Isn't It Ironic

Good morning and welcome. I am glad we can be here this morning. It is always a good day to be here in the house of the Lord.

Have you ever thought about Irony before. Its the whole idea of the opposite being expressed in a visual or verbal way. I came across a funny picture that I thought might help us illustrate this point.

Dead End sign

I mean who put this up. They had to know it might not be taken well. It is kind of ironic that the is the dead end for many. Or is it really just the beginning.

When it comes to Irony I had to go back to one of my favorite comic strips to read growing up. In fact I have most of the books still to this day. If you haven’t ever read Calvin and Hobbes be ready for a balance of what I call chaos and deep thinking. Calvin at times though would help show an incredible sense of irony.

Kick in the Butt

Like this strip I mean we all know someone who needs this. I can’t imagine why it isn’t selling. Then there are strips like this one.

Let me set it up a little bit for you. Calvin has an active imagination. One of the ways that his imagination is over active is he views his Bike as out to kill him. The Bike would chase him down and actively run him over as he attempted to learn to ride it. This would lead to this determined approach of Calvin to learn to ride his Bike.

Calvin and Bike image

Its that moment that something moves from irony to bad omen. It is that very thinking that resonates so well with our story this morning from the book of Exodus. That moment we look back on and see a moment of Irony that would lead to some rough times for the Pharaoh of Egypt. Turn with me to Exodus Chapter 2

Exodus 2:1–10 NIV

1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. 7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

The Birth of Moses

Think about this for a moment. This young women had a baby and she was able to hide the fact that she had a baby boy for 3 months.

I couldn’t help but wonder how she did that. My first thoughts went to keeping him in secret places and working diligently to hide his screams and cries. That would be incredibly difficult as we all know that Babies in the first months of their lives only do a few things. The Sleep, they eat, they poop, and they cry. In all honesty not much else.

Of course they are adorable and we love them and they bring us joy but they really are simple creatures as far as their activities.

Side note: Do you want another example of Irony. I am afraid of Babies. I won’t ever actively seek out holding a kid. They scare me. I know right. They are cute and I love them to death but i don’t want to or need to hold them.

I have this innate fear I will break them. Then in a twist of Irony I was given a 2lbs 10 oz baby boy. The size of my hand and as fragile as they come.

The more I thought about this I realized maybe she didn’t try to hide that she had a baby but she hid that it was a boy. Dressed in Pink, bows in his hair, no question this wasn’t a boy right.

No matter what happened Moses’ mother worked hard to keep it hidden that Moses was a boy because she knew the fate that he faced.

The tough choice

She faced a tough choice. She faced the hard truth that she couldn’t keep it hidden forever. This young boy was growing up and unless she was going to keep him in dresses forever she had to find another solution.

Coincidence or Planning

As amazing as this story is full of coincidences and amazing moments I do believe that it was full of planning as well. This mother knew that for her child to survive in the Nile river he had to be in a safe vessel. She she built him the best raft possible. Taking to the time to seal it and protect it knowing where she was going to put him.

Not only that but let’s think about where she put him. The location she chose was very purposefully thought about. It wasn’t like she put him in the river and shove the basket out and hopped it would land somewhere safe. This wasn’t a little kids toy boat it had precious cargo.

She placed it in what was most likely an off shoot or calm area by the river that was commonly used for bathing. I am willing to bet she also knew that the Pharaoh’s daughter would bathe there. That is not a mundane detail that people miss. Royalty would be noticed.

In fact we can be confident that she knew these kind of things because her older daughter, Moses’ sister stayed to watch what would happen.

I don’t think this is a coincidence either. They wanted to make sure he was found. That he was safe. I imagine the hope was that he would be found and used as a servant or worker in the palace and that would be a better life then death.

Pharaoh’s Daughter Makes a Choice

What is amazing is when the Pharaoh’s daughter opens this basket and find this child she has to make a choice.

She realizes this was a Hebrew baby quickly. She is the Pharaoh’s daughter so you know she is aware of what the law is about baby Hebrew boys. Yet, she shows compassion. I truly believe in her heart she is aware of how evil it is to want to kill these children and it drives her to compassion. She makes the choice to save this child from certain doom.

He compassion won. Her choice was made. She lead to one of the great ironies of the Bible.

God Saved Through the Oppressors

God used the Pharaoh’s daughter to deliver his people. He used one of the very last people you would expect to save the Hebrew People. God used the situation to begin the process of delivering his people.

It is in these moments that when we are in them we don’t realize what is happening but when we look back we can help but be amazed at how God can work through all situations.

One of the Other ironies in the situation is that not only did God use the Pharaoh’s daughter to save Moses he brought the child back to his mother.

Sure it could be argued that Moses’ sister was there very strategically to make sure her brother was okay. I can’t begin to imagine that she thought she would have the opportunity to bring her mother back her baby brother.

She saw the opening and the compassion being shown and boldly stepped out to offer service to the Pharaoh’s daughter. I can’t even imagine the idea that the Pharaoh’s daughter would actually go with the idea of her bringing the baby back to her mother.

God is setting the stage

God set the stage and showed compassion on this young mother and Moses. This was the beginning of the movement to the deliverance of the Hebrew people.

God is working in a way that reminds us that he can work in any and all situations. That no matter how hopeless or lost the situation is God can work through it.

The challenge always comes for us is that we often don’t realize that the hope is easier to see after things are done.

Trust in God

It is hard for us sometimes to be reminded of this. that God works in ways we can’t see. That we can trust that God is going to work everything out. I know I can think of many times in my life that I look at a situation and I don’t see the hope. I don’t see how he is working. Yet, we look back and the hope is there. IT is in these stories in these moments that we realize that we can have the hope to press on.

It is in this moment that we can look to the very name that is given to moses as the message of hope. The message that even in the worst of situations he will.

“draw us out of the water”

He will deliever. in this life or in heaven we can take hope that when we follow God and we devote our heart to him that we can be thankful and we can take hope.

IT is in the irony of how moses was saved that we can take hope in seeing how Jesus saved us. In the way that we least expect. He didn’t send his son to free us from political oppression or rule. He came to deliever us from the opression of Sin. He used the cross a tool of death to break the bonds of death. To free us from that pain. This is a a reminder for us to day that we are called to trust in God that he will provide and lead the way if we lean into his arms.

Praise the Lord for that.

Let us pray