Sun. 13/9/2015
LESSON 2 13/9/2015
MOSES: HIS BIRTH
Suggested Hymns: G.H.B. 32, 37
Devotional Reading: Exodus 2:1, 10, 2:2,3.
Topic For Adults: “Duty Is Ours, Events Are God’s”
Topic For Youths: “Nothing Ventures, Nothing Wins”
Topic For Intermediates: You Are Not An Accident
Scripture Lesson: Exo. 2:1,10, 2:2-3, Heb. 11:23
Memory Verse: “And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, Because I drew him out of the water” (Exo. 2:10) NKJV
DAILY DEVOTIONAL READING
Sun. 13/9/2015
Moses Saved By Pharaoh’s Daughter
Exo. 2:5-9
There was no way Moses’ mother could envisage or foresee that the child she put in an ark on the river would be found by Pharaoh’s daughter or that whoever found him would have pity on him. She had done what she could in preserving the life of the child. She had to depend on what God alone can do to preserve the child. By divine arrangement, Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river at the time the child needed attention and was crying. She had pity on the child and decided to keep him. Miriam, Moses’ older sister was on hand to suggest a Hebrew nurse for the baby. Moses’ mother was appointed a nurse to take care of him. What a perfect divine arrangement God had made to bring up the man that would eventually lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The faith of Moses’ mother paid off, as she was paid to take care of her own son.
Point of Emphasis: God’s timing and plans are always perfect because He makes everything happen to fulfill His purpose.
Prayer Point: Father, let everything work together for the good purpose of carrying out Your plan for my life.
BACKGROUND
Births herald the beginning, loaded with great potentials to either worsen or improve the status quo. We have all come to the world like the majority, but a few will live, affect their generation and die empty unlike the majority. As this lesson shows, although, the tribe of Levi was initially cursed, this tribe began to be distinguished from the rest by the birth of Moses. When a child is born, the child cries while parents and the well-wishers are happy. A person will be adjudged successful when the reverse of what happens at birth happens at his death – he must smile with the air of fulfilment having completed his course (like Apostle Paul) while people around must cry because of the scarce unforeseeable replacement of the departed beloved at least in the immediate. The circumstances surrounding the birth of a giant who copiously dotted the pages of history with his indelible and undeniable contribution and achievements is being considered today.
NOTES ON THE TEXT
PART 1: ACT OF FAITH. (EXO. 2:1,10, 2:2-3; HEB. 11:23)
Moses was born at Goshen, in the land of Egypt about B.C. 1571. At this time of his birth, the multiplication of the Israelites was alarming and constituted serious threat to the national security of Egypt. Thus a cruel law was made at the time of Moses’ birth for the murder of all the male Hebrew children. Pharaoh initially tasked the midwives to kill all male newborns of the Israelites, but it was recorded that the midwives feared God and spared the children so that the people multiplied more than ever. Thus baffled, king Pharaoh issued a public proclamation calling on the people to put to death all the Hebrew male children by casting them into the river (Ex 1:22)
The act of hiding Moses was simply an act of faith because the parents were not terrified by the king’s cruel edict. They were too sure of the presence of the King of kings that the verdict of a mere human never affected them. The question to you here is whose report will you believe? God has promised you of His presence, His providence, protection, good health, long life, good future and all of these you have gotten by redemption simply because of His love. Why are you terrified again by human comments or reports about your life and future?
His mother made extraordinary efforts for his preservation from the general destruction of the male children of Israel. How far can you go for your family? How far can you go for God and His course?
The child was hidden for three months at home. Can you just imagine how serious and tedious an exercise was but it was an act of faith. A child could not be told to keep quiet when the emissaries of the king and the task force were parading. After the third month, it became impossible to hide him again probably because of developmental milestones he had achieved or because the family was going bankrupt in faith needed to keep the child at home. The same faith needed to keep the child at day old was still the same needed to keep him till five or ten years simply because the faith was reputed in the same God. The woman with the issue of blood was a good example to learn from here. She did not consider that problem too big for her modest small faith. All she just wanted was a touch not even a hug. Faith determines our fate.
After three months, his mother placed him in a small boat or basket of papyrus, closed against the water by bitumen. This was placed among the aquatic vegetation by the side of one of the canals of the River Nile. The sister lingered to watch her brother’s fate.
The action of Moses’ mother to place him at the river bank could have fatal consequences but she was not moved with fear. She was resolute in God with a quiet expectancy that God would do a miracle and He did. This simple act made Jochebed appear in the hall of fame of the men of faith. You also must hold on to God and trust Him for that which you desire and He will not let you down.
