Saved for a Purpose

Context

This Summer’s preaching series: the journey of faith. Based on the semi-continuous lectionary readings from the Old Testament books of Genesis - Judges.

Last week we concluded the portion of the journey recorded in the book of Genesis, which focused on the story of Joseph.

Joseph, who had been sold into slavery was exalted to the highest position of authority in Egypt, and in that position he saved Egypt, the surrounding regions, and his own family, from starvation in a famine. He moved his family from Canaan to live with him in Egypt. Over the generations, God’s blessing was upon the Israelites and they became a numerous people.

This morning, we continue the story in the book of Exodus.

Approximately 400 years have passed.

Text

Exodus 1:8–2:10 “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 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.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.” Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.””

Prayer for Illumination

Introduction

Our theme today is “Saved for Purpose.”

Exegesis: Moses was saved for a purpose — to save Israel.

An unjust time.

A new pharoah has taken the throne. Surveys his kingdom. A threat. A numerous people. If they side with our enemies, we would be overwhelmed.

Enslaves them. Bitterly. Ruthless.

But the more oppressed the more numerous they became.

A murderous plan.

Hebrew midwives to destroy all the male children.

Next: Pharoah commanded “all his people.” Anyone, anywhere in the realm, authorized to kill a new born baby boy.

Massacre.

In setting of terror, we zoom in on one particular birth.

In the tribe of Levi, a man and a woman marry. They have a son.

Jochebed, the mother, sees that the infant was a “fine” baby = Good.

Something more than just maternal love. Special.

When she can hide him no longer. She conceives a plan to save the infant…not abandon, but save.

Makes him a basket and places him in the river.

Knowing that the princess of Egypt, moved up and down that portion of the Nile at a certain time of day.

She conceived the hope that the princess would save him.

perhaps trusted to her maternal instinct.

perhaps that the princess was in some a god-fearer

perhaps that the princess was known to have an independent or even rebellious streak that would enable her to disobey the king’s edict.

Perhaps all these reasons and led by God, Jochebed puts the infant upon the waters. Trusting that the humble little basket would protect him from the snakes, the hippopotamuses, and alligators.

Jochebed stations his sister, Miriam, to keep watch to see what would happen.

What unfolded could not have been a greater answer to prayer.

The princess did find the basket. When she opened it, she knew it was a Hebrew baby.

She had immediate affection for him.

Seizing the moment, Miriam came forward — shall I get you a nurse?

the princess must have immediately seen through the ploy…the chances of a nurse offer right then and there?

She knew it was a desperate plan.

She knew the law of her king, to kill it. But she disobeyed.

Instead of destroying the child, she had him nursed by his own mother.

Then she adopted him as her own. Named him Moses. For I drew him out of the water.

Little did she know how prophetic that name would become.

Later Moses would grow up to rescue his people slavery. He would lead them to freedom through the waters of the Red Sea.

He was drawn from the water and saved. He will draw his people through the water and they would be saved.

Moses was saved for a purpose. He was saved to be God’s agent of salvation. He would save the Israelites.

Interpretation: Jesus was saved for a purpose — to save the church.

When we turn to the New Testament, we see that the story of Moses is preparing us for the story of Jesus Christ, the Greater Moses.

Like Moses, Jesus was born into a hostile and scary world.

Under the sentence of death.

A virgin called Mary, gave birth Jesus, who because he was the Son of God, was “fine.” He was holy.

Herod the king learning of the special birth, became afraid and obsessed. He tried to destroy the child.

But the child was saved because the wise men who cam to adore the child refused to report to Herod where the child was. They feared God.

So, King Herod, like the Pharoah of old ordered the massacre of all the baby boys! And there was much wailing and weeping.

As the prophet Jeremiah wrote: “the mothers are weeping for their children, and they will not be for they are no more!”

Mary and Joseph were guided by God to enact a saving plan. Jesus was hidden in humility and was laid in a “basket”: the manger, surrounded by donkeys, cows, and other animals.

They named him Jesus, a prophetic name, which means Savior.

He would grow up to save his people from their sins.

He saved them by dying on the cross. He was placed in the tomb and on the third day raised from the dead by God, the father.

Jesus referred to this death, burial, and then resurrection as a baptism.

He said “I have a baptism to undergo, and I am eager to accomplish it.”

His death was like being placed in the water, and his resurrection was like being raised up out of the water. Like Moses before him.

Jesus was saved for a purpose. Jesus was saved to be the agent of God’s salvation for the whole world.

Application: we are saved for a purpose — to share in God’s mission to save the world.

Moses was saved to save Israel. Jesus was saved to save the whole world.

Not just a principle for people in the Bible. But for us in the modern world, too.

Corrie Ten Boom, of the WWII era.

Saved from a Death Camp: Corrie and her family hid Jewish people in their home during the Nazi regime. They were caught and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Due to a clerical error, Corrie was miraculously released just days before all women her age in the camp were executed.

Becoming a Spiritual Savior: Realizing God saved her life for a purpose, she spent the rest of her life traveling the world to preach forgiveness. She famously chose to forgive her former Nazi prison guards, — at a speech a prison guard she recognized offered his hand, and only the grace of God was she able to raise her own hand — releasing countless people from the spiritual prison of bitterness.

Or consider: Harriet Tubman: Escaped the brutal bonds of slavery herself, only to return to the American South 19 times. She became the "Moses of her people," guiding over 300 enslaved individuals to freedom via the Underground Railroad.

These two women were both saved for a purpose.

We are saved for a purpose too.

Our purpose may not make the history books of humanity, but they will make the books of heaven.

Psalm 139: All my days have been recorded in your book before even one of them has been.

Each and everyone of us has been born, at this time, at this place, in this situation for a god-given purpose.

The word of God to us is: For such a time as this you have been raised up: And if you do not act, salvation will come from another source, and you will have missed your chance!

Let us first know and affirm: we are here and now — for a purpose. Your life and situation is not an accident or unfortunate or impossible, but the setting in which God’s will in your life for your life will unfold.

And God saves us for a three fold purpose:

First. To be loved. In God’s eyes, each and every one of us is “good” and “fine” and special.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

How other people treat you, does not define who you are. God does.

Corrie Ten Boom was not defined by Nazism, Harriet Tubman not by race, Moses, not by Egypt, Jesus not by Herod. All were called by God, and so are you.

Second. To grow up nurtured in love. In the church, we are raised as one of God’s very own children.

Behold what manner of love!!

Calvin, no one can have God as Father, without the church as mother.

Let us be in church all the time! Here is where we hear our call.

The words, I have drawn you out of the water. Out of baptism and into service.

Third. To share in the salvation plan.

Our life is not just about survival or self-enjoyment, but about serving God…and sharing in his plan to save the world.

We comfort others with the comfort we have recieved from God.

Visible witness to the love and life of God.

Makes the gospel credible

Our lives invite people to believe and share in it too.

We are saved for a purpose. To save others.

Moment: who are you saving right now?

Conclusion

Moses was saved for a purpose. Jesus was saved for a purpose. We are saved for a purpose.