Trust God
- for yourself -
- with your family -
- has a plan -
Read Exodus 2:1-10
- Trust God for yourself.
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
- (Exodus 6:20 and Numbers 26:59) Both Moses father (Amran) and mother (Jochebed) trusted God more than anything else, even more than their own lives.
- What we know is that the King of Egypt (Pharaoh) has ordered all the midwives to kill any Jewish boys born but let the girls live.
- This was out of fear that the Israelites were growing in numbers too fast and would one day overpower the Egyptians.
- The midwives Shiphrah and Puah feared God more than their king.
- The order was for all midwives to kill the boys and let the girls live.
- Exodus 1:20 we see that God dealt well with these two midwives.
- Even still Pharaoh then ordered that all his people (any Egyptians) were to throw any Hebrew boy into the Nile.
2. Trust God with your family.
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.
- v.2b Moses was only 3 months old.
- Most people think Jochebed put Moses in a basket and then pushed him out on the river to float aimlessly until he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter.
- Read it again…“She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.”
- Pharaoh’s daughters servants found Moses in a basket among the reeds.
- Moses didn’t float down the river.
- But that doesn’t negate the dangers Jochebed placed Moses in when she had to leave him there.
- This isn’t the same as dropping off your child at an orphanage, church, fire station…
- There was wildlife in that river that would have loved to eat a small child.
- Nile Crocodiles
- Hippos
- Pythons
- Piranha type fish
- Nile Monitor Lizards
- And more…
- Jochedbed just left Moses on his own…or did she?
- Jochebed trusted that God would take care of Moses.
- She trusted that he would be found and cared for.
- She knew in her heart that Moses was a fine child (as all mother’s do) and she was willing to give everything to ensure he had a fighting chance at life.
- Leaving Moses in a basket on the Nile River was better than throwing him in the river and seeing what would happen.
- You can imagine the sleepless nights that led up to the day she would place him in that river.
- You can imagine the pain in her heart to leave him there.
- You can imagine the prayers before, during, and after putting him in that basket in the river.
- Jocebed 100% trusted God with her child. That’s the only answer.
3. Trust God has a plan.
4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 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. 6 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.” 7 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?” 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. 9 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. 10 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.”
- Jochebed didn’t just leave Moses in a basket just anywhere on the river.
- She placed Moses where she knew he would be noticed.
- Moses’ sister Miriam stayed close by to see what would become of her baby brother.
- What should have happened is Moses being thrown into the Nile as Pharaoh ordered.
- But even his own daughter defied his order…the servant women defied his order.
- Twist of fate…Miriam, Moses’ sister approaches Pharaoh’s daughter and says “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
- This is a God thing for sure.
- Moses sister gets to take Moses back to their mother so that she can nurse Moses until he is weaned from her milk.
- And she gets paid to do it!
- Moses had many watching over him:
- His mother
- His father
- His sister
- Midwives
- Pharaoh’s daughter
- Pharaoh’s daughter’s servants
- God’s plan was in motion:
- Jochedbed got to spend the most nurturing years with her son.
- She likely poured into Moses all about God and their history/ancestry.
- She likely impressed upon him stories of the Lord, quoted God’s word and instilled it in his little heart.
- She got to do this during crucial years until he was at least 2-5 years old which is the time back then mother’s breastfed their children.
- We believe it was between 2-5 years old because mother’s didn’t ween their children until they were 2-3 years old and Pharaoh’s daughter would have wanted Moses passed the terrible 2’s stage.
- This gave Jochebed a lot of time to pour into Moses about their culture and faith in God.
- Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
- It worked…
- Moses returned to his people
- through the Lord led his people out of bondage
- Led his people to the Lord
Mother’s…take courage from Jochebed and from other mother’s in the Bible that when things were hard they trusted in the Lord.
- Do not wait for someone else to raise up or train your children.
- Do not wait for someone else to teach your children about the Lord.
- Do not adhere to the old adage of doing what your husband wants to do.
- It’s actually his job to raise the children in the Lord.
- But if he doesn’t do it, then it’s your job!
- Get your kids and take them to church…
- Every week (not just Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day)
- Hebrews 10:25 “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some”.
- The unbelievers and lukewarm christians go to church sometimes.
- The world is full of them, our country is full of them and you see how well that’s going.
- Take your kids to church! It’s biblical!
Kids…you’re not off the hook.
- Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
- Proverbs 29:15 “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.”
- Proverbs 30:17 “The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.”
- Exodus 21:15 ““Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.”
- Exodus 21:17 “Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.”
- Leviticus 19:3 “Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.”
- Matthew 19:19 “Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Colossians 3:20 “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”
Mother’s…Are you going to trust your children to the world? Or God?
Teach your children to:
- Trust God for themselves
- Trust God with their family
- Trust God has a plan
