All right, let's be turning to Exodus chapter two. Exodus two. This chapter here has two main divisions. The first covering Moses as a child. And then the second division is Moses as a man. And Moses is being led of the Holy Spirit to write this. Moses is writing about himself. He's documenting these things. The Spirit is leading him. This is the scripture that he's recording here, and it covers the time from his birth all the way to the time when he's weaned up and given back to Pharaoh, Pharaoh's daughter, as her adopted son, right, that first division here.

And what we see as Moses has recorded it by the leading of the Holy Spirit, there's a spiritual picture here that we also draw that what Moses endures, what he What the Lord does for him in his birth is a spiritual picture of the spiritual birth of all God's children, of God's spiritual children. And so that's what we're gonna focus on is that first division here in this service, all right? So Moses as a child, verse one. And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi."

Now, at this time, Israel is still in Egypt, and the law has not been given yet. But we know that Levi is sanctified of the Lord to minister the law and the tabernacle. Out of Levi comes the Aaronic priesthood, and the sons of Levi are the ones who are sanctified to minister in the tabernacle. in the keeping of the tabernacle there. And in the spiritual sense here, as Moses is born under the law, so all of God's people are born under the law, accountable for the righteousness of the law, for that righteousness.

Verse two, and the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, she hid him Three months. Now, the thing about Moses is that when he was born into the world, this was a dangerous time to be a son. This was a very dangerous time for a male child to be born into the world. He came in in great danger. He came in under a sentence of death. There's even a picture here in Moses here of the Lord Jesus Christ. The dragon, as it were, is standing over the woman, waiting for her seed to be born, that he might devour the child. It's a picture there of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a picture of us, brethren, who are born into great danger, born under the sentence of death.

The charge of the king of Egypt was, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, meaning kill him, throw him in the water. These are waters of judgment appointed by this pharaoh here. And in this we see, in this danger that Moses comes forth, we see this forming, this working out, this stretching out here of that promise from the garden that God made to us when he spoke to the serpent, saying, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And that promise speaks to the Redeemer. The Redeemer who should come and reconcile us fallen sinful creatures unto God. God who loved us and chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He purposed to restore, to redeem that which was lost in Adam there in the garden.

And so every believing woman, those who knew that promise and trusted that promise, When they brought forth a son, it was a blessed thing because in the son would come that seed. He might be the seed himself, right? Or through that lineage would come this seed that should save us, that should restore all things according to the promise. And so to have them cast aside that seed, you're dashing their hopes. I mean, think of how horrible that was for these Hebrew women who knew that promise and had hope in that promise, who had a confidence that the Lord would bring his seed through it, and now they're being told, throw them in the river, throw them in the judgment. It had to be very, very difficult.

Moses, like every child of God, is born into perilous, perilous times. We're born into a world where death is thrust upon us immediately. We come forth dead in trespasses and sins. We come forth spiritually dead. We come forth under a sentence of death already, born under condemnation and wrath, just like Moses here in this passage.

But the mother of Moses was struck by his goodliness. Verse two, when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And that word goodly typically means pleasant, agreeable. He was a good child, an easy baby to have. He slept a lot, didn't cry very loud, and he was agreeable in that sense. It also can mean beautiful in appearance. And it may mean that. I mean, when Stephen was talking about this in Acts chapter 7, when he was speaking of Moses to the Jews, he said, in the time when Moses was born, he was exceeding fair. And he was exceeding fair, which can mean good looking, good in appearance. He was a precious, beautiful baby. But also that word in the New Testament times meant well-mannered, also a good child. So I don't know, the scriptures are silent on exactly what that means, but what I do know is that this mother kept him alive because she saw something. She saw something and loved him and didn't want to just do what the king had said. She wanted to keep him alive.

But for all the love of this mother and for all the love of his father, the mother and the father, he had to die under the command of the king. He had to be killed. and it didn't matter that they loved him, it didn't matter that they nourished him and provided for him and tried to keep him alive, he must die. They had no power in themselves to save him. And that is a picture of us in this world, right? For our children whom we love, for our spouses, our neighbors, our family members who we love and we pour ourselves into them, We don't have the power to save them. Simply put, we cannot save them.

And this mother and this father, they could not save Moses. But there's a picture here. This goodliness is a picture of those who are chosen of God, elect of God. Precious because of Christ, for Christ's sake. And in God's eyes, they are precious. And he will have them to be saved. He will deliver them from death and destruction. And so though we can't save our children, God is able.

