121. Thursday after Quinquagesima Sunday.
Thou Spirit of God, who didst come to us in our baptism, do thou expound the word to us. Amen.
Exodus 1, 22–2, 10. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
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This account is, from several points of view, very edifying. We see the faith and courage of the parents of Moses, the wonderful providence of God in saving the life of the child, in caring for his early training in the faith of Israel, and thereafter for his training in the wisdom of Egypt also, in order that he may be properly equipped for the great work of his life. We see how the cruel persecution on the part of the king thus becomes the salvation of God’s people; and we are taught the lesson that the Christians’ heaviest cross is their best help. The account before us teaches this, and much more in addition. Consider it as a whole and in its details, and it shall strengthen your faith. But our special purpose at this time is to point out how beautiful a prototype of baptism we have in the story here recited. The verdict of death rested on Moses at his birth and while his parents kept him at home. He was a child of wrath and the prey of death. But when his mother brought him home again from the water he was saved; and, furthermore, he was no longer her child merely, but the child of the king’s daughter; a royal prince. Pharaoh’s daughter had said: “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages;” and thereafter she regarded him as her own son. If she had not adopted him as her child, the mother would have been robbed of him by the king’s executioners.
When you were born you were a child of wrath; for you were shapen in iniquity, and in sin did your mother conceive you. You were in transgressions, and liable to eternal punishment, until you were brought to the washing of water by the word, to the sacred river Jordan which flows through Israel. When your mother took you home from this bath you had become a child of the king, one of the royal children of heaven. The church, which is the bride of Christ; nay, Christ himself took you out of the jaws of death, and delivered you from the tyranny of Satan. Your earthly parents were given the care of you; but he it was who said: “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” For in baptism you were rescued from death and adopted as a child of God; and your name, also, might properly be called Moses, which means saved. It is entirely in order to see, in the ark of Moses on the Nile, a prototype of baptism; for it is a repetition of Noah’s ark, in which Peter finds a sermon on the saving power of baptism. (1 Peter 3, 20. 21).
Lord God, our heavenly Father, we earnestly beseech thee, give us grace to believe with childlike simplicity, and to let thy word hold entire sway over our thoughts. Keep us by this word, and lead us at last through the waters of death home to thee in heaven. Amen.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
I’m baptized in thy dear name;
In the seed thou dost inherit,
With the people thou dost claim,
I am reckoned,
And for me the Savior came.
Help me in this high endeavor,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Bind my heart to thee forever,
Till I join the heavenly host;
Living, dying,
Let me make in thee my boast.