“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.” (Ex 2:3)
Imagine for a moment that you are the mother of baby Moses. The king has decreed that all baby boys be thrown into the Nile. You have tried for months to hide your baby, but now he is too big, too alert, too noisy. You know it will be only a matter of hours before he is found. You cry out to the Lord, and in response, you receive very strange instructions: “Put your baby in a boat and set him afloat on the Nile!”
You now have two choices: Either you obey and let the protection of your child be taken completely out of your hands; or you disobey and continue to try and protect him yourself. The second choice is your natural inclination. After all, who can protect the child better than you? If you obey, there will only be God to protect him . . .. But you’ve already proven that you can’t protect him any longer . . .. This just might be the hardest decision of your life!
Of course, we have the advantage of knowing the end of the story. We know that the baby ended up in the hands of Pharaoh’s daughter who raised him as the son of a king and heir to a throne. We know that this same baby eventually freed his people from Egypt. But Moses’ mother didn’t have a clue what might happen to her baby. Nevertheless, she obeyed. She let her baby’s protection pass completely into the hands of the Lord, and of course, God proved Himself faithful.
And He still does. We, as humans, strive to hold onto our problems and “fix” them ourselves. Meanwhile, God pleads with us to “cast all [our] burdens on Him”! (1 Peter 5:7).
What problem are you holding onto, my friend? Is it financial, and the two extra jobs still aren’t covering the bills? Are you having trouble at school, and all your efforts to study more diligently are failing? Or maybe you’re involved in a project, but the more you try to promote it, the more you are denied. Why not put it in a papyrus basket and set it afloat on the Nile? Why not cast it upon Jesus? Then you can turn your back and walk away, ever trusting that your problem, just like baby Moses, will land in the right hands.
“ . . . she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.”
Love in Christ,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets ( www.scripturalnuggets), Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org