What to Do in Desperate Situations
Exodus 1:22-2:10
Part of Exodus—The Unusual Way Out
May 28, 2023

Exodus 1:22-2:10

22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman,

2 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.

3 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.

4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 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.

6 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.

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.

9 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.

10 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.”


People encounter situations.

Pharaoh was desperate to the growth of Israel.

Israel to Pharaoh’s desperate measures.

is working, even in desperate situations.

God works through strange twists of

God works through people.

Big Idea: God even in desperate situations.

“By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” —Hebrews 11:23

This is about God’s of Israel, not each individual Israelite.

But many people become Christians in situations.

Though Israel and the church are not the same, God has promised to his church.

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. —Matthew 16:18