1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:26,780 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. 2 00:00:26,780 --> 00:00:39,780 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. 3 00:00:39,780 --> 00:00:55,780 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, 4 00:00:55,780 --> 00:01:03,780 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. 5 00:01:03,780 --> 00:01:17,780 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. 6 00:01:17,780 --> 00:01:24,780 And this is a family that has been filled with struggles. There's a lot of kids, and at one point, 7 00:01:24,780 --> 00:01:32,780 ten of the brothers, looking at brother number 11, they become jealous of him, and so they attack him, 8 00:01:32,780 --> 00:01:39,780 ultimately first seeking to kill him, but instead of killing him, they throw him into a pit, sell him into slavery in Egypt, 9 00:01:39,780 --> 00:01:50,780 and then tell their dad that he is dead. This young man, Joseph, in Egypt, goes through a great and difficult time. 10 00:01:50,780 --> 00:01:57,780 He is enslaved to a member of Pharaoh's guard. He's falsely accused of wrongdoing. He's thrown into prison. 11 00:01:57,780 --> 00:02:05,780 He rises in authority in the prison, so as a prisoner, he's essentially in charge of the inner workings of the prison. 12 00:02:05,780 --> 00:02:12,780 And eventually, he comes to the attention of Pharaoh when Pharaoh has a dream about a famine. 13 00:02:12,780 --> 00:02:18,780 Joseph is brought to Pharaoh. Joseph interprets the dream, says, "We need to start stockpiling food 14 00:02:18,780 --> 00:02:24,780 during these seven good years, so that when seven bad years come, there will be plenty of food for everybody." 15 00:02:24,780 --> 00:02:32,780 And Pharaoh takes this young Hebrew, who had been thrown into prison, and makes him the second man in all of Egypt, 16 00:02:32,780 --> 00:02:40,780 essentially, making him the second most powerful man in the known world at that time. 17 00:02:40,780 --> 00:02:46,780 And eventually, during the famine, his brothers show up, and they want food. They're in the presence of Joseph. 18 00:02:46,780 --> 00:02:54,780 They don't recognize him. There's a lot of back and forth, but ultimately, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. 19 00:02:54,780 --> 00:03:06,780 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. 20 00:03:06,780 --> 00:03:14,780 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, 21 00:03:14,780 --> 00:03:21,780 but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today." 22 00:03:21,780 --> 00:03:30,780 And so, the book of Genesis ends with this reminder, is that even those dark, difficult, evil moments in life, God takes those, 23 00:03:30,780 --> 00:03:40,780 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. 24 00:03:40,780 --> 00:03:45,780 Now, between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, we have 400 years. 25 00:03:45,780 --> 00:03:50,780 The family that had come to live in Egypt has now grown to a large nation, 26 00:03:50,780 --> 00:03:56,780 and the problem is they are living inside this other nation, Egypt. 27 00:03:56,780 --> 00:04:03,780 And Exodus 1:8 says this, "Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph." 28 00:04:03,780 --> 00:04:11,780 And he doesn't remember the salvation that Joseph brought, and the salvation brought by this family. 29 00:04:11,780 --> 00:04:17,780 And he's worried about this burgeoning population of not Egyptians living within the borders, 30 00:04:17,780 --> 00:04:24,780 worried that they may ally with some of their enemies. And so he begins to take steps. 31 00:04:24,780 --> 00:04:32,780 He enslaves them, and one of the steps that he takes is he tells the Hebrew midwives this, 32 00:04:32,780 --> 00:04:42,780 in verse 22, "Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter you shall let live." 33 00:04:42,780 --> 00:04:48,780 And it is a dark beginning to a text we're going to see this morning that is filled with hope. 34 00:04:48,780 --> 00:04:53,780 And so I want us to see, in part, the importance of truth, the importance of faithfulness, 35 00:04:53,780 --> 00:05:01,780 and then I want to lead us to rest in the providence of God. And I want you to understand that in this darkness 36 00:05:01,780 --> 00:05:06,780 of these beginning verses, there is hope even in the darkness, darkest of times. 