God is at Work in the Dark

Intro

[Thank worship team]

Good morning Bethel Church, and good morning to our network of rural churches that are joining us live on YouTube. And if you are new here, I want to extend a special welcome to you. If you would, there are “Connect” cards in the seat in front of you. If you would fill that out there or at the Welcome Center outside of the sanctuary. We even have a free gift for you if you are new to Bethel. We would love to get in touch with you and discuss how to get connected to our church family.

Announcements:

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Today we will begin our study of the book of Exodus called, “Forward, Trusting God in the Unknown.” If you are reading out of the Bibles in front of you, our passage can be found on page 45. If you do not have a Bible, please stop by the Welcome Center and take one. It is our gift to you.

TRANS: Pray

Opening Hook

All we must do is trust God.

Why does that seem so hard?

The statement is simple. “All we must do is trust God.” You’ve probably memorized it already.

trust God as I…

- experience loss

weigh my options

Have questions, maybe doubt

Am in the waiting room, checking to see if the doctor is coming around the corner with the news

Move to a new place

Stay in the same old place

All I must do is trust God… but why does that seem so difficult?

I wish God would just tell us. “Here’s my plan!” But he doesn’t. In fact, at times it feels like the opposite. It feels like I am the one knocking and he is the one not answering. I am the one praying and he is silent.

Do you know what I mean? TRANS TO SLIDE

We Wonder…

Why does God, at times, seem hidden?

This is what the Israelites were asking. This is what we ask. How can we trust God into the unknown when the question we are really asking is, “God, where are you?! Before we talk about where you are taking me, can you tell me if you are out there?”

TRANS: But like how clouds block sunlight, hidden doesn’t mean absent. Today, we will jump right into what will feel like the middle of the story: the part where God’s people felt abandoned, yet God’s plan was unfolding.

Exodus 1:7–14 ESV

7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. 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.

God’s Unfolding Plan

The Pharaoh forgets Joseph, and God’s people suffer.

Exodus 1:7-22

Genesis ends with protection, Exodus begins with suffering.

There is a several hundred year gap between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus. The Lord was faithful to the family of Jacob and Joseph as they moved to Egypt to escape the famine. Joseph was high in the court of Egypt, and through his leadership, saved many lives from starvation. There was favor and blessing among Joseph and his family. And the people of Israel multiplied.

But as human nature goes, subsequent leaders forgot.

They forgot Joseph’s contributions

They forgot Joseph’s wisdom

They forgot the promises to Joseph’s decedents

Rather than protecting the people of Israel, the Pharaoh became intimidated by them, so he enslaved them. We see the Israelites are groaning over this reality:

D. Jeffery Mooney makes this observation about how Israel’s slavery likely morphed over time:

The fact that they groaned because of their slavery after the death of the Pharaoh that enslaved them seems to indicate that their slavery was now officially institutionalized. Where their enslavement was perhaps initially an attempt to curb their growth, reduce the possibility for a coup, and make impossible any attempt at escape, their slavery now goes beyond one king with a need for building programs.1

1 D. Jeffrey Mooney, “Israel in Slavery and Slavery in Israel,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology Volume 12 12, no. 3 (2008): 70.

With institutionalized slavery of the Israelites, the Pharaoh used them for his building projects. It is unlikely that the Israelites made Pyramids, however, the text indicates they were to create store cities: Pithom and Raamses. They were not building “houses,” they were building entire cities. This required impossible work-loads and terrible conditions:

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Exodus, Book Of

Surviving records from the time of this pharaoh describe how a quota of 2000 bricks was assigned to each of a gang of forty men and how that target was rarely reached (Kitchen 1976).

Other records show that brick walls around such store cities reached as high as 60 feet.

You can see why Exodus 1:13 says

Exodus 1:13 ESV

13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves

Ruthlessly is right.

But it gets worse.

Remember the original purpose of population control. That was still the case, but in a way you might not expect.

Exodus 1:15–22 ESV

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 you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Because the Pharaoh feared the Israelites would rise against the government from sheer number, there was a state-sponsored effort to kill Israelite baby boys.

One pastor said it like this:

Exodus Interpretive Insights

The evilness of Pharaoh’s plan is evident in the fact that he looks to convert into agents of death those normally associated with bringing new life.

But what is this about the birthstool? There’s actually more than meets the eye. Many believe that this refers to an ancient contraption that women in labor would lay upon. But there is another meaning that has to do with Egyptian religion.

“Birth Stool” can also be translated “potter’s wheel.” Potter’s wheel is likely a more literal translation. (cf. Jeremiah 18:3)

There is an article in the Journal of Biblical Literature by Scott Morschauser who makes an obersvation that unlocks the key to this text:

Journal of Biblical Literature, Volume 122 Potters’ Wheels and Pregnancies: A Note on Exodus 1:16 (Scott Morschauser)

the “potter’s wheel” is regularly linked to pregnancy in ancient Egyptian religious literature and art.

