The Lord Hears
Exodus 1-2
CHCC: March 1, 2009
INTRODUCTION:
Today we’re starting a series of lessons from Exodus. The books of Genesis and Exodus introduce the basics of Who God Is … and you could say that the rest of the Bible elaborates on it. In Genesis God introduces himself as the Creator. Then we see God taking the initiative to establish a relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When Genesis ends, Jacob’s entire family has moved to Egypt to wait out a time of famine. Genesis ends with the death of Joseph, who … through God’s providence … had been made a Prince of Egypt.
Exodus opens with the birth of another Prince of Egypt. The birth of Moses came 360 years after the death of Joseph. 360 years is a LONG time! It’s about a hundred years longer than the USA has even been a nation! So where was God during all that time between the last verse of Genesis and the first verse of Exodus?
Looking at those 360 years when God was silent, we learn something amazing about God’s nature. Our God often does His greatest work behind the scenes.
1. Our God often does His greatest work behind the scenes
During those 360 years, the children of Israel may have felt like God had forgotten them --- especially when a new King came into power and forced them into slavery. But all the time God was quietly fulfilling His original promise to make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation. God was blessing hundreds of Hebrew families with healthy babies … LOTS of healthy babies! In fact, Exodus 1:12 says, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.
The original family of about 70 grew into a nation of about 2 million --- and this worried the King of Egypt. He decided it was time to enact some Population Control before this burgeoning group of immigrants took over his nation. So the King came up with a devious plot. He called some Hebrew Midwives into a secret meeting and gave them this Royal Order: “From now on, if a boy is born, kill him. … If it’s a girl, you can let her live.”
The King knew that Midwives could kill babies in a way that would make it look like a still-birth. It was the closest thing to abortion that was available in that day.
The King gave this death order to two midwives named Shiphrah and Puah. Out of the billions of people have lived on this earth, very few have their names recorded in scripture. But these two women made it into the Biblical Hall of Fame. Why? Because they refused to participate in government-sanctioned infanticide.
To see this in context, we need to understand that the god’s of Egypt … and the gods of all the other nations … had something in common. All the religious systems of those days required some form of human sacrifice to appease the gods. Child sacrifice was a common part of pagan worship.
But Verse 17 says Because the midwives feared God, they let the boys live. These Hebrew Midwives believed in a unique God … a God who valued every Human Life.
2. Our God Values Every Human Life
The God of Israel stood apart in the ancient world as the One and Only God who cares about even the most helpless little infant. Exodus 1:20 says that God rewarded these brave midwives by giving them families of their own. You see, Our God sees babies as blessings!
Last week, I got a hold of a book called Population Control, by Steven W. Mosher. I thought that it might be good to take a look at it since I was dealing with the topic of population control in Exodus. Unfortunately, it taught me more than I was prepared to learn about modern population control. Consider these inconvenient truths:
• Back in 1968, a Stanford University entomologist named Paul Ehrlich wrote an influential book called Population Bomb. He predicted that a population explosion would bring disaster in the 70’s. He proposed harsh measures of population control to reduce the number of humans on the planet to around 1.5 billion (1/4th of the current level of 6.5 billion). Even though his predictions were grossly inaccurate, his methodologies live on in organizations such as the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), the U.S. Agency for International Development, (USAID), and the World Bank.
• Modern day Population control zealots are hard at work attempting to alter birthrates in no less than 30 countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. They use quotas to enforce contraception on women, vasectomies on men, permanent sterilizations, and they employ coerced abortions. This is happening in countries like China, Bangladesh, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Morocco, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Vietnam, and North Korea. And to our great shame, much of it is financed by American money.
• On January 22, 1973, the US Supreme Court legalized abortion in all 50 states. On the 36th anniversary of that decision, in January of 2009, our new President lifted a ban on federal funding for international groups that promote or perform abortions, thus guaranteeing that our own government will sanction and finance abortions across the globe.
Do you think God sees any difference between the death orders of a pagan King in ancient Egypt … and the death orders from a supposedly enlightened Supreme Court in our own nation?
• Shiphrah and Puah took their stand on the side of LIFE because they feared God.
• Those of us who fear God today need to take the same stand … against government-sanctioned infant death … and on the side of LIFE.
When the King of Egypt saw that his secret attempt at population control was not working, he gave up on being subtle and he openly commanded: "Throw every Hebrew boy that is born into the Nile … but let every girl live." Exodus 1:22
Exodus chapter 1 ends with that horrific Royal Decree. Exodus chapter 2 starts with the birth of a little Hebrew boy. The baby’s mother, Zipporah, hid him for 3 months. And when she could no longer hide him at home, she made a basket, coated it with tar and pitch, and placed it in the Nile River, hidden among the reeds.
