Divine Sovereignty: God's Plan of Salvation Through Human History - Saved for the Glory of God | Studies in the book of Exodus

So this morning we're getting back into the Book of Exodus after

that unexpected break last week.

And I should say from the outset, I've often said that I've

never really planned two books to coincide as we're studying them.

But this year I have, because we begin looking at the Book of Revelation

this evening.

And whenever we look at Revelation and look at the imagery,

we see so much of it in Genesis and Exodus.

And so as we make our way through Exodus in the morning, we

will see the light of Exodus illuminating parts of Revelation

for us.

And so these two very intentionally being looked at together.

Well, I don't know what generation you class yourself to

be in.

You may be a baby boomer, you may be Gen Z.

We may even have some Generation Alpha here this morning.

We all know that there's different generations.

Some of you may refer to yourself as the War generation.

Some of you, well, maybe not the Victorian generation.

Maybe you imbibe Victorianism rather than actually lived in that

time.

But in every generation and in every culture around the world, there

are more times than not they are waiting for a savior.

Now, I would like to say that they're waiting for the return of

the Lord Jesus, but more often they're looking for a savior to rescue

them from a political tyrant or from a conflict situation.

There are those looking for a savior to turn their fortunes around,

and there are those seeking a savior to rescue them from all of

their troubles.

In the 2010s, people in Zimbabwe were looking for a savior

to rescue them from the tyranny of Robert Mugabe.

On the left, they thought they had found the one to free them in

the person of Morgan Shangirai.

There on the right, he came from the trade union background and

stood up to the crippling economic policies of the Mugabe government.

And it looked like for a while, he was succeeding.

He was little by little bringing down the Mugabe regime.

But like all humanity, Tsangirai died of cancer, never being

the savior people hoped him to be.

During the Second World War, many occupied nations, France, the

Netherlands, Poland, longed for the day when someone would come

and rescue them from oppression.

Resistance fighters and ordinary citizens looked to these

allied forces there, represented by the national leaders,

as their saviors.

In this case, it wasn't simply one person they were looking to,

but salvation in the fighter, the one who had superior firepower.

And we see so much of it in literature as well.

In the Lord of the Rings, we see the people of Middle Earth wanting

to be rescued from the evil Saruman.

And it looks like the fellowship of the ring will be the

saviors.

But one by one they fall away.

And even the eventual hero in Frodo Baggins has moments where he

is less heroic than we would like.

And so as we settle into the book of Exodus, we see here a people

who are looking for a savior.

The children of Israel had been settled in the land of Egypt,

particularly in Goshen, by their brother Joseph.

He had given them good land on which they were to live and farm,

and they were truly fruitful.

Years after Joseph's death, as we saw in chapter one, a new Pharaoh

comes and knows nothing of his own history, nothing of what Joseph

had did.

And he starts to see Israel as a threat.

He punishes the people by enslaving them.

He then tries to kill their male children at birth.

And when neither of these tactics worked, he resorted to decreeing.

In verse 22 of chapter one, every boy that is born you must threw

into the Nile, but let every girl live.

Here were a people who were hard pressed and they needed a savior,

someone to rescue them from their hardship in Egypt.

And so in chapter two, we see God at work in bringing Moses into

the story.

And it is through his birth that we learn three things about

God's salvation for his people.

And the first one is that God accomplishes salvation in human history.

Now, the text is very clear here in telling us that Moses existed.

And in the opening verse we're told that he is of the house of Levi.

A Levite man marries a Levite woman.

And this has always been important in scripture so that families

can trace their lineage through the tribes of Israel.

So we have Moses identified as a son of Levi, but in verse two we

go on to place him in the exact moment in Egyptian history,

because as we continue to read, we see a mother in turmoil.

Because Moses, mother, who we know as Jochebed, is simply like

any other mother.

When she sees her newborn baby, she is completely taken by

him.

But remember what the Pharaoh had decreed.

Every boy that is born, you must throw into the Nile.

Well, Jochebed simply couldn't bring herself to do that.

