PROVIDENCE: HISTORY IS THE RECORD OF GOD'S UNYIELDING PURPOSES

PROVIDENCE: HISTORY IS THE RECORD OF GOD'S UNYIELDING PURPOSES Exodus 1 - 2 March 4,  2001 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory 'Ever feel like God is a very long distance away? Are you ever tempted to think that what He promised you will never come true? What about those times when everything you see and all you experience scream at you, "God has left on vacation!"? It's tough, isn't it, to keep on believing in God's goodness when things are tough. This morning, we're going to go back in history about 4,000 years and look in on a time when God must have seemed very distant to a group of expatriate slaves living in Goshen Egypt. These were the descendants of Abraham, that great man of faith, who had received some awesome promises from God for himself and his descendants. But now, those same children of promise found themselves in a most difficult place. All the way back at Genesis 12, when God first called Abraham out of his pagan homeland, and told him to strike out into the desert to a place He would show him, God gave Abraham four great promises. • He promised him that he would have so many descendants they would outnumber the stars in the heavens and the sands on the seashore. • He told Abraham He would bless the nation his people would become, and make their name great. • Thirdly, He promised them their own land-a promised land he later described as one flowing with milk and honey. • And finally, God said the people of Abraham would be a blessing to all the other nations of the earth. Through Joseph, one of Abraham's 12 great grandsons, God's covenant people ended up in Egypt, under the great Pharaoh, and with favored status. God had blessed them as He promised, and they were numerous. Exodus 1:6-7 - "Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, But the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly, and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them." Because of His covenant with the people of Israel, God had kept most of His promises by now. They'd become a great nation numbering between two and three million. God began that growth by miraculously providing Abraham and Sarah their only son of promise when they were 100 years old. He had made their name great-though not as great as they would be in a few years, and they were favored by their host nation, Egypt. But they did not yet have the land God promised them-a land of their own. The promised land God had shown Abraham was four hundred miles to the north and here were the people Israel settled in Egypt. It might have been easy for the people to forget the covenant God had made with them. After all, up until now, things had been pretty easy in Egypt, and did you notice the name of the land where they lived? Goshen-"the land of plenty." God had pretty well fulfilled three of the four covenant promises. "Hey, we're doin' OK!" But God had not forgotten. And he was about to set in motion a plan which would bring His people out of subject nation status, and ultimately to the promised land. But it wasn't going to be easy. Do you remember the last time you were in a time of relative ease? Everything was pretty much fine; you knew God had plans for your life, but for now it was more of a coast. You had all you felt you really needed, and you thought, "Hey, we're doin' OK!" But, deep inside you knew you were growing too comfortable with the life of small challenge, and you felt that comfortable but dangerous feeling of complacency coming over your life. You knew you were not being the disciple you wanted to be; there was no urgency in your living, no fire, no sense of faith adventure. What could shake you out of this state of near lethargy and back into the thrill of boundless growth and ministry? What would it take to get you another step closer to the fulfillment of all God promised to do in you and through you? Well, if you're like 999 out of every thousand believers, you probably did not have the self-discipline to shake yourself into revival. But God knew what it would take, didn't He? And you didn't like it, did you? God is relentless about getting His purposes done, and He is resolute about fulfilling His promises in your life, too. So He uses that most effective strategy of all, that enemy of inertia, that death-knell for indifference, the knock-out punch for self-satisfaction. He calls it "CHANGE". God is in charge of Change This development is introduced in verse 8: "Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt." You will recall from your Bible history notes that Joseph was the one who won favor with the Pharaoh of Egypt. But when this new Pharaoh came to power, probably Ramses I, he was not beholden to Israel at all. In fact, he was quite alarmed by the dramatic growth of these people from 70 to nearly three million in the past three and a half centuries! Ramses was about to introduce "change" into the Israelites' experience. And this would be a tumultuous experience for God's people-they had been quite content, thank you, for three and a half centuries! But change is inevitable, and we're never ready for it. It throws off the equilibrium of our lives; it shocks us out of our slumber; it's hard! Someone wisely commented that the only one who truly welcomes change is a baby with a wet diaper. Pharaoh may be the instrument He uses, but God is in charge of the change. He may not have authored the change, but He's in charge. Change - it can bring a lot of pain, especially when it seems like a change for the worse. Whether the loss of a loved one through death, or the death of a relationship through divorce. A sudden job change, a devastating diagnosis, a bad business report, and now your world has turned topsy-turvy. Your sense of comfort and security instantly gives way to fear. You feel all alone, helpless, out of control. He's in charge. The essence of the life of faith is not certainty, but