Faithfulness in Dark Seasons

Key Elements

In Exodus 1:1-22, the Bible records for us the enslavement of the people of Israel in Egypt, as a result of their multiplication and prosperity and the Egyptian pharaoh’s paranoia and this resulted in him ordering the death of all newborn Israelite boys. Yet in the midst of the season of darkness God was working to rescue His people.

Main Idea: In dark seasons of life, God is faithful and calls us to remain faithful, trusting that He is actively at work to rescue His people and fulfill His redemptive purposes.

I want my audience to remember that no matter how dark life may seem that God is faithful and present.

Intro

Have you ever noticed how quickly we can adjust to the dark? You’re in a room and all of a sudden the lights go out and at first what happens is we feel completely blind. We become disoriented, because that’s what the darkness does to us at first. We automatically freeze. We begin to feel around and maybe even shuffle our feet. We start reaching out for things that might seem familiar to us to kind of get our bearings. But after a minute or two, our eyes adjust. We begin to think that the situation isn’t so bad and that’s usually when we smash our toe into the foot of the bed or the coffee table we forgot was there. And here’s the reason that happens, because getting used to the darkness doesn’t necessarily mean the dark is safe-it just means we’ve stopped noticing how dangerous it actually is. We’ve actually let our guard down. Because we’ve gotten comfortable with the darkness.

Today, we begin a new sermon series entitled Exodus: Out of Darkness. And over the coming weeks, as we walk through this incredible book of the Bible, we are going to witness the most spectacular display of God’s power in the OT. Now, when we think about the Book of Exodus, many things come to mind. If you are my age or older, you remember the movie The Ten Commandments coming on television every year. Our family would sit down and gather around our television and watch Charlton Heston as Moses bring the Bible to life. Now, if you’re younger than me, you might think about the Disney movie The Prince of Egypt. There’s also the movie Exodus: God’s and Kings, which is like the Gladiator version of Exodus. I’m not endorsing any of these movies, but over the years there have been many attempts to bring to life what happened in the Book of Exodus. And we usually like to skip to the good parts: the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of Pharaoh’s army, the smoke and fire on Mt. Sinai as God gives Moses the Ten Commandments. All of these events are incredible displays of God’s power as He works to orchestrate the rescue of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.

But before we get to all of that, to really get the full effect of the Book of Exodus, we have to start at the very beginning. You see, the Book of Exodus actually begins in darkness. But it’s an unassuming darkness. And to really understand the context of what’s happening here and how the people of Israel have gotten to this place, we have to go back and connect what’s happening in Exodus 1 with the end of the Book of Genesis. The Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, really leads us right into the Book of Exodus. In fact, we could call Exodus the sequel to the Book of Genesis. Exodus is how God fulfills His promise to the central human character of Genesis which is Abraham. Genesis tells the story of how God made a covenant promise to Abraham to bless him and make him a great nation. He and his wife, Sarah, struggled for a while as they were older and never able to have children. And God worked a miracle and blessed them with a son in their old age. Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah and eventually he marries as well and God gives him two sons, Jacob and Esau. Then Jacob (Israel) marries and is blessed with twelve sons-who are the twelve tribes of Israel. And each of Jacob’s twelve sons marry and have families of their own and by the time the Book of Genesis ends, the promise God made to Abraham is on its way to being fulfilled because the people of Israel are now becoming great in number. In the midst of all of this, in the Book of Genesis, Jacob’s sons sold one of their brothers, Joseph, into slavery and he ends up in Egypt serving in pharaoh’s palace. Genesis also records for us that a famine strikes the land of Canaan and Jacob’s family ends up in Egypt to acquire food only to find that their brother Joseph, that they had sold into slavery, is now a high ranking official in Egypt. And through a very interesting series of events that you can read about in Genesis, Joseph is able to save his family from starvation and move them to Egypt where they eventually settle. So, by the time we get to Exodus 1, the people of Israel have been settled in the land of Egypt for a few hundred years.

