THROUGH THE BIBLE - Exodus 2..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took his wife, a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid them three months.

When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at its distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. While her young woman walked beside the river, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman and she took it.

When she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you? And the Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. So the girl 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 wages."

So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses because she said, I drew him out of the water. One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand.

When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together, and he said to the man in the rung, Why do you strike your companion? He answered, who made you prince and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you kill the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, surely this is known. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

Now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock. When they came home to their father, Reuel, he said, how is it that you came or you come home so soon today? They said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock. He said to his daughters, then where is he?

Why have you left this man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter, Zephora. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershon. For he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.

During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. Amen. This is the word of the Lord.

As a church family, we've been privileged. In our Bible readings, we've been able to Chapter by chapter go through the book of Genesis. We're in Exodus chapter 2, so we started the book of Exodus only last week. But if you remember, we've been following a particular family through the book of Genesis. And we know that the book of Genesis is essential.

It's foundational for us to understand our redemption or God's plan of redemption for his people. And so we've been looking through the book of Genesis and we got to know this character by the name of Abraham, a man chosen by God, a man who God has covenanted with, that he would be a blessing unto all the nations of the world, that he would be a father of great nation, and a father of many nations indeed, and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham's promise of God to Abraham was also given to the son of Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob, and then to the 12 tribes, the 12 sons of Jacob also. So when we ended the book of Genesis, we ended on the note where Jacob and his 12 sons had made the journey into Egypt by God's approval to stay there for a time. and they united in Egypt, and then we ended that book, their own blessing, the rations were coming through, they had their own land, they could worship God, and they were favoured by the Prime Minister, well, their brother Joseph, and by the Pharaoh.

The book of Exodus, though, starts 300 years later, or thereabouts. There's a 300-year gap between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, and as we all know, there is a big difference, or a lot that can happen over 300 years. And so we know over that 300 year period, there was a king that was risen in the beginning of Exodus. And this king, well, this king didn't know Joseph. This king had no favor towards the Hebrews.

So he imposed some very harsh punishments on the people of Israel. So what did he do? Well, he's seen that the people of Israel had been blessed. They were prosperous. They were growing in number.

They were growing in flock. They were growing in prosperity. Obviously, these people, if they continue to grow in number, they would be a threat to the people of Egypt. They'd be a threat to this new king. So he imposes two main things, or he has two purposes, to stop this threat from continuing.

And the first is, I believe, to crush the spirit and the will of these people. So what does he do? He makes slaves of them. No longer are they to labor and enjoy the fruit of their own labor, to build prosperity for their families and their families after. No, now their energies, their strength is all spent now to prosper a pagan king.

This is very difficult for the people of God. This is very difficult for the covenant people who've been promised a land and blessing to be living under these conditions. And the second thing, the second thing that this pharaoh does is he, well, he brings in ethnic cleansing, for lack of a better word, because he decides at that point the way he can deal with his people shrewdly is to kill every boy born into the family of the Hebrews. Every boy born would be killed. So he issues an edict.

If you know of a family, a Hebrew family, who have had a boy, bring that boy and we'll cast him into the Nile River. The Nile River was known for its crocodiles. And if the crocodiles didn't get the boy, then he'll drown. And we know that. And we said this last week.

The Egyptians were a very superstitious people. They were very pantheistic. They believed in many gods and worshipped many gods. And so the Nile God was one of those gods. How's that?

The covenant people of God would have their babies thrown into the Nile River, and the Egyptians would consider that as an offering to their God. But this is one thing this king didn't know. He was dealing with the physical problem, but he's beyond the physical. One thing he didn't account for was that God was with these people. You see, They weren't blessed and they didn't have the prosperity because they were more intellectual than others.

They weren't growing in number because they were better genetically and they were producing more kids. No, it was because God's promises were upon these people. God had promised that he would be with them, even in a foreign land. So the Egyptian king would deal with the physical, but he wasn't dealing with the God of these people. So what do we have now?

We have here in the book of Exodus chapter 2, it starts for us, we're introduced to Moses and Moses is the redeemer of Israel. He's the instrument that our God, our good gracious God, he brings forth as a redeemer to redeem his people. And look at the circumstances that he's born into. The circumstances he's born into is all the boys were cast into the Nile. Yet the Lord gives his Redeemer in that time.

Like, think of all the odds. He could have been born any other time, but now he decides to bring this young boy by the name of Moses in a time where all the boys were cast in. The odds for his life are so dim and so small. But by faith, his mother makes a basket, and she coats the basket with bitumen or pitch for waterproofing. She places her young boy after three months in this basket and then sets him in the river among the reeds in a place where she probably knew the Pharaoh's daughter would come and bathe.

That's important for us to realize and recognize that the word here for basket is actually only used for one other thing in the Bible, and that is for, yeah, it's the ark. So it's the same word that Noah was given by God, instructed that you are to build an ark. See, back then Noah would build an ark and also cope that with pitch. And him and his family, eight in total, and the animals that the Lord had brought to the ark would come onto the ark. And they would sit in refuge, in the refuge of the ark.

They would be safe from the wrath of God that was pouring down in the deluge among the people. There was death and destruction around Noah. They were safe in that ark. Moses was safe in that ark. He was safe even though there was death around him.

When the sovereign God has a plan and a purpose, he accomplishes it. No one can thwart his plan or his purposes. So then what we have is we have, and the text tells us that the Pharaoh's daughter brings forth, comes and sees the baby brought to her by her servant. And it's interesting that the words that are used, she had pity on him. Now, she knew her father's deeds.

