INTRODUCTION
• First off, I want to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!
• Sometimes when we look at the Bible, particularly at the Old Testament, we tend to think that we humans have progressed, that the things they struggled with are not the same struggles we deal with.
• So the tendency is to not pay much attention to what we read.
• Today we begin a new series from the Old Testament book of Exodus.
• Big Idea of the Series: This eight-week series describes the escape of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and the nature and character of God revealed along their journey.
• Exodus reveals a God who liberates, provides, protects, cares for, and gives an identity to his people, Israel.
• This same God does this for his people today as well.
• As we celebrate the birth of our nation today, we need to make sure that we heed the warning and learn from the mistakes that the nation of Israel experienced during their journey with God.
• When things get difficult, we have to resist the temptation to go with the flow; we need to take a stand for God.
• We also need to know that when the battles of life come at us that the battle belongs to the Lord!
• The Israelites were going to find themselves in a challenging situation that they did not see coming.
• There was someone who saw it coming, God!
• All during the time of the enslavement of God had a plan!
• When your life is out of control, God has a plan!
• When all looks lost, God has a plan.
• I want to be careful how I say this, lest it is misunderstood, but there is no way this nation should have ever gotten off the ground considering the odds the nation faced.
› Big Idea of the Message: God sees the evil of the world and creates a plan to rescue his people.
Let’s turn to Exodus 1 together this morning!
Exodus 1:1–7 (CSB)
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3 Issachar (ISS A CAR), Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali (NAF TALI); Gad and Asher.
5 The total number of Jacob’s descendants was seventy; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.
7 But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.
SERMON
I. Living in the comfort zone.
• The nation of Israel was living the good life in Egypt.
• Life was good.
• Joseph rose to second in command of Egypt, and his lineage found refuge and a home in Egypt.
• When Joseph’s people came to Egypt, it was a small contingency that entered the land.
• When we live in the comfort zone of life, we tend not to be aware of what is brewing around us.
• God’s people were fruitful and were rapidly multiplying, and they were exceedingly strong.
• The Israelites were not looking to overthrow anyone or form a political party; however, their large population became a threat to the king (see verse 9).
• An alternative translation for grew exceedingly strong is “they grew so large in numbers that they became a threat [or, dangerous] to the Egyptians.” Osborn, N. D., & Hatton, H. A. (1999). A handbook on Exodus (p. 17). New York: United Bible Societies.
• When we live in our comfort zone, we tend to get so comfortable that we start making mistakes.
• Our prosperous country will cease to be prosperous if we keep doing some of the things we are doing.
• For Christians, we need to make sure that we are not so comfortable that we forget why we are here and who we serve.
• I think we all like living in our comfort zone, but we need to be careful so that things do not one day catch us off guard.
• The Israelites seemed to be everywhere.
A Handbook on Exodus (1. The Israelites in Egypt (1:1–7))
So that the land was filled with them is an exaggeration.
It describes the result of the increasing population of the Israelites as well the impact of their corporate strength upon the people of Egypt.
The land refers to the territory of Egypt, and filled with them means that they seemed to be everywhere in the land of Egypt. Thus NEB says that “the country was overrun by them.”
• Test
• Let’s look at verses 8-11.
Exodus 1:8–11 (CSB)
8 A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.
10 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.
II. The path to oppression.
• Seasons change.
• We see that what was once a good place for God’s people became a place of bondage.
• There are times in life when a good place, job situation, or relationship becomes toxic.
• Have you ever had a situation where new leadership came to power and made life worse for you?
• Let’s say the job you have had for years comes under new management, and things change.
• Maybe they don’t like your department, your current position, you, or the way you express your faith at work.
• Egypt was once a haven for God’s people.
• But Joseph died, and generations passed away.
• A king came to power who didn’t know of Joseph (Exodus 1:8), only that these Hebrew people were multiplying in his kingdom.
• One of the things I believed has happened in our country is we tend to forget how God has blessed us as a nation, and because of that, we see a multitude of problems in our country.
• I want us to spend some time in this section of text because we see a progression that happened.
• This progression ended up in the enslavement of a nation of people, the Israelites, but this same progression can lead to issues we face today, like racism or religious persecution.
• The first step we see in the path to oppression is IGNORANCE!
• VERSE 8 tells us that a new king who did not know Joseph came to power in Egypt.