So, I want us to pause for a moment and get a big picture view of the Book of Exodus. If we divide Exodus into two parts, what we see is that the first part of the book focuses on the events of Israel’s departure from Egypt: the historical setting, Moses’ birth and leadership, miraculous signs from God and God’s judgement on Egypt, and Israel’s journey out of Egypt. The second part of the book covers the events that happen after the people of Israel have left Egypt: the Ten Commandments and the Law, instructions for entering the Promised Land, the confirmation of God’s covenant, building the Tabernacle, and then how Israel violates their covenant with God and His restoration of them. The Book of Exodus also contains five great themes: first, God keeps His promises-God promised that Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation and they would enter the promised land-that all comes to fruition and is set up in Exodus; second, through Abraham’s descendents all the earth would be blessed; third, God shows Himself powerful for Israel but also so that the world would see and know Him; fourth, there’s the theme of a mediator that is standing between God and His people, this is seen in Moses; and fifth, there’s the theme of the presence of God within and among His people. And these five themes found in the Book of Exodus are seen over and over all throughout the Bible and are seen in our lives as well as followers of Jesus: Think about it, God keeps His promises to us; the grace of God extends beyond Abraham and the people of Israel to all those who place their faith and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord; God has sent a mediator who was the final mediator between us and God and it is Jesus who has settled our sin debt and provided salvation; and now, if we have surrendered our hearts and lives to Him as Savior and Lord, we have become the place where the presence of God dwells.

You see, what we will come to see is that Exodus is more than the story of the people of Israel, Exodus is the story of the Gospel of salvation and rescue that we all find in Jesus. It’s God coming to His people in their darkness and rescuing them and leading them out of that darkness. If you are a follower of Jesus, then Exodus is your story as well.

Message

So, with all of that in mind today, open your copy of God’s Word with me to Exodus 1 as we begin our journey this morning. And what we notice right from the very beginning is that Exodus doesn’t open with miracles, Exodus opens in darkness. Like we said earlier, the people of Israel have been in Egypt for 300 plus years and have grown accustomed to darkness. They’ve gotten comfortable in the darkness. What started out for them as a place of refuge has now become enslavement. What began as a place where provision was found has now become a place where power is abused. And in this opening chapter we see Israel in a dark season, a place that they’ve become accustomed to being. But here’s what we see today, that even in this dark season in the history of the people of Israel, God was faithful. Even though His power and presence seemed absent, God was at work. Even when His presence felt distant, God was orchestrating the rescue and salvation of His people.

Today, you may be in a dark season. For whatever reason, you’re walking through a dark season in life right now. But here’s the good news we see from Exodus 1 today, that in dark seasons of life, God is faithful and calls us to remain faithful, trusting that He is actively at work to rescue His people and fulfill His redemptive purposes.

In our text today in Exodus 1, we see three truths to hold onto in the midst of the dark seasons in life.

1. God is faithful when circumstances say otherwise. (vs. 1-8)

Now, we talk a lot about circumstances that we face in life. As I’m preparing messages for us, the circumstances we face seem to come up often. And I think that’s because we have a tendency to focus on our circumstances. We have a really hard time looking beyond and getting past what is happening right in front of us. And what we have to realize is that if we are constantly looking at what is right in front of us and not beyond that to God, we will get stuck in what those circumstances are speaking to us.

Exodus 1 opens up with a genealogy. Look at vs. 1-5...

Now, not very exciting. We look at that list and we might think “not very important.” And we’re tempted to skip right past it. But what’s happening here is important. Moses opens the first chapter of the Book of Exodus by pointing us to the past. These names aren’t just to fill space or to provide us practice on how to pronounce some really difficult names. They’re pointing us to something greater. They’re actually a significant sign that the original readers of the Book of Exodus would have immediately recognized. These names are pointing us to the faithfulness of God. They are here to remind the original readers and us of a profound theological truth: God is faithful when the circumstances we can see say otherwise. When everything around us looks dark, God hasn’t left.

Moses wants us to remember where this story started-with a promise that God had made to generations earlier. God had promised Abraham that He would make his descendants into a great nation and even in the midst of the darkness of Egypt, the people of Israel were seeing the fulfillment of that promise come to pass. They were seeing the faithfulness of God and the promises of God fulfilled in the midst of circumstances that said otherwise.

