Moses and the Hand of God

I like to try to understand how God’s Hand is involved in preparing His people to accomplish His goals. It is clear to me that each member of the Body of Christ has been given gifts and passions by God to fulfill a piece of His plan. Paul said in Ephesians 2:10, “ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We are given glimpses in Scripture to see how God guides His people back then. Moses is one of those people. Have you ever wondered how a Hebrew like Moses could just walk up to the Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and tell him God said to let my people go?  Let’s look at Moses’ life in the pages of Exodus to try to understand how God prepared him to do this.

Chapter 1:22- Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile but let every girl live.”

Moses had an older Sister, Miriam, and brother, Aaron, born before Pharaoh’s order. Moses, however, was born after the order was given.

Chapter 2:1-4- Now a man of the tribe 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.

Why would his mother put him in a basket in the Nile and have her daughter watch the basket? What did she think would happen to the baby? I believe it was God inspired. Then at the same time and same place, Pharaoh’s daughter decided to go down to the Nile to bathe. Coincidence or God’s hand in this timing?

Chapter 2:5-10- ⁵ Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave 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 (Miriam who was watching the basket from a distance) 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. So, 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.”

God’s guiding hand at work. Miriam was watching the baby in the basket. Pharoah’s daughter was going to bathe, found the Hebrew baby, and decided to keep the baby her father had ordered should be killed. Miriam, a Hebrew child, bravely walks up to Pharaoh’s daughter to ask if she could bring someone to nurse the baby and she brings Moses’ mother. When Moses grew older, he was returned to Pharoh’s daughter and raised in the palace. This will be significant later in multiple ways.

Moses was educated and accepted in the Egyptian culture. Being raised in the palace and being part of the royal family was part of God’s plan to prepare Moses for his future calling. However, at 40 years old Moses killed an Egyptian that was mistreating a Hebrew and fled from Pharaoh to Midian in the desert. In Midian, Moses got married and began 40 years as a shepherd, God preparing him to lead a much larger “flock” in the future.

Chapter 3:1-6- Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” ⁵“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then He said, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Remember Moses was raised an Egyptian with all their false gods and yet God said to him, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Moses immediately knew Him and hid his face. God gave him clear understanding. Then the reason that God’s hand had guided Moses’ life up to this point is revealed. Moses receives his call.

Chapter 3:7-10-  ⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Then Moses had the classic human reaction telling God why he was not the right person for the job. However, God knew better.

Chapter 3:11-12 ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” ¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

At this point we must consider some of the background story. Moses was raised in the palace. He is known by the royal family. The Pharaoh, Rameses, that was after him for killing the Egyptian had already died. The new Pharaoh was Rameses ll, the brother of Pharaoh’s daughter that raised Moses. God prepared the way for Moses to be able to go to this Pharaoh and speak for God because Moses was part of the royal family for 40 years and the new Pharaoh knew him.

Chapter 3:18-20- ¹⁸ “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ ¹⁹ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. ²⁰ So I will stretch out My Hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

Moses speaks to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh refuses as God said he would. That starts a series of ten plagues in Chapters 7 through 11. After the tenth plague Pharaoh lets them go. After the Hebrews left, God’s hand moves again, and He hardened Pharaoh’s heart again.

Chapter 14:1-4- Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. ³ Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So, the Israelites did this.

Chapter 14:8-9- ⁸ The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. ⁹ The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen, and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

When the Hebrews saw the Egyptians coming, they were afraid, but Moses calmed them and told them God would deliver them. God then told Moses to raise his staff and part the sea and they will pass through on dry ground.

Chapter 14:13-16- ¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” ¹⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. ¹⁶ Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁸ The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

The Hebrews were then able to see what all their wandering after leaving Egypt was all about. God’s hand becomes obvious, and He parts the sea, and they go through on dry ground. Dry ground, not muddy ground. That which was a sea is now dry ground that they can easily cross. Over a million people walking through the Rea Sea on dry ground.

However, when Pharaoh’s army pursues them the sea closes and they all drowned.

Chapter 13:21-28- ²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

²³ The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴ During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” ²⁷ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

God continued to care for His people in their journey for 40 years in the desert. In chapter 16 and 17 God miraculously supplied manna, quail, and water. In chapter 20 Moses was given the Ten Commandments. The pillar of cloud and fire was continually with them.

During this 40-year journey, the education Moses was given in his early years allowed him to write the first five books of the Bible under the inspiration of God. Who could have ever imagined that baby in the basket would have been used by God this way. He is the same God that is guiding each one of His children today. Can you see His hand in your life and in those around you?