I’ve Been Through The Desert At A Bush with God’s Name (Exodus 3:11-22)

I thought “Prince” was his stage name. It was his given name – Prince Rogers Nelson.

In 1993, Prince announced that he would no longer go by the name Prince, but rather by a “love symbol” which was a mash-up of the gender symbols for man and woman.

It presented all kinds of challenges for the media, resulting in the clumsy title, “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.”

Maybe you are of Irish decent. You want to choose a beautiful Gaelic name for your baby boy or girl. I came across a couple of names; I’ll spell them, and you tell me how you’d pronounce them.

How would you pronounce this girl name: A-O-I-B-H-E-A-N-N?  It’s pronounced Eev-un.
How would you pronounce this boy name: C-A-O-I-M-H-I-N? It’s pronounced Kwee-veen.

The pronunciation of the most common name for God in the Old Testament is unknown to us. It is called by scholars the tetragrammaton, which is a big word that means, consisting of four letters. In Hebrew the name has four consonants and no vowels – Y-H-W-H.

It may have been pronounced Yahweh. We can’t say for sure, because the Jews came to regard this word with such reverence that they quit speaking it aloud for fear of taking it in vain. Whenever they came to this name in their reading, they would say the words “the Name,” or substitute the word adonai which means Lord.

It is reported by multiple historical sources that the scribes who copied the Old Testament were required to wipe the pen and ceremonially wash their entire bodies before writing the tetragrammaton every time they wrote it.

The word Jehovah originated from an attempt to pronounce the consonants Y-H-W-H with the vowels from the word adonai.

Whenever you see the word LORD in all capital letters in your English bible, it’s the tetragrammaton.

Our verses this morning are maybe the most important in all the Bible for our understanding of God’s name. God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and to bring his people Israel out of captivity. Moses asked God what His name is, so he could tell the Israelites who sent him.
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.”’

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD [that is, Y-H-W-H], the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

One more insight before we dig into the text. In the Gospel of John, Jesus was in a confrontation with the religious leaders. They accused Him of being demon possessed. We pick up the dialog in verse fifty-six with Jesus talking:

Joh 8:56  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
Joh 8:57  Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
Joh 8:58  Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

There’s that tetragrammaton again – only Jesus uses it of Himself. In fact, the Gospel of John records seven “I AM” declarations by Jesus.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the great I AM. It was Him talking to Moses from the burning bush that wasn’t consumed.

Let’s see what He has to say to us. I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 I AM Has Come Alongside You, and #2 I AM Becomes All He’s Promised You.

#1 – I AM Has Come Alongside You (v11-12)

Study the places where I AM is used, and meditate upon them, and you come to certain theological conclusions: God is self-existent… God is omnipotent… God is omniscient… God is the creator… God is immutable (meaning He does not change).

The majority of us are believers in Jesus Christ. We never tire of being reminded God is self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, the creator, Who is immutable. Those things, as important as they are, mean so much more when we realize that I AM also means that God has drawn near to us in Jesus.

When God told Moses His name, He made it clear to Moses He would be with him. Let’s listen in.

Exo 3:11  But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

If you weren’t here for the previous studies, and you haven’t watched The Ten Commandments in a while, I need to catch you up on the story thus far.

Moses’ life was miraculously spared by the providence of God. Instead of being drowned in the Nile River like so many other Hebrew babies, he came to the attention of Pharaoh’s daughter. She adopted him, and raised Moses as her own son, in the palace of Pharaoh.

After forty years walking like an Egyptian, Moses instead identified with his own heritage.
When he saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating an Israelite, Moses intervened and murdered the Egyptian.

He thought that the Hebrews would welcome him as a deliverer; they did not. He was forced to flee Egypt as a fugitive, into the wilderness. There he came upon a group of shepherdesses trying to water their flock being mistreated by the local shepherds. Moses came to their aid, came to their father Jethro in Midian, and became the husband to the oldest daughter.

Moses tended sheep for the next forty years. One day, he looked over and saw, on Mount Horeb, a thorn bush burning, but without being consumed. Intrigued, he approached the bush – only to be spoken to by Jesus from the bush.

The Lord started revealing His plan to send Moses as the deliverer of Israel in a showdown with Pharaoh. Moses had a few questions, which eventually turned into objections.

His first question was, “Who am I?” Forty years as a shepherd had taken a toll on Moses’ plans. Before his stint in the wilderness, he thought everyone would recognize his unique readiness to act as the deliverer. Now he hesitated.

I’m not sure how I feel about his hesitation. On the one hand, humility is certainly commendable, and preferable to his earlier bravado. But at the same time, if God says he’s chosen you, then shouldn’t you simply say, “Yes?”

Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. If God says you’re the guy or gal, then true humility simply submits.

Part of the answer is to understand “all these [Old Testament saints] having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (Hebrews 11:39-40).

Moses may have been talking to God, but he had much less information than we do. We should cut Moses some slack and hold ourselves to a higher standard.

Exo 3:12  So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

If you’re on a mission, especially a difficult one, you want the hero to accompany you. In the Tolkien universe, the travelers are always disheartened when someone like Gandalf or Aragorn can no longer be along for the journey.

Hearing that God would be with him, at every step, was the greatest of encouragements to Moses. We’ll return to this in a moment.

God said He would give Moses a “sign.” We tend to look ahead to chapter four, where God gives two signs:

First, God turns Moses’ staff into a snake, then back into his staff.
Second, God turns Moses’ hand leprous, then heals him.

Those are indeed signs; but in chapter four they are described as signs by which the Hebrews would believe God had sent Moses.

The “sign” God gave Moses that He would accompany him was “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

It would be fulfilled in the future. It was a sign in this manner: It was God’s Word and, therefore, must certainly come to pass. God was assuring Moses He could and would accomplish His Word. But Moses must believe the sign by faith.

We find ourselves trusting in a future we can only know by God’s promises. I believe I will either be raptured, or be raised from the dead. It’s in the future; it hasn’t happened yet. But I know it will, because I have God’s Word on it.

I also have a much greater foundation than a guy like Moses had, because I can see in the past that Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection assures me that I, too, will be raised one day, to be like Him.

We talk about signs and wonders, but fail to realize that every promise of God is a sign of His faithfulness.

The Angel of the Lord – Jesus, I AM, Yahweh, Jehovah – spoke to Moses and promised “I will certainly be with you.”

In Matthew 28:20, Jesus said, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In Hebrews 13:5, it is reported of Jesus that He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
In John 14:23, Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

In John 14:16-17, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

Oswald Chambers wrote a devotion he titled, The Never Forsaking God. He said,

“I will never leave you…” – not for any reason; not my sin, selfishness, stubbornness, nor waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never leave me? If I have not truly heard this assurance of God, then let me listen again.

“I will never… forsake you.” Sometimes it is not the difficulty of life but the drudgery of it that makes me think God will forsake me. When there is no major difficulty to overcome, no vision from God, nothing wonderful or beautiful – just the everyday activities of life – do I hear God’s assurance even in these?

Whatever you are going through, or will yet endure, Jesus will most certainly be with you. His presence might be all you have; but it is sufficient.

#2 – I AM Becomes All He’s Promised You (v13-22)

In volume one of the on-screen Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill says to his would-be captor, “There’s another name you might know me by: Star Lord.”

To which his adversary says, “Who?”

Obviously his reputation had not preceded him.

If you’re going to deliver several million people from bondage out of one of the most powerful kingdoms on the earth, you’d better have the reputation.

Exo 3:13  Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

When God revealed Himself to man in the days of the patriarchs it was often associated with a newly revealed name or title:

Abraham, in the encounter with Melchizedek, called on “God Most High” (Genesis 14:22).
Abraham later encountered “Almighty God” (Genesis 17:1).
Abraham came to know the LORD as “Everlasting God” (Genesis 21:33), and “The-LORD-Will-Provide” (Genesis 22:14).
Hagar encountered “You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees” (Genesis 16:13).
Jacob met “El Elohe Israel” (Genesis 33:20) and “El Bethel” (Genesis 35:7).

When Moses comes to the elders of Israel with a new message from God, it is logical to think they would ask, “What name did He reveal Himself to you under? What new revelation from God do you have?”

Exo 3:14  And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent
me to you.’ ”

“I Am,” “Y-H-W-H,” and “I AM THAT I AM” are used interchangeably. The are all nuances of the same name.
Y-H-W-H was not exactly a new name. Moses’ mother’s name was Jochabed, meaning, Yahweh is my glory. Moses and Israel knew the name Yahweh. God did not give Moses a new and improved name of God, but the name they had known before.

Exo 3:15  Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

God was calling them back to the faith of the patriarchs, not to something new. They were to understand that they were part of an ongoing story. One commentator calls it “the unfolding drama of redemption.”

For one thing, God had revealed to Abraham that his descendants would be in bondage four hundred years, then be dramatically delivered to receive their inheritance in the Promised Land.

In other words, God was no distant deity who finally decided to help Israel. No; history was unfolding just as He had foreseen it. He had been involved with redeeming lost mankind ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The exodus was another important chapter in that drama.

