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I. "Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river to bathe...." Exodus 2:5

Some call it coincidence. We would call it providence. There is a universe of difference between the two. Coincidence suggests that an event just happens, for no particular reason or purpose. There are some people who believe that everything in life just happens and that there is no purpose toward which everything is working. A leading paleontologist, Stephen Jay Gould, said that in the final analysis, we exist because an ancient fish, which happened to grow lungs and sprout legs, decided it would try living on land. He went on to argue that there is no God and therefore there is no ultimate reason or purpose behind our existence. Gould’s outlook on life? Meaningless birth. Meaningless life. Meaningless Death.

Question:

How would it feel to face the end of your life and think there was no reason behind your living and no God to embrace you when you die? 

But there is a much better outlook on life! The Christian vision of life declares that there is a loving and Almighty God who is intimately involved in all of life; that He is concerned with every life; and that in everything which happens under the sun, God is ultimately working His purposes out in and through us toward a glorious goal, bringing His own unto Himself. Therefore, with our unique perspective as Christians, we lay claim to a birth, a life, and even a death that is full of meaning and purpose. 

For some, life is just one darn thing after another, and then the end.

For us, life is a matter of God working in and through us toward a glorious reunion!

"Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river to bathe...and she saw the basket among the reeds..."

Some would call it coincidence, but we see God at work to provide a way out of a terrible ordeal. For at just the right time a beautiful young Egyptian princess went down to the bank of the Nile to take a bath. At that very moment, the unseen Almighty God placed before her a baby boy in a floating basket.

It couldn’t be coincidence and it must have been God. How do we know? I suggest these reasons:

 A.    The people were suffering. As powerless slaves, mothers were experiencing the unspeakable grief. Their babies were being ripped from their breasts, run through with swords or thrown into the river. And, "God desires that none of His little ones should perish."

B.    The unnamed daughter of the Pharaoh was the only person living at the time who had both the power and the influence to save that particular baby. Her father was the most powerful man in the world. His word was law, and he had sent forth an edict that all the little Hebrew boys would be slaughtered either at the moment of their birth, or by drowning them in the river. Only one living person had the ability to break his commandment and live, and that person would be his daughter. As I father, who sometimes behaves like a tyrant, I can attest to the power my beautiful little princess has over me! Even a tyrant like Pharaoh would have been wrapped around the little finger of his daughter.

Try to imagine the options available to her when she saw the baby and recognized him as a member of the slave race. What could she have done? What was the safe thing for her to do under the circumstances? Perhaps she would turn her back. Or, order the anonymous slave baby to be plunged under the water. That compassion is given opportunity to break the shackles of a cruel world is not the work of chance, but the work of a loving God who is working His purposes out. 

C.    The lifetime which follows that moment of deliverance proves it best of all. It had to be God! Pharaoh’s daughter names the boy "Moses." In Hebrew, Moses means "drawn out." Is it just a matter of chance that there is an Egyptian word that sounds just like "Moses," which in their language means "saved from the river?" Whether you speak Hebrew or Egyptian, the name of the child not only describes what God did for that infant slave boy, but what God intended to do through him for approximately 3 million slaves who were being brutally oppressed by the young girl’s father.

II.    "...and lo, the babe was crying. So she took pity on him..."

Another very important lesson on life we gleam from examining Pharaoh’s daughter, has to do with what is at the core of God’s heart  -- Compassion. What was true then is true today: His heart is full of compassion for His people. It cannot be contained. It overflows. And the primary way God brings His compassion into our lives is through human agency. Pharaoh’s daughter is the unknowing agent of God’s compassion. We can be His agents too, and have the joy of knowing it! Every time a person acts out of genuine compassion, God is behind it.

"Compassion is a deep_hearted, big_hearted quality. It is the ability to feel with others in their needs. It identifies with the pain of another’s misery, the wound of their sorrow, the anguish of their concern, or the wants of their poverty. It is one thing the whole human family needs and craves mercy. And those who fill that need, will find doors that swing inward to their approach."(From Leroy Brownlow, in a book of devotions called Today is Mine).

Janet Curtis O’Leary said, "Pity weeps and runs away: Compassion comes to help and stay."

The Apostle Peter said, "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers (and sisters), be tenderhearted, be courteous." I Peter 3:8

III.     "One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens..."

Here’s another truth we learn when examining Pharaoh’s daughter: The goal of God’s compassion is ultimately our redemption!

Pharaoh’s daughter was a pagan. She didn’t know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She worshiped as a good Egyptian would. And yet, God was at work in her, placing her there at the right time. God was at work in her feelings of compassion for the doomed child. God was at work in her decision to take the child as her own, making him a part of Pharaoh’s family. And so, in the providence of God, the tyrant Pharaoh would for a time become a grandfather. How many times did he bounce Moses on his knee? Where he sets out to kill the Hebrew baby boys, he ends up spoiling one rotten! God makes his edict a failure. The power which would have exterminated this child becomes a power that will protect little Moses as he grows. And the child would become a deliverer of an entire race of people. Without knowing it, Pharaoh’s daughter was an accomplice in God’s grand plan of redemption! Even our redemption!

God used Pharaoh’s daughter to save Moses.

Moses is saved for the sake Israel.

Israel is saved numerous times for the sake of the coming Messiah.

Our Messiah was born under another evil edict (Herod said to slaughter the male children) but was saved for the purpose of the Cross, that we might all be saved.

Conclusion:

Was it all somehow a glorious streak of luck or chance? No, it was God working behind the scenes with great compassion for His people, ultimately for our salvation.

One final thought: Did you notice that nowhere in the story does this generous, compassionate and invisible God take center stage in order to bow for the ovation He deserves? He never feels the need to take credit. What does that suggest about our acts of compassion?

For use as a closing prayer: A prayer of confidence in God, by Anne Bradstreet, Puritan Poet (1612 - 1672)

"Lord, why should I doubt any more, when you have given me such assured pledges of your love? First, you are my Creator, I am your creature, you my Master, I your servant. But hence arises not my comfort: you are my Father, I am your child. "You shall be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty. Christ is my brother: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God; but, lest this should not be enough, your maker is your husband." Nay, more, I am a member of your body, he my head. Such privileges had not the Word of truth made them known, who or where is the man that dared in his heart have presumed to have thought it? So wonderful are these thoughts that my spirit fails in me at their consideration, and I am confounded to think that God, who has done so much for me, should have so little from me. But this is my comfort, that when I come to heaven, I shall understand perfectly what he has done for me, and then I shall be able to praise him as I ought. Lord, having this hope, let me purify myself as you are pure, and let me be no more afraid of death, but even desire to be dissolved and be with you, which is best of all." Amen.