SATURDAY 5th
Exodus 2:1-10
NIV (v3) – ‘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.’
ESV (v3) – ‘When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the riverbank.’
Just like the story of Joseph, the story of Moses is one that has been the means of many a Sunday School story and lesson. And like Joseph he was Gods man for the moment. The wonder of this story is that because of the decree that the king of Egypt had made concerning the birth of baby boys, Moses shouldn’t have survived more than a few days or weeks, but here he is being rescued or saved, and from the most unlikely of sources, by the daughter of the actual man who demanded that the baby boys be destroyed! We all know the saying that life is full of surprises and I would imagine that Moses’ mother was more than surprised when she was given the opportunity to be the one who would end up nursing her son, knowing that when he was old enough he would have to be given to Pharaoh’s daughter, but that was a far better and happier option than having him taken and killed.
Speaking of unlikely sources, and the kings own daughter being the means of rescuing Moses and saving his life, God used a very unlikely source in the early days of the Church, a man called Saul who had approved the execution of Stephen (Acts 9:1) was ravaging the Church, dragging men and women who belonged to the Way off to prison, breathing threats and murder against the disciples, he was doing everything in his power to destroy the baby Church, even asking for permission from the synagogues to do it. (Acts 8:3, 9:1-2) But God was going to use this very unlikely source to be a man who would become in Gods own words ‘a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel . . .’ (Acts 9:15) And just as Moses’ mother would have been surprised, the early disciples would have been both surprised and shocked that God was going to use an unlikely source to be the bearer of the good news of the gospel to the Gentiles . . . (See the response from Ananias in v13)
God can use whoever he likes through whatever means he chooses, I wonder how often we have looked at a situation and wondered how things are going to work out and suddenly God uses an unlikely source as far as we are concerned to bring the answer. Over the history of the Church God has used ‘unlikely sources’ think of John Newton, and more recently, from a story I love to hear, (Teen Challenge) Nicky Cruz, who was one of the most violent drug dealers in the city of New York, most definitely an unlikely source, but God’s hand was upon his life and God’s love, grace and mercy met him head on one night in a crusade and his life was transformed beyond recognition, and since then this unlikely source has become a bearer of the gospel. I love surprises and my prayer is that God will yet bring surprises to the Church by taking from unlikely sources, men and women who will bear his name before our generation.