You and I are likewise part of the plan. In our case, it’s the church age, when the Gospel is going out into all the world. The Lord is building His church; forming His body on earth; calling-out His bride. Any moment He may call us home, precipitating the beginning of the seven-year Great Tribulation, and the consummation of the age.

Exo 3:16  Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt;

There’s the tetragrammaton, in the word “LORD,” all in caps.

Moses was to go first to the tribal leaders, called “elders.”

When it says God “visited,” it means something like He observed them. After four hundred years, it must have seemed like He was a passive observer – someone who decided to not get involved.

God’s presumed inactivity can seem like the Prime Directive on Star Trek, prohibiting interference.

Scholars label that idea Deism, which says that God does not interfere directly with the world. It also rejects revelation as a source of religious knowledge and asserts that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a single creator of the universe.

Not so; God was making moves behind the scenes, providing for His prophesied plan to deliver Israel… And for His plans well beyond their exodus, through the end of the age.

Exo 3:17  and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ‘

I almost see this like an, “I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news; which do you want first?”

The good news was that God would deliver them from bondage in Egypt to “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
The bad news was that, even though it was their land, it was full of fierce enemies who would need to be driven out by force.

I said I almost see it that way. I can’t, not really, because in the so-called ‘bad news,’ the Lord had promised to be with them. There were battles to be fought; but the battles belong to the Lord.

Exo 3:18  Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’

If the goal is to be delivered from Egypt, why ask for a brief holiday, with the implication they would return after worship services were ended?

It was to show that Pharaoh was hardened against the Hebrews. If he wouldn’t let them have a long weekend, then he certainly would not set them free.

When you and I are in some difficulty, enduring some trial, and it seems like God delays His deliverance, maybe it’s because He is providing an opportunity for someone involved in it to repent. Especially when your problem is with one person who seems to be against you.

“That we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.” That is, to Y-H-W-H, Who is our God. Though in bondage, God was worthy of their praise.

Exo 3:19  But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.

We’ve previously discussed God’s foreknowledge. Of course He knew how Pharaoh would respond. But God did not cause Pharaoh to refuse; when we get there, we’ll see it was his own free will decision.

Exo 3:20  So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.

A contest of gods was shaping-up. Y-H-W-H versus the gods of Egypt. Each of the Egyptian gods would be defeated, leaving no doubt that Yahweh alone is God.

Exo 3:21  And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty-handed.
Exo 3:22  But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

In a stunning reversal of fortune, the exodus would be financed by the Egyptians.

Some see this as a sort of back-pay for their years of enslavement. Maybe; but this passage isn’t about social justice or reparations.

It’s about redemption – God’s plan to redeem lost mankind by sending a Savior through the Hebrews.

The massive amounts of gold and silver would be of little use to the Hebrews in the wilderness. There were no WalMart’s where they could purchase supplies.

In fact, the gold and silver would mostly go towards the building of the Tabernacle, where God would have His presence and meet with them; and where the sacrificial system, and calendar of feasts, would tell the story of redemption through Jesus.

I said that in these verses we’d see that I AM becomes all He’s promised you. I got that idea from a passage penned by a language scholar. He wrote,

[I AM] is essentially a verb of becoming, not merely of coming into being, but coming into relationship, i.e., becoming this or that to some one… This tense yields the following rendering: “I am becoming,” or, “I will become.” It is full of promise: “I will become” – to Israel, disheartened, timid – “what I will become” – all that it is in My heart to become to them, all that they need. Their redemption is in Me; and, therefore, out of the fulness of My nature, shall it be unfolded act by act, step by step, stage by stage.

I AM is a declaration that God will become everything that is needed, step-by-step in your walk, in order to fulfill His promises to you. It is the name that assures you He cannot and will not fail to accomplish what He has promised.

He will never leave you or forsake you, AND being with you, He will provide everything you need.

Need for what? Everything you need in order to be conformed into the image of Jesus, a little more each day.

I can therefore trust God that He, and not me, knows what I need.

Some of you are familiar with the teaching and writing ministry of H.A. Ironside. I highly recommend his commentaries.

In his biography, an incident is recorded where, as an itinerant evangelist, he ran out of resources. He was literally sleeping on park benches. At one point, he was hungry. Applying the verse in Philippians that says, “God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” (4:19), Ironside concluded that God knew he “needed a starving.”

That’s a little different. If I’m hungry, especially when serving the Lord, I think I need food. God may know that I need a starving.

Paul the apostle needed starvings… and shipwrecks… and scourging… and imprisonments… and even a thorn in his flesh.

You see, God is conforming us, not making us comfortable. The goal of our lives is Christ-likeness. A life of ease and comfort can never conform you to Christ.

God is not the cause of bad things in our lives; we live in a fallen creation, where sin and death have a foothold, and where Satan is the god of this world. But we can be assured that when God permits suffering, He can use it to conform us into the image of Jesus.

I’ll close with a paragraph from my reading that sums-up nicely what we’ve been saying:

God has a glorious end-game in mind for us. The end-game for this physical life is only the beginning of the next – eternal life.
Our God, with all the power at His command, is committed to getting us there, as First Thessalonians 5:23-24 reveals: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”

Jesus is I AM – ever with us, becoming everything He’s promised us, to complete the work He has begun in us at His appearing.

Step-by-step, He will do it.

Bush, Bush, I Thought I Heard Him Calling My Name (Exodus 2:23-3:10)

With another blockbuster installment coming next month, it’s timely to use an illustration from one of the well-known moments in Star Wars.

In Episode IV, Obi-Won Kenobi, sensing Alderaan’s complete destruction, said, “I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”

According to Wookiepedia, Alderaan had a population of 2 billion.

There are currently 7½ billion people on our planet. At any one moment, terrible things are happening.
Can you imagine the billions of voices groaning on account of the suffering they are enduring?

I can’t hear them; but God can, and He does.

“Wait a minute,” people object, “if God hears them, why doesn’t He do something to respond to their cries?”

He has done something. He is doing something.

To help us get a handle on what He has done and is doing, we can take a look at the children of Israel prior to their exodus from Egypt.

We’re reading history; it really happened. But it’s also for our learning about how God works in the world to deliver lost men and women.

Terrible things were happening. We read, “The children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning” (2:23-24).

As the story unfolds, we read in chapter three that “the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows… So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…” (3:7-8).

God heard their cries… And He came down to deliver them.

Does that sound familiar?

It’s a foreshadowing of God coming down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, Who by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead, delivered mankind from sin and death.

Suddenly this story isn’t so ancient.

Next we read, “behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (3:9-10).

God sent Moses to deliver them. Does that sound familiar?

Jesus sends out His followers into the world with the Gospel, to proclaim deliverance.

It’s all a microcosm of God’s plan to save the world: He heard… He came… He sends. It’s what God has done, and is doing, to respond to the cries of mankind.

Keep that in mind as we work through these verses. I’ll organize my comments around the following two points: #1 It’s Good To Be Reminded That God Hears You, and #2 It’s Good To Be Reminded That God Sends You.

#1 – It’s Good To Be Reminded That God Hears You (2:23-25)

A common plot point in stories is for the characters to send for help, but not know if their requests are being received. There’s no response until, at the last minute, help comes.

When we pray, if the specific help we are requesting doesn’t come, we feel as though we’re not being heard.

Have you ever heard the expression, “the heavens became like brass?” It’s not used much in modern preaching, but it commonly occurs in older Christian works to describe the feeling that our prayers are not getting through.

There are a few things that can hinder our praying:

1Pe 3:7  Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

Jas 4:3  You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Pro 28:9  One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.

I’m talking about the times none of those things is hindering your prayers, but it seems as though the heavens have turned to brass.

In those times, you can be confident God has heard you, and is working all things together for the good. It’s just that you can’t see everything happening behind the scenes.

We tend to forget that there is always more going on, behind the scenes, than we have been made privilege to. That certainly was the case in Goshen, where the Israelites were crying-out.

For example in the Book of Genesis we read,

Gen 15:13  Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
Gen 15:14  And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions…
Gen 15:16  But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Well before the Israelites were in Egypt, God predicted their four hundred years of affliction. One result was that they would “come out with great possessions.” After the series of plagues, the Egyptians were happy to see the Israelites go, and they gave them tremendous wealth upon their leaving.

Had Moses delivered them militarily, they may never have left Egypt. Or never have been been showered upon with riches.

Simultaneously, God was giving the squatters in the Promised Land, the Amorites, time to repent, and turn to Him. They wouldn’t, and God would use the Israelites as His instrument of judgment against them.

A lot was going on behind the scenes. The Israelites knew some of it, by oral tradition; but they probably did not comprehend it. They must simply trust that God heard their constant cries.

A lot is always going on behind the scenes of your life. God is making moves, and counter moves, to insure that all things work together for the good, ultimately. Along the way you won’t be able to see everything; you’re to trust, and in your crying, learn that God’s grace is sufficient for you even when circumstances worsen.

