Sweet Baby Moses - Exodus 2:1-10

Your tragedy is training for your next ministry

God can turn tragedy for His triumph

Intro - A Little More to Sweet Baby Moses

Continuing our series we Exodus, today we pick up in chapter 2 with sweet little baby Moses. Now we may all be familiar with the story of sweet little baby Moses. Baby floating down the river in a cute little basket, overwhelms a princess with sheer cuteness, and everybody wins.

As I studied our passage this week, one exercise that I love when reading Scripture is placing myself inside the story from the perspective of the different characters.

"I am Moses. I am in a boat. There is a princess. Mommy." That's most of his story.

But there is much more happening around Moses than I first considered. I am not going to read much directly from the text, so I invite you to follow along from Exodus chapter 2. I will have the text up behind me here as much as possible.

The Story

Amram and Jochebed gave birth to a baby boy - a purebred Levi boy, by the way (that might be important later). This is within the first few years of Pharaoh's edict to kill all baby boys. Probably in cooperation with the midwives we talked about last week, deceiving Pharaoh and Pharaoh's men, the family manages to hide this baby boy for 3 months. They saw he was a "fine child," or this is a Hebrew euphemism for "they loved him." They loved their sweet little baby... that makes sense, that is what babies are for.

Why 3 months? The time could be approximate, but those of you who have dealt with a newborn, what do they spend most of their time doing? Sleeping. If you can get them settled quickly enough... and the baby doesn't cry just when Pharaoh's men searching, this is doable. Obviously.

But now the three months are up. Baby starts to sleep less... and cry more.

Amram and Jochebed have two other children. Aaron is 3 years old. Miriam is somewhere between 6 and 12 years old. This whole family is put at risk because of this illegal beautiful little baby.

Verse 3: "But when she could hide him no longer..."

Consider the agony of that moment. The tragedy. Sophie's choice.

She got a papyrus "basket" for him. Actually, that word obscures what is happening here. It is the same word as for Noah's ark, with all those connotations of last-chance, and hope and rescuing out of loss. She puts him in a little ark, waterproofs it as best she can, and then puts the baby in the Nile river.

Now, as far as I can tell, this is not an ancient form of adoption. Some want to say she knew the Princess was going to come and this was all a brilliant strategy... I don't see any hint of that.

Others want to say that she was hiding the baby there during the day from the soldier's searches and would retrieve him by night to care for him. Surely that would also be an act of tragic desperation... but also a terrible plan.

The Nile teems with wildlife: hippos and lions and the fearsome Nile Crocodile. Not a safe place to keep a baby. These are actual pictures of the Nile today... and as there were far less people back then, there would be substantially greater wildlife.

Here is what I see in the story. Pharaoh commanded that all newborn baby boys be thrown into the Nile. Jochebed did everything she could, delayed as long as she could, put herself, her husband and her other children at risk... but finally... "when she could hide him no longer."

She threw him in the river. She placed him in an ark in one last glimmer of hope... or a final resting place.

The Miracle

Then this miraculous turn around. Pharaoh's daughter, a princess, though Pharaoh probably had dozens of daughters, but she comes out to bathe. Now they had bathtubs... but the Nile was seen as sacred, bathing in the Nile was likely an act of worship. Even more the Nile was a symbol of Hapi, the God of fertility, perhaps this princess was seeking the blessing of fertility.

She sees the ark. She finds the baby. She notices right away that it is a Hebrew baby boy. This tells you that even after 400 years the Hebrews still maintained ethnic distinction from the North African Egyptians. It also tells you something about the lack of baby clothes.

She immediately notices: that baby isn't black... and hey, it's a boy!

But the miracle is this: "she felt sorry for him." She felt compassion for him. She felt compassion and, the little baby's older sister, thinking quick on her feet, before the woman has said anything at all about adopting or taking in the baby, "Do you want a babysitter for your new baby?"

Yes. And the mother who just made the hardest decision of her life is given back her baby boy... and gets paid for it too. The cost: she loses him again to another Mother. But as much as that hurt, I can only imagine the joy of her son coming back to her from the ark on the water.

Man of Two Worlds

But in this tragedy, Pharaoh's daughter calls him Moses. This is profound...

Moses is a common Egyptian name. It means "son." We find it in many Egyptian names, most famously the Pharaoh Rameses.... Ra-moses... Son of Ra.

But she names him Moses because she "drew him out of the water." The name Moses sounds like Moshah, which means "draw out" in Hebrew... or even "one who draws out" also translated "Deliverer."

