His Father's God

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: "I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted. The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him. Exodus 15:1-2 NIV

Please read that verse again! If you miss this, you will spoil the whole purpose of today's thought. Towards the end of the passage, do you see what I see? There it is: the mention of Moses' father! He does exist! He is real! Moses had a father and his father loved God! Praise God! (We do actually learn that his name is Amram later in Scripture.)

I hope you get as excited about this as I did the first time I read it! I didn't know anything about Moses' father. I knew about his mother, because I remember the old Bible stories of her carefully placing Moses in a basket and floating him in the Nile. I knew that she was allowed to care for Moses, after Moses was found by Pharaoh's daughter. Now I know something about his father as well.

In today's passage, God has just delivered the Israelites safely across the sea. They were running from the Egyptians and they cross through the sea on dry ground. It must have been an amazing sight to watch. They also witnessed the Lord turn back the water, drowning the hundreds of Egyptian soldiers who were pursuing them. What a miracle! God had never been more real to the Israelites than He was on this day.

On the other side, as Moses praised God before the people, he gave credit to his "father's God". Moses' father, as we've already seen, was a Levite, a priest of God. Though Moses was raised in a different home, being raised as an Egyptian by Pharaoh's daughter, at this time when he felt so incredibly close to God after the miracle, he gave his father recognition as a Godly man! Caught up in emotion, Moses was called to think about the man his father was! What a powerful statement this is about Moses' father!

I don't know about you, but as a Dad myself, this new information to me about Moses' father is a wake-up call! Years from now, when my boys face situations in life, good or bad, will the influence I have on them be that powerful, that they would remember me in the height of the moment? Will my impact on their life keep them from some known sin? Will it inspire them to go deeper in their Christian life? Will I challenge them by the life I live to live completely for my God?

Moses knew his father's commitment to God. Do your children and mine?