Delivered by the Grace of God
Freedom from Bondage • Sermon • Submitted
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Exodus 1:1-10
Throughout God’s Word, we see the power of God to deliver out of bondage. Not only does the New Testament tell us about Jesus breaking Satan’s power on the cross and delivering us from bondage of sin, but through the story of the Israelites in the Old Testament, we see a physical picture of how God delivers.
In this series, we’ll find that God not only has the power to deliver us, as His people, out of out areas of bondage, but He delights in doing so.
At the time our text was written, long before the great nation of Babylon and Persia rose to world dominance, and God performed an amazing story of deliverance for His chosen people.
In fact years later, Joshua reminded them of God’s deliverance through this great Exodus as an encouragement when they faced new battles.
For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
The book of Exodus is the second of five books called the Pentateuch. Egypt was the dominant world superpower at this time. Other countries featured in the Old Testament, like Babylon, were centuries away from rising to power.
Exodus begins its history around 1850 B.C., with a summary of Joseph and the rest of the Israelite tribes coming to Egypt when Joseph was a ruler under Pharaoh. Later, the birth of Moses is recorded (which took place around 1525 B.C.), and then the Israelites’ actual exodus out of Egypt (around 1445 B.C.).
Joseph, the son of Jacob had been in the midst of the Egyptians, by a divine appointment. His brothers had sold him into slavery, and he was taken to Egypt. He was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and cast into prison. An while he was there, the Lord raised him up to interpret the dream of Pharaoh. The dream was of a coming famine, and when Joseph interpret the dream, he was highly esteemed by Pharaoh and was placed in a position of prominence. God blessed Joseph, and give him great favor with the pharaoh, so that Joseph and his family were given land, and his father and brothers were invited to come live in Egypt.
Over the years, the families of the Children of Israel grew larger and God continued to bless them.
And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
But as we read Exodus chapter 8, we see the perils of bondage increasing for the children of Israel.
A Hateful Culture
A Hateful Culture
Even though the children of Israel were in bondage, they were growing in number and becoming fruitful. Suddenly, the spirit of the culture toward them began to change. While they had been tolerated as working slaves, they were now becoming an intimidating force by the sheer number of their population.
Unfamiliar with Joseph
Unfamiliar with Joseph
Throughout the years of Egypt’s early history, there were different dynasties, and it was during the 17th dynasty, the Hyksos dynasty, that Joseph first came into Egypt. It was during this time that Joseph was elevated and appreciated.
But in the 18th dynasty, the new king did not know Joseph, and began to rule in an evil manner.
This Pharaoh was unfamiliar with how Joseph been brought to Egypt by God’s sovereignty and was apparently unaware of how he had saved the entire nation from starvation through his wisdom.
Verses 8-10 in our text tell us that this new king was suspicious of the Children of Israel and viewed them as potential trouble.
Throughout the history of Christianity, Christians have been also viewed as trouble at times. In the book of Acts, Paul was referred to as “a pestilent fellow.” the troublemaker of the Jews. Many times when people are faithful to the Lord, the culture at large will see them as the problem.
For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:
Yet, although culture is intolerant towards Christians, God’s people have always survived and multiplied. Such is the picture we see here with the children of Israel. They were growing stronger in the midst of their captivity.
Unfamiliar with Joseph
Unfamiliar with Jehovah
Unfamiliar with Jehovah
The Pharaoh at this time was an idolater, serving many gods. In fact, the whole reason that the many sins and difficulties existed in Egypt was simply because the king and his people “knew not the Lord.”
And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
Our nation today is a land that is often unfamiliar with Jehovah. Our leaders are removing the Ten Commandments from public places, disallowing prayer in schools, and seeking to remove remembrances of God from every arena they can. Spiritually speaking, we live in Egypt today, surrounded by a culture that does not know Jehovah. Because of that our opportunity is great to declare God’s glory in this pagan culture.
Declare his glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people.
Never forget in your seasons of bondage that God is using you to declare His glory in a pagan culture.
Unfamiliar with Joseph
Unfamiliar with Jehovah
Unfair with the People.
Unfair with the People.
This king was not only unfamiliar with Jehovah, but he was also unfair to the children of Israel.
And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
While the children of Israel had found refuge under the reign of previous Pharaohs, this pharaoh was guided by his fear about the Israelites.