trust. Life is always changing, though in many ways it remains the same. An old proverb says, "You never step into the same river twice." Life is like a river-it is always moving, changing adapting to the times and circumstances. But for the God-related person, there is never need for insecurity. Why? Because God is in charge and He never changes. His purposes are guaranteed, His character is reliable and His promises are faithful. Back to our story, the new Pharaoh is not at all happy about how the Israelite nation has grown. So he decides to put the squeeze on them and plots to have all the male children killed at birth, but the Hebrew midwives frustrate the plan And this king will not be their friend. Exodus 1:10-13 - "'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." Just about the time you think everything is pretty "just fine" in your life, there arises "a king who does not know about Joseph". My job this morning is to remind you as Christ-followers that God is in charge in times of change. Furthermore, God is in charge in times of conflict. God is in charge of Conflict Now Pharaoh was a nervous fool. He reacts to a perceived threat by going overboard with control. "We must deal shrewdly with them." Never mind justice or kindness. Please notice the contrast here. The ungodly react to what they perceive as threat by tightening "control" on people. The godly trust in the Lord and cope with change very well, because they know whose they are and where they're going. They know God is faithful, and in the face of change and conflict, He's in charge. The Israelites had no union steward to turn to, they had no recourse really. So, in a sense, they had to resign themselves to their new circumstances and simply trust the Lord. The long years of ease and tranquility had apparently come to an end. But, as the problems mounted for His people, God was birthing a plan to fulfill His promises to them. It got worse. Pharaoh saw that his plan to put down the Israelites through oppression didn't work. You see, when you oppress God's people, that is their finest hour. The sweet fruit of the grapes is only released when they are crushed. Under the awful oppression of the murderous, controlling Communist government, the church in China was forced underground. And there, in the worst of circumstances, the church grew by tens of millions. Only now, as a semblance of freedom has come are the real stories being told. Exodus 1:12: "But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites." Pharaoh resorted to more devilish tactics and tried to murder all the male Israelite children at birth. But God gave wisdom to the clever Hebrew midwives who outsmarted Pharaoh. Verse 20: "So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous." Frustrated, Pharaoh turned up the heat, demanding that every Hebrew boy that is born be thrown into the Nile River. The harder His enemies work at trying to extinguish God's plans, the more frustrated they get, and they end up doing the meanest and ugliest things they can (which makes them easier to recognize for us!). God is in charge when the conflict rages. He uses every device of the enemy to His own glory. Remember, Satan couldn't defeat Jesus in the desert with temptation nor in the Garden with fear, so he finally resorted to murder. And when the devil used all the wickedness that he could stir up in men and had Jesus crucified, he played right into God's plan. "Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer… and make his life a guilt offering…and the will of  the Lord will prosper." (Isaiah 53:10-11) The next time you run into devilish conflict, know this for certain: God is in charge. "No weapon forged against you can prevail." (Isaiah 54:17) The devil will always come against you if you are serving God, but he can never overtake you as long as you are trusting the Lord. He is in charge in times of conflict, and He will equip you to be victorious against the enemy. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." (2 Corinthians 10:4) Let me add another important teaching here. The conflicts we face are not all demonic and straight out of Satan's playbook. Most often we face conflict and trial simply because we live in a fallen world, and in a fallen world, things just don't always go the way you want them to go! Let me tell you-not every bounced check, backache and boo boo is from the devil. Granted, he is menacing and mean, but just because you've got a case of the flu, it doesn't mean that Satan saw you as a threat to his evil empire and quickly dispatched some demonic imp to give you a bug and slow you down. Don't' flatter yourself! And by the way, don't flatter the Devil either-when we give him so much credit he doesn't deserve it is a flattery to him and borders on worship. Do you ever say "God bless you!" when someone sneezes? That whole interesting practice started because someone convinced people to believe that the devil caused people to sneeze, knowing that, in the moment of the actual sneeze, the person was completely out of control and vulnerable. So he would quick send one of his demons into the person in that moment. Saying "God bless you!" was, then, allegedly the Christians quick response to cover the sneezer with a blessing, so the demon couldn't get in. We must be more discerning of the Word and less apt to follow empty traditions of folklore. The devil isn't in every sneeze. In fact many times when we face conflict and difficulty in our lives, it's our own fault. We simply bring consequences on ourselves when we make bad choices and decisions. A man once complained that the devil must really be mad at him because the engine in his car blew up. A wise Christian brother asked him if there weren't any early indications there was trouble with the engine. The man said, O yeah, the "check engine" light had been on for months, but he had been too busy serving the Lord to have it checked out. He then asked him when