Parenting By Faith

Sermon Moves…

Intro – Baby box (S Korea)

A temperature-controlled chamber built into the wall of a church functions as a baby box, enabling unwanted newborns to be taken in without parents having to identify themselves. …

New arrivals — almost 200 last year, an average of nearly four a week — are deposited covered in blood, wrapped in material, sometimes with the umbilical cord still attached.

Pastor & Church set up the facility after hearing reports of babies being abandoned in the open air or in public rest rooms.

“Some teenagers give birth to babies in empty houses or in public toilets. They wrap them in old shirts or towels and bring them to us,”

On one occasion, a young couple brought in a baby covered in dust.

The father had been planning to bury the baby alive,

“When the father started shovelling earth over it, the mother could not bear it any more and rescued the baby.”

**In 2013 (for example), 224 babies were placed in the “baby box”

Read text – Ex 2Ex 1:15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” 20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Ex 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.3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7 Then his sister (!) asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8 “Yes, go,” she answered.

So the girl (sister) went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” (!)

So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

1. Situation – Jochebed Has A Baby In Egyptian Slavery

a. Because of a famine Israel is Egypt

b. Now, Joseph has died

c. And there’s New leadership in Egypt

d. 300 years into slavery…Population is growing

e. Pharoah feels threatened

f. Edict to kill baby boys

g. This couple Joch & Amran have 2 children already – Miriam and Aaron

h. They are Levites (not yet assigned as priests - no law or tabernacle yet)

i. Now another baby – what if it’s a boy?

j. Mothering is hard enough already!

Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh – 1 million Rohingya refugees (+ a STORM)

2. Complication – Release Baby Into The Nile – Or Be Killed

a. They hide him for 3 months – but babies grow… and cry… and cry some more…

b. What to do?

c. The joy of being a mom is overshadowed by the smell of death.

d. What will happen?

e. They build an “Ark” – see Gen 6 – of bitumen (Tar/asphalt)

f. Release the ARK into the Nile River.

g. Flood language/overtones

h. ** there’s no “word from God” of safety mention in the narrative.

i. How would you feel?