THE service at Crediton Methodist Church, on Sunday, August 27, was led by Rev Alison Richardson.

The reading from Exodus told the story “Moses in the Bullrushes”.

Alison said this was a story that out of bad comes good.

THEN -The context is that it took place about 1,400 years BC Joseph had long gone and the ancient Hebrews were living in Egypt and increasing so much that they had become a threat. 

Pharoah instructed that the Israelites should be oppressed as he feared that they would get strong and join forces with their enemies and defeat the Egyptians. 

The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied.

Pharoah ordered Egyptian midwives to kill all Hebrew boys at birth – this was ethnic cleansing. 

The midwives feared God and did not kill baby boys. God blessed the midwives and they had children of their own.

Pharoah then gave orders that all baby boys should be thrown into the Nile. Moses’s mother was determined to save her baby boy and put him in a basket and floated it in the Nile where her daughter, Miriam, kept watch over her baby brother.

Pharoah’s daughter came to the river to bathe and found the basket. 

Miriam offered to find a Hebrew woman to look after the baby and so the baby’s own mother looked after Moses.  

Out of bad comes good.

NOW - Alison asked what we can take to benefit us from this story?  

We must ask the question about God’s providence. 

Do you believe God has a plan? Was Moses a precursor to Jesus? What do we believe about God’s plan? 

Does it include horrific things happening to us or does God want us to reach out to those suffering? 

Alison believes we are God’s hands, feet and heart. 

We have free wills to make our decisions but Alison firmly believes that God gives good out of bad every time.

The thing that struck Alison about this story is the heart of the Egyptian midwives.

They believed in God and disobeyed Pharoah’s orders.  

They risked their own lives to save Hebrew babies. 

We have no idea how many babies they saved.

Alison praised God that we can still learn from the Old Testament.

Bronwyn Nott