A Saviour is Born

Maybe it was from growing up on a country property surrounded by other properties and attending a primary school also somewhat isolated from the world around us. Maybe it was partly just growing up in rural Australia in the 60’s and 70’s. Maybe it’s just a rural culture.

But I grew up believing that while bad things can happen, they’re more likely to happen to other people and if we obey the law and eat our green vegetables then life should basically go fairly well.

I think perhaps as the decades passed… I did learn first hand a fair bit about just how tough and miserable and painful and unreliable life can be...

But I think it was Jordan Peterson (of all people) who opened my eyes to just how tough life can be.

Now it seems we have reached a point where fires, and floods and Covid and refugees flocking to Europe a few years ago and overloaded boats trying to come to Australia and disease and old age and war in Ukraine and China and Taiwan and South Korea…

I’ve now finally come to the conclusion that life in a fallen world is tough for everyone… and can be downright agony for many.

The threat to the Hebrews

Yet… as we saw in Exodus 1, 3500 years ago things were no better.

Abraham’s descendants made it to Egypt in time of global famine as esteemed guests.

But a century or two later a new king, with no former loyalties to the Hebrews, came to power.

The new king noticed how many Israelites there are swarming in his country and he takes the initiative to make life hell on earth for them.

He orders them into slavery… but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied.

He then orders that every baby boy be executed at birth… but Shiphrah and Puah disobey… and the Hebrew women continue to multiply… and the midwives have babies of their own.

So, we left chapter 1 with Pharaoh’s murderous madness ringing in our ears: He has ordered all the Egyptians to do a service for their country by throwing all the baby boys into the mighty Nile river!

Ex 2:1-4 “1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.

The word “fine (child)” is saying that there was something special about him.

We shouldn’t think that if we’re persecuted and our lives threatened, that like Moses’ parents if we’re really clever we can come up with a scheme that will see us miraculously survive.

God only knows how many babies of wonderful, even godly parents perished over the decades because of Pharaoh’s edicts.

So how this Levite couple’s hearts must have sunk when they saw their newborn child was a boy!

They will not… they cannot hand him over… so they hide him… but everyday they live in dread of an Egyptian coming to the door. “That baby I can hear… is it a girl? Give me a look? … I’ll be back with reinforcements… the king has said that he cannot live.

v3 [Read]

Pharaoh wants them in the Nile, so to the Nile he would go… in an ark… the same word as another ark in Genesis 6 where the inhabitants were safe but all those outside drowned!

And look… Ex 2:5 Oh no! Of all the people to come along… Pharaoh’s daughter.

Surely she would be under her father’s roof and orders if anyone in Egypt is!

Ex 2:6

Not so… once again the hand of God is powerfully evident, and… once again… another woman that has more of the image of God still in her than many others. The crying baby moves her to pity.

Suddenly, enter back into the story another young lady we glimpsed in v4. Ex 2:7-10

There we learned that Moses’ has a sister (we find out later he has an older brother as well as this sister, Miriam), and she has been lurking nearby to see what would happen… and as soon as she sees Pharaoh’s compassion she bravely runs up with an offer of assistance.

It’s kind of funny how Pharaoh considers himself to be shrewd… but it is the women, the midwives, the mothers, Moses’ mother and sister and now even his own daughter who are showing God’s character his compassion and pity!

A Life of Privilege

If in the last chapter we saw in the actions of the anti-God Pharaoh with all the hallmarks of Satan’s murderous handiwork going on behind the scenes…

here in chapter 2 we see all the hallmarks of God’s amazing grace!

The “goodly child” being hidden for as long as his parents dared; placed in the nile… in an ark; found by none other than Pharaoh’s daughter… who’s heart is moved with compassion by the little boys crying… and now… Miriam carrying him back to the one person in the whole world who will do what is best for his upbringing in the few short years she will have him!

Can you imagine Miriam taking Moses back to their mother?

Her heart would have sunk!

“Oh Miriam, what happened? Couldn’t you leave him? Oh dear! We will surely be found out! What will I do now?”

“No mum. Mum, listen. I left him in the rushes… and can you believe it, Pharaoh’s daughter found him… and now she wants you to raise him as your own… and, what’s more, she will even pay you for doing it.”

And when Moses came of age he was raised and educated as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter by the best minds of the superpower of the day!

So into this hard, suffering, groaning world… comes a little sliver of God’s grace.

Yes… the slavery continues.

Yes… baby boys are threatened and dying.

Yes, parents grieve…

but a fine boy is born and miraculously saved… and his own mother is paid to raise him… at least for a time.

Three hard strikes - the Saviour learns salvation is by faith, not by works, v11-14

In v11-13 we jump (Stephen tells us in Acts) 40 years. And there’s trouble lurking.

Here we should notice a couple of things.

Firstly, the words Egyptian beating a Hebrew”, “He killed the Egyptian” and “hitting your fellow Hebrew” all are the same word in the original language.

The word means to strike, smite, strike dead, hit, injure.

So it’s unclear just how many murders there are here… and consequently whether or not Moses is guilty of murder.

Did Moses witness a murder… and rightly revenge the murder by killing the Egyptian?

More like that he witnessed a cruel beating… and Moses anger flared and he killed the Egyptian.

Secondly, we see twice the words, “his own people”.

Despite the best part of 40 years being raised in Pharaoh’s court with all the privileges that entails, Moses still considers the despised slaves to be his people.

So Moses takes revenge and kills the Egyptian and hides the body in the sand.

