Trust Through Trial

Series reminder:

ILLUST - Hourglass

Introduction

Ever get lost?

some of you kids (can’t believe I just said that) havent had that feeling because your chances of being lost are far less than they used to be with smartphones, Siri, etc

ILLUST - Kerwin’s hay maze.

sometimes it’s not your fault, you’re just along for the ride.

(ILLUST - Mom and Aunt Naomi)

Ever ask, “How did we get here?”

Feel alone

Feel unseen

Feel helpless

Maybe not your fault just along for the ride.

I imagine the Israelites had similar feelings

Exodus 1 (ESV)

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

“The Israelites were fruitful. . .”

— God has been faithful to his promises thus far

gen12:1

Genesis 12:1 (ESV)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 17:2 (ESV)

2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”

Up until verse seven there is no question that God is keeping his promises.

Then, verse eight:

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

9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 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.

13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 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. 15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “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.”

17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 19 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.”

20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 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.”

Notice the state that the Israelites are in. Up until verse 8 it was generally a good place - blessing even. But now they face:

Oppression / Afflicted v11, 12

Beat down, bring low

The idea was not simply to prejudice against them but to crush them

Violence - “ruthlessly”

Only used a few times throughout the Bible

Literally, “to crush” - Has the idea of not simple oppression but violence.

Murder - genocide

v16 - NIV uses “boy” and “girl”

Word really is son and daughter - these were sons that were to being killed

Imagine the fearful anticipation a the moment of birth instead of a moment of joy - will it be a boy or a girl? i.e., will the baby live or die?

Pharaoh wanted genocide or at least a decrease in the number of Israelites in the land so he no longer felt threatened by them.

Naturally, if you kill all the male children, their population will decrease and you will also be targeting the half of the population that would most likely comprise the army you fear could rise.

Pharaoh enlists the healthcare system of the Israelites, Shiphrah and the other Puah, as the first who will be outside of the family to see the children to kill the boys.

They honor God instead of killing the children, so Pharaoh expands his command to kill to all the people under his rule - calling on them to throw the babies into the Nile perhaps as a gift to Hapi or Khnum, two of the Egyptian gods who oversaw the Nile River.

As one commentator put it, Pharaoh engaged “All the power of Egypt, all the power of the enemy—royal, popular, supernatural.Days of darkness indeed!

Whatever else Exodus may say to us, this is where it starts—with the suffering of God’s people.”

(Motyer, BST Exodus)

Here is the puzzling part of this story — These are the people of God, under the promise of God, waiting in the place God had sent them. And yet, they it seems everything is against them. How did they get here?

You can be under God’s promises and still face problems.

What in your life did not turn out the way you had expected?

You may not be an Israelite in Egypt, but perhaps you find yourself asking a similar question:

How did I get here?

I thought I was promised all the blessings that being a part of the family of God affords? I don’t have any unconfessed sin in my life, so how is it that I’m in this dark place?

Why am i the one who has cancer when I’ve actually tried to follow what God wanted me to do?

Why did my husband die / wife die when we had a godly marriage but they do not?

Why am I the one trying to make ends meet when I’m actually trying to honor God with my money, and they simply spend the money on themselves?

Why am I still struggling with anxiety / depression when all I want to do is what God wants me to do?

James 1:1–2 (ESV)

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes (hint to Exodus) in the Dispersion: Greetings. 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

Just because you are not where you thought you’d be doesn’t mean it is not where God wants you to be.

Genesis 46:1–4 (ESV)

1 So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” 3 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. 4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

I wonder if the Israelites serving as slaves many years later wondered if their ancestor Israel made a wrong turn somewhere. Are you sure it was Egypt God said? Are you sure he meant for us to stay? Did we mess up somewhere?

ILLUST - tough times in seminary - we know God called us here - let’s pray separately to see if God is calling us to leave.

Don’t leave the place of God’s calling until He calls you to leave the place.

Don’t quit the job led you to because it now seems hard.

Don’t give up on your spouse because he’s not responding well.

