Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, have you ever had a goal, a dream, a project, or something you aspired to? You made many sacrifices for it. You worked very hard. You poured yourself out into this endeavor. You dreamed of seeing it succeed despite your best efforts. It didn’t succeed. It failed. You did not accomplish that endeavor, that dream, or that project, or goal.
Well, now imagine if that project or that goal had been, keep my child from being murdered. Keep my child from being murdered. And then despite how much you have tried, you feel like you’ve not been able to succeed in that. And you have to surrender your child to the hands of the Lord.
This morning in the book of Exodus, we see a mother who is faced with that challenge. She has a son. In a dire time in Israel’s history, for having a son is a death sentence for that son. And she works every ounce of her strength and her ingenuity to preserve and protect that son. Despite all of it, she finally has to surrender him into the arms of the Lord and see what the Lord will do with her son. And then so we get to experience through that Christ’s love for this young boy and for us.
We will see that in three ways this morning. First, you’ll see how this narrative shows a mother’s love, a mother’s love. And after we’ve considered her love, we will see a sister’s love, a sister’s love. Then finally, after seeing the sister’s love, we will see that it is all animated, all worked by Christ’s love, by Christ’s love.
We begin with in verse 1 of Exodus 2, it says that a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. Now ordinarily, this would be a cause of celebration. It is ordinary that most people, they go out and they get married, they receive a spouse. That is a cause of celebration, something to rejoice in, is it not?
Well, this is a time where the context is that Israel is under oppression from Egypt, ones that had been friends, faithful allies to Israel, ones who realized their life was indebted to Israel because from Israel came Joseph, who saved Egypt and Israel by having been forewarned by God through prophesying in the dreams of Pharaoh that a famine was coming. And yet a pharaoh had arisen who did not know who Joseph was. Instead of seeing the Hebrews as those people who were valuable allies, people who were sojourners among them, people who they ought to have cared for, instead sees them as a threat to his leadership.
And so gradually, step by step, he tries to thwart that in his mind. He has this envision that whoever invaded, perhaps the Hebrews will rise up and help the foreign invaders. So I must stop them from doing that. First, he sets hard work for them to do. Then finally, when that doesn’t work, he enslaves them. He’s constantly trying to put them in a place where they will stop being fruitful and multiplying in spite of God’s blessing. Well, the more he oppresses them, the more fruitful and multiplying they do. And finally, he decides, well, I just need to start killing their sons. When he fails to do it through the Hebrew midwives, he says to his people, he makes a proclamation, if you find a Hebrew with a newborn son, take that son and cast him into the Nile. Think of the horror of that. The Nile, a gift from God to Egypt. That Nile, precious living waters that had brought about prosperity for Egypt, now being turned to a river of death, a weapon to destroy the people that Pharaoh is supposed to be caring for because the Hebrews are sojourners in his nation. He should be caring for them as he cares for his people. Instead, he is sending their sons to die.
Therefore, this Levite gathering this wife is a time of danger for what comes when spouses usually get together, children. Now, we don’t know exactly when this happened. We know that this boy that is about to be born, he has older siblings. Almost nobody is named in this account at the moment, but we know later this boy is named Moses and that he has a brother named Aaron and a sister named Miriam at the very least. And perhaps they were born before this edict had taken place.
But now in verse two, she has another son. She has another son and she looks upon him So she conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child or a good child, she hid him three months. What does this mean? What is scripture here saying that she sees he’s a fine child? Is she looking at him and thinking, well, if he was born disabled or there was something wrong with him, maybe I would be more willing to part with him to the Egyptians? No. Nowhere for the people of God, even though the exhaustive details of the Mosaic Law are not published yet, life is precious. All life is made in God’s image. And she would already have an instinct that no matter the condition of her son, he was not deserving to be cast into the Nile.
There’s something else going on here. So she looks upon him that he is a good child. She sees something about Moses that’s different, something about him that she didn’t see immediately when she had Aaron or Miriam. Do not know what prompting she receives, but there’s some recognition she has that this child is special. And we learn from another portion of scripture that this is true. As Acts chapter 7, when Stephen is giving a recounting of Israel’s history leading up to the Messiah, Acts chapter 7, verse 20, Stephen notes, at this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. Beautiful in God’s sight. Somehow, Moses’ mother already recognizes There is something God has appointed this baby to do someday. He’s a newborn baby, and she already recognizes God has a purpose and a plan for this baby boy.
