God's Plan of Deliverance - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Exodus 2, we see the way God superintends events to bring forth Moses to deliver the people of Israel from Egypt.
Transcript:
In the time when you're baffled by sudden turn of events, even as you thought you knew where things were going, his hand is unseen but present, working beyond our comprehension but for our good. We learn this lesson again and again in scripture, and it's a lesson that we can learn from the series of of events that are recorded in Exodus two.
So now as we turn to this chapter, our focus narrows from the scope of the people of Israel as a whole, down to a husband and a wife. So we first look to those first four verses of Exodus 2. simply says that a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levi woman and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
Now, the thing to keep in mind here is what we read in Exodus one, which was that Pharaoh had instituted a policy that all the male children born to Hebrew women were to be killed, they were to be tossed into the, into the Nile. And so as soon as this child is born, we might expect that he would meet his fate.
We don't know all the consequences that awaited these families if they disobeyed Pharaoh, but it's easy to suppose that bad things would follow if they disobeyed him. But it says that when the mother, this woman saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. Now, of course, just 'cause a kid's beautiful doesn't, that's not the only reason why he should live, but it seemed as though God graced this child with just, a certain perfection about him that, despite the danger, it encouraged his mother to say, I don't care what Pharaoh says, I'm not killing this child. Now, it's interesting that the identities here are kept anonymous, but we, we learn a couple chapters later on that the husband's name was Amram and his wife's name was Jochebed.
And of course, this child who is born to them we'll find is called Moses. And this is around the time where we switch over from 15, from the 1500 bcs into the 1400 bcs. Now, she kept him for three months, but she couldn't keep him hidden beyond that. Probably because the kid was starting to get loud, and you know, as the children get older, they start moving around, it would start raising questions as to where this child had, had come from.
And so Jochebed decides that she's going to make a papyrus basket for him and coat it with tar and pitch. Now, the thing that's interesting here is that the Hebrew word for basket here is. taybaw, which could also be translated ark. And if you're familiar with the biblical story at all, it's almost like we have a little echo here of, of Noah and the arc here in the story of Moses.
So she, she's made this basket for him and she, she places him in it and puts him among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. Now that's an important thing to put him among the reeds, because if you just put him in the middle of the river, he's going down the river. He's not staying in one place. So this is how he stays in one place.
She's putting him among the reeds. But the whole, her, her whole thought process here is kind of interesting. We're, we're not told that God directed her to do this. We're not told exactly what she's perhaps expecting to happen. What we do know is that she is in, in more or less kind of an impossible situation.
If she keeps the child, eventually he's going to be discovered and he will be killed, and consequences might come upon the rest of her, her household, and yet she also doesn't want to kill him. And so he's kind of put in a bit of limbo here. He's not just tossed into the river, he's placed in a basket that won't sink, and it, it's as though she is putting him there and making an appeal to God.
And so kind of reading between, between the lines here, I think we see an echo of faith. She doesn't know what comes next, but she's believing that God will intervene. And we can see that they have an interest in the child's welfare because this child's sister is, is nearby watching to see what will happen, and we'll later learn that the sister's name is is Miriam.
Now it could be also that they knew that there was one possibility that might come from putting him in this place, and we learn this in, starting, picking up in verse five. Now it says there. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.
She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. This is one of the Hebrew babies, she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you? Yes, go, she answered. So the girl went and got the baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this baby and nurse him for me, and I'll pay you. So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, I drew him out of the water.
Now what's really kind of amusing here is we see how Pharaoh's command for all the baby boys to be killed is foiled by his own daughter and a bunch of women.
Now we wonder, you know, who is this daughter? Again, we weren't given the name of the pharaoh, any of the pharaohs in, in this narrative, which was kind of common custom at that time. But one reasonable theory is that the Pharaoh at this time would've been Thutmose the first, and his daughter would've been Hatshepsut, and I've got a picture of her there, who herself would actually go on to be Pharaoh for some time and share a co, a co regency with Thutmose the third. Whatever her identity might be, we see that she finds the child and she notices that it's, she, she can tell that it's a Hebrew baby. Now, again, she knows that they're supposed to be killed, but she just says, I don't care what dad wants me to do.
