Moral Courage - God's Plan

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus. We're at Exodus chapter two, verses one through 10. This is the story of Moses is being saved. Let's go ahead and have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word. Let's pray.
God, we thank you so much for this day. You are an amazing God. Full of grace and truth. We pray now that you would give us your truth. We pray that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts where you have graciously given us your word and you have given us the story of redemption. We pray, Lord, now that you would help us to understand it in Jesus's name. Amen. Okay. So we are at Exodus chapter two, the first 10 verses. It's not too much for us this morning. Let's go ahead and jump into the word.
And a man of the house of Levi went and took a wife, a daughter of Levi, we'll find her name later. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an arc of bulrushes for him, daubed, dabbed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it and laid it in the reeds by the riverbank. And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river and her maidens walked along the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to go get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the baby wept.
So she had compassion on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you? Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. So the maiden went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him, and the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses saying, because I drew him out of the water.
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So what is this about? Well. The Lord has now allowed his people to go into slavery. It's been four centuries of oppression. Pharaoh no longer remembers Joseph and has just ordered infanticide. Kill all the male infants of the Hebrews.
But. This daughter of or the son of Levi. Finds a wife and they do a husband and wife do and they have a baby. And she sees that this child is good. The New King James here says he's beautiful, but it's just Dove. He's good. She can't bring it. She can't bring herself to do it. And this is her heart. I can't I can't obey the king's decree. And so she. She hides him for three months. Now, I have four children. And I've heard their cries at night. I've heard them. Scream when they're in pain or they don't. Something's going on with their belly. Either they need their diaper change or they're they're hungry. For three months, she defies the order of the king.
Hiding this child. some maternal love that is for her boy. And then she realizes this can't go on forever. So I wonder what was going through her mind as she took their reeds and she was weaving them together, making a little arc and making a little boat, covering it with pitch and tar on the inside to make sure that it was water sealed. And she placed that basket, that little boat in the water and put Moses in. I wonder if she said a prayer. She entrusted this child into God's hands.
And the baby floats. Miriam, his older sister, goes along the way. She wants to check on this little baby. And as it goes, it just happens. It just happens. It's so lucky, isn't it? That Farrah's daughter is there. And the princess herself is the one who defies. the king's command. She sees this baby. She sends one of her ladies over to go check what that is. She goes, it's a baby. This is one of the Hebrew babies. She realizes this is a beautiful child. This is life. And all of a sudden Miriam shows up out of the reeds. She says, do you want me to go get a Hebrew woman?
This is pretty normal at this time when there would be adoptions that would happen, but normally because of high infant mortality rates, it'd be two, maybe three years old before a baby was adopted. And so it's pretty normal that you would pay for a wet nurse to take care of the child for three years. I'm not sure the Pharaoh's daughter actually knows that this is the little boy's Sister and that she's going to call his mother. There's there would be plenty of childless women of Israel. But had their children murdered.
And so she says, yeah, go get her. She brings her. She says, I'm going to give you your wages. God preserves Moses's life in this way. And then. In verse 10. And as the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, because I drew him out of the water. And the boy is weaned when he's old enough. Jochebed, Moses's mother, she takes Moses to Pharaoh's daughter, to the princess and she hands him over to be a child of the court. And it's Pharaoh's daughter, who names him Moses, where I drew him up out of the water.
People argue about how this name could possibly be Egyptian. And they're struggling, right? It doesn't have Mayim in it, which would be water, in the Hebrew. in Egyptian from what I read is the consonants M and S so Min and Shin and so those but that would be just Sun it wouldn't be drawing him up out of the water so people still try to figure it out maybe we just don't know enough ancient Egyptian I know I certainly don't but the point is what's all what's all this getting it God has a plan for this boy God is providentially preserving this child.
Now he does it in an amazing way through the courageous action of his mother. But The Lord has a sense of irony to many stories. People try to oppress and stop the promises of God. And what does God do? He subverts the problem. He subverts their efforts. Pharaoh is super worried about, you know, there's a huge army. They don't have a commander. They don't have an organized force.
And then God puts somebody in his own household to be trained from the Hebrews. What's this about? This is God still remembering this. And even in their affliction, God's still having a plan for it. These aren't random events. They're not just lucky, right? But God is watching out over this.
What's the best verse to summarize all this? Well, I have a few things underlined here. I have, she hid him for three months, underlined. I also had in verse six, the second half. So she had compassion on him. And then I have verse 10 underline that she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she called his name Moses.
So I think that those three things kind of get at the heart of the story, but you let me know down in the comments, go ahead and write out and let me know. Last see calling, what are we called to do? I think one of them is to see that there ought to be a natural affection that mothers have for their children. This is just low-hanging fruit, right?
We see Moses's mother in Jochebed. She cares for her son so much so that she would be willing to hide him for three months, defying the king's orders. We ought to love our children. But even beyond that, we see this beautiful picture of Pharaoh's daughter, loving and crying child.
Jesus himself brings a child into the midst of the disciples when they're arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. He says such. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as one of these, this little child. We ought to value the life and well-being of children.
The entire story has a gray shadow, a black shadow cast all over it of this order of genocidal infanticide. Wipe out all the Hebrew boys, right? Let's get rid of their whole, let's get rid of their population. Let's limit their numbers. Let's kill the children.
This is why the story of Jesus is so dark. The Herod has that same heart of murder wanting to hold on to power that he would kill all the children two years and under in the little village of Bethlehem. Isn't it interesting that the stories are parallel? One would come up to be the Redeemer of God's people out of Egypt, and one would be the Redeemer of God's people in the most true sense. A better prophet than Moses, a better Redeemer than Moses.
What else are we called to here? Well, this is where I'm going to get you and push you to the theological point. Trusting God's promises. Often in our lives, it's going to take moral courage for us to do the things that we need to do, even as this world might press in on us and it might be difficult for us. Do not give up on trusting in God. Cling to his promises. Remember his goodness. Know that he hears you, know that he loves you.
There might be difficult things going on. But this is the model that we find time and time and time again in the scriptures is that there might be suffering for God's people. And that's real. But he has a redemptive purpose at the end of it. So we don't just say, oh, you know, God, bring on the suffering. No, it's not that we want the suffering. But we know that God has a purpose to it. There's an architect of the story, even though people are evil. And so we can trust in him and rest in him.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. For the hope that you have given us. In who you are, what you have promised. And showing us the ways in which you work in history. Father, we pray. That you would please help us to walk in your ways. Please Lord, help us to trust in your promises. Father, we pray that we would love you, that we would truly know that all your plans for us are for our good, not to harm us, but to prosper us. Lord, thank you. Thank you for your care for us. Help us, Lord, in the dark hours of our lives. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.