The next day he tried to intervene in a fight between two Hebrews, but they don’t want a bar of it.

v14.

So the Hebrews don’t have it all together. God hasn’t chosen them because they’re great people!

Despite their common arch enemy, they still fight with each other.

And, as happened with Jesus when he walked on earth, he came to those that were his own, but his own rejected him.

Preparation - the Saviour learns to suffer and serve… to become useful in God’s service, v16-22

Seven daughters

And so Moses flees from Egypt to Midian… (maybe on the Arabian peninsula???)… and sat down by a well.

v16-17… If Moses thought the world outside of Egypt was any more just and fair than what he had seen growing up… he was badly mistaken.

Again, when confronted with injustice… Moses is not one to turn his back and walk away.

But we notice that this time he doesn’t commit murder. The shepherds come and drive the girls away… but Moses “gets up” and came to their rescue… then waters their flock.

The sisters arrive back home early to be asked… “Why have… “ v18-22.

Reuel is incredulous at his daughters foolishness/incompetence!

You found a man who rescued you from the shepherds and watered your flock and you left him at the well?

Go back and get him!

So Moses settles down… Moses is married and has a child but naming his son Gershom expresses his heart. He is an alien, an outcast.

So why all this drama? What does chapter 2 add to the story of the Exodus?

Moses spent 40 years growing up in Pharaoh’s court thinking he was somebody; he then spent 40 years in the wilderness realising he was nobody; but as Exodus unfolds we’ll see that Moses spends the last 40 years of his life seeing what God can do with a nobody!

In this chapter we have a brief snapshot of those first two lots of 40 years.

They are God’s preparation for Moses… they form him; mould him, make him who God needs him to be to rescue his people from slavery.

These 40 years as a foreigner, living in Midian and married to a Midianite.... but not a Midianite;

as a Hebrew… yet rejected by the Hebrews;

as one grown up as Pharaoh’s grandson… yet Pharaoh will kill him if he finds him!

Think of how formative all these experiences over 40, 60, 80 years were.

Back as a rash, young 40 year old buck… full of compassion for those suffering under Pharaoh’s enslavement… despite all the privileges of growing up in Pharaoh’s household he still sees the Hebrews (as v11 says twice) as his own people… he was right to try and rescue them… but salvation is always by God’s grace.

Man’s talents and compassion and zeal won’t save God’s people.

It is God who saves.

Like the Apostle Paul who was full of human zeal and attempting to achieve salvation by his own merit.

Perhaps Moses could paraphrase Paul: “If anyone else thinks he can save himself with his own bare hands,” he could have said, “I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Levi, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as for zeal, slaughtering Egyptians.”

No! Moses has to die before God can use him.

Not meaning his heart has to stop beating… but he has to give up any thought that he can accomplish salvation by his own zeal, youth, power, privilege… merit.

And so, rejected by his own people; once again under the threat of death from Pharaoh, he flees to the wilderness where he finally dies to himself… he gives up on his own abilities and talents and realises how futile it is to try to save anyone in our own strength.

Raised in all the pomp and riches and educational privilege as Pharaoh’s grandson… he identified with God’s people.

When he saw that Egyptian striking “one of his people” and was moved with compassion and went to his aid… and in so doing he forfeited his position of power in Egypt… and the great temptation we all have to believe because of our wealth, intellect, position and power we are someone special.

Raised in Pharaoh’s court with everything at his beck and call, when he identified with God’s people in terrible slavery… his life of pleasure and ease finished… and so he finished with the temptation to find meaning in earthly pleasure.

And in throwing his lot in with God’s people and forsaking the prosperity of Egypt he finished with the temptation that life consists in the abundance of our possessions.

Being full of his own self-importance; worldly pleasure and the love of an abundance of possessions was broken so he could enjoy the riches of a close personal walk with the God of the universe.

On a practical level he’s learned about living in the wilderness… how important will that be in years to come when God uses him to bring Israel out of Egypt and into this area and to Mt Sinai.

He learned to temper his temper and rescue people without killing them.

Then he learned service… watering the flock of the seven sisters.

He because a husband and father.

And he learned about a good honest days work… if you glance across to chapter 3:1 we find that he worked as a lowly shepherd for his father-in-law.

From a 40 year old young buck prince of Egypt to an 80 year old sheep herder working for the old man!

Now… after 80 years of training, he’s finally reached a point where God can use him to turn the world of the Israelites from groaning slaves to potentially a shining light community living with the God of the universe dwelling in their midst.

Conclusion: Maybe for many wealth is a far bigger problem than suffering? The Cross Before the Crown!

Perhaps whether a person grows up in the prestige of Pharaoh’s households and under the best of the world’s educators… or in rural NSW thousands of years later… we all have to learn that the world for all its great promise… is a miserable, suffering, enslaving environment.

But, more than that, we each have to learn along with Moses, that it’s not just a problem with the world; the heart of the problem is the human heart.

Could it be possible that for many of God’s people today it’s not our suffering that is the biggest threat to our Christian walk but our riches?

Our Lord Jesus endured the cross before the Father gave him the Name above every Name and seated him at the Father’s right hand.

Perhaps we too might often need the preparation that comes from learning to do without.

Of not wanting to jump straight from salvation to coronation… without the necessary preparation!

Unlike Moses who’s heart was moved with compassion for his own people, we can sometimes be overly concerned about our own life… our pleasure and leisure… and love of the riches we have available to us.

Moses’ heart had to be educated through his life experiences before he could be used in his day and age to be part of God’s kingdom… and then part of God’s solution for the world instead of the problem!

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