This Pharaoh, motivated by fear, became mean and intolerant toward Israel.
And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
The phrase with rigour means “with harshness, with severity,” and the Egyptians treated them cruelly, whipping and beating them. The only materials they were give to make bricks for the giant Egyptian structures were straw and mud.
They were under intense persecution, and suffering great affliction. But when affliction came into their lives, God had a purpose in it, just as He does with the affliction in our lives.
But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
God is always working, even though we may be unable to see His plan unfolding. God makes no mistakes, and He wastes no trials. He never allows trials into our lives without a purpose, and always seeks our purification through the trail.
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
Though the children of Israel didn’t understand why they were suffering affliction, God was allowing them to go through a time of affliction and difficulty so they would be refined and prepared for further use in the service of the Lord. And as we go through trials, God desires for us to let Him have His prefect and complete work in our hearts so that we can bring more glory and honor to His name.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
The 88 strings on a concert piano exert over 45,000 pounds of pressure on its frame. That is over 22 tons of pressure. This pressure, however, is needful for the beautiful music that a piano can produce. Similarly, the pressure in our lives can be the very thing God uses to bring about beauty and purpose.
A Hateful Culture
A Harmful Culture
A Harmful Culture
When you feel that you can’t live for God in the midst of this culture, remember how God worked in the lives of the Hebrew Children. Sometimes cultures that are hateful to the things of God can become very harmful to the people of God, and will take their animosity out on the people of the Lord.
Pharaoh realized that his plan to destroy the current generation of Israelites by hard labor wasn’t working, so he then plotted against future generations.
A Hateful Plot
A Hateful Plot
Pharaoh gave an evil order to the Hebrew midwives who cared for many Hebrew women as they gave birth. He commanded the midwives to murder children just as they were being born.
And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:
And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
With this wicked decree, Pharaoh makes a decision that goes completely contrary to the heart of God for protecting life.
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
In the Bible, God recognizes life in the mother’s womb. Because of that, Christians have always placed much value on the life of our most innocent.
All life is created by God, and we are created in the images of God. And a society that knows the Lord values life. But a society like Pharaoh’s who knew not the Lord, did not value life. In fact, Pharaoh became so power hungry that he ordered the murder of these children.
How sad that today in America we have come to the place where even in the very last weeks of pregnancy, mothers would choose to murder their babies.
Consider these startling statistics.
1. 19% of pregnancies in the U.S end in abortion.
2. 879,000 abortion happen each year, that is about 2,400 daily.
3. over 61 million abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973
4. 58% of American believe abortion should be legal.
God places value on the life the unborn baby, but as leader of a culture that didn’t know God, Pharaoh plotted to destroy the future generation through the murder of the babies.
A Higher Perspective
A Higher Perspective
God always had a higher perspective on our lives. We normally don’t understand everything that’s going on in our lives at any given moment. We need the higher perspective.
But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
The midwives feared God. These women had seen 1,000’s of babies born. They watched their eyes open for the first time, heard the first cry, and seen the little fingers as they moved. Because of that, there was something in their heart that could never deny the existence of God the reality of God giving life. to the midwives, it didn’t matter what the king said: they feared God more than the king.
Pharaoh was literally the most powerful man in the world, and the midwives could have been afraid of this ruler who could have had them executed at any moment. Despite this, they bravely chose to follow God.
Sometimes we have to make these decisions in out own lives. And while God commands the believer to be submissive to government in Romans 13:1-7, there may come a time in your life where it is clear that your options are to choose between obeying God or men.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
“We fear men so much because we fear God so little. One fear cures another.”
- G.K. Chesterton
The fear of the Lord changes our hearts and actions, because it is a reverent awe for who God is that causes us to live for Him about all else. We must instill in our children the knowledge of how awesome and worthy of reverence God is.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Life brings periods of time when you may feel as though everything is out of your control and you don’t know what to do. Everything may seem cloudy and you feel like you have no control and no ability to see what is happening. But God is still working, and we can trust Him.
Even when the laws are contrary to the Bible, and even when the leaders don’t know the Lord, you can still take stand. You can still fear the Lord. And you can still know that there is a helping hand reaching out to you.
But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: Thou art my help and my deliverer; Make no tarrying, O my God.