Exo 2:23  Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

The death of the Pharaoh set things in motion. It reminds us how important timing can be. We have an idiom, “Timing is everything.” Well, it may not be everything, but in God’s providence, it’s critical. For example, the Pharaoh died just as Moses was done with his training in the desert. Perfect timing.

Exo 2:24  So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

The Israelites had been crying-out all along, but now was the time that their groaning was going to be alleviated.

The mention of “His covenant” is significant to our discussion because it reminds us that God has made promises and He will keep them.

God told Abraham He was going to make of him a great nation that would possess a great land. The promises were unconditional – meaning God would keep them no matter what.

Most of the things we pray for, especially in our sufferings, are not unconditional promises. If I’m sick, especially seriously, I pray for healing. God still heals; but it isn’t an unconditional promise. He may choose to heal me. Or He may treat me like He did the apostle Paul, refusing to remove his thorn in the flesh because he needed it to remain humble and be able to sing, “Your grace is enough.”

There are a great many unconditional promises that God has made and must keep. Sticking with the healing example, I can trust that if I am not healed, I’ll be in Heaven the moment I die – absent from my body, but present with the Lord.

There are a bunch of unconditional promises like that, for the future. There are also a bunch for today. I know that Jesus cannot leave me or forsake me. I know that His Holy Spirit indwells me, and can infill me over-and-over.

In the end, the “light afflictions” that I prayed so much about are going to be completely overshadowed by God’s unconditional promises to me… To us.

Exo 2:25  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

One version of the Bible translates that last phrase, “And He knew that He would help them.”

These closing verses are the set-up for what’s coming next. God heard their cries and the time had come for Him to act.

I’m hurting in some areas of my life; you are, too. It’s not wrong to hope that today is the day that it is time for God to act, and to alleviate our suffering. It’s great to see help on the horizon.

But if it isn’t His timing, let’s embrace the fact that His grace is sufficient. If need be, let’s look past this life to His eternal promises.

Matthew Henry put it this way: “Let those that think themselves buried alive be content to shine like lamps in their sepulchers, and wait till God’s time come for setting them on a candlestick.”

He’ll make all things beautiful… In His time.

#2 – It’s Good To Be Reminded That God Sends You (3:1-10)

When we read the Old Testament, we are reading about how God’s plan to redeem and restore the human race, and His creation, unfolded. Adam and Eve sinned; but God immediately responded with His plan. He would come, as a man, born of a woman. As the God-man, having added humanity to His deity, He could take the place of mankind and die for our sins, saving us.

That’s one reason why the first thing you see in the next set of verses is that God came down, to earth, to meet with Moses. It captures the essence of His plan – God with us.

Exo 3:1  Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

We met Jethro in our last study. He was also called “Reuel”; not unusual for people in the Bible to have multiple names. He was a “priest,” and because of his descent from “Midian,” a son of Abraham, we say he was a true believer in God.

As chapter three opens, Moses had been shepherding in the desert the past forty years. We talked about God’s timing with regard to there being a new Pharaoh, and the iniquity of the Amorites being full.

God also needed to prepare Moses to be the shepherd of His people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.

And in His foreknowledge, God knew that the Jews would refuse to enter their land and spend forty years more wandering in the desert.

“Horeb” is another name for Mount Sinai. Moses, who is the author of Exodus, calls it “the mountain of God” looking back upon all the events that will take place there, e.g., his calling, and the giving of the Law to Israel.

Concerning Mount Sinai, one commentator said: “The name Sinai is probably hinted at by the designation of the burning bush in Hebrew as sene, as if Sinai meant the mountain of the sene-bush.

The exact location of Horeb is unknown to us today. It’s probably just as well, otherwise folks would enshrine it, and worship it.

Exo 3:2  And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

The “Angel of the Lord” is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus. The technical term is theophany; or Christophany.

It’s generally agreed that this was a thorn bush common in the desert. Hold that thought.

Better yet – think about the thorn bush and what things it might symbolize.

Exo 3:3  Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”

Have you ever burned your dead Christmas tree in the fireplace? I don’t recommend it. I almost burned-down our little cabin in Running Springs putting pieces of the tree in there.

A dry thorn bush that burned but wasn’t consumed – that was worth seeing on the backside of the desert.

Isn’t it amazing to think about the small details upon which human history advances? What if Moses had ignored the phenomena?

Things out of the ordinary may indicate God is trying to get your attention.

Exo 3:4  So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Moses took a step towards God, and God then further revealed Himself to Moses. I often tell folks to do the next thing, then God will give instruction. Ours is a walk of faith – one step at a time.

Exo 3:5  Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”

God’s presence made the mountain “holy ground,” not anything about the place itself.
The removal of sandals was a common practice when you entered a house or a temple. It was a show of respect; and it anticipated relaxation and fellowship.

There’s a debate about whether or not the Jewish priests served barefoot. The Bible doesn’t say one way or the other, although barefoot advocates point out that in the extensive description of the outfit there is no mention of shoes (sandals).

Should we go barefoot today, in the church? No. Not unless you can’t afford shoes. We shouldn’t turn someone away because they can’t afford shoes.

As for those of us who can afford shoes, we are told we worship God in spirit and in truth. One application I would make of that principle is that no object of clothing should make me feel more or less spiritual. Taking off my shoes is nothing; wearing my shoes is nothing.

What is the deciding factor? I should be all things to all men:

If I’m in a congregation that expects barefootedness, I kick-off the Sanuk’s.

If not, I stay covered, sparing everyone my hobbit feet.

Exo 3:6  Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

Just a final word about being barefoot. Moses also “hid his face.” Should we therefore hide our faces in order to truly worship God?

Hide your face while barefoot and you’re gonna have a lot of stubbed toes!

Mention of the patriarchs reminds us of at least two things:

God must keep His unconditional promises made to them.

The information God gave Moses was not new – it was a deeper, progressive revelation of His nature and His plan.

Exo 3:7  And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

The nonbeliever accuses God of not caring about human pain when, in truth, He cares too much. God’s plan for redeeming and restoring will eventually end all suffering. There won’t be so much as one tear in eternity.

But once the consummation of His plan comes, it will also mean the end of opportunity for the lost.

Taskmasters. We all have them. They’re the people and things that are against us. They’re the illnesses and conditions that lash us.

None of them can separate us from the love of God in Jesus.

Exo 3:8  So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” means that Canaan was ideal for raising goats, sheep, and cows. Feeding on good pastureland the goats, sheep, and cows were full of milk.

Flowing with honey means that the bees were busy making honey. Milk and honey suggested agricultural prosperity. This is the first of numerous references in the Old Testament to the “land flowing with milk and honey.”

Something else about that land: It was full of enemies; fierce enemies, that would need to be overcome.

God wasn’t going to deliver His children to a better, more comfortable life in Egypt. He was going to lead them into battle in the Promised Land.

The Christian life isn’t a life of ease, having the best of this world. This world, and its god, are contrary to you; it needs to be overcome.

If you’re not feeling spiritual warfare, maybe it’s because you are AWOL, living a comfortable and secure life that doesn’t include serving the Lord.

A key phrase is dropped here: “I have come down.” In context, God had come down to inhabit the burning bush. Prophetically it preaches to us of the incarnation – of God taking upon Himself human flesh.

Those who criticize God for not doing anything about human suffering… What is their solution? It’s not that God became man to share our sufferings, and substitute Himself to save us.

Exo 3:9  Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

God keeps reiterating that He heard their cries. The Egyptians were oppressors. Nevertheless God waited.

Whenever God waits, we can be certain among His motives is that He is not willing any should perish, but rather that they would receive eternal life.

This is a dumb hypothetical, but here goes. If you could choose whether or not to endure some suffering, but knew that if you did it would result in even one person being saved for eternity – would you do it?

In the grace of God, of course you would.

Same scenario, only instead of the result being that the person gets saved, they perish, but God’s longsuffering waiting for their decision shows His glory and mercy to all onlookers, both human and heavenly. Would you choose to suffer?

That’s more like what is going on everyday that God’s longsuffering waits.

Exo 3:10  Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Bombshell. God heard… He came down… And He was going to send Moses. His plan was to send a shepherd to lead them – first away from Egypt, then into the Promised Land (with an extended stay in the desert by their choice).
Moses isn’t going to like this plan; we’ll see that in subsequent studies.

For now, we see God’s mega-plan in micro: He personally comes down, commissions a believer, who He then sends with the authority to proclaim deliverance to the oppressed.

Earlier I pointed-out that the bush that was burning but not being consumed was a thorn bush.

Thorns came into creation after the fall of man; after Adam and Eve sinned. Thorns and thorn bushes are part of the curse.

Fire is a symbol of what in the Bible? (I should ask, “Of Who?,” not what).

Fire is a representation of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit coming upon the believers was represented by fire.

Fire in the midst of a thorn bush is a picture of God dwelling among the curse; among the thorns. He did it first as the God-man, Jesus Christ, Who was filled with the Holy Spirit.

He does it as He indwells each and every believer under the curse, in these bodies of flesh.

