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“ And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months ” (Exodus 2:2). “ By faith Moses, after he was born, was hidden from his parents for three months, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king’s command ” (Hebrews 11:23).
The story of Moses will take us a step further in teaching us how parents' faith should guide their children. It was faith that led Moses' parents to see their child as beautiful; it was also faith that prevented them from fearing the king's wrath; and it was faith again that led them to hide the child and save his life. In every child born to believing parents, faith sees the same beauty, encounters the same danger, and finds the same path to safety.
If parents take a firm stand before God, even if the world despises and hates them for it, they will soon learn that trying to defeat them is of little use.
Only through faith could Moses' parents see that he was a fine child. The natural love of the parental heart undoubtedly made the child appear beautiful to the mother; but faith saw more than nature could perceive. God opened their eyes, and there came the awareness of something special, of a spiritual beauty that made their child seem doubly precious to them. Thus, faith sees divine grace and divine beauty in every small child. Is it not a being created in God's image, from which, even if only dimly, the radiance of divine glory and immortal life truly shines forth?
Does it not share in the great and glorious work of redemption, in the precious blood of Jesus, and in His Holy Spirit? A child whose worth surpasses that of the whole world? A child who, even in this life, can already be a brother of Jesus, a servant of the Most High, and a blessing to the immortal spirits of his fellow human beings. Certainly, faith may call a small child inexpressibly beautiful, for it sees it shining like a jewel in the Lamb's crown, His joy and His glory. We do indeed have a more certain hope than Moses' parents ever had, and a far brighter light in which the heavenly beauty of our little ones shines forth. O Father, open the eyes of yours, that their faith may see in every child you give them that it is a fine child.
It is faith that does not fear danger, even when it sees it. Our children are still exposed to the very same danger as Moses. Pharaoh had given the order that the children of God's people should be killed. He knew that if the children's lives were taken, the people would soon die out. In this way, no war with its turmoil and dangers was necessary: the nation was to be eradicated by a slow, secret, but sure means. The prince of this world still pursues the same policy. The spirit of the world asserts its right over the children; if these are won, then all are won.
Too often, Christian parents give their children to the world as prey. The children grow up relatively ignorant of the glorious Savior, are entrusted to unbelieving or indifferent and worldly teachings, and are allowed to associate and befriend those whose spirit and influence are entirely worldly. And the church? Alas, it has all too often been too unfaithful and too weak in the face of such danger. How little it has realized that the powerful support for the future lies in family life; indeed, its own cause truly demands that it take the instruction and encouragement of parents first and foremost.
To what extent has the education of youth been left to secular schools and the spirit of the age? How many thousands of children have drowned in this way in the mighty Nile of this world? The greatest danger to the church of Christ is not unbelief or superstition; it is the spirit of worldliness in the homes of our Christians that makes children victims of worldly ambition or society, wealth or friendship. If every home won for Christ were to become a school of education for His ministry, we would soon discover the secret of a spiritual power within it.
It is also faith that will always find the same sure path. “By faith Moses was hidden from his parents” (cf. Heb 11:23). They trusted God regarding this precious child, for he was one of His covenant children. By faith Moses was hidden from his parents. These simple words show us our duty, what our faith should do. Hide your child! But where? “Under the shadow of the Almighty” (cf. Ps 91:1) but “in the light before His presence” (cf. Ps 44:4).
Here, from birth onward, lay your child down daily in faith, and let your soul be filled with the awareness that He has truly taken them into His care. With the first dawning of consciousness, guide their youthful steps to the crevices of the one rock and to the love of Jesus as the only safe place. Hide them in the quiet life at home from the excitements of the world outside, from the influences of a civilization and education that are merely earthly. This concealment, so that the enemy cannot find the child, is one of the first and highest duties of faith.
When the time comes for your child to come into contact with the world, you can entrust them to Him, the Guardian of Israel—let it be a certainty in your heart that He has accepted your trust and assumed His own care, and that He can never deceive your faith. Hold fast to the belief that your children are the children of a chosen race, set apart for God, and therefore they must remain set apart for Him.
The reward of faith that was bestowed upon Moses' parents will also be ours. Moses was not only saved, he himself became the savior of his people. Your child, too, should not only be blessed for himself, but should become a blessing to others. Not every child has the same calling as Moses, but God needs not only a Moses in His kingdom, but also a Moses' mother and sister to carry out His purposes. Let your faith work just as it did for Moses' mother; God Himself will ensure that our work is not in vain. The upbringing that Moses' mother gave him in his childhood was such that the many years of his subsequent education at Pharaoh's court could not erase it.
The faith of his parents bore fruit in Moses' own faith when he declared his willingness to suffer with God's people at any cost and did not fear the king's wrath, for he saw Him, the Unseen One. Let your faith shelter the child in the ark of God's love, and when God entrusts the child to your faith, let that faith also raise the child for God and His people. When the time comes for the child to go out into the world, even to live at Pharaoh's court, it will still be safe in the power of faith and in God's care. A child of faith will not only receive a blessing for themselves, but will be a blessing to all around them.
Your child should not only be blessed for themselves, but should also become a blessing for others.
May God grant that the church truly becomes a “Mother of Moses,” the faithful caretaker of the children entrusted to her care, whom she hides and keeps separate from the world and its influence. He will gloriously fulfill His promise if He sees the duty fulfilled: “Take the child and nurse it for me; I will reward you.”
Gracious God! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the instruction through your Word, by which you also wish to prepare me to fulfill my holy calling as a parent. I thank you for the example of Moses' parents and ask you to grant me the grace that taught them to conceal their child in faith! Lord, I know that I do not yet fully understand the danger they face from the prince and spirit of this world—Lord, teach me to recognize the danger rightly and yet never to fear the king's command.
Open my eyes, that I may see with the heavenly light that every little child entrusted to my care and upbringing is a precious child whom I am to raise for Your work here below and for Your kingdom. Help me to protect it with the humility, vigilance, and fearlessness of faith, and to shelter it from the power of the world and sin. May my own life be a life of faith, hidden with Christ in God, so that my child, too, may know no other place but this one alone.
The greatest danger to the community of Christ is not unbelief and not superstition, it is the spirit of worldliness in the homes of our Christian people, which makes children a victim of the ambition or society, the wealth or friendship of the world.
And grant this to all Your people, O my God! Let Your congregation become aware of the place it must occupy in this world, and that it is its calling to go to the land to which God has called it. Let the great power of faith be seen in the upbringing of children, the difference between those who fear You and those who do not. O grant us the grace to raise our children for You, our God. Amen.
Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
From Family Life in Christo
All Bible quotations are taken from the translation by Martin Luther (1912).