Good morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends as we begin another new week together,
Millions of people around the world have been raised as ADOPTED children, perhaps you know some or maybe… YOU are a person who was adopted! It’s a wonderful act of love isn’t it my friends? Millions of other children are raised in ‘FOSTER’ homes. This too is a remarkable act of love. The reasons ‘fostering’ and ‘adoption’ are so desperately needed in our world, to keep abandoned children from surviving ‘on the street’, is because so many babies are born into incredibly desperate family situations. Yesterday we began following the life story of one such little boy, born about 1525bc in Egypt. Come my friends, let’s join the story in Exodus 2 in the Bible.
Yesterday I left us watching in amazement as God had worked an incredible miracle so this little boy, who should have been killed at birth, was fetched up out of the Nile river by the Pharaoh’s daughter, and then given back to his mother to nurse and care for him until he would be old enough to be adopted and raised in the palace of Egypt! Mothers have a special instinct to know when the weaning process is nearly complete. How long this wonderful nursing time lasted we don’t know. One year, two years, three years or maybe only a few months? But finally the day came, and once again, with tears flowing down their faces, the little boy’s parents said goodbye only this time they did not float him down the river in a basket. This time his mother and probably young Miriam took the little boy to the Egyptian palace where Pharaoh’s daughter lived. Can you imagine my friends?? Let’s go with them…
Look around at the opulence, the grandeur, the beauty! The guards likely stopped this slave mother, but then when Pharaoh’s daughter came to the door, oh my the joy on her face! The little boy was old enough to leave his birth home now and be adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. Imagine the emotions in that moment… from Hebrew slave boy to Egyptian royalty! The record says: “When the child grew older, his mother took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. Pharaoh’s daughter named the boy Moses saying, ‘I drew him up out of the water.” (Ex. 2:10) I would imagine the little boys’ mother and father had given him a Hebrew name as all Hebrew families do on the 8th day when they circumcised him, but we have no record of that. History knows this man by the name Moses, the name given him by Pharaoh’s daughter. As difficult as it was for Moses’ mother and sister to leave him there at the palace, I’m sure they were deeply grateful to God that he would have a life dramatically different from his older brother Aaron who was a slave boy with nothing but slavery in his future. For Moses, his future potential was unlimited.
History is being made my friends, right in front of our eyes. So let’s freeze this moment and just stand in awe. Do you recognize it is a spiritual picture of what is offered to you and me and any person in the world? Just like this little boy, you and I and every person in the world is born into slavery, no matter what our ethnicity or our nationality. Our slavery is to the evil that permeates our world and even what the Bible calls our ‘sin nature’. Just as Moses inherited slavery from his birth parents, so we inherit sin slavery from our parents! Just as the slavery which held the Hebrew slaves captive in Pharaoh’s Egypt was inescapable, so is our sin slavery. The Bible says it like this: “There is no one righteous… the whole world will be held accountable to God. No one will be declared righteous in His sight…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…and the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 3:10,19,20,23; 6:23) That’s very clear isn’t it? Our sin slavery is inescapable. Our sin condemnation to death is final. No person can do anything to escape our death penalty which we deserve because of our evil lives.
The ONLY way Moses was rescued out of a lifetime in slavery was because the greatest power on earth at that time, the Pharaoh’s power, was used when Pharaoh’s daughter drew little baby Moses out of the water and made the decision NOT to kill him, but to adopt him as her own son!! Her action of rescue saved him from certain death! But her action also gave him a life far, far beyond anything Moses would have ever known in slavery!
Do you see this as a remarkable picture of how you and I can be saved from our sin slavery, and sin condemnation, by the greatest power of all time, the power of Jesus Christ, who rescues us from our sin bondage through the power of His atonement death and resurrection? God the Father accepts the full sin debt payment of Jesus’ death on the cross as payment sufficient so that God can declare us FORGIVEN of our sin and SET FREE from our sin condemnation. (Ephesians 1:7) That’s the truth of Romans 8:1,2 “Therefore there is now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” As we trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for salvation from our sin bondage, God Almighty breaks the strong shackles of our sin bondage and forgives our sin condemnation. But there’s more, much more!
The Pharaoh’s daughter then ADOPTED the little boy as her own, and thus little Moses went from being a slave boy to being ROYALTY! Now watch that. It would have been wonderful enough if the Pharaoh’s daughter had simply declared him no longer a slave and let him live a normal, free Egyptian life. But she did more… she actually ADOPTED Moses as her son, making him part of the Royal family of Egypt! He would live protected by the power of the Pharaoh’s name and authority. He would be given the best education, best clothing, best food, and treated with respect. His future potential would be unlimited. It’s beyond remarkable, it’s miraculous, do you agree?
Do you see the very same thing happens to you and me or any person when we trust Jesus to be our Savior? God doesn’t just declare us forgiven of our sin He adopts us into His Royal family. God assigns His Holy Spirit to live within us protecting us, guiding us, empowering us. This defines our new identity and opens to us a whole new future potential! Romans 8 is filled with wonderful explanation of all this, including these words: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that sinful nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit of God have their minds set on what the Holy Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God… if you live according to the sinful nature you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the sinful nature you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God! For [when you trusted Jesus to be your Savior] you did not receive a spirit which makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. The Holy Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children…heirs together with Christ!” (Romans 8:5-17)
My friends, do you understand the magnitude of this? Have you experienced it yourself? Are you today… living in slavery to sin, or living forgiven and freed from sin bondage by Jesus? Are you living as a normal human being or as royalty because you have been adopted into God’s holy, royal family? Are you living simply pursuing your own agenda, trying to make your way in life as best you can, or is the Holy Spirit of God alive in you?
Let’s just pause right here friends, standing in the courtyard of the Pharaoh’s daughter’s palace. Look, there goes little Miriam, a slave girl and her mother, heading back to their ramshackle slave house. Those tears flowing down their faces are actually tears of joy as they think of the future life Moses may live in the Palace, as compared to living in the slave pits. And now look over there, at the Pharaoh’s daughter with her body guards and her servants standing near her. Look at all the opulence, the royal beauty all around us. And look at how she now holds the little hand of her little boy she just named Moses standing at her side. In a few moments those slave clothes he is wearing will be replaced with prince clothes. Those dusty sandals on his little feet, replaced with royal sandals. The meal he’ll have for supper tonight will be a banquet compared to what he’s been eating. The royal bed he’ll sleep in tonight will be nothing like the blanket on a straw mat on the floor where he’s been sleeping. His life is changed forever… he is royalty now!
Is that a picture of you my friend? Are you royalty now because of your relationship with Jesus? If not, why not today? Why not talk with God right now, confessing your sin and acknowledging you can’t fix your sin problem. Tell God you do believe Jesus is the Son of God as He claimed and that His death on cross did paid for your sin. Ask God to save you from your sin slavery, and fully trust HIM right now… and God will do all the saving work in you, just like the Pharaoh’s daughter did all the work in rescuing Moses from slavery and adopting him into her royal family!
Oh my friends let’s thank Jesus today for this amazing reality that is possible only because of HIM! And here’s a great song I’ve given you before, to help you celebrate your forgiveness and adoption into God’s family! Our identity is in Jesus!!
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 2:10.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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