Pharoah Plots, God Intervenes

Found on page 45 of your Pew Bibles.

Last week, Pastor Nick gave us an overview of the entire book of Exodus.

So if you weren't here last Sunday, I encourage you to go to the website and listen to his

sermon.

We're looking at the book of Exodus over the next few months because it really is foundational

to the entire Bible.

It sets up the story, the rest of the Old Testament, and it also prepares us for what Jesus will

come to do in the New Testament.

Above all, Exodus shows us the character of God, the God who intervenes and instructs and

indwells His people.

So I encourage you as we journey through Exodus to read along.

Maybe take one day a week in your private prayer time with the Lord to read and meditate on

the passage that we'll be looking at the following Sunday or the previous Sunday.

There's a sermon card in the pews you can take home with you.

If that helps you, you can put it as a bookmark in your Bible.

Now some of you may want to dig a little deeper in Exodus.

You might have questions about the literary structure or the historical background of the

book, or maybe you're wondering about the themes and interpretation.

Let me recommend this book called How to Read Exodus by Tremper Longman.

There's a couple copies on the bookstall downstairs.

If you want to go a step deeper and delve into some of those more complicated questions, let

me recommend that book.

It's a great book to go along with reading through the book together.

So this morning we're going to read…I'm going to start at chapter 1, verse 7.

We read the first seven verses last week, and then our passage this morning is chapter 1,

Isaiah 1:8

verse 8 to chapter 2, verse 10.

So here we go.

Verse 7, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly.

They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

And he said to his people, behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply.

And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.

They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramses.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad.

And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter

with hard service in mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field.

In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool,

if it is a son, you shall kill him.

But if it is a daughter, she shall live.

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them,

but let the male children live.

So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them,

why have you done this and let the male children live?

The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,

for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.

So God dealt well with the midwives.

And the people multiplied and grew very strong.

And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people,

every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile,

but you shall let every daughter live.

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.

The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child,

she hid him three months.

When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes

and daubed it with bitumen and pitch.

She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river

while her young women walked beside the river.

She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.

When she opened it, she saw the child.

And behold, the baby was crying.

She took pity on him and said,

This is one of the Hebrews' children.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter,

Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go.

So the girl went and called the child's mother.

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse him for me,

and I will give you your wages.

So the woman took the child and nursed him.

When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.

She named him Moses because, she said, I drew him out of the water.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where everything just seems to be getting worse and worse?

You feel taken advantage of, beaten down, left alone to fend for yourself.

Perhaps you're exhausted by ruthless demands at work.

Your reputation is slandered for no apparent reason.

Your health is threatened.

Your children's safety is threatened.

Maybe you keep waiting and praying and hoping for circumstances to turn around,

but very little seems to change for the better.

Maybe you look around and wonder, Where is God in this chaotic mess?

Now, even if that's not your situation right now,

many of our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world

face this kind of seemingly unrelenting oppression regularly.

About a month ago, I got an email update from Syed and Jenya.

They were part of our church last year.

They live in Central Asia.

Here's some of their update.

Their own church was recently raided on a Sunday morning by the police.

The pastor had to pay a fine because they teach children in the church.

It's illegal to teach any religion to children in their country.

He also had to pay a fine for storing some Christian books that were not permitted

by the government.

There's a very short list of Christian books that are permitted.

Another pastor in their country has been in jail for several months already

and still awaiting trial.

Most of the other leaders and pastors in the country, they said,

are exhausted physically and tired spiritually and always under serious pressure.

Understandably, many of them just want to leave the country.

Some of them have done so when they have had a chance.

And many Christians throughout history, not just today, have felt the same way.

About 180 years ago, on a Sunday morning, an 18-year-old boy named Frederick Douglass

stood on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay, and he watched the ship sailing unhindered in the distance.

He had never enjoyed such freedom, for he had been born a slave.

He had witnessed and endured bloody beatings, physical and psychological torture,

at the hands of professing Christian masters.

In fact, his most outwardly religious masters had been by far the cruelest.

He had recently found faith in Christ as a teenager.

After reading the book of Job, he actually overheard the godly wife of one of his masters reading the book of Job out loud one evening

and wondered, who is this man who could say, blessed be the name of the Lord after all that happened to him?

And then he found some free black Methodists, and they taught him the way of salvation in Christ.

But on that Sunday morning, he cried out to the god whom he had come to trust and believe in,

Oh, why was I born a man of whom to make a brute?

