When tyrants rise up, as they’ve done in Afghanistan, many of us immediately seek help from those in positions of power. But while God can and does use all people to advance His light, He often chooses those whom society deems foolish, weak, and despised to shame those deemed wise and strong.
Like many of you, I’ve watched in horror as my Afghan brothers and sisters experience persecution and abuse. The images playing across my social media screen evoke sorrow, fear, and a sense of helplessness. I imagine many of you feel the same. The events in the Middle East remind us of the ferocious and relentless battle of good versus evil and the forces that seek to destroy us all. But in those moments, when darkness seems to be gaining strength, may we remember God promises us the powers of hell will not prevail (Matthew 16:18).
This reality is revealed throughout Scripture, inviting us to find our place in God’s redemptive mission regardless of how inept we might feel. He loves to display His power through those the world considers weak and insignificant.
When Fear Took Root
Consider the women who helped save Moses, God’s chosen liberator for His people, from imminent death. You may be familiar with this biblical account, recorded in Exodus 1-2. Generations prior, God brought the Israelites to Egypt to provide for them during a time of famine. Initially, all went well. He blessed them and the natives through them. But then that generation died and a new king rose to power who saw God’s blessing––how He’d made His people fruitful and increased their numbers (Genesis 1:28)––as a curse. Feeling out-manned and, apparently, out-strengthened, the Pharaoh said, “We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country” (Ex. 1:10, NLT).
His first solution: break their wills through harsh labor.
When this didn’t work, he commanded the Hebrew midwives, Shiprah and Puah, to kill all the newborn Hebrew males. But these women courageously refused and helped begin God’s rescue mission, one that ultimately led to the liberation of an entire nation. Their actions and the events surrounding them teach us vital truths to encourage us in our battles.
Here are 5 faith-building facts revealed through Moses’ rescue.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/buradaki
1. We’re all called to oppose evil.
When tyrants rise up, as they’ve done in Afghanistan, many of us immediately seek help from those in positions of power. But while God can and does use all people to advance His light, He often chooses those whom society deems foolish, weak, and despised to shame those deemed wise and strong (1 Corinthians 1:26-28).
We see this with Moses’s rescue. There were countless male Egyptians and Hebrews He could’ve called to action, especially since the Pharaoh feared the men. How ironic, then, that God used women to save the child who later saved the nation. While Hebrews 11 indicates Moses’s father played a role in his rescue, in the Exodus account, God chose to highlight the women. In this, He made it clear He alone is Savior of the world. This means that, ultimately, the battle isn’t up to us. Called and empowered by Him, however, we do all have a responsibility to act with the same self-sacrificing courage that motivated the Hebrew midwives to defy the tyrant’s law and let the infant boys live.
But notice, they didn’t act alone. Once they’d done their part, God inspired a lowly and overlooked slave woman to hide one of those boys, her child, for months.
She placed her entire family at risk. One cry could alert the authorities, who had the power to kill not just the child, but most likely, his older sister, brother, mother, and father as well. I imagine she stayed up numerous nights desperately seeking God’s aid. When she realized, despite her best efforts, she couldn’t keep her child safe, she “got a basket of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch” and placed the basket in the reeds of the Nile River.
Praying he didn’t drown or get eaten by crocodiles or bitten by a venomous snake, and, I’m assuming, still awaiting her child’s rescue.
And once again, God brought help from an unlikely source, this time from within the royal household. We read, “Soon Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her attendants walked along the river bank. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrew children,’ she said” (Exodus 2:5-6).
She had to know about her father’s orders. Having been raised as a dominant member in an oppressive system, one would’ve expected her to share the Pharaoh’s hatred, or at the least, to be complicit. She could have easily walked away, assuming the child wasn’t her problem. Instead, God filled her heart with compassion. Meanwhile, Moses’ sister, Miriam, had been watching. With equal bravery, she stepped forward and offered to find someone to nurse the child. The princess thought this was a great idea and unknowingly ended up paying his mother to care for him, presumably until he’d been weened.
Five unexpected heroes, each doing what they could to save a defenseless child. While our assignments will differ, God calls us all to find our place in the fight against evil.
