Read Exodus 2:1-10

1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child,she hid him for three months. 3 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. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe,and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying,and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter,”Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8 “Yes,go,” she answered. And the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her,”Take this baby and nurse him for me,and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older,she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses,saying,”I drew him out of the water.” (NIV)

Every now and then in our mixed-up world where nothing seems to make sense,something happens that is just right. Take this episode for example. Hebrew boys were intended to be killed by the Egyptians who were fearful of the Hebrew birthrate threatening their society. This one Hebrew infant gets rescued through what many might call a twist of fate but which in context is a work of God. He had special plans for this newborn much later on.

Not only is the infant discovered by someone who won’t kill him,he is discovered by the daughter of the ruler of Egypt. She didn’t stick to the rules and seemed happy to adopt this abandoned child rather than betray him and have him killed. So the baby boy not only gets safety but also the promise of a privileged upbringing. What we might term a very satisfactory outcome. But wait,there’s more.

The sister of the infant has her wits about her. She sees what is going on and intervenes. Surely Pharaoh’s daughter has better things to do than raise a Hebrew infant. Why not use the services of a Hebrew woman? In fact,she knows just such a woman! And so Moses’ mother gets paid for raising her own child. We can almost hear a heavenly chuckle at this happy twist of circumstance. God not only preserves the life of Moses but gives him the privilege of being raised by his own mother and then the privilege of a court education and status. And his mum gets paid for doing what she would gladly have done for nothing.

Whenever we are tempted to think that nothing seems to go right,remember this story. There are still such things as happy endings.

Blessings
David Reay