Puritan John Owen put it like this: “The eternal fire of the divine nature dwells in the bush of our frail nature, yet is it not consumed thereby. God thus dwells in this bush, with all his goodwill towards sinners.”

This fire was not in a tall and stately cedar, but in a bush, a thorny bush, for God chooses the weak and despised things of the world (such as Moses, now a poor shepherd), with them to confound the wise.

The apostle Peter explained God’s plan like this:

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
2Pe 3:11  Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
2Pe 3:12  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

You may not need to “go” anywhere, but you have nevertheless been sent to preach the Gospel. You have this treasure in earthen vessels.

The Holy Spirit is within your thorn bush.

Kill And Grace (Exodus 2:11-22)

New York lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas longed for a simpler way of life. So he bought a farm, sight unseen, and moved there to live off the land. Lisa, his socialite wife, never quite got the hang of country living. Hers was a case of, “You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl.”

If you think that’s a true story, you’re either young, or unfamiliar with Nick at Nite TV. It’s the plot for the comedy, Green Acres, starring Eva Gabor as the pampered city-girl.

Depending on the point you’re trying to make, you can substitute just about anything for “city” in the idiom I used:

If you’re going for a compliment, you can substitute with the name of a state, e.g., “You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the girl.”

If you’re going for an insult, you can substitute places like trailer-park, hood, ghetto… or Riverdale.

I was thinking about Moses in that regard. A Hebrew by birth, from at least the age of three he was raised as an Egyptian prince. As to his Hebrew heritage, we could say, “You can take the boy away from the Hebrews, but you can’t take the Hebrew out of the boy.”

When you get to Moses as an Egyptian, you have to adjust the idiom to something like this: “You take the man out of Egypt, in order to take Egypt out of the man.”

Moses the prince could never deliver the Hebrews. He must become Moses the pastor.

God did not need a soldier; He needed a shepherd.

Commentators see Egypt as a type of the supernatural world system governed by Satan, the god of this world. When you get saved, you are delivered out of Egypt. But because we retain an unredeemed body of flesh, evil forces exert their pressure upon us to compromise with the world.

We are out of Egypt; but is Egypt out of us?

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 God Gets You Out Of Egypt And Saves You Effectually, and #2 God Gets Egypt Out Of You So You Serve Him Effectively.

#1 – God Gets You Out Of Egypt And Saves You Effectually (v11-15)

In the Book of Job, in the first two chapters, you are given a rare glimpse behind the scenes. Job was unaware that in Heaven God had called a meeting of angels. As they gave an account to God of their activities on earth, one of them, Satan, accused Job of serving God only because he had been abundantly blessed.

You know the story: Satan procured permission from God to trouble Job up to a set point, to see if Job’s faith would fail. It did not.

In Egypt at the time of Moses, as always, there was stuff going on behind the scenes, in Heaven and in the heavenlies.

Pharaoh was revered as a god among the many gods of Egypt. The man who would deliver the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt wasn’t going against a government; he was confronting gods.

Swords were of no use to the deliverer… But a shepherd’s staff would do nicely. Thus we see how the prince-turned-pastor would get out of Egypt and find his staff.

Exo 2:11  Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.

When we last saw Moses, Pharaoh’s daughter had saved him from the Nile River and adopted him as her own son. He grew-up in her house.

Other then that, Exodus is pretty light on the details. Good thing we have Stephen’s speech in chapter seven of the Book of Acts to fill-in some things.

In trouble for preaching the Gospel, Stephen rehearses the history of the Jews to the religious leaders seeking to accuse and stone him.

He says of Moses, “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds, [and] when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.” (7:22-23).

Forty years is a long time to walk like an Egyptian. I think it’s safe to assume he had the very finest education on the planet at that time. The Egyptians were no dummies. They contributed more than the Mummy. According to one source,

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, the first known planked boats, glass technology, and new forms of literature.

Moses was “mighty in words and deeds.” There is speculation among scholars that he may have been groomed to be the next Pharaoh; but speculation is all that it is. Even without the throne, he was a seriously important citizen of an incredibly advanced, powerful civilization.

As an aside, just food for thought, Moses must have participated, at some level, in the religious rituals of Egypt and its gods. He certainly would have been catechized as a boy into the worship of Egypt.

Excuse the pun, but Moses was at the peak of the pyramid – one of just a few super-privileged individuals. When we read, “it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel,” the gap is as wide as it can be between his lifestyle and his heritage.

That phrase, “it came into his heart,” is the inspired commentary of Stephen in the Book of Acts. It describes a stirring of his heart by God the Holy Spirit. We can assume that Moses had received some kind of word from God. We read of him in Hebrews 11:24, “by faith, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”

Where did his “faith” come from? According to Romans 10:17, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

It’s an example of God speaking – through creation, or some other way – in order to give everyone (in this case Moses) an opportunity to believe.

Maybe Moses learned about the God of Abraham from his mom, who was paid to nurse him until he was weaned.

However it happened, by His grace, God stirred the heart of Moses, and he responded by faith. We would say he was saved. He believed God, and God counted it to him as righteousness.

His belief was costly. We further read about Moses in the New Testament Book of Hebrews:

Heb 11:25  choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,
Heb 11:26  esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

Moses “chose” affliction and reproach because he now looked beyond Egypt to the “reward,” which is eternal life in Heaven.

Stephen said, “When Moses was grown… he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren… “And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian” (v24). Then in Exodus we read,

Exo 2:12  So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

This was murder; a capital crime. Moses tried unsuccessfully to do it in secret; he hid the body; and the next day one of the Hebrews will make an accusation against Moses that sets him on the run. Pharaoh, when he heard about it, sought to kill Moses.

Moses was off to a poor start. How do you come back from murder to be God’s deliverer? Truth be told, we’re all murderers… and adulterers… and covetous. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous.

We need saving; and that doesn’t just mean the one-time receiving of Jesus as our Savior. Stephen Cook explains salvation this way:

Regarding salvation, the Bible teaches that it is a process. Once a person [believes God], he is saved from the penalty of sin (Romans 8:1; Ephesians 2:5, 8), the power of sin (Romans 6:11-14), and will ultimately be saved from the presence of sin when God takes him to heaven and gives him a new body like the body of Jesus (Philippians 3:20-21). 

This truth is related to the three phases of salvation: justification, sanctification, and glorification.

Justification is the instantaneous act of God whereby He forgives the sinner of all sins – past, present and future – and declares him perfectly righteous in His sight.

Sanctification is the process whereby the believer moves from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity over time as he learns God’s Word and makes good choices to live according to God’s will (Ephesians 4:11-16; Second Thessalonians 2:13; Second Timothy 3:14-17; First Peter 2:2; Second Peter 3:18).

Glorification is the final phase of the believer’s salvation experience and occurs when he leaves this world, either by death or by rapture, and enters into the presence of God in Heaven (Romans 8:17-18).

I outlined this first set of verses by saying “God Gets You Out Of Egypt And Saves You Effectually.” What I mean is that, after you are justified, you are then predestined to become like Jesus Christ. God is constantly at work to sanctify you; He will ultimately glorify you. He Who began a good work in you – salvation – will be faithful to complete it.

Exo 2:13  And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?”
Exo 2:14  Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!”

Stephen’s commentary on this is, again, insightful: “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand” (25).

Moses thought he was ready to deliver his people. “By his hand” is the key phrase. Moses’ had powerful hands. Politically, socially, materially, his hands got things done. It seems he killed the Egyptian taskmaster with his bare hands. Powerful.

Nevertheless, it would be by God’s hand, not Moses’ hands, that the Hebrews would be delivered.

Truth be told, can you think of a better deliverer for the Hebrews than Moses? He seemed uniquely qualified – the one man among all the Hebrews fit for the task. I’d have rallied behind him.

It would have been an epic fail. Moses was going to go up against gods, represented by things like water, frogs, and lice. He was going to go up against Pharaoh, who thought himself a god.

Swords were no good; but we’ll see that a shepherds staff was perfect.

It was perfect, that is, if wielded by a shepherd. We can be certain Moses, in all his learning, had no experience as a shepherd. He’d gain it, and use it not just to deliver the Hebrews, but to lead them in the wilderness.

God looked upon him and knew he was not at all ready. God needed to get Moses out of Egypt, in order to get Egypt out of him.

Moses killing the Egyptian – that’s on him, not God. I’ll go out on a limb and say it wasn’t the way God wanted to get Moses out of Egypt. It would have been better for the Spirit to lead Moses out – like He did with John the Baptist being led out into the wilderness; or Jesus.

Moses’ heart had been stirred, but he had a lot to unlearn.

A great deal of the time spent on our sanctification is God getting Egypt out of us. We have a lot to unlearn. We almost always prefer the weapons of this world to the spiritual weapons at our disposal.

Our serving God using carnal things, with a fleshly attitude, will not be effectual. It will not destroy enemy strongholds, or open spiritually blinded eyes to the forgiveness of sin.

