BIBLE REFERENCE:
“But when she could hide him (Moses) 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.” Exodus 2:3.
WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT:
As I studied through the life of Moses and Jesus, I was amazed at how many similarities there were in the way their lives played out while here on earth. Let me start with one that really stuck out with Moses. There are many, but this one hits home for the saved gentiles. Moses was brought up by Pharaoh's daughter as her own even though he was born of a Hebrew slave, Joshebed. For the first forty years of His live He lived in the highest court in the land under Pharaoh, himself. Then He came to the part in his life where he found out that he, himself, was Hebrew, so he chose to take on the role of slave instead of royalty. We read in Exodus 2:11-12; “Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people, and took notice of their heavy burdens. He saw an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking around and seeing no one else, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” When the word spread of what he had done, he was forced to leave Egypt where he spent the next forty years. While in Midian, he ended up taking a gentile bride, Zipporah, who was from Midian in Arabia. Let me pause for a moment and take a look at the picture painted by this event in history. Moses was driven out of Egypt because his own people turned against him. For that reason, Moses had to leave Egypt and upon doing so he took on a gentile bride. This is a picture of Jesus Christ being rejected by His own people which caused Him to turn His attention to the gentiles. The gentiles that come to Jesus Christ by faith are often referred to as the “Bride of Christ.” Moses, being a Hebrew married a gentile bride in the land of Midian, Jesus Christ, being a Hebrew will also take a gentile bride, His born-again believers. Coincidence, I don’t think so! Everything in the Bible is there for out learning. Also, Moses was called to free the Jews from bitter bondage, Jesus came to free the Jews from the clutches of Rome. Both Moses and Jesus were rejected by their own and in doing so ended up taking a gentile bride.
Now, here is another picture of this historic event. After forty years in the wilderness as a shepherd, God called on Moses to go back to Egypt to free His people. After several plagues brought on by God in Egypt because of Pharaohs hardened heart, Pharaoh eventually let them go. They all (The Jews) packed up all their belongings and headed for the Promised Land. After another forty years of wondering in the wilderness, and many episodes of faith testing, Joshua finally brought the Jews into the Promised Land. Since Jesus Christ was crucified and rejected by the Jews, they have been a target for extinction for the next two thousand years by many evil doers doing the work of Satan. Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin to mention a couple but you get the idea. Even today, there is talk among the Muslim nation to exterminate the Jews from existence. Let me tell you right up front, it won’t happen. There is a time on the near horizon when the Jews will once again enter another holocaust similar to the one that took place in the early forties. This time goes by many names, but one that says it all is “The time of Jacobs’s trouble.” A time when Israel will go through a time like no other as Jesus put it in Matthew 24:21; “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This time will be horrible, to say the least but after these seven years are over, Jesus Christ will return and save the remaining remnant of the Jews and others that made it through the great tribulation to set up His one-thousand-year millennial kingdom. This is a clear picture of the Jews once and for all entering into the real Promised Land. The promise that was made to Abraham by God thousands of years ago.
One more event that took part in both their lives is how they both had to be hidden from evil rulers that wanted to kill them. In the case of Moses, during this difficult time, Moses was born, and in an effort to protect him from Pharaoh’s murderous plan, we read where his mother hid him for three months. Exodus 1:22; “So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive,” When they couldn’t hide him any longer, Moses was placed in a waterproof basket and hidden among the reeds along the Nile River, Exodus 2:1-4; “And when she (Joshebed) could no longer hide him, she took for him an arc of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. I’m sure that many people are not aware of this event, but everybody knows about Jesus Christ and what happened during His first couple years of His life. King Herod gave a decree that all male boys under two years old in the land of Bethlehem were to be slaughtered. What most people also do not understand is, why two years and younger. It’s because this decree was given after Mary and Joseph moved into a home of their own, not a stable. Matthew 2 tells us that Jesus was in Bethlehem when the Wise Men visited him. He was in a house, and he is described as a child, rather than a baby in a manger. This was Joseph's ancestral home, being a descendant of King David. Because of this decree from King Herod to kill all the males two years old and younger, God visited Joseph in a dream and told Him to go to Egypt until the danger was past. Matthew 2:13-14; “Now when they (Mary and Joseph) had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” There are many more similarities between Moses and Jesus, but without getting into everyone, I’ll leave you with these for now. “Take care and Have a Blessed day”
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