustration of the opposite path– the futility of self-reliance. Let’s see how the story continues.
MOSES (Ex. 2:11-22)
Growing up in Pharaoh’s palace, Moses had access to the very best Egypt offered. Egypt was the apex of power and culture in that day. He was educated in art, music, law, geometry, math, medicine, and military training. Josephus, though not always the most reliable historian, says that Moses commanded an army that put to route an invasion of the Ethiopians. As the grandson of Pharaoh, he would have driven the royal chariots and floated the Nile in Pharaoh’s golden barge.
Stephen in the book of Acts, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in his speech before he is martyred, supplies some additional details regarding this period in Moses’ life.
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
"But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. (Acts 7:22-29)
Here we get the motive for Moses’ action in killing the Egyptian. He saw himself as a liberator, leading an uprising among the Israelites to throw off the yoke of bondage the Egyptians had placed upon them. Moses had the training and credentials to be a dynamic leader. But he was not appreciated or accepted by the Israelites. You detect the resentment in the Israelite man’s words,
"Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Ex 2:14). What Moses did was not God’s way, nor in God’s time. It was Moses’ idea. And, as a result it backfired. Moses ended up fleeing for his life, spending the next 40 years in the wilderness of Midian. As we’ll see next week, it was there he was purged of all his self-confidence in what he could do. Failure and exile in the wilderness humbles us doesn’t it? But God cannot use us when we’re full of ourselves. In failure, when things blow-up in our face, we become teachable.
It is foundational for us to realize we do not do God’s work by our human strength. The other day, a pastor I know well was sharing about the beginning of his ministry. He’d graduated from one of the finest seminaries and had great natural gifts for ministry. He met people easily, relating well to people in the community outside the church. He was gifted with a terrific singing voice. His first church had 26 members when he started. But, that was no problem to him because he knew that would soon change with his gifts and training. Three years later, it was down to 13 members. He’d lost half of the members in three years! That’s when he finally realized he’d been trying to do it largely in his strength and abilities. Then he began to really seek God with his whole heart and in the power of the Holy Spirit things began to finally turn around. He continued at that church for 37 years as it grew into a vital, alive community of faith.
We live in a world where self-reliance is stressed. Certainly in some areas of our lives self-reliance is very important. But, in the spiritual life things turn topsy-turvy. The key to everything with God is trust, letting go of our ways, and depending upon Him. We cannot be saved in trusting in ourselves. And we cannot effectively do the work of God in our strength and our way. It all has to be God. As we let go and put our faith in Him, through His Holy Spirit, He enters our lives and empowers us to do His will. And, because God is all-knowing and perfect love, that is always the best that could possibly be.
Even after becoming a Christian, we continue to struggle with self-reliance. When things fall apart or when we have a crisis, then we suddenly turn to Him to rescue us. Those are the times when we realize our ways aren’t the best. While He graciously comes to us when we need bailing out, how much better it is if we learn to trust Him in our daily affairs. This means depending upon Him for what we need each day in our relationships– the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, and the gentleness. It means seeking His guidance in our decisions. It means a continuous willingness to surrender our wills when they are not in accord with His will. But none of this is burdensome, for that is the way we are created. Living like this is in harmony with the deepest parts of our beings. And we know the thrill of partnering with Jesus in bringing forth the kingdom of God wherever we are.
CONCLUSION
This morning we’ve looked at two profiles: one of inspiring faith and courage in Jochebed; the other a warning of the futility of trying to do God’s work in our strength in Moses. Most of us can identify with where Moses is in this Scripture, confused, struggling with self-reliance and failure. But, we can also marvel at the beauty of Jochebed’s trusting surrender to the Lord of that which is most precious to her. It leaves little doubt in my mind of where I want to be.
If you’ve been following the Lord very long, you understand the rightness of Jochebed’s way, and have known that wonderful peace in surrendering your all to His all. But it is an ongoing process. There is always more to relinquish, something else we’ve begun clinging to. Perhaps the Holy Spirit has brought some areas to mind this morning. Let’s offer them to Him now in a prayer of surrender.