I. WHAT IS COMMENDED. “Faith.” Natural affections sanctified are subservient and useful to faith; grace cloth not abolish nature, but perfect it. We are to obey God against our natural affections; as by faith Abraham offered his son Isaac; nature was against it. And we are to obey God with natural affection: by faith Moses was hid of his parents; there nature was for it. Many times God’s interests and ours are twisted together, and then nature is allowed to work, but grace must bear sway; sometimes they are severed, and then we must leave nature to keep company with God. Use
1. It informeth us, that to strengthen faith we may and must take in the help of nature; it is God’s allowance, that we may be carried out more cheerfully in the work of God (Phm_1:16).
2. That their wickedness is very great that sin against nature.
3. In all these mixed actions look to your principles, what beareth sway and worketh most--faith or natural affection. But wherein lay the faith of this action? Chiefly in overcoming fear, in trusting God’s protection for the preservation of the child; and possibly there might be something of a public regard and consideration, in believing the future deliverance of the Church and people of God out of Egypt.
II. WHO ARE COMMENDED. “His parents.” Husband and wife should go hand in hand to the throne of grace, and join together in every good thing; they should agree together in the worship of God, and promoting the good of their children. When the will of the wife and the will of the husband fall in, like the tenon and the mortise, the building goes on; but when one draws one way, and another the other way, like untamed heifers in the yoke, all cometh to ruin.
III. THE COMMENDATION ITSELF.
1. The action, where
(1) The time--“When he was born.”
(2) The action itself--“He was hid.”
(3) The duration--“Three months.”
2. I come now to the considerations on which it was done.
(1) The external impulsive cause--“Because they saw he was a proper child,”
á̓óôåé͂ïí
, comely, and fair (Act_7:20). Beauty is not always a sure sign of excellency--there is no trust to the brow; but they saw special lineaments of majesty, and of a heroical disposition in his countenance, which, being accompanied with some secret instinct, moved them to think that God had designed him to some eminent work, probably to the deliverance of his people.
(2) The internal moving cause--“And they not afraid of the king’s commandment,” that bloody law of destroying their children. Here are three points
(a) Princes must not be obeyed in things contrary to the Word of God.
(b) The commands of kings and princes have been a usual trial of God’s children, as Nebuchadnezzar’s command was to fall down and worship the golden image.
Use: This should draw us off from men. To this end consider
1. We are bound to God more than to men.
2. None can reward us as God can.
3. None can punish our disobedience as God can (Mt
10:28).
4. We live longer with God than we do with men; therefore if a man would study to please, he should rather please God than men. God is eternal, man is but mortal (Isa_51:12).
5. God can make others our friends (Pro_16:7).
6. They that please men shall have enough of it (Hos_5:12).
(c) In such cases carnal fear doth betray us, and faith carries us through Isa_8:12-13). (T. Manton, D. D.)
The childhood of Moses
I. WHERE THERE IS AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE IN FAITH AND FEAR OF THE LORD, IT MAKES WAY UNTO A BLESSED SUCCESS IN ALL THEIR DUTIES: when it is otherwise, nothing succeeds unto their comfort.
II. WHEN DIFFICULT DUTIES BEFAL PERSONS IN THAT RELATION, IT IS THEIR WISDOM EACH TO APPLY THEMSELVES UNTO THAT PART AND SHARE OF IT WHICH THEY ARE BEST SUITED FOR. So was it in this case; Amram, no doubt, was the principal in the advice and contrivance, as his wife was in its actual execution.
III. THIS IS THE HEIGHT OF PERSECUTION, WHEN PRIVATE HOUSES ARE SEARCHED BY BLOODY OFFICERS, TO EXECUTE TYRANNICAL LAWS--when the last and utmost retreat of innocence, for that protection which is due unto it by the law of God and nature, with the common rules of human society, cannot be a shelter against wicked rage and fury. No doubt but during this season their diligence was accompanied with fervent cries unto God, and the exercise of trust in Him. The occasion was great on all hands, and they were not wanting unto any part of their duty. The outward act of hiding the child was but an indication of the internal working of their faith.