She'd known what her father had decreed, that the children, the baby boys, would be cast into the Nile yet. It's incredible to me that from all the boys that were cast and killed, she had pity only on one. She had pity on Moses. And the beauty here, as the story goes on, it tells us that Moses, his sister was in the reeds and she's come to Pharaoh's daughter and she asks, do you need a Hebrew woman to nurse the child? That was a common thing amongst the Hebrew women.

They would have children and they'd allow another person to nurse the child so their bodies won't be whatever, the effects on their bodies and so forth. But that's what would happen. And so she said yes, and she brings the mother. She brings Moses' mother, who's able for another at least probably between two and three years, nurse little Moses, and then at that point, hand him back over to Pharaoh's daughter to live where? In the Pharaoh's household.

When you think about it, and the boys of the Hebrews are being killed all over the place, and as horrible as that is, Moses is found for the next 40 years in probably the safest place in Egypt, in the household of Pharaoh. It's incredible to even think about that. And so, we know that the plans of Pharaoh to curtail the growth of the Hebrews comes to an end simply because the redeemer that God has brought forth so he would be the savior of Israel is now in the very household that he lives in with his daughter, and she brought him in, which is an incredible thing. But as Moses grows, as Moses grows, and as he grows in the wisdom of the Egyptians, he comes to realize that the Egyptians are worshiping a false god. He comes to realize that their god is completely against the God of Israel.

They believe in many gods. They worship a pantheon of dead deities. But Moses knows better than that. So actually we get some information about this when he decides to no longer be associated or identified as an Egyptian, but rather he wants to be identified with his own people, the Hebrews. God has been placing a love in his heart, a zeal for his own people.

Hebrews 11 sheds some light on this. Hebrews 11 reads this way, it says, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be ministered with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He turned his back. He turned his back on the things of the pagan world, the world that he grew up in. And he knew that the Lord was working in his heart and in his life.

to see his fellow Hebrew brothers and sisters and have a compassion for them, have a love for them. This is the hand of God at work in Moses in a pagan land, in a pagan household. And that love gets him into trouble because we're told he goes into the field, goes wherever it is he's at. We're not actually told. And he sees that one of his fellow brothers is being beaten up by an Egyptian.

And what does he do? He comes to the rescue. and he beats up the Egyptian, or he kills the Egyptian and buries him in the sand. Now, it is possible, some have suggested, because he looks to the left, and then he looks to the right, that it was premeditated murder, that no one's looking, and this is what happened. And that's a possibility, I guess.

But the other possibility is also that he was looking for help. There was no one there. What's he to do? He needs to help his brother. He needs to help the Hebrew, and he does.

And so when this happens, the very next day, he comes and sees a conflict between two Hebrew brothers. And when he comes to break that up, they look down on him. They look down on Moses. Why? Why do they look down on him?

Well, they say, who's made you a prince over us? Who's made you a judge over us? He was hoping that the people would see him as a deliverer that the Lord has sent. But they reject Moses. They reject the Deliverer that God has raised up.

And 1,500 years later, beloved, we know that this happens to our Lord and our Saviour. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. So for 40 years, because the Pharaoh knew of this, he was after him. He wanted to kill Moses. So Moses escapes to Midian, and he stays there for 40 years.

It's the training ground of God that he would mould him, that he would shape him into the man that he wants him to be. And while he was there, he got married, he had two sons, and the Lord will bring him back to redeem his people. But what I want to do is I want to end with this. I want us to just put our eyes down and have a look at verses 23 through 25. verses 23 through 25.

During those many days the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenants with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew. You see it's interesting. This passage is a beautiful passage because we're told that in those days, after many days, we know it's about 40 years, we're told that in the Book of Acts.

After many days, he says that the king, the king of Egypt, died. You see, ancient Near Eastern kings, when they would, and this is the view of many historians, when a new king would come to power, he would do something in his power. He would do something in his first year or his first act to achieve the favor of his people. It may be that he pardons someone from prison or forgives a debt. So it's very possible that the Egyptians, and my apologies, the Israelites, at this point, when this harsh king had now died, finally, he died, finally, maybe the new king that comes, maybe he's He's one who will reverse that edict and he'll save our boys.

Maybe he'll take away the slavery. Maybe he'll take away the bondage that we're under. Maybe he'll reverse that and give us our freedoms once again. But realize something. There's nothing mentioned of the new king.

But there is something mentioned about the king of kings. You see, it goes straight into speaking of the slavery, about the slavery and the complaint of the people. And they cried out, they wanted to be rescued from the slavery. But then it says, and God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob.

God saw his people Israel, and God knew. You see, it doesn't matter what king comes. It doesn't matter if he's a good king or an evil king. God's people Their hope is found in God alone. It's not found in human authorities.

It's not found in human rulers. He's the covenant God. He will remember his covenant to Abraham. He will remember his covenant to Isaac. He will remember his covenant to Jacob.

He will remember his people. This is God we're speaking about. But the thing is that we may cry out as the people did, rescue us. And this generation is at least 40 years before Moses comes back and rescues them. Most of these people will die in slavery.

A lot of these people will continue to see their little boys murdered before their very eyes. How are they to deal with this? How are we Christians to deal with the fact that we may be crying out to God to redeem us from our hardships and our pains? How are we to deal with these things? Well, we ought to know.

that God is sovereign and He's good. And even though we may cry out and it may seem like He's not hearing us, that He's not listening, that He's not seeing, He's a hearing God. The text tells us He hears them, He sees them, and He knows them, and He remembers His covenant. Our God remembers His people. And we ought to be reminded of who our God is.

He's a God who keeps all his covenant promises to his people, but he does it in his own time, not ours. We're to hold to those truths because our hope is not in the circumstances. It's not in the outcomes. Beloved, our hope is not even in our prayers. Our hope is in God in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer.

He is the ark in which we will all be safe if we are in Christ.