Sunday, May 11

Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus, and I thank you for grace. I thank you for your word. And I ask this morning that as we walk through some of these verses together, as we study your word, may your spirit be at work in our hearts. We know that your word is living, and it's active, and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. And so, this morning I ask that if our hearts are struggling, and if they're hurting, and if they're filled with sorrow, may your word be the sword that defends us, and watches over us, and protects us. And this morning, if our hearts are in sin, and are chasing after those things that stand opposed to you, may your sword be the surgeon's scalpel that points us to the sin that removes it,

and that calls us to repentance. So we ask that you'd be with us and help us. Encourage our hearts. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So Exodus, the second book in our Bible, and Genesis, the very first book, ends with a family who leaves the Promised Land ultimately to go and live in Egypt. And this is a family that has been filled with struggles. There's a lot of kids, and at one point, ten of the brothers, looking at brother number 11, they become jealous of him, and so they attack him, ultimately first seeking to kill him, but instead of killing him, they throw him into a pit, sell him into slavery in Egypt, and then tell their dad that he is dead. This young man, Joseph, in Egypt, goes through a great and difficult time.

He is enslaved to a member of Pharaoh's guard. He's falsely accused of wrongdoing. He's thrown into prison. He rises in authority in the prison, so as a prisoner, he's essentially in charge of the inner workings of the prison. And eventually, he comes to the attention of Pharaoh when Pharaoh has a dream about a famine. Joseph is brought to Pharaoh. Joseph interprets the dream, says, "We need to start stockpiling food during these seven good years, so that when seven bad years come, there will be plenty of food for everybody." And Pharaoh takes this young Hebrew, who had been thrown into prison, and makes him the second man in all of Egypt, essentially, making him the second most powerful man in the known world at that time. And eventually, during the famine, his brothers show up, and they want food. They're in the presence of Joseph.

They don't recognize him. There's a lot of back and forth, but ultimately, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. He forgives them. The whole family moves to Egypt to live out the famine in the land of Goshen provided for by God's providence and through Joseph. And at the very end of Genesis, you find this truth, which I think is so important. "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today." And so, the book of Genesis ends with this reminder, is that even those dark, difficult, evil moments in life, God takes those, and he can turn those evil moments into something that is good, and that is helpful, and that is good for the salvation of many people.

Now, between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, we have 400 years. The family that had come to live in Egypt has now grown to a large nation, and the problem is they are living inside this other nation, Egypt. And Exodus 1:8 says this, "Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph." And he doesn't remember the salvation that Joseph brought, and the salvation brought by this family. And he's worried about this burgeoning population of not Egyptians living within the borders, worried that they may ally with some of their enemies. And so he begins to take steps. He enslaves them, and one of the steps that he takes is he tells the Hebrew midwives this, in verse 22, "Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter you shall let live."

And it is a dark beginning to a text we're going to see this morning that is filled with hope. And so I want us to see, in part, the importance of truth, the importance of faithfulness, and then I want to lead us to rest in the providence of God. And I want you to understand that in this darkness of these beginning verses, there is hope even in the darkness, darkest of times. We're going to do so by looking at essentially three sections. We're going to start in Exodus 1:15 with two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah. And in these verses, we are going to see the transforming power, first of all, of worship in our lives, and then the transforming power of God in our circumstances. And I think this is so important as these two women fear God and worship God, their lives are transformed. And then we'll see in this text as well

that God transforms and takes care of their circumstances. And so we're going to pick up in verse 15. We're just going to sort of walk through these verses this morning, taking a look at the remarkableness of this text. We'll start in verses 15 and 16. "The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one who is named Shiphrah, and the other Puah, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women, and you see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him; and if it is a daughter, she shall live." So that's a pretty dark beginning to our text this morning. And for the midwives, this has to be terrifying, because Pharaoh is the most powerful man in the world. He holds life and death in his hands. He has just given them this order.

There can't be a trial or defense. He can simply order their deaths as he has ordered the deaths of these male sons. They cannot win this battle. These two midwives are in a hopeless situation. And I don't know if you've ever seen maybe a hopeless situation. I'll give you a bit of a humorous example. I was talking to the neighbors earlier this week, and it was probably 11 or 12 or 13 years ago, maybe even older. There was a family who lived down here, and they had a rambunctious little boy, and he loved to ride his tricycle. And I remember looking out one day, and it's only humorous because it ended well. And there's a UPS truck coming over the hill on Purdue, and this little dude is on the yellow line, like tricycle wheel in between the yellow line on Purdue Drive.