She couldn't bring herself to follow that command and to give this

baby over to the waters of the Nile and the crocodiles within.

She just couldn't do it.

We're told in the second half of verse two, when she saw that he

was a fine child, she hid him for three months.

She so desperately wanted to keep him, she couldn't bring herself

to throw her newborn into the waters, so she hid him and she was

able to do this for three months in defiance of Pharaoh's decree.

But the time came when the docile three month old started to

grow so much that he couldn't be ignored.

And still she couldn't bring herself to throw him into the Nile.

And so she does everything within her power to preserve and

to protect Him.

Verse 3 tells us.

But when she could know, 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.

And so there is baby Moses and resting in the basket that had been

made as waterproof as possible.

Now interestingly, the word that is used here for basket in the

English is the same Hebrew word that was used to describe the

ark in Genesis 6.

And what did the ark do?

Well, the ark rescued a family, rescued the family of Noah

from disaster.

And so here we have another ark that will rescue Moses so that

he can be a savior to God's people.

And you see, this is how God works.

God works in the events of history to bring about his plan of

salvation.

And this is what we see throughout the story of the Bible.

That's what we see in his covenant promises, beginning with

that covenant of works in the garden, right through to the covenant

of descendants, or that covenant of grace with Abraham, through

to the covenant of an established kingdom with David, to

the fulfillment in Christ.

We see it in the genealogy of Jesus, where there's no mistake of

his lineage so that we would know for sure he was born in human

history.

As we began our communicants classes this week, we looked at the

Apostles Creed and who's mentioned there?

Only Pontius Pilate.

Why on earth would Pontius Pilate be included in a creed of

the church?

Because it places Jesus in historical accuracy.

It places him in time and in space, so that we will know he died

and he rose again.

And so we too, like the children of Israel and Moses, live

in time and space.

The difficulties we face are the difficulties of daily life.

Loneliness, addiction, conflict, grief.

And what we need is a Savior who can actually do something to

help us in our moment.

We need a Savior who is at work in our homes and stays with

us on the job.

God demonstrates in the story of Moses how he works in human history

to rescue his people.

And this is what he continues to do today.

In Jesus we have a Savior who can rescue us from the difficulties

of daily life.

In fact, it's Jesus who tells us In John chapter 10 and verse 10,

John 10 · chapter mention

he assures us that he is our rescuer and Savior.

The thief comes only to steal and kill, Jesus says, and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

This is the great rescuer.

This is the one who isn't here to try and trick us and deceive us

or accuse us as we saw with the devil in the kids story from

Zechariah.

This is one who has come that we may have life and have it to the

full.

This is our rescuer in human time, in this day that the Lord has

made a Savior today for each and every one of us.

And of course, God's work of salvation through human history is

seen fully in the crucifixion, the death and the resurrection of

Jesus.

He was born in time to be not a Savior, but the Savior, so that

we may have life to the full in him.

And Paul confirms this in Galatians 4.

Four beautiful words that assure us.

But when the time had fully come, in other words, at just the

right time, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law,

to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights

of sons.

God works in our human history.

He is concerned about your today, he is concerned about your

tomorrow.

He's concerned about your home, he's concerned about your place

of work.

He's concerned about your family as you are.

We can turn to him.

We can trust him.

Because at just the right time, he came into the world to rescue

sinners.

So that's the first thing we see, God working in the events of

history to bring about his rescue plan for his people.

And this leads us to our second consideration of salvation,

that God's salvation triumphs over evil.

For many, they see the tyranny of leaders as an insurmountable problem.

How could they ever go up against the machine of government

with all state resources at its fingertips?

And so far, we've seen Pharaoh do everything in his power to stop

God's people from growing in number.

But let's not forget that each of his plans have failed.

They've been frustrated in some way.

When he tried to order the Hebrew midwives to kill the baby

boys at birth, they refused.

And their prize, or their honor was a blessing from the Lord

because of what they'd done in the preservation of life.

When Pharaoh enslaved the children of Israel in the hope that

they would be too tired to produce offspring, they produced

even more.

