“The Israelites Face Affliction & Oppression”

1.) INTRO: Last Week Recap:

“Forgiveness and God’s Good Purposes”

A. Forgiveness will CHARACTERIZE a CHRISTIAN

B. The events we do not UNDERSTAND are still a part of GOD’S greater PLAN

2.) Starting a new series in the Book of Exodus and we will e examining Exodus 1:8-22 (ESV)…

When we dive into this text, we are going to attempt to answer two questions:

What is God teaching us through this text?

How do we apply God’s teaching to our lives?

3.) Passage: Exodus 1:8-22 (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. 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[a] you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

4.) CONTEXT;

If we were to look at the verses prior to verse 8, we would see that the Israelite people were fruitful, meaning they had multiplied and grew exceedingly strong and that the land was filled with them…

The Israelite people made their way to Egypt because of the famine that was described during the day of Joseph, and at that time, Egypt was the place that had stored up enough food to prepare for the famine…

All of this leads us to Exodus 1:8-22 and to the first point that the God is trying to teach us in this text:

5.) POINT #1) We can SEE God’s PROMISE to Abraham being FULFILLED

The last two weeks we have been in the book of Genesis where saw in Genesis 12 & 15 God calling Abraham and promising him that he would make his name great and multiple his descendants …

Here in Exodus 1 we see that the Israelite people grew exceedingly strong and that land was filled with them… In other words, God has kept and been faithful to the promise he made to Abraham, multiplying his descendants just as he had promised…

I mention this because we can truly rely upon the Word of God and what it says, we can trust the Lord and he is honest, faithful, and dependable and the only thing we can truly depend upon…

I want to shift your focus to the Word of God as the only thing that you can depend upon and rely on…

The world will you tell you that the Bible is an old book that has no relevance to today and that it can not be applied to our lives… the world will tell you that the Bible is out-dated…

In fact the world will tell you to not pay attention to what God has accomplished and his Word and what it says, the world will tell you to live a life that is brings you happiness and pleasure… the world will tell you that you are fine, you’re okay, you don’t actually need God, your not that bad, you do not need to depend upon every word of God… you don’t need to pay attention to the promises he made in an old book… The world wants you to love it, yourself, and what you want more than the Word of God and the salvation found in Jesus Christ…

The Bible warns us about loving the world in 1 John 2:15-17 ESV

“15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[a]—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

I personally experienced how the Word of God and his promises are the only thing that I can truly count on in this world… …

STORY ABOUT BROOKE AND I BREAKING UP… …

What I am trying to say is, that sometimes we over look, dual down, and completely miss the significance of a promise being fulfilled by the living God- seeing his active hand throughout history… … because we are so consumed with ourselves, our own life, and all that fleeting things of this world… …

C.) We are at an advantage!

We have direct access to multiple copies of the Bible… We can order the Bible in multiple versions, styles, and fonts… we can even customize a Bible to have our name on it… and yet there are times when we disregard it or never pick it up and read it…

I am so thankful that I have 66 Books that I look at and run to for the difficult questions and hard situations that come about in my life and in the life of others… I am so thankful that I have a resource like no other that I can run to, confide in, and pull truth from…

I am so thankful that the Bible speaks to my spirit and cuts at my heart to reveal the areas that the Lord is trying to shape, mold, and remove from my life…

And I am so thankful that I can read my Bible and see accounts like Exodus 1:8-22 and see Gods hand at work over and over again… because this gives a confidence and a faith to know that he can do it again!

Stop taking your Bible for granted… Read it… become familiar with it… know it … and treasure it more than anything else in the world…

Proverbs 2:1-12 (ESV)

The Value of Wisdom

2 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; 10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, 12 delivering you from the way of evil,

TREASURE = “To regard as highly valued”

See this same word “Treasure” in Job 23:12 (ESV)

“From the commandments of his lips, indeed I have not departed; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily food”.

QUESTION: Do you treasure the Word of God? Do you hide it deep within your heart? Do you seek after it more than food? Do you seek after wisdom and understanding that can only come from Gods Word? Or do you disregard and not pay attention to and value to treasure the Bible?

6.) POINT #2: You will face OPRESSION and AFFLICTION from this world

Here are the highlights from out text:

Israelites have become mighty and have grown in numbers

Pharaoh sets task masters over the Israelite people to “Afflict” them “AFFLICT” = “to come down on or keep down by unjust use of one’s authority”

Pharaoh makes a decree where every male boy and child from the Israelites are to be killed

Reason = he wants to cut off the Israelites from continuing to produce more offspring and children…

The Egyptian midwives (caretakers who helped in the birth process) feared God and did not do as Pharaoh commanded…

As a result… He throws every male Israelite child into the Nile…

Make no mistake… The Israelites are Gods Chosen people… They are the selected and chosen people of the Lord…

But I want to be very clear, just because they are God’s Chosen people does not mean that they will not face affliction and oppression from this world… My point is that believing in God, placing your faith in God and in Jesus Christ does not grant you an easy, care free, smooth sailing life…

When affliction and oppression come from our enemies we can cling to and hold onto Jesus Christ… Christians are not defined by the ability to avoid affliction and oppression… rather, Christians are defined by their ability to withstand, grow, and glorify God in and through the afflictions and oppression they face…

PSALM 119:50 (ESV) says,

“This is my comfort in my affliction (in my misery), that your promise gives me life”

In other words, David is saying, in the midst of my most difficult affliction (misery), my only comfort and encouragement is found in the Word of God and the promises of the Lord!

I know it may be difficult to connect to the Israelite people experiencing oppression and affliction from Pharaoh… I know it may be difficult to connect to the Israelite people having their newborn male babies thrown into the Nile… I know you may not experience that kind of affliction and oppression… but know, that difficult times will happen and come in your life…

You will face times of difficulty, you will face times and seasons when life is so hard and you do not understand why God is allowing it to happen to you… and you it will be easy for you to think to yourself… man if God loved me he would not allow all this to happen to me… but that is not true… God never promises that the storms of affliction will never come, rather he promises to there with us and get us through those storms…

You know… sometimes God allows affliction and oppression in our lives to shake and rattle us to the point where our focus shifts from the things of this world… to a gaze that is fixed on God…

Today is not a message of… If you believe in God life is always sunshine and rainbows… rather, if you believe in God you will face affliction and oppression… you will face difficult times and seasons… and the question is not why is this happening to me… the question is how are you going to respond when the those times of difficulty occur in your life?…

Questions:

Do you trust in the Word of God? Do you Believe In it enough to where You where You trust and believe in what it says?

We learned and saw that the word Treasure means = “to regard as highly valued”

Do you value Your Bible and the word of God more than anything else in your life? If yes why? If no, why not?

3. Do you take the Word of God for granted? In other words, do you truly appreciate the word of God in your life?

4. If you treasure the word of God, you will read it, get to know to it, and cling to it. What are some reasons why you do not read your Bible often? If you do read your Bible often, why?

5. We could see that the Israelite people experienced affliction and oppression from Pharaoh… If you were the Israelite people, how do you think you would have responded? Why?

6. God never promised that we would not experience difficult trials, hardships, and affliction in our lives. Rather, God promised that he would sustain us and help us get through the difficult times. What are your thoughts on this?

7. The word afflict means = “to come down on or keep down by unjust use of one’s authority”

Have you ever seen this happen in your life or in the world?