IV. IT IS WELL WHEN ANYTHING OF EMINENCE IN OUR CHILDREN DOTH SO ENGAGE OUR AFFECTIONS UNTO THEM, AS TO MAKE THEM USEFUL AND SUBSERVIENT UNTO DILIGENCE IN DISPOSING OF THEM UNTO THE GLORY OF GOD. Otherwise a fondness in parents, arising from the natural endowments of children, is usually hurtful, and oftentimes ruinous unto the one and other.
V. THE RAGE OF MEN AND THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH SHALL WORK OUT THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF GOD’S COUNSELS AND PROMISES, UNTO HIS GLORY, FROM UNDER ALL PERPLEXITIES AND DIFFICULTIES THAT MAY ARISE IN OPPOSITION UNTO IT. So they did in this instance in an eminent manner. (J. Owen, D. D.)
Faith the ground of parental courage:
I. A BELOVED CHILD IN GREAT DANGER. Children are always in danger.
1. There are the perils connected with physical well-being.
2. Those which come from the hardening influence of resistance of Divine grace. What if the child should steadfastly persist in evil habits which already show themselves!
3. Those which come through the malice of Satan. Satan is on the track of the children.
II. THE PARENTS’ FEARLESS FAITH. “Parents.” The strength of the faith may have been due to that; it was the joint faith of two. This faith showed itself
1. In a quiet confidence that God would protect their child.
2. In the adoption of all possible means to the right end.
III. THIS FEARLESS FAITH RESTING ON SUFFICIENT GROUNDS. What are they?
1. The intrinsic worth of a child. Who can tell what any child may become?
2. The fact that the child is fair to God. (See margin of Act_7:20).
3. The distinct promises of God’s Word. (C. New.)
The hiding of Moses by faith:
I. IT IS A GREAT BLESSING WHEN IN A FAMILY BOTH THE PARENTS HAVE FAITH. “By faith he was hid three months of his parents.” Moses himself (Exo_2:1-25.) ascribes this to his mother--“When she saw that he was a goodly child she hid him three months.” Stephen (Act_7:1-60.). says, “In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months”: thus mentioning rather his father than his mother. No doubt the apostle combined the two other inspired utterances. Do you wonder that Moses chiefly mentions his mother, Joehebed? I do not. What man is there among us but always delights to mention his godly mother, and though we would have no partialities about our parents, yet without controversy great is the mystery of a mother’s love, and there are some points about it in which it makes a deeper impression upon the memory than a father’s care. Prize fathers as you may, and should, yet there is a tender touch that comes home to every man’s heart when he thinks of his mother. It seems natural that Moses should, when he wrote the account, mention most of all his mother; and indeed a mother has more to do with a babe than a father can have: in its tender infancy she is naturally its chief guardian. Perhaps, too, though we cannot be sure, Jochebed may have been the stronger believer of the two, and may have been the main instigator of the child’s preservation.
II. TRUE AND EVEN REMARKABLE FAITH MAY ACT IN A VERY COMMONPLACE WAY. What do we read? By faith they “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,” and so on. Why these are great things, worthy of mention. Yes, but this also is great in its ways--“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents.” It has no trumpet ring about it like stopping lions’ mouths and quenching fires, and subduing kingdoms, but in God’s point of view, the hiding of a little baby three months, may be as great an instance of acceptable faith as any of them: even turning to flight the armies of the alien may not be greater than defeating the malice of a king by saving a little child. But you say, “Was it not natural enough that a mother should try to preserve her child’s life? Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?” Yes, I know all that; but still the Lord is not praising the natural affections but the supernatural faith. We should say, “Nature led them to conceal the babe,” but God says, “Faith led them to do it,” and, in their degree, both are true. Nature prompted, but faith constrained, and enabled them to do what else their timidity would not have ventured upon.
