A New King - Exodus 1:8-22

Spiritual Warfare

If I just ask a simple question without clarification, what answer would you give: “How many people here today have engaged in or been aware of spiritual warfare in their lives?

If I clarified spiritual warfare with one example from my own life as regular and foreseeable opposition to apparently important and successful attempts to promote God’s cause?

So over many years, in various contexts and conversations, I have found a few people really apparently sincere about starting… or sometimes… restarting, regular church attendance.

An invite issued to join me in church on Sunday… which was accepted… but when Sunday came… (guess what?)… no show.

A follow up phone call/email/contact revealed where at least a couple of times the person said they got sick on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.

I seem to remember somebody had a phone call from someone just when they were going to get ready to go to church… and someone else had a visit from a long lost friend or relative.

It was so obvious that I began to warn people. Be aware… it is most likely that something will happen on Saturday or Sunday that will be to prevent you coming to church. You might get a cold… or a phone call just as you’re about to leave for church or maybe a visit from someone you really don’t want to miss.

That’s a type of spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Warfare - when God’s kingdom advances… there will be “pushback”!

The world around us is not neutral about God?

When God’s people start doing something that will advance God’s kingdom… suddenly things go haywire.

I would even go so far as to say that perhaps if everything in a Christian’s life or a church’s life is constantly quiet, harmonious and care free… that just could be a sign that they’re not advancing the kingdom.

If you’re wondering whether or not that is really so, perhaps you could crack open your NT to one of Paul’s letters and ask him! Paul how serious were you about advancing God’s kingdom… and did that bring you any pain or opposition? (One of his answers is found in 2 Cor 6)

Last week we thought about how through all the chaos of life from Abram to Joseph in Egypt God had worked to build a family of 70 people… and that through three generations of women who could not bear children for a time… but now in Egypt… Ex 1:7 “7 but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.”

Sometimes people say they don’t like reading the OT because God is so angry and punishing and wiping out people.

A closer reading says it is amazing how God in his power, goodness and grace works through human beings to fulfil his promises of land, descendants and blessing.

But make no mistake… God fulfilling his plans and promises will be met with opposition.

Again, when we ask the apostle Paul for guidance he says…

Ephesians 6:12 NIV84

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

In the world there is a war between good and evil; God... and the forces actively opposed to God.

When Abraham said Yes to God; he joined with God in pursuing God’s plans to redeem the world.

There are anti-God forces at work who are opposed to God’s purposes.

Whether they see it in that light or not, whether they want it or not that’s the way it is.

I mention this here because I’ve heard so many people who, as they go through Exodus, feel a bit sorry for poor old Pharoah. They think he was just getting on with life, making the best of what he had… when God swooped in and took him out.

But as we will see, he’s not neutral towards God. He is anti-God, he resents God demands, he hates God’s purposes and he opposes God’s people.

And God does not pick a fight with him… he picks a fight with God.

Plan A - A New King… Who Persecutes God’s people; Frustrates God’s plan; Opposes God’s promises

Let’s see how the next bit of the story unfolds.

Between v7 and v8 is a period of approximately 200 years.

But… cue the sinister music… Ex 1:8-9 “8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.”

In other words, God’s blessing of his people has been noticed!

Suddenly they’re not just people living in Egypt…

they’re a numerous people... too numerous,

they’re a threat… so a plan is hatched…

Ex 1:10-11 “10 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.” 11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.”

Now Pharaoh is not simply a man getting on with life as best he knows how.

Whether he acknowledges it or not he’s not neutral player.

He’s actively working against God’s plan by persecuting God’s people.

Look at how it played out… v12b… so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly…

Exodus 1:14 (NIV84)

14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.

Here is Pharaoh’s Plan A - Ruthless oppression, bitter lives, hard labour… ruthlessly!

There’s a connection between Ex 1:7 and Ex 1:13…

Look at Ex 1:7 “7 but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.”

This is a superlative way of saying the Israelites were having babies left, right and centre…

And Ex 1:14 is a superlative way of saying God’s people are suffering terribly.

And it’s not just the language used that connects them… v7 leads to v13 & 14.,

God is blessing his people, fulfilling his promise to Abraham, building a people to fulfil his plan…

and now Pharaoh has declared his intention;

see that word dread towards the end of v12… it means “feel disgust, repugnance for or dread”.

He is disgusted by God’s people so he’s going to persecute God’s them and frustrate God’s plan.

Can you see the pattern?

