Heroes Of The Bible: Moses Series

Heroes of the Bible: Moses

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 8/01/2021

NOTE: This sermon was adapted from my book, Holy Heroes of the Bible. If it's a blessing to you, please consider buying the book which includes chapters/sermons on 17 additional Bible heroes: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SBNJTSZ

I want to start off today by bragging a little bit. As many of you know, I personally hate running. I like to work out and stay fit, but I do not like to run. It’s the worst. Yet, I recently completed a virtual 5K (one of these races that you register for online, run alone at home, then post your results using RunKeeper or some other fitness app). So, why would I run a 5K all by myself when I hate running? Well… It wasn’t just any 5K; it was DC’s Superman Run 5K. By completing the race, runners earn a nifty Superman hoodie and a medal with the Superman logo emblazoned upon it. That was all the motivation I needed to get off the couch and start running.

I think this is a perfect example of the way our heroes (real or fictional) are capable of motivating and inspiring us to do things we wouldn’t otherwise do. If you’re just joining us, we’ve spent the last few weeks getting acquainted with some of the greatest heroes of the Bible. It’s my hope that, throughout this series, their stories of heroism and faith will inspire and motivate us to be a little more heroic ourselves.

A few weeks ago, we started with Noah—the hero who built an ark. Then we met Abraham—the hero who lived by faith. Last week, we learned about Jacob, who became a hero by abandoning his life of duplicity and deception when he encountered God in a divine dream and determined to never let go of Him.

Now we come to our next Hero of the Bible—Moses.

Next Slide: Moses

The story of Moses begins with a baby placed in a basket and set adrift down the Nile River only to be discovered by an Egyptian princess and raised in the Pharaoh’s palace. Moses eventually became a hero to millions by delivering an oppressed people from bondage, molding them into a new nation and receiving a revelation from God with new moral standards and laws. His origin story, though, is fraught with danger, discovery, murder and misgivings. And it’s a story that remains just as relevant and relatable today as it was thirty-some centuries ago. It all begins in the first chapter of Exodus, with Moses’s rescue!

• MOSES’S RESCUE

When a severe famine swept through the land, the descendants of Jacob—now known as the Israelites—migrated to the land of Egypt. In time, their population exploded to such a degree that the Pharaoh feared what might happen if the Israelites ever turned against the Egyptians. “So,” the Bible says, “the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor” (Exodus 1:11 NLT). The Egyptians forced the people of Israel to mix mortar, make bricks and do all the labor in their fields. Despite this bitter oppression, though, the Israelites numbers continued to increase. So, the Pharaoh issued a royal decree to all the people of Egypt saying, “Every time a boy is born to the Hebrews, you must throw him into the Nile River” (Exodus 1:22 NCV). Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Hebrew babies were maliciously murdered, but due to the resourcefulness of his mother, one survived.

To protect her baby, this Israelite mother hid her son from the Egyptian authorities for three months. When she feared that he might be discovered, she concocted a plan to rescue him. The Bible says, “She got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River. The baby’s sister then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen to him” (Exodus 2:3-4 NLT).

Soon, Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe in the river. When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she retrieved it and discovered the beautiful baby boy inside. The crying infant melted her heart, so the princess decided to raise the baby as her own and named him Moses.

Just then, the baby’s sister came out of hiding, approached the princess, and offered to find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby. “Yes, do!” the princess replied. So, the young girl ran home and got her mother. The princess then offered to pay Moses’s own mother to be his nurse. So not only did Moses’s mother save her son’s life, she’s now being paid to take care of her own baby!