God Who Has Brought Us, Pt. 3

Exodus 1: 6-13 (NIV)

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So, they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so, the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly.

Introduction

Genesis ends (50:26) with the death of Joseph at the age of 110. After Israel, Abraham’s seed, grows into a people the size of a nation, it experiences extreme oppression under new Pharaoh leadership, which has forgotten Joseph.

This morning as I continue this preaching series of God who brought us out. I realize the importance to examine how we got the God’s people got in to slavery. Cause one to ponder our current state of our nation of how we got into this predicament? Reflecting on our own lives we must as ourselves how did I get here to find our way out. How did the Israelites go from favor to disgrace, from a protected people with government connections at the highest level, to a group of slaves laboring under severe oppression? According to the text, it was because of their growth. This made the new king, who did not know about Joseph fearful of being overpowered by the Israelites. We must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country. So he put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly. All because they grew. However, rapid growth is a glorious blessing of God, in faithful fulfillment of his creation decrees in Gen. 8: 17 to be fruitful and multiply on the earth. The common but incorrect notion that the creation story is to be found only in the first chapters of Genesis misses the fact that the biblical picture of creation is one of ongoing creation, starting with Adam and Eve, continuing with human society in general, continuing further with Noah and the patriarchs, then with the nation Israel and many of its institutions (even Jerusalem; cf. Exod 15:17; Isa 65:18), and culminating in the new creation (Isa 65:17) in which all who truly place faith in Christ are recreated. 2 Cor. 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Eph. 2: 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for goods works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. So, how then could growing get them in so much trouble? The short answer is that in a fallen world, the blessings of God are often so in conflict with the corrupt values of this world’s culture that they function as a threat to those who are not aligned with God’s will. The Hebrew literally reads, “As for the Israelites, they grew, they were fruitful, they swarmed, they increased, they got powerful more and more, and the land was filled with them.” The point is : (1) that Israel’s amazing population growth was the result of God’s original design and ongoing care and (2) that the Israelites were living, in small colonies, in sufficient numbers as to dominate the population of one part of Egypt at the time of the persecution. Their population growth was taking place in a land where the Israelites were resident aliens, and the hostility of the Egyptians. Unfortunately, a common human sin in a fallen world is hostility to foreigners-the immigrants.

