Born In Dark Times Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

• A simple home (1-2)

• A clever plan (2b-4)

• A surprising rescue (5-10)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• Top 10 funny baby video clips on YouTube.

• (http://youtu.be/ZWHpcKXt-qQ)

Transition:

• There is something magical about a baby crying or smiling or just being a baby;

• It touches even the most hardened heart.

• Well most of the time it touches even the most hardened heart.

• Yet we saw last week that there was one man;

• Who was hard-hearted and unfeeling towards anyone but his own family & race.

• The last verse of the previous chapter (1 verse 22);

• Ended with a decree of Pharaoh to all of his people.

• “Every boy that is born you must throw into the river, but let every girl live”.

• To Pharaoh the Hebrew people were just slaves,

• Therefore they had no more value than an animal;

• And he no doubt viewed them as;

• Two legged beasts born only to work for and serve their Egyptian masters!

• So Pharaoh’s command at the end of chapter 1 (verse 22);

• Is the backdrop for the first 10 verses of chapter 2.

• It was a cold calculated act of genocide;

• (the "intentional murder of part or all of a particular ethnic, religious, or national group”):

But to the Egyptians in their culture and in their time it was just a ‘cull’.

(“Culling is the process of removing breeding animals from a group based on specific criteria. This is done either to reinforce certain desirable characteristics;

Or to remove certain undesirable characteristics from the group”)

Pharaoh frightened by the increase of the Hebrew population in his country:

• Decides to act and to act fast!

• So he orders a decree to kill all male Hebrew babies at birth.

• This way he will still have an army of female slaves to serve the Egyptian population;

• But the number of Hebrews in his land;

• Will decrease year by year until he feels it is safe to let them breed again!

• That is the backdrop to chapter 2;

• And as we pick up the story we are introduced to a married Hebrew couple.

(1). A SIMPLE HOME (1-2)

“Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months”.

• A Hebrew man of the tribe of Levi married a Hebrew woman;

• Who was also of the same tribe.

• Later on (Exodus chapter 6 verse 20);

• We learn that the man’s name is Amram and the mother’s is Jochebed.

• The fact that both the man and his wife are both of the tribe of Levi;

• Is a point which Moses wants us to view as significant.

• That is why he mentions it! So hold on to that thought and we will pick it up later on!

Verse 2 tells us that to this couple, a child was born.

• The mother is said to have sensed something special about the child;

• “When she saw”

• This was an important factor which prompted her to hide the baby for three months.

Verse 2 is rendered several ways by different Bible translators:

• “… he was a fine child” (NIV),

• “… he was beautiful” (NASB),

• “… he was exceptionally well-formed” (Berkeley),

• “… he was a goodly child” (King James).

• I am sure this verse means much more than Moses was a good looking baby;

• And all the other Hebrew boy babies were ugly.

• My understanding of this verse is that Moses’ parents;

• Somehow perceived that God had a special purpose for this child.

• In the New Testament book of Hebrews (chapter 11 verse 23);

• The writer tells us that the parents of this baby ‘acted on faith’.

• Those translations that render this expression as “no ordinary child”,

• Suggest that the parents of Moses saw beyond the child’s good looks;

• To something even more special in him.

• His parents, we are told in the book of Hebrews,

• Believed God had a special purpose for the child.

Application:

• I believe that God have a special purpose for every child?

• One of the most exciting things about the work we do with children & young people

• Is to hammer home again and again two key truths.

• ONE: they are individual, special, unique, made in the image of God!

• Quote Psalm 139 verse 14:

• “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful”

• TWO: if they trust and follow the Lord wholeheartedly (Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5);