The Safety of a Handmade Basket

Exodus2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi.
2:The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.
3:But when she could hide him no longer, she made for him a basket out of bulrushes and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.

Sunday was mother's day. Happy belated Mother's Day greetings to all you moms out there. On Sunday evening I was watching a Christian minister who gave a really good message about Moses' mother. I wanted to share some of the highlights with you and how that message relates to parents today.

The story of course started out that Pharaoh ordered that all male babies of Jewish descent were to be thrown into the Nile river and the reason was to annihilate the Jewish race, because they were slaves to the Egyptians and the Egyptians were afraid that if they kept growing in number the Jews would turn against them and make war with them. The best part of the story is that Moses' mom was not going to agree with this idea, so she found a way to hide her son for three months. A lot of other mothers allowed the midwives to take their sons and throw them in the Nile River to die. The teacher was saying that a lot of Egyptians worshipped the crocodile and treated them like they were gods. So of course if you were throwing babies into the Nile, you were making sacrifices to the gods.

His mom made the basket of protection out of weaved bulrushes which is also the plant that they make papyrus out of which is used to make scrolls for writing on and it grows on the edges of the Nile in the shallow parts. Somehow his mother knew that their was some kind of chemical or other trait that was in that plant that the crocodiles would not come near anything made by that plant. Then she painted the outside of the basket with tar and pitch. She then placed Moses in the reeds along the waters edge until Pharaoh's daughter noticed him and she saw to it that he was raised by his own mother for a few years. As he grew up he became the one God had chosen to lead the people into the promised land.

In the past month we have had many children dedicated to God by their parents, and it has been a blessing to watch these parents surrender their children to the will of God.

The application of this story about Moses applies to our local church body today. Just as Moses' mom didn't allow her child to be sacrificed to the gods of the Nile, neither should we give into the idea that we have to surrender to the idea that the children in our church will be handed to the gods or the idols of the culture of today: drugs, alcohol, sexuality, peer pressure, etc. It is the responsibility of Christian parents today to weave a basket of protection for your children and build it out of the truths found in the word of God. Raise them in the admonition of the Lord. Train a child in the way he should go and when he grows older he will not depart from it. I am praying for those who dedicated their children to the Lord that they will be committed to training these precious gifts of God in the truth. The rest of us who stood as a witness that we will commit to our promise to teach, encourage, show them the truths in God's Word and that we will treat them as being valuable members of the church today. As Pastor cliff taught us Sunday they are not the church of tomorrow, but they are part of the church today along with us. As we minister to these young people the church is like Moses' mom when she put the tar and pitch on the outside of the basket. I believe that if we all do our part, these children will grow up to be followers of Christ. The word promises that I know the plans and purposes I have for you to give you hope and a future. Praise God for His many examples of how He worked in the lives of people in the Bible so we could have assurance and hope for us.

We have seen several people who grew up being trained here by their parents and teachers who have become missionaries and some pastors and others involved in various ministries, so let us continue to disciple one another and grow in unity so the gospel of Jesus our Lord and Savior will continue to spread here in our communities and to all the nations.