Conclusion: The oppression policy backfired. Instead of a reduced Israelite population, the Egyptians saw an Israelite population growth parallel to the intensity of the persecution. The population of the Israelites did not decline, the Egyptians stepped up the oppression, assuming that it needed to be more severe in order to work effectively. But the results were the opposite. Over the generations the greater the oppression, the greater the growth. The only explanation to this is the God of Israel as savior was turning the Egyptians’ oppression policy against them. Moses this was not just a historical recording. But, he had witnessed it all firsthand. The severity of the workload was, of course, integral to the population control plan. If people are going to die under a workload, it has to be hard enough to kill people, making weak and sick those who were previously strong and terminating the lives of those who were already weak and/or sick. Israel was involuntarily having to “serve/work for/live for/be under the control of” Pharaoh. What Israel needed was not independence from Pharaoh and Egypt per se but a shift of dependency, a switching of masters from Pharaoh and the Egyptians to the true and living God. They needed to get out from under an oppressive leader and be under a beneficent one, no longer “serving” Pharaoh but “serving” God. Moses was called by the Lord to stand for justice for God’s people, the Israelites. God commissioned Moses forty years later after he had killed and hunted by the pharaoh for his crime, Moses flees to Midian. There he begins a new life and his own family. Nevertheless, God is not finished with Moses and needed him to use what was in his hands to deliver Israel from Egypt. God is at work in every generation and through every generation. We can celebrate and rejoice in the fact that God worked through people before us, but we can also celebrate and rejoice in the fact that God is working through us now. We are not just objects to be acted upon or observers, but we are active participants in what God is doing in the earth. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. and work according to his purposes. God is working through us. God is showing his love to us every time you see His amazing grace. God is showing his gospel to us every time you hear the word of God proclaim the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. God is revealing his justice every time you see someone stand up against unjust policies and turn unjust policy against the government. God is at work through us. There’s a final point, that God not only worked in people before us, but God is working through us when we are no more. God will work after us by the sends we plant in others. God is never without a witness and every generation. When the enemy come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. God always has somebody. God always has a ram in the bush. God always has a prophetic voice; God always has an example of his love, his mercy, his grace to declare God has always stood by my side. God is always God. He is not only an on time. When it is unpredicted but expected time. God he is always. God is the One who never dies. God who works always is, the question for us is the question that Bishop Tutu raise in a sermon at Duke University “will we join God in God‘s work?” The enemy did try to undermine God‘s work, and he thought that by killing Jesus, it would undermine God‘s work, His divine plan. Friday, they killed Jesus, but the enemy did not recognize that Jesus was a seed and unlike Joseph who died and he was no more. When Jesus died he never stop working. He went to the corridor of hell and preached a three-day the revival, and then got up on early Sunday morning, and His seed, the Holy Spirit lives in us now he walks with us and He talks with and He tells us that we are His own. His spirit guides us. He is at work in us and through us, which is why the scripture say now because Jesus died and got up, he has all power in his hand and because of him greater words can we do. Greater, but Jesus was alive. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He has all power, all knowledge, and is present everywhere at the same time. God at work in every generation. Jesus is in his work can be everywhere, every country, every valley, every mountain, every hill, every road, every place, at the same time, there is no place where God does not hear the cries of His people or see their oppression. The more the enemy press you, the more God’s grace will increase, the you pushed, the more praise I will give God, the more you weakened, God is strong. He is alive and working in you. The disciples they would have to sacrifice and suffer. Jesus appointed 12 , then 70, 120 in the upper room. They grew. And after the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit they became 3000 and continued in the doctrine and daily adding to the church - not every Sunday - every week but daily. Which is why it is anti-God when we don’t want to see people grow into their purpose or accomplished their dreams fulfilling the plans God has for their life. When you see people that want to hold back immigrants who just want to be free; that is anti-God. When you see people that want to keep people from their healthcare, keep them from having living wages, that is anti-God. God is always working through every generation to grow, multiple and expand. when you see people who would rather that a church just be there for themselves and do not work to bring other people into the body of Christ, that’s anti-God. Because God said to go into all of the world and make disciples. Go into the hedges and the highways. Even when we see a president sending peoples jobs just to destroy the department of education and destroy civil service. That is not of God. when one generation dies the other grow and grow and the more they are oppressed the more they grow and becomes more. Here is the evidence, Jesus came down through forty-two generations. And He brought us through the Enslavement of Africans 1619–1863, the abolitionist movement in 1850, through Jim Crow, the Dred Scott Decision 1857, Sit-In Movement, Freedom Rides 1961, Freedom summer, the 'Mississippi Burning, Rise of Black Power 1960-69, Central High School Integrated, Civil Rights movement 1938-59, Bloody Sunday, Million Man March, Black Lives Matter Movement, George Floyd Protests. The more African American were oppressed by systemic racism---the more we grew in power. The Lord deliver Moses, and the children of Israel surely, he will deliver us, We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair. If you serve God, God can grow you beyond the brokenness. You can be born with a struggling thought of your disability, but if you stay with God, God can grow you beyond what that disability. God is constant at work constantly work through every generation. No matter what the situation may be, the One who died, he has risen, and He is alive. God is still at work. When one prophet die, God will raise up another one (Isaiah, Jeremiah). Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation’; but Jesus lives, and therefore His people ‘grow and multiply,’ and His servants’ work is blessed.

Closing: Andre Crouch “Through it All”

I've had many tears and sorrows I've had questions for tomorrow There's been times I didn't know right from wrong But in every situation God gave me blessed consulation That my trials come to only make me strong I've been to a lot of places And I've seen millions of faces But there were times that I felt so all alone But in my lonely hours Yes, those precious lonely hours Jesus let me know that I was his own That's the reason I say that Through it all Through it all I've learned to trust in Jesus I've learned to trust in God.