As you read through Exodus 1, you might get the impression that God was, well, absent. The God who was so involved in orchestrating Jacob’s family’s coming to Egypt seemed awfully quiet, 400 years later. Jacob’s family was small, but powerful (as Genesis concludes); then they became large and powerless. The pharaoh of Genesis was kind to Jacob’s family, but the new pharaoh didn’t even know of them.

But then, we read about a mother who placed her baby along the bank of the Nile out of desperation (Exodus 2). What happened after that could only be explained by God’s hand. The baby was discovered by Pharaoh’s own daughter who had compassion for him. If that isn’t amazing enough, Pharaoh’s daughter agreed to have Moses’ mother nurse him until he was weaned (when he was about 3 or 4 years old). With this account opening Exodus 2, ideas of God’s being distant or disinterested in Exodus 1 fall apart. God may seem quiet at times, but He is never quiet. God was at work behind the scenes in Exodus, just as He is at work in our lives today – whether we see it or not.

• Are there areas of your life in which you need to trust that God is working?