By Faith: Fearless

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.”

2

1 Now 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.

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23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

Powerful people like Pharaoh are usually afraid of losing their power. That’s why Pharaoh became an oppressor, a slave master, a killer of the people of Israel. He didn’t want them to get too strong, so he ordered that all their newborn baby boys be killed.

Many years later King Herod did a similar thing to the baby boys in Bethlehem. He wanted to be sure Jesus never became king. (See Matthew 2:13-18.)

Moses’ birth was an act of faith. Keeping him alive in defiance of Pharaoh’s order was an even bigger act of faith on the part of his parents. They “feared” God more than Pharaoh. Faith in God causes us to see the world differently and also to act differently. Moses learned this from his parents.

It’s not that believers like Moses or his parents are never afraid. We all know fear. But as faith grows, fear recedes. We learn to overcome our fears. We are no longer ruled by our fears but by faith.

Faith gives us eyes to see God Almighty in the picture of our lives. Moses’ parents saw God in the picture of their son’s life. It is that more than anything else that makes children beautiful to believing parents. That is why they will defy people like Pharaoh. They will not hand over their children to those who would harm them. God in Jesus keeps all our lives forever.

Lord, help us to trust that we are always in your care; no one can snatch us out of your hand. Your resurrection power guarantees it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.