Baby Afloat

Baby Afloat

Q: Into what river did Moses’ mother place him in his floating basket?

• a. Euphrates
• b. Colorado
• c. Nile

When you were little, you may have had a float ring you sat in when you were at a pool. You could safely float around, watching the older kids play. Moses’ mother, Jochebed, set him afloat, but it wasn’t the same situation at all.

Moses was born during the time Pharaoh was killing the Hebrew baby boys. Jochebed hid Moses in her house for three months, but it became too difficult to hide him any longer. Someone was sure to hear him crying.

Jochebed made a tiny floating boat from reeds that grew in the swampy area along the Nile River. She coated it with tar and pitch to make it waterproof. Then she set Moses afloat. His big sister, Miriam, watched over Moses from a distance.

When Pharaoh’s daughter went to the Nile to bathe, she saw the basket and sent her servant to get it. Miriam offered to find someone to nurse the baby until he was old enough to be weaned. Then the child would be taken to live with Pharaoh’s daughter at the palace.

God had a plan. Just as God used the difficult times in Joseph’s life to put him in the right place at the right time (as we read about in the February 1–6 devotions), God used Pharaoh’s desire to kill the Hebrew infants to put Moses in Pharaoh’s own palace. One day, Moses would return to the palace to help free his own people from slavery.

Try as they might, people cannot ruin God’s plans. God puts people in the right place at the right time to carry out his work.

For You

God may not show you exactly what he has planned, but he will use you to do his work if you are willing. You may be in exactly the right place to do something for God just as Joseph and Moses were.

Answer: c

When she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River.   Exodus 2:3

(The Whole Story: Exodus 2:1-10)