37 00:05:06,780 --> 00:05:13,780 We're going to do so by looking at essentially three sections. We're going to start in Exodus 1:15 38 00:05:13,780 --> 00:05:22,780 with two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah. And in these verses, we are going to see the transforming power, 39 00:05:22,780 --> 00:05:30,780 first of all, of worship in our lives, and then the transforming power of God in our circumstances. And I think this is so 40 00:05:30,780 --> 00:05:38,780 important as these two women fear God and worship God, their lives are transformed. And then we'll see in this text as well 41 00:05:38,780 --> 00:05:47,780 that God transforms and takes care of their circumstances. And so we're going to pick up in verse 15. 42 00:05:47,780 --> 00:05:52,780 We're just going to sort of walk through these verses this morning, taking a look at the remarkableness of this text. 43 00:05:52,780 --> 00:06:00,700 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, 44 00:06:00,780 --> 00:06:07,780 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; 45 00:06:07,780 --> 00:06:16,780 and if it is a daughter, she shall live." So that's a pretty dark beginning to our text this morning. 46 00:06:16,780 --> 00:06:22,780 And for the midwives, this has to be terrifying, because Pharaoh is the most powerful man in the world. 47 00:06:22,780 --> 00:06:28,780 He holds life and death in his hands. He has just given them this order. 48 00:06:28,780 --> 00:06:36,780 There can't be a trial or defense. He can simply order their deaths as he has ordered the deaths of these male sons. 49 00:06:36,780 --> 00:06:45,780 They cannot win this battle. These two midwives are in a hopeless situation. 50 00:06:45,780 --> 00:06:50,780 And I don't know if you've ever seen maybe a hopeless situation. I'll give you a bit of a humorous example. 51 00:06:50,780 --> 00:07:00,780 I was talking to the neighbors earlier this week, and it was probably 11 or 12 or 13 years ago, maybe even older. 52 00:07:00,780 --> 00:07:07,780 There was a family who lived down here, and they had a rambunctious little boy, and he loved to ride his tricycle. 53 00:07:07,780 --> 00:07:11,780 And I remember looking out one day, and it's only humorous because it ended well. 54 00:07:11,780 --> 00:07:17,780 And there's a UPS truck coming over the hill on Purdue, and this little dude is on the yellow line, 55 00:07:17,780 --> 00:07:22,780 like tricycle wheel in between the yellow line on Purdue Drive. 56 00:07:22,780 --> 00:07:27,780 UPS truck is this way. He's this way. UPS truck obviously sees him completely stopped. 57 00:07:27,780 --> 00:07:31,780 And this little kid starts screaming at the top of his lungs, "Ahhh!" 58 00:07:31,780 --> 00:07:36,780 riding his tricycle as fast as he can at the UPS truck, right? 59 00:07:36,780 --> 00:07:40,780 And it's like, that's not, like thankfully, the UPS driver. 60 00:07:40,780 --> 00:07:47,780 But this kid had no idea that he was head-to-head against something much, much bigger. 61 00:07:47,780 --> 00:07:52,780 And we look back on it, and it's okay because nothing bad happened. 62 00:07:52,780 --> 00:07:57,780 Right? The parents got him. I'm sure they had a very, very serious talk with him. 63 00:07:57,780 --> 00:08:00,780 So they never saw him riding his tricycle in the street again. 64 00:08:00,780 --> 00:08:04,780 And it's okay because nothing happened to him. 65 00:08:04,780 --> 00:08:07,780 That's not the case with these two women, right? 66 00:08:07,780 --> 00:08:11,780 If they defy Pharaoh, what's going to happen? They're going to get hit by the truck. 67 00:08:11,780 --> 00:08:14,780 Right? There's no stopping for grace. 68 00:08:14,780 --> 00:08:21,780 If they don't do what Pharaoh says, everything bad is going to happen. 