The glad ship is gone.

She hides in the dim distance.

I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery.

Oh, God, save me.

God, deliver me.

Let me be free.

Is there any god?

Why am I a slave?

Why am I a slave?

That's a question you might be asking when you read this section of Exodus.

Is there a god, and if so, where is he?

Because the first thing we see in this passage is Pharaoh's designs for evil.

We see three successive and increasingly vicious attacks against the people of God.

First, verse 8 to 14, Pharaoh appoints taskmasters to afflict them with heavy burdens.

He enslaves them and works them ruthlessly.

Then, in verses 15 to 21, Pharaoh launches a secret campaign,

quietly instructing the Hebrew midwives to terminate the life of every Hebrew son.

Third, in verse 22, Pharaoh openly commands all his people to throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile River.

We go from ruthless enslavement to secret infanticide to public genocide.

It's terrible, and it only seems to get worse.

Now, let's look in more detail at Pharaoh's designs for evil, his three evil designs.

First, verse 8,

Now, there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

Now, the story of Joseph, for those if you're not familiar with it,

it's found at the end of the book of Genesis in chapters 37 to 50 of Genesis.

Joseph was one of Jacob's 12 sons.

Once, he became a high official in the Egyptian government,

and he brought his whole family down to Egypt in a time of famine.

With the Pharaoh's permission, Joseph settled his family in the land of Goshen.

They were given property of their own in that district.

So, for many years, the children of Israel were protected by the agreement that Pharaoh had made with Joseph.

They made their living as farmers and keepers of livestock.

But this new Pharaoh had forgotten, intentionally or not, that agreement.

See, the promises of Pharaoh, unlike the promises of God, were subject to change from one generation to the next.

And so, this Pharaoh had no loyalty to Joseph and the children of Israel.

On the contrary, he perceived and portrayed them as a threat.

But, verses 9 to 10, this is sort of a speech to his cabinet.

And Pharaoh says,

These are outsiders.

They are prone to ally with our enemies and either run away,

or possibly that word escape could be translated take over our land.

Now, some of you might be wondering,

who was this new king of Egypt?

Scholars have spent a lot of time researching and debating this question

because Exodus doesn't name any of the pharaohs it describes.

Some scholars think this pharaoh was a man named Thutmose III in the 15th century BC.

Others think this pharaoh was Ramses II in the 13th century BC.

One of the cities in verse 11 is named after him.

Those are sort of the two main theories out there.

I don't have time to go into all the details, but I'm happy to discuss that.

Tremper Longin's book goes into some detail about that historical background.

But some skeptical scholars have said instead,

Exodus doesn't name the pharaoh because it's just a fairy tale.

It's a nice story, but it probably never happened.

After all, we don't have any evidence outside of the Bible

for the Israelites and their exodus from Egypt.

But there's actually a very good reason

why the pharaohs are never named in the book of Exodus.

Not because they never existed, but because in the ancient Near East,

referring to someone by name, especially in a written document,

was a way of honoring them and preserving their memory in high regard.

In the first five chapters of Exodus,

there are three groups of people who are mentioned by name.

Jacob and his family,

at the beginning of chapter 1.

Moses and his family, throughout chapters 2 to 4.

And the Hebrew midwives in verse 15 of this chapter.

We'll get to them in a bit.

And then most prominently, the Lord reveals his name in chapter 3.

That's sort of the biggest deal of all.

Exodus doesn't name the pharaoh,

not because he never really existed,

but because Exodus isn't written to give honor to the pharaoh.

There's also a very good reason

why we don't have any other historical records

that tell the story of the Exodus.

For one thing,

even today, 90% of the population of Egypt

lives very close to the Nile River.

It's a wet region.

We have very few ancient documents from that area

because they don't preserve well.

And furthermore,

ancient Egyptian historians,

like most other ancient historians,

were notorious for recording

the high points and the victories

and the glories of their nation.

They tended to ignore and overlook

and never write about

the defeats and embarrassing moments.

Why would they write about this people

who grew up within their land

and then successfully left?

And Pharaoh tried to pursue them

and a bunch of Pharaoh's army

was drowned in the Red Sea.

That's about the most embarrassing story

you can come up with.

You see, among ancient literature,

the Bible's unusual

because it tells the story of a people,

but it doesn't hide their flaws.

It doesn't overlook their failures.