UPS truck is this way. He's this way. UPS truck obviously sees him completely stopped. And this little kid starts screaming at the top of his lungs, "Ahhh!" riding his tricycle as fast as he can at the UPS truck, right? And it's like, that's not, like thankfully, the UPS driver. But this kid had no idea that he was head-to-head against something much, much bigger. And we look back on it, and it's okay because nothing bad happened. Right? The parents got him. I'm sure they had a very, very serious talk with him. So they never saw him riding his tricycle in the street again. And it's okay because nothing happened to him. That's not the case with these two women, right? If they defy Pharaoh, what's going to happen? They're going to get hit by the truck.

Right? There's no stopping for grace. If they don't do what Pharaoh says, everything bad is going to happen. Look at what happens next. And notice how it changes: "But the midwives feared God." Everything hinges on this, and they did not do as the king of Egypt. Every reason to obey him, not really any reasons not to, except this: They feared God, and they let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and let the male children live?" And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew strong, and because the midwives feared God, God gave them families.

And so the king circles back in this meeting with them and goes, "I'm still noticing that you're not killing any boys." And listen to what happens. It says, "Well, we can't get there in time." If you've ever seen the movie The Sound of Music, there is a point in that movie where the Von Trapp family has gone to a convent to hide, and the nuns are hiding them, and the Nazis are at the door shaking it and knocking, and these two nuns are going to answer the door, and Mother Superior goes, "Slowly, slowly," and they walk as slowly as they can to that door. I kind of picture the midwife, "Sarah's having a baby!" And then these midwives are like, "Slowly, slowly, oops, didn't get there in time for another one. I don't know what we're going to do."

And they feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. And what gives these women the courage to stand up to the most powerful woman, or powerful man in the world. It's just this: the midwives feared God. They're not scared. They might be a little nervous, but in their worship and their reverence for God. I want you to see the worship of God transforms how we live. You see, every question of our behavior and our life comes back to a question of worship. What do I honor most in my life? They could have honored their safety. They could have honored their comfort. They could have honored their security more than anything, but they didn't. They honored God. Every question of your behavior and how you live comes back to this matter of worship.

Who is it that you reverence? Who is it that you worship? And the midwives feared God, and that worship transforms them. Now, I want you to see in this text not just how worship transforms the midwives. I want you to see how God transforms these circumstances. In verse 16, Pharaoh makes a pronouncement of death. "Every male child shall die." And then in verse 17 through 21, every one of these verses contains a reminder of life. Verse 17, "The midwives let the children live." Pharaoh's like, "Why are they still alive?" Pointing to their life. Verse 19, "The Hebrew women are too full of life for they're vigorous and give birth." And then in verse 21, God establishes both the people and the midwives in life. And what's remarkable, and almost every commentator points this out, is that Pharaoh decrees death.

God decrees life, and Pharaoh's decree is no match for the decree of God. Just as Pharaoh has no power over God, so Pharaoh's decrees have no power over God's decrees. The most powerful man in the world can decree all that he wants, but he can do nothing against the Almighty God. And here's what I love. Two of the most powerless people in the kingdom, these two Hebrew midwives, Hebrew midwives, they're the ones who bring this about through their obedience to God. Let me give you one more example in these verses. These verses, in many ways, they're composed intentionally, and they're symmetrical, which means that if you fold them on top, so verse 17 matches with verse 21, verse 18 matches with verse 20, and so forth, what you find is they sort of match up in their themes.

And so in the first verse, and in the last verse, you find that the fear of God ultimately keeps babies alive in verse 17, and in verse 20, it establishes families, just as these midwives had through their obedience. And verses 18 and verse 20, you find the disapproval of man, Pharaoh, contrasted to the approval of God. And at the center are the actions of the midwives in their obedience and trust. You find this picture of how God is at work through the obedience of His people, even in these dark, difficult times. The darkness has no power over those who follow God. So the question I would ask us this morning is, "Where are you called to bring light to?" Your obedience. What is God calling you to stand up for? You see, worship leads to obedience.