69 00:08:21,780 --> 00:08:23,780 Look at what happens next. 70 00:08:23,780 --> 00:08:27,780 And notice how it changes: "But the midwives feared God." 71 00:08:27,780 --> 00:08:32,780 Everything hinges on this, and they did not do as the king of Egypt. 72 00:08:32,780 --> 00:08:37,780 Every reason to obey him, not really any reasons not to, except this: 73 00:08:37,780 --> 00:08:41,780 They feared God, and they let the male children live. 74 00:08:41,780 --> 00:08:44,780 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, 75 00:08:44,780 --> 00:08:47,780 "Why have you done this, and let the male children live?" 76 00:08:47,780 --> 00:08:52,780 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women, 77 00:08:52,780 --> 00:08:56,780 for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." 78 00:08:56,780 --> 00:09:02,780 So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew strong, 79 00:09:02,780 --> 00:09:07,780 and because the midwives feared God, God gave them families. 80 00:09:07,780 --> 00:09:11,780 And so the king circles back in this meeting with them and goes, 81 00:09:11,780 --> 00:09:15,780 "I'm still noticing that you're not killing any boys." 82 00:09:15,780 --> 00:09:18,780 And listen to what happens. It says, "Well, we can't get there in time." 83 00:09:18,780 --> 00:09:22,780 If you've ever seen the movie The Sound of Music, there is a point in that movie 84 00:09:22,780 --> 00:09:28,780 where the Von Trapp family has gone to a convent to hide, 85 00:09:28,780 --> 00:09:33,780 and the nuns are hiding them, and the Nazis are at the door shaking it and knocking, 86 00:09:33,780 --> 00:09:37,780 and these two nuns are going to answer the door, and Mother Superior goes, 87 00:09:37,780 --> 00:09:41,780 "Slowly, slowly," and they walk as slowly as they can to that door. 88 00:09:41,780 --> 00:09:45,780 I kind of picture the midwife, "Sarah's having a baby!" 89 00:09:45,780 --> 00:09:50,780 And then these midwives are like, "Slowly, slowly, oops, didn't get there in time for another one. 90 00:09:50,780 --> 00:09:52,780 I don't know what we're going to do." 91 00:09:52,780 --> 00:09:57,780 And they feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. 92 00:09:57,780 --> 00:10:02,780 And what gives these women the courage to stand up to the most powerful woman, 93 00:10:02,780 --> 00:10:08,780 or powerful man in the world. It's just this: the midwives feared God. 94 00:10:08,780 --> 00:10:11,780 They're not scared. 95 00:10:11,780 --> 00:10:19,780 They might be a little nervous, but in their worship and their reverence for God. 96 00:10:19,780 --> 00:10:23,780 I want you to see the worship of God transforms how we live. 97 00:10:23,780 --> 00:10:29,780 You see, every question of our behavior and our life comes back to a question of worship. 98 00:10:29,780 --> 00:10:32,780 What do I honor most in my life? 99 00:10:32,780 --> 00:10:35,780 They could have honored their safety. They could have honored their comfort. 100 00:10:35,780 --> 00:10:39,780 They could have honored their security more than anything, but they didn't. 101 00:10:39,780 --> 00:10:47,780 They honored God. Every question of your behavior and how you live comes back to this matter of worship. 102 00:10:47,780 --> 00:10:52,780 Who is it that you reverence? Who is it that you worship? 103 00:10:52,780 --> 00:10:57,780 And the midwives feared God, and that worship transforms them. 104 00:10:57,780 --> 00:11:03,780 Now, I want you to see in this text not just how worship transforms the midwives. 105 00:11:03,780 --> 00:11:06,780 I want you to see how God transforms these circumstances. 106 00:11:06,780 --> 00:11:11,780 In verse 16, Pharaoh makes a pronouncement of death. 107 00:11:11,780 --> 00:11:14,780 "Every male child shall die." 108 00:11:14,780 --> 00:11:22,780 And then in verse 17 through 21, every one of these verses contains a reminder of life. 109 00:11:22,780 --> 00:11:25,780 Verse 17, "The midwives let the children live." 110 00:11:25,780 --> 00:11:28,780 Pharaoh's like, "Why are they still alive?" 111 00:11:28,780 --> 00:11:30,780 Pointing to their life. 112 00:11:30,780 --> 00:11:36,780 Verse 19, "The Hebrew women are too full of life for they're vigorous and give birth." 