It doesn't deny their embarrassing moments.

In fact, we'll see one of those failures

of Moses himself next week,

later in chapter 2.

So there's no need to be intimidated

when skeptical scholars claim

that Exodus has no historical basis.

It's entirely reasonable to affirm,

as traditional Jews and Christians always have,

that Exodus describes real events

that happened in history.

Now, that's a bit of an aside.

Getting back to the story,

the people of Israel find themselves

in a bad situation.

Instead of being under Pharaoh's protection,

as they were during the time of Joseph,

they are now under his suspicion.

Instead of making a living independently

as keepers of livestock,

they are now slave laborers

building Pharaoh's military empire.

That word store cities in verse 11

could also mean fortified military settlements.

Some of these cities had large temples

and palaces and government buildings,

and these are the ones that they were building.

And Pharaoh's strategy here

is not only to use the Israelites

to move forward his building projects,

but oppress them as a means

of population control.

All right, practically how might this work?

Well, you take the men away from their families,

send them away to build these store cities.

That at least hinders the reproductive abilities.

The farming and livestock back home

might suffer because fewer people would be around.

There'd be a lot of work

and fewer people around to take care of the animals

and cultivate the land.

Then you work the men ruthlessly,

and they'll eventually get weak and sick

and gradually die off.

That's what Pharaoh's up to.

Verse 13 and 14, the word work

is repeated five times.

One commentator said,

each word in verse 13 and 14

is like another blow from a slave driver's whip.

They ruthlessly made the people work.

They made their lives bitter with hard work.

In all kinds of work.

In all their work.

They ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

And these verses are not an exaggeration.

We do have an ancient Egyptian document

that describes the cruelty of Pharaoh's officials

when they came to inspect

those who were seen as Pharaoh's slaves.

Here's an excerpt from it.

The scribe, that is the Pharaoh's official,

surveys the harvest.

He's coming to inspect a farmer

who owes him some grain.

Attendants are behind him with staffs,

Nubians with clubs.

Give grain.

There is none.

The farmer is beaten savagely.

He is bound, thrown in the well,

submerged head down.

His wife is bound in his presence.

His children are in fetters.

This is the kind of ruthless cruelty,

senseless discrimination

that the Israelites were experiencing.

And that was only the beginning.

Verse 15, it gets worse.

Pharaoh summons the Hebrew midwives.

Most likely these weren't the only midwives,

but rather the head ones.

He says to them,

when you serve as midwife

to the Hebrew children,

to the Hebrew women,

see the child being born.

If it's a son, kill him.

If it's a daughter, let her live.

Now notice,

this was not a public campaign.

It was a private directive.

Pharaoh says,

nobody else needs to know about this.

You could probably just strangle

the baby boy as he comes out of the womb.

The mother might not even know the difference.

Besides,

perhaps he phrases it this way,

what hope did a Hebrew boy have

for a good life?

He would just grow up to be a slave

and be worked to death.

Perhaps it would be merciful

not to bring such a child into the world.

Of course, if Pharaoh lived in the modern world,

he could have done it all

even before the babies were born.

require a blood test

toward the end of the first trimester

and based on the results,

counsel the mother to abort.

In Iceland and Denmark,

98% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome

never see the light of day.

The United States is probably closer

to 70 or 75%.

Evil comes in many forms,

whether it's racism and slavery

or hostility toward immigrants

and separating them from their families

or killing off the weakest

and least noticed ones

through abortion

or physician-assisted suicide.

Most of us here would readily recognize

slavery, infanticide,

and ethnic cleansing as evils.

But evil always presents itself deceptively

as something good,

rational,

acceptable,

perhaps necessary.

Verse 22,

Pharaoh makes a public proclamation.

Every son born to the Hebrews

throw into the Nile.

We hear that,

and that sounds,

rightly,

horrendously evil.

But in Egypt,

the Nile River

was worshipped as a god.

The giver and taker of life

it was recognized as.

And so Pharaoh's decree

might well have been presented

with a religious justification.

The Nile is summoning Hebrew boys.

If she does not receive them,

our whole nation

will be under her wrath.

Might have sounded a lot more plausible

than it would to us.

What makes evil seem good

or acceptable,

then or now?

It's the idols that we worship

and cherish.

In the ancient world,

the nation and the tribe

were the prevalent idols.

That's what Pharaoh appealed to

in verses 9 and 10.

Those idols haven't gone away.