And so while she already has the motivation to preserve and protect him, because she is his son, or that’s her son, she also recognizes the Lord’s going to do something through him. So she attempts to hide him for three months.
Now think. Back in World War II, when many countries were trying to hide Jews from the Nazis, some people built extra rooms or closed off rooms and hid them as secret rooms. And imagine the terror every time the Nazi soldiers show up demanding, are there Jews in your house? And knowing if they search behind a certain wall with enough vigor, they may find them. It’s terrifying knowing that you are caring for and responsible for protecting somebody, and somebody is bound and determined to hunt them down and kill them.
She is experiencing this with her newborn son. A newborn son, and what do babies do? They cry. They cry a lot. It’s amazing she hid him for three months. My own daughters, both of them, had colic for the first six months of their life. And I was very glad we were not living in an apartment at that time, because I don’t think our neighbors would have gotten any sleep. Yet somehow, she was able to hide him for three months.
But something happens where she realizes she can hide him no longer. She has striven, she has tried. Imagine, three whole months. all the things she must have done to try and keep him secret from her Egyptian neighbors, from those strolling the streets, or the news even. Like, how many of her family members she probably had to say, keep quiet, don’t talk about that I have a newborn baby.
But something happens where she cannot hide him anymore. And she knows he’s going to be found. And she knows what is going to happen to him when he’s found. He’s going to be cast into the Nile River. And so in verse 3, when she can hide him no longer, she sets a desperate plan to give him a fighting chance.
In fact, it’s interesting. Stephen, he recounts in Acts 7, verse 19 through 21, he says that the Israelites were forced to expose their kids. They were being forced to expose them to cause them to die. And he says, she hid him, and when she could no longer, she too had to expose him. She had to expose him as well, but she gave him every fighting chance she could as a mother. She is a faithful woman. She has already recognized God has a purpose and plan for this baby boy. It’s why she’s also worked so hard to preserve and protect him.
But she can no longer protect him, so what does she do? She builds him a basket, but the word in the Hebrew uses a different term. It says he builds him an ark. She builds him an ark to place him in. She knows he has to be cast into the Nile, but she is not going to cast him without protection. She is not going to send him into the Nile without any recourse. She builds him an ark.
When was the last time we heard about an ark and water involved? A righteous man, loved by God, preserved through the waters of judgment, through the waters of death. Noah. Noah, the righteous man, he was called to build an ark. And through it, brought about his salvation and his family’s salvation. And so now this mother, out of her love for her son, builds an ark for her son. She uses her craft, her ingenuity. She’s taking papyrus reeds from the riverbank and weaving them together, making a strong little vessel for her son. And then she coats it in bitumen and pitch to make it watertight so the water will not come in and drown her son or sink the ark. She’s working hard to protect her son.
Think of that, brothers and sisters. We know God is sovereign. We know all his providential works, that everything that comes to pass is according to his will before the foundation of the world. But he made us in his image. He did not make creation to be mindless robots, to be puppets. Rather, he gave us a calling. He gives to Adam the animals. It says he waits to see what Adam will name the animals, because he has given Adam a mind to exercise, a heart to understand, a soul to walk with God, to use the gifts he’s been given by God for God’s glory.
So this woman, she’s not just saying, I think God’s going to protect my baby. I’m just going to just leave him out there. Any Egyptian can find him. I don’t care. No doubt she prayed continually for this child. She prayed for him, no doubt, and also did, used her ingenuity, her creativity to protect him. Imagine expecting parents or a father who knows that his wife’s about to give birth and he needs to install a car seat for the first time. He knows that that car seat is going to be one of the fundamental things protecting his newborn child. He can pray, Lord, give me the wisdom and discernment and the ability to install this car seat that I’ve never installed before in my life. And there might be some extra things I don’t know what to do. Go ahead and pray that. But he also needs to put in the hard work of reading the instructions, knowing exactly how it works, making sure it’s in properly, praying to the Lord for guidance and using the good gifts God has given him.
So this mother does for her son. And finally, we see Even the choice of where she puts her son has thought behind it.
