§ 3. The escape of Moses.
The escape of Moses teaches three things especially —
1. God's over-ruling providence, and his power to make wicked men work out his will;
2. The blessing that rests upon a mother's faithful love and care; and
3. The fact that natural virtue is acceptable in God's sight.
I. GOD'S OVER-RULING PROVIDENCE turned the cruel king's edict to the advantage of the child whom he designed for great things. Had it not been for the edict, Moses would never have been exposed, and Pharaoh's daughter would probably never have seen him. Had she not come down to the river when she did — had any little circumstance occurred to prevent her, as might easily have happened, the child might have died of hunger or exposure before she saw it, or might have been found by an unfriendly Egyptian and thrown from the ark into the water. Moreover, had the child not happened to be in tears when she opened the ark, it might not have moved her compassion, or at any rate not have so stirred it as to make her take the boy for her son. In any of these contingencies, Moses, even if saved by some further device of his mother's, would not have had the education which alone fitted him to be the nation's leader and guide, nor the familiarity with court life which enabled him. to stand up boldly before the Pharaoh of his time and contend with him as an equal. Thus Pharaoh's pet weapon, the edict, was turned against himself, and brought about that Exodus of the Israelites which he was so anxious to hinder (Exodus 1:10). It was an aggravation of his punishment that the hand by which his designs were frustrated was that of his own daughter, who unwittingly preserved the child which, of all others, he was most concerned to destroy.
II. GOD'S BLESSING ON A MOTHER'S FAITHFUL LOVE AND CARE. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents" (Hebrews 11:23). Disobedience to the edict of the king would in Egypt, if detected, have been punished either by death or mutilation. Amram and Jochebed, but especially Jochebed, who must have been the main agent in the concealment, braved these penalties — did not allow their fear of them to influence their conduct — had faith in God that he would, somehow or other, give success to their endeavours to preserve their child, and either save them from .punishment or reward them in another world. And it was done to them according as they believed. The concealment of the birth was undetected for the long space of three months — the ark was placed, no one perceiving, among the flags at the edge of the river — the daughter of Pharaoh made her appearance at the time expected — "had compassion" on the babe — accepted without hesitation Miriam's suggestion that she should fetch a nurse — accepted without demur or suspicion the mother as the nurse-gave him back to her care for a space of nearly two years — and finally assigned the child the highest position possible, almost that of a prince of the blood royal — allowed him to be called and considered her son — and had him educated accordingly. Jochebed's utmost hope had probably been to save her child's life. God's blessing brought it to pass that she not only obtained that result, but procured him the highest social rank and the best possible cultivation of all his powers, whether of mind or body. Mothers should lay this lesson to heart, and — whatever danger threatens their children — hope for the best, plan for the best, work for the best; they may not always, like Jochebed, find all their plans crowned with success; but they may trust God to .bless their endeavours in his own way and in his own good time, if only they be made in faith, and with due submission of their own wills to his.
III. NATURAL VIRTUE ACCEPTABLE IN GOD'S SIGHT. There runs through both the Old and the New Testament a continual protest against the view that God is "a respecter of persons" in the sense of confining his favour to those who have been brought by the appointed mode into actual covenant with him. The lesson is taught with frequent iteration, that "in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him" (Acts 10:35). Here it is an Egyptian Pharaoh's daughter — that is evidently regarded favourably. Elsewhere it is Rahab of Jericho, or Ruth the Moabitess, or Arannah the Jebusite, or Darius the Mede, or Cyrus the Persian, or Artaxerxes, or the Syro-Phcenician woman, or Cornelius the centurion — all of whom are examples of the same universal law, which is, that God locks graciously upon all his creatures, and accepts every sincere effort towards good that is made by any of them. In his house are "many mansions" — in his future kingdom are many gradations. No one is shut out of his kingdom by the circumstances of his birth or profession. Let a man but seek honestly to do his will according to his lights, and persevere to the end, he will obtain acceptance, whatever the belief in which he has been brought up, and whatever his professed religion. His profession will not save him; but his love of goodness, his efforts to do what is right, his earnest cleaving to truth, and right, and virtue, will be accepted, through the merits of Christ, and counted to him for righteousness. Man may be very far gone from his original perfectness; but he was made in God's image — he has an instinctive sense of right and wrong. When he refuses the evil and chooses the good — whether he be in covenant with God or out of covenant — his conduct is pleasing and acceptable for Christ's sake, who has enlightened him and sustained him, and enabled him to do his good works, and presents them to the Father and obtains for them acceptance through his merits. Pharaoh's daughter stands to us here as a type of the heathen world — a world lying in wickedness, but still salvable, still on the verge of salvation — she has the approval of the writer, and of the Holy Spirit, who inspired him — she had only to continue to act compassionately, kindly — according to her lights, rightly — and she was secure of final acceptance by him who "judges the folk righteously, and governs all the nations upon earth" (Psalms 67:4). We hear much in these days of God's supposed exclusiveness and favouritism. Scripture does not sanction any such. views. He is there presented to us as "no respecter of persons," but "a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).