III. FAITH WILL ACT WITH A VERY SLENDER ENCOURAGEMENT. “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child.” Stephen says in his speech that the child was “exceeding fair”; and if you look at Stephen’s speech you will see that the translators have put in the margin, “fair to God.” So it may run, “when they saw that the child was fair to God.” Now, I gather from that expression that the child was beautiful beyond the common run of children; that there was a charm about its features, and something superhuman, probably, since it was fair to God. In the babe’s face there were prophecies of the man of God. Surely among them that have been born of woman there has not been born a greater than Moses; and about him as a child there was a something so marvellously beautiful, that his parents were fascinated by him.
IV. FAITH HAS GREAT POWER IN OVERCOMING FEAR. There was, no doubt, appended to Pharaoh’s statute a punishment for anybody who should not obey the law. Perhaps four lives were in danger for the sake of that one little life--her husband, herself, Aaron, and Miriam, her daughter. Yet through faith she will run all risks, and so will all her family, that this promising child whom they believe God has sent to them for a noble purpose may still live. Now, if you have faith in Christ manifest it by overcoming all fear of the consequences of doing right. It is right to obey God rather than man.
V. FAITH IS OFTEN DRIVEN TO GREAT SHIFTS. The mother was put to great shifts to hide her child, and she used all her wits and common-sense. She did not put her child in the front room, or carry it into the street or sit at the open door and nurse it, but she was prudent, and acted as if all depended upon her concealing the babe. Some people suppose that if you have faith you may act like a fool. But faith makes a person wise. It is one of the notable points about faith that it is sanctified common-sense. It is not fanaticism, it is not absurdity; it is making God the grandest asset in our account, and then reckoning according to the soundest logic.
VI. FAITH’S SIMPLE ACTS OFTEN LEAD ON TO THE GRANDEST RESULTS. Great wheels turn on little axles. There is a tiny part to each machine of unutterable importance. You never know the infinity of the influence of a word. To the wise man nothing is little; to the fool nothing is truly great. Make all things great by doing them by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Potentialities in the life of a child
Who can say how vast are the potentialities involved in the life of a young child? More than nineteen hundred years ago, in the civil wars of Rome, the life of a beautiful child was again and again saved from the extremest peril. That child grew up to be a heavy curse to himself, a heavy curse to others; he grew up to be one of the worst men who ever lived; the Emperor Tiberius, in whose reign Christ was crucified. Again, some hundred and fifty years ago, a house in an English village was found to be in flames. The clergyman and his family--for it was the vicarage--were roused, and when they had escaped, itwas found that one little boy was still in the burning house. A ladder was placed to the window, he was rescued, and handed unhurt into his father’s arms. What would the world have lost had that little boy perished? For his name was John Wesley, and by his piety and zeal he fanned into flame once more the dead white embers of Christian faith. Now, who can tell what a little child may be! He may grow up, as has been said, like Beethoven, to lift the soul by the magic of Divine melody into the seventh heaven of ineffable vision and incommensurable hope; or like Newton, to weigh the far-off stars in the balance, and measure the heavings of the eternal flow; or like Luther, to scorch up what is cruel and false by a word, as by a flame; or like Milton and Burke, to awake men’s hearts with the note of an organ trumpet; or like the great saints of the Churches and the great sages of the Schools, to add to those acquisitions of spiritual beauty and intellectual mastery which have, one by one, and little by little, raised men from being no higher than the brute to be only a little lower than the angels. You never know but what the child, in rags and pitiful squalor, that meets you in the streets, may have in him the germ of gilts that might add new treasure to the storehouse of beautiful things or noble acts. In that great storm of terror which swept over France in 1793, a certain man who was every hour expecting to be led off to the guillotine uttered this memorable sentiment: “Even at this incomprehensible moment,” he said, “when morality, enlightenment, love of country, all of them only make death at the prison door or on the scaffold more certain--yes, on the fatal tumbril itself, with nothing free but my voice, I could still cry ‘Take care’ to a child that should come too near the wheel. Perhaps I may save his life; perhaps he may one day save his country.” (Archdeacon Farrar.)
