Exodus 1

Introduction

*Phone Stack

Have tables read Exodus 1 out-loud together.

Have each table summarize the passage in one sentence!

*PRAY

Everyone think of one promise that someone has made to you that they have never broken before...

Don’t get this confused with a secret… Think of something that would benefit you… Something you can share.

God is a promise maker and promise keeper. In order to understand the true essence of the book of Exodus, this is a must know foundational truth.

One of the promises God has made up to this point is as follows...

Genesis 12:1–3 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. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

We also know that God is a man of His word. When He says something, He means it...

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God warned them that there would be tension between those who serve God, and those who don’t...

What we are about to unfold in the first half of the book is going to magnify this truth!

Exodus is called the “Book of Names” because it begins with a list of names of the sons of Jacob who brought their families into Egypt to escape the famine in the land of Canaan.

All was well… Joseph’s brothers had brought the rest of Israel to Egypt and they were welcomed with open arms…Because Jospeh was there and was greatly respected.

However, the book stats off by stating the opposite was now true...

Exodus 1:8–11 ESV

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.

There was a problem… or so they thought.

God’s promise to multiply and make them a great nation was coming true.

There was an estimated 600k Israel men when the exodus took place… Including women and children, we are talking about around 2 million people!

The Israelites alone had become a great nation within a nation!

This angered Pharoah, so he took steps to stop it.

Pharaoh’s commands to decrease Israelite Growth

1. Increase Hardship

Remember, God told Abraham that the great nation that came after him would be enslaved and mistreated. He also said they would be freed!

Genesis 15:12–14 ESV

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 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. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

The Israelite people should have seen this coming if they did not not.

You may ask, why would Egypt be so concerned about the ever growing number of Israelites?

Pharaoh claimed it was a security issue. But we all know that it wasn’t a security risk, it was the risk of a potential fall.

I am not talking about the fall from pride and power, but a fall of a nation when the people of God grow larger. It was the tension between God’s people and the people of the world.

The Israelites had God on their side!

Genesis 12:3 ESV

3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So what was Pharaoh’s plan? To work them as hard as possible...

Exodus 1:13 ESV

13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves

Did this work?

No. How do we know this? Because Pharaoh took another step.

2. Kill the firstborn boy of every family.

Exodus 1:16 ESV

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.”

With this plan in play, pharaoh would surely wipe out the whole nation of Israel!

Think about it this way… Boys are killed… What gender is left?

If the Hebrew girls don’t have Hebrew boys to marry, then who do they marry? Egyptians! Next thing you know, the Hebrew race has been absorbed into the Egyptian race!

But this is not what God had promised… He promised that they would multiply into a great nation..

You read the story, Pharoah calls for two midwives to kill any baby boy born from a Hebrew woman...

They neglect to do so due to their fear of God...

This is a prime example of when we are to obey God rather than men.

Be Delivered 1. The Deliverer Needed (Ex. 1:1–22)

When the laws of God are contrary to the laws of man, then “[w]e ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)

Acts 5:29 ESV

29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

Look what happens to the midwives after neglecting to obey Pharaoh’s recognition due to their fear of God...

Exodus 1:20 ESV

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

How did He deal well with them?

He blessed them with families (children).

Exodus 1:21 ESV

21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

Our God loves children. He loves the family unit.... These things are blessings....

Psalm 127:3 ESV

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

If the bearing of children is a gift from the Lord, it is not for us to take away....

Lastly, Pharaoh takes another step...

3. Drown every boy baby in the Nile.

Exodus 1:22 ESV

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.”

We will see next week this truth come to life....

History is His story. We aren’t the authors, we are simply characters in the script.

There is nothing we can do to alter the direction of the narrative...

Pharaoh wanted to drown every baby boy...

But even God can protect those who can’t protect themselves… And next week will reveal just how sovereign our God is.

Small Group Discussion Questions

Has someone ever broken a promise they made to you?

Why are promises hard to keep?

What are other promises that god has made us throughout the scriptures?

What can we do to remind us of His promises when we begin to doubt Him?

What does this chapter tell you about God’s relationship to His people?