Now, perhaps you’re familiar with a animated movie a few decades ago now that depicts this scene of Moses being set into the water. He’s tossed and turned and brought about the Nile every which way, and he just finally rests somewhere. That’s not what the narrative depicts. Instead, it says she places him at the bank of the Nile amongst the reeds. Amongst the reeds. She’s not letting him float away. She has made a solid watertight vessel, an ark, to save her son. But she’s also placed him amongst the reeds. He’s not going anywhere. They’re going to anchor his little ark. It’s going to keep him from getting swept downstream. She’s put him in a specific place so the ark will not move.
But why has she put him in this specific place? Why has she put him there specifically? Well, out of her great love for him. And now out of her great love for him, we are going to see his sister’s love. The sister’s love. And verse four, after the mother has set the ark with baby Moses in it in these reeds, It says that Miriam stands in a distance. Verse four, to see what would be done to him. To see what would be done to him. It doesn’t say if she knows why her mother’s put him where she has. It doesn’t say what she knows about her mother’s plan. But she’s there watching over her brother.
So to the very first man who was ever born, Cain, When his brother disappeared, he knew why his brother had disappeared. And the Lord asked him, where is your brother Abel? And what was Cain’s response? Am I my brother’s keeper? He had murdered his brother. He clearly saw himself not as his brother’s keeper.
The Lord had asked Miriam, are you your brother’s keeper? hear her saying, yes, I am. She is there watching over her brother. She has no idea what’s gonna happen to him. And lo and behold, she sees this as not some random area her mother has chosen, not just haphazardly put Moses just off the bank of the Nile. Someone is bound to discover him.
And she sees Perhaps, especially if she does not know why her mother had placed Moses there, something that probably evokes terror in her when she first sees it. Who has said that the Hebrew boys must be cast into the Nile? Pharaoh has said it. So then who comes along the Nile Bank? Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter.
At first glance, just think if you’re reading this for the first time and you haven’t gone past this verse, for the first time you’ve read this thinking, oh no, Moses is out of the frying pan and going straight into the oven. This is like the worst person to discover Moses, Pharaoh’s own daughter. What’s gonna happen to him? He’s probably going to be overturned from his ark right into the Nile, right? No, that’s not what happens.
She’s going down to bathe, and she has many of her maidservants with her, and she notices this is some strange arc, this thing off in the reeds. And she sends one of her maidservants, go retrieve that, what is that? And the maidservant brings it back. And they open it, and Pharaoh’s daughter, what does she see? She sees a baby. She doesn’t just see a baby sleeping. This is like the only time in a narrative, of course, Psalms that speak about out of the mouth of infants, God declares his praise. But this is the one narrative where it just says a baby cried. A baby cried. This baby cries. It’s the first experience Pharaoh’s daughter has with this baby, him crying.
And of course, imagine Moses isn’t a superhuman. He’s a baby. He’s three months old at this time. Imagine he’s been set in an ark. Last he saw his mother with her arms laying him down in this dark basket. Perhaps even covered, it was covered to protect him. He suddenly sealed off from his mother. The last thing he sees is her putting him into this ark. And perhaps even sees her tears. And who knows how long at this point he’s been laying in this ark, yearning for his mother to see her again. And so when they lift the cover, there is a crying baby.
And this woman, the daughter of Pharaoh, Her heart is moved with compassion, seeing this baby cry. The Lord uses the cry of this baby to soften her heart.
In our era, where we often pray that mothers would have the support systems and legal structures and family structures and so many other things, so they would cease to murder their own children in our society. Yet it often happens. And there are many clinics of people who are striving to keep them from murdering their children, to show them a better way. And one of the foremost things they do is offer, often, free ultrasounds for pregnant mothers. It’s attractive. If you have a sudden pregnancy, you’re not expecting. Someone says, you can have a free ultrasound to see what’s actually going on and happening. And that’s the first contact for it. And not only that, it shows that mother, their child, a human being, a baby, their baby in their womb, its hands, its feet, its mouth, its ears. They see their baby, and it’s not in inorganic clump of cells to them. It is a person with a body and soul that they are seeing. And that does, by the Lord’s grace, work compassion in many of their hearts to turn from that.