He goes on:

Journal of Biblical Literature, Volume 122 Potters’ Wheels and Pregnancies: A Note on Exodus 1:16 (Scott Morschauser)

In mythopoetic texts, Khnum would mold and shape each human being at conception “upon his wheel,”9 with the potential child being granted the physical and psychological traits that would define it as an individual—obviously including characteristics of gender.10 During this time of fashioning, the developing infant was said to be “upon the potter’s wheel” (ḥr nḥp),11 from which it would hopefully be delivered hale and healthy.12 What is significant, is that the metaphor refers to a gestating fetus prior to parturition.

Did you catch that? The potter’s wheel is a reference to unborn children. Therefore, the midwives were to do prenatal examinations. Further, Morschauser says,

Journal of Biblical Literature, Volume 122 Potters’ Wheels and Pregnancies: A Note on Exodus 1:16 (Scott Morschauser)

Medical texts contain prognostic recipes for determining the sex of an unborn child, as well as prescriptions for ending a pregnancy through draughts and potions.14

In other words, the Pharaoh was instructing midwives to perform state-sponsored, forced abortions on Israelite boys.

Now the story makes perfect sense. This is why the Midwives, who feared God, got there too late! “These Israelite women are so fast, we didn’t get there in time.” Late only makes sense if this was a prenatal examination and then abortion of boys.

Then look at what the Pharaoh does — He escalates the situation.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

“Every son that is born to the

Every son that is “BORN.” Meaning, “I don’t care if they are in the womb or born, kill all of the Israelite boys.”

Let us sit a moment in the gravity of this situation. The Israelites were in darkness. Decades passed, generations came and went, suffering escalated.

Do you think they lamented, “God, where are you? Why won’t you help us??”

TRANS: Darkness surrounded the Israelites as suffering increased, as oppression crushed, but God was at work in the dark… for he had a plan… a plan to raise up one who would lead His people out of slavery.

Exodus 2:1–10 ESV

1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Moses is born, and God protects him.

Exodus 2:1-10

Even under such oppression, God brought forth a son to this couple. The mother saw that, “he was a fine child,” or more literally, that this child was “a favored baby.” Perhaps this was an instinct only mothers can understand, but she knew that God had blessed Moses to do great things. Perhaps all the more reason to ensure his safety.

Whereas we read this story and think, how strange that he was put in a basket made of bulrushes, put in the reeds by the river, etc. But one who was familiar with Egyptian stories would have understood, “wait, this is the origin story of a hero.”

This is not to say that the story of Moses was fabricated or mythicized in some way. Quite the opposite! Let me illustrate:

Imagine if one day you get together with an old friend from High School, but something has clearly changed: They are incredibly fit, and seem to have a strange ability to be alert to danger right before they happen. You ask them, “hey, uhh… what changed? You weren’t like this in High School.” And they say, “yeah it was so weird, I was at this lab and one of the experimental spiders got out of its case, and it bit me. Ever since then my strength has increased 10 times over and I can sense danger before it happens.”

Now what story are we all thinking of? Yes, SpiderMan. But in this situation, you would be thinking “wait… so it really happened??” And that’s what an Israelite would be thinking. “Wait, so the story of an abandoned child to the Nile, put in a very specific kind of basket and rescued by the daughter of Pharaoh…. REALLY HAPPENED? But that’s the birth of a Hero!” Exactly the point. God, at times, uses well known ideas of the time to communicate what He is doing.

We see a hero is born, and the Lord protects him.

As the daughter of Pharaoh comes to bathe at the river, she sees the helpless, crying baby boy and takes pity. That in itself was a miracle. She knew the decree of her father! This was a God-given change of heart. At risk to herself, she took him in, made arrangements for him to be nursed by his own mother! Again, God was overseeing this and made the seemingly impossible happen.

When he had grown, she adopted him into the royal house and named him Moses, which closely resembles the Hebrew verb “to draw out.” His name literally depicts the moment she drew him out of the Nile, believed to be Egypt’s life-giving source.

TRANS: Moses was born, and God protected him. He was raised in the house of Pharaoh, but he did not stay there forever… for God was about to move him.

Exodus 2:11–15 ESV

11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

And jump down to verse 23:

Exodus 2:23–25 ESV

23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Moses flees, and God hears His people.

Exodus 2:11-15, 23-25

In a moment, Moses stepped into an unjust situation and paid the consequences. Moses’ people didn’t understand, in fact, they rejected Moses’ act. They feared him rather than seeing him as their hero. “who made you a prince and a judge over us?” Or the Richard Eng paraphrase, “what gives you the right?”