PART 2: FAMILY IS TEAM WORK
For the family we are considering in this lesson, teamwork was a major factor that contributed to their success. As the parents played well their role so also was the child recorded. Family is best played as a team where the father, the mother and the children all have different successes. The success of the father is also the mother’s and the children’s success while a failure of any of the team members is a failure of all. TEAM – Together, Each Achieve More. Team will divide the load and multiply the efforts. If the parents had wanted to hide the child but the children were uncooperative, they wouldn’t hide him for three months successfully. How many family secrets are out just because a member is loose-mouthed! How many churches today fail to see individual members as part of the family of Christ with the attendant uproars and in our Churches destroying the pews and not sparing the altar?
The strongest of teams is not one with individual brilliance, not one with selfish players, not one with over ambitious players but one with cooperative players. Cooperative players know that defeat to one is a defeat to all, they cover for each other’s lapses and shortcomings. They do not trade blames but share success secrets.
Happy when family is played as a team, where yoke-fellows draw together, play together, work together, and labour together for the same goal. Parents’ role will be to keep the children from those who would destroy their lives and also from those who would corrupt their minds. Parents are to give leadership and provide for the children while the children have the role of obeying their godly parents, assisting them and avoiding anything that can bring their family name into disrepute. Imagine, the parents decided to keep the child and Mariam the elder sister was also monitoring him at the river bank, just at hand to recommend a Hebrew nurse, the child’s own mother!
PART 3: SURRENDER ALL TO GOD
God has all the might to help us in situations we even least expect we could scale through. Divine timing brought the daughter of the greatest foe of the child to the river bank and upon sighting the child, she was moved with compassion. Help from uncommon places. God often raises up friends for His people among their enemies. Pharaoh seeks Israel’s destruction but his own daughter charitably had compassion on a Hebrew child and not only that, even beyond her intentions, she preserved Israel’s deliverer, Moses.
This is a proof to us that God owns and controls His universe. The heart of a king, even the meanest of men is in God’s hands and like the course of a river, it can be tilted to wherever God wants. When Pharaoh’s daughter saw the child, she was moved with compassion, not because she was compassionate but because the divine order bestowed favour on the child. God can soften the hardest of hearts to fulfil His mandate. She knew the mandate of her father and she knew quite well that he was one of the Hebrew children, yet she adopted the child and paid the nurse.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path… The deliverance of Moses at the river bank was a specimen of the deliverance God planned for the belaboured Israelites in bondage. Submit your entirety to God. He took Moses up and even protected him even when circumstances made his mother let go of him. (Ps 27:10).
PART 4: MOSES AS A TYPE OF CHRIST.
Moses had a humble beginning but that never stopped him from becoming a giant in history. He was a type of Christ in having a humble background, and in being from a cursed irrelevant tribe, he changed the history of the tribe and brought them back to reckoning with God. Jesus Christ also came in the likeness of sinful flesh and was made a curse for the entire human race. The coming of Jesus also heralded a new beginning for the human race. Moses chose to suffer with the Israelites though he could avoid it, likewise Jesus chose to suffer for the sin of the world though He could avoid it.
CONCLUSION
We need to exhibit great faith in every situation of our lives because it determines our fate in life. Let there be team work among your family members. When you submit your totality to God, He will take total control of your life.
QUESTIONS
(1) Where was Moses given birth to?
(2) What was the public proclamation Pharaoh issued?
(3) Why was Moses referred to as a type of Christ?
(4) Did the midwives carry out Pharaoh’s task? If no why?
(5) How many months was Moses hidden at home before he was taken to the River?
French
DIMANCHE 13/09/2015
MOISE SAUVE PAR LA FILLE DE PHARAON
EXODE 2 :5-9
La mère de Moïse ne pouvait d’aucune façon envisager ou prévoir que l’enfant qu’elle mit dans une caisse sur le fleuve serait trouvé par la fille de Pharaon ou bien quiconque le trouverait aura pitié de lui. Elle fit ce qu’elle pouvait pour préserver la vie de l’enfant. Elle dut dépendre uniquement de ce que Dieu seul puisse faire pour préserver l’enfant. Par un arrangement divin, la fille de Pharaon descendit au fleuve au moment où l’enfant exigeait les soins de sa mère alors qu’il pleurait. Elle eut pitié de lui et décida de le garder. Miriam, la sœur aînée de Moïse était dans les parages pour suggérer qu’une infirmière hébraïque s’occupât de l’enfant. C’est ainsi que fut nommée la mère de Moïse pour prendre soin de lui. Quel arrangement divin et parfait fait par Dieu pour élever l’homme qui finira par faire sortir les Israélites d’Egypte. La foi de la mère de Moïse lui rapporta étant donné qu’elle fut payé pour prendre soin de son propre enfant.
Point essentiel : Le moment de Dieu et ses plans sont toujours parfaits car il fait faire toutes choses pour accomplir son dessein.
Axe de prière : Père, que tout concourt à ton bon dessein d’exécuter ton plan pour ma vie.