And it's amazing, we see that Miriam, either from maybe thinking through this before, but it seems perhaps God gave her just some incredible insight, she steps boldly into the front of the scene here and says, would you like me to get a nurse for you to take care of this child? And so what she does is she goes, and Pharaoh daughter says Yes.
And so she goes and gets Moses' mother, and to kind of top it all off, she brings her back and Pharaoh's daughter is like, yes, please take care of him, and I'll pay you. She's gonna get paid to take care of her own child. And so Jochebed takes care of her child until he is old enough to go into Pharaoh's household, and we might suppose that that was around the age of five.
That's usually when children were weaned. And it said that the name that he is given is Moses. Now the reason why he is called Moses is because it says, I drew him out of the water, and that's what the word in Hebrew means. Mo-sheh means drawn. What's interesting though is that we do notice that there are some Egyptian names that are also very similar, and so there might be kind of a double play here. I've mentioned some names where, like Thutmose and Thutmose's wife was Ahmose.
Now those names mean born of the God Thoth and one Born of the God Ah. Interestingly, Moses' name doesn't have a deity attached to it. Now, maybe the Egyptians had attached it, but he left that behind if he, if that was the case.
So Moses grows up in the Royal Court and he enjoys all the comfort, comforts, and privileges of that. But most importantly, he gets an education that would not have been available to a Hebrew slave. And just to think about God's providence and planning in all of this, it gives Moses an education such that he'd be able to write the first five books of the Bible.
If he hadn't received that education, we can wonder whether he would've been able to do that. Surely God can do whatever, but God worked providentially through these means to ensure that he would be able to do this. I'm sure he learned some leadership skills as well, which would figure importantly later on when he was to lead the the people of Israel out of Egypt.
Turning to verse 11, we take a leap of 40 years according to Steven's account in Acts 7: 23. Moses is a man now, cultured in Egyptian ways, but he hasn't forgotten where he has come from. It says one day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.
He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew? The man said, who made you ruler and judge over us?
Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, what I did must have become known. When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat by a well.
Despite his Egyptian upbringing, we see that Moses' heart was still with the Hebrew people, and so when he sees injustice being done towards them, when he sees one of his brothers being assaulted by an Egyptian slave driver, he intervenes and kills him. Now, this might raise a question in your mind as to, was that the right thing to do?
Well, we have to understand here that he was intervening to protect this man, and allowing scripture to interpret scripture, Stephen, in Acts seven, verse 25 says that God was ordaining Moses to make this sort of intervention for the sake of the Hebrew people. Stephen says, Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.
So just generally speaking, we should not take this example as a broad license to just use lethal force whenever we see someone being assaulted. But what we should understand here that there's a specific purpose and plan that God has here that's being played out for Moses and for the people of Israel.
Now, as Stephen alludes to in saying that the people did not understand that God was using Moses to rescue them, Moses himself discovers that his intervention was not appreciated. He sees two of his Hebrew brethren fighting each other, and one of 'em must have been a real smart character. Comes back with this comment, he says, who made you ruler and judge over us?
Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian? You can imagine Moses being like, I wanna slap you in the face, like, but it instead really, it made him afraid because he understood that people knew about what he did and that if other people knew that surely Pharaoh would come to know. And Pharaoh did indeed discover that Moses had killed this man.
And so Pharaoh tries to kill him. And just kind of following the chronology out here, we can suppose that this Pharaoh may have been Thutmose III, who was one of the greatest pharaohs of Egypt, renowned for his conquest. Kind of a scary looking guy. I wouldn't want that guy coming after me to kill me. And so Moses thought the same, and so he ran away to Midian, into the desert, and, to, to find safety. Now, it's important for us to remember at this point that we know things Moses doesn't. Yes, the circumstances of his being drawn from the water are peculiar. Kinda one of those things like, you think you have an interesting story, how about this?. My mom put me in a basket in the water.
