God's Plan Began With A Baby

There had never been anyone like Moses in Israel’s history. Scripture tells us that Moses spoke with God face to face, as a man speaks with a friend. He was known as the friend of God. Yet his story didn’t start there — it began in the shadows of slavery, in a time of oppression and fear.

Born Into Darkness

Moses was born into slavery. Four hundred years earlier, God had told Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in a foreign land, oppressed for centuries. That prophecy was fulfilled in Egypt. The people of Israel had multiplied from a family of 70 into a nation of over a million.

But Pharaoh grew fearful. Threatened by their numbers, he enslaved the Hebrews, forced them into brutal labor, and finally decreed the unthinkable: every newborn Hebrew boy was to be killed.

It was into this world that Moses was born.

Courage in the Midst of Fear

Two groups of people stand out in this story:

• The Hebrew midwives – Commanded to kill the Hebrew boys at birth, they refused. “Because they feared God, they did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do” (Exodus 1:17). God blessed their courage.

• Moses’ parents, Amram and Jochebed – By faith, they hid Moses for three months. When they could no longer hide him, they placed him in a basket along the Nile — right where Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe.

What looked like coincidence was really providence. Pharaoh’s daughter found the child, her heart was moved with compassion, and through God’s design, Jochebed was even hired to nurse and raise her own son.

God was at work, even in the darkest times.

God’s Faithfulness Through History

This story is more than history; it reveals a pattern. God had promised Abraham that He would deliver His descendants after 400 years of oppression. And in Moses’ birth, we see that promise beginning to unfold.

Faith, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, is “taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” Amram and Jochebed took that step of faith. The Hebrew midwives took that step of faith. And God honored it.

Choosing Whom We Will Serve

Generations later, Joshua would remind Israel that though they had been taken out of Egypt, Egypt still needed to be taken out of them. He challenged the people:

“Choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

In every generation, God’s people must confront the lies of their culture and choose to serve Him alone.

From Moses to Jesus

The birth of Moses foreshadows another story. Just as Pharaoh sought to destroy Hebrew boys, King Herod sought to destroy the baby Jesus. Both survived through God’s providence. Both were chosen to deliver God’s people.

But where Moses brought Israel out of Egypt, Jesus brings the world out of sin. He is the only One who perfectly fulfilled God’s law, who died in our place, and who rose again to offer us life.

God’s plan to save His people began with the birth of a baby boy. For Israel, his name was Moses. For the world, His name is Jesus.