Three Women and a Baby

Living by faith looks as normal as going to work every day

Easter is coming early this year - March 31

Which means Ash Wednesday is coming up in just 10 days.

That’s kind of unbelievable.

We started doing an Ash Wednesday service a few years back.

Not to imitate our brothers and sisters at the Methodist church or any other group

But we started doing it to set the tone for Easter.

For the six weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter, we want to remember how the Lord has worked in our lives.

And this can be a bit of a problem for those of us who feel like we didn’t live up to our potential.

We used a liturgy once that was titled, “A liturgy for those who have not done great things for God.”

There is danger in thinking you have done great things for God - Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

But there is an equal a danger in thinking that your ordinary life just hasn’t made that much difference for God.

Everyone wants their viral 50 seconds of Tik-Tok fame

But most folks never make it.

As mediocre as the world will tell you that you are, through your faithful following of Jesus in your hum-drum little life

The Lord may be working a miracle that you will never see - but the world will never be the same because of your faithfulness.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 2.

Exodus is proving to me to be a treasure trove of undiscovered color.

I don’t know if this story that we are studying today is taught like it was when I was a kid, but this was one of the staples.

David and Goliath, Samson - and Moses being rescued from the bull rushes of the Nile.

Anyone ever remember seeing a picture similar to this one in Sunday School?

You probably remember the story:

Moses mom hid him in the bulrushes to save him from Pharoah.

Pharaoh's own daughter discovers Moses and falls immediately in love

Moses’ sister offers to help find a nurse for Moses and Pharaoh’s daughter say do it.

Moses’ mom shows up on the scene, she given the baby to nurse and now even gets paid for it.

End of story - everyone lives happily ever after.

This story is so much cooler than that - hang on.

Kids - this is a good story for you to really drill in to.

Listen closely to how God uses ordinary people to do things they had no clue they were doing for God.

Your three words are baby, Moses and Lord.

Try to remember to talk to your mom and dad about them on the way home.

Hear now the word of the Lord from Exodus 2:1-10

Exodus 2:1–10 ESV

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And 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. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

God is working His will even when we have no clue what His will is

Exodus 2:1 “Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.”

When you read that sentence, something kind of strikes you as odd.

Moses makes it a point that we know both his mother and his father were from the tribe of Levi.

Now - at this point in Israel’s history - what does this mean?

Absolutely nothing - it means nothing.

Other than maybe some family identity - like you are a Smith, you are a Jones, I am a Darnell

Nothing.

But later down the road when the Lord is divvying up job functions

The tribe of Levi will become the tribe who is specially called by God to be the spiritual leaders of Israel.

Levites will become the priests who will lead the people to the Lord.

They will offer the sacrifices and lead worship.

The Levites will become the judges in their every day courts who will settle disputes.

They will be the most loyal to Yahweh of any other tribe in Israel.

Moses wants us to know, that he was a Levite.

Special - chosen of God to lead His people

But now listen, even before anyone had a clue that being a Levite was a thing.

At this point in history, nobody cared except to know who to invite for a family reunion.

Here’s a little tidbit we need to take to heart:

God isn’t required to reveal His will to us before we follow Him.

When we follow Him, we may or may not see the final outcome of our obedience.

But the Lord knows and that’s what matters.

Exodus 2:2 “The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.”

The woman’s name is Jochebed.

Now the fact that Jochebed had a baby was both wonderful and tragic.

It was a cultural expectation that a woman would have a baby and make a home for the family.

For Jochebed to have a baby fulfilled her destiny - it’s what she wanted more than anything but,

Remember Exodus 1:22 “Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.””

Jochebed gave birth to a boy and according to royal decree, that boy should die.

Now, let’s zoom out a bit and think about how things work.

We know from the prior chapter that the midwives are out of the picture.

They defied the king and cannot be counted on to abort the boy babies.

So the king issues an edict that says every boy Hebrew baby born would be thrown in the Nile.

Now that is a terror beyond just the obvious.

The Nile is infested with crocodiles.

Not only does the baby drown, it becomes crocodile food.

So how did the babies get from the mamas to the Nile?

The text doesn’t say, but speculation is the king would have regular police sweeps of the Hebrew towns.

They’d hear a baby crying, see a mother nursing, see diapers hanging to dry

They’d rip the babies from their mother’s arms.

And in my imagination, I see mothers screaming after a band of soldiers until they were at the Nile

And then wail in pathetic grief as their babies were tossed into the water and the crocodiles started swimming towards them.

Jochebed laid eyes on her newborn son and she was passionately in love as are most mothers.

You can see it in people’s baby pictures.

I’m telling those of you who haven’t experienced it, seeing that baby for the first time evokes feelings that are beyond understanding.

Jochebed felt that.

She purposed in her heart she was going to protect this baby.

Now, with regular surprise inspections by roving police bands, how was she able to keep him hidden for three months?

I’m friends with Justin and Kayla Whitley on face book.

Sweet little Magnolia Sue is a month old and in every picture I’ve seen posted of her - her eyes are closed.

What do newborns do?

They sleep, cry, eat, poop and sleep.

For around 3 months - then they wake up and make more noises.

In Moses’ house, he had an older brother who we will meet.

His name was Aaron - yep, and he’s about 3 years old.

3 year old toddlers still cry a lot, right?

So he’s running interference for Moses.

“Did we hear a baby cry in your house?

“Heaven’s no - that Aaron crying again - he cries at everything.”

One other thing real quick - where is Moses’ dad Amran?

Didn’t he care?

Most assuredly he was a co-conspirator in this.

He would have been a slave and his job in this drama was to make life look as normal as ever to anyone outside looking in.

He would go to work every day and do exactly what was expected every day.

