Amazing God! and a prayer for my sons

 

 Amazing God! 

and a prayer for my sons

"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?

Jeremiah 32:27

"'Not by might, nor by power but by my spirit,' says the Lord of hosts." Zechariah 4:6

I recently wrote a poem about Moses's mom because I was so encouraged with how God did such an amazing thing in such a hopeless situation.

Imagine being not just a woman but a slave woman in the ancient world.

Is there any one with less power or control over her life than a slave woman in ancient Egypt?

Pitted against a world power greater than all other cultures of the time, and a Pharaoh's decree to end her son's life. 

Armed soldiers bent upon their task. Who could withstand them?

Where could they flee? across the barren dessert? sure death there.

What resource did she have?

Who could she turn to for aid and help?

Could you cast your baby into a river even in a pitch coated basket?

Imagine the desperation she must have felt to undertake such an action.

But there had to be some small seed of faith and prayer for look what God did...

The one and only person with in thousands of miles who could save her baby's life finds her baby and not only spares his life but adopts him and cares and provides for him the very best the world had to offer at the time.

No army, diplomat or plea would have had any effect upon the heart of a man willing to kill thousands of innocent babies for his own ends.

Except one, his own beautiful and captivating daughter.

Not only was Moses saved but his mother got to nurse him herself and receive wages for it. What an absolutely amazing thing God did.

And even more amazing still.... her son grows up and chooses faith in God over all the best that this world had to offer.

Luxury, power, education, comfort .... it was all on a platter for his taking.

What kind of influences had he been surrounded with all his years in Pharaoh's court? Surely no godly ones.

And yet he was able somehow to see through and beyond all those pleasures of the soul to what is eternal and truly valuable.

Was not this another miracle of God's power and most likely a mother's prayer and faith.?

“By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” Hebrews 11: 24-25

“A Basket of Faith”

A Prayer of Jochebed,

the mother of Moses

Dear Lord,

Please watch over my little one.

I place him into your loving care.

     I cannot protect him from those who wish him harm.

         I cannot keep him safe or even alive without you.

I want to hold him to myself,

     and never let him go,

          but this will be his most certain death.

But how to let him go?

I do know that my God rules heaven and earth

     He is GREAT

         and can do the AMAZING

            and the UNFORESEEN

                  even the ABSOLUTELY UNTHINKABLE

I can only prepare this little basket,

     cover it with pitch,

          pad it with my softest blanket

               and then release him into the currents out of my control.

                      

                                                            AND PRAY

What will happen to him?

I do not know.

But I do know the One

who holds my little basket

and all it contains

in His hands.

“But the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” Daniel 11:32

Exodus 1 – 2:10 NIV

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy[a] in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Footnotes:

Exodus 1:5 Masoretic Text (see also Gen. 46:27); Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint (see also Acts 7:14 and note at Gen. 46:27) seventy-five

2Now a man of the tribe 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[a] 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. So 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.

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."

Footnotes:

Exodus 2:3 The Hebrew can also mean ark, as in Gen. 6:14.