2. We need one another.
The Hebrew midwives played a vital role in Moses’ rescue, but they couldn’t have done it alone. They needed his mother to follow behind and hide and nurture the child. And his mother needed his sister lingering near the Nile, ready for that perfect moment when the princess arrived. His sister needed the princess to draw the baby from the water and seek out a nursemaid (his mother). The princess needed his mother, and his mother again needed the princess to presumably, provide a cover of safety for the child as he grew older and stronger.
Each of these women carried out a part of God’s plan, which, combined, led to a life saved. You and I can create great change when we work together as well. We don’t need to know all the steps, or even, necessarily, how all the actions fit together. We simply need to follow Christ. He’ll teach us how and when to unite our efforts as He lovingly pens His eternal story through us.
3. We serve an unfathomable, inexhaustible God.
When God calls us to something, our lack of resources and insufficiencies are irrelevant. All that matters is that we've been called by our Creator. The One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalms 50:10), who caused each star in the universe to shine (Isaiah 40:26), has the power to bring sight to the blind (John 9:6-7) and life to the dead (Luke 11:43-44) doesn't need our help. He could raise up leaders from a pile of stones if He wanted (Matthew 3:9).
Whereas we are limited, short-sighted, and prone to deception, God’s power and wisdom are unfathomable, unrestrainable. He's sovereign over all, including those who come against us. And yet, He chooses to use you and I, His children. He invites us to yield to Him, allowing His love and power to first fill us then flow through us.
When we resist God’s will, He’ll find someone else to use; He will accomplish all that He, in His infinite wisdom, desires. But we’ll miss out on the miracle. When we accept His assignments, however, we experience the joy of knowing we helped further God’s redemptive plan. More than that, our obedience will lead to increased intimacy with our Savior.
Photo Credit: © Unsplash/Richard Felix
4. God is always working out His plan.
When the Israelites’ heard the Pharaoh’s order, they must have felt helpless, their situation must have seemed hopeless. Who could possibly save their babies from the most powerful ruler in the ancient Near East? And I imagine Moses’s mother wept as she placed her child in that tar-sealed basket. She probably thought she was gazing into his face, kissing his cheeks, hearing his coos, for the very last time.
While we don’t know if she anticipated the princess coming to the river that day, she couldn’t have known the Pharaoh’s daughter would respond so tenderly to the child. Nor could anyone have predicted that the woman would seek out Moses’s mother to nurse him—on the same day that she’d relinquished him to God’s care.
Similarly, our hope and peace increase when we remember God remains sovereign over all—our lives and Christ’s church included.
5. God is writing a bigger story.
Our God cares about the big details and the small, our struggles, those of our nation, and nations of people not yet born. In His brilliance and His love, He can simultaneously meet our needs while preparing for thousands of lives yet to come.
This was precisely what He did through Moses’s birth and leadership. While the story involved him, and in many ways was about him, it extended far beyond him. As I’ve mentioned, God raised Moses up to lead His people out of bondage and toward the Promised Land. This was a huge blessing and act of divine love. But ancient Israel’s leader pointed to an even greater Savior, Jesus, the One who’d bring mankind an even greater freedom when He died to break the bondage of sin.
Christ loves us deeply and remains alert and attentive to our needs, but His primary concern is saving our souls. He pursues our eternal security with the same steadfast focus that drove Him to the cross. Once we’ve trusted in Him for salvation, He shifts our vision and perspective so that our hearts more closely mirror His. As our supernatural understanding grows, our courage does as well, inspiring us to transform lives and communities for generations to come.
Like the women who saved Moses, we can courageously advance God’s love and light in the face of evil.
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/AlessandroPhoto
Jennifer Slattery is a writer and speaker who co-hosts the Faith Over Fear podcast and, along with a team of 6, the Your Daily Bible Verse podcast. She’s addressed women’s groups, Bible studies, and taught at writers conferences across the nation. She’s the author of Building a Family and numerous other titles and maintains a devotional blog at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLou
She’s passionate about helping people experience Christ’s freedom in all areas of their lives. Visit her online to learn more about her speaking or to book her for your next women’s event, and sign up for her free quarterly newsletter HERE and make sure to connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and GodTube.
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