Thursday, December 5

SOMEONE PROTECTS: THE ARK OF MOSES

Exodus 2:1-10

     God’s plan of salvation followed his people to Egypt where they settled and began to multiply.  A generation after Joseph, the new pharaoh began to fear that the Israelites were becoming too large a people to easily govern.  He ordered that all of the boy babies must be killed at birth.

     About this time, Moses was born.  My own extended family has experienced the recent birth of four babies.  Nothing can bring joy and hope like a new life.  I can just imagine the joy Moses’ mother felt when she held her son in her arms.  She knew that she had to keep him at any cost, so she hid him away for three months.  Moses was her life.  Our own reaction is much the same.  We hold our lives in our own hands and we try to keep it.  We think we can do better.  We think we can handle the dangers.  We find it hard to trust anyone else with it.  Eventually, like Moses’ mother, we realize that we cannot handle it by ourselves, and actually, are putting ourselves into more danger.  Hebrews 11 tells us that Moses’ mother hid him by faith, so she would also have let him go by the same faith.

     She did not do it recklessly.  She carefully prepared a basket, coating it with pitch to keep the water out.  The word “pitch” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “red.”  The pitch is a picture of the blood of Jesus, coating and protecting Moses and us as we are given up to God’s plan.  God was reaching out to protect Moses through a picture His own Son’s sacrifice.

     Moses’ mother put her son—her life—in that basket, and let it go into God’s hand.  Then, she waited expectantly.  She sent her daughter to watch what would happen.  At this point, live or die, Moses was totally in God’s hand.

     Not only was Moses’ life saved, but his own mother was asked by Pharaoh’s daughter to be his wet nurse, further enabling her to teach her son about the goodness of trusting God. 

     Can we do it?  Can we put our life, our most precious possessions totally in the hands of God?  God will protect if we are covered with the blood of Jesus.  Even though we may be tossed and turned in the waters of the world and never get back to where we began, His hand will be on us, guiding us where He wants us to go.  He will protect.  He has a plan.  Someone Special Protects!  Remember the ark of Moses.

     Lord, may we put our lives totally into your hands.   Amen.

~ Karen Simcik