We need a Jesus-style ministry. He came to serve, not be served. Jesus came to die, that we might live; but we live by taking up our Cross, dying to self, surrendered to Him.

1Co 1:27  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
1Co 1:29  that no flesh should glory in His presence.

The man, or woman, God uses must be willing to look “foolish”; to be perceived as “weak”; to be considered “base”; to feel “despised.” I doubt any of those qualities are on resume builders.

Exo 2:15  When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.

Moses typifies what we are taught, by the world, to strive for. Education… Power… Security… Achievement… Promotion…Health. It ought to dawn on us that the things the world values cannot be the things that will overcome the world.

Sanctification is becoming less like 40year-old Moses and more like him at 80 when he returns to overcome Egypt.

Older ‘you’ should be headed that same direction.

#2 – God Gets Egypt Out Of You So You Serve Him Effectively (v16-22)

Dirty Jobs is a fun show to watch, isn’t it? Mike Rowe performs disgusting, messy, or strange jobs alongside those who must do them every day.

If he were doing a show in Egypt, one of the dirtiest jobs, at least to their way of thinking, was tending livestock.

In Genesis, when Joseph is prepping his father and brothers to meet the former Pharaoh, he said,

Gen 46:33  So it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’
Gen 46:34  that you shall say, ‘Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

Typical of God, He was going to confront and defeat Pharaoh with someone and something that the Egyptians considered abominable. Moses’ shepherd-school was about to begin, starting with the incident by the well.

Exo 2:16  Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

Midian was a son of Abraham’s by his second wife, Keturah. Thus the Midianites had the knowledge of the God of Abraham. So when you read, “the priest of Midian,” it’s more likely this family believed in God than in pagan gods.

Exo 2:17  Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.

Chivalry was dead, it seemed, in Midian. The male shepherds, instead of lending a hand, made the ladies wait.

Moses wasn’t raised that way. Not everything in your upbringing is bad. There are things that can be sanctified as you offer yourself to God.

We see that Moses had a bent towards helping the disadvantaged, e.g., slaves and women. We ought to have compassion on all those who are less advantaged than us. We ought to seek the Lord on when and how to come to their aid. we live in the land of opportunity, true; maybe it’s you that is going to give someone less fortunate their opportunity.

Exo 2:18  When they came to Reuel their father, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?”

Reuel means something like, friend of God, so, again, I emphasize these were believers. Reuel is also called Jethro in the Bible. Not a problem; a lot of Bible characters had more than one name.

Being hassled by the other shepherds was a regular part of their day. Returning early was odd; and I’m guessing they were more than a little giddy.

Exo 2:19  And they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.”

That’s something that didn’t happen everyday. If you’re like me, you prefer a routine. If so, look for things that interrupt your regular routine. They may be divine appointments at the well of the Holy Spirit.

Exo 2:20  So he said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”

First, dad was embarrassed by their lack of hospitality. Even if he had not helped them, in that nomadic culture, they ought to have invited him to at least come to meet dad. Visitors in the desert were rare.

Secondly, dad was on the hunt for husbands. Seriously – with seven daughters, living in the desert, with a bunch of brutish shepherds as potential son-in-laws… This Egyptian needed to be snagged as quickly as possible.

Exo 2:21  Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.

How much time elapsed, I can’t tell. The arranged marriage was perfectly normal.

What are the odds that Moses would find a believing family, with a believing wife? If you’re in the marriage-market, it can seem like a vast desert, filled with brutes – both men and women.

Stay seated by the well until a believer comes along. Trust in God’s counsel to not be unequally yoked with a nonbeliever.

Exo 2:22  And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

Gershom means stranger. Every time Moses looked at him, his firstborn reminded him of his fugitive status.

Bible parents are really out there in naming their kids. Rachel, in her dying moments, names her child Ben-oni, the son of my sorrow. Jacob mercifully renames him Benjamin, son of the right hand.

Parents, give careful thought, please, to names. Especially what nicknames are going to be suggested by the name. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Moses thus embarked upon a second career. He’d gone from prince to pastor. He would learn the ways of a shepherd, and the use of the staff.

You and I know what’s coming; confrontation with Pharaoh. Staff beats sword in that one.

We also know what’s coming after that; Moses leading the Hebrews – like a shepherd – on the eleven day journey to the Promised Land.

We know, sadly, what’s coming after that; Moses must lead a disobedient nation in the wilderness for forty-years.

No prince of Egypt could accomplish those tasks; only a pastor, a shepherd, of God could be inadequate enough to be adequate for God to use.

God needed a pastor, but one who first rejected being a prince. If God isn’t using you, maybe you haven’t rejected things that you believe make you strong and ready.

The apostle Paul once said of himself, “If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:4-6).

Paul had it going, as far as the world of Judaism was concerned. But he came to the following conclusion:

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

Did God ever use things in Paul’s background? Sure. But it seems He only used them after Paul submitted to being mistreated for the sake of Jesus.

For example, we know that when the authorities in Philippi came to release Paul from jail, he invoked his Roman citizenship. They had illegally incarcerated him. Paul put fear into them – probably so they would leave the little group of believers there alone.

Paul could have mentioned his citizenship the day before. He did not, and instead was put in stocks, in a cell. It’s the time he and Silas were singing praise songs when, at midnight, God sent an earthquake freeing the prisoners. The jailor, knowing his life was forfeit, would have committed suicide but for Paul’s intervention. Not only did he live, but he and his family came to know the Lord.

Only after all that did Paul invoke his rights.

It tells me that we sometimes invoke our rights too soon. We refuse to suffer and, therefore, God is not able to use our surrender, our weakness, to reach others for Jesus.

That problem you are having at work… Maybe you should file a grievance, or apply for another position.

Or maybe you should patiently endure it, as a Christian, and see what God can accomplish through you.

As a young believer I was exposed to the music ministry of Keith Green. His song, and album, So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt, is a classic.

So you wanna go back to Egypt
Where it’s warm and secure
Are sorry you bought the one way ticket
When you thought you were sure?

You wanted to live in the land of promise
But now it’s getting so hard
Are you sorry you’re out here in the desert
Instead of your own back yard?

The rest of your life, God is going to be working to get Egypt out of you – this desire to compromise with, and even return to, the world He has delivered you from.

You can hold-on to the world and think you’re a prince. Or you can let go of the world and be used as a pastor – to shepherd others into the knowledge of salvation and eternal life.

Don’t Worry Baby (Exodus 2:10)

“I believe in a lot of astrology,” said pop megastar Katy Perry in an interview in GQ.

Evidence suggests that over 90% of adults know their zodiac signs. Surveys also indicate that well over half agree that the signs’ character descriptions are accurate.

According to data from the National Science Foundation’s 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators study, the percentage of Americans who think astrology is “not at all scientific” declined from 62% in 2010 to just 55% in 2012.

Interest in spirituality has been booming in recent years while interest in religion plummets, especially among millennials. The percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who “never doubt the existence of God” fell from 81% in 2007 to 67% in 2012.

Meanwhile, more than half of young adults in the US believe astrology is a science, compared to less than 8% of the Chinese public.

The psychic services industry – which includes astrology, aura reading, mediumship, tarot-card reading and palmistry, among other metaphysical services – grew 2% between 2011 and 2016. It is now worth $2 billion annually, according to industry analysis firms.

The median annual wage for a Fortune Teller is just under $44,000.00. That works out to just over $21.00 per hour for the nearly 16,000 Fortune Tellers in the United States.

These folks don’t know the future; but we know Someone who does.

Greg Laurie is the first person I heard say, “I may not know what the future holds for me; but I know the One Who holds my future.”

Rather than crack open your fortune cookie from Panda Express, you can live for Jesus by faith, trusting your future to God.

I got to thinking about all this because, in our verses this morning, we see God’s ‘hold’ on the future as He preserves the life of Moses.

Egypt’s Pharaoh had decreed the death of all male Hebrew babies. But the most powerful man on the earth was no match for the foreknowledge and providence of God.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Let Your Faith Be Encouraged By God’s Foreknowledge, and #2 Let Your Faith Be Emboldened By God’s Providence.

#1 – Let Your Faith Be Encouraged By God’s Foreknowledge (v1-4)

God knew that Pharaoh’s daughter would be bathing on a certain day, at a certain time, in a certain location; and He used that knowledge to preserve a baby placed in a basket.

It should come as no great shock to you that God knows the future. We call His knowledge of the future, foreknowledge.

All Christians agree that God has advance knowledge of future events and circumstances. Christians disagree on exactly how God’s foreknowledge ‘works,’ especially when it comes to the free will of human beings, and God holding us individually responsible for our actions.

Some say His foreknowledge is based on His foreordination. I don’t want to misrepresent them, but their position is that God knows exactly what is going to happen because He has ordained, or determined, it to happen. While they argue that you have free will, you are only free to choose what God has already ordained.

Others see foreknowledge differently. A theologian I like, Henry Thiessen, says, “Foreknowledge is not itself causative; we must not confuse foreknowledge with the predeterminate will of God. Free actions do not take place because they are foreseen; but they are foreseen because they will take place.”

