Verse 4 notes that his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the shoreline. When she spotted the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to retrieve it. It was Pharaoh’s own daughter, the one who despised the children of Israel, who gave these orders. His daughter was the one who rescued Moses. She approached the river, discovered the baby, and opened the ark. As she saw that he was a beautiful child, she instantly fell in love with him and decided, “I want to keep this child; I want him for myself.” We see the compassion of a woman whom God used to safeguard Moses. She chose to adopt him instead of abandoning him to the crocodiles in the river. God brought him to the household of the man who had commanded his death. When God protects, He does so in the most extraordinary ways, even in places where one might assume they could never survive. The very location Pharaoh would have thought no Hebrew child could ever be raised is exactly where God declared, “Yes, this is where I will protect Moses; this is where Moses will grow up.” It was in Pharaoh’s house that he would acquire the skills necessary to lead God’s people. God would use Moses as the instrument to free His people, just as Moses’s parents trusted God, just as Moses’s mother believed in Him.
When we begin our relationship with God, it all starts with that moment of salvation— that moment when we say, “Lord God, forgive my sins. Lord, I’m trusting in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for my salvation.” We begin to develop our relationship with God as we grow in our knowledge and our desire for Him and His word. We start to study it, and as we engage with it, we learn more and more about God. Before we can teach our children about God, we must know God ourselves; we must experience Him personally. We need to understand what it means to trust God for things that seem unlikely. He answers those requests and prayers, enabling us to show our children that God never fails, that He truly hears and responds to prayers, and that He is all-powerful, all-seeing, and always present with us. Once we relay these truths to our children, we then must trust God to guide them in ways we cannot.
There is only so much we can teach another person about God, only so much we can impart to our children. They can borrow our faith and convictions for a time, but eventually, they must cultivate their own beliefs. They have to learn to trust in God for themselves; they must discover Him to be true and the answer to their prayers. We can’t do this for them. We would love to pass on our faith, wishing for them to know God in a profound and personal way. But before that, we must trust God. We have to rely on Him to fulfill His purpose. We must trust God to guide them and keep them safe. We have to give them to God, allowing Him to work through them as He desires. Many parents hold on to their children so tightly that they hinder their kids from following God’s leading in their lives. Some have never ventured into the mission field when God wanted them to because their parents were too protective and didn’t believe that God could safeguard them halfway around the world. You have to trust God with their safety and direction. Only then will they reach their full potential, and only then will they fulfill God’s will for their lives.