4 INTENTIONAL

GENESIS 2:1-10

2 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. 7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

Joseph was a leader and Israel was safe. When Joseph died, with no real leader God’s people suffered rejection, slavery, captivity and oppression. When Moses came back to Egypt at age 80, once again Israel had a real leader and became free again. Leadership makes a difference!

The Bible in Exodus says the ark was in the reeds and that Moses’ older sister, Miriam, quickly offered to find a wet nurse. Scripture says Jochebed returned Moses to Pharoah’s daughter “when the child grew older.” We don’t know how much older. These are things Moses, himself, wrote and he probably knew the story about himself pretty well. Bible-believing Christians receive the story as accurate. We will draw our lessons from it.

Moses was a Levite, both by father and mother. Jacob left Levi under marks of disgrace as mentioned in Genesis 49:5, “Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence.” However, about 120 years later, Moses is born a descendant from Levi, that he might typify Christ, who came in the likeness of sinful flesh and was made a curse for us. This tribe then began to be distinguished from the rest by the birth of Moses, as afterwards it became significant in many other instances. We can see intentionality through these ten verses. None of these developments were mere coincidences. God was methodologically, providentially and deliberately preparing. Moses was born 80 years before he returned from Midian to deliver Israel from Egypt. This too, including the exact timing, was intentional. Wow! What a God!

The baby Moses was of necessity hidden. It seems to have been just at the time of his birth that the cruel law was made for the murder of all the male children of the Hebrews. Very possibly many perished by the execution of this hideous policy when Amram and Jochebed had Miriam and Aaron, both older than Moses and evidently born to them before this edict came out. They were raised thus far without that life-threat, but those that begin the world in peace don’t know what troubles they may meet before they get through it. During her pregnancy with Moses, probably Jochabed was full of anxiety while expecting Moses’ birth, now that this edict was in force. She  may even have been prepared to say as Jesus said in Luke 23:29, “. . . . the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’” Better not to have children, as Jeremiah understood from God, than bring children into the world only to experience certain death. Hosea also understood this as we see in Hosea 9:13, “I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.” Yet this child, Moses, proves the glory of his father’s house. In this way what is our biggest fear may prove, as in this instance, to become our greatest joy. Observe the beauty of God’s plan: just at the time when Pharaoh’s cruelty rose to this height, the deliverer was born, though he did not appear publicly until 80 years later. When men are projecting the church’s ruin, God is preparing for its salvation and growth. Moses, who was afterwards to bring Israel out of this house of bondage, was himself in danger of death as a sacrifice to the fury of an oppressor. But God so ordered it that, being afterwards told of this, Moses might be the more motivated and animated a holy zeal for the deliverance of his brothers out of the hands of such bloody men. I love it when we can see God working ahead of time. He is never late. He knows everything and is intentional in His preparations. Look at your own life and discover how God has already been at work preparing you and the ministry situation and opportunity He has prepared for you.

Moses’ parents observed him to be a goodly child, more than ordinarily beautiful; he was fair to God, as Stephen said in Acts 7:20, “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family.” Amram and Jochebed fancied their baby boy had a luster in his countenance that was something more than human. Maybe it was a specimen of the shining of his face later in life. God sometimes gives early indications of His gifts, and reveals Himself sometimes in those for whom and by whom He designs to do great things. He put an early strength in Samson, “The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol” Judges 13:24 - 25). An early forwardness toward God can be identified in Samuel, “But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod” (1 Samuel 2:18). And God brought about an early deliverance for David, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37). God began early with Timothy, “and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Not only was Moses prepared in advance, but so could have been the Israelites prepared to receive him. This was not always so as we see from the Israelite slave who rejected “help” from Moses before Moses fled from Egypt to Midian at age 40. The Israelites were more in need of and more seriously desired Moses’ deliverance, because they may have known of these early factors recorded in today’s Scripture as indications of a special purpose of God in him. This was a happy indication of something great. A lively active faith can take encouragement from the least intimation of the divine favor. A merciful hint of God’s involvement will encourage those whose spirits make diligent search. Three months they hid him, perhaps in some private part of their own house, though probably with the hazard of their own lives, had he been discovered. In this way Moses was an illustration of Christ, who, in His infancy, was forced to hide in Egypt too. Matthew 2:13 says, “When they (that is the wise men) had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’” Jesus was wonderfully preserved, when many innocent babies were butchered. It is said in Hebrews 11:23 that the parents of Moses hid him by faith,“By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” It may have been, as Josephus claims, that they had a special revelation to them that one of their offspring would be the deliverer. Even without that though, they had the general promise of Israel’s preservation, which they acted on in faith. And in that faith they hid their child, not being afraid of the penalty of the king’s commandment. Faith in God’s promise goes far beyond our imaginations in that it rather excites and quickens us to the use of every lawful means to the receive the miracle. Duty is ours, events are God’s. Again, faith in God will set us above the ensnaring fear of man. Surely the boy Moses heard of all these matters as he grew up even at a very early age in their house before they gave him to Pharaohs daughter. May the Lord give wisdom to parents today to pass on to our children anything that will help them recognize the hand of God on their live. Perhaps your parents already have passed something on to you that makes you realize God’s hand is on your life.