Does it matter? Let’s see how these two views on foreknowledge affect our understanding of the Gospel:

Those who believe God’s foreknowledge causes things to take place say of salvation that some men are thereby predestined to eternal life, while others are just as predestined to perish eternally. It’s called ‘double predestination,’ whereby your eternally destiny to Heaven or to Hell was chosen for you, by God, in eternity past.

Those who believe God’s foreknowledge does not cause things to take place say God genuinely offers salvation to everyone, and that He foresees who will freely respond positively to His gracious offer of salvation and the enablement He provides to accept it.

I’ve just scratched the surface of a huge topic that we are never going to fully resolve this side of eternity. It is important that you realize both approaches to God’s foreknowledge are biblically-based; you can believe either one, or something in-between.

My question to those who favor a view of foreknowledge in which God predestines people to eternal punishment with no hope of responding to the Gospel is this: “Why would you want to believe something like that, since there is a totally biblical alternative?”

We can get so caught-up arguing about how God’s foreknowledge works that it no longer is an encouragement to us. It should encourage you to realize that God knows the future. Since He does, you can trust Him right now, and the things He is leading you into.

The situation in Egypt, surrounding the birth of Moses, provides a great illustration of God’s foreknowledge. He could lead a Hebrew mom into what to do, and she could trust Him – even though what she did seemed absurd.

Exo 2:1  And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi.

Later on we learn the man’s name was Amram, and the wife’s was Jochebed. Their baby is going to be named Moses; there’s a Jewish tradition that his real name was Tov, meaning good. We’ll also learn that they had two other children, Tov’s older siblings – a girl named Miriam, and a boy named Aaron.

They had no advance preparation that their third child was going to be Israel’s deliverer. Many Old Testament parents did have visits from angels, or prophets, telling them about their baby boy. Samson’s parents come to mind. The Angel of the Lord visited them with information about the baby that would be born to them, and with instruction that he was to be a Nazirite from the womb.

No such info or instruction was given to Amram and Jochebed.

This tells me that I should simply go about my spiritual life depending upon the Lord, upon His leading. If I need a supernatural visit, He’ll see to it.

But it isn’t a prerequisite for serving Him. I can be encouraged God knows the future without Him revealing it to me.

Exo 2:2  So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.

All babies are “beautiful” – even the ones that aren’t. So what does it mean, that Jochebed’s son was “beautiful?”

Don’t know, except she must have realized that there was something special about him. Now, of course, every mom thought their little baby boy was special; but in her case, he was.

Her hiding him reminds us of the awful situation the Hebrews faced. Pharaoh, incited I’d say by Satan, had ordered the midwives to kill all the male Hebrew babies. When that yielded no result, he decreed to his own people they should cast any Hebrew baby boy they saw into the Nile River.

The text doesn’t say, but I think we can assume that the Egyptian authorities went door-to-door, looking for baby boys to drown.

Human nature being what it is, it isn’t unthinkable that fellow Hebrews turned-in their neighbors for some small material gain.

How do you hide a baby for three months? How do you keep him from giving himself away by crying? What is it like to live knowing that any minute the authorities could crash the door and take your precious baby boy? How awful was it to hear the wailing of moms and dads whose babies were drowned?

I don’t accentuate these details to elicit a visceral response – although it should. I do it because I think we can too quickly overlook the terror and the horror of living on this earth. While we track Moses, and his amazing preservation, thousands (at least) of other babies were being murdered. Mothers and fathers were crying. More than one family must be wondering, “Where is God in all this?”

The answer is that He was right there, in the midst of their suffering, working to deliver them. His plan involved this baby growing up and confronting Pharaoh. His plan has been unfolding for about six thousand years. We can be sure that it isn’t taking a moment longer than necessary.

Think of it this way: Looking at all the religions, and all the philosophies, men have suggested, do any of them solve the problem of human suffering? They do not, and they can not, because they have no solution for indwelling sin. God’s plan eradicates sin, and will restore all things. But it takes time.

Exo 2:3  But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Jochebed was led by God in this endeavor. It doesn’t seem as though other moms were launching their babies downstream.

Exo 2:4  And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

Miriam is estimated to be in her early teens. Her surveillance might indicate that the family was hoping their baby would be found, and cared for. But there was no guarantee he wouldn’t be a crocodile snack. It was a lot to put on a young person.

I think we should expect more from our youth. I’m not saying we shouldn’t shelter them from the world, but there are times they need to step-up and serve the Lord.

We’re going to see in the next set of verses what God foreknew. But Jochebed didn’t foresee it. She was operating entirely by faith.

In the Book of Hebrews we’re told, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command” (11:23).

Building his little ark, and placing it in the reeds, were acts of faith. Amram and Jochebed had no assurances their baby boy would survive. As I said earlier, it was an absurd plan.

By faith they trusted in God’s foreknowledge – in His seeing the future. God would preserve the baby.

Faith in God’s foreknowledge doesn’t always mean we will experience a positive outcome. Over the years, many believers have shared with me that God came to them in a verse or in a dream or by some strong inner impression, to comfort them, just days or weeks before some personal tragedy struck. It was to comfort them in their sorrow.

I want to spend another few moments on this, especially addressing those who are enduring afflictions and struggles. It may not seem all that encouraging that God foreknew your trouble, and didn’t help you avoid it.

I think of the apostle Paul. When Paul was saved, there in Damascus, Ananias came to him and told him, “how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). God foresaw his beatings, and stoning, and imprisonments, and shipwrecks.

He foresaw the Judaizers dogging Paul’s footsteps, and believers who would mistreat him, and abandon him.

Life is hard, and the Christian life is harder still. Whether you are experiencing a time of triumph or of tragedy, it should be encouraging to understand that God knows the future. Walk towards it by faith – in the good times, and especially in the bad.

#2 – Let Your Faith Be Emboldened By God’s Providence (v5-10)

“Providence” is a word that does not occur anywhere in the Bible, but is taught everywhere in it. For our purposes, providence means “the continuous activity of God whereby He sees to it that nothing thwarts His plan to redeem and restore His creation, and especially the human race.”

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve exercised their free will and disobeyed God’s one command. Their sin brought death into God’s perfect creation. All of creation is now fallen. We’re told,

Rom 8:21  because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God made a promise that He would come into human history, as the Seed of the woman, to right what was wrong. Ever since that promise was made, God has been working in and through human history to fulfill His plan. He provides for that plan, seeing to it that nothing and no one can thwart it.

The son of Amram and Jochebed was part of that plan, in that God would come into our world born of a Jewish woman. Thus the Hebrews must be delivered from Egypt, and this baby was the one who would do it.

Exo 2:5  Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.

God foresaw this, and by it He would provide for His plan to redeem creation. The timing was incredible; it was no coincidence; God was at work.

At the same time, there was no guarantee, humanly speaking, that Pharaoh’s daughter would be favorable to the Hebrew baby. After all, the Egyptians were commanded to murder them – not nurture them.

Without exaggerating, the entire fate of God’s eternal plan to redeem and restore creation, including the human race, was going to depend on Pharaoh’s daughter discovering and defending a cast-off baby boy.

I keep thinking of this from the point of view of a strategy session in Heaven. Can you imagine God laying out this plan? It seems doomed from the get-go, with no chance of succeeding. Almost everything could have gone wrong.

Exo 2:6  And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Commentators speculate that it was because the baby was circumcised that she knew, for sure, he was Hebrew.

I can only wonder if one of the angels was dispatched to pinch the baby at just the right moment? He cried; she had compassion.

Until now, the only impression you had of Egypt was that of Pharaoh. He was a madman, ordering the slaughter of babies. Yet in his own household was a daughter who was filled with compassion.

It’s great to be raised in a Christian home, but if you’re not, you can still find and follow Jesus. It may seem to be a disadvantage, but it need not be.

Exo 2:7  Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”

What’s the first thing you think when you discover an abandoned baby and he’s crying? He must be hungry.

Miriam’s presence wasn’t seen as being suspicious. It could be that Hebrew children were regularly present along the Nile. At any rate, she was inspired to suggest a solution to the baby’s need for feeding – a “nurse from the Hebrew women.”

Exo 2:8  And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the maiden went and called the child’s mother.

Unbelievable. Who could have predicted this turn of events?

Exo 2:9  Then 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.

Ladies, wouldn’t you like to be paid for raising your kids? I mean, you’re happy to do it for free; but if you could get paid for it… Bonus!

Most of this weening must have taken place in the Hebrew home. With her dad’s insane decree to murder boy babies still in effect, Pharaoh’s daughter must have arranged for this baby boy to be protected.

Great – but think about it. As Jochebed was suckling her baby boy, and he was cooing and burping, right next door some Hebrew mom had lost her baby to the violence of Egypt.

Did the other Hebrew families look upon this baby as representative of God’s mercy to save? Or were they bitter and resentful for their intense personal anguish?

Exo 2:10  And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Pharaoh’s daughter must have had regular visits with Moses during the three years (we estimate) that he was being breastfed. I can’t imagine she saw him for a few minutes the day she rescued him, then not again for a few years.

