Walk Like an Egyptian
Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsAny plan that ignores the Lord is destined to fail
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Any plan that ignores the Lord is destined to fail
Any plan that ignores the Lord is destined to fail
Let me share just a little bit about how the sausage is made - and sausage in this case is our weekly message.
When I pray and land on a book to preach through, I consult a number of commentaries to see how they outline that book.
And that does two things for me.
First, it saves me hours and hours and hours of work - let the smart guys that love the academics do that for me.
But also, it gives me a challenge.
Sometimes I have to deal with scripture that I normally wouldn’t pick.
Like today’s passage.
We’re in Exodus 1:8-14.
When I read it the first time, I wondered, “What in the world do you do with this?”
I’ve been reading it everyday, sometimes several times a day for over a week, each time asking the same question:
“What in the world do you do with this?”
But remember how we approach reading the Bible, prayerfully, humbly asking to see the Lord, expectantly expecting that the Lord will show us something.
And this little method has proven to me that Hebrews 11:6 is really true.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
When we faithfully seek the Lord, He rewards us by showing us what we need to know.
This little passage - watch this.
Turn with me to Exodus 1:8-14.
We’ll talk for a bit about Egyptian history, then we’ll talk about the Lord and then we’ll talk about how this fits.
For our Kids using a Kid’s Worship Guide, you are listening for these three words, People, Exodus, and Lord.
Hear now the word of the Lord from the Book of the Exodus 1:8-14
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, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.
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.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
So, a lot of time has passed between Exodus 1:6 “Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.” and Exodus 1:8 “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”
But not only had time passed and people died, Egypt has changed politically and that’s what the Lord uses to make all of this happen.
That’s what really fascinates me about this and what gives me hope for us right now.
God works through history - events that we see as random or sometimes bad, God is in the thick of it conducting the orchestra
Making all of the notes work just right.
I have always been puzzled about how Joseph could go from zero to hero so quickly.
He was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites
Who then sold him to Potiphar - the commander of the imperial guard in Egypt.
Potiphar was a big deal and Joseph rose in rank to become THE man who oversaw all of Potiphar’s stuff.
You may know the story - Joseph was a hunk - Genesis says he was “handsome in form and appearance.”
Potiphar’s wife thought he was cute - but Joseph didn’t bite - so she accused him of impropriety and got him thrown in prison.
Time passes and things go on - he interprets the kings dream - and now he’s put in charge of everything.
And I understand fully God being in control and working these things in Joseph’s life - but I always thought there was more to this story that God used.
And there was.
When Joseph and his family ended up in Egypt - the leaders of Egypt weren’t native Egyptians.
They were the Hyksos.
There were Middle Easterners who had invaded from the north and conquered Egypt.
Middle easterners - think - they look like Joseph.
They come from some of the same areas as Joseph - so while Joseph might not be one of us - he might be a distant cousin or something.
So the Lord used all of this to get Joseph and his family in Egypt so the next part of the Lord’s plan could unfold.
Exodus 1:8 “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”
Among the Hyksos rulers, Joseph was a big man.
But the new king wasn’t Hyksos.
The native Egyptians organized themselves and overthrew the Hyksos government.
They killed many and drove the rest out of town.
This didn’t happen in a week - it took several hundred years.
Now follow me - when Jacob moved his entire family to Egypt to be with Joseph, there were 70 of them.
But in 300 years, if every child got married and had 2 children, the population of Israelites in Goshen would be 2,293,760.
Knowing that they didn’t have medicine and stuff like we do now - let’s cut that number in half.
That’s 1,146,880 Semites - Middle Easterners - people who don’t look like us at all
But they do look a lot like the Hyksos that occupied their land for so long.
The king could look out his window in Rameses and see over 1 million people that looked just like the people he had helped to overthrow.
I can hear him thinking, “You can’t trust these people.”
Look at Exodus 1:10 - See the words, “escape from the land.””
That’s a really hard phrase to translate - the word escape literally means ascend, lift up, pour over
And a number of translators think it’s an ancient figure of speech that means, “they will overpower us.”
Read Exodus 1:10 that way - “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and they will overpower us.””
I hope you find this as interesting as I do cause there is a little bit more.
Here is Pharaoh's dilemma,
You can’t trust these people.
But if we are going to keep our economy running like it is - we need these people.
Listen, I’m not going to go down this road, but let me plant this seed so you can go down it on your own later.
Pharoah does exactly what our political leaders and news media is doing right now.
Listen, there is NO indication that there was any friction between the Israelites and the native Egyptians.
But Pharoah gives a speech to his leadership and he says, Exodus 1:9–10 “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, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.””
What did he just do?
He drove a wedge between the dark skinned native Egyptians and the olive skinned Middle Easterners.
You can’t trust these people, they don’t look like us.
We’ve got to do something - and so they did.
Exodus 1:13 “So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves”
Now, let’s dig into this just a little bit.
Let me ask you some questions that start with this phrase, if you treat someone as a slave, do you.... and then fill in the blank.
If you treat someone as a slave, do you give them time off of work?
No - you work them seven days a week.
If you treat someone as a slave, do you care about their living conditions?
No - you want them to eat just enough to keep working and rest just enough to keep working.
If you treat someone as a slave, do you care about their family?
No - in fact, you want to destroy their family.
You don’t want babies - babies grow up to be adults and there are too many adults already.
Babies keep women from working all the time because they have to attend to their babies.
Babies make good men want to protect their family.
Do you see Pharaoh's strategy?
We will use them to provide us with what we want while we thin out their population.
We aren’t going down this road, but I do want to plant this for you to ponder later.
