Exodus 2:9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages… God speaks to every parent, teacher, pastor, with every child He puts into their care. I. So He speaks to the parent with A DEFINITE AND INDIVIDUAL CHARGE. He says not: "Take some child," but, This one take and train. There is no question here as to which out of the many is to be the object of your care. How that definiteness enhances the solemnity of the charge! It is the very charge you would have chosen, too. The tie of nature is a stronger one than you can make with bands of gold or fetters of brass, and when that tie receives the strengthening sanction of God's approval, it is the most enduring thing in all the world. God has organized, and He sanctions, the family and its sweet bonds. II. For in these words of Pharaoh's daughter, taken as the King's own word to us, we find THE SECRET OF THE TRAINING OF THE CHILD. "Nurse it for Me." Not for yourself are you to train this child entrusted to your care. It was not given for your amusement or your service. Nor may you train them for themselves, as though the world was made for them and all their business was to please themselves with it. The only right and worthy object of our labours for the children, and it should be an aim clearly before us, is to bring them up for God. We surely cannot do it unless it be our definite purpose. Train it not for, but in, Christian faith and love and obedience, and teach it always to live to please the Lord that bought us. The New Testament teaching is like the Old: based on the same principles, uttered in similar form — "And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." III. And so we shall receive THE REWARD. "I will give thee thy wages." It was the daughter of the king who promised thus to Moses' mother. It is the King Himself who gives His word to us. He pays us for taking care not of our children, but of His. Here is the worst mistake of all, if we do not recognize them as God's children and we as only nurses in His employ. The promise is as definite as the charge. "I will pay thee." It is the faithful parent or the faithful teacher who wilt be rewarded. (G. M. Boynton.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. |
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