Life through water

DEVOTION

EXODUS

THROUGH WATER

Ex 2:1-10

2:1 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 river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl 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

A deliverer of Israel is born, we know this is Moses. He is named by the daughter of Pharaoh rather than by his mother or father. What we know is that Moses was from the tribe of Levi. He had an older sister, Miriam, and an older brother Aaron. Aaron was most likely born before the decree to kill all the male babies. What is interesting is that the new law that is to be given is through Moses and the new priesthood will come through Aaron, both Levites. This phrase, fine child, carries the meaning that he was a very beautiful baby. This story is well known and is seen historically with all the life of Moses to follow, so what lesson can we glean from this portion for our lives today. It surely seems God had a plan and a purpose for Moses from the time of his conception, in fact even the family in which he was conceived. We might be tempted to be convinced in predestination, that man has no choice in the matter and course of his life. Surely Moses would serve as an example of this doctrine. Yet he was born during the time of the decree by Pharaoh to have all the male babies thrown into the Nile. Yet his mother hid him for three months. Had God predestined her to do that? We are not told she heard from God. We are not told she did not hear from him, but simply because of his being so fine looking she could not bear the thought of him being taken and thrown into the Nile. Yet at three months of age, she did exactly that, she put him in the Nile. True, not to drown him, but to try to save his life. Perhaps there are certain people, God predetermines to be used in certain ways, but there also is the human choice that is involved.  It is interesting that the life of Moses was spared by using the Nile, the tool meant to be used to extinguish the life of the Hebrew male babies. Christianity is the tool with which we are saved, yet it also is the tool meant to put our old nature to death.

Rom 6:6-7

6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

NIV

Christ came to save us, but in order to be saved we must die, at least the old self must be put to death. Christ is the spring of living water. Yet in baptism we symbolically die in the water to be resurrected, born again to a new life in Christ. This experience in water is an outward evidence of what already has happened in our heart. Moses was put in the water and in a sense he was resurrected by the daughter of Pharaoh into a new life. We are seeing a picture of salvation already through the spring of living water, Jesus. He who saves us also causes us to die.