In the modern world,

we have another idol.

It's called personal autonomy.

The freedom to do

whatever I want

with my own body.

And that idol,

like every other idol,

distorts our perspective.

And it makes us think

that all kinds of dehumanizing

and destructive behaviors

are not that bad after all.

Or even pretty good.

You know, education alone

doesn't rescue us

from this danger.

Adolf Hitler came to power

in one of the best educated

and most technologically advanced

and culturally sophisticated

nations of his time.

And he followed the same

general pattern

as this Pharaoh.

From anti-Semitic rhetoric

to increasingly restrictive policies

around work

to secret plots

to open violence.

Pharaoh's evil designs

have been repeated

over and over

in the course of history

on small and large scales.

Because they're not just

Pharaoh's designs.

Behind Pharaoh's designs

were the designs

of Satan himself.

Whom the Bible calls

the father of lies.

The enemy who seeks to steal

and kill and destroy.

You might say,

where do I get that idea

that Satan's behind this?

Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Revelation gives us a glimpse

into some of the heavenly

and spiritual realities

behind earthly events.

And in Revelation 12,

there's a vision of a dragon

who is identified as Satan,

who is seeking to devour

the male offspring

of a pregnant woman.

The woman represents

the people of God.

The point is,

behind Pharaoh and Herod,

Hitler and Stalin,

all of the tyrants

who dehumanize

and persecute God's people

and all of the people

with a lot less power,

but who still try

to do the same things,

is Satan himself.

The Apostle Paul says,

we are not unaware

of Satan's designs.

We should not be unaware

of them.

That's the first thing

we see this morning,

and it's quite sobering.

Pharaoh's and Satan's

designs for evil.

But we also see

a second thing

in this passage.

We see God's intervention

for good.

Now, God's intervention

for good is not evident

at first glance.

You read through

this whole passage,

there are no words

spoken by God,

no prophetic encouragements,

no wise explanations

for why things are happening

the way they are.

Now, if you go back

to Genesis,

in Genesis 15,

God spoke to Abraham

and said his descendants

would be enslaved

and mistreated

in a country not their own,

but then he would

be faithful to them

and bring them up

out of it.

And in Genesis 46,

God had spoken to Jacob

and said,

don't be afraid

to go down to Egypt,

for there I will make you

into a great nation.

I myself will go down

with you there,

and I will also

bring you up again.

But that was hundreds

of years ago.

Most likely,

at least some of the

children of Israel

had passed down

these promises

from one generation

to another,

but for so very long,

God was apparently silent.

And it might have seemed

that he was nearly absent.

There's only one action

explicitly ascribed to God

in this narrative

in verse 20 and 21.

God dealt well

with the midwives.

Verse 21,

and because the midwives

feared God,

God gave them families.

God allowed two midwives,

presumably older

and previously infertile,

to have children

of their own.

You might say,

well, that's nice for them,

but it doesn't do much good

when a people are enslaved

and on the brink

of being slaughtered.

But here's what I want to say.

Even though it doesn't

seem like it at first glance,

when God is present

and active

and working out

His plans for good

in every part of this story.

When we take a closer look,

we see that God

is intervening for good

and undermining

each of Pharaoh's evil designs.

So let me show you

how God is intervening for good

in each of these three situations.

First, in the midst

of oppression and slavery,

God causes supernatural growth.

Verse 12,

the more they were oppressed,

the more they multiplied,

and the more they spread abroad.

Now that sentence

is not what you would expect

in the rest of this paragraph.

What you would expect

this sentence to say

is the more they multiplied,

the more they were oppressed.

That would be very natural.

It's happened over and over

in all kinds of places in history.

An immigrant population

grows more rapidly

than the majority culture.

Majority culture

feels afraid and threatened.

Those people are trying

to take over our country.

They're moving

into our neighborhood.

Verse 12,

the Egyptians were in dread

in fear of the Israelites.

That is all totally natural

in a fallen world

where human pride

and fear rule the day.

But the first half

of verse 12

is not natural.

It's describing

a supernatural

intervention of God.

God, the Creator

and Redeemer,

is blessing His people

with overflowing

and abundant life

even in the most humanly

unlikely circumstances.

And you know,

this pattern

has often been repeated

in the history

of the church.

Through periods

of affliction

and persecution

and opposition,

Jesus in supernatural

and unexplainable ways

grows His church.

You can see it

in the New Testament.

