Today’s Scripture begins the incredible story of Exodus, and God’s raising up of a deliverer for the people of Israel.

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.”

– Exodus 2:5-10

The Israelites were living in Egypt for up to potentially 400 years, of which a significant portion was slavery. In Joseph’s generation, they lived in freedom. They fulfilled the command to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ and to bless the nations. But a new Egyptian government was concerned by the rapid growth of the Hebrews. It led to harsh and cruel treatment. The Bible depicts a bleak life for slaves in Egypt. It calls the Egyptians’ treatment of the Hebrews “ruthless.” Their aim was to make the Hebrews’ lives “bitter.” The beautiful gift of work had been disfigured into an ungodly picture of punishment and cruelty. The scene was ripe for God’s deliverance.

And this was the scene that Moses was born into. Moses’ birth and upbringing are even more incredible given Pharaoh’s decree that every Hebrew boy was to be killed. However, the faithfulness of the midwives, Pharaoh’s daughter, and Moses’ parents allowed for Moses’ miraculous survival. From there, we know the story well. Moses is God’s chosen deliverer, and with some extra encouragement from God and Aaron, finally leads the Hebrew people out of slavery and to the brink of the Promised Land.

The origins of deliverance in Exodus share interesting parallels with the origins of deliverance in the Christmas story – particularly in the case of Matthew’s gospel. Like Moses, Jesus is born in a time when the Jewish people are under foreign dominion. The Romans were, at times, more tolerant of tribute nations than their Egyptian forebears. Still, many Jews awaited a prophesied deliverer. He would free them from their political and social chains and lead them to independence as a triumphant nation. Similarly, Jesus was born in a time where the local ruler had issued a decree for the execution of all Hebrew boys. Again, the faithfulness of Jesus’ parents and God’s miraculous provision ensure Jesus’ survival. The most beautiful parallel of all comes in Jesus’ emergence from Egypt where Mary and Joseph fled in order to keep Jesus safe. Just like God’s deliverer Moses leads the people out of Egypt to the edge of the Promised Land, so too Jesus emerges as God’s perfect deliverer out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. And unlike Moses, who stumbles right at the last hurdle, Jesus is the fulfilment of Moses and all other previous deliverers, able to complete God’s mission where they were not.

Jesus is our perfect deliverer. He has saved us from the greatest threat: death. We were powerless to do it on our own. And if Jesus has delivered us from death, then He has also delivered us from any other shackles we are bound in. Anxiety, fear, depression, addiction, insecurity, and sin itself no longer have the power to keep us enslaved. We are slaves to a new master, whose reign is one of righteousness, grace, and salvation. The triumphal origins of the Christmas story begin with miraculous deliverance.

Take some time today to acknowledge Jesus as your deliverer. Are there things in your life that you feel enslaved to? Perhaps a particular sin, or fear, or insecurity, or simply circumstances that feel out of your control. When we give our lives to Jesus, He becomes our new master, and the things of the world no longer have dominion over us. Invite Jesus into your life as the perfect deliverer, the one who breaks the yoke of sin and death and leads us in righteousness and grace into His Promised Land.

Lord, thank You that You are the perfect deliverer. While I am not capable of freeing myself from my chains, You graciously do so on my behalf. I am baptised into Your death and resurrection, and I walk alongside You, righteous and clean. Lead me in Your ways everlasting, and deliver me from the powers of this world that try to lay claim to me. Thank You for Your salvation. Amen.