113 00:11:36,780 --> 00:11:47,780 And then in verse 21, God establishes both the people and the midwives in life. 114 00:11:47,780 --> 00:11:53,780 And what's remarkable, and almost every commentator points this out, is that Pharaoh decrees death. 115 00:11:53,780 --> 00:12:00,780 God decrees life, and Pharaoh's decree is no match for the decree of God. 116 00:12:00,780 --> 00:12:10,780 Just as Pharaoh has no power over God, so Pharaoh's decrees have no power over God's decrees. 117 00:12:10,780 --> 00:12:17,780 The most powerful man in the world can decree all that he wants, but he can do nothing against the Almighty God. 118 00:12:17,780 --> 00:12:22,780 And here's what I love. Two of the most powerless people in the kingdom, these two Hebrew midwives, 119 00:12:22,780 --> 00:12:28,780 Hebrew midwives, they're the ones who bring this about through their obedience to God. 120 00:12:28,780 --> 00:12:34,780 Let me give you one more example in these verses. These verses, in many ways, they're composed intentionally, 121 00:12:34,780 --> 00:12:42,780 and they're symmetrical, which means that if you fold them on top, so verse 17 matches with verse 21, 122 00:12:42,780 --> 00:12:50,780 verse 18 matches with verse 20, and so forth, what you find is they sort of match up in their themes. 123 00:12:50,780 --> 00:13:03,780 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, 124 00:13:03,780 --> 00:13:09,780 and in verse 20, it establishes families, just as these midwives had through their obedience. 125 00:13:09,780 --> 00:13:18,780 And verses 18 and verse 20, you find the disapproval of man, Pharaoh, contrasted to the approval of God. 126 00:13:18,780 --> 00:13:24,780 And at the center are the actions of the midwives in their obedience and trust. 127 00:13:24,780 --> 00:13:32,780 You find this picture of how God is at work through the obedience of His people, even in these dark, difficult times. 128 00:13:32,780 --> 00:13:39,780 The darkness has no power over those who follow God. 129 00:13:39,780 --> 00:13:46,780 So the question I would ask us this morning is, "Where are you called to bring light to?" 130 00:13:46,780 --> 00:13:53,780 Your obedience. What is God calling you to stand up for? 131 00:13:53,780 --> 00:13:56,780 You see, worship leads to obedience. 132 00:13:56,780 --> 00:14:01,780 Where are you called to be a light in the darkness for truth, for hope, for the safety of others? 133 00:14:01,780 --> 00:14:05,780 Let me show you just one more thing about this. 134 00:14:05,780 --> 00:14:09,780 I think I have this quote on the screen. This is from a commentary. 135 00:14:09,780 --> 00:14:15,780 "Together, the woman outsmart the very ruler whose court was considered the pinnacle of wisdom 136 00:14:15,780 --> 00:14:23,780 in the ancient Near East." There is, in fact, a chain of such roles in the Bible, all the way from Sarah to Mary. 137 00:14:23,780 --> 00:14:31,780 Additionally, we don't know the name of the Pharaoh, but we know the names of these two midwives. 138 00:14:31,780 --> 00:14:38,780 Let's take a look at this next woman that is mentioned, Jochebed. This is Exodus 2:1-4. 139 00:14:38,780 --> 00:14:44,780 And what I want you to see is that ordinary, everyday faithfulness has a deep and abiding impact. 140 00:14:44,780 --> 00:14:57,780 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. 141 00:14:57,780 --> 00:15:04,780 And when she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. 142 00:15:04,780 --> 00:15:13,780 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. 143 00:15:13,780 --> 00:15:20,780 Exodus here begins with very, very little information. There's a lot that these verses don't tell us. 144 00:15:20,780 --> 00:15:27,780 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. 145 00:15:27,780 --> 00:15:34,780 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. 146 00:15:34,780 --> 00:15:42,780 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. 