The Darkest of Days
Exodus: Called Out • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsIn the culture of today, ease, comfort and blessing are associated with being in good standing with the Lord while trials, tribulation, pain and loss are associated with being far from God and bound in sin. This is not the truth that the Scriptures describe. Our current circumstances, whether season of blessing or trial, do not necessarily reflect our nearness to the Lord. Rather, God is working in our lives through both season of blessing and trial. The darkest of days that we face surrendered to the Lord are used for His glory through our maturing or through the divine appointments that the Lord provides in the midst of these moments to point others toward Him.
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The Darkest of Days
The Darkest of Days
Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 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. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
This is the picture of how to dehumanize a subset of your population in order to gain support for the act of genocide.
We begin by seeing political lobbying in verses 9-10.
Political Lobbying moves to Legalized Oppression in verses 11-14
Legalized Oppression is then moved to Subversive Manipulation in verse 15-16
Subversive Manipulation is then moved to Public Distain in verse 22
It does not get more horrific than this and yet, God is still working and still accomplishing His plan
But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites