Exodus 2:1-4

A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife. The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.

When you hear this story, doesn’t it seem rather plain? It is a simple story about a man and a woman who had a child, they thought he was beautiful so they decided not to kill him like the government wanted them to. When I was meditating on this story, I was surprised that the Bible said that they kept the child because of his outward appearance. Then it occurred to me how simple this story is, and I realized that almost every mother and father thinks that their newborn child is the most beautiful thing in the world.

What the child’s parents were doing was extremely natural. Have you ever wondered why it’s so natural for parents to find their children attractive? We know as believers that God put that into humanity. This is one of a number of natural things that our Creator has issued us.

The Bible tells us that in the last days, the times that we now live in, people would give up their natural affections. We see this happening today. It is only natural for every mother, no matter how young, to want to keep their baby alive because it is the most beautiful thing in the world. God wants it to be that way. When we interfere with this we interfere with nature. Here’s what the Bible says about the times we live in:

Romans 1:28-29b, 31b :

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
being filled with all unrighteousness…
…without natural affection…

Clearly, the Egyptian leadership was not willing to allow the knowledge of God to guide them. We will see that this will have consequences, not only for them, but for all of Egypt in the years to come. Fortunately, this young Hebrew couple still had natural affection and they did what they could to keep it and their son alive.

There is a vicious fight in the world today that pounds away against natural affections of all kinds. We should follow this couple’s example and allow these good kinds of affections to guide our behavior as well. We should not feel intimidated into stifling them because of the pressure we feel from those around us. In the end, we will be happier that we went the way that God programmed into nature and did not try to go man’s way and kill what is natural.