It seems that they went through some sort of formal adoption, since Moses is going to grow up as her son, as an Egyptian.

While Moses was growing up, God was at work providing for His plan of redemption and restoration in other ways. In Genesis 15:13, the Lord told Abraham, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.” It was foreseen by God, and He would provide for His plan through it.

As you read on in Genesis 15, in verses 14-16 it says, “But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions… And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Interesting. God would accomplish two things on account of Israel’s servitude in Egypt:

First, He would use them to judge, then spoil, Egypt. We’ll see Egypt’s gods destroyed one-by-one as God brings ten plagues against them. When the Israelites left Egypt following the tenth plague, they were told to ask the Egyptians for items of value for their journey. “The people of Israel… asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians” (Exodus 12:35-36).

Second, God was waiting for the Amorites. They were the current occupants of the Promised Land, and God was waiting for their “iniquity to become full.” I interpret that to mean God was giving them time to repent, and turn to Him, before He had to destroy them.

So yes, Israel suffered greatly for 400 years in Egypt. But the result was that God used them to judge two wicked nations, and to spoil one’s wealth taking it for themselves.

Also because of Israel’s time in Egypt:

We have the story of Joseph – another amazing tale of God’s foresight and providence.

We have the Passover, which becomes the great type of God sacrificing Himself on the Cross for the sin of the world.

We have tale after tale of God’s faithfulness in leading and guiding His people to the Promised Land.

Take away their sojourn of suffering in Egypt, and you lose many powerful images of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Looking back, any believing Jew would say, “It was all worth it in order that God might be better able to communicate the Gospel to those who are perishing.”

The lashes of the taskmasters, even the murder of the babies, are not as eternally significant as even one soul receiving Jesus Christ and avoiding the horrors of the Lake of Fire.

Israel’s 400 years in Egypt are a little picture of the big picture we’re always talking about. God is not willing any would perish, but that all would receive eternal life. In His longsuffering, He waited 400 years for Egypt and for the Amorites. In His longsuffering, His chosen ones suffer, along with the rest of the world, on account of mankind’s sin.

Are you willing to suffer so that God can save more people for eternity? That’s a better way of describing the problem of suffering, and the continuing presence of evil in the world.

The apostle Paul once went so far as to say, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh…” (Romans 9:3). If he could switch places with the Jews, and they be saved while he was damned, he’d do it. Paul understood suffering within God’s longsuffering.

God’s longsuffering waits, and the waiting hurts, because of sin and Satan.

We see Jochebed emboldened in her faith. It’s one thing to have faith in God; it’s another to put your baby in a basket and believe God will provide for him.

Our faith can be emboldened as we understand God’s providence.

Do you want one massive example of providence in recent history? That would be the rebirth of the nation of Israel in her ancient homeland. It was necessary for the plan of God for the Jews to be back in their land. Against all odds, political and spiritual, there they are, by God’s providence.

In fact the rebirth of the nation followed on the heels of Satan’s attempt to exterminate the Jews in the Holocaust. Instead God provided them their permanent home.

Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Are you backslidden in your walk with Jesus Christ? Resolve those issues today – right now. Surrender to Jesus; be forgiven; repent of your sins.

Rom 10:8  But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
Rom 10:9  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Rom 10:10  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The Real Midwives Of Egypt (Exodus 1:1-22)

The article was titled, Unique Birthing Traditions Around the World. Here is a sampling:

While it is customary in many places across the globe to bring gifts to a new mother, it is rare for her to give a gift to you. However, in Brazil, many new moms do exactly that when visitors come to the hospital after childbirth.
In Turkey, it is traditional for new mothers to drink Lohusa Serbeti, a beverage made with cinnamon, sugar and red food coloring. It is first served to the new mom in the hospital, and then is enjoyed at home by guests who come to pay the new infant a visit.
In Pakistan and other Islamic republics, aqiqah is a common practice. During this baby-naming tradition, which takes place on the 7th, 14th or 21st day after a baby is born, the infant’s head is shaved and an animal sacrifice is offered on his or her behalf.

Our study of the Book of Exodus begins with Pharaoh of Egypt forcing a new birthing tradition on the Israelites:

Exo 1:15  Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;
Exo 1:16  and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

These midwife murders never happened; but that’s not to say boy-babies were safe. Pharaoh went on to command his own people, “Every [Hebrew] son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive” (v22).

If you’re wondering “Why?” there are two reasons – one stated in the text, the other implied by the context:

The stated reason was, “the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land” (v9 & 10).
The implied reason was that the Savior of the world would be born through the nation of Israel, and the prince of this world, Satan, was trying to inhibit His birth.

This wasn’t only a battle being waged in Egypt; it was also a battle on a cosmic scale.
Fast-forward many centuries. The Savior came, as promised, despite constant attempts by Satan to hinder His birth. Now the devil wants to destroy those of us who are born-again into God’s family.

The world we find ourselves occupying is still an ‘Egypt’ for believers in Jesus. The first chapter of Exodus will put our harrowing situation into perspective.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 We’re Still In Egypt, And You Are A High-Value Target, and #2 We’re Still In Egypt, And You Have A Valuable Tactic.

#1 We’re Still In Egypt,
And You Are A High-Value Target
(v1-14)

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition, the US military developed a set of playing cards to help troops identify the most-wanted members of then President Saddam Hussein’s government.

The highest-ranking cards, starting with the aces and kings, were used for the most high-value targets. The ace of spades was Saddam Hussein, the aces of clubs and hearts were his sons Qusay and Uday respectively.

Such playing cards have been used as far back as the US Civil War and again in World War II and in the Korean War.

The devil might not use playing cards, but be assured you are a high-value target. Jesus told the apostle Peter, “Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.”
It isn’t just apostles he seeks. The devil is described as going about like a roaring lion, seeking whomever he may devour (First Peter 5:8). You’re on his hit-list.

Keep that application in mind as we take a look at the chapter verse-by-verse.

Exo 1:1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob:
Exo 1:2  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
Exo 1:3  Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
Exo 1:4  Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
Exo 1:5  All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already).

The Book of Exodus opens with a five-verse summary of the final fourteen chapters of Genesis. Talk about being concise.

Genesis ended with the story of Joseph and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat. He was the son of Jacob who was despised by his brothers and sold by them into slavery. They told their father Joseph had been killed by a wild beast, and brought Jacob Joseph’s coat of many colors stained with blood as proof.

In a stunning display of God’s providence, Joseph ended-up second in command to Pharaoh in Egypt just at the time a great famine hit the land. The famine was so severe it endangered the survival of the Israelites.

His exalted position enabled Joseph to care for his father and brothers, moving them to Goshen and under the protection of Egypt. Those are the “seventy persons,” including Joseph who “was in Egypt already.”

Exo 1:6  And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation.
Exo 1:7  But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

Looking ahead, when the Israelites leave Egypt headed for the Promised Land, there were “about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children” (12:37). Conservatively, they would have numbered 2-3 million people, counting women and children.

We’ll see that their numbers worried Pharaoh. But he wasn’t the only enemy. Further back still, in the Garden of Eden, God had promised to send a Seed of Eve’s to be the Savior of the world.

The world, and all mankind descended from Adam and Eve, needs saving on account of the sin of our parents.

If you’re not a Christian, you need saving. You were born dead in trespasses and sins. There is no good work you can ever perform that will earn you salvation. The good news is that Jesus – God’s promised Seed – came to save you, and by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead, you can be saved. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 NIV).

Part of the promise was that the Seed was going to crush him, so Satan got to work right away trying to stop the Seed. He incited Cain to kill Abel. Later on, some of his fallen angels mated with human women in an attempt to corrupt human DNA.
Their offspring were called Nephilim. They were a race of giants that threatened the survival of mankind. They were a major reason God sent the global flood, preserving eight souls on the Ark to repopulate the earth.

Enter Abram and God reveals that He is going to bring the promised Seed from the miracle child born to Abram and Sarai. Their names got changed to Abraham and Sarah, and the child promised them after it was impossible for them to produce a child was Isaac.

Isaac’s sons were Esau and Jacob – the Jacob who, with his twelve sons and their families, made-up the seventy who settled in Goshen. They became millions.

God was honoring His promise to send the Seed, and His further promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17).

Satan is going to interfere in Egypt. If he could see to it that all the male babies were killed, it would stop the Seed from ever being born.

It’s a go-to strategy of his. In New Testament times, once the birth of Jesus was announced to King Herod by the Magi, Satan interfered by having Herod order the murder of infants, hoping to kill the baby who was born to be King of the Jews.

Mark that God’s chosen people were targeted. We still are today, for different reasons. Satan is no less malevolent and destructive. If anything, he’s had more practice.

Exo 1:8  Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

Scholars can’t agree on exactly who was this “king over Egypt.” The point is that he was not favorably inclined towards Joseph’s descendants.