And so this picture that his parents are in, unable to save him, unable to deliver him, really is a spiritual truth. You and I cannot save those that we love. We nourish them, we pour into them, we labor with them, we love them, we strive with them, but we can't save them. But God can, and he does. It's God's work to save those who are his chosen people before the foundation of the world, chosen in Christ. And he does so with his almighty power. He does so by his spirit. He does so by his grace through the preaching of the gospel, through the ministration of the gospel to deliver his people out of death. And no divisive man No device of the devil can oppose God and overcome the will of God. God's will overcomes the will of man and the will of devils. He triumphs gloriously overall.

So Moses' mother here, having nothing more that she could do. She did what she could, and there was nothing more that she could do. Yet she's led now by the Spirit to prepare an ark for Moses. She prepares this ark, and she places Moses, the baby, in this ark. And then she sets this ark in the watery grave, in the waters of judgment. She puts this ark there in the waters of judgment, not knowing how he might live. The scriptures don't tell us that she waited there, perhaps hoping. against all hope that somehow the Lord would deliver him. But from what she knew, she's putting him in his grave. He's going to die here.

And verse 3 says it this way. When she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and dubbed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags," all right, the bulrushes coming out, I guess, by the river's bank, brink. And right again, the scriptures are silent on what she thought would happen to him here, but we know that the Lord meant it for salvation. The Lord meant it for Moses' deliverance according to God's purpose.

That word ark is the exact same word for Noah's ark. It's literally the exact same word. And it's only used here in these two places in the scriptures. And God used this ark to safely preserve Moses. He preserved, he provided a remedy, he provided a salvation, he provided the means necessary to save Noah and deliver him from death. And so, just that, the same way that God put Noah in the ark, to preserve him and his family in the waters of judgment, all about him, And yet God brought him through safely to save him and his family alive. That's what we see pictured here. It's an arc of salvation.

And who does that arc picture? The Lord Jesus Christ. That arc is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we have here Moses now dying in him and rising from the dead. And he's going into those waters of judgment in Christ and being preserved in him when the judgment's coming upon him. And yet he shall arise unto newness of life. He shall come out of that a new creature, a new creature. He must die to that law of Pharaoh. He must die to that law of Pharaoh in Christ the Ark, only to be preserved and drawn out alive. That's the gospel picture there that's being shown to us.

And he comes out safe, unharmed, and newness of life. Everyone else died, not him. All the other boys died, not Moses. Moses didn't die. He lived. And so this is recorded in the scriptures for us to give us another picture of how the Lord saves his people. Though all the others outside of Christ die, they perish in their sins, and they die in the judgment, you that are in Christ are preserved alive. He's provided for you.

And listen to how Romans 6 says it. Paul describes it this way in verses 4 through 6. saying, therefore, we are buried with Christ by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, and Moses was planted in the likeness of his death, he went in the ark into the waters. And we too, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. We died with Christ. Christ, he bore us in his body on the tree. We died with him to the law, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, but that we should live unto God. in righteousness, in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dead to that law. The law is satisfied. It's silenced against us. It has nothing more to say. Just like Moses, when Moses comes up out of that river, nothing more. Pharaoh's law has nothing more to say to Moses. He's delivered from it forever. It's silenced against him. It has no more effect on him whatsoever. He lives. He lives. He's delivered from it. That's a beautiful picture there.

And it's a beautiful picture of how the people of God are made sufferers with Christ, how we are brought into our Lord's suffering as fellow sufferers in Him, in the family of God. It's a beautiful picture there.

Then, verse 4. says his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. The mother couldn't stay there. She didn't want to see some crocodile come up or tip over or be lost. She couldn't bear to stay there, so she goes away. But the sister, she stays there to behold what's going to happen to my baby brother. And there's something actually very familiar to a truth that's brought out in Scripture about this, where she's wondering, What's going to happen to him? What's going to happen to him? What does that sound like? It sounds like the angels of God, which wonder to behold what God is doing in his grace, in his glory, through the preaching of the gospel and administration of that gospel. What is the Lord doing? How is this unfolding? How is he going to preserve? How is he going to deliver them whom he loved and chosen, Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world? How is he going to do it? They wonder to behold. How is this going to all Come together. I don't understand. How can this be? How can it be? Well, that's what it is. We see a picture there. Miriam, like an angel of God, wondering to behold. And she sees this beautiful picture. She sees this, she's going to witness this picture of the gospel.

Now I know that she didn't understand what she was seeing there, but I do know that the scriptures tell us that in the Old Testament, these believers who believed and who walked in faith in the Lord, they understood that it was all working towards something which would be revealed to us, brethren. And that's what the apostles said. They knew. They were laboring and going through these things and recording these things because it would be for us. It would be for us. And she bears witness. And Moses records this, right? And so she testified of these very things. It was something to her. I don't know how much she understood it, but she knew it was miraculous. She knew it was glorious that the Lord should save her brother. And it's a picture of our death in Christ and our resurrection, our deliverance coming through the wrath, through that law of judgment against us.