And now he will be defied again in his evil plan, not only

by an Israelite mother, but by his own daughter.

There is an irony that Pharaoh wanted all of the boys killed.

And yet it's a list of three women who defy Pharaoh at every stage.

So Moses is adrift on the Nile and it just so happens that Pharaoh's

daughter.

Of course it doesn't just so happen.

The Lord works in human history.

And so Pharaoh's daughter and her maids are down at the Nile to

bathe.

And verse five tells us Pharaoh's daughter went down to the

Nile to Bath, and her attendants were walking along the

riverbank.

She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to

get it.

The tiny ark is indeed the vessel of rescue for baby Moses as

it's lifted out of the Nile and the princess of Egypt opens it

to discover a Hebrew baby.

Now whether it was the clothing that he was wrapped in or

the circumcision of his flesh, we don't know.

But Pharaoh's daughter knew instantly that she was looking at

a child that had been condemned by her father.

She should in that moment have been loyal to her father and thrown

Moses into the Nile and obeyed the Pharaoh's decree.

But she didn't.

She kept the baby as her own.

And we skipped over verse four, but we return to it now to

see that Miriam Moses sister has been watching everything.

And when she realizes that the princess knows that it is a Hebrew

baby, she runs up to Pharaoh's daughter and offers to get a Hebrew

to nurse the baby for her.

Now Pharaoh's daughter agrees to this.

And so once again Pharaoh is defied.

But to rub more salt into the wound, Jochebed will be paid from

the royal household to keep this Hebrew baby, her own son.

This baby that should have been slaughtered by royal decree

is now going to be paid for and protected by the royal court.

We couldn't make this up.

It is only the divine will of the Lord that this happened as it

did.

Look at what we're told in verse nine when Jochebed appears

before Pharaoh's daughter.

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, we can imagine with great delight, and

nursed him.

You see, nothing will frustrate God's plan of salvation

of his people.

The Pharaoh thought he had all the power in the world, but it was

actually God who was in control.

And it is the same at the time of Jesus.

Not only was it the right time in history, with the Roman form of

execution to be there, but just after his Birth King Herod ordered

that all the boys under the age of two be executed.

This led Jesus to flee with his family and become a refugee in

Egypt until it was safe to return.

God defied the evil tyrant and preserved his son because he is God's

rescue plan for us.

And ultimately, salvation will triumph over evil when at the last,

Jesus will return and take his own home to heaven.

And the revelation given to John that we begin looking at tonight,

we read in Revelation chapter 12 and verses 10.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now have come the

salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority

of his Christ.

For the accuser.

It's not the first time we've heard that word today.

The accuser, the one who stood beside Joshua, the high priest, accusing

him.

Well, the accuser of our brothers who accuses them before

our God day and night, has been hurled down.

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their

testimony.

They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

This is the outcome.

This is the end.

This is how salvation wins over evil.

The accuser will be hurled down no more to accuse God's people

so that they may live forever in paradise with the Lamb.

And so this accuser, the devil, may seem to be winning the

battle, but he isn't.

God is at work in his plan of salvation until Jesus returns.

So we can take heart that the greatest evil will be defeated by

our risen and returning Savior.

But before we move on, let's go back to the Pharaoh for a second.

That Pharaoh, who was defied, probably at times unbeknownst to

him, had a statue.

If we believe it to be Rameses, he had complete failure

in Luxor, where there is an enormous statue of him, but it has

fallen down, its face crushed on the ground.

This is an old picture of when it was discovered, and there's newer

photographs of the same.

Now, Ramesses may or may not have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus,

but every pharaoh believed in themselves as being a God untouchable.

His broken statue now is a monument to the futility of the pharaohs

who thought they could do better than God.

They're boundless and they're bare.

The lonely sands of the desert stretch far away to the empty horizon.

His power is no more, because salvation overcomes evil.

And this is what leads us to our final consideration of salvation.

Salvation is God's work from beginning to end.

God was at work in the birth of his Savior.

