“PLUCKED FROM THE RIVER” Ex. 2:1-10
FBCF – 4/11/21
Jon Daniels
INTRO – Start this message w/ some questions:
- How many of you struggle w/ unworthiness or feeling unqualified to do something?
- How many of you wrestle w/ leadership issues?
- How many of you sometimes feel overwhelmed by life’s circumstances & trials?
- How many of you wrestle w/ family issues & struggles?
- How many of you get frustrated w/ the way people act sometimes, or are disappointed in the people around you sometimes?
- How many of you deal w/ anger issues, or inferiority issues, or have run from a difficult situation or a mistake you’ve made?
- How many of you have made excuses when you know God was leading you to do something?
- How many of you feel like you’re too old to really be used by God?
These are some of the characteristics & traits of Moses that we are going to see over the course of the next several weeks as we begin this series, “The Life of Moses.” We will explore his life & how God used him in some extraordinary ways. We’ll see how Moses’ struggles & failures sometimes cost him, but how God continued to use him. We learn some valuable Biblical principles & truths that we can apply to our own lives to help us navigate through the challenges that we all face as we live in this fallen world. Specifically, today we are going to wrestle w/ some of the challenges & issues that face families in our world today.
EXPLANATION – Exodus 2:1-10
When most of us think of Moses, we probably think about the guy who got the 10 Commandments from God. Those who are old enough may get a picture of Charlton Heston in their minds from the movie that was produced in 1956.
Certainly, the delivery of the 10 Commandments to Moses was a major moment in his life & in the lives of God’s people. But as we examine Moses’ life, we can learn so much about human behavior, about leadership, about faith & trust in God & His plans. We can learn about sin & its consequences – that God is no respecter of persons. We can see what happens when God’s people choose to obey the Lord & walk w/ Him, & we can see what happens when His people deliberately choose to ignore Him & turn their backs on Him.
But let’s look at the interesting beginning of the life of Moses, long before God met him on Mt. Sinai & gave him those stone tablets. And as we do, we will see how the events surrounding his birth can help us relate to some of the issues that we face in our families today.
APPLICATION – We need to understand the importance of our families.
THE WAR AGAINST THE FAMILY – Exodus 1:15-22
The family has always been a favorite target of Satan & his forces of evil. There is a war being waged against the family today. It started in the Garden of Eden w/ the first family – Adam & Eve. After their fall in Genesis 3 & sin entered the world, the very next event we see in Genesis 4 is the first recorded murder in history, & that was another direct attack on the family as Cain murdered his brother, Abel. Satan has always targeted the family.
- NOBTS – President Landrum Leavell – "If you lose your marriage & family, you’ll lose your ministry."
- Satan knows that & deliberately targets pastors’ families w/ some of his most devastating & debilitating attacks.
o Pray for your church staff & other pastors you know – our marriages, our kids, our families.
Chuck Lawless – Evangelism prof @ SEBTS – 10 Reasons Satan Attacks Families:
1. He aims in general to destroy what God has created.
2. He wants to destroy the witness of our marriage. Ephesians 5 - Marriage is a picture of the gospel.
3. Satan hates our children. He delights when our adult decisions affect our children by turning them against God and the church.
4. The enemy wants to take out the primary place of disciplemaking. The first place for making disciples is in the home.
5. He wants to harm our witness. He can’t rip us from God’s kingdom, but he can dim our light for the gospel.
6. He strives to remove people from ministry.
7. Satan wants to redirect the church away from evangelism. He will do whatever he can to keep us from taking the gospel to our non-believing neighbors and the nations – including so attacking our homes that our pastors spend all their time trying to put out family fires.
8. He always wants to hinder prayer. Peter warned us that unhealthy marriages block our prayer channel (1 Peter 3:7). Satan will always aim to rob us of power by weakening our prayers.
9. He delights in scars he can attack later in life. Our sinful choices often leave scars in our life and in the lives of our children. Satan doesn’t miss opportunities to rip them open when he wants to later in our life.
10. He wounds entire church families when a home falls apart. That’s part of what it means to be a church – we all hurt when one hurts. Great anguish sets in when a brother and sister in Christ choose to end their commitment made to God.
(http://chucklawless.com/2017/08/10-reasons-satan-attacks-families/)
As we look at the beginning of Moses’ life, we will see how Satan launched his attacks against Moses’ family & how he’s still attacking my family & your family even today.
In Exodus 1, we see one of the most heinous attacks carried out against families anywhere in the Bible – Exodus 1:15-22. Heartbreaking! Can you imagine the fear that the Hebrew families lived in? Trying to keep their baby boys quiet. You know how difficult that it? How terrifying to know that if someone heard your little boy cry, they could rip him from your arms & go throw him into the Nile River! One pastor said about v. 22: “Here there is a full-scale assault on the covenant people of God.” (https://theseed.info/sermon.php?id=490)
But it wasn’t just a “full-scale assault on the covenant people of God.” It was & still is a full-scale assault against the family. It started in the Garden of Eden, continued here w/ Pharaoh, & is raging even fiercer today. Pharaoh wasn’t just trying to weaken the Israelites as a military threat. He hoped that this horrible decree would weaken their faith in God & their commitment to Him. And Satan wants to do the same thing to us – attack our families & weaken our faith in & commitment to God.
- Abortion (3000 per day in the US).
- Pornography
- Abuse – drugs, alcohol, spouses, kids
- Infidelity/adultery
- Cohabitation
- Same-sex marriage
- Busyness
The war rages & our only hope is JESUS!
THE PROTECTION FOR THE FAMILY – Exodus 2:1-3
We need to protect our kids as best as we can. Moses’ mother made that basket as best as she could. She’d probably made many baskets before this one. Bulrushes – cattails – commonly used for weaving. But no basket more important than this one. Coated it with bitumen & pitch – asphalt type materials (similar to what Noah used w/ the ark) that would seal it from the dangerous waters of the river that could seep in, sink the basket, & drown her child. She was going to do everything she could possibly do to protect her child.
- She knew what she was up against
- She trusted the Lord
- She wasn’t just going to take her chances
- She devised a plan for her child’s protection
- She was intentional, committed, courageous, trusted God
THE RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE FAMILY – Exodus 2:4-8
His mother did her job
- Gave birth to him
- Hid him as long as she could
- Got the basket – Sealed it for his protection
- Devised the plan for his protection – She didn’t just put him in the Nile at some random location & let him float away to his death.
- Was able to nurse him & bond w/ him
His sister did her job
- Obeyed her parents
- Watched over him while he was in the river
- Brave enough to approach Pharaoh’s daughter
- Went & got her mother to come to nurse the baby
Moses & God’s plan to use him would have been in great danger if someone had fallen down in their responsibilities. We MUST fulfill our God-given responsibilities in our family!
THE FUTURE OF THE FAMILY – Exodus 2:10
Moses was drawn out of the water to fulfill God’s plan to be the deliverer for God’s people. His name means that he was delivered & rescued out of the danger of the river. And that’s what he would go on to do w/ his life. God’s plan was for him to go & rescue the children of Israel out of their slavery.
Hebrews 11:23 – “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, b/c they saw he was no ordinary child, & they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” The only way that there was any future for Moses was b/c his parents walked by faith.
That’s the only way that there is a future for your family today, too – STRONG FAITH THAT IS LIVED OUT IN OUR FAMILIES!
CONCLUSION/TAKEAWAY – End w/ invitation for families to come to altar – “God, do a work in our family!”
