A little while - Exodus 1

Series Introduction: It is difficult to overestimate the power of music. For me personally, I have a particular song associated with almost every single part of my life, and each time I hear it, it brings me back to a memory. It may be singing “O Praise Him” by David Crowder at the funeral of my wife’s cousin, and seeing hundreds of people with their hands lifted in worship, or singing Tom Petty’s “The Waiting is the Hardest Part” as we waited with anticipation for Gabriel to hurry up and be born. I can think of the church singing “He Will Hold me Fast” last year, and being so overwhelmed with sorrow that I couldn’t sing, and then again singing “He Will Hold Me Fast” last week and being full of joy at God’s grace to sustain me during the darkest time of my life. At almost every point in my life, there is a song. Music is powerful.

Music, at its heart, consists of melody and harmony. The melody line is the driving line of a song; it’s what makes the song recognizable. IT’s usually what we, the congregation sing as we sing together on Sunday morning. It’s the heartbeat of the song. Harmony is the various other pieces that run alongside that melody line to make it even more beautiful, to accent and accentuate certain pieces of the song. I say all this to give you a sentence that helps us frame this study in the book of Exodus:

Exodus is the melody of the Bible. I mentioned on Wednesday night that the Exodus shows us a pattern for redemption that God will repeat, over and over again, from this book all the way to the book of Revelation. And once you see it, it becomes the means by which you see everything else in the Bible. This is only one of many, many reasons that I am so excited to begin our discussion of the book of Exodus together today.

Exodus is a story of redemption. Of a God who makes Himself Known. The name we went with for the whole series on Exodus is “I AM The Lord,” because that oft-repeated phrase serves to not only be a melodic refrain in the book of Exodus, it also shows us the main point for the whole book. The book of Exodus is a book of God revealing Himself.

Just as a classical piece of music typically has different movements, the book of Exodus can be divided into five movements, with each movement focusing on a different way that God makes Himself known. Through each section of the book of Exodus, I hope for us to see in this masterful work of literature not only how God made Himself known in the lives of the Israelites, but how He acts in similar ways in our lives even now.

The first section is God making Himself known through redemption. But in order for Israel to be redeemed, we have to see them enslaved. And so, we start at Exodus 1.

Sermon introduction: Exodus is going to start with suffering. As we examine chapter 1, we are going to gain a biblical perspective on suffering

1. It’s God’s Plan (1:1-7)

a logical question to ask: why was Israel in Egypt?

2 1/2 years ago, we finished our study of the book of Genesis together. It’s been just a minute, then, so let’s look back at what we learned together in Genesis:

Genesis 1 - God creates a perfect world in 6 days. Man, as the apex of God’s good creation, is given explicit instruction in Genesis 1:27-28

Genesis 1:27–28 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God’s desire in making man, then, was to fill the earth with image bearers, so that the whole earth is full of the glory of God.

But we all know that the story doesn’t end there. Genesis 3, happens, man disobeys God, and the curse is applied. In that curse, Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

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.”

So, off we went in the book of Genesis, asking “who will be the one to crush the head of the serpent?

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

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. 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.”

God takes a pagan man out of idolatry and promises to make a great nation out of him. The focus narrows, from the world to this one family, and Genesis traces the story of God working in Abraham’s life.

Genesis 15: God makes a covenant with Abraham. Genesis 15:1-6

Genesis 15:1–6 ESV

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

but of particular interest is Genesis 15:13-14

Genesis 15:13–14 ESV

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

this is key! God isn’t just promising a people and a land, he is showing that his plan will include affliction, pain, and hardship.

Abraham, has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob, and at the end of Jacob’s life, Joseph is in Egypt and is compelling his brothers to come. But Jacob is apprehensive about going. So, Genesis 46:1-4

Genesis 46:1–4 ESV

So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” 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. 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.”

so, again, God tells Jacob to go, and there they will become a great nation. But He also promises that Jacob will come up again!