147 00:15:42,780 --> 00:15:47,780 The name of this mom here is mentioned only two places in Scripture: 148 00:15:47,780 --> 00:15:53,780 once in Exodus chapter 6, and the other in Numbers chapter 26. 149 00:15:53,780 --> 00:16:00,780 And here we find the names of this family. The name of Amram's wife, that's Moses' dad, was Jochebed, 150 00:16:00,780 --> 00:16:10,780 the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt, and she bore Amram, Aaron, Moses, and Miriam, their sister. 151 00:16:10,780 --> 00:16:14,780 This woman's name means "Glory to God." 152 00:16:14,780 --> 00:16:18,780 I'm going to say something obvious, because the verse is on the screen. 153 00:16:18,780 --> 00:16:21,780 She has three children: Aaron, Miriam, and Moses. 154 00:16:21,780 --> 00:16:26,780 Moses is likely the youngest. We learn elsewhere that Aaron was about three years older. 155 00:16:26,780 --> 00:16:30,780 It makes Miriam probably the oldest of the three children. 156 00:16:30,780 --> 00:16:33,780 And I want to just give you a quick picture of these three children. 157 00:16:33,780 --> 00:16:36,780 Miriam, mentioned in the verses that we just read, 158 00:16:36,780 --> 00:16:42,780 the daughter left to watch over Moses. 159 00:16:42,780 --> 00:16:45,780 When he is discovered, she will introduce herself, 160 00:16:45,780 --> 00:16:50,780 offers her mother as a nurse for the baby, both bold and quick thinking. 161 00:16:50,780 --> 00:16:52,780 She's the third prophetess. 162 00:16:52,780 --> 00:16:55,780 Well, actually, third prophet, but prophetess is the female. 163 00:16:55,780 --> 00:16:58,780 Mentioned in all of Scripture, number three. 164 00:16:58,780 --> 00:17:01,780 First being Abraham, second being Moses, and then Miriam. 165 00:17:01,780 --> 00:17:05,780 She's a worship leader in Exodus chapter 15. 166 00:17:05,780 --> 00:17:10,780 Aaron, Moses' older brother, is a prophet, 167 00:17:10,780 --> 00:17:13,780 the one who God will send to speak for Moses. 168 00:17:13,780 --> 00:17:16,780 He will end up being the first high priest of the Jewish people, 169 00:17:16,780 --> 00:17:20,780 and every high priest after would be the descendant of Aaron. 170 00:17:20,780 --> 00:17:23,780 And then here's Moses, the deliverer of God's people. 171 00:17:23,780 --> 00:17:26,780 He leads God's people. He gives the law. 172 00:17:26,780 --> 00:17:32,780 He's the author of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 173 00:17:32,780 --> 00:17:36,780 These are some overachieving kids. 174 00:17:36,780 --> 00:17:42,780 All three of them have a massive impact, not just on this story, 175 00:17:42,780 --> 00:17:48,780 not just on the book of Exodus, but on God's people, and ultimately on the world. 176 00:17:48,780 --> 00:17:50,780 And how does it happen? 177 00:17:50,780 --> 00:17:58,780 How does Jochebed have three kids who ultimately change everything? 178 00:17:58,780 --> 00:18:03,780 And I think you see in this passage, he's just faithful to whatever is in front of her. 179 00:18:03,780 --> 00:18:06,780 And so here is this wonderful story. 180 00:18:06,780 --> 00:18:13,780 A lady mentioned by name twice in the entire Bible has a deep and lasting impact on all human history. 181 00:18:13,780 --> 00:18:18,780 And as Moses, 80 years old, when he comes back to lead the people out of Egypt, 182 00:18:18,780 --> 00:18:22,780 I don't know that Jochebed ever saw that. 183 00:18:22,780 --> 00:18:27,780 I don't know that she ever experienced the salvation that God had provided through her. 184 00:18:27,780 --> 00:18:33,780 And here's the thing: in our faithfulness, we don't always see how it turns out. 185 00:18:33,780 --> 00:18:43,780 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. 186 00:18:43,780 --> 00:18:46,780 And God uses that. 187 00:18:46,780 --> 00:18:52,780 I do not want you to underestimate the importance of faith in the small areas of your life. 188 00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:56,780 We're tempted to say it's just a little thing. It's not that big of a deal. I'm not that important. 189 00:18:56,780 --> 00:19:01,780 Here's the thing: nothing is little with God. 190 00:19:01,780 --> 00:19:07,780 Do not minimize the power of quiet faithfulness. 