The Bible is full of real people who chose to live by faith, often through incredible circumstances. We get to learn from their experiences as we live our own lives by faith. For the next couple of weeks, we are going to study the life of Moses. What can we learn about his personality? What motivated him? How did he come to know God?
By studying Moses, I hope you’ll find encouragement as you seek to walk with God.
Moses is born during a period of extreme turmoil. His people, the Israelites, were enslaved by the Egyptians and were forced into harsh labor, building the cities of Pithom and Rameses. To make matters worse, Pharaoh became concerned about an uprising. He came up with a law that said all newborn males of the Israelites must be killed.
Can you imagine the fear Moses’ mother must have felt being pregnant in such a time?
How much stress and anxiety she must have endured each day of her pregnancy?
She gave birth to Moses and proceeded to hide him for three months. This was no easy feat! Newborns are loud and like to cry— a lot! When she could hide him no longer, she found a place in the Nile river where Pharaoh’s daughter was known to bathe. She placed Moses in a basket and sheltered him in the reeds, waiting for Moses to be discovered.
To understand Moses, we must first understand the courage of his mother.
What an incredible example of ingenuity, trust, and grit!
Moses’ mother must have hoped beyond hope that Pharaoh’s daughter would take pity on this innocent child. She must have believed that God would soften her heart upon finding Moses.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Pharaoh’s daughter feels sorry for Moses and chooses to adopt him, even though this went against her father’s law!
In a wonderful twist, Pharaoh’s daughter asks one of the Hebrew women to care for the child within the palace, and she chooses Moses’ mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
-Exodus 2:9-10
The beginnings of Moses story make me wonder how we can live with the same amount of faith and determination as his mother.
She trusted God with the life of her very precious child, but also acted with resolve and courage. Moses’ mother must’ve had an impact on Moses, judging from the way God ended up using his life. As the story progresses, we’ll see that Moses also will need a fair amount of faith and courage to accomplish God’s purposes.
How are faith and courage realities in your life?
In what ways might God be using these attributes in you?
This Sunday is the third Sunday in the season of Lent. We’ll continue our 40 Days Of Discipleship series.
See you on Sunday!
-Pastor David