One example,

1 Corinthians 16, 9,

the Apostle Paul wrote,

I'm staying here

in Ephesus

because a wide open door

for effective work

has opened to me

and there are many adversaries.

In the early church,

Tertullian,

I think it was Tertullian,

said,

the blood of the martyrs

is the seed

of the church.

The Roman emperors

put Christians to death,

but the church

kept on multiplying

and spreading.

We can see it

in the modern world too.

Just one example,

China became a communist nation

in 1949

and all the Western missionaries

were expelled.

At that time,

there were about

four million Chinese Christians.

But despite intense persecution

at times

and ongoing legal restrictions,

there are by some estimates

50 to 100 million

Chinese Christians today.

The church has grown

and flourished

in the midst of oppression

and persecution.

Let me say to you,

if you are experiencing

spiritual attack

and oppression,

it usually means

one of two things.

One possibility

is that you are engaged

in a pattern of sin

that is giving the devil

a foothold,

an ongoing foothold

in your life,

and you're not repenting of it.

And if that's you,

you need to repent now,

today.

Don't delay.

But the second possibility

is that you're experiencing

spiritual attack

because you're doing

something right.

You're seeking first

the kingdom of God

and the devil

is not happy with that.

And in that case,

you need to know

that in the midst

of affliction,

God causes supernatural growth

in ways that

you will not even

be able to explain.

In the kingdom of God,

suffering and joy,

oppression and growth

are not opposites.

They often come

as a package deal.

One of the reasons

God brings affliction

into our lives

is so we don't get

too comfortable

here in this world.

It makes us look up

and call out

for our Savior.

And when we call out

to Him

in the midst

of being oppressed

or opposed

or attacked,

His grace

is sufficient.

Christians throughout history

can testify to it.

People here in this room

can testify to it.

His grace

is sufficient

for you

in your weakness

when you feel

attacked

and opposed

and oppressed.

Don't be afraid

and don't be discouraged.

God brings

supernatural growth

even in the most

unlikely

and hard

circumstances.

That's the first way

we see God intervening.

The second way

we see God intervening

for good

is through courageous

women

who fear God

more than man.

Now notice

throughout this passage

the primary focus

of Pharaoh's attacks

is on

the Hebrew men

and on the boys

who would one day

grow up to become

men.

Satan seems to try

different tactics

in this regard.

In the Garden of Eden

he focused his attack

on Eve

and successfully

undermined Adam

and their marriage

in the process.

But here Satan

takes aim

at the men.

Practically speaking

Pharaoh knew

that if he could get

the men of Israel

out of the picture

then the women

and children

would be more vulnerable.

And spiritually speaking

Satan knows

that if he can get

the men of God

spiritually off track

that the church

as a whole

will be more vulnerable.

And Satan

has often been successful

in his attempts

to spiritually

enslave

and oppress

Christian men.

Men

just as Pharaoh

enslaved

the Israelites

physically

Satan wants

to enslave

you spiritually.

He wants

to make you

a slave

to lust

and pornography

and self-gratification.

He wants

to make you

a slave

to your ambition

and your work

so that you have

no time

or energy

for the worship

of God.

He wants

to make you

a captive

to anger

and rage.

He wants

to isolate

you from

intimate friendship

with your wife

and from

genuine fellowship

with your brothers

in Christ.

He wants

to keep you

perpetually immature

and noncommittal.

A boy

who can shave

and drive

but who can't

make and keep

promises.

Men

we are

under attack.

Let us

not be

unaware

of Satan's

schemes.

If

Satan

can disable

us

spiritually

the women

and children

in the church

will suffer

and bear

the burden.

But there's

good news

because we

have something

that the men

of Israel

didn't

yet.

The men

of Israel

could not

protect

or save

themselves

from Pharaoh's

oppression.

They could

only wait

for God

to raise

up a

Savior

which he

would.

But our

Savior

has come.

Our elder

brother

Jesus Christ

has conquered

sin and

death for

us.

We do

not need

to be

enslaved

and oppressed

by Satan

anymore.

So brothers

live in the

freedom

for which

Christ has

set you

free.

Resist

the devil

and stand

firm in

your faith.

faith.

But what

we see

in this

section

is that

when the

men of

God are

oppressed

and when

the boys

are threatened

God

raises up

women

of courage

and faith

who fear

God

and don't

give in

to the

pressures

of the

world.

Verse

17

the midwives

feared

God.