Where are you called to be a light in the darkness for truth, for hope, for the safety of others? Let me show you just one more thing about this. I think I have this quote on the screen. This is from a commentary. "Together, the woman outsmart the very ruler whose court was considered the pinnacle of wisdom in the ancient Near East." There is, in fact, a chain of such roles in the Bible, all the way from Sarah to Mary. Additionally, we don't know the name of the Pharaoh, but we know the names of these two midwives. Let's take a look at this next woman that is mentioned, Jochebed. This is Exodus 2:1-4. And what I want you to see is that ordinary, everyday faithfulness has a deep and abiding impact. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived, bore a son, and when she saw he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.

And when she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. And she put the child in it and placed it on the reeds by the riverbank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done with him. Exodus here begins with very, very little information. There's a lot that these verses don't tell us. Now, we know the name of this woman, we know the name of her husband, we know the name of her children, but Exodus doesn't tell us. It just said there's a man from the house of Levi, and he has a wife who is also from the tribe of Levi. All we know is that they're living in Egypt, probably in the land of Goshen, and that they're ultimately from the tribe of Levi.

The name of this mom here is mentioned only two places in Scripture: once in Exodus chapter 6, and the other in Numbers chapter 26. And here we find the names of this family. The name of Amram's wife, that's Moses' dad, was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt, and she bore Amram, Aaron, Moses, and Miriam, their sister. This woman's name means "Glory to God." I'm going to say something obvious, because the verse is on the screen. She has three children: Aaron, Miriam, and Moses. Moses is likely the youngest. We learn elsewhere that Aaron was about three years older. It makes Miriam probably the oldest of the three children. And I want to just give you a quick picture of these three children. Miriam, mentioned in the verses that we just read,

the daughter left to watch over Moses. When he is discovered, she will introduce herself, offers her mother as a nurse for the baby, both bold and quick thinking. She's the third prophetess. Well, actually, third prophet, but prophetess is the female. Mentioned in all of Scripture, number three. First being Abraham, second being Moses, and then Miriam. She's a worship leader in Exodus chapter 15. Aaron, Moses' older brother, is a prophet, the one who God will send to speak for Moses. He will end up being the first high priest of the Jewish people, and every high priest after would be the descendant of Aaron. And then here's Moses, the deliverer of God's people. He leads God's people. He gives the law. He's the author of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

These are some overachieving kids. All three of them have a massive impact, not just on this story, not just on the book of Exodus, but on God's people, and ultimately on the world. And how does it happen? How does Jochebed have three kids who ultimately change everything? And I think you see in this passage, he's just faithful to whatever is in front of her. And so here is this wonderful story. A lady mentioned by name twice in the entire Bible has a deep and lasting impact on all human history. And as Moses, 80 years old, when he comes back to lead the people out of Egypt, I don't know that Jochebed ever saw that. I don't know that she ever experienced the salvation that God had provided through her. And here's the thing: in our faithfulness, we don't always see how it turns out.

We don't always know what the end of the story is, but God does, and all she does is faithful in the moment that she's in. And God uses that. I do not want you to underestimate the importance of faith in the small areas of your life. We're tempted to say it's just a little thing. It's not that big of a deal. I'm not that important. Here's the thing: nothing is little with God. Do not minimize the power of quiet faithfulness. You see, in the midwives, we have this call to stand as a light in the darkness. In the story of Moses' family, we have this call to be faithful. Even in things we may not see the end of, but we don't know how it turns out. The third account I want us to take a look at is Pharaoh's daughter. This is Exodus 2:5-10.

And what I want us to see here is that God calls us to take comfort in the promises of God. Yes, He calls us to worship Him, and that worship changes how we live. He calls us to be faithful, and God uses that faithfulness. He also calls us to rest in His providence. The world seems dark, and we seem small, but God is great, and He is filled with glory. And so I want to talk to you about the providence of God, and the providence of God is just simply this: that God is in control of all things, and providence is God's exercise of that control. He governs all things in this world with wisdom and with love, from creation, from the spiritual world, to the physical world, that God is in control. And it may sound like a lot, but let me explain.

In God's working in our world, we see it primarily in two ways. One is His very visible work, or hand, in miracles. For example, when Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb, and He says, "Lazarus, come forth," and "Lazarus comes back from the dead." That's God interrupting the normal order of things, miraculously, to restore Lazarus' life. So miracles are sort of an exception in how things normally work, because people normally don't return from the dead. Storms normally don't calm themselves. People don't normally walk on water. Five little loaves and two fishes don't normally feed more than 10,000 people. And God works through His hand of miracles. But He also works through His hand of providence. And it's interesting from this, because we always see it sort of in hindsight, that in the moment it seems like this has sort of just happened.

