God in control

And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. – Exodus 2.5-10

I love accounts of incidents where God steps in to a situation in clearly miraculous ways. We have loads of these events all throughout history. Things seem impossible, but somehow God steps in and turns things around at just the right moment.

In this case a Hebrew family had a son. They knew the infanticide order and knew they had to protect their son.

In order to try and save his life his mother made a little boat basket. She waterproofed it and set him afloat and trusted God with the result. She sent his big sister out to watch the little boat and see what happened.

Not too far away the princess, Pharaoh’s daughter, went down to the river to bathe along with her retinue. The princess saw a basket stuck in the reeds and sent one of the maids to go and get it. Imagine their amazement when they opened the basket and found a little baby boy. Not only that it was a Hebrew baby boy.

What a dilemma! They knew the law, but these young girls had just found a cute little baby!

The princess made a decision. She would keep the baby and raise him as her own in the palace. Who, after all, is going to argue with her? Miriam, Moses’ big sister offered to go get a Hebrew woman to care for the baby. So God intervened and it ended up that not only was Moses not dead, he was was going to be raised by his own mother in the splendour of Pharaoh’s palace.

Who would have thought that God would do such a work when his mother placed in a reed basket with no idea as to what would happen? In a moment everything changed as God turned despair into hope.

We may be facing our own baby in a basket situations. We may not know what to do. Sometimes we have to do what we think best, let go, and trust God to sort things out.