Compassion that Delivers us to God

Note: Prince of Egypt doesn't do justice to the events that really happened in Scripture. That's not to say it wasn't a good movie and still one of my favorites for many reasons.

Exodus 2 has three different instances of deliverance that is shown through three instances of compassion.

1. A motherly compassion for her child. Moses' mother took care of him at a time pharaoh has an order for the death of all baby Hebrew males. By keeping the child, she is also putting her own life at risk. In doing so, she has delivered Moses from pharaoh (or in a larger sense death).

2. A compassion towards a stranger, or maybe even an enemy. Although Moses was just a baby, he was still a Hebrew baby and must be killed under pharaoh's law. As the daughter of pharaoh, she decided that it was more important to show compassion and kindness to this Hebrew child than to obey her father. What was even more interesting is that she arranged for the mother to take care of Moses until he was of age so that he can live an adopted life under pharaoh. In this regard, she has delivered Moses from being neglected and risked her position in doing so.

3. A compassion towards your own people. Moses killed another Egyptian because his fellow Hebrew was being beaten. He took a risk to lose his position with pharaoh and to give up all that he has gained through his adoption just to that he can protect one of his fellow Hebrews. And unlike the previous two examples, he in fact does lose those things and he flees Egypt to escape pharaoh's wrath.

All of the examples of compassion precede the greater compassion towards verse 23. God Himself would show compassion towards His afflicted people at their darkest hour. God would moved these characters into their compassion for Moses and the Hebrews so that He can demonstrate His power and glory through Moses, by delivering His people from the most powerful nation of the world at the time.

And what greater compassion God has demonstrated through His son Jesus. Jesus came so that we can be free from the bondage of sin. You can even draw multiple parallels between Moses and Jesus: at their infancy, they were being hunted down and they were called to deliver people from a certain bondage. However, we can't forget the key difference in how they perform their duty. In every instance that Moses was about to be killed God delivers him, either from Pharaoh's wrath or from his own people. But Jesus, at the time that he needed to be delivered from persecution and death, isn't spared. On the contrary, Jesus experiences pain in that God showed no compassion towards His own son on the cross just so that we can be freed from our own sins. The compassion that delivers us back to God is one that was with-held from the One who deserved it the most.