And then something amazing happened. The daughter of the King … they same King who had ordered the death of all Hebrew boys … that Princess saw the basket floating among the reeds and had her servant bring it to her. When she saw the baby crying, her heart went out to him.
And verse 6 quotes her as exclaiming, “This is one of the Hebrew babies.”
How did she know this was a Hebrew baby? It might have been his coloring or features or the fact that he was circumcised. But I think the most likely explanation is: she knew it was a Hebrew baby because it was in the Nile. Her Father had commanded everyone who got the chance to throw Hebrew boys into the Nile … and that is exactly what was happening.
It’s a horrible thought, but the result of that decree would be that corpses of Hebrew babies must have often been found floating in the Nile river. The only difference is that THIS Hebrew baby was floating in a basket and thus … this infant was not dead … yet.
The baby’s older sister Miriam was watching from the shore --- and when she saw the Princess looking kindly at the baby, she didn’t waste any time. She offered to find a nurse for the baby --- and little Moses was saved from certain death. God used the desperation of a mother, the ingenuity of a big sister, and the sympathy of a pagan Princess to accomplish His purposes.
This reveals something else that is unique about our God. Our God is able to bring about Miracles through normal Human circumstances.
3. Our God can make Miracles out of normal Human circumstances.
It may have appeared that the Egyptian King was the one with all the Power --- but as it turned out, God worked quietly behind the scenes --- using the evil King’s own daughter to set in motion the Salvation of God’s people. God continues to do much of His work in that same way today. It may appear that Rulers and Armies and Terrorists and Dictators hold all the power. But behind the scenes, God continues to use obscure people doing every-day things in order to accomplish His will.
There’s another interesting symbol that appears in this account. The Hebrew word translated “basket” is the same word that is translated “ark” in Genesis chapter 6. God saved Noah from the flood in an Ark, and God chose to save the infant Moses from the waters of the Nile in an Ark.
I Peter 3:20-22 shows how this symbolism carries through into our own experience: God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ …
There is a fascinating tri-fold symbolism used here.
• Noah’s ark saved 8 people from a worldwide flood.
• Zipporah’s ark saved Moses from death in the Nile River.
• And Jesus’ saves us through the water of baptism. In baptism, we re-enact the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In that sense, Jesus is the “ark” that brings us through the water of baptism into a new life.
Moses … whose name means “saved out of the water” … grew up to be a Prince of Egypt. But Moses never forgot his Hebrew roots. And he believed that the God of His people had saved Him for a purpose. One day … when Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he decided it was time to act on behalf of His people. He defended the Hebrew, and in the process, he killed the Egyptian.
Moses probably thought His People would rally around Him as their Leader. Surely they would see that God had made Him a Prince so he could set them Free. But that’s not how things turned out.
Far from following his lead, the next day the slaves turned on him in anger. “Who made YOU ruler and judge over us?” they sneered. “Are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?”
The Powerful Prince of Egypt … who believed God had destined Him for great things …was forced to run for his life and hide out in the desert. Moses was about to learn another lesson about God’s nature. Our God does NOT need Human Power in order to Accomplish His Purposes.
4. Our God does Not Need Human Strength to Accomplish His Purposes
In fact, human strength is more likely to get in God’s WAY than to help Him get things done. Before God could use Moses, he had to teach him the limits of his own Personal Strength. Moses had to learn the inadequacy of his Palace Education … He had to see that even great Political Power was not enough.
Moses would spend the next 40 years of his life as a common shepherd working in the back side of the desert. Before God could USE him, Moses had to become seasoned … humbled, weakened, and dependent on the great God … who called him at age 80 to do what he was not yet ready to do at age 40.
Maybe you feel like you’ve spent the last few years working on the back side of the desert. Have you come to the point where you KNOW you can’t count on your own strength? Have you learned the hard way that trying to live life on your own terms is not working out the way you planned?
If so, then take heart. You are just where you need to be to be used by God for His wonderful purposes.
CONCLUSION:
Exodus 2 ends with these comforting words, “God heard the groaning of His people, and he remembered His covenant. God saw the suffering of His people, and He had compassion on them.” Exodus 2:24-25 (paraphrased)
We serve a God who CARES about our troubles and who HEARS us when we cry out to Him. When you go through hard times, remember what we learn about God’s essential nature from the first 2 chapters of Exodus:
• Our God is always working behind the scenes to bring about His purposes in YOUR life.
• Our God cares deeply about YOU … even from the time when you were a helpless infant, God has had His protective Hand on you.
• Our God is working through the ordinary people and circumstances in your everyday life to bring about His amazing plans for you.
• You don’t have to be strong or powerful or successful to be an important part of God’s plan. God has only one requirement --- that you put all your trust in Him.