Moses may have heard the stories of how he was exposed to danger. At three months’ end, probably when the searchers came about to look for concealed children, so that they could not hide him any longer, they put him in an ark of bulrushes and by faith in God’s plan committed him to the river in a basket they had prepared. “But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile” (3). I believe they did this because they believed, rather than because they doubted. Then they directed his older sister, Miriam, to watch at some distance what would become of him, and into whose hands he would fall. “His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him” (4). It is also possible that Amram and Jochebed knew where Pharoah’s daughter usually bathed! At any rate, God put it into their hearts to do this, to bring about His own purposes, that Moses might by this means be brought into the hands of Pharaoh’s daughter. God was at work that by Moses’ deliverance from imminent danger a sample might be given of the deliverance of God’s church, which in our day is exposed similarly to dangers. Moses may have appeared quite abandoned by his friends and even his own mother and faith-filled father but now the Lord took him up and protected him. Moses’ parents did all of this by faith; they did not abandon him. But even if they had, Psalm 27:10 tells us what God would do in such a case. “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” In times of extreme difficulty it is good to trust in God. Had it not been done by faith in God, to have exposed their child while they could have preserved it; it would have been to tempt God, but, to the contrary, when they could not, it was to trust in God. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Even Queen Esther said, If I perish, I perish. They did was they could and trusted God with the rest. That was faith.

So Moses is saved from perishing and lives to become their deliverer 80 years later. Come see the place where that great man lay when he was a little child. He lay in a bulrush-basket in the reeds by the river’s side. Had he been totally abandoned even by God, to lie there, he must have perished in a little time with hunger, or been washed out into the river or devoured by a crocodile. Had he fallen into any other hands than those into which he did fall, either they would not, or dared not, have done anything else than to immediately throw him into the river. But in God’s plan, just at that juncture the all-wise, all powerful, and all knowing God brings no less a person there than Pharaoh’s childless daughter. God guides her to the place where this condemned infant lay. Furthermore, God inclines her heart to pity it, which she dares do when no-one else could or would. Never did a poor child cry so wonderfully, so happily, as this baby did. “Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said” (5 - 6). The crying moved the compassion of the princess, as probably also his beauty also did. Those are hard-hearted indeed that have no tender compassion for helpless infancy. How appropriately God represents His compassion for the Israelites in general to also be viewed in this pitiable state! The helpless baby Moses may here be a representative of Israel in God’s eyes as Ezekiel portrays it in Ezekiel 16:5-6, “No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’” God breaths life into impossible situation. That’s intentional.

It is very commendable in persons of quality to take notice of the distresses of the lowliest, and to be helpful and charitable to them. God’s care of us in our infancy ought to often be mentioned by us to His praise. Though we were not exposed as Moses was, and that too is God’s mercy, yet many were the dangers with which we were surrounded in our infancy. The Lord has delivered us out of them all, as Psalm 22:9-10 declares, “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” God often raises up friends for His people even among their enemies. Pharaoh cruelly seeks Israel’s destruction, but his own daughter lovingly and compassionately helps a Hebrew child. And not only so, but, beyond her intention, preserves Israel’s deliverer. Wow! What a God!

Moses is now well provided with a good nurse, no less than his own dear mother. “Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?’ ‘Yes, go,’ she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.’ So the woman took the baby and nursed him” (8,9). Pharaoh’s daughter thinks it convenient that he should have a Hebrew nurse, whether or not, as Josephus wrote, she first tried several Egyptian wet nurses. Miriam, we know later, had verbal even poetic skills, with art and good persuasion, introduces the mother into the place of a nurse. This is to the great advantage of the child since mothers are the best nurses, and those who receive the blessings of the breasts with those of the womb are blessed. Also, as an added blessing to the obedient and faithful Jochebed, it was an unspeakable satisfaction to the mother, who received her son as being alive from the dead, and now enjoys him for a time without fear. The joy on her face, on this happy turn, may have betrayed her to be the true mother, but, again, God protected the mother and the child. How could this story-like drama have made this point any clearer—that God was secretly at work preparing a deliverer? Again, I ask you. Think about your past. Are there no indications that God has been involved in your life for a long time preparing you for opportunities to serve Him and His people? These are intentional preparations for specific opportunities that God has for you.

Pharoah’s daughter chose Moses to be her son. So his parents, perhaps not only yielding to necessity, having nursed him for her, now also were much pleased with the honor now to be done to their son. Yet Moses would be tempted. The smiles of the world are stronger temptations than its frowns, and more difficult to resist. The tradition of the Jews, including Josephus, is that Pharaoh’s daughter had no child of her own, and that she herself was the only child of her father, so that when Moses was adopted as her son he stood in place to eventually wear the crown. That did not happen, but in the meantime Moses was to have the advantage of the best education and influences of the court to the end that, having his own mental abilities, he became master of all the learning of the Egyptians. Acts 7:22 tells us that Stephen said this. “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” The plan of God is fulfilled sometimes in raising the poor out of the dust, to set them among princes as is stated in Psalm 113:7-8: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people.” Many who, by their birth, seem marked for obscurity and poverty, by surprising events of God’s wisdom are brought to sit at the upper end of the world, to make men know that the heavens do rule. Those whom God designs for great services He find ways to qualify and prepare beforehand. Moses, by having his education in a court, is the better prepared to be a prince in Israel. By having his education in a learned court such as Egypt’s court he is more qualified to be a historian and write this story as Moses indeed did. Furthermore, by having his education in the court of Egypt he also is the fitter to be engaged, in the name and hands of God to be an ambassador to that court.

Pharaoh’s daughter called him Moses, Drawn out of the water, in the Egyptian language, a Gentile name. The calling of the Jewish deliverer and lawgiver by an Egyptian name might be considered a good sign to the Gentile world. It may give us Gentiles the hope of that day when it shall be said, “The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance” (Isaiah 19:25). And Isaiah 49:23 says these glorious words: “Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” All these prophesies are wonderful, but they don’t happen unless or until God has a tool, a leader, in His hands whom He can use and through whom He can work. Will you be such a tool? Such a Leader? The hints in your life-story that God wants you to be a Christian leader are not coincidences; they are intentional. Seek them, find them, acknowledge and the finally obey them.