191 00:19:07,780 --> 00:19:13,780 You see, in the midwives, we have this call to stand as a light in the darkness. 192 00:19:13,780 --> 00:19:17,780 In the story of Moses' family, we have this call to be faithful. 193 00:19:17,780 --> 00:19:23,780 Even in things we may not see the end of, but we don't know how it turns out. 194 00:19:23,780 --> 00:19:28,780 The third account I want us to take a look at is Pharaoh's daughter. This is Exodus 2:5-10. 195 00:19:28,780 --> 00:19:34,780 And what I want us to see here is that God calls us to take comfort in the promises of God. 196 00:19:34,780 --> 00:19:39,780 Yes, He calls us to worship Him, and that worship changes how we live. 197 00:19:39,780 --> 00:19:44,780 He calls us to be faithful, and God uses that faithfulness. 198 00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:50,780 He also calls us to rest in His providence. 199 00:19:50,780 --> 00:19:57,780 The world seems dark, and we seem small, but God is great, and He is filled with glory. 200 00:19:57,780 --> 00:20:01,780 And so I want to talk to you about the providence of God, and the providence of God is just simply this: 201 00:20:01,780 --> 00:20:08,780 that God is in control of all things, and providence is God's exercise of that control. 202 00:20:08,780 --> 00:20:15,780 He governs all things in this world with wisdom and with love, from creation, from the spiritual world, 203 00:20:15,780 --> 00:20:18,780 to the physical world, that God is in control. 204 00:20:18,780 --> 00:20:22,780 And it may sound like a lot, but let me explain. 205 00:20:22,780 --> 00:20:26,780 In God's working in our world, we see it primarily in two ways. 206 00:20:26,780 --> 00:20:31,780 One is His very visible work, or hand, in miracles. 207 00:20:31,780 --> 00:20:37,780 For example, when Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb, and He says, 208 00:20:37,780 --> 00:20:40,780 "Lazarus, come forth," and "Lazarus comes back from the dead." 209 00:20:40,780 --> 00:20:46,780 That's God interrupting the normal order of things, miraculously, to restore Lazarus' life. 210 00:20:46,780 --> 00:20:52,780 So miracles are sort of an exception in how things normally work, 211 00:20:52,780 --> 00:20:54,780 because people normally don't return from the dead. 212 00:20:54,780 --> 00:20:58,780 Storms normally don't calm themselves. 213 00:20:58,780 --> 00:21:01,780 People don't normally walk on water. 214 00:21:01,780 --> 00:21:07,780 Five little loaves and two fishes don't normally feed more than 10,000 people. 215 00:21:07,780 --> 00:21:09,780 And God works through His hand of miracles. 216 00:21:09,780 --> 00:21:12,780 But He also works through His hand of providence. 217 00:21:12,780 --> 00:21:17,780 And it's interesting from this, because we always see it sort of in hindsight, 218 00:21:17,780 --> 00:21:22,780 that in the moment it seems like this has sort of just happened. 219 00:21:22,780 --> 00:21:28,780 But when we look back on it, we see God's hand leading us through every step of the way. 220 00:21:28,780 --> 00:21:33,780 Let me show you from these verses in Exodus 2. 221 00:21:33,780 --> 00:21:37,780 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. 222 00:21:37,780 --> 00:21:40,780 Remember what's just happened at this same river. 223 00:21:40,780 --> 00:21:44,780 Moses' faithful mom has put baby Moses in a little ark. 224 00:21:44,780 --> 00:21:46,780 It's the same word used as Noah's ark. 225 00:21:46,780 --> 00:21:51,780 Just as God saved Noah in an ark, God saves Moses in an ark. 226 00:21:51,780 --> 00:21:58,780 And so he's in his baby ark in the reeds, and Pharaoh's daughter just so happens to come down for a bath. 227 00:21:58,780 --> 00:22:01,780 And while her attendants, her young women, walked beside the river, 228 00:22:01,780 --> 00:22:06,780 she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 229 00:22:06,780 --> 00:22:13,780 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying, and she took pity on him and said, 230 00:22:13,780 --> 00:22:18,780 "This is one of the Hebrew children." 