• As far as I know, the Israelites had shown no signs of causing any problems.
• Joseph and his crew, along with his descendants, were living life without causing any issues.
• A new king comes in, and he is ignorant of Joseph and his people's contributions to the Egyptians.
• When we are ignorant concerning other groups of people, it can lead us down a bad path.
• When we are around people we know nothing about, it can lead us to assume things that are not true.
• Ignorance leads to the next step in the progression, FEAR!
Exodus 1:9 (CSB)
9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.
• When ignorance exists, then fear sets in.
• On what basis did the new King assume this?
• On what basis do we assume things about others?
• When we are ignorant of other groups of people or other cultures, it breeds fear.
• The King was fearful for no real reason.
• Then what happens when fear takes root? PARANOIA!
Exodus 1:10 (CSB)
10 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
• The ignorance led to fear, which manifested itself in paranoia.
• Now the problems will start for the Israelites, a nation of people living quietly in Egypt.
• The paranoia led to oppression!
Exodus 1:11 (CSB)
11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.
• The oppression is going to get worse.
• All this mess springs forth from ignorance and the fallen world we live in.
• Who knows what Pharoah was thinking by doing what he did.
• But he did it, and it appeared that God’s promises Abraham could die out.
• Pharoah had what we could call the first final solution for the Jewish people, sort of a preview of what Hitler would try to do during WW2.
• Whether the Egyptians thought such actions would produce “ill health and workplace accidents” and/or “the people would simply be too fatigued to multiply” cannot be determined.
• Even so, something amazing was happening.
Exodus 1:12–22 (CSB)
12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly
14 and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives—the first, whose name was Shiphrah (SHIP RA), and the second, whose name was Puah (PEW A)—
16 “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.”
17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.
18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”
20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.
21 Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
22 Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”
III. A few God-fearing people can make a difference.
• As the oppression grew, so did the number of Israelites!
• Pharaoh's final solution was to kill all the male children, and he recruited the Egyptian midwives to do his dirty work.
• What will happen to the nation? Will it be destroyed by Pharaoh’s decree, or will a savior arise who will follow in the path of the midwives?
• When oppression happens, a few God-fearing people can make a difference.
• What is God doing during times of evil?
• From Exodus, we see that God hears people and uses people (like the Hebrew midwives) to thwart evil.
• Sir Winston Nichols saved over 600 children from Nazi concentration camps by giving them safe passage to Britain during World War 2.
• He was honored on a television program, not realizing that many of the children he saved were sitting with him in the audience.
• We see two things that God does during this time of enslavement and genocide.
• He multiples the Hebrew people, and he uses Egyptian midwives to help spare Hebrew baby boys, so they can continue to live.
• Even in a dark and evil time, God blessed his people and used a corrupt society to show grace and mercy to his people.
• We start to see that God is intervening for his people who need to be liberated.
• These midwives put their lives in danger by not doing what they were told.
• Not only were they disobedient to the command of Pharoah, but they also lied to him when they were not carrying out his diabolical plot.
Exodus 1:19 (CSB)
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”
• As a result of the midwives, God blessed them for doing the right thing!
• When we see oppression, we cannot be afraid to be used by God to help correct the problem.
• As Christians, it is our duty to stop oppression however we can do so.
• We see millions of children slaughtered in the womb. We cannot be afraid to take a stand.
• Our Founding Fathers, who were not perfect people, laid it all on the line in what they saw as oppression to the Colonies at the hands of the British, and they did something about it.
• We have our issues of today; we have to be willing to take a stand.
CONCLUSION
• When the oppression started to take place, God was in action.
› Application Point: We will allow our God to fight for us in our battles, and we will be faithful to stand up to injustice.
• Slavery was ended in this country because people took a stand.
• Racism, all though it still exists and sadly will probably always exist in some form, is not where it was 60 years ago because people took a stand with God!
• I do not long for the day when people become color-blind because that would take away our individuality; I long for the day when race does not matter.
• I long for the day when a child can be safe in the womb.
• Even with our struggles as a nation, one of the best things to happen to this world is the United States of America!
• The Christian influences of our nation have blessed many around the world.
• Always know that when you stand up to oppression, the battle belongs to the Lord!
• God had a plan for Israel, and He executed that plan!
