...do whatever God tells you to do...

“1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water’” Exodus 2:1-10.

Although this part of the story features Moses, it is also the story of how God used three women to save a baby from death. Notice that it features two mothers and two daughters, with the daughter of Pharaoh acting in two ways, initially as a daughter and eventually also as an adoptive mother. Moses' biological mother also figures prominently in this story as the one who not only did everything she could to preserve the life of her child, but also as the woman who ended up being able to nurse and so substantially raise (see vv. 7–10) her own little boy. The final important figure is this woman's daughter, that is, Moses' sister, who will be identified later as Miriam, one of the leaders of the exodus. Miriam's secret oversight of Moses as he floated among the rushes of the Nile and her quick thinking in proposing an Israelite nurse for the baby (knowing full well she would “recruit” his own mother) helped preserve Moses for her family and for Israel's salvation. The motives of all these women appear to have been pure and appropriate. God used them to do what they were good at and what their culture especially honored in women: preserving and raising a child. Their faithfulness to that incredibly important role parallels the faithfulness of the Israelite midwives to their roles as described in chapter 1. In each instance children were preserved from the death the pharaoh had decreed by women who defied his repugnant command. Pharaoh's daughter could do so by reason of her privileged status, while Moses' mother and sister could do so by reason of their wit and fortitude and — though it is only implicit at this point in the narrative — their faith.

What has always attracted me in this account is that the motives of all these women in the story appear to be pure and appropriate. God used them to do what they were good at and what their culture especially honored in women.

Dear friends, how different our life would be if we focused our life on what God gave us to do in our life, in other words, what particular gifts God gave us that we are good at doing. How different our life would be if we used the gifts God gave us — and focused on doing them. 

So I invite you too bring to prayer and examination of the gifts God has given to you in your life to do, and ask the Lord to help you focus your life doing what good has created you to do — nothing more and nothing less!

And then pray that you will not just have clarity in what your God-given gifts are — but that be your remaining focus in life.

This is how God can use you mightily in the remaining days and hours of your life.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.