They did

not do

as the

king of

Egypt

commanded

them

but let

the male

children

live.

Now the

midwives

had every

reason to

be afraid

of Pharaoh.

He had

absolute

power over

them.

They had

no legal

protections,

no court

of appeal,

but they

recognized that

there was a

higher authority

than Pharaoh.

They feared

God

more than

they feared

the king.

They were

like the

apostles in

the book

of Acts

who said

we must

obey God

rather than

men and

God blessed

the obedience

of these

faithful women.

Pharaoh

summoned

them,

verse 19,

to ask

why aren't

you following

through with

my decree

and they

had a

ready answer.

Now people

have debated

were they

telling a

lie?

If so,

was that

okay because

Pharaoh was

because innocent

lies were at

stake or

did God do

good to them

in spite of

their lie or

was there

some truth

to what

they said

even if

it wasn't

the whole

story.

Maybe the

Hebrew women

really were

more active

and involved

in their

labor while

most Egyptian

women just

laid back

and waited

for the

midwife to

tell them

what to

do.

Who knows?

We don't

really know.

Perhaps the

midwives

conveniently

arrived late

after having

given prior

instructions to

the expectant

mother and

another woman

nearby beforehand.

Right?

Perhaps it's

a clever answer

but not

necessarily

false.

We may

not know

with

certainty

how to

interpret

their

answer

but

Pharaoh

seems

stymied

by it.

He doesn't

punish them

and verse

20 seems

to indicate

that God

was pleased

with their

answer too.

So God

dealt well

with the

midwives

and because

they feared

God

he gave

them families

of their

own.

At the

macro level

that may

seem like

an insignificant

thing

but God

is not

just concerned

about macroeconomic

trends.

He's

also concerned

about the

small people.

He's

concerned about

your individual

life.

If you've

been trusting

God through

infertility or

unwanted

singleness

it's no

small thing

if God

provides you

with a

spouse

or with a

family

through childbirth

or through

adoption.

God is

faithful and

merciful to

women like the

midwives who

find themselves

hard pressed

with no one

to protect

them and

they stand

firm and

fear God

more than

they fear

men.

God honors

these midwives

obedience not

only by giving

them a family

of their own

but he bestows

upon them the

honor of being

named and

having their

names preserved

in God's

very own

word.

Shiphrah

and Puah

verse 15

we know

their names.

We don't know

the pharaoh's

name.

Scholars will

debate that

forever but

we know their

names and

we know that

God named

them because

God is

honoring their

faithful obedience.

Like Mary who

poured ointment

on Jesus'

feet and

Jesus said

wherever the

gospel is

preached what

she has

done her

sacrifice will

be recognized.

Her story will

be told in

memory of

her.

So women

stand firm

in Christ

even if you

have nobody

else beside

you.

You have

Jesus and

he will make

you strong.

So in the

midst of

oppression God

brings supernatural

growth.

When the men

and boys are

threatened God

raises up women

of faith.

And third,

the third way we

see God

intervening for

good is

delivering the

baby who

would one day

deliver his

people.

Chapter two,

the focus of the

story narrows.

We've gone from

all the people of

Israel to the

midwives of the

Hebrews to a

three-month-old

baby.

His parents had

hidden him as

long as they

could.

His cries had

become too loud

most likely.

If he was

found in their

house, that

would be it.

And so his

mom made a

covered basket.

The word basket

is actually the

same word

translated ark

in Genesis

chapter six in

the story of

Noah.

She placed the

ark by the

reeds on the

side of the

river.

She wasn't

abandoning him.

She wasn't

turning her back

on him.

The basket was

in the reeds.

It's not going

to float away.

And Moses'

sister was

stationed there

to watch

carefully.

It's probably

a common

place where

women came to

wash their

clothing and

bathe in the

river.

Some people

have even

compared it to

leaving a baby

on the doorsteps

of a hospital.

Somebody will

likely take care

of it if you

are unable to.

Perhaps she

planned when the

coast was clear

to come back

and nurse him.

We have no

idea.

Furthermore,

she had

technically

complied with

the king's

edict.

The letter

but not the

spirit.

Now,

nobody knew

it then,

but God's

redemptive plans,

not just for

the people of

Israel but for

the entire world,

were hanging on

a helpless baby

in a homemade

ark.

God's plan of

redemption starts

in unexpected

places.

A baby lying

in an ark.

A baby lying

in a manger.