It was God who formed the child in his mother's womb and safely

delivered him into the world.

Moses birth was a reminder of God's creative power.

The Bible calls attention to this when it says in verse two, and

from the King James version, that his mother saw that he was a

goodly child.

There was something about this baby that was different.

And his mother saw this wasn't just a doting mother.

This was a recognition of Moses being a goodly child.

You see, God was at work in the baby's basket.

At one moment in history, God's entire plan for triumphing

over evil was riding down the Nile river in a little papyrus basket.

His mother, Pharaoh's daughter and Miriam were all used by God to

ensure Moses safety.

And it'll be 80 years before he will lead the Hebrews out of Egypt.

And he will be in the Egyptian royal court for his formative years.

He will not be a perfect savior of the people, but we shouldn't

expect that in humanity.

But what Moses does for us, even in these first 10 verses, is

point us to one greater look at how the section ends in verse

10.

When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and

he became her son.

She named him Moses, saying, I, I drew him out of the water.

Moses here is both a Hebrew name, but it's also known to be an

Egyptian name as well.

And both of them have a similar meaning because Moses name,

as the text tells us here, means being taken up out of water.

And how will God rescue his people by this savior?

He will use Moses as a savior, and he will lead them up out of the

waters of the Red Sea, which God will part so that they can walk

across some dry ground.

Nothing is impossible with God.

And there is no mistake.

What God will achieve through Moses, even in his name, that he

will be the one to lead God's people out of the water and into

a rescue land.

But we must always remember that Moses is a savior and not the

savior.

Jesus Christ is the only one who can save us from sin and assure

us of our home in heaven.

He lived a perfect life until finally he died an atoning death.

And in that death is our salvation.

For the cross of Christ is God's ultimate triumph over evil.

I wonder if you believe this.

You may be looking for a savior to rescue you, but you must

know this morning that you need a savior.

Jesus died for you so that you would know him as your only savior.

And we can try to save ourselves with many things.

We can try amassing money and possessions, having a good education

and a good career.

We can even aspire to the perfect looking life.

But these won't work.

They'll all pass and fade away.

The only one who calls us to Himself so that he can rescue us

from a lost eternity is Jesus.

That's what we affirmed right at the start of our service this

morning.

What is your only comfort in life and death?

That I am not my own, but belong body and soul in.

In life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

You see, the salvation God has accomplished in history becomes our

salvation when we receive Jesus by faith.

He is truly Christ, the victor.

For his salvation overcomes evil.

And it continues from the beginning to the end, in completeness.

We are called to trust God, to live for him, to trust him as a desperate

mother once did when she put her heart in a basket and entrusted

that little baby to the God who saves.

I wonder today, will you trust in Christ to save you from whatever

it is this world is bombarding you with?

From whatever it is that's holding you back from the Lord and

also from being with his people?

What's holding you back from coming to salvation in all its fullness?

And young people, I don't want you to think that this is just something

for the older people.

It's not for you who are here listening.

From the youngest to the oldest, this message is the same

and this message remains true.

Christ is the only salvation we can know.

And it is a wonderful salvation as demonstrated through

the birth of Moses.

It's a salvation that has been wrought in time and space.

It is a salvation that will overcome evil and it is complete

salvation from beginning to end as we look to Jesus as the One

who will lead us home.

Why would you want anything different?

Why would you want to try and do something else that isn't going

to work?

Come only to Jesus.

Find rest in him as he invites you today to trust him as your great

rescuer and your great Savior.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, we thank you for your word that challenges us.

It challenges us to the core.

We may not be looking for a Savior this morning, but Father,

we need one.

We need one who's good and faithful.

We need one who has gone through the passage of death before

us and risen again so that we can know that death is not the end,

that our hope springs eternal.

As we look ever to Jesus and live for Him.

So, Father, help us to know ourselves deeply.

Help us to know ourselves afresh, to be honest with ourselves,

so that we will know we need Christ this day and live for him

forevermore.

So help us to respond well this day as we pray these things

in Jesus name, amen.