Matins Devotion: April 7, 2025

Exodus 2:1-22

There’s something almost comical about the story of Moses’ mother. In the midst of absolute terror, in the midst of murder and sorrow, she hides her son in the waters of the Nile. She seeks to protect his life from the evil Egyptians. But then her son is discovered by the daughter of Evil, by the daughter of Pharaoh himself. And yet, due to young Miriam’s cunning, Moses’s mother is then hired by Pharaoh’s daughter to nurse her own son. She’s paid to do the very thing she was so desperate to continue doing for free, something she surely would have paid to do. Strange, funny, and profoundly beautiful. In the midst of all of this, God was proclaiming something glorious to her: “No matter how much power the evil one may have, this world isn’t really his. It’s mine, and I will bless you beyond measure even as sorrow howls around you everywhere.”

So be at peace. When the sorrows of this world surround you, when Satan screams in your ears and troubles your heart, remember the child in the reeds, the child who soon was back at his mother’s breast. This world doesn’t belong to the devil. It’s not the property of the one who has led you into sin and condemnation. This world belongs to the One who destroyed your sins at the cross, the One who lifted you up with His saving arms in His resurrection. This world belongs to Jesus Christ. And because you are His brother, this world belongs to you. The meek have inherited the earth and you will one day see this promise in all its glory. Don’t be afraid. The might of Pharaoh is only an illusion. You belong to the God who has drawn you out of the waters of holy baptism and made you His child forever.