Sometimes God's

redemptive plans

seem to hang on

a very thin and

fragile thread,

but the hand that

holds that thread

is a strong and

steady hand,

and if you have

turned in faith

to Jesus Christ,

if you have cast

yourself and your

future on him

in your weakness

and your fragility,

the same hand

that was holding

on to Moses

is holding

on to you,

and he won't

let you go.

How does God

deliver Moses

from the water

again?

In an unexpected

way,

by the hand

of Pharaoh's

own daughter.

She wasn't

a fellow Hebrew.

She couldn't

personally sympathize

with their

precarious

social situation.

She had little

to gain and

everything to lose,

but she had

compassion.

She didn't

abandon the baby

but adopted him

as her own.

She even

paid his

mother to

nurse him.

You see,

she doesn't

treat the

Hebrews as

slaves.

She paid

for child

care out

of her own

pocket.

She put

herself at

risk to

raise this

child.

Now,

you might

ask,

wouldn't

Pharaoh have

gotten word

of this?

Well,

one Pharaoh

was reported

to have 200

children,

including 111

sons,

and 59

daughters

whose names

are recorded.

So,

the vast

majority of

Pharaoh's

children probably

would not

have seen him

very often,

but still,

it was a

risk.

What we see

in Pharaoh's

daughter is

this.

God's salvation

is for people

from every

nation of the

world.

No ethnic

group is

excluded.

Maybe you,

like Pharaoh's

daughter,

come from a

family that is

completely opposed,

most,

as Pharaoh

was,

to Christianity,

to God's

people.

But there's a

place in God's

kingdom in His

family for you,

as there was for

Pharaoh's daughter.

She named the

child Moses.

Moses was a

common Egyptian

name.

It simply means

son.

But verse 10

points out that

Moshe also sounds

like the Hebrew

mashah,

to draw out.

The one who

was drawn out,

delivered from

the waters of

the Nile,

would one day

grow up to

deliver God's

people through

the waters of

the Red Sea.

One commentator

put it this way,

this child,

once doomed to

death by

Pharaoh's decree,

would become

the very instrument

of Pharaoh's

destruction and

the means through

which all Israel

would escape,

not only Pharaoh's

decree, but Egypt

itself.

Do you see?

Every evil

design of

Pharaoh,

God intervened

for good.

When the people

were oppressed

and enslaved,

God supernaturally

grew them.

When the men

and boys were

under attack,

God raised up

women of faith.

And when the

Pharaoh summoned

every Egyptian

to throw every

Hebrew son into

the Nile,

God in his

providence

delivered the

one who would

one day deliver

his people by

the hand of

Pharaoh's own

daughter.

Everything that

Pharaoh intended

for evil,

God turned for

good.

That's the

message of

this passage.

We see it

right here,

and we see it

in the life

of Jesus even

more.

As a baby,

he was threatened

by King Herod

who wanted to

kill him.

In the desert,

the devil tempted

him.

In the garden,

he was betrayed

by one of his

friends,

and on the

darkest day of

all,

he was nailed

to a tree,

and he hung

on that tree,

and he cried

out,

and there was

no answer.

But every one

of Satan's

designs for

evil,

God turned

for good.

Jesus was

delivered from

the wrath of

Herod.

He resisted

the devil's

temptation,

and therefore

overcame him.

He remained

loyal to his

followers,

even when his

followers weren't

loyal to him,

and on the

cross,

he took our

sins away,

as far as the

east is from

the west.

And on the

third day,

he triumphed

over sin and

death in his

resurrection.

Brothers and

sisters,

that's why we

can be confident

that God is

present and active

in our lives,

and in this

world,

even when it

doesn't seem

like it,

even when he

seems to be

silent for a

really long

time and only

active in the

smallest ways,

we serve a God

who takes what

was intended for

evil and turns

it to accomplish

his good and

glorious and

saving purposes

in the world.

We're about to

come to the

Lord's table,

where we remember

the death of

Christ on our

behalf.

And we can

remember that

there, what

God, what

Satan intended

for evil, God

intended for

good.

And as we take

the bread and

the cup, we

take them in

faith.

We offer to

him our lives,

that he might

use them for his

good purposes.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank

you that what

Satan intends

for evil, that

you turn for

good.

We pray that

you would give

us faith, hope,

and love.

Pray that you'd

nourish us as we

receive the Lord's

Supper this

morning.

In Jesus' name,

amen.