You see,...

a. God’s promises ground us when life is uncertain. (vs. 1-5)

So, here’s the underlying problem for the Israelites in Egypt-they had gotten comfortable in their situation. Originally, Joseph’s family-Jacob his father and his eleven brothers had come to Egypt seeking refuge from the famine in Canaan. Vs. 5 says that when they arrived in Egypt, there were seventy total in the family. They had settled in an area called Goshen which is in the northern part of Egypt in a very fertile area called the Nile Delta. They were comfortable. They had what they needed. Joseph was in power and had secured a place for them to live. And before long, that temporariness begins to turn into something more permanent. After a while, the Israelites had grown comfortable in the land of Egypt and probably had the thought of never leaving. Some commentaries even suggest that the Israelites might have even begun to gravitate towards some of the pagan practices of the Egyptians, all the while, slowly losing their identity as God’s people. And God had called them to be separate. God had called them His chosen people, a people He would use for His glory.

You see, beginning Exodus with a genealogy and a list of names connects the Israelites back to God and His covenant with them. In Genesis 12:2–3, we see three promises God had made: Abraham’s descendants would be a great nation, they would have a land of their own, they would be a blessing to all nations. God renewed that promise to Isaac in Genesis 26 and later again to Jacob in Genesis 28; 35. And the listing of these names takes God’s people back to God’s covenant. These are the very ones God was fulfilling His promise through. God wanted His people to be reminded of His promise to them and to remember that Egypt was not their home.

One pastor says it like this, “From the very beginning of the Book of Exodus, God’s purpose for rescuing His people is not just to get His people out of Egypt but to get Egypt out of His people.” (JD Greear)

And with the uncertain times that God was about to allow in the lives of His people in Egypt, He wants to remind them of who they are and the promises that He has made to them and that those promises will be fulfilled.

And this morning, listen, the same God who kept His promise with the people of Israel is the same God who keeps His promises to us. No matter what your facing today, God’s promises to us are to work all things for His glory and for our good, that He will never leave us or forsake us, that His grace is sufficient for us, and that He will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. So, no matter what your circumstances are saying, God’s promises are greater and they ground us when life is uncertain.

And...

b. God’s purposes advance when life is changing. (vs. 6-8)

Look at what’s happening here-things begin to change. Remember, God does not want His people to stay in Egypt forever, He does not want them to remain comfortable in this dark season, so what does He do, He allows it to get a little darker. You see, God wasn’t going to force them out of Egypt, He needed them to get to the point where they weren’t comfortable there anymore. And so, things change.

Look at vs. 6-8...

First, Joseph, all his brothers, and all of that generation dies. The situation changes from the top down. The security that the Israelites had because of Joseph’s position of authority is removed. Second, it says that a new king or pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, came to power. So, not only is their protection removed but a new pharaoh is allowed by God to take his place. What once was a very comfortable situation for the Israelites is about to get very uncomfortable. But even in the midst of this changing situation, God is working and His purposes are advancing and He is still sovereign over the situation.

Let’s pause here for a moment and think about that. Does that situation sound familiar? Life changes so fast. I mean it is really shocking how fast life can change for us. What happens is we find ourselves going through life with things going fairly smoothly and well for us and we have a tendency to get comfortable in thinking things are going to stay the same. Thinking that the plans we have for ourselves and our families are going to be what happens. But then we realize that God has a different plan and different purposes for us. That we are His and He wants what’s best for us and so He allows things to change in our lives and the lives of our family members so that we will get just uncomfortable enough to not want to be where we are anymore. And even though it may be difficult and a little painful, in all of the changes of life God’s purposes for us and His plans for us are moving forward.

And that’s what we see happening here. What does it say in vs. 7...

In the midst of these drastic changes, God is still working and moving for His glory and the good of His people. God was multiplying His people for the purpose of keeping His covenant promise. Life is full of changes. The job we have gets eliminated, the relationship we thought would last forever ends, our health gets threatened by a diagnosis. Change can be disorienting for us. But here’s what we see: God’s purposes advance when life is changing and God uses the changing situations in our lives to prepare us for what He knows is coming next.

You see, what the Israelites couldn’t see is that God was using all of these changes in the midst of this dark season to faithfully prepare them for an exodus, a deliverance, that would define their identity as God’s people forever.

