Exodus 2:1-10 (ESV)
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Devotional Meditation
The situation is dire for young Moses. As a newborn Hebrew male child, Moses has been marked for death by Pharaoh’s cruel royal edict. All his mother can do now is place Moses into a basket (tebah), place the basket upon the waters of the great Nile, and pray that God shows mercy and delivers him from destruction.
This is not the first time God’s people have faced this situation.
Generations earlier, the situation was dire for all of mankind. Corruption and violence were everywhere--every inclination of man was bent toward evil. God himself was determined to make an end of man. But then he looked favorably upon a man named Noah. God graciously placed Noah and his family into an ark (tebah), placed the ark upon the waters of the Great Flood, and mercifully spared them from destruction.
Are you seeing the picture?
Peter wants to make sure you do. That’s why he tells the story of Noah right before he says, “baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.” You see, from your birth, the situation was dire for you. You were born a slave to sin, born under a death sentence, born powerless to defend yourself from the power of the devil. Yet God, in Christ, showed you mercy. Just as he did with Noah and Moses, He placed you into the waters of your baptism in order to deliver you from destruction. Through those waters you were placed into the ark of Christ’s Church. Through the Church, as it proclaims Christ’s promises to you, you are carried safely through this life, spared from judgment, given a good conscience before God, and brought to salvation.
God once used a tebah of gopher wood to save Noah and his family. Then he used a tebah of papyrus reeds to save young Moses and, through him, a nation. Now, he uses that ordinary little font or baptistry to save you. To place you safely in your ark--the Church. Where you will be safely held until The Day when he draws you up out of the waters to make you a prince in his Kingdom.
Image Description (AI Prompt)
Create an image depicting a three-month-old Moses in a rectangular papyrus reed basket. This distinctively shaped basket, meticulously waterproofed with pitch, is designed to displace a noticeable amount of water as it floats among the lush, green reeds at the river's edge. The interaction between the basket and the water is marked by visible ripples and a sense of buoyancy, highlighting the care taken in Moses' preservation. The scene is bathed in the soft, golden light of dawn, which accentuates the rectangular form of the basket, the gentle movements of the water, and Moses, prominently featured within, wrapped in traditional linens.