The Birth of Moses

Circumstances Change

Israel in Egypt

Last Sunday we quickly came through the life and story of Joseph. The book of Genesis ends with Joseph’s reunion with his family after years of hurt, grand days in Egypt, and finally the death of Joseph.

When we move into Exodus, something has dramatically changed.

Remember… Joseph’s entire family has come there now. They were allowed to live in Goshen. This is what the Scripture says about those people:

Exodus 1:6–7 KJV 1900

6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. 7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

They were doing well! Multiplying! They were blessed, fruitful, and comfortable!

But comfort is not necessarily an indicator that we are living in covenant with God.

Just because you are enjoying blessings and living comfortably does not mean that you are right with Him!

Although they were comfortable… they were living outside the borders of their covenant land that God had promised. And they became so at ease in Egypt that they never noticed when their comfort turned into a crisis.

There is a scripture that tells how God’s people got into that crisis. It’s not a long scripture. It doesn’t go into great detail. It’s one of the most frightening and consequential scriptures in the entire Bible. And it just tells us one simple thing:

Exodus 1:8 KJV 1900

8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

Someone quit telling the story! The story of…

How Joseph carried himself.

How God would bless a people who were living in covenant with Him.

How they had been saved from starvation.

All of that fades. And here is a king who does not hold any of those values.

What does that king do?

Exodus 1:9 KJV 1900

9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

Exodus 1:10 KJV 1900

10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

Exodus 1:11 KJV 1900

11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Exodus 1:12 KJV 1900

12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

Exodus 1:13–14 KJV 1900

13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

And so, for these people, if there’s no God and no truth, there is only power. And the focus of me, myself, and I. What “I” want!

This last verse illustrates that perfectly, because they started having the people labor hard with morter and with brick. Building these structures. Sounds a lot like a place we covered a while back: Babel!

Enslaved in Egypt

And so the Egyptian response to the threat of these people growing so large was slavery. They, for many years, became the means by which Egypt got anything done.

And although they had been enslaved for a long time now, they had not yet cried out to God. It seemed that God’s covenant people had decided to be content to just bow beneath the taskmasters’ whips.

So Pharaoh began to escalate things. Because they were multiplying and bearing so many children, and because the Egyptians were so afraid that they could take over, Pharaoh decreed the unthinkable. It was a horror beyond measure. He demanded the death of all the Hebrew newborn boys.

And do you know what’s WILD?!

Even in the middle of the widespread grief after that, the writer of Exodus did not record that the children of Israel cried out to their God for help.

And the question becomes: “How long are you going to be content to live with the whip of the enemy on your life? How long are you going to go on pretending like life is okay, when it is very much NOT OKAY?”

Here’s the beauty of what God has done for us today: I can stand up and declare, “I DON’T HAVE TO LIVE THIS WAY. I DON’T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS. I’VE AVOIDED IT LONG ENOUGH, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TRY TO DO IT HALFWAY - I’M GIVING MY WHOLE LIFE TO GOD!”

And you begin to cry out to Him - and deliverance comes!

That is not what they did… initially.

The Desperate Cry

Strangely, 31 verses in our Bible come and go without one verse detailing one cry to God!

Why is it, do you think, that it sometimes takes us longer than it should to cry out to God???

Generations pass… before we finally come to the cry that God had been waiting on since Israel first set up camp in Egypt:

Exodus 2:23 KJV 1900

23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

Israel had had enough! They cried out to God! And look at what happened:

Exodus 2:24–25 KJV 1900

24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

He was about to deliver them and set them free.

I will cry out to the Lord when I need deliverance

There’s an old song that has a line in it:

“If you’ve tried everything and everything has failed, try Jesus.”

I don’t know if the author didn’t know Jesus as he or she was trying “everything” to satisfy their soul… but I want you to know that we don’t have to try everything before we try Him!

We don’t have to wait so long like Israel!

Don’t allow 31 verses or 40 years to come and go! Don’t even allow 40 MINUTES!

You’ve got to get sick and tired of being sick and tired! Lose your pride! And cry out to Jesus today! Can I make you a promise???

He’s going to HEAR.

He’s going to REMEMBER.

He’s going to LOOK.

And He’s going to HAVE RESPECT toward you!!!

He’s going to answer… because we are in a covenant with Him, and He always keeps His promises.

The Birth and Life of Moses

Moses’ Childhood

In the middle of Pharaoh’s evil plan being carried out to kill all these male children, there are two Israelites - Amram and Jochebed - who find themselves expecting their third child.

Someone might have coldly asked them, “What does it matter if this child lives? You already have two other children, and one is a son.”

But the Bible is pretty clear that there was something special about this baby boy. An account in Acts says it this way:

Acts 7:20 NLT

20 “At that time Moses was born—a beautiful child in God’s eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months.

The mother knows he is special. She hatches this plan to save him.

She forms this basket out of reeds and she waterproofs it. And she laid her son in the basket. Then she gently laid the basket along the reeds of the Nile River.

And Jochebed sends her daughter Miriam to make sure nothing happens to this three-month-old baby boy.

Miriam is watching her brother float down the river. And she notices a group of ladies who had come down to the river. One of those ladies was a princess in Egypt, one of Pharaoh’s daughters.

Miriam is just standing by, listening as they pick up the basket. One of the ladies say, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” And at that point, Miriam ran out and asked them, “Would you like me to find a Hebrew nurse for this baby?”