231 00:22:18,780 --> 00:22:19,780 Now look what happens. 232 00:22:19,780 --> 00:22:25,780 Then his sister, that's Miriam, says to Pharaoh's daughter, kind of comes out from the bushes or the reeds, and says, 233 00:22:25,780 --> 00:22:29,780 "Shall I go call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse this child for you?" 234 00:22:29,780 --> 00:22:32,780 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." 235 00:22:32,780 --> 00:22:36,780 So the daughter went and called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 236 00:22:36,780 --> 00:22:41,780 "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." 237 00:22:41,780 --> 00:22:48,780 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. 238 00:22:48,780 --> 00:22:51,780 And she named him Moses, because I drew him out of the water. 239 00:22:51,780 --> 00:22:53,780 Look at how God is at work. 240 00:22:53,780 --> 00:22:58,780 You have, first of all, in the location of Moses, in his little ark, 241 00:22:58,780 --> 00:23:02,780 and Pharaoh's daughter coming down to the river to bathe. 242 00:23:02,780 --> 00:23:04,780 Now, which Pharaoh is this girl's father? 243 00:23:04,780 --> 00:23:07,780 It's a guy who just said, "Kill every baby boy," 244 00:23:07,780 --> 00:23:11,780 and then his daughter shows up and finds a baby boy in the river. 245 00:23:11,780 --> 00:23:13,780 See the boldness of Miriam. 246 00:23:13,780 --> 00:23:17,780 She says, "Do you need somebody to take care of the baby, to help the baby eat?" 247 00:23:17,780 --> 00:23:18,780 And he says, "Yeah, go back." 248 00:23:18,780 --> 00:23:26,780 And so Miriam goes back and gets Moses' mom to take care of the baby for the first few years of his life. 249 00:23:26,780 --> 00:23:36,780 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. 250 00:23:36,780 --> 00:23:38,780 I want you to think about that in the providence of God. 251 00:23:38,780 --> 00:23:41,780 How does that work out? 252 00:23:41,780 --> 00:23:49,780 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. 253 00:23:49,780 --> 00:23:52,780 But it's even deeper than that. 254 00:23:52,780 --> 00:23:57,780 Who does Moses grow up to be? He becomes the leader of God's people, 255 00:23:57,780 --> 00:24:02,780 the author of the first five books of the Bible. You know what that requires? An education. 256 00:24:02,780 --> 00:24:06,780 In order to write five books of the Bible, you've got to be able to read. 257 00:24:06,780 --> 00:24:12,780 That kind of education never would have been given to a slave. 258 00:24:12,780 --> 00:24:15,780 Stephen in Acts 7 says this, 259 00:24:15,780 --> 00:24:22,780 Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in word and deed. 260 00:24:22,780 --> 00:24:24,780 You see what's happening? God's at work. 261 00:24:24,780 --> 00:24:30,780 In the worship of the midwives, in the faithfulness of Jochebed, 262 00:24:30,780 --> 00:24:36,780 and he gives us rest in his providence. You see, Jochebed was faithful. 263 00:24:36,780 --> 00:24:44,780 She put Moses into the hands of God in that river, in his little ark, trusting, as Noah did, that God would save. 264 00:24:44,780 --> 00:24:51,780 And what happens? God brings Moses into the house of his enemies, and at his enemies' expense, 265 00:24:51,780 --> 00:24:57,780 they educate him to lead God's people and to write the first five books of the Bible. 266 00:24:57,780 --> 00:25:01,780 I want to tell you what happens next. 267 00:25:01,780 --> 00:25:04,780 I think this is so important for us to see. 268 00:25:04,780 --> 00:25:10,780 Because we know the end of Moses' story, but we often don't think about how it plays out in its chronology. 269 00:25:10,780 --> 00:25:19,780 In Acts chapter 7 and verse 23, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart, Moses is 40 years old, 270 00:25:19,780 --> 00:25:24,780 to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. He sees them being oppressed by an Egyptian. 271 00:25:24,780 --> 00:25:32,780 Moses, in his strength and in his youth, kills this man, goes on the run into a place called Midian. 