was the last time he changed the oil in the engine. His response: "I've never changed the oil-it's too much of a hassle." A cardinal rule of the faith ought to be: "Never give the devil credit for your own stupidity." "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." Wherever conflict and trouble come from-the world, the flesh or the devil-be sure of this: the Lord is in charge, and He uses those very things (including our idiotic mistakes) to work out His will on two levels: • He will get His grand purposes accomplished through them • He will fulfill His promises to you through them, and along the way • He will build perseverance, character and hope in you. (Romans 5:4) God is in charge of Change; He is in charge of Conflict, and God is in charge of Clogs We all know what a clog is, right? Our minds race to plumbing, and something that is preventing proper drainage. Did you know the word clog comes from the Middle English word CLOGGE which meant "an obstruction, and impedance." When there are obstructions and slow-downs in getting God's promises fulfilled, we often get nervous and impatient. Here's some good news for you: God doesn't. In chapter two of Exodus, we find the story of Moses. God brought him onto the scene as the Deliverer of the Israelites. But he didn't show up as a full-grown leader ready to stop this Egyptian oppression. He came as a little baby who had to grow up before he could help in the deliverance. Is there a problem here with God's sense of timing? Why couldn't he just send in a full-grown Moses on a white horse, defeat the Egyptian overlords and be done with it? My three word answer to that question is this: I don't know. But God knew. And He wanted the trust of His people. Not only would Israel have to wait 20-30 years until Moses grew up, raised in Pharaoh's court (a real clog, it would seem). But, when he finally did grow up, he didn't know anything about being a deliverer of his people. Plus he made the foolish blunder of killing an Egyptian, which sent him into exile in the desert. How would he ever get God's will done now? There in the desert he meets a beautiful woman, marries her and starts tending sheep. The man God raised as a deliverer clogs God's plan by spending 40 years in the desert with his Midianite family and a bunch of sheep! This is not getting the job done! These situations are clogs in the plan! But God is in charge. While God could have sent another leader to stop the oppression, He didn't; while He could have stopped Moses from beating the Egyptian to death, He didn't; while God could have encountered Moses and sent him back to Egypt any day of his sojourn in the Midian desert, He didn't. No, He waited 40 long years before he decided to speak to Moses from that burning bush. Why? Why so long? What we call a clog God calls a plan. What we call a thousand years God calls a day. God is in the clogs, the delays, the seemingly endless waiting for Him to fulfill His promises. And He will not be hurried by our impetuous insistence that He get it done NOW! Rather He calls us to trust Him. Trust Him to wait until that king of Egypt dies. Trust Him to build up the character of Moses. Trust Him to use Jethro to teach Moses how to lead sheep through the desert so he will be prepared to lead people when they leave Egypt. Trust Him to wait until He hears just the right pitch of desperation in the cries of His enslaved people, until their independent self-sufficiency is broken down and they are ready to trust Him. Have you ever had the pleasure of watching a butterfly emerging from it's chrysalis? One of Joni's Christmas gifts this year was a butterfly house. Per the instructions we mailed off for the larvae and put them into the special cup provided, and they dutifully made there way to the top, spun themselves into their silky little chrysalis' and several days later we watched the once-wormy creatures emerge as beautiful young butterflies. And it's a tough struggle for them, too, breaking out of that hard case. The butterfly will fight sometimes for hours to get free. But it would be a fatal mistake for some sympathetic human to reach in and help the butterfly by prying open the chrysalis. It's been done many times in research and, each time, the butterfly comes out weak and unable to fly, and it soon dies. But when left to fight its way out, without help, the butterfly is healthy and begins flying almost immediately. There is something about the long struggle that makes the insect healthy, and without the struggle, it is ill equipped to fly. When God is working out His perfectly timed plan in your life, be patient and trust Him. He's in charge of the change you face, He'll give you victory in the face of conflict, and He is working out His perfect plans during the clogs. When our daughters were quite young, they made a weekly trip to the bank on Saturday mornings. With their allowance fresh in hand we would stand at the counter in the bank lobby and count out the right number of nickels and pennies that would equal the 10% tithe they would put aside to give to Jesus the next day at church. Then we would meticulously count out another ten percent for their savings account and then the 50 cents that would go into each of their Christmas Club accounts. Finally we would fill out the necessary paperwork and step over to the cashier and make the deposits. We would leave with the girls clutching whatever was left as their "spending money." One Saturday, four year old Krista seemed especially confused by all this high finances, and a little distraught at the pittance she had left for spending. She held my hand as Heather raced ahead to get her favorite seat in the car. And I asked her, "Honey, did you understand what we did with your money?" She looked up at me and said, "No, daddy…but I trust you." You may not understand the process, but He's in charge and He bids you trust Him through changes conflicts and clogs.       [Back to Top]