THROUGH THE BIBLE - Exodus 1..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Exodus chapter 1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. If war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them and afflicted them with heavy burdens.

They built for They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shifra and the other, Pua, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the males or male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this? And let the male children live.

The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. So God dealt with them, or with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. Amen.

This is the word of the Lord. Well, we're officially out of the book of Genesis. 50 chapters and 50 weeks later, we're now 51 weeks later, but we've been following through from around chapter 12, a people and a promise, the covenant people of God given firstly to Abraham and then to Isaac and then to Jacob and then to the 12 sons of Jacob. And we've been following their journey through the book of Genesis. But now we find ourselves no longer in the land of Canaan.

but in the land of Egypt. And if your memory serves you well, you would remember the last few chapters in the book of Genesis, how this came about. Because the sons or the brothers of Joseph, the wicked brothers, had sold Joseph to the Midianite traders many, many years ago. And unbeknownst to themselves, Joseph finds his way and gets sold into Egypt. And through hardship and much affliction, God raises this young Joseph and gives him favor in the eyes of Pharaoh.

Then he becomes Pharaoh's deputy, the second in charge of pretty much the greatest country or nation of the then world. God was with Joseph, but Joseph knew full well that this wasn't in and of his own power. Joseph knew full well that it is the sovereignty of God and it's God's providence that got him to that place in the first place. We know this because as the book of Genesis ends, in chapter 50, last few verses there, the brothers come because Jacob had died and they're fearful that their brother Joseph would now maybe impose some harsh penalties on them for what they had done years earlier. Joseph says not to worry about that.

What you meant for evil, God meant for good. Really, the book of Genesis can be summarized in God's sovereignty God's full control and His power over all the events of the universe, in particular His covenant people and His covenant promises, despite all the obstacles in the way, despite the sin of the people He uses to accomplish His purposes and His plans. Joseph knew full well God is sovereign, brothers and sisters, we as brothers and sisters in this day and age, we ought to draw strength in that. We ought to draw strength in the fact that our God is sovereign, that He's all-powerful, and He's all-knowing, and no one can stay His hand. No one can thwart His will.

God is sovereign over all things, and we ought to draw strength in that, especially in times of hardship. If persecution comes, if hardship comes, and it will, then we draw strength in the reality and the truth that our God is sovereign. But here in the context of Exodus chapter 1, we go from Genesis 50 to Exodus chapter 1 and we have a 300 year span. 300 years had passed and a lot can go on in 300 years. A lot can go on.

In fact, the Bible tells us here in the first section They grew, they greatly multiplied, that's the people of Israel, they greatly multiplied in number and grew exceedingly strong and they filled the land, or the land was filled with them. We have to realize, 70 people came into the land. And now tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands are now populating the land and they fill the land. For these people, life was good. You see, they were privileged people of God.

They had everything appointed for them. They had food, they had land, they had freedom to do as they pleased, the labor of their hands they were able to enjoy. But then something happens and the text tells us that a new king comes up here, a new king that does not know Joseph. And these privileged people of God who had the honor of the rulers of the day are now despised, And now they're detested by the ruler of the day, this new king. How could this be?

How could the king not know of what Joseph had done for the nation? Well, we're not told this, but some extra-biblical sources or historical sources tell us, or suggest at least, that in that day there was a shift, a major shift in the governmental powers. And so that could be the cause. But either way, we don't really know. But we do know this.

We know that the king increased in fear. He had fear because he could see that these people among him, the people of Israel, were growing in number. and they were growing in strength and if they were to ally themselves with an enemy then they would wreak much havoc. So he'd come up with a plan. He announces to his people, the people of Egypt, that we need to deal shrewdly with these people.

And how does he do it? Well, there's three stages to this plan. Stage one is that he makes them all slaves. He places heavy burdens on them. He makes them build his own cities.

As I said before, the people of Israel, the Hebrews, were at one point living in calm, living prosperously in this land, and the fruit of their own labor they enjoy. They were building futures for themselves and for their families. But that's no longer the case. Now their efforts, they're exerting their strength and their energies for a pagan, God-hating king. This is difficult.

And the hardship was hard. It was harsh. The Bible tells us that he appointed slave masters over them, men that are happy to use the whip and enforce harsh penalties if need be. But this is the beauty. Verse 12 tells us that plan of the king fell on its face.

Why? Because we're told in verse 12 that the more the people were oppressed, the more they multiplied. The more oppression that came their way, the more they multiplied. God was with these people. No one was going to stand in the way of God accomplishing His plans and His purposes, and especially the covenant He'd given to Abraham, that their number would be greater than the stars in the sky.

God is going to accomplish His purpose. The stage two was to speak and to enlist the midwives. Now we get two names here. We've got Shifra and we have Pua. And obviously there would have been many more than just two midwives in the land.

The people of Israel were plentiful, they were great. But these two may have been the heads, or the ones who were in charge of the midwives, ones who were in charge of the Hebrew ladies who were giving birth to babies, to children. This is how they were multiplying, obviously. And he says to them, if a child is born, If it's a girl, let her live. But if it's a boy, kill it.

Kill the boy. This is murder. And these ladies knew it. They're God-fearers, we're told. And they knew that to kill, to murder, would be against God.

And they decided in their hearts to revere God, to honor God above the human authority. Because now human authority is asking them to violate the very things that they know God hates. And so God honored that. When the Pharaoh came back and asks an account, what's going on? The people are still growing in number.

