Moses’s parents showed their faith when they put their little son in the ark at the river’s brink. Then Miriam, Moses’s sister, stood by to see what would become of him. What an expression of complete weakness — a little baby in an ark among the bulrushes — but God saw the faith expressed in the parents’ act, and He undertook for them.
You are living in a dark world which is filled with wickedness and sin, and no doubt many of you are the objects of your parents’ prayers. How they watch you in love, desiring that you may be preserved from the evil ways of the world, and from the judgment that is at the end of a Christless life. Pharaoh wanted to destroy Moses along with all the other Hebrew boys, but God intervened on Moses’s behalf in a most marvelous way and preserved him. God’s ways are not ours, but we know that He never disappoints faith. May we all, especially we who are parents, learn to trust Him more.
Care for a Child
After the baby had been lying in his little ark for some time, Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the water’s edge to wash, and what a surprise she received. There was the little baby Moses in his ark of bulrushes! Why didn’t she just have him thrown into the water as her father had commanded? It is possible she thought of such an awful act, but God stopped it. No one can harm us or our children unless God allows it, and faith trusts God in spite of seeming impossibilities. Instead of harming Moses, she took him up in her arms, intending to bring him home to Pharaoh’s court. Miriam, who knew all about her parents’ faith, and had been brought up in that happy atmosphere, immediately came to Pharaoh’s daughter. In wonderful, God-given wisdom, she asked Pharaoh’s daughter if she could get a nurse for the baby from among the Hebrew women. Pharaoh’s daughter consented to her request, and so Miriam went and brought Moses’s own mother, Jochabed, to care for him. God is too rich to ever be our debtor, or to owe anything to us, and what a surprise awaited the faithful mother! Pharaoh’s daughter told her that she would pay her for nursing Moses, Jochabed’s very own son. What a great lesson for Christian parents today! God will reward us for bringing up our children for Him. No effort in this direction will be unrewarded, though too often we give our greatest efforts to seek great things for them in this world, only to find that there are no rewards for all such efforts except sorrow.
Continue in Faith
May all this be a lesson to us that we may seek grace from above to put first things first. Even when things look dark and difficult, we can continue on in faith, counting upon God. He is able to undertake for us in every problem which confronts us in family life, as well as in everything else.
When He makes bare His arm,
Who shall His work withstand?
When He His people’s cause defends,
Who then shall stay His hand?
Further Meditation
1. How did God reward Moses’s parents’ faith?
2. What other parents in God’s Word showed their faith in caring for their children?
3. Another excellent resource for parents can be found in To the Parents of My Grandchildren by G. C. Willis. It has a lot of very sobering lessons but they are certainly worth the time to read.