This so captures Moses. His name is literally Egyptian but sounds like Hebrew. He is literally Hebrew but grows up dressing and sounding Egyptian. And his name foreshadows His role in God's plan.

As his name signifies, Moses, because of this insane origin story, stands with a foot in two worlds. He is Hebrew by birth, and he knows and is raised Hebrew in his earliest years. And he is Egyptian by adoption, trained and taught and prepared by the richest and most advanced nation in the world at that time.

Steven, an early disciple of Jesus millennia later, inspired by God, said this:

Acts 7:20-22

20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

All the wisdom of the Egyptians... and it made him powerful in speech and action. It prepared him in a unique and necessary way. To steal a phrase: "Thus the wisdom of Egypt was employed by the wisdom of God for the establishment of the kingdom of God."

Moses (spoiler alert) is going to go on to be an intercessor. He is going to go stand in the court of pharaoh, speaking the word of God. He won't be intimidated by the palace... he grew up there. He speaks the language, he knows the people, he is related, by adoption, to the Pharaoh!

But he speaks on behalf of his own people. He is a man in both worlds...

The Preparation of Persecution

But he was prepared for that moment in the persecution of the Pharaoh against little newborn baby boys. He was prepared for that ministry by the tragedy of a mother giving her child to the river, in a little ark "when she could hide him no longer."

Sweet little baby Moses. Born under persecution. Abandoned in tragedy, rescued only by luck. No, we call that a miracle.

In Moses' life, as often in ours, God transformed persecution into preparation for His plan.

God transformed persecution into preparation for His plan.

Application

We are dealing with stressful situations. Maybe tragic situations. We have all made choices that felt like no one could possibly win. Do I protect my family or give up my youngest child, possibly to death?

In this life you will face troubles, but I have overcome the world...

We ask "why is this happening to me?"

Well, maybe, God will transform persecution into preparation for His plan.

That is something that He does. We can't see His plan from here, but we know:

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We can't see His plan from here... but we know it is good.

Be Careful -

That does not make the tragedy good. "God works all things for..." not pretend everything that happened to you was good. In my imagination, poor Jochebed had to live with that decision for the rest of her life. I would wake up in nightmares, imaging that day on the Nile going a slightly different way. One crocodile, one Pharaoh's daughter who decided to use the bathtub, one slightly less brilliant Miriam... and her boy was gone. Pharaoh's persecution was evil and their family experience was tragic and terrible.

Consider Moses neighbor. Born at the same time, perhaps. Caught by Pharaoh's men and cast into the Nile. Moses was hidden, he had to be hidden from searching people, and we have to think they caught some. Go to that heartbroken woman and say "It's okay, this is all happening so that Moses can be raised as an Egyptian."

Sin, disease, loss, tragedy... it is a broken world.

So this is not something you take to someone in the midst of their tragedy and say "cheer up, friend... God is just teaching you or training you for something through this!" Unless you are speaking out of an incredible gift of wisdom and discernment, unless God has given you the prophetic word in that moment, I am going to say "shut your mouth." Weep with those who weep, don't try to guess at God's plan in that moment. We can't see His plan from here.

Somebody posted something like that on Facebook to a friend who was in the middle of a challenge, as if they stood on a mountain-top and thought my friend's fears were silly. I am sure they had the best intentions, and tone doesn't come across on the Internets... but it kind of boiled my blood.

But as we put the pieces back together. As we weep with those who weep and we begin to look back on our experiences.

As I look back on tragedies in my life... and I marvel. And I am amazed. Where God transformed my trial, my persecution, into training, into preparation for His plan. It doesn't mean those things weren't hard. Loss and sorrow and pain. Worry and stress and fear. Arguments and anger. Those things weren't good.

But wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, sweet baby Moses, didn't God bring beauty out of those ashes?

Maybe those are words you can't say to someone not ready to hear them. But as we know and see God again and again transforming our tragedy... doesn't that give us hope for today and tomorrow? That strengthens our faith, our resolve, and our trust.

Worship team

Moses was uniquely prepared for God's plan by being a man of two worlds: Hebrew by birth, Egyptian by adoption and training... and it was made possible by that first persecution in his life.

In Moses' life, as often in ours, God transformed persecution into preparation for His plan. May He continue His miraculous plan in our lives, whatever may come.

We hold the challenges of our lives up before you. Rescue, redeem and transform them. Change the ashes into beauty.