But when we look back on it, we see God's hand leading us through every step of the way. Let me show you from these verses in Exodus 2. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. Remember what's just happened at this same river. Moses' faithful mom has put baby Moses in a little ark. It's the same word used as Noah's ark. Just as God saved Noah in an ark, God saves Moses in an ark. And so he's in his baby ark in the reeds, and Pharaoh's daughter just so happens to come down for a bath. And while her attendants, her young women, walked beside the river, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying, and she took pity on him and said,

"This is one of the Hebrew children." Now look what happens. Then his sister, that's Miriam, says to Pharaoh's daughter, kind of comes out from the bushes or the reeds, and says, "Shall I go call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse this child for you?" And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the daughter went and called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child, nursed him, and when the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses, because I drew him out of the water. Look at how God is at work. You have, first of all, in the location of Moses, in his little ark,

and Pharaoh's daughter coming down to the river to bathe. Now, which Pharaoh is this girl's father? It's a guy who just said, "Kill every baby boy," and then his daughter shows up and finds a baby boy in the river. See the boldness of Miriam. She says, "Do you need somebody to take care of the baby, to help the baby eat?" And he says, "Yeah, go back." And so Miriam goes back and gets Moses' mom to take care of the baby for the first few years of his life. And so Moses, who's the one who's supposed to be dead, grows up in the very house of the one who tried to kill him. I want you to think about that in the providence of God. How does that work out? The very one who tried to kill him, he grows educated, fed, and life is paid for by the guy who tried to murder him.

But it's even deeper than that. Who does Moses grow up to be? He becomes the leader of God's people, the author of the first five books of the Bible. You know what that requires? An education. In order to write five books of the Bible, you've got to be able to read. That kind of education never would have been given to a slave. Stephen in Acts 7 says this, Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in word and deed. You see what's happening? God's at work. In the worship of the midwives, in the faithfulness of Jochebed, and he gives us rest in his providence. You see, Jochebed was faithful. She put Moses into the hands of God in that river, in his little ark, trusting, as Noah did, that God would save.

And what happens? God brings Moses into the house of his enemies, and at his enemies' expense, they educate him to lead God's people and to write the first five books of the Bible. I want to tell you what happens next. I think this is so important for us to see. Because we know the end of Moses' story, but we often don't think about how it plays out in its chronology. In Acts chapter 7 and verse 23, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart, Moses is 40 years old, to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. He sees them being oppressed by an Egyptian. Moses, in his strength and in his youth, kills this man, goes on the run into a place called Midian. He gets married as a child. 40 more years go by.

Moses is now 80 years old, not living in Egypt, but living in the desert in Midian. Here's what's happening in Egypt. During those days, that's the one who wanted Moses dead, or all the baby boys dead. And the people of Israel, at this point, the first prayer is mentioned. They groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. God heard their groaning. God remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and Jacob. And then the very next thing that happens is God calls Moses out of the wilderness to lead his people. What I want you to see is that God is always at work. It's been 80 years. Moses in the wilderness. You see what's happening here? This is so important. 80 years before the people pray for salvation, God has already begun to answer their prayer.

For 80 years before these people, in their tears and in their hurt and their slavery, they're crying out for help. God, 80 years before this, has already started to answer their prayer. Sometimes during prayer, we talk about how sometimes it may take 20, 30, 40 years of prayer to see a difference. But I would also remind you that 80 years before the people pray, God has already begun to answer their prayer. That God is already at work. And I want you to see that in worship, in the midst of the darkness and opposition, in faithfulness, God is at work. We might not always see the end, but that God is in control. And in many ways, these events point us to another deliverer. A deliverer who doesn't run from Egypt, but he runs to Egypt because another king wants him dead.

Another deliverer who comes back from the wilderness where he has battled with Satan to call to his people, to lead them, and to rescue them. Not just from physical slavery, but from brokenness and sin. And this salvation was not just prepared 80 years before like Moses was, but was prepared for you before the foundation of the world. The question for us is, where will we run? Where will we build? Who will we worship? Where will we be faithful? And in the time when our hearts are stirred up and struggling within us, will we remember that God providentially is at work, even though we may not always see the end. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus, and I thank you for grace. I thank you for caring for us. I thank you for watching over us.

I thank you for loving us. May you help us to follow Jesus. May you help us to be faithful in the small things. May you help us to worship in a way that changes us. And most of all, would you help us to rest in your providence. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.