August 27, 2023 Sunday Worship Service

Call to Worship 2 Thessalonians 3:5
Hymn JBC # 626 I gave My life for thee
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Offering
Scripture Exodus 2:1~10
Prayer
Sermon “I draw him out of the water”
https://youtu.be/-pLJyfJ3TxE
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 492 My hope is built on nothing less
Doxology JBC # 672
Benediction

Today’s bible passage is from the Old Testament book ‘Exodus’ and the story when Moses was born. Even if you are not Christians you must have heard of the name of Moses.
The people of Israel spent about 400 years in slavery in Egypt. Moses was the one who guided them during their escape from Egypt (Exodus), as well as the one who received God’s words and conveyed them to the people as a prophet.
Today’s passage writes about what kind of situation Moses was born into. Through seeing Moses saved from danger to his life when he was born, we would like to listen about God’s protection and grace.

Chapter 2 verse 1 says, “Now a man of the tribe of Levi (*a tribe of Israelites) married a Levite woman.” These two are Moses’ parents.
Next it says, “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.”
Why did this mother hide her son for three months? At the time in Egypt, the number of Hebrews (Israelites) had increased greatly, so the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt feared and saw them as a threat to Egypt, ordered that every male born was to be thrown into the Nile River.

In the midst of this situation, this Levite couple bore a son. If they obeyed the order of the king of Egypt, they had to throw their child into the Nile.
However, the mother could not do this. In the Japanese bible, it states that “when she saw that her child was cute (adorable), she hid him for three months”. In the English translation it says, “when she saw that he was a fine child.”

In Hebrew, the original language that the Old Testament was written in, this sentence says that he was beautiful (or good). The Hebrew word “tob” is used here.
In the beginning of ‘Genesis’ (the story of creation in bible), when God created the world and looked upon His creation, it says “God saw that it was good,” (Genesis 1:21). The word translated as good there is the same Hebrew word, “tob.”
Therefore, in today’s passage where Moses’ mother looks at her son and sees that he was cute (or beautiful or fine), this shows a deeper meaning than when a normal mother thinks that their child is cute.

　Of course, when a mother (or father) looks at their child, they will think and feel they are cute or beautiful. Even if it is a king’s order, it would be unthinkable to throw the child into a river.
However, even more than this, in today’s passage it says that “he was a fine child (he was good),” meaning that human life is created and given by God, and as such is exceedingly precious.
This is because the child was created by God. Because it is a life created by God, each of our lives are exceedingly precious. God created each of us and said that it was good (tob) when he saw it.
Let us treat each other’s existence and lives in high esteem, which God has declared good or beautiful when he saw it.
We must believe and honor in faith the truth that our own lives, as well as the lives of others are all God’s creation, which He declared to be “good”.

　Moses’ mother saw that her child was precious and so hid him for three months. However, she was not able to hide him for any longer than that.
She prepared a basket made of papyrus, made it water-proof with tar and pitch, placed the child inside, then placed it among the reeds on the bank of the Nile.
At the time, how must this mother have felt? Even if it was a desperate situation where she could no longer hide her child, to let her child go like this (or to abandon him), she may have felt great sadness or guilt.
However, when we read this passage, we may understand that Moses’ mother did everything that she could, and when she could do nothing more, she relied on God’s protection.
The mother could not protect her son forever. However, she believed that God would surely protect her child and give him grace.

Therefore, she did not abandon Moses, but rather she left him in God’s hands in faith.
Have we not experienced suffering in times where we were unable to trust God with things or people we hold dear, or even with our own selves? I hope that we can practice relying on God in faith.
After that, the child’s sister (Moses’ sister), was standing far off, watching to see what would happen. Even though we may think she was merely watching without being able to do anything, Moses’ sister was fulfilling an important role.
She could not take the child and return him to his mother. All she could do was watch from afar, but still, she was doing all she could.
It is a great work to be concerned and pray for the child’s safety from afar. In this way, she was sending her loving gaze to Moses placed in the reeds in the river from a distance.

　There are times when we may only be able to watch someone from afar.
My oldest son moved away and started working this year in the spring. Because he is far away, all I can regularly do is to pray for the best for my son.
Although it can be said that this is all that I can do, entrusting our loved ones to the God of love and truth in faith and watching over them is certainly not meaningless. Because the God we believe in surely hears our prayers.
Seeing Moses’ sister watching over Moses in the basket from afar is a reminder of how God watches over us. Our God is always watching over us.

Psalm 121:5 says the following.
The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

Because our Lord is watching over us, we can rest assured and live our lives.
No matter where we go or what situation we find ourselves in, our Lord is always watching over us, and we can entrust our loved and precious ones to this same Lord. Let’s give thanks to this God who gives us love and protection.
When Moses’ sister was watching from afar what would happen, Pharaoh’s (Egypt’s king’s) daughter comes to the river and finds the basket in the reeds. She sent her slave to go get the basket and found that there was a baby inside.
It is written that Pharaoh’s daughter saw the child and felt sorry for him. Just as Moses’ mother looked upon him and saw that he was “beautiful and good” and did all she could to protect him, Pharaoh’s daughter also came to have a feeling of “sorry” for the baby.

　The ability to feel that something is cute or to feel sorry for someone is a gift from God. Through our feelings (though not through feelings alone), we can love people and sympathize with them.
Pharaoh’s daughter said, “This is one of the Hebrew babies.” At this, the child’s sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
Pharaoh’s daughter asked the Hebrew woman she brought (the child’s actual mother) to feed and care for the child. Then when he grew bigger Pharaoh’s daughter took him in as her own child, which is an amazing event.
She named him Moses. The name means to “draw out” in Hebrew. Pharaoh’s daughter states that she named him as such because she drew him up out of the water.

While it is true that the Egyptian king’s daughter drew him up out of the water, the one who miraculously saved Moses’ life was actually the Lord God.
God used various people (Moses’ mother, sister, Pharaoh’s daughter, and her slaves: all of them were women) to protect and save Moses’ life.
In this way, God’s hand of protection pulled Moses up out of the water, and in this same way God is still the one who pulls us up out of danger and suffering.

God is always protecting us. How can we know this?
This is because we can also believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is interceding for us and asking the Heavenly Father to protect us.
In John 17, before Jesus was crucified, he prays for the disciples. His prayer then was also directed at us now. Let’s read His prayer.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
Jesus asked, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me.” Through this we are promised God’s protection.
Through the words of the bible and Jesus Christ, we can believe that God is always protecting and guiding us.
Let us walk this week trusting in faith that God is the Lord who protects us and saves us, pulling us out of danger.