Sermon Tone Analysis

Moses and the Covenant of God

God’s Covenant are God’s promises

I want you to bear with me this morning as we set the stage, not only for this sermon, but also for the rest of the book of Exodus specifically and the Bible generally.

We want to keep the big picture in view even as we zoom in on particular books and parts of those books.

God’s plan of redemption spans the entire Bible, and as we come to know Him and His grace, we marvel at His infinite wisdom.

The London Confession of Faith helps place this situation in this way,

“The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.

( Luke 17:10; Job 35:7,8 )”—London Confession of Faith 7:1

In other words, we are so helpless and hopeless that if God does not intervene we will die and spend eternity in hell for our sins, justly.

BUt God is good, so good that He condescends to us through the means of covenant.

What is a covenant?

I am glad you asked.

Covenant defined: “a chosen relationship in which two parties make binding promises to each other.”

(Tom Schreiner, Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, 13)

One of the covenants that God made with humanity is through Abraham in Genesis chapters 12, 15, and 17.

This covenant included blessings of offspring, land, and universal blessing.

We saw a glimpse of this fulfillment in Ex. 1:7.

Pharaoh, a pawn in the hands of the devil, attempts to destroy the people of God, specifically the males.

It is the serpent’s attempt (Gen.

3:15) to kill the seed of the woman.

Year after year, since the beginning of creation, the devil, the world, and the flesh all combine to attempt to thwart the plans and purposes of God (cf.

Ps. 2).

And year after year, since the beginning of creation, the devil, the world, and the flesh all combine to fail to thwart the plans and purposes of God.

We come to the conclusion of the psalmist in Psalm 115:3 “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

You may find yourself asking, what does this have to do with Exodus chapter two and with me?

It has everything to do with both.

God has condescended to make a covenant with us, a gracious covenant.

He has made promises, and if we can learn that God is a covenant (i.e., promise) keeping God, then we can trust Him today.

On good days, when things are going well, this is easy.

It is on the difficult days that this becomes life-support.

And not only life-support, it becomes infusing.

It changes from simply helping us limp through life to enjoy abundant life (John 10:10).

This knowledge, rightly understood and passionately believed in, will be a rock-solid foundation for a life of faithfulness in a faith-less world.

God’s Covenant Faithfulness Encourages Us to Trust Him, Delight in Him, and Live Freely for Him

I. God’s Covenant Stands True In Spite of the Fiercest Opposition- 2:1-10

The anger and bitter hatred of the Egyptians, led by Pharaoh intensifies.

No longer satisfied with infanticide, they result to outright murder.

The suffering already endured for 430 years has been unimaginable, but this is the breaking point.

How can people be so evil?

We need to remember the distance between us and God is vast, infinitely so.

God intervenes and sends a beautiful boy.

The parents see and know this young boy is good (compare with Gen. 1:31).

They are able to keep the baby hid for three months.

Three months.

Can you imagine the fear and anxiety that this boy’s mother must have felt?

Each day, for 90ish days, this mother would have wondered if the boy’s cries would be heard.

Would the Egyptians come and murder this baby?

We turn to one verse in the NT briefly, because it bears enormous importance for us today.

Hebrews 11:23 “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”

They were not afraid.

Why?

Because God is a covenant-keeping God.

When it became impossible to continue to hide the young boy, they made a basket (similar to the ark in Gen. ch.

6), and trusting this covenant-keeping God, send the boy into the Nile river.

Perhaps you have endured a soul-wrenching situation such as this.

Learn from the mother of Moses the trustworthiness of God! Draw encouragement from it as you continue to face the difficulties of this life.

God’s covenant stands true in spite of the fiercest opposition.

Imagine the fear that would have taken Miriam’s heart when the daughter of Pharaoh finds the boy.

But God is so sovereign that He uses the very opposition to HIs plans to accomplish them.

She ends up adopting Moses, because she drew him out of the water.

It blows your mind!

And not only that, Moses’s mother becomes his nurse!

God is sovereign, that is written on every aspect of this passage and oh what comfort it brings!

God’s Covenant Faithfulness Encourages Us to Trust Him, Delight in Him, and Live Freely for Him, in spite of opposition.

II.

God’s Covenant Stands True In Spite of Our Faithless Errors- 2:11-22

God is going to deliver His people, He told Abraham such in Gen. 15:14.

But God had as of yet to reveal how He would accomplish this.

Moses, trained in Egypt, identified as a Hebrew (cf.

Heb.

11:24-25).

He began to be moved by their plight and commits murder.

He took matters into his own hands, and it cost Moses dearly.

You and I know this firsthand.

When we try and accomplish things, or change things, we always end up making matters much worse.

Philip Ryken says it best,

“His failure had nothing to do with his motivation, for his heart was in the right place.

Rather, the problem was his method: Moses was trying to save God’s people by his own works rather than letting God save them by his grace.”

Philip Ryken, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory, 57)

This distance between us and our creator, remember, is infinite, removed only by His condenscension.

The Scriptures have an abundance of examples of our faithless errors.

And the Scriptures have an abundance of examples of God’s covenant standing in spite of every, single, one of them.

Have you made a mess out of your life?

The answer from all of us is yes.

God’s covenant stands sure, my brothers and sisters.

God’s Covenant Faithfulness Encourages Us to Trust Him, Delight in Him, and Live Freely for Him, in spite of our faithless errors.

III.

God’s Covenant Stands True In Spite of Our Hopeless Situations- 2:23-25

Can you hear the hopelessness of this passage?

They cried for rescue.

Their bondage was bitter.

We feel this, don’t we? Contrast the bitterness and hopelessness of their plight (and ours) with the comfort and delight of the end.

God hears.

God remembers.

God sees.

And God knows.

We are tempted, particularly in times of desperate pain and suffering, to forget God.

But though we forgot, or fail to believe, God does not.

God’s covenant stands true in spite of our hopeless situations.

In fact, it is precisely in our hopeless situations that God’s covenant shines the brightest.

God’s Covenant Faithfulness Encourages Us to Trust Him, Delight in Him, and Live Freely for Him, in spite of our hopeless situations.