Unexpected Deliverance

God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

“Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). The book of Exodus begins on a dismal note—as if an ominous “da da da dun” were playing in the background. Following the grand finale to the book of Genesis, where the Israelites were flourishing in the land of Egypt under Joseph’s leadership, Exodus opens with an era of oppression under a new king.

After Joseph, his brothers, and the rest of their generation died in Egypt, the Israelites increased in number and strength (see Exodus 1:7). The new king of Egypt saw the Israelites as a threat to their land and to his authority, so he imposed heavy burdens on them. Despite the yoke of slavery around their necks, God’s people continued to multiply (see verse 12).

In another attempt to quell the Israelites’ flourishing, the king of Egypt commanded the Hebrew midwives to put to death every son born to the Hebrew women (see verse 16). Driven by their fear of Yahweh rather than Pharaoh, the midwives spared the baby boys, claiming that Hebrew women gave birth too quickly (see verse 19). So Pharaoh took his heinous plan to stop the Hebrews from multiplying a step further and demanded that the sons be cast into the Nile River (see verse 22).

The Exodus narrative zooms in on the story of a Hebrew woman who feared God. In Exodus 2, we learn that this woman gave birth to a son, hid him for three months, and then set him in a basket in the Nile. Later in the book of Exodus, we find out that her name is Jochebed, the mother of Moses (see Exodus 6:20).

Can you imagine how Jochebed must have felt in this moment? With her hands shaking and her heart beating wildly, she placed her beloved child in the reeds of the Nile, putting her hope in the God of Israel for miraculous deliverance. Not long after Jochebed’s surrender of her son, Moses was rescued from the reeds by Pharaoh’s daughter and eventually brought into the royal household (see Exodus 2:5-6).

The Hebrew word for “basket” also means ark. It’s the same word used in Genesis 7 to refer to Noah’s ark.^a Two different times in the Old Testament, God used an ark as a means of salvation for his people—through a boat for Noah and his family and through a basket for a Hebrew baby who would one day lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. These were foreshadowings of the ultimate deliverance that came to us through a Baby born in humble means in the unimpressive town of Bethlehem (see Matthew 2:1-12). All three times, God’s deliverance came in unexpected ways, right on time (see Galatians 4:4).

In your longing for deliverance from whatever you are facing, do not be disillusioned if deliverance does not come how—or when—you expect. Life is hard, but God is faithful. Life is full of dead ends and detours, but God sees them coming.

You may be looking for a way out from under the crushing defeat of whatever is oppressing you, but instead God may give you an ark—an unexpected vessel to keep you afloat. When tough times come, hang on tight to him.

Word before World Deliverance may not come in the way we expect, but we can take heart that deliverance has already come in Christ.

Grow in Grace Think back on some times in your life when you needed deliverance. What arks did God provide?