Don’t abandon the friends you know God brought into your life simply because they are being difficult.

I believe too often we look for and follow God’s leading into a good situation and then abandon his leading when things become difficult or not the way WE expected.

Just because where you are is not where you thought you’d be doesn’t mean that where you are isn’t where you need to be.

And that is because. . .

God’s promises will always outstretch your problems.

Even as the Israelites difficulties continued, so did God’s care.

So, what was the result?

10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply,

12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad.

20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong.

Pharaoh is doing everything he can as the most powerful person of the land, to stop the Israelites from multiplying but the more he tries the more they multiply.

I love how God’s plan moves forward no matter how great the resistance to it.

Freebie: There is no power on earth that can stop the plan of God.

God can cause his people to thrive no matter how difficult the situation.

No matter how remote you feel, God will always respond.

Exodus 2:23–25 (ESV)

23 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.

Notice in the story that God’s attention was turned when the people cried out for help in desperation

The people knew they could not break the bonds on their own.

Two different words for “cry:”

Their cry for rescue - used 11 times - 6 times by Psalmist

Psalm 18:6 (ESV)

6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Psalm 34:15 (ESV)

15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.

Psalm 40:1 (ESV)

1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 145:19 (ESV)

19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.

23 During those many days

It doesn’t matter how long it has been, God hears your cry. When you cry out in humility and authenticity, God will respond.

‘And God’ makes all the difference.

24 And God

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

when your story has an ‘And God’ it makes all the difference

And God:

Heard their groaning

“sighs”

caught God’s attention

God was concerned with what was concerning them

God still cares

Romans 8:26 (ESV)

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Same word (Greek version)

Remembered his covenant

God didn’t remember their efforts / hard work / moral behavior / religious efforts

He remembered his promises through the covenant

He remembered that these were HIS people

The Egyptians were messing with HIS family

ILLUST - don’t mess with the Dickinsons - Julian bus incident.

Saw the people

He didn’t see the problem to step in

He saw the people

Matthew 9:36 (ESV)

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

God sees you - in the darkness of the situation - He sees you.

Knew . . . what?

Knew what was happening

“knew” = yada = intimate knowledge

Knew what to do

The Israelites didn’t need to try to figure things on their own. God knew what to do.

This will be what causes God to act:

Exodus 3:7–8 (ESV)

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

This goes directly against what we often hear whispered in our ear when we are in those dark places.

How it usually goes is that when we find ourselves in those dark places. We usually hear that:

Your prayers aren’t working.

God has forgotten you.

You are alone.

There is no way out.

To these situations there is an ‘And God.’

This same God who never changes:

Hears

Remembers

Sees

Knows

At the end here, I want you to see there is not yet a solution or deliverance.

The people are still in slavery. They are still oppressed. They are still weighed down, beaten down, in pain.

However, while still in the darkness, the difference is . . . And God:

Hears,

Remembers,

Sees,

Knows.

The difficulty is still here, but now God has entered the story.

The Author has entered His own story.

Now, if you are writing a story, what is impossible for you, the author? Nothing! You can write the characters into and out of any situation with limitless resources and imagination.

Except, you are unable to enter your own story.

going to switch these last two

What now? Trust through the trial.

— even if you feel you cannot trust the plan of God, trust the God of the plan.

— trust God with expectancy

If you don’t know what God has said, how can you trust in it?

— trust God with patience

We get to read through summary pages of another’s life while living out our own.

The promise:

Genesis 46:3 (ESV)

3 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.

2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Hebrews 6:12 (ESV)

12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Problems are not the end for God’s people - promises are.

When God made His covenant with Abraham, he told Abraham:

Genesis 15:13–14 (ESV)

13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

Just as God had warned Abraham that there would be dark days ahead, we’ve been warned there may be dark days ahead for you and I as well.

John 16:33 (ESV)

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

While the reality of trouble was warned, the promise of God’s action based on His covenant was promised:

14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

In the same way, Jesus promised and encourages you based on the New Covenant:

John 16:33 (ESV)

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”