Living FaithfullySample

Faith in the Adoption  

Moses put his faith in God’s adoption. When he was born, the entire nation of Israel had come under the sentence of death. Pharaoh decreed that every male child born to the Israelites was to be put to death. This could not have happened except in the providence of God. The message to Israel was that all of them deserved the sentence of death for Adam’s sin. 

Yet Moses was spared (and shortly thereafter the slaughter of infants ceased). Moses was adopted by the royal family of Egypt. But when he was about 40 years old, Moses saw an Egyptian taskmaster mercilessly beating a Hebrew slave. Moses intervened to save the oppressed man and slew the Egyptian. To Moses’ surprise, other Hebrews reacted against him, saying, “Who made you a rule over us?” The answer to that question, that Pharaoh had made Moses a ruler, burned in Moses’ breast. Was he a Hebrew or an Egyptian? Was he Pharaoh’s son or God’s son? 

Realizing that Pharaoh would be angry over Moses’ killing the taskmaster, Moses fled. When he arrived in the land of Midian, he came upon a group of young women who were being abused by a gang of thugs. He fought off their oppressors, allowing them to water their flocks. 

We can see in these incidents two early pictures of Moses’ ministry as a mediator. He would be used by God to destroy the Egyptian oppressors. Drawn from water himself, he would give water to God’s people on many occasions. In these ways, Moses revealed the nature of the Messianic work that Jesus would accomplish for His people 1,500 years later. 

The book of Hebrews continues saying that Moses “by faith kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel” (Heb. 11:28). All the sons of Israel stood under a continuing sentence of death. But God substituted a lamb, claiming the sons as His own. By putting his faith in God’s Passover, Moses put his faith in the God who adopts children destined for death. Moses and the Israelites went from being children of death, and children of Pharaoh, to being children of God.

Coram Deo  

A biblical father is one who provides authority and guidance to someone else. The prophets were called the fathers of the kings of Israel. Who is your father? In our lives we may have many fathers, but who is your ultimate father? Confront yourself with this crucial question.