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);
• He will use them, to impact this world – to make a difference!
• ill: That is one of the great messages of this book the Bible;
• God takes so called ‘ordinary’ people and helps them to do extra-ordinary things!
• And although the inspired record the Bible might be complete;
• Church history witnesses to the fact again and again and again;
• That God is still doing great things with so called ‘ordinary’ people!
Ill:
• Each time I do a kids Club, or youth event or run a summer Camp etc;
• I am excited because in that group is a future Jim Elliott or Gladys Aylwood,
• In that group is a future David Livingstone or an Amy Charmicheal etc.
And of course those truths apply not just to children and young people but to every human being that God has created:
• ONE: you are individual, special, unique, made in the image of God!
Ill:
• Think about it – your face and features, your voice, your style, your background,
• Your characteristics and peculiarities, your abilities, your smile, your walk,
• Your manner of expression,
• Everything about you is found in only one individual since man first began – you!
• TWO: if they trust and follow the Lord wholeheartedly (Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5);
• He will use them, to impact this world – to make a difference!
• Quote old hymn: “There’s a work for Jesus, none but you can do!”
Ill:
• Sometimes an easy conversation between friends;
• Can have ramifications far beyond what either person expects.
• Such was the case in the summer of 1872 near Dublin , Ireland ,
• When two prominent evangelists were discussing ministry.
• The two men were the British evangelist Henry Varley;
• And the renowned American evangelist Dwight L. Moody.
• As they were talking Varley made a throw away remark;
• But the Holy Spirit took that remark and burned it into the heart & mind of D.L. Moody.
• It was a remark that affected him for the rest of his life.
• This is how Moody recorded it in one of his diaries:
"The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him." . . .
A man! Varley meant any man. Varley didn’t say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man. Well, by the Holy Spirit in me I’ll be that man”
MOSES GREW UP IN A SIMPLE HOME (1-2)
• A simple home!
• Yes it was but do not miss some key facts in the narrative:
• (a). Amram married Jochebed who was a fellow believer. (vs 1)
• Quote: Amos chapter 3 verse 3: “How can two walk together unless they agree?”
Ill:
• It is even impossible for two people to walk together in the same direction;
• Unless they first agree on where they want to go?
• A walk implies movement in a particular direction;
• Most likely with a particular purpose in mind.
• If you want to try and walk well in the Christian faith;
• Make sure you choose a partner with the same desire to love & serve the Lord.
• (b). Moses had parents of faith (Hebrews chapter 11 verse 25);
• Children need parents who will pray for them and guide them in the ways of the Lord.
• Every parent (and grandparent) here can do that:
• Pray for our kids & grandkids;
• Bring them to Church to learn about the Lord;
• Seek to influence them in Christian things.
Quote: BILLY GRAHAM who said:
“Children will invariably talk, eat, walk, think, respond, and act like their parents.
Give them a target to shoot at. Give them a goal to work toward. Give them a pattern that they can see clearly, and you give them something that gold and silver cannot buy”.
• Moses’ parents gave him something that gold and silver cannot buy.
• A sincere faith, that brought him into contact with the living God!
(2). A CLEVER PLAN (2B-4)
Quote:
“It’s good to plan ahead, remember it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”
Ill:
• When D L Moody, great American evangelist of the last century, lay on his deathbed,
• He was reputed to have said to his sons, "If God be your partner, make your plans large."
Well Amram and Jochebed the parents of Moses:
• Have a big plan - a plan that would require enormous faith
• Remember that if it was not for the faith of his parents,
• Then Moses who alongside Abraham:
• Is the most important figure of the Old Testament would not have survived infancy.
• The parents managed to hide the Baby in their home for three months;
• Before arranging (and I use that term loosely);
• Arranging for him to be found by the Pharaoh’s daughter;
• And therefore brought up in the safety of the palace.
“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.”
• For three long months Moses was hidden in the family home;
• But keeping the boy-child from being discovered eventually became impossible.
• So the time came when something different had to be done.
• Moses’ parents could have reasoned, as did most other parents at that time;
• That it would be better to play it safe,
• To obey Pharaoh for the sake of the families future.
• They knew that if this child was discovered;
• The whole family may well have been killed as well as the baby.
But they believed that this baby was a special child:
• A child for whom God had a plan and a purpose;
• And so with sanctified imagination (great phrase I once heard George Verwer use once);
• With sanctified imagination
• Their faith led them to make a brave choice concerning their new born baby.
Ill:
Faith of course is central to all of life.
• For example, you go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce;
• And whose degrees you have never verified.
• He gives you a prescription you cannot read.
• You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen before.
• He gives you a chemical compound you do not understand.
• Then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle.
• All in trusting, sincere faith!
Note:
• Amram and Jochebed’s faith was not ‘blind faith’.
• They demonstrate great faith alongside careful planning.
• So often this is Biblical faith:
• You trust as if it all depends on God and plan as it all depends on you!
Example 1 (VS 3):
• Jochebed carefully prepared a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch.
• She made sure that this basket was watertight!
• Alongside her faith was practical planning.
