God Had Other Plans

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading, titled God Had Other Plans, was written by Tim Gustafson. Their precise ages are unknown. One was found on the steps of a church. The other knew only that she'd been raised by nuns. Born in Poland during World War II for nearly 80 years, neither Helena nor Christina knew about each other. Then, DNA test results revealed them to be sisters and led to a joyful reunion. It also revealed their Jewish heritage, explaining why they'd been abandoned. Evil people had marked the girls for death simply because of their identity. Imagining a frightened mother who leaves her threatened children where they might be rescued calls to mind the story of Moses. As a Hebrew baby boy, he was marked for genocide.

His mother strategically placed him in the Nile, giving him a chance for survival. God had a plan she couldn't have dreamed of, to rescue his people through Moses. The story of Moses points us to the story of Jesus. As Pharaoh had sought the murder of Hebrew boys, Herod ordered the slaughter of all the baby boys in Bethlehem.

Behind all such hatred, especially against children, is our enemy, the devil. Such violence doesn't take God by surprise. He had plans for Moses, and he has plans for you and me. And through his son, Jesus, he's revealed his biggest plan, to rescue and restore those who once were his enemies.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Exodus chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. Now, a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby.

He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. This is one of the Hebrew babies, she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?

Yes, go, she answered. So the girl went and got the baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you. So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son.

She named him Moses, saying, I drew him out of the water. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, there is so much evil in the world, yet you are good. Thank you for your rescue. Help us to trust your perfect plan. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen Tabor, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.