God made us with minds and hearts. He made us creatures that think and feel. Yes, we know from scripture, our hearts are often deceitful and wicked. Our feelings are fleeting and tumultuous, and our feelings are often tainted with sin. But so are our minds. Our thinking is also tainted with sin. And God does not expect unbelievers, and especially believers redeemed by the blood of Christ, to cease being emotional people with feelings, with hearts, to have compassion, and experience And even here, the appeal of this baby crying works in this woman’s heart.
I think of even Paul speaking with passion. He speaks in 2 Corinthians 5 that as an ambassador of Christ, he makes his appeal, imploring people to be reconciled to God. For Paul, it’s not a mere intellectual exercise. It’s a whole body experience that God redeems our minds and our hearts. And so this woman’s heart is moved to compassion. And she even recognizes, she says, this is a Hebrew boy. This is a Hebrew child. She knows it’s a Hebrew child and she knows her father’s edict. She has a heart of compassion toward him. And she’s not going to throw him in the Nile. This son, think Moses, or not Moses, Pharaoh did all these things that he’s been doing out of fear of the men of Israel. He’s terrified of the men because they might raise up an arms against him someday. that they may overwhelm and defeat his forces in battle.
But who is continually thwarting Pharaoh throughout the beginning of Exodus? It’s all the women. The midwives prevent him from murdering the sons. Moses’s mother has hid him successfully and brought him to this point. His sister will soon hear providing care for him and Pharaoh’s own daughter. will save this child, Pharaoh’s own daughter.
You see that strange tension of Egypt’s relationship with Israel throughout her history. In one moment, Egypt is a devouring tiger seeking to destroy Israel. And yet, Egypt was also a place that was the nurturing place that rose up the Hebrews, the 70 people that came with Joseph and the patriarchs. and nurtured them to blossom into this great nation that the Egyptians cannot even count.
You think of then the irony, as we read in Matthew 2 this morning, when Jesus is born, and the king of his nation wants to kill him, and where does he go for safety? To Egypt. Strange relationship.
But here, Miriam recognizes the compassion. Verse seven, she sees the compassion of this woman. She springs into action out of love for her brother. She springs the action and goes up to Pharaoh’s daughter. And she knows that she’ll have a hearing. And she says, would you like me to find a nurse for this child among the Hebrew women?
Now it could be Egyptians tended to tolerate foreigners at best, even letting the Hebrews in. Egyptians often saw themselves as the priority of the human world, and they would tolerate other people, but often not associate with them. Perhaps, but maybe Pharaoh’s daughter just doesn’t have a child of her own at this point, or is not nursing. So she’s going to need a nurse. Miriam says, I can find you a nurse. I can find you a nurse. Would you like me to? And Pharaoh’s daughter’s probably thinking, how convenient. I have found a Hebrew baby and a Hebrew girl has come to me. And she knows a Hebrew woman who can nurse this baby till I’m ready to take him in as my own. And she says, go and seek.
In verse eight, she goes and gets not just some random Hebrew nursing mother. She goes and finds her mom, this baby boy’s mother. This mother who sacrificed everything to save this son, who gave everything she could to save him. And it finally had to surrender him into the hands of the Lord. and see what the Lord would do with him.
Brothers and sisters, our lives, we are called to be living sacrifices to the Lord because of the great sacrifice Christ made for us. We have been redeemed. Our bodies, our souls, our gifts, our families, everything that we are and do are for the Lord. As that hymn goes, let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill. There is a hope for us, no matter what sacrifice we make.
And God does not work in a quid pro quo or a you do this for me, I do this for you. You sacrifice that, I will give you this instead. God is the God of abundance and love. Any gift that he gives is a precious gift. But he does not say if you sacrifice this, I will give you something else. Sometimes he just asks, do you trust me? Are you willing to let go of that thing that you love and cherish most? You have Abraham having to offer Isaac or Hannah, another mother who will so desperately desire a son, make a pray and a vow to the Lord. If you give me a son, I will give him straight to you, oh Lord. And so here, Moses’s mother, she was willing to trust the Lord and entrust her son into his hands.
It is not always that the people of God who have experienced, when they have had to let go of something beloved to them, or they have had to make a great sacrifice, they have not always in this life had it returned to them. But think of what Jesus says in Mark chapter 10, speaking about after the rich ruler goes away sad that he would have to give all his possessions to walk and follow Jesus. And the disciples say, we have given everything to follow you. Perhaps you have experienced that. You’ve had to give everything up to follow the Lord. People who’ve had to give up family because the family’s like, I will disown you if you follow the Lord. It’s a great sacrifice.