Now, Genesis 46:8

Genesis 46:8 ESV

Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons. Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,

why does that matter? It is at this point that we can pick up and read Exodus 1:1-7

Exodus 1:1–7 ESV

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

God said to Abraham that He would make them a great nation while they sojourned. Check.

God promised to Jacob that good would come of his going to Egypt. Check.

God promised to both that they would come back to the land of Canaan. And that is where the story of Exodus picks up.

Moses has gone to great lengths here to show the reader of Exodus that everything has gone precisely according to plan! That is going to be extremely important as we transition to the next section. Everything that follows will be in accordance with the sovereign plan of God, not contrary to it.

Sovereignty is such an important doctrine for us, but especially in times like the times the children of Israel are about to experience.

So, God is sovereign. It’s God’s plan. Now we are prepared to move on to the next point:

2. Even in our pain (8-14)

Now we are ready to see what happens next. Exodus 1:8

Exodus 1:8 ESV

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

Over time, the force of what Joseph did to rescue Egypt from famine was lost. The natural progression of time is for us to forget the substance of events. I can still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when September 11th happened, and I suspect most of you can too. But my son, who was born on September 11th, of 2012, realizes that it was a very important day, and is aware of some of the impact of it, but he won’t ever grasp it like I will. His children will learn it as a date in history, but will have no emotional connection over it. It’s the course of history; this new Pharoah didn’t really care that Joseph had rescued Egypt.

And even more, he saw some things going on that he didn’t like. In that time, God’s blessing and God’s promise, as Israel was fruitful and multiplied, became a threat to Pharoah. And so, God’s blessing on His people became a source of hardship for them.

Exodus 1:9–10 ESV

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.”

The Egyptian king looked around and saw that his people were outnumbered by the Israelites. This proved to be a threat to him, and he was concerned that they would leave Egypt (and so greatly damage the economy) and join forces with an Egyptian enemy, and so threaten to destroy the kingdom.

Of all the solutions that the Egyptian king could think of, slavery seemed the most palatable. To enslave Israel would have been to maintain, and maybe even increase, the labor force of Egypt, with no expense to Egypt, but at great cost to these people Pharoah despised. So, Pharoah sets his plan into place in Exodus 1:11

Exodus 1:11 ESV

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

Taskmasters were set by the Egyptian government to make sure the planned enslavement of Israel was carried out. The taskmaster made every aspect of life burdensome and oppressive. Almost every heiroglyph of a taskmaster has them with either a staff or a whip in their hands, a picture of the physical pain of the forced labor. But these government-appointed men could also levy taxes and force Israel to pay them. This one action, this one verse, is like a gut punch. In one decision, by one king, Israel is relegated to slavery and misery. Their forced labor resulted in the construction of two store-cities that would have been used primarily for storage of excess grain and other food goods.

And in a horrible twist of fate, the descendants of the one who devised a plan to save all Egypt by storing extra grain are now forced into servitude by the ones who were rescued.

Moses doesn’t want us to miss the hand of God at work here. This slavery is not in spite of God’s plan; it’s part of it! God’s blessing to Israel became a source of earthly suffering. This sounds so foreign to American ears that we almost don’t have categories for it.

We prayed this week for the persecuted church in Indonesia. In Indonesia, a muslim who converts to Christianity, especially in rural areas like the Aceh province, will be disowned by his own parents, shunned by the community, and rejected by everyone he knows except the church. To take the name of Christ is to take a life of suffering and run the risk of death at the hands of radical Islamic groups who practice Shariah Law.

God’s blessing to these people was eternal life. His blessing was community. His blessing was His Word, and a place to gather and pray. What did they receive from the world for these blessings? And this happens all over the world.

Listen friends: only in countries like ours does it not compute for us that receiving the blessing of God will result in earthly difficulty. This is one of the many reasons that studying the Scriptures matters so much.

And this isn’t just an Old Testament concept! I mean, remember John 16:33?

John 16:33 ESV

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.”

this is why those first 7 verses are so important! They connect us to a reality that all this is happening exactly according to plan!

