Spiritual Vision

Bible stories contain fascinating nuggets found only when you dig deep. Take the story of Moses, for example. After reading this familiar story in Exodus chapters one and two, I read a passage in Hebrews 11 that refers back to Moses’ parents and then on to Moses’ conquests for God. And there I found the perfect equation for living for God in supernatural ways.

To understand the beginning of Moses’ life, we have to begin with Joseph, another individual with a remarkable life story.

Joseph was an Israelite, who, through a series of unfortunate events turned fortunate ended up in a position of power and prestige in Pharaoh’s government. Consequently, when a famine threatened the very existence of the Israelite tribes, Joseph invited them to live in Egypt to avoid starvation.

But when the pharaoh died, the new ruler of Egypt saw things differently. He saw the growing number of Israelites (think millions) as a threat to his empire. In an act of shear paranoid evil, he enslaved the Israelites, forcing them into hard labor. But still they multiplied. So he had the first born male of each family thrown into the Nile to die.

But Moses’ parents believed God had a plan for him, so they hid Moses until he was three months old. Then they made a basket, placed pitch in it so it would float, and sent Moses down the river in the miniature boat.

Miriam, Moses’ sister, ran along the bank, watching to see what would happen. Eventually, pharaoh’s daughter, who was childless, found him and took baby Moses as her own.

Fascinating story, right?

You probably know the rest of the story. That in essence, Moses grows up to be a son of the great pharaoh. And eventually, he rejects the power and wealth in order to be used to release the people of Israel from slavery.

Hebrew 11:23 casts light on this intriguing story. It says, “By faith, after Moses was born, he was hidden by his parents for three months, because they saw that the child was beautiful and didn’t fear the king’s edict.”

Two words jumped out to me: ‘because’ and ‘and.’

They saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

Here I see an equation of faith with two inputs. The first input is sight. The second input is fearlessness.

The child was beautiful. Every parent thinks his child is beautiful. But this verse doesn’t refer to physical beauty. The parents had spiritual sight. We’re talking about supernatural sight that goes beyond intuition but that’s based on concrete things, real things. So “see” that Moses was created for something else, something supernatural. And they see it with the eyes of faith through very concrete things.

Input two is fearlessness. They were not afraid of the king’s edict. Instead, they possessed holy fear of God that turns human fear into nothing. So by faith and fear of God, they hid the child.

Their supernatural sight and fear of God produced supernatural events.

This is part of the story of Moses and his parents that led to an unfolding of God’s plan.

What about your story?

I believe that God wants every person on the face of this planet to experience supernatural events that happen only through the process of faith combined with the inputs of true sight combined with fearlessness that only fears God and him alone.

In the next blog, I’ll share part of my storing leading to God’s call on my life.