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The Parents of Moses: Lives of Faith
February 11, 2012

Imagine you are parents of a perfectly healthy baby boy, and you know your baby has a death sentence on him. Your son has no illness nor does he have any medical condition that might reasonably be expected to end in death. He doesn't live in a land where food is scarce. His only crime is that he born male and born to one of the tribes of Israel while living in Egypt. You know the Pharaoh has pronounced a death sentence on your child and all children born like him as he fears a revolt that might lead to the overthrow of his power. Instead of obeying the law of a man, you choose to obey God, and have faith that God will protect your son so that a promise made centuries ago to your common ancestor, Abraham, will be kept. Such was the life of the Parents of Moses, and their choice to have faith in God, gives rise to the man who led Israel out of captivity.

Hebrews 11:23
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.

The parents not only had faith, they acted on their faith, and kept Moses hidden for three months. Faith led the parents of Moses to take action and hid him from Pharaoh and had no fear while doing so. Sometimes,people can try and get us to not obey God. Some do this because they think we are not right in how we obey God. Sometimes theyare unaware of how God expects us to obey him and make decisions without regard for how we should obey God. Pharaoh seemed to be afraid of the children of Israel. I amsure that after centuries of having the children of Israel living in Egypt, the promise made to Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation was a story that was somewhatknown throughout Egypt. The average Egyptian might have dismissed this as what today would be called an urban legend. Pharaoh had the ability to count the population, and his advisors were probably telling him that given a few decades, the children of Israel would outnumber the population of Egypt, and if they wanted to take over the nation of Egypt, they would have the population to do so. So instead of asking the children of Israel to leave, maybe because he did not want to give up the luxury allowed by the servitude of the children of Israel, he decided to implement a brutal type of population control, after first trying to work them to death.

Exodus 1:8-22
Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

The parents of Moses and other responsible adults of Israel had a choice to make. And they chose life. Thousands of years later if they would have made a different choice and forever changed history, we probably would not know about it. Because they obeyed God in faith, we not only know about it, we know how their obedience to God changed history.

Exodus 2:1-10
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself 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 unto 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. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

The mother of Moses knew that her son had grown to a size where she could no longer hide him. She knew that more than ever, his life was threatened to remain with his family. So aware of the promise, and in faith, she made a decision based on faith and with deep love. She placed her son in a small ark and allowed the Nile River to take him to the daughter of Pharaoh. Sometimes when we act in faith, it might seem strange to others, but when we act in faith and obey God, we allow God to work through us. And maybe, God will be able to use us to change world events to fit his plan.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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