And surprisingly, Pharaoh’s daughter said, “Yes.”

Miriam runs home, tells her mother the story, and Pharaoh’s family paid Jochebed to nurse her own son while under their protection!

The one that Pharaoh was so fearful would lead a revolt against him… was placed under his protection and would soon be living in his own house!!!

Can I just suggest today: ONLY GOD COULD ORCHESTRATE SUCH A REVERSAL!!!

And He wants to shock you and the world alike with the reversal He wants to do in your life!

But here’s the deal… when someone cries out to help… and they repent… and they give their life to Him… He had to hold to covenant, and He has to begin causing things to shift in unheard of ways!!!

He was raising up a deliverer.

Exile in the Desert

Now Moses spent the formative years of his life raised as Egyptian royalty. He lived in the palace. He ate at Pharaoh’s table. He learned the language, the customs, and the beliefs of Egyptian culture.

But all those influences were unable to destroy his true identity as an Israelite. There were lessons that his mother had planted in him.

And this knowledge led to an inner struggle in Moses. It showed finally when Moses ended up killing an Egyptian who was hurting an Israelite.

When Moses realized that Israelites and Egyptians both knew what he had done, he ran for his life into the desert. Once a prince… now running in the desert as a fugitive.

He gets married, raises a family, and works as a shepherd. A occupation that the Egyptians considered an abomination.

Instead of a mighty deliverer we’re trying to see, we’re looking at a disillusioned, deserted man who’s on the run.

But not for long.

Covenant Name and Calling

The Burning Bush

On a day that seemed like any other, Mose was shepherding his father-in-law’s sheep when he suddenly saw an absolute miracle: a burning bush that was not burning up.

Then the miracle got bigger: God called Moses by name from the bush and called him to lead His covenant people out of Egyptian bondage and into the covenant land He had provided for them.

And this frightened him!

The call of God frightened him.

He was a wanted man in Egypt. He couldn’t return there. And he certainly couldn’t demand Pharaoh let God’s people go.

Moses would have done well to hide from Pharaoh. why would he seek Pharaoh out?

And what about his: the people of Israel were not going to be loyal to him because he was raised as an Egyptian, not a Hebrew.

This whole thing was all wrong!

And if it was to be all right, Moses needed some assurances. He needed to know God’s name so he could share God’s name with the children of Israel.

And God revealed His covenant name as I AM.

Exodus 3:14 KJV 1900

14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

If it was God’s signature on the deal Moses was needing, God gladly signed!

When He declared, “I AM THAT I AM,” God proclaimed that He would be everything the Israelites needed and everything the Egyptian gods were not.

It is His covenant name. I AM the One! I AM who I say I AM!

The Shepherd

Maybe now the last 40 years were beginning to make sense…

Moses had lived and worked as a shepherd, leading sheep from one pasture to another. That could not have been what his mother had in mind when she told him how special he was.

Or could it?

God had been raising up a man who could lead His people out of Egypt and back to Canaan much like a shepherd leads sheep.

There’s just no doubt that Moses would apply some of the same principles he had learned to this new flock of more than a million Israelites.

We know that Moses felt completely inadequate for all of this. But God was not going to accept his excuses because Moses was not going in his own power… he was going in the power of I AM!

Through faith in God, I will respond to God’s call to live in covenant

Let me tell you that we are not all that different from Moses. All of us are called by God to live in covenant with Him.

Not only that… we are called by God to lead people closer to Him and what He has for them!

And each of us could present our own personal armload of excuses to God, but He already knows what our excuses are because He already knows us! He’s just waiting on our response to His invitation to live and serve in covenant with Him!

When we say yes, we will become the conduit for the I AM to reveal who He is to our world.

Just like the Israelites, we will walk in a new freedom and protection as we respond to His holy invitation to live in covenant relationship with Him.

Conclusion

Announcements

There is a lot going on!

Let me remind you that we need Move the Mission giving in as soon as you can.

Of course, tonight is Food Fair. 5 PM. There will be a place where you can give and donate toward Move the Mission.

No Prayer this Tuesday night

KAIROS

FallFest is next Sunday night

Trunk-r-Treat signup

Chili cook off signup

Food

Games

All Nations Sunday

It is ALL NATIONS SUNDAY!

Can I just say to you… GLORIADIOS!

We often would say, “Praise the Lord” around here. But gloriadios is simply, “Glory to God!”

There are 8.25 billion people alive in the world right now. And God made every last one of them to be different than the last!

You know, it was God who, at the tower of Babel spread everyone across the globe and gave the languages of the world!

But all of those differences do not stop the revival that is happening worldwide!

Philippines Baptism Video

Massive Revival in Venezuela Video (OPTIONAL)

There is something that unites us all in this world… it transcends all of our differences! It brings people together like nothing else! IT’S A HEAVENLY LANGUAGE!!!

I was talking to someone just this week and we were both acknowledging the fact that even the city of Rector (and Clay County) are more diverse than they have ever been! I think that’s pretty cool!

And you know what, it doesn’t matter whether you’re black, white, latino, asian… no matter where you’re from, what your family lineage or last name is… GOD WANTS TO FILL YOU WITH THE HOLY GHOST! HE WANTS YOU TO BE BAPTIZED IN JESUS NAME!

Once the blood of Jesus is applied - we ALL BECOME REDEEMED!

sophie