But similarly to how persecuting Christ’s church doesn’t lead to its extinction, so Pharoah’s plan to oppress Israel, and so suppress its growth, backfires on Pharoah. look at Exodus 1:12

Exodus 1:12 ESV

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.

Even in the midst of cruel slavery, mistreatment, and hardship, God’s promises carried on. God’s blessing abounded.

We hear instances of God at work in His church even now, don’t we? (Persecuted church)

So, Egypt’s response? Exodus 1:13-14

Exodus 1:13–14 ESV

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.

in your Bibles, if you are the marking type, you may want to underline the words “slaves,” “service,” and “work.” All these are the same word. In English, we prefer to have a variety of words to make the paragraph more interesting, but that really loses the impact that is desired here. It’s as though you could have written:

“So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel slave as slaves and made their lives bitter with slavery, in mortar and brick, and all kinds of slavery in the field. In all their slavery they ruthlessly made them slave as slaves.”

From morning till night, total oppression. Every day, seven days a week, slavery and service. Beatings, sometimes to the death, were common. No money, no rest, no relief. Just day after day of slave labor in mortar and brick, which we will talk about the atrocity of brick making in a later chapter, but that was horrendously cruel; and in the field, slaving for the profit of Pharoah and Egypt. Moses writes this passage this way to help us feel the horrid redundancy of the oppression of Israel. We are supposed to feel how awful this would have been. And why? Why was Israel here in the first place? Well, remember those first 7 verses. This takes place inside, not outside, the providence of God.

But does that mean that God took delight in Israel’s suffering? Maybe a passage that’s a little in front of Exodus 1 can help us here. Let’s look at Lamentations 3:32-33

Lamentations 3:32–33 ESV

but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

This passage was precisely the passage that Joni Earickson Tada said finally helped her understand God’s sovereignty in suffering. In God’s providence, the path of pain is part of the Christian life. But through it all, God is compassionate towards His people. We will see His tenderness.

This is precisely how we can say no pain is wasted. God has a plan for your pain. Suffering and loss are no more a sign that God hasn’t blessed you, anymore than slavery was a sign that God had forgotten His people.

But as bad as this is, we will go from bad to worse here in just a moment. We have seen that God is sovereign. We have seen that this is true even in this circumstance. So, how do we respond?

3. We must trust God.

Pharoah’s plan isn’t working, so he will naturally do what any enemy of God would do: he ramps it up. Exodus 1:15-16

Exodus 1:15–16 ESV

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “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.”

But first, let’s not overlook the genocide that is being ordered here. Pharoah uses the word “son,” not the word “boy” or “male.” Imagine for a moment, parents of sons, that you have just had your first child. This is before there was any way to know whether it was a boy or a girl, so you are waiting for the declaration. You know this law; you know that if its a girl, the best she can hope for is a life of slavery, and to be married to an Egyptian so that one day the nation of Israel is lost forever. This is truly awful. But it’s far worse if it’s a boy. If it’s a boy, the cry of your firstborn son is to be quieted by ruthless genocide, as the hands of those who were to be the bearers of new life bring death. I tend to think that the death of the sons probably resulted also in the death of many fathers, because I can’t imagine a man I know being able to simply allow anyone to do this without putting up a fight. But to fight meant death.

But now, we get some insight into why we know the names of Shiphrah and Puah. In the midst of this horror, are two women who fear the Lord more than they fear men. Exodus 1:17-21

Exodus 1:17–21 ESV

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 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.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

They feared God! In the midst of such suffering, they still feared God. In the face of Pharoah’s great earthly power and threats, they feared God.

Now, do you hear their reasoning? They say they can’t even get there before babies are born! You know what; I think they were telling the truth here. The text gives us no reason to believe they were not being truthful, and we are like two chapters from seeing a river turn to blood, a whole sea part in two, water coming out of a rock, and food coming from heaven like dew. I believe every one of those things literally happened, along with believing that more than one person in history has literally been raised from the dead, so it’s really not a stretch for me to believe that the God who holds the universe in His hand could accelerate childbirth in order to honor these two women’s fear of Him. Listen, God absolutely can, and absolutely will, change things for His people who fear Him.