Remember, God is faithful even when circumstances say otherwise.

Second, we hold onto the truth that...

2. God is powerful when circumstances seem overwhelming. (vs. 9-16)

Most of us have had that moment when life feels overwhelming. It’s not just one thing—it’s everything. The car breaks down the same week the bills come due. The doctor’s call comes when you’re already stretched thin. Work pressure increases, family needs grow, and suddenly it feels like you’re carrying more than you can handle. You don’t panic because of one thing—you panic because of everything beginning to pile up in your life.

And as we continue in our text today, that’s exactly what we see happening in our text in Exodus 1. Look at vs. 9-10...

This new pharaoh steps into power and he is characterized as one who had no knowledge of Joseph. He doesn’t look at the Israelites as a people to be taken care of, he looks at them as a threat to his kingdom. And his fears are two-fold: He thinks they are so great that they could align with Egypt’s enemies and overtake them or that they would be so powerful that they would escape the land. And if either one of these things happened, it would be disastrous for Egypt. So, to protect his kingdom, pharaoh and the armies of Egypt take drastic measures to ensure these things will not happen. And what we begin to see is that the dark season the Israelites are in, grows even darker. But what these next verses show us is that in the midst of the darkness, God’s power shines brightest. That in the midst of overwhelming circumstances God’s power is greater.

You see,...

a. God’s power sustains when hardship intensifies. (vs. 9-12)

The nation of Israel is growing, God is allowing them to increase which contributes to pharaoh’s paranoia even more. And so, he begins to put measures in place to try and control this growing population of people. And vs. 11 reveals to us what he does....

You’ve got forced labor, slavery, this is oppression at its worst. Pharaoh is going to do whatever he can to crush the spirits of the Israelite people. He used them for construction projects and for agricultural projects to basically expand and grow the wealth of Egypt, all the while keeping them under his oppressive hand.

But notice vs. 12...

The more pharaoh oppressed the Israelite people, the more they grow. The more he increases hardship on the people, the more God sustains them with His power. The more pharaoh tightens his grip, the more God strengthens His people. And what we come to see is that oppression from pharaoh on the Israelites doesn’t weaken them, no, it reveals God’s power at work among them.

And the same is true for those of us who are followers of Jesus. Because if you have surrendered your heart and life to Jesus as Savior and Lord, His Holy Spirit is working inside of you with the same sustaining power. When hardship intensifies in our lives, God’s power sustains us. In fact, sometimes God’s power is most evident when He doesn’t remove the hardship we are facing but when He sustains us through it.

God’s power sustains when hardship intensifies and...

b. God’s plan remains unstoppable when opposition increases. (vs. 13-16)

Plan A doesn’t work. No matter what pharaoh tries to do, it’s not stopping the Israelite population from growing. So, in an attempt to put a permanent stop to the expanding of this population of people, pharaoh orders Plan B. Look at vs. 15-16...

Pharaoh says, “if slavery and forced labor doesn’t work, we’ll go to the source” and he orders the midwives to murder all male children after birth. If he can’t stop their multiplication by oppression, he’ll stop it through killing all the baby boys. It’s a plan straight from the pit of hell. But even in the midst of this evil act, we still see the faithfulness of God to His people. Even with such a horrible order being given from the most powerful person in the world at the time, God’s power is greater.

Here’s something pharaoh didn’t understand-God’s plans cannot be stopped by human opposition. And it does not matter how intense the opposition gets, God’s plan still remains unstoppable. Even in the face of such a horrible thing as the murder of these baby boys, God will not be stopped. And what’s interesting about all of this is that unbeknownst to pharaoh, everything he is doing is serving to set the stage for God to deliver His people from the darkness of Egypt.

And what peace and rest that should bring to us as followers of Jesus. That it does not matter how intense the opposition gets in our lives, God is greater and more powerful than any of it and His plans are unstoppable. In fact, the more intense the opposition gets, the greater the opportunity for God to display His power in our lives.

Remember, God is powerful when circumstances seem overwhelming, and...