272 00:25:32,780 --> 00:25:38,780 He gets married as a child. 40 more years go by. 273 00:25:38,780 --> 00:25:44,780 Moses is now 80 years old, not living in Egypt, but living in the desert in Midian. 274 00:25:44,780 --> 00:25:48,780 Here's what's happening in Egypt. 275 00:25:48,780 --> 00:25:54,780 During those days, that's the one who wanted Moses dead, or all the baby boys dead. 276 00:25:54,780 --> 00:25:58,780 And the people of Israel, at this point, the first prayer is mentioned. 277 00:25:58,780 --> 00:26:06,780 They groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out for help. 278 00:26:06,780 --> 00:26:12,780 Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. God heard their groaning. 279 00:26:12,780 --> 00:26:16,780 God remembered his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and Jacob. 280 00:26:16,780 --> 00:26:23,780 And then the very next thing that happens is God calls Moses out of the wilderness to lead his people. 281 00:26:23,780 --> 00:26:29,780 What I want you to see is that God is always at work. 282 00:26:29,780 --> 00:26:36,780 It's been 80 years. Moses in the wilderness. 283 00:26:36,780 --> 00:26:39,780 You see what's happening here? This is so important. 284 00:26:39,780 --> 00:26:45,780 80 years before the people pray for salvation, God has already begun to answer their prayer. 285 00:26:45,780 --> 00:26:52,780 For 80 years before these people, in their tears and in their hurt and their slavery, they're crying out for help. 286 00:26:52,780 --> 00:26:58,780 God, 80 years before this, has already started to answer their prayer. 287 00:26:58,780 --> 00:27:07,780 Sometimes during prayer, we talk about how sometimes it may take 20, 30, 40 years of prayer to see a difference. 288 00:27:07,780 --> 00:27:15,780 But I would also remind you that 80 years before the people pray, God has already begun to answer their prayer. 289 00:27:15,780 --> 00:27:18,780 That God is already at work. 290 00:27:18,780 --> 00:27:24,780 And I want you to see that in worship, in the midst of the darkness and opposition, in faithfulness, God is at work. 291 00:27:24,780 --> 00:27:29,780 We might not always see the end, but that God is in control. 292 00:27:29,780 --> 00:27:34,780 And in many ways, these events point us to another deliverer. 293 00:27:34,780 --> 00:27:44,780 A deliverer who doesn't run from Egypt, but he runs to Egypt because another king wants him dead. 294 00:27:44,780 --> 00:27:50,780 Another deliverer who comes back from the wilderness where he has battled with Satan 295 00:27:50,780 --> 00:27:56,780 to call to his people, to lead them, and to rescue them. 296 00:27:56,780 --> 00:28:01,780 Not just from physical slavery, but from brokenness and sin. 297 00:28:01,780 --> 00:28:07,780 And this salvation was not just prepared 80 years before like Moses was, 298 00:28:07,780 --> 00:28:11,780 but was prepared for you before the foundation of the world. 299 00:28:11,780 --> 00:28:14,780 The question for us is, where will we run? 300 00:28:14,780 --> 00:28:17,780 Where will we build? 301 00:28:17,780 --> 00:28:19,780 Who will we worship? Where will we be faithful? 302 00:28:19,780 --> 00:28:24,780 And in the time when our hearts are stirred up and struggling within us, 303 00:28:24,780 --> 00:28:30,780 will we remember that God providentially is at work, even though we may not always see the end. 304 00:28:30,780 --> 00:28:33,780 Let's pray. 305 00:28:33,780 --> 00:28:37,780 Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus, and I thank you for grace. 306 00:28:37,780 --> 00:28:40,780 I thank you for caring for us. I thank you for watching over us. 307 00:28:40,780 --> 00:28:42,780 I thank you for loving us. 308 00:28:42,780 --> 00:28:45,780 May you help us to follow Jesus. 309 00:28:45,780 --> 00:28:48,780 May you help us to be faithful in the small things. 310 00:28:48,780 --> 00:28:50,780 May you help us to worship in a way that changes us. 311 00:28:50,780 --> 00:28:53,780 And most of all, would you help us to rest in your providence. 312 00:28:53,780 --> 00:28:55,780 It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.