And as a result, God blessed them with the very thing they were commanded by pharoah to destroy: children. These two women who feared the Lord, and refused to go along with the ruler of Egypt, and so spared the families of others, were given families of their own.

And so finally, seeing that this plan also doesn’t work, Pharoah takes his cruelty to another new level: Exodus 1:22

Exodus 1:22 ESV

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.”

Now, this is pretty key here. The sphere of hardship has expanded from Pharoah and the government oppressing and persecuting God’s people, to the whole nation itself being complicit in this work. At this point right here, all Egypt becomes complicit in hurting God’s people. This will matter greatly in just a few chapters.

Can you imagine this? To have made it through the suffering of slavery, only to be afraid of losing your son at childbirth. Then, by some miracle you manage to have a little boy, and one day he cries a little too loud, or he crawls out the tent at the wrong time, or you just forget, because the strain of constantly living in hiding results in the eventual mistake being made, and they find out you have a little boy. And your neighbor, or the people in the market, or the random person walking down the street, has the full weight of the authority of the government to drown you child into the Nile River, and all you can do is helplessly watch as they drown.

The Nile: when we get to the plagues we will talk a great deal about how important the Nile was to Egypt, but suffice it to say Egypt saw the Nile as a source of life for all its people. And now, the source of life for Egypt would become a place of death for the people of God.

The opposition to God’s plan is now complete. We say often that we have three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The unholy trinity of opposition, that is now complete in this chapter as God’s people face such opposition.

The world: the Nile itself seemed against Israel, and the nation of Egypt certainly was.

The flesh: the people of Egypt were against Israel.

The devil: Just as the Evil one sets himself up against God’s rule, so Pharoah has set himself up against God’s blessing.

The chapter ends right there. With Israel parents fearing for the lives of their sons, with oppressive slavery and misery. We are a long way from Genesis 46. And that’s what we are supposed to feel. And yet, in this, the hidden hand of God is at work, we see this even more next week, but this week we see that there are still those who fear God, and that helps us know what to do with this passage in our own lives.

What is Exodus 1 telling me to do?

Trust the Lord!

Why did all the awful in this chapter happen? The only sufficient reason we can give is that this is all precisely according to the providence of God?

But why? Why would God do such a thing? There is, ultimately a faith that must be at work here, that whatever God has set for His people to endure, there is purpose behind it. Understanding anything beyond that is above our pay grades. As I heard Joni once say “welcome to the world of a finite creature seeking to understand an infinite, sovereign God.”

But we know at least a little more here. We know how this story comes out. We know what God will do to vindicate His people, who are being persecuted for experiencing the blessing of God. There is another story, even more substantial, that speaks to this truth. It is the story of the very Son of God, who left the splendors of heaven to walk among His own people, who did not receive Him. Instead, They persecuted and then hung Him on a cross to die. But God vindicated His own son by raising Him on the third day.

The greatest evil that was ever performed was turned into the greatest good that the world ever experienced, as Jesus defeated death, hell and the grave for us. And so, in hardship, in suffering, even in loss and persecution, trust Him. In failing health, trust Him. In job loss, trust Him. In depression, and anxiety, and hurt, trust Him. Oh friends, if you will only trust Him.

I have spent my week just wishing I could tell the Israelites “just hold on for a little bit longer. Things are going to change.” But I can’t, but we can remind each other: just hold on a little while longer. One day, things will change. We have been freed from our slavery, and one day we will be raised from death, and we will have new life, new bodies, no pain, no death and no suffering, Trust Him, and hold on just a little while longer, friend. Things are going to change.

God knew we are a people who easily forget, and easily lose sight, so He set for us visual pictures of His faithfulness, and of our hope. One of these is the Lord’s Table. As we observe communion today, would you take the time as the elements are handed out, and just ask the Lord, very simply, to help you trust Him more?

LS instructions

Titus 3:3–7 ESV

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.