Exodus 2:10

And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

There is a quiet sadness in this verse, because the time finally came when Jochabed had to bring the child she had nursed back to Pharaoh’s daughter. She had been given those early years with him, and no doubt she used them well. She had the privilege of holding him, feeding him, and shaping those first impressions upon his heart. But now the child grew, and the day came when she had to release him.

That could not have been easy.

Yet once again, the hand of God is all over the story. Moses becomes the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, which means the child who was marked for death is now placed in the very house of the king. The one who was supposed to be drowned in the river is now being raised in the palace. The Lord is not only preserving Moses, He is positioning him. He is placing him exactly where he needs to be for the work that lies ahead.

Then Pharaoh’s daughter gives him his name. She calls him Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.” The name carries the idea of being drawn out, and that becomes a fitting banner over his whole life. Moses was drawn out of the water physically, but in time he would be used by God to draw an entire nation out of Egypt. The name points backward to his rescue, but it also quietly points forward to his calling. What was true of him in infancy would become the pattern of his ministry.

That is often the way God works. He writes small hints of the future into the early parts of a story. A name, an event, a rescue, a detail that seems simple at first can later be seen as part of something much larger. Moses was not preserved merely so he could survive. He was preserved because God had purpose resting on his life.

And the same Lord still works that way. He draws us out in order to send us out. He rescues us, not simply so we can admire the rescue, but so we can walk in the purpose for which He spared us. Moses was drawn out of the water by the compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter, but behind even that was the providence of God, setting apart a deliverer long before the deliverer himself understood what God would do through him.