“At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.” Acts 7:20

Well Pleasing

I came across this Scripture one day while having some quiet time. I couldn’t help but wonder how a tiny baby could be well pleasing to God, any more than any other newborn would be. Moses was born into a sin nature, as we all are, and yet Scripture declares that at birth he was well pleasing to God. This was not earned favor.

I looked up the cross-references given: Exodus 2:1-2 and Hebrews 11:23. Both say he was a “beautiful” child. We surely know that he did not please God due merely to his childish good looks. Even God’s own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, “had no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2), and yet Jesus was “well pleasing” to God (Matthew 3:17).

Perhaps it was that God knew Moses would have been a child who obeyed his parents, if he had been raised by them (but he wasn’t—he was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter); this would have been well pleasing to God (Colossians 3:20).

Furthermore, Moses was well pleasing to God even though God knew the future: that Moses would be given to outbursts of anger and impatience, even murdering a man who committed an injustice. None of this changed God’s mind about Moses. In fact, if anything, it may have been the very reason that God chose Moses to be used so mightily, for a weak, stuttering, fearful, argumentative, initially unwilling person who does great things in the power of God will bring God great glory, simply because no one could do what Moses eventually accomplished except by being used by God.

Still, I wonder in what way was Moses well pleasing to God at birth. We can glean from 1 Peter 3:3-4. Although it is written to women, it clearly shows what God looks at. It isn’t outward beauty or adorning, but rather the “hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.” 

Being well pleasing to God is always about the heart. “…But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:29).

Clearly, we are not chosen by God because of our own works, righteousness or perfection, nor our appearance, brains, strength, or talents. That should be obvious when we look at the life of Moses, and so many others in the Bible. God sees a certain “something” in us, something we can’t see, something He has placed in us, and He uses that something to further His kingdom and bring Him glory.

“Our Father, we are in awe that You chose us in spite of our flaws to do Your work on earth. May we be found willing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”