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Hope Comes as a Baby

Words of Faith Final

Hope Comes as a Baby
Words of Faith 9-8-2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2022
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Exodus 2
Now a man of the house 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 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 river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl 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. And 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. [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."

Into this setting of oppression and pain, a baby was born. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Much later, predicting the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah would write, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders..." (Isaiah 9:6). It seems that a baby is one of God's favorite solutions.
Of course, Pharaoh was in the business of killing babies. Killing babies is a sure-fire way of keeping the population down, demoralizing the people, and destroying their future. But God had a plan. We also hear about that in the Christmas story, don't we?
The parents of this baby were named Amran and Jochebed. The baby had an older sister and an older brother. Miriam was perhaps ten or more years older, and Aaron was about three years older than the baby. Jochebed put the baby among the reeds of the Nile in a papyrus basket with Miriam left to watch.
Technically, Jochebed had obeyed the decree of Pharaoh and "pitched" the baby into the Nile. But she had carefully orchestrated a different outcome. The Egyptian princess found the baby, and Miriam offered to locate a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. She named him Moses, which means "drawing out of water" or "rescued." The one who would one day lead the rescue of God's people was first rescued by God.
It is difficult not to see, once again, that God's sovereign plan and care were at work. When the people of God had grown to the place where it was time for them to move as a nation back to Canaan, the land promised by God to Abraham, it would take a great leader to make that happen. Help was on the way. Hope was on the way.
Hope often comes in the form of a baby. While the world, like Pharaoh, may look upon the birth of a baby as a threat or burden, we never know the hope and possibility that God has planned for a new life.
In our church family, we dedicate babies at a young age and I hold each child up to God before the congregation. I am often aware that in my hands I may well hold the next great liberator or evangelist, a teacher or perhaps one who will discover great cures for disease. With each child that God gives us, we are reminded that the Lord is not finished. He is still giving life. He is still bringing hope. He is still expressing His love. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

Lord God, I celebrate life today. I celebrate hope. You are the author of life and in charge of my destiny. Thank You for giving me hope and a future. In Jesus' name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2022 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.