A constant claim of the Bible is God’s sovereignty.  He is the true King—the only true God—whose plan of redemption will not be stopped.  The book of Exodus details a battle of sorts between a false king and his gods (Pharaoh and his gods) vs the true King and the true God (YHWH).

At the beginning of the story, Pharaoh has a problem: The Hebrews are growing (Abrahamic covenant) and he sees them as a threat.  First, he increases the labor of the Hebrews.  Then, he orders the midwives to kill the baby boys, but they courageously don’t comply (see here for more detail).  So in order to deal with his problem, Pharaoh takes matters into his own hands: He orders that all of the Hebrew baby boys be thrown into the Nile.  The seed of the serpent is trying to kill the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15).  This is when the sovereign God, through the faith of a young Levite woman, saves the day.

What I want to draw attention to is this: Pharaoh’s evil plan to destroy the Israelites will actually lead to the Israelites’ salvation and Pharaoh’s own destruction.

Pharaoh’s plan forces Moses’ mom to hide her son and then ultimately place him in the Nile.  Notice that this was literally Pharaoh’s decree…Moses was indeed thrown into the Nile!  Pharaoh’s plan is underway, but will Pharaoh’s plan succeed?  What happens next?

Moses just happens to float up to Pharaoh’s own daughter who just happens to be in the Nile at that exact same time (cough…God’s sovereignty…cough).  Pharaoh’s own daughter has compassion on Moses and brings the Hebrew boy into Pharaoh’s own household and raises him there.  Are you seeing this?!  God uses Pharaoh’s own plan of destruction to bring salvation.  God uses Pharaoh’s plan to save and raise up (in Pharaoh’s own household!) the very one Pharaoh was trying to destroy.  And this one—Moses—would lead Israel, the people Pharaoh wanted to destroy, not to destruction but to victory and freedom.  The false king thought he was planning the demise of Israel, but in reality, the true King—YHWH—was in control.  Pharaoh was planning his own demise.