And verse 5. We see this act of grace. 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 so here we see the interposition of God. God comes in. When man fails, because man always does, he can't deliver. He can't produce life. He's not a quickening spirit. Yet the Lord comes in, and he gives life. He gives salvation. And so it is, when all hope has failed, when we've done all we can do, and we see, I'm done, I have nothing more, nothing more that I can do, in that hour of our destruction, God provides. God providentially brings down Pharaoh's daughter. Of all people, Pharaoh's daughter comes down with her maidens and pulls this ark out of the waters of her father's judgment. A Hebrew woman couldn't do this. A Hebrew woman could have taken it out and Moses would still be dead. But no, she comes, this woman who had the authority to say, Daddy, save him alive. She delivered him there.

So it serves as a picture of the hour of grace when our Lord reveals his salvation to his people. We're plucked out of death. and brought into life and salvation.

Now, verse six, we're told, and when she 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. And so, here this daughter of Pharaoh is moved to pity Moses. As soon as this basket's open, he's startled, and he starts crying, and she's moved to pity for him. right, to save him alive. She has compassion on him.

Now, this picture here of what's happening to Moses is describing the picture of the day of grace for us when we are plucked out, when we are made to, when the cry, when the Lord puts the cry in your heart, right, that cry for mercy, as it were, and the Lord hears, because the Lord did it. He did the whole thing. He brought the whole thing to pass for us, brethren. It's a picture of his grace for us when he plucks us out of death and we begin to cry. We live, and we cry like a newborn babe, and he hears us.

Another way of seeing this is in Ezekiel 16.8. Now when I passed by thee, the Lord says, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God. and thou becamest mine." And so it was that Moses was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. She became his child through adoption in the same manner, brethren, that we too are adopted into the family of God to live and not die.

Now, this This is just a beautiful picture of how our Lord mercifully saves us in grace, in mercy, and brings forth all that we need. provides everything we need for our salvation, even to the cry itself.

And then in verse seven and eight, then said his sister, she runs up and says 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 you see here that the providence of God, right? There's some sense in which even Pharaoh's daughter here, we can see pictures of her as the church, right? And we see this working here of what the Lord has brought together that burdens the hearts of God's people to minister to those who are born into the family of God. all right, to seek out, to nourish them, to provide for them, to be made willing to do these things. And God had brought it all together. He's the one who causes it to happen.

And so she goes off and just in the beauty of the story itself, we see how the child's even returned to his mother to nurse and raise. I mean, it's a beautiful picture there of how the Lord works all things together for good, according to purpose, his glorious purpose to save his people. And then we see Moses's mother here as a type of the church, as a picture of the Bride of Christ to whom the Lord brings his people to the inn. We saw that picture in the Good Samaritan, where we're brought in there, brought to the inn to take care of him. Our Lord taking care and brings his broken, weak, tried, troubled, a half-dead child, and that's the language used there in that half-dead, alive physically, dead spiritually, brings them to the inn and says, take care of them. Gives them two pence and says, take care of them. And if there's anything more you need when I return, I'll restore it. I'll give it back to you. And so there's a beautiful picture here in this.

And in Exodus 2.9, 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 so that's the ministry of the church, that the Lord brings his people into the church to be ministered to, to be cared for, to be provided for in the Lord Jesus Christ till he comes, till he comes again.

And then finally, in verse 10, 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. Now this name Moses seems to be an Egyptian word. for drawn out, to be drawn out of the water. And men even, you know, writing of these things, they draw this connection of how that it's a picture of, you know, as Moses was delivered, so he was made a deliverer of the Lord's people, right, to deliver them out of Egypt. And we see this in his being drawn out of the waters of judgment, delivered from those waters of judgment which were against us.

And Moses here, he records his birth and the death that he suffered when he went into that river there, and his resurrection being drawn up out of that, and it is a picture of the spiritual salvation of God's people. That's how the Lord deals with us. We are born into dangerous, great danger. We are born under the sentence of death already laid against us. And there's nothing we can do for ourselves. There's nothing those who love us can do for us, though they would. There's nothing they can do. We have no power to do it, but God is able. God is able, and he does. He saves his children, described here as goodly, that is chosen in Christ, precious to him, beautiful to him because of his love for us.

And because he loves us, he put us in Christ. and sent his son to save us, to bear us up in the wrath, and put us to death to that law so that that law has nothing more to say. Just as Moses, when he came forth, Pharaoh's law had nothing more to say to him. He was released from it, had no more bearing on him. He couldn't be put to death by that law, though he was marked for it. And so we see this picture of what our Lord does for us, who came, gave himself for us, and provided everything we need beautifully and perfectly in that.

So I pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts, brethren. Amen.