• Quote: It reminds me of the old Arab proverb: “Trust in God and tie up your camel!”
Example 2 (VS 3):
• “She placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile”
• She did not throw Moses into the river singing “Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be”
• That would be presumption or stupidity!
• Notice that she ‘placed’ she ‘positioned’, she ‘located’;
• She ‘set’ the basket among the reeds along the bank.
• She placed the basket in the middle of sturdy plants to prevent it floating away.
• There is no foolish blind faith here- she is trusting God and planning carefully!
• And I don’t think it is too farfetched to say;
• That maybe she knew this was the regular bathing place of a certain princess!
• This was not coincidence but careful planning from Amram & Jochebed!
Example 3 (vs 4):
• “His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.”
• Jochabed also set a lookout to keep an eye on her baby.
• She sent Miriam the sister of Moses.
• Who ‘just happened’ to be able to give a reassuring word;
• Some well rehearsed advice to this surprised princess who had discovered a baby.
Application:
• Although ‘Faith’ in the Bible is spelt ‘R.I.S.K.’;
• It is never blind, it is never presumption, trying to force God to cooperate with our desires.
• In fact it is us trusting and cooperating with his will not ours.
• It is sourced in the word of God & prayer;
• And alongside our act of ‘faith’ - it may well be require careful planning!
• ill: Elijah was fed supernaturally by ravens; but he had to find his own water.
• ill: Noah believed God was going to supernaturally send him animals, but he had to build an ark.
• ill: Joshua saw a cities walls supernaturally crumble and fall;
• But he had to march around the city every day for 6 days etc.
• ill: Go through the list in Hebrews chapter 11;
• God works supernaturally but he requires those involved to do some planning as well.
(C). A SURPRISING RESCUE (5-10)
“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 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.”
Ill:
• In her book The Hiding Place,
• Corrie ten Boom tells of tense times in Holland during the time of the German invasion.
• One night Corrie tossed restlessly in her bed as war planes roared overhead,
• Shattering the blackness with fiery artillery.
• Hearing her sister downstairs in the kitchen, and unable to sleep,
• She went downstairs for a cup of tea.
• She and her sister talked and talked until the night was quiet again;
• And the sound of the fighter planes had died away.
• Explosions had taken place all around their house, but now all was quiet.
• Groping through the darkness to her room,
• Corrie reached out her hand to pat her pillow before lying down.
• Suddenly on her pillow she felt something sharp cutting her hand.
• It was a jagged piece of metal ten inches long;
• A piece of shrapnel from an exploded bomb.
• Corrie said to her sister, “Betsy, if I had not heard you in the kitchen...”
• To which her sister replied,
• “Don’t say it, Corrie! There are no IFs in God’s world.
• The centre of his will is our safety.”
Moses was safe because he was in the centre of God’s will for him:
• No crocodile from the Nile was going to have him for dinner;
• This baby would not be swept away and drown in the strong current of the river.
• This baby would not slowly starve to death among the reeds.
• This story indicates that the centre of his will is our safety.”
In this story we not only see that God provides for our needs in ways we may not recognize,
• We also see also that God prevails over evil in ways we cannot imagine.
• Think about the miracle of this story:
(a).
• God used the daughter, the princess of his enemy pharaoh;
• To save his people.
• Therefore the one who was trying to DESTROY the Hebrew people;
• Ultimately SAVED them!
(b).
• Not only was Jochebed given her baby back,
• But she was even PAID to do that which she had done ‘free of charge’;
• For the first three months of the baby’s life.
(c).
• Now she could openly display her baby in public;
• No more hiding away, no more fear of being found out.
• Now she was able to relax and spend time with her baby.
• And do that in the luxury of the palace rather than the slum of a Hebrew Ghetto.
(d).
• Moses was even given the finest of foods and education;
• The finest clothes and luxuries that money could buy.
• Something he wouldn’t have had in the slave camps of the Egyptians.
• This story is in every sense a surprising rescue!
(e).
• Verse 10: “When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses”
• This word would suggest that Jochebed had the boy long after the years of weaning;
• She had the child as he ‘grew older’.
• Maybe she had him for what we would call the preschool years.
• How long we are not told but she had him with her for a number of years;
• And was able to teach him about his Hebrew roots;
• And to learn of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Application:
• God specialises in extraordinary rescues;
• As we approach the Easter holiday period we are reminded of the greatest rescue of all.
Ill:
• Think of the human race aboard a hijacked jet-liner flying through time.
• God himself directed its takeoff from the divine control-tower.
• The initiator of all evil, whom we call the Devil, Managed to get a boarding pass.
• When the plane reached its cruising altitude,
• The Devil produced his weapons, threatened the pilot,
• And took control of the aircraft and all its passengers.
• Thus the plane hopped on fearfully through history;
• From airport to airport.
• Until it was caught on the tarmac at Jerusalem,
• An outpost of the Roman empire, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
• Where the Son of God offered himself as sole hostage;
• In exchange for the passengers and crew.
Final questions:
• Have you been rescued?
• Are you aware that like Moses you were a slave (to sin)?
• Are you aware that God has provided for you deliverance (a saviour)?
