Daily Lesson for March 16, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 2 verses 5 through 10:

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ 8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother.9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

It is a fact of salvation history that there is always someone in the house of Pharaoh with a heart, who in their own ways subvert the cruel interests of the Master. 

There is always the mistress of the house who secretly teaches a slave like Frederick Douglass the basics of reading or, in the case of today’s Lesson, a daughter in the house who cannot bear the crying of one single Hebrew child — named Moses.  There is suffering and cruelty all around, but in each case one small act of compassion undermines the whole cruel slave apparatus.

It is impossible to keep all goodness at bay. Somewhere there is always enough good in someone to make a dent in evil. There is always some sliver of hope, some ray of light, some single act of love.

And even only single act of love wins.