So he could keep attention away from his family.

Sometimes the best work you can do for Jesus is to live your life

Living an ordinary life is highly underrated.

Being a good father and a good husband is heroic.

We can have no idea about the results of following God’s plan for life is going to pan out.

Your hum-drum, repetitious, unexciting, work-a-day life may be yielding results that will change Gray or the world.

Because Jesus doesn’t tell us to be great or exciting, He tells us to follow.

Eventually Moses becomes too big and too awake to hide.

The papyrus baskets Jochebed used were a dime a dozen - nothing special.

She took one - she make sure it was good and waterproof.

And she went to one of the tributaries of the Nile where there were lots of bulrushes and no crocodiles.

And she put the basket - which Moses uses the word “Ark” for

The only other use of this word in the Old Testament is with Noah and the Ark

Yes, that was deliberate - it signifies a new day is coming - God is working.

Now, let’s think about the story.

Why the bulrushes?

They were thick in the water so they kept the ark from floating away.

His sister watched over him - we’ll find out later her name is Miriam.

Do you think she was just watching to see what was going to happen?

Do you think she and Jochebed would simply stand on the shore and watch the baby slowly starve to death?

How long was he there before he was found?

We don’t know, but we suspect, when Moses started putting up a fuss

And no one was around, Miriam retrieved Moses so Jochebed could feed him and change him.

It might be that they would get a heads up before the surprise police inspections so he could stay out a little longer.

But always, back to the bulrushes when trouble arrived.

And always Miriam watched.

We know the rest of the story.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe among the bulrushes where there were no crocodiles.

Probably while she was bathing, she heard the baby cry.

She had her servant girl retrieve him

Fast thinking Miriam - who is probably about 12 years old here - walks up and says, “Do you want me to get you some help?”

Pharaoh’s rebellious daughter - I mean think about it - she is doing just the opposite of what her daddy told everyone to do.

That’s pretty rebellious don’t you think?

And - and - because she disobey’s her father - this child she saves will become the man God uses to kill thousands of her people.

Doesn’t that blow your mind - one little tiny decision, and the world changes - and no one had a clue, did they?

Jochebed comes on the scene - she is told to take care of the child.

Which she gladly does

She gets paid now to take care of her own baby.

And she and Amran will get to raise him until he is probably 10 -11 years old.

Long enough to teach him who he is, who his people are, and who the God is who they follow.

He’s then taken into Pharaoh’s own house and adopted as a son.

He’s taught how to be nobility and how the Egyptian government works and how Pharaoh thinks - something that is going to come in very handy later.

Look at the Lord.

There are two things we need to take home from this story.

Number one

Ordinary might just end up being extraordinary

What happened in this story that ended up setting an entire nation free?

Three ordinary women did what they were good at doing.

That was God’s will for their lives.

One had a baby and wanted it to live.

One didn’t have a baby and wanted one.

And one was a big sister who wanted to protect her baby brother.

Not a single one of them set out to do anything great for God.

Not a single one of them felt compelled to change the world for the Lord.

What each one of them did feel compelled to do was to live their lives the best they knew how.

And that’s how the Lord made Himself known.

We have hyped up success in our culture until it’s almost seen as a disappointment if you don’t go to college and “make something extraordinary of yourself.”

We torment our children with so many things they have to do in order to get the right grades, right credentials so they can get in the right school.

So they can what?

Have ulcers and stress headaches like we do?

Isn’t that a special gift?

Here son, let me help you learn how to feel stressed right out of your gourd, just like your dear ole dad.

The Lord’s message here is pretty clear.

The Lord has an agenda.

He’s working that agenda.

He simply wants us to follow Him in every moment of our lives.

Jochebed, Miriam and Pharaoh’s daughter simply did what they did best.

And Moses ended up - good heavens - leading us to a new revelation of God.

And point number two:

Ordinary faith might just end up being extraordinary faith

One of the things I pity my prosperity gospel friends about is their stress on having enough faith.

You are poor - you don’t have enough faith.

You are sick - you don’t have enough faith.

You’re brother’s cancer killed him - you didn’t have enough faith.

Listen to me - Jesus healed a man who had no faith.

God’s actions don’t depend on my extraordinary faith to get them done.

God’s actions inspire me to have more faith so I can see Him more clearly.

This text NEVER mentions Jochebed’s great faith, not once.

It does show us a mother who so loved her son that she would do anything she could

Including risking her life to keep her child safe.

All I can see of Jochebed’s faith is that she believed if she did her part, maybe the Lord would do something.

No guarantee - but maybe, if I keep following the Lord, one day I’ll be able to see Him.

And she did.

Where did I get that?

Hebrews 11:23 ESV

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

I want to invite you to have an ordinary faith.

Some of us are so stressed we can hardly breathe.

We have headaches, backaches, migraines, digestive issues.

We take pills to calm us and drink Monsters to hype us up.

Is all of that necessary?

Are you running as hard as you can so that you won’t be ordinary?

Is the Lord really calling you to live like that?

Maybe while we sing, you think about that

And maybe the Lord begins to teach you how to repent from your relentless pursuit of the extraordinary.

Maybe the Lord wants us all to simply do our best at what He has gifted us with

And simply be a part of His body.

You remember the “come unto me., ye who are heavy laden” scripture, right?

And to our dear friends who have never followed Jesus

Do you hear the call of Jesus in your heart?

That you need someone to save you from yourself?

Jesus is that someone.

Jesus’ promise is that He will make all things new.

And you are an all thing.

Jesus might not make your ordinary life viral worthy.

But He will certainly make your life worth living.

I’m going to pray and we’re going to sing.

Please, take this moment to listen for the Spirit.

Let’s pray.