Our government is hell-bent - I use that phrase on purpose - to make abortion legal no matter when, where or how or for what reason.
It is presented as a “woman’s right” and abortion is used to drive a wedge between Conservative Evangelicals and everybody else.
But here’s the point to consider.
Black American’s make up just under 13% of the total population of the United States.
But 40% of all abortions are abortions of black babies.
I’ve read all kinds of reasons saying why - but understanding Pharaoh’s actions, here’s my question.
Is the higher abortion rates for Black Americans just an accident of sociology or is there more to it than that?
Now a simple surface reading of our text makes you mad, right?
What Pharaoh is doing is wrong, period.
And it’s going to continue for 400 years - Remember what the Lord said to Abraham, Genesis 15:13
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.
And that’s exactly what happened.
For 400 years the people of Israel were mistreated.
For 400 years they cried out to the Lord for relief.
All the while, every day hearing the name of the 1,500 Egyptian gods being praised.
All the while, reminding themselves, “Remember our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
“Remember the promise.”
While they watch their neighbors being beaten, and see their ribs poking through their skin
And watching their babies die.
They had to wonder if they were on the right track.
They had no scriptures then - at all - only word of mouth.
But we do have scriptures and that means we know some of how God thinks.
And if we know how God thinks, then we can big picture know how this is going to turn out without knowing the rest of the story.
See, we know these things and we apply these things as we read.
Here’s what we know about God.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
Pharaoh has 1,500 gods and he claims to be a god himself.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You’ve seen the statues of Egyptians gods, right?
The one that has the body of a man but the head of a falcon?
(if it’s a falcon, you know it’s a loser)
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
How many days a week is Pharaoh making them work?
7.
“You shall not murder.
What is part of Pharaoh’s strategy?
Literally work them to death.
It’s the same if he had lined them up and shot them.
Now, what has God already promised he would do?
Remember, faith is trusting that the Lord will do what He says He will do.
So what is their faith built on here? Genesis 12:2-3
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.
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.”
Exodus 1:12 is telling us that the Lord is already doing the first part.
“But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad.”
That’s what the Lord said He was going to do.
Does the Lord only keep half of his promises?
He said he would make him a great nation
But the Lord also said, “him who dishonors you I will curse...”
If we are reading for comprehension here - before we go to Exodus 1:15 we have to ask ourselves.
Based on everything I know about God, what in the world is about to happen to Pharaoh?
You know, because you know the Lord to be faithful to His word, you know something really bad is going to happen to Pharaoh.
What is the fatal flaw in Pharaoh’s plan?
Any plan that ignores the Lord is destined to fail.
Any plan at any time on any continent - including the United States
And Georgia and Jones County and Gray and FBC-G.
Ignore the Lord and you will fail.
Now, how does all of this apply to us?
First, just because your life isn’t easy doesn’t mean the Lord isn’t working.
A popular buzzword right now is deconstruction - people who once said they were Christ followers are de-constructing their faith.
I’m not on board with that - but there are parts of our faith that need reconstructing.
We are conditioned almost from birth to expect immediate relief from any kind of pain.
It starts with a messy diaper.
Fill that puppy up - cry loudly regardless of the day or night or frequency of crying - and comfort comes.
It’s the new year - and the diet commercials are back.
Lose 7 pounds in 7 days with Nutrisystem.
Buy this stuff and - well - comfort comes.
You’ll never see a commercial that says - if you will use this product for 2 years, it will start making your wrinkles disappear.
If you will persevere.
If you will endure some hard times...
Yes, the Lord cares about our messy diapers
But He is so much more concerned with our hearts.
We know some of how the Lord thinks - He created Eden for us to live in - that’s our destination.
He’s working His plan to get us back there - it’s His heart’s desire.
Imagine the love of a person who will work a plan for thousands of years so that one day you will no longer have heartache
And never again be betrayed or lied to
Or never again be lonely or sad
What does Jesus say, Revelation 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
No we don’t enjoy pain - but maybe we have to endure it a bit to get to the place where Jesus wipes away every body’s tear.
Just because your life is hard doesn’t mean the Lord is not working in your life.
Finally, we need to reconstruct our expectations of Jesus.
I wonder what He feels like as we wring our hands over the state of affairs in our world?
If you ever watched Men in Black, Agent J says most profoundly, “Don’t start nuttin, won’t be nuttin!”
When we see ungodly things happening
When we see unholy things being promoted
When we see people leading other people away from God - we’ve got to start saying to ourselves
“Their starting something with God.
“I wonder what the Lord is going to do about that?
Knowing all the while, that the Lord will do what He has promised He will do.
I believe that with all of my heart.
And scripture after scripture proves it.
And life after life is evidence of it.
Every Christ follower in this room has the same confession of faith
Jesus has done for me exactly what He promised He would do.
I want to invite you into our world.
Maybe you’re thinking you don’t have this kind of faith - but what did Jesus say?
Just a tiny bit of faith - almost microscopic - it can change the course of history.
Let me ask you this - Do you want Jesus?
Do you want Him to love you the way you need to be loved?
Let me tell you this, if you do want Jesus, then you have enough faith.
Because that want in your heart was placed there by the Holy Spirit of God Himself.
You didn’t conjure that up.
That’s Jesus inviting you to join Him.
Whatever it is that makes you its slave, Jesus wants to deliver you.
He wants you with Him in the promised land.
I’m going to pray - then we’re going to sing.
Any time you like you can use our steps for an altar and come make a special prayer.
I’ll be right here waiting for anyone who wants to talk about Jesus.
Just step out, come down and we’ll talk.
Do you want Jesus?
Now is your time.
Let us pray.