Are you not doing what I told you to do? What is their excuse? What did they say? There's got to be some truth in this. And they say to him, the ladies, the Hebrew ladies are not like the Egyptian ladies.

They're vigorous. They're strong. Why? Well, the Pharaoh had put them to labor, to hard work. That hard work had made them strong.

And now they're vigorous and strong, and they're able to produce babies without the help of midwives. Praise God. The number of Israelites grew and grew, and they became more and more prosperous. God was with his people. And then we have stage three, and that was the initial slavery.

He's getting cities built, but the people are growing. The midwives, well, that plan fell on its face. So what does he do? Finally, the king, in scenes with desperation, he decides to turn the whole nation against these people. No longer does he want to see these immigrants grow in number.

So he turns every citizen and he tells them all, if you see a Hebrew neighbor giving birth to a child, if you see a baby and it's a boy, You have to snatch that boy and you have to throw him in the Nile River. And beloved, this is not just a simple case of killing these infants. You see, Egypt was a pagan nation. Egypt believed in a pantheon of gods, many gods they would worship, the sun god, the moon god, and they also had the Nile god. To throw these young infants into the river was a sacrifice offering to their Nile God.

They had shrines along the Nile River. And they would commonly, as Egyptians, even sacrifice and offer their own babies into the river. So this is what they were doing. And now you have the people, the covenant people of God, having their babies snatched, their young infant boys snatched and then thrown into the Nile River as sacrifices to a dead deity. How could this be?

How could this be? How could God allow for such a thing? How are the Israelites, how are they to respond to such Hardship and trials. How could it be that in the space of a few years they go from being prosperous and enjoying their life, even up to the point where they probably weren't even thinking about the land of Canaan and the promises of God. How could it be that now God will allow His covenant people to go through this sort of suffering and this sort of hardship?

No doubt in their mind they were thinking, Is it because of our sin? Have we sinned against God? Is it because of our rebellion or our trespasses against God? There's nothing in the text to suggest that. In fact, we're told in Genesis chapter 15 that God clearly told Abraham that your descendants will go to a foreign nation and they will serve that foreign nation.

And they'll serve that foreign nation through affliction for 400 years. Beloved, it's not because of sin. There is no mention of sin. in this passage. Could Jacob have made a mistake?

Jacob came with his whole family and he met with Joseph. Was that a mistake? Should we have stayed in Canaan? No, because in Genesis chapter 46 we're told that God himself had revealed to Jacob, no you are to pick up, be at peace, go and I will be with you on that journey. God promised Jacob that he will be with him on the journey.

So it wasn't that at all. Brothers and sisters, These people, the people of Israel, these Hebrew peoples, were suffering this affliction, this hardship, this suffering, not because of anything they had done, but because God wanted them to be there. It was simply the sovereign plan of God for them to suffer in this way. How could God allow for his people to suffer in this way? How could God allow for such horrendous pain among his people?

As I said before, they became slaves. They built cities and an empire to a pagan, God-hating leader. And their little boys were now sacrificed as offerings to false deities. And it seems like their cry at that time was unheard. Because surely they, at that point, were crying out, God, redeem us.

Save us from this affliction. Save us, O God, from this affliction. Now we know, in hindsight, looking through the text of Scripture, we've read the book of Exodus, we've read Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and we're now New Testament Christians. We can look back and say, we know that God is at work. But beloved, in that moment, did they know that?

In that moment, could they see the providential hand of God at work, or were they left to basically making a choice. Either they were to trust and believe in that which God had revealed, that which they knew was the revelation of God, the promise he had made to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that you will be blessed. I will make you a great nation. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you. Will they trust in this God, or will they break and fail?

And the truth of the matter is this. The faith that apprehends God for what He has said and what He has promised is a supernatural faith. It's a faith that says, despite what I'm seeing with my eyes, despite what I'm experiencing with my senses, I call out to God. It seems like He's not listening. You know what, I'm gonna hold to his promises.

I'm gonna trust in him because I know that from my very eyes, I've seen him fulfill many of his promises and I know that the ones that are yet unfulfilled will be eventually fulfilled because he is faithful to keep his promises. We need to understand as these people ought to have understood. As Isaiah says in Isaiah 55, that God's ways are not our ways and his timing is not our timing as well. You know, we can think about this and think, well, when that king of Egypt was risen or had been raised to king, God could have just given him a heart attack like that. Problem solved.

But God didn't. Because God has a plan and a purpose. Even through suffering, even through the wickedness that we see in our world, God has a plan. and he has a purpose, and he's sovereign even over the wicked hearts of men. We need to trust this.

We need to believe upon this. And when we go through those dark times, we need to know that our faith will learn to survive in the darkness when we are allowed to go through those tough times. And beloved, when you're in those times, as these people were, There's nothing they can do apart from look to God. In the words of Job, I hope that we could do the same. Echoing the words of Job, though he slay me, I will still hope in him.

That's supernatural. That's the faith given by the Holy Spirit. And I pray, and I pray that we have that faith. because we will enter into hardship. And when we do, we may not be able to see with our eyes or hear with our ears any, well, any light or any way out.

But we need to trust God will always provide for His people. And ultimately, we win because Jesus has won on the cross. Let's believe in this and let's trust in Him. Amen.