Exodus 2:1-15 - A man and a woman from the tribe of Levi got married. She became pregnant and had a son by her husband. She saw that her baby was a fine child. And she hid him for three months. After that, she couldn’t hide him any longer. So she got a basket made out of the stems of tall grass. She coated the basket with tar. She placed the child in the basket. Then she put it in the tall grass that grew along the bank of the Nile River. The child’s sister wasn’t very far away. She wanted to see what would happen to him. Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile River to take a bath. Her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket in the tall grass. So she sent her female slave to get it. When she opened it, Pharaoh’s daughter saw the baby. He was crying. She felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. Then his sister spoke to Pharaoh’s daughter. She asked, “Do you want me to go and get one of the Hebrew women? She could breast-feed the baby for you.” “Yes. Go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and feed him for me. I’ll pay you.” So the woman took the baby and fed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter. And he became her son. She named him Moses. She said, “I pulled him out of the water.” Moses grew up. One day, he went out to where his own people were. He watched them while they were hard at work. He saw an Egyptian hitting a Hebrew man. The man was one of Moses’ own people. Moses looked around and didn’t see anyone. So he killed the Egyptian. Then he hid his body in the sand. The next day Moses went out again. He saw two Hebrew men fighting. He asked the one who had started the fight a question. He said, “Why are you hitting another Hebrew man?” The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking about killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid. He thought, “People must have heard about what I did.” When Pharaoh heard about what had happened, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses escaped from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian. (NIrV)
Devotional Series: Moses - The Friend of God!
One of the challenges with reading the Bible so long after it was actually lived is that we lose the nuances of the human experiences of the characters we read about. Let's imagine for a minute if we had heard the story of a Moses character in our local communities. Here is a man whose mother saved him from infanticide. Not only was he saved from death but he was rescued by the King’s daughter! Today we might think of a child whose mother saved him from a life of famine or human trafficking. Instead of the child ending up in child slavery, as a drugs mule or dead, he is adopted by an extremely wealthy family and is treated as one of their own children. He attends the best schools, has access to the finest food and travels the world but is aware that he is an adopted child. One day he sees someone mistreating someone from the area he was saved from, gets into a fight and kills the person. He then goes on the run to avoid capture and prison.
Now if we heard this story, we might have some sympathy for our modern-day, Moses. But our strongest feelings would be regret and waste. Our conclusion would be he has thrown his life away. He was so fortunate. He had the best life he could have had. Why would he make such a life-altering mistake? Why hasn’t he taken responsibility? He shouldn’t have to run away. Some of us may even think, why was he even saved? It was a wasted opportunity someone else should have been found in his place.
Why is this important for us today? If we are able to see and understand how far Moses had fallen when God met him at the burning bush, it might give us hope that our current situation is not as bad as we think it is. If God can restore and turn around the life of a murderer, then whatever we are believing him for is completely and utterly doable! We may be down but we are not out!
Because…
Matthew 19:26 - …. “With people, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.” (NIrV)