FEAR GOD, NOT MAN - Ex 1.5-22

GOD LOVES TO BE TRUSTED!!

History:

Innocence - Garden of Eden - Gen 1-3 - no sin, until man fails to trust God and sins - separation is imparted to man

Conscience - Gen 4-8 - Cain kills Abel fails to ‘do good’ - spirals out of control until violence and corruption are rampant. Then the flood.

Government - Gen 9-11 - whoever shed’s man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Multiply and scatter. Tower of Babel. God confuses languages and makes people groups.

Promise - Gen 12 - Ex 18 - Abraham - promised the land of Israel.

Abraham promised a plot of land. Grandson and great-grandsons and families end up leaving land for Egypt.

Moses:

mentioned 767 times in the OT - arguably the greatest figure in OT

mentioned 79 times in the NT

Type of Christ - Focused in this one person are the figures of prophet, priest, lawgiver, judge, intercessor, shepherd, miracle worker, and founder of a nation.

Lived to be 120 years old

40 years in Egypt40 years in desert40 years in Exodus

He is one of the great figures in all of history, a man who took a group of slaves and, under inconceivably difficult circumstances, molded them into a nation that has influenced and altered the entire course of history.

- Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 1489). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

PRAY

INTRO: Fear - WHAT do you fear?

Heights?

Public Speaking?

Flying?

Spiders?

What we fear controls our actions.

What do I fear?

Bull nettle!!!!

Inverts in wakeboarding

failure - basketball in high school, few friends, missed opportunities...

TEACHING POINT: Healthy fear keeps us away from harm. Healthy or Unhealthy Fear - a grasp of the reality of cause/effect - is dependent upon the object of that fear.

Proverbs 16:2 NASB95

All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the Lord weighs the motives.

We are very often motivated by what we fear OR by WHO we fear. It contributes greatly to the WHY of our decision making.

Ex 1:5-16

Exodus 1:5–16 NASB95

All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them. Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. “Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.” So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

TEACHING POINTS:

V. 7 - The Israelites - God’s chosen nation - were blessed, and despite being in a foreign land, God was still faithful and increased their number.

V 8 - A new government that did not regard Joseph or his God.

Wanted to take advantage of Israel w/o being endangered by them - decided to make their work harder!

V 12 - Didn’t work - God blessed them in the midst of their persecution.

Decided on INFANTICIDE - secretive.

WOW!!!!

Pharaoh

The pharaoh of Egypt was considered a god by his subjects. He was the embodiment of the royal falcon god Horus and, was looked upon as the son of the great sun god, Re. When he died, he became the god Osiris and joined the other divinities in the afterworld. Theoretically, all of the land of Egypt and its products belonged to Pharaoh (see Gen. 47:20), and his word was the law of the land.

Weinstein, J. M. (2011). Pharaoh. In M. A. Powell (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (Third Edition, pp. 788–789). New York: HarperCollins.

Ex 1:17-22

Exodus 1:17–22 NASB95

But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.” So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”

TEACHING POINTS:

Vs 17 - BUT THE MIDWIVES FEARED GOD! Obeyed GOD - not man! Not Pharaoh.

Vs 22 - GOD WAS GOOD TO THOSE WHO FEARED HIM!

MOSES

born and hid for the first 3 months - by his parents who were not afraid of Pharaoh’s edict - Heb 11:23

Hebrews 11:23 NASB95

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

set in a basket by a spot where Egyptian princesses came to bathe - his older sister Miriam hid in the bushes to watch over him

found by Pharaoh’s daughter and recognized as a Hebrew baby - but she took pity on him and kept him as her own

Miriam offers to find a Hebrew mid-wife to nurse and care for the newborn, and the Princess agrees. Miriam takes Moses back to mom until he is weaned (2-3 years)

Eventually, Moses is returned to Pharaoh’s daughter who named him Moses

Who is in charge in this story? Man - Pharaoh?

Hebrew midwives feared God more than man. Wow. What does this reveal about the faith of these midwives? Do you think they believed in God? Why? Israel had been enslaved for almost 400 years. Mistreated. Persecution.

Moses’ parents - Amram and Jochebed - Heb 11:23 - they were NOT AFRAID OF THE KING’s EDICT and hid Moses by faith!

It is better to trust God and to fear Him than to fear man. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was a man of faith, and he believed that God would do what He said He would do. That faith was passed down through the generations, in such a way that it helped sustain and bless Israel while enslaved in Egypt. This is the world that Moses was born into. But God had bigger plans for Moses, and for His people.

It is better to trust God and to fear Him than to fear man. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was a man of faith, and he believed that God would do what He said He would do. That faith was passed down through the generations, in such a way that it helped sustain and bless Israel while enslaved in Egypt. This is the world that Moses was born into. But God had bigger plans for Moses, and for His people.

Wrap-Up

for Teen Camp - MOVE QUICKLY

Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s daughter’s house. As a grown man, knew his heritage, and went out on his own to save one of them - but they wouldn’t accept him at his first coming.

Pharaoh tried to KILL MOSES AGAIN - but Moses fled to another country

Questions:

What do you believe about God? Who is God to you?

Who you fear is who you worship and serve. It is who you trust and who motivates your decision making.

Who do you fear more? God or man? Who influences the WHY? of your decisions?