Get Real November 16 Devotional
November 16, 2024
EXODUS 2:1-10 | 1Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
In our scripture, the underside and topside of history came together with this encounter between a royal daughter and a desperate Hebrew family. Trying to escape the infanticide, Moses’ parents hide him and then create a floating baby basket and launch him toward the royal residence. In some ways this story is a classic example of the powerlessness outwitting the powerful. Rather than Moses being murdered, as Pharaoh intends, he is adopted by the King’s family! Even better, he is raised by his mother—who is paid for nursing her own son. Talk about a reversal of fortune, and all because of a timely intervention and suggestion by Moses’ sister. The drama results in a unique upbringing: Moses is multi-cultural. He has a secret Hebrew identity and learns to look at life from the bottom. He has a public Egyptian identity and comes to understand the culture and mentality of the royal household and one of the dominant nations of the ancient near east. Great leaders are interested in viewing life from different angles.
Have you looked at life from more than one social location? Perhaps through a friendship or a mission experience?
What did you learn?
