Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
One of the great tragedies of our time is the number of children born worldwide who are not able to be cared for and raised by either of their parents. Each is a heartbreaking story. Fortunately some of these children are adopted, but sadly far too many, millions in fact, grow up bouncing from foster home to foster home or many others simply growing up on their own. In some parts of the world these are known as ‘street children’, in other parts of the world they are enslaved and put to work in child work factories. Perhaps saddest of all are the children who are enslaved in sex trafficking. And my friends, if you find this heartbreaking for us, imagine how it breaks the heart of God who has carefully and lovingly created, birthed, and helped these children survive!
In about 1525bc a little boy was born who was destined either to be killed or live such a terrible life. We find him in the Bible. We met him yesterday in Exodus 2. He has no name as yet, and he’s about 3 months old. He was born to a Hebrew slave family at a time when the Pharaoh had insisted all Israelite baby boys be killed at birth. And further, if the baby was born anywhere near the great Nile river, the newborn should be thrown into the river to drown! The parents of this baby are both from the Hebrew tribe of Levi, and they simply could not even imagine obeying Pharaoh’s infanticide edict. They have risked the slaughter of their two other children and their own execution if they are discovered hiding their newborn baby… but they refuse to kill their son. Instead, they have made a basket and put their son afloat on the great Nile river, entrusting him to the God who created him. I left us yesterday standing on the river bank with the baby’s older sister Miriam, watching the basket float, with the currents, down the Nile.
My friends, when is the last time you had an experience where you simply knew it was the Sovereign hand of God? Maybe it was an unexpected rendezvous with someone and you both ended up at the same place at the same moment and it was simply wonderful, but neither of you had expected to be at that place at that moment! Or maybe you barely missed being run over by a car or a train or a stampeding animal, and had you been one or two seconds later, you’d have been killed in a collision! Miriam was about to experience one of those God Sovereign moments… let’s watch it happen, right before our eyes, my friends.
The Exodus record says: “The Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened the basket and saw the baby. He was crying and she felt sorry for the baby. ‘This is one of those Hebrew babies,’ she said.” (Exodus 2:5,6) History is being made, my friends, right before us. Pharaoh’s daughter knows the horrible infanticide law her father has declared. She also knows anyone who would break the law would likely be killed, even her! But there’s something tugging at her heartstrings… the beauty of a 3 month old baby boy abandoned on the river, crying out for love. Pharaoh’s daughter has a tender heart and God is touching her heart, even though she doesn’t know it! Has that ever happened to you my friends? Have you found your heart tenderized by God, feeling drawn to help someone in need? If you did, you were, in that moment, the reach of God to that needy person.
I wonder how long Pharaoh’s daughter looked at that baby, looked at her servants, looked up and down the river and contemplated the risks. Suddenly she was startled by a child’s voice, Miriam’s voice… ‘Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” Oh my, what a risk young Miriam took, speaking to the daughter of the Pharaoh! What if she questioned who she was, who the baby was, who the baby’s family was… all could be lost, death could come to all of them! But the love of a sister for a newborn, helpless brother, overshadowed all that. She couldn’t help herself! “Yes, go!” was Pharaoh’s daughter’s response.
The Exodus record tells us what seems beyond miraculous: “The girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to the woman, ‘Take this baby and nurse him for me and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.” (Ex. 2:7-9) Now it is only a few sentences but it is almost beyond belief isn’t it? Within hours of this woman and her husband tearfully placing this little basket afloat on the great Nile river, the basket is back home again with them, sent home by the daughter of the Pharaoh herself! This baby will now be nursed by his own mother, and loved and cared for with the blessing of the Pharaoh’s throne! This mother, a slave, will be paid by the Pharaoh’s own daughter, to nurse her own baby! How miraculous!! Only God can do things like this!
Now you mothers, all around the world, I’ve never experienced the thrill of nursing a child, but I’m told by my wife and other mothers, it is a profoundly sacred experience as you feel life flowing from your breast into their mouth, from your life to their life! I’m told the feeling of intimacy, of closeness, of oneness is second only to feeling that child inside of your womb during pregnancy. I’m sure we can all see the Sovereign, Omnipotent hand of God in this miracle, right? I assume the little baby was hungry every few hours, just as babies are in the 21st century, that is probably why he was crying in his floating basket. His cries melted the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter, and she quickly knew that while she could love him, she couldn’t feed him and therefore she had to release him to someone else to love and feed him until he could be weaned. Mothers almost always talk to their babies while they nurse them, right? So my friends, what do you suppose this Hebrew woman spoke into this little baby’s ears each time she fed him? Yes, not only that she loved him, but I imagine over and over she told her baby that he was Hebrew, not Egyptian. That he had been born into the Hebrew tribe of Levi, not the royal family of the Pharaoh’s. He was part of the Covenant people of God!!
I’m sure she told her baby son about Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob and Joseph and that one day God would somehow come to the rescue of this vast number of enslaved ‘children of Israel’, and free them from their bondage, and bring them to the land of Canaan, the Covenant promised land! And I wonder if Miriam and Aaron, this little baby’s older sister and brother, sat quietly and listened and tickled his feet, just as young siblings do in families all around the world today? Hebrew school was in session whenever it was feeding time for this little baby… and Miriam and Aaron listened and learned.
And God was watching too! God’s great deliverance plan was working under His careful, watching eye. This baby was not only saved from death in the river, he was to be brought into the Pharaoh’s royal family, and oh so much more. Far more than that baby’s sister, brother and parents could possibly imagine… only God can do things like that! Do you agree my friends? Has God done such great things in your life? Have you told your children about those miracles… in detail? Have you written them down or recorded them either audio or video so they are part of your legacy, to be passed on to them? I assure you, your grandchildren will cherish those stories after you are gone into your eternity.
I think let’s pause right here. These miracle days lasted several months, until the baby was weaned. Perhaps it was as much as two or even three years or more! God kept that breast milk flowing, because this baby boy needed to learn about his heritage before he would be moved to the Pharaoh’s family. So let’s not rush this, let’s let these precious months plant deep seeds of identity and family heritage into this baby. Let’s watch as his mother prayed over him, hundreds of times, asking the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to protect this baby and accomplish miraculous things in this baby’s life! Once again, let’s pray, my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends… this time I invite you to pray for the future spouses and children of your not yet married children and grandchildren! God already sees them in His future for your family. Do you trust God with your children and grandchildren as this family did? Let’s pray right now my friends, God is listening!
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 2:5-9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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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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