We experience something like this, do we not? It seems almost every month there is some new government restriction on the practice or promotion of biblical Christianity in America. We’re coming into the Christmas season, and that means municipalities that allow manger scenes on public property, or Christian images, will be vigorously challenged in courts.

Exo 1:9  And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we;
Exo 1:10  come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”

The Israelites were immigrants that were beginning to outnumber Egyptians. They lived along the route invading armies would take. They could therefore be a considerable threat.

Exo 1:11  Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exo 1:12  But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.
Exo 1:13  So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.
Exo 1:14  And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage – in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

Twice their servitude is described as being “with rigor.” Commenting on that, one historian wrote,

They not only put them to hard work, but used them in a very barbarous manner, abusing them with their tongues, and beating them with their hands… the king not only compelled them to servile works, but commanded them heavier things than they could bear, heaping labors one upon another; and if any, through weakness, withdrew himself, it was judged a capital crime, and the most merciless and cruel were set over them as taskmasters.

Notice in verse twelve: “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” Who would have thought the strategy would have the opposite effect?

It’s the same today. The apostle Paul said of any and all afflictions, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (Second Corinthians 4:17-18).

A common way of describing growth from afflictions is to compare us in our troubles to gold being refined in the furnace. Thus Job could say, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (23:10).

Likewise the apostle Peter wrote, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ…” (First Peter 1:6-7).

It’s because I’m older, and have been buffeted more, that I believe this more than ever, but I also tack-on a footnote.

I believe God brings us forth as gold; it’s His promise. But it takes time in the crucible; and it’s hot in there, almost unbearably so.

It took months for Job to come forth as gold. Along the way, he often faltered. I don’t think it’s going too far to say it could take years, in some furnaces, to come forth as gold.

Notice, too, that Peter talks about the ultimate end of your affliction, saying, “though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ…”.

We’ll be golden at His coming for us, to reward us. Until then, you’ll have your ups and downs – like Job, who struggled to put his suffering into perspective.

If you’re being buffeted, and you’re having a hard time with it, you’re normal. Gold is definitely in your future. Hang in there.

In Exodus, “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” The afflictions were real; they were severe. Israelites died from the rigor inflicted by their taskmasters.

They persevered. They endured. Therein is your victory while you wait for your “light affliction” to pass, and your refining to end.

If you are a Christian, you are a high-value target. You don’t need to be famous, or in charge of a large ministry. Since we are all members of the one body of Jesus, all of us are under attack.

#2 We’re Still In Egypt,
And You Have A Valuable Tactic
(v15-22)

I love the original Karate Kid with Ralph Macchio. It all comes down to the crane kick. One film critic wrote:

Everyone knows it. Who doesn’t get chills up their spine when Daniel Larusso sets up for the kick, Kreese yelling to Johnny from the sidelines, “FINISH HIM!,” dramatic horns blaring as part of the film’s score? It has been firmly embedded in the public consciousness ever since Daniel used it to snap back Johnny Lawrence’s head and win the All Valley Karate Tournament.

Mr. Miyagi had promised Daniel, “If do right, no can defense.”

We have a tactic like that in our spiritual arsenal. It is mentioned in verse twenty-one, where we read, “the midwives feared God.”

Keep the fear of God in mind as we look at Pharaoh’s next strategy as a tool of Satan’s to stop the Israelites from growing.

Exo 1:15  Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;
Exo 1:16  and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

These ladies were either Hebrew midwives… Or they may have been Egyptians who were the midwives to the Hebrews. I read a lot of arguments both ways and, frankly, I can’t figure it out.

They were more like supervisors of other midwives. After all, you’d need more than two midwives to serve the needs of several hundred thousand prolific women. In our modern world, for example in Africa, a single midwife can provide care for 500 women every year, including the safe delivery of 100 babies.

I’m guessing that Shiphrah and Puah were not regular guests of the Pharaoh. I don’t see him taking meetings with them.

There they are, surrounded by the power of Egypt. Can you imagine how very small and intimidated they might have felt?

They must have been wondering what in the world they were doing there. Then, suddenly, there was Pharaoh himself. “And he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

End of meeting; no discussion. Murder the male babies, with all the authority of Egypt. What’s a midwife to do?

Exo 1:17  But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.

I note first that they said nothing to Pharaoh. In the New Testament, in the Book of Acts, when Peter is confronted by the Jewish leaders and told to cease from preaching the Gospel, he immediately says, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

Shiphrah and Puah didn’t do that. Maybe they hadn’t thought through their civil disobedience yet; or maybe they had a plan – like the one we will discuss in a moment.

Either way, the point I’m trying to make is that God will be with you in the moment, leading you and guiding you. Let Him.

They “saved the male children alive.” Here is where it gets important to remember they were probably not the only midwives. If there were others, then they either all decided to disobey Pharaoh; or Shiphrah and Puah came up with a plan to undermine Pharaoh’s command.

Exo 1:18  So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”

They were called back, and obviously it was on account of the news Pharaoh had heard that male babies were being allowed to live. Mind you, Pharaoh had told these ladies to murder babies. He would have no reservations about murdering them.

It’s like in Star Wars when Darth Vader tells the Admiral, “You have failed me for the last time,” then slowly chokes him out from a distance, replacing him with his next in command.

Exo 1:19  And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”

Were they lying? Maybe. In favor of it being a lie, we were just told that they actively “did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them.” But a refusal to act may not be a lie.

Here is what I mean. Suppose they changed their own policy and delayed their response time? I could see that as an ‘honest’ workaround.

In favor of them not lying, perhaps God miraculously intervened, and gave all the Hebrew women quick labor, so that the midwives could not get there in time even if they tried.

Can we, as Christians, lie to save lives? One writer introduces the subject this way:

Christian theologians are divided on this subject. Some – like Saint Augustine – believed that it is never permissible to lie. Others – like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who had ample time to contemplate this issue from the perspective of a Nazi prison cell – held that under certain circumstances lying was not only morally permissible but morally mandated. Thus, Bonhoeffer advocated deceiving the enemy in circumstances of war, and he had no compunction about lying in order to facilitate escape for Jews facing extermination.

It’s easy to say lying to save lives is wrong – until you’re faced with it yourself. I’ll leave it there for us to ponder.

Exo 1:20  Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.

The wording seems to indicate that the midwives did something – like delay their arrival. At any rate, Pharaoh’s strategy failed.

Exo 1:21  And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.

God caused the family’s of the midwives to flourish. It might be that they had no kids of their own until this happened.

Score one for the good guys. But know that Pharaoh was not about to be that easily thwarted.

Exo 1:22  So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

A command went out to all the citizens of Egypt. If they saw a Hebrew baby boy, they were to take him from his mother and toss him into the Nile River to drown.

I see this as satanic. I know studies have been done on group behavior; on mob behavior. People have researched Nazi Germany under Hitler to try to understand how ordinary German citizens could condone and even participate in the Final Solution.

To my limited knowledge, those studies overlook something that seems foundational – that Hitler was involved in the occult.

One historian wrote, “The truth of the matter is that Hitler had a direct and personal experience of occult forces and entities and, in addition, a direct and personal relationship with such occult forces…”

You cannot understand human history, nor address the problem of evil, apart from an understanding that God is at war with the prince of this world. God’s Seed will crush the devil’s seed – but there’s going to be a lot of fighting along the way to the promised redemption and restoration of Creation.

The chapter ends with baby boys sinking to the bottom of the Nile. It doesn’t seem like a win for Israel. But the account is not without its spiritual victories.

For one, God worked through the most unlikely people. Who would have thought that two women – midwives – could withstand the command of the mightiest man on earth?

God uses the weak, the small, the poor, the disadvantaged, in order to show Himself to the world. We are among those – the foolish things that confound the wise.

For another thing, God shows us we do not need anything other than Him in our battles. These midwives were not provided weapons; they weren’t given the ability to perform miracles. They remained ordinary, but did something extraordinary thanks to their believing in God.

Ultimately our point is that they feared God more than they feared any man.

They stood before Pharaoh, knowing he had the power of life and death over them, and did not blink.

They are an embodiment of Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (10:28).

In their case, God blessed their fear with families. The history of God’s people, however, is overflowing with those who did not blink, but were martyred where they took their stand. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:

Heb 11:35 Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Heb 11:36  Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented –
Heb 11:38  of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
Heb 11:39  And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise…

To all these, “to die was gain.”

Your only tactic, ultimately, is to fear God rather than man. Then you won’t care if you live, or if you die, but only that God receives the glory.

Listen: The story of the Exodus is brutal and bloody. There’s no version of it that comes in with less than an R or NC-17 rating for violence. People died, by the tens of thousands.

It will take its toll on you, as you go from skirmish to skirmish, from battle to battle. In the movies, by the end, Captain America’s mighty shield is scratched and dinged. You can tell by looking at it that the fighting was fierce. We have armor, including a shield – “the shield of faith.” It isn’t a dress uniform for special occasions. It’s for fighting, and it’s going to take hits, and look like it did.

You’re a spiritual target, with that one tactic that will make the devil blink. You are to obey God, rather than men.

“If do right, no can defense.”