Word reached the Pharaoh, and Moses fled for his safety.

Well, so much for that! God’s hero of Israel just ran away.

Perhaps Moses thought his act would be seen as justice by his people

Perhaps Moses thought this one moment would spark a rebellion

Perhaps Moses thought news would spread and he would be made the leader

But this was Moses’ plan, not God’s. God had a specific way he would break His people out of bondage, and Moses wasn’t ready for that yet. So God led Moses into Median where he wuld be a shepherd, get married, and make a life there.

We will get into what happens with Moses next week, but I’ve wondered if as the years went by if Moses forgot… or at least tried to forget. What could he do? He’s got a new family now in another country, and he’s just a shepherd.

But God did not forget. Read verse 24 again: “And God heard their groaning, and God” *what*? “Remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel - and God knew.”

TRANS: God heard, God remembered, God saw, God knew. Had the suffering ended? Had the plan unfolded? Was the darkness lifting? Not yet. God heard, God remembered, God saw, God knew. Here’s what I want you to remember

Application

God has not forgotten about you.

Someone in this room needs to hear this. He has not forgotten about you.

What you emphasize colors everything else.

What makes the question “why does it seem like God is hidden? Where is He?” so painful is we color the rest of our experience through that lens.

If I start with the belief, “God has abandoned me.” It does not matter how much counter evidence there is, I will be unable to see it.

Our hearts are like icebergs. Our actions and emotions are just the tip of the iceberg. But they stem from thoughts and beliefs that lie deep beneath the surface. We may be even largely unaware of those thoughts and beliefs until we take the time to examine them.

When our belief system (our heart) starts with something untrue, the truth seems *difficult* to believe. Imagine someone who believes their spouse has abandoned them, and the advice they receive is “just trust him/her.” That would seem counter to everything they know.

The same is true of God. If your belief is, “God has abandoned me,” being told to trust him feels impossible.

Hear me today: you must challenge your false beliefs. God has not abandoned you, rather, he hears, he remembers, he sees, and he knows. He is working all things together for your good. And “all things” is bigger than this moment in this broken world. In the end, we will all say, “now I can see what you were doing.”

TRANS: He hears, he remembers, he sees, and he knows. But that doesn’t mean life will be free from suffering. The world is broken, it is not fully redeemed yet. Therefore…

God’s plan may include hard times before it gets better.

ow long until you sort out my circumstances? How long much I live in my pain? When will it get better?

Why does God seem to ignore our prayer?

Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith 7. What about Unanswered Prayer?

This is because God keeps hidden his own wise plans for the future, and even though people pray, many events will not come about until the time that God has decreed.

God’s plan for rescue happens in his timing, not ours.

While Israel was suffering, God was raising up a leader to get them out. Who knows what God is doing right now in our world. But even larger than the issues and injustices of the day, is the Lord’s plan brought about a Savior (Himself) to deliver us from slavery in sin to freedom in Christ.

Where is God? He’s continuing His plan of redemption, in His timing, until he finishes the job.

Trust Him today.

TRANSITION TO COMMUNION

Acts 7:23–30 – Stephen’s reflection on Moses’ preparation.

We practice “open communion”

Invite ushers forward.

Invite congregation to reflect on who God is an how much He has done for us.

Reflect on how Stephen recalls the story of Moses, and then he calls out the audience for being just as stiff-necked as the Israelites.

Acts 7:51 ESV

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

Stephen recalls the story of Moses and the prophets to make this point: People resist God, no matter what God does. God gives leaders, the law, prophets, kings, etc. It doesn’t matter. Humanity’s natural state is to be prideful, or as Stephen calls it “stiff-necked.”

We must continually take communion, because we must be reminded that we are stubborn and prideful. Communion is the act of remembering our sinful and hopeless state apart from Christ, yet he shed his own blood and had his body broken for us.

Do not be stiff-necked. Receive the bread and the cup with humility, and be led by the one who has been appointed as judge over all: Jesus Christ.

For this we take communion. To remember the Christ came to us even in our prideful, stiff-necked state, and to again humble ourselves before Him.

SING

Jesus said starting in Matthew 26:26

Matthew 26:26–28 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Pray

Talk About It/Think About It

Why do you think God allowed His people to experience oppression after a season of favor?

Where do you see God’s providence in the details of Moses’ birth and rescue?

What do you make of Moses trying to take matters into his own hands?

What does it mean that “God heard… remembered… saw… and knew” (2:24–25)?

Have you been tempted to believe God has forgotten you? Why?

How might God be forming you in a season that feels unclear or painful?