3. God is present when circumstances speak to His absence. (vs. 17-22)

Now, the natural question for us to ask at this point is “Where is God in all of this?” Which is a question I’m sure, like me, you have asked when walking through dark seasons in your own life. And that, I think, is a fair and legitimate question. Because, again, circumstances will tell us that God is absent, that He is not there, that He has forsaken us. But when we look beyond our circumstances and we look to God, we see that He is right there in the midst of the darkness with us. You see, there are two things that Exodus makes very clear: that God never stops caring for His people, nor does He abandon His plan for them; and that through the hardship and dark seasons of life, He demonstrates His power to deepen the faith of His people and to proclaim a testimony for all to see.

So, we see how God is faithful in dark seasons, but there is an aspect of faithfulness we are called to as well. If you notice, up to this point, the name of God is not mentioned in the chapter. But it’s evident that God is working. It’s evident that He is setting the stage for rescue. God is very much present and in vs. 17, He comes to the forefront through the lives and actions of two faithful women. It says...

Vs. 17 is a major turning point. The order has been given by the ruler of Egypt, but these faithful women feared God more than pharaoh. In their eyes, he was not the supreme power, God was. God had been faithful to His people in the midst of this dark season and now the faithfulness of these two comes to the forefront.

And this is the ultimate example of faith over fear.

Pastor Paul David Tripp says this, “It’s only fear that can conquer fear. It’s only a greater fear of God that can diminish any other fear we would have in our lives.”

And it’s not fear as in “we’re afraid.” It’s awe and reverence that make us run to Him, rest in Him, and obey Him even in the midst of a dark season that might be saying He’s nowhere to be found. And that’s what God’s presence does for us,...

a. God’s presence empowers us when fear is at it’s greatest. (vs. 17-21)

So, think about the faith and the courage of these two women. Pharaoh, the most powerful man on the planet at the time, gives them a direct order and they do the exact opposite. They are putting their lives at risk and they are putting those midwives who serve under them at risk as well. There had to be the temptation to give into fear. But God was with them and He gave them the power to be faithful and to save countless lives. And their awe of God and their faith is what changed everything for the people of Israel.

And pharaoh confronts them and they give him this reason that protected them and the babies they were ordered to kill. And because of their faithfulness and their obedience, God blessed them, and protected them, and gave them families of their own, which midwives typically didn’t have.

And the same is true in our lives as well. If you’re a follower of Jesus and He is your Savior and Lord, His presence in your life empowers you to be faithful to Him no matter how dark life may seem. And some of you can testify to that today. Some of you have walked through dark seasons and God has been present with you in the midst of that and your faithfulness to Him has been a testimony to the greatness of God.

God’s presence empowers us when fear is at it’s greatest and...

b. God’s presence leads us when the path forward is unclear. (vs. 22)

Through the faithfulness of these two women God sets the stage for one of the single greatest events in the history of the nation of Israel: the Exodus from Egypt. The rescue and salvation of God’s people. And even though vs. 22 leaves us in a pretty dark place, deliverance is coming.

You see, because these tow faithful women defied the order of pharaoh and let the Hebrew boys live, one particular baby boy survives who will change everything. His name is Moses. We meet him in chapter 2. And he lives because of the faithfulness of these two women. Did they have any idea about the impact of their faith and obedience? No. And even though the path forward was unclear, their obedience set the stage for God to deliver His people thus fulfilling His promise and His covenant to His people.

And this ultimately points us to a greater deliver the ultimate deliverer. His name is Jesus. Who would come and give Himself as a sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world. Rescuing all who put their faith and trust in Him as Savior and Lord from the bondage and slavery of sin.

You and I, in the midst of dark seasons of life, not knowing what the path forward looks like, are called to be faithful and obedient and as we do, God will lead us and guide us and use us for His glory.

Closing

Exodus begins in darkness—but not in defeat. Before God moves publicly, He works quietly. Before rescue arrives, faithfulness is required. And before freedom is seen, God is already present, powerful, and faithful. So if you are walking through a dark season today, hear this clearly:

God is faithful—even when circumstances say otherwise. God is powerful—even when life feels overwhelming. God is present—even when it feels like He is absent.

Even in the dark, God is at work—so we remain faithful.