Something good is happening for God’s kingdom. God is fulfilling his plan and promises to redeem the world… but there are anti-God forces that say that cannot… that WILL NOT happen!

It started in Gen 1 and 2… which is followed by Gen 3.

So what happens? Ex 1:12 “12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites”

The battle lines are drawn… the first salvos fired. At this stage God 1 Pharaoh 0.

But neither God nor Pharaoh are finished yet!

That was just the first battle in a war that will eventually consume one of the antagonists!

Plan B - Midwives - You who bring life into the world… murder all the boys!

Pharaoh devises plan B. Ex 1:15-16 “15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.””

In v 10 Pharaoh claimed he would deal shrewdly with the Israelites.

Just how shrewd is Pharaoh?

If the Israelites are repulsive and disgusting… then get rid of them… throw them out of the land.

If the Israelites are useful… don’t try to kill all the boys!

We’re reminded of another king who fancied himself being rather shrewd.

A king named Herod who been told a king had been born to the Jews by some Magi from the east.

“Oh”, he said, “Go and find him and tell me where he is so I too can go and worship him.”

But the Magi found the king and worshipped him and went home via a different route well away from Herod.

Mt 2:16 “16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”

See the pattern. God is blessing his people by sending them a Saviour.

God’s enemies cannot stand idly by… it must be challenged.

And notice again the tactics. Don’t declare war against simply against the protagonists… kill the innocents, the babies.

Warfare is always hard on all the people who are around.

And something else to notice here.

Notice that Pharaoh… which is a title (meaning “king”) not a name of a person… so Pharaoh is a nameless king… but here are two ladies who are named and are faithful God-fearers… even when confronted and ordered to do something by the most powerful man on earth.

Shiphrah and Puah… we don’t know a whole lot about them.

It does seem a bit odd that there are only two midwives for hundreds of thousands of Israelites... Were they the leaders with many under them? Did they speak the truth when they said Hebrew women were vigorous? (Sounds like a great job if that is so. Get called out because you’re needed… but by the time you arrive you’re not needed!).

What we know is that while they might have quite reasonably and logically trembled from head to foot when called to front Pharoah.... they had an even greater fear…

Ex 1:17 “17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.”

God’s response: Blessing the midwives… and more multiplication, v20

Again Pharaoh loses! Even if, yet again, he inflicts great pain on God’s people.

Plan C - All my people - Throw all the baby boys into the Nile!

But this wars not over yet… not by a long shot.

Ex 1:22 “22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.””

This is bad, very bad. Pharaoh has now enlisted his own people in his murderous madness!

If this has left you petrified… turn the page and read the next two verses. God is responding to Pharaoh’s murderous madness with the birth of a fine child.

Pharaoh’s not finished… but neither is God!

Conclusion: God’s redeeming plan and purpose has been, is and will be opposed at every turn!

This story in Exodus 1… (and the story of Herod murderous rampage in Mt 2) is about human beings acting in repeated, violent opposition to God and his people… but these stories have the fingerprints of Satan all over them!

Remember… God did not declare war on Pharaoh.

God went about his business of blessing his people, fulfilling his plan and promises to redeem and save the world.

To do that he will have to take on evil. Evil cannot go on unchecked if God’s plan, purpose and promises are to be fulfilled.

So there is war.

Flesh and blood are involved… but it is a spiritual war.

Chris Wright says in his commentary: “The salvation promised by God is not greeted by a waiting world, but opposed with hysterical fanaticism which borders on madness.”

He goes on to say… “Ultimately, it is only at the cross that we find the totality of this repeated pattern of the biblical story concentrated into a single day. For there the indestructible determination of God’s saving love met the implacable madness of human and satanic hatred and lethal violence against the innocent … suffered it, absorbed it, paid the cost of it, and turned it into the agent of its own destruction.”

Are you up to it?

No, of course you’re not! Neither am I!

But in Christ the deciding battle has been won. Jesus reigns. God is still blessing his people, fulfilling his promises, putting his plan into place to redeem the world and put all things back in order, blessing, peace and harmony.

Do you just want to live a peaceable life? I do!

But the reality is if God is going to bless us and the world through us people are not just sitting back waiting to be blessed.

They are opposed to God’s plan and promises. Behind them sits the evil forces that are opposed to God and everything He stands for.

So there is war.

If that frightens you jump to Easter Sunday… or Revelation 21 and 22… See how the story ends!

And be greatly encouraged to continue the battle!