And yet Jesus comforts in Mark 10 verse 29. He says, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel. who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions in the age to come, eternal life. We as the people of God redeemed in Christ, the household of God, we become a family to one another. And Christ is saying, if you had to leave your family for my sake, I have a family waiting for you. be persecutions alongside them, but they are your family too that I have redeemed an eternal life.”
And so here, Moses’s mother, God’s kindness and grace to her, she gets to be paid by the state to nurse her child. The state that was going to murder her child is now paying her to give him life from her milk. And what is the result of all this? Why does this even happen? Because of Christ’s love for this mother, and for this sister, and for this son, and for us.
You notice in this account that nobody is named. We do know the name of Moses’ mother, and his father, and his sister. We never know the name of Pharaoh’s daughter, or Pharaoh for that matter. But the only person here in this moment given a name is Moses, and he is named by the princess, Pharaoh’s daughter. And she names him Moses because she took him up out of the water. She found him in the water and took him up and raised him in her household. She adopts him as her son. The Hebrew slave does become a prince of Egypt. He is educated, as Acts 7 will say, in the wisdom, the power, and the might of the Egyptians.
God uses Moses’ time with the Gentile nation of the Egyptians to prepare him for the good work of redeeming his people in due course. Moses’ mother was right. Her son was beautiful in God’s eyes because he had a purpose and a plan to use her son to bring about Israel’s redemption. Pharaoh feared the many sons of Israel, but the one God would use to bring judgment on Egypt was the one son raised in his household. And how did Moses experience this redemption? He was placed in that ark and cast into the Nile. He experiences what Israel will experience ahead of them. He faces death itself. He’s cast into the Nile, that which is supposed to kill him, and instead he is guided safely through the Nile and brought up out of it. I took him from the waters, Moses. He passed from death to life and grew up. So also for Israel, when Moses returns to Israel when he’s 80 years old, after the many afflictions that are beset upon Egypt, what then happens? What is Israel’s experience?
They go through the waters of the Red Sea. Moses goes before them, the Red Seas, they pass through it into life. As Paul says, it is their baptism. The Egyptians attempts to pass through this as well and they are drowned in the Red Sea. The baptism of God’s judgment upon them for having so done to his firstborn son, Israel.
Moses experienced that first on their behalf. He first experienced going through the waters of death to life and receiving God’s blessings, receiving God’s protection, receiving God’s love, receiving communion with God. So also he will then guide Israel through that as well.
And brothers and sisters, where else has that happened? Where else has that occurred? Where did a man experience a baptism of death that led to life, and then says we are baptized in him?
Jesus, God’s son, God’s eternal son. In fact, in Luke chapter 1250, when he’s speaking about the upcoming crucifixion, he says, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.
Jesus Christ passed through the waters of judgment ahead of us. And he, unlike Moses, died. He died on the cross. And yet, death could not contain him. The waters of death could not contain him. He rose again on the third day, the first fruits of the resurrection with the promise to all of us, like Moses who’d been brought up out of the Nile and then guides Israel through the Red Sea, a promise to us that he who tasted death for us has removed its sting.
He who has gone before us has promised us that all who believe in him Everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. There’s a solemn promise from God to all those who would hear this promise of his.
Brothers and sisters, when the rivers of this life come to an end, and we are confronted by that final river, Jordan, the river of death, and its cold embrace, Remember that Jesus went through that before you. And he is with you till that very final moment. And he who tasted death for you and now lives for you, you finally have to make that crossing to the waters of death. He will guide you through it and bring you to the promised land of his eternal inheritance. until he makes this entire world anew as the promised land, all because of his love for you.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let us pray.
Almighty God, graciously grant that your word, which we have heard, may be inscribed inwardly on our hearts As we receive your word meekly with pure affection, may our hearts be filled with love and reverence for you. Cause us to bear the fruit of the Spirit and to live in holiness, diligently following your commandments. May it please you to use us to lead those who are lost, wandering, and confused into the way of truth. All this we pray for the honor and praise of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.