self at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it” (Exodus 2:4-9). What a tremendous demonstration this is of the providential faithfulness of Almighty God to a believing mother who dared to trust God with the most precious thing in all her life, her precious baby. In this inexhaus tible passage we have a revelation of how God honors the intelligent faith of a godly mother. When we are willing to trust God implicitly and completely after we have done our duty, He will set in motion a whole train of miraculous and wonderful events to accomplish His purpose, and to honor our faith. He will turn heaven and earth and hell upside down if need be, in order to keep His promise. How wonderfully we see this in the case of Moses. First of all, we notice that after Jochebed had laid the little Moses by the river’s brink, God begins to move upon the heart of a pagan daughter of a pagan king, so that at this very time that Moses laid by the river brink, she had to come to that very place to take a swim. Now that may seem very simple and unimpor tant, but remember, this was Pharaoh’s only daughter. Why should she want to bathe in the dirty River Nile? There is something supernatural and marvelous here. There is something passing strange in all of this story. We know that the kings of Pharaoh’s day had bath houses such as the wealthiest of today do not possess. Excavations and discoveries reveal the most elaborate bathing houses of ancient time found in Egypt. And here the princess could have taken her bath. But no, there came over her an insatiable desire for the old swimming hole of her girlhood days. So this daughter of the king despises her gorgeous bathroom, and satisfies her childish longing to go once more to the old swim ming hole in the Nile. Do you not, my friend, see the hand of God in it all? Once we trust in Him, He begins to move heaven and earth to honor our faith. Now comes the next step in God’s providential deal ing. Moses’ mother, as we noticed, had gone back to her home. She had done all that she could, and she had now left it entirely with the Lord and trusted Him. Miriam had remained behind. No sooner had Miriam seen the princess opening the little casket than she rushed in and offered her services. This is indeed a mar velous miracle. Think of it for a moment! A slave girl, rushing in upon a royal princess! Under ordinary cir cumstances she would have been beaten off by her at tendants. God is in this thing, and unbelievable as it seems, this haughty princess deigns to listen to a slave girl as she offers to get a nurse for this little baby. No questions are asked. There was only this word: “Go!” I imagine that Miriam must have said, “ I know a woman who has just lost her baby, and she is grieving over the loss of her baby, and she would be just too happy to take care of this little one for you,” and so in answer to her offer, we have the one word, “Go” from this prin cess. I trust that you see in this the hand of Almighty God. Having seen faith tested, faith in action, and God’s answer to this faith, notice last of all, the reward of faith. The story reads like one of the miracles of the 19
by Dr. M. R. DeHaan Founder-Director, Radio Bible Class “And he (God) said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their’s, and shall serve them; and they shall affict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance” (Genesis 15:13-14). Beyond a question of a doubt, they were familiar with this promise to Abraham, and this was now the fourth generation that they had been in Egypt. The time, therefore, was here, and so they must have dedi cated this child for this occasion. Now if you doubt these deductions, read Hebrews 11:23, “ By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” First of all, notice the reason why Moses’ parents hid him. It was by faith. Then we ask the question, “ Faith in what?” Faith, of course, in the promises of God. It could not be anything else. That this was the basis of their faith is clear from the second thing which we notice in this passage—the proof of their faith. Here we have it: “ Because they saw that he was a proper child.” When they saw the child after he was born, they knew that he was God’s man, for he is called the “proper” child for the occasion to which God has called him. That is the meaning of the word, “proper,” here in the original. His parents somehow recognized that this baby was the one whom God has promised. This and this alone will explain the third thing in Hebrews 11:23: “And they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” This leads us to ask the question, Why were not the parents of Moses afraid of the king’s commandment? Simply because they trusted God’s Word; they believed God’s revelation. There can be no other answer to this question. There was something about this child which they recognized as God’s hand upon the boy, and so instead of fearing the king, they hid him for three months by faith. Here the “ proper” child in Hebrews 11, is called a “ goodly” 'child, in Exodus 2. She saw that he was God’s man, and she trusted God for him. She was not afraid of the king’s commandment, and as a result of their faith in the promise of God, they did not cast Moses into the river, they hid him instead for three months, and then turned him over to God. They had done all that they could do. There was nothing else to do, and now it was left entirely up to God. At the age of three months, therefore, the baby could no longer be hidden. He was becoming too noisy and boisterous. Now Moses’ mother might have said, “Well, I have done my part so far, now it is up to God, and now it is time to throw him in the river.” But she still didn’t do it, because she could still do something. So she built a little crib of bulrushes to put the baby into. Undoubtedly she built this by faith also. Was this all? No, this was not even all, for she waterproofed the little crib also. She “ daubed it with mud and pitch” in order to make it water-tight. Then Jochebed turned it all over to God, and after placing the little ark among the flags, she went back home, in the sweet faith and absolute confidence that now God was going to keep His Word. Here we take up the story in Exodus 2 : “ And his (Moses’ ) sister (Miri am) stood afar off, to watch what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash her- MAY, 1965
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