Very peculiar, very, seemed very providential, and his time in the Egyptian court certainly favorable, but now what? Certainly he felt drawn to his people, and that was God's doing. The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 11, verses 24 through 26, by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. So it seems in some way, God had indicated to Moses that he should choose this path rather than sticking with what seemed perhaps at the time, probably the sure thing in the eyes of most, stick with the Egyptian court, but even so, we can imagine that he's probably thinking, now what? He's fled into exile and his people remain enslaved.
His current moment epitomizes the experience of being stuck kind of in the in-between. But even there, God shows Moses his favor. Continuing on in verse 16, it says, now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the trough to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, why have you returned so early today? They answered, an Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock. And where is he? Reuel asked his daughters. Why'd you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.
Moses agreed to stay with the man who, gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, I've become a foreigner in a foreign land. During that long period, the King of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Now in, again, in this, in these series of events, we have another echo of what has come before. This encounter that Moses has with the daughter, with the daughters of Reuel at the well reminds us of how Isaac's servant found the woman who would be his wife, Rebekah, at a well. You just have a lot of echoing here of this, God's faithfulness in the past and how that's continuing into the present. So here, instead of just one woman, Moses meets five, seven rather, seven daughters of Reuel.
And it's interesting, the name Reuel means friend of God, and it says that Reuel was a priest of God. Now, Reuel was a Midian, a Midianite, and if you go back in the story, you'll know that Midian was a son of Abraham and his wife Keturah. So it's reasonable to think that Reuel actually is worshiping the one true God.
Now later in the story, we will find that he's also referred to as Jethro. That's no sort of discrepancy it, it's not uncommon for people to have two names as, as we find in the Old Testament narrative. When you think about Jacob, he was known by the name Jacob, but he is also named by the name Israel. So in the case of Reuel, he's also known by Reuel and as Jethro.
Now the situation that Moses had come upon was that some unfriendly shepherds had kind of barged in on Reuel's daughters watering their sheep and said, get outta here, chased off the flock. Moses intervenes, brings the sheep back, makes sure that, and made sure that they get watered. And Reuel notices, I guess it must have usually taken them a long time, but with Moses' help, they must have watered the, the flock much quicker.
He notices they get back early and they tell him why, because they got help from Moses. And he's like, why didn't you invite him back? Maybe Reuel's eager to get a son-in-law here. We don't know how many of his daughters may have been married at the time, maybe none of them. He is like, get this guy in here, he's, he does good stuff for us. And so Moses accepts the invite and he ends up marrying one of Reuel's daughters, Zipporah, and they have a son and they name him Gershom. And the, the name Gershom means Foreigner, foreigner. And Moses gives him this name because he says, I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.
And doesn't that just speak to Moses' experience? You can imagine just how displaced he feels. Probably no real sense of what comes next. Now, in this time, Pharaoh Thutmose III would've died, but the slavery continues and the cries of the people of Israel go up to God, but God has not forgotten them. It says in verse 24 and 25, God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Now, God had remembered them all along. It's not like he's like, oh yeah, those people I made a covenant to. But this is just a manner of speaking to, to demonstrate that God has made a promise and he's not going to fail to keep his promise to the people.
That their cries do not land upon deaf ears. And we understand from just knowing the biblical story and the promises that were made to Abraham, that all of this was anticipated in Genesis 15:14. Again, God told Abraham, but I'll punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they'll come out with great possessions.
But in that moment, neither Israel nor Moses could see all that was to come. They were in the in-between. We can say the same for ourselves. Individually in our personal lives, we always find ourselves in some sort of in-between, joy is matched with sorrow again and again -- there is no permanence, all is change for good and Ill, there's blessing in exile but we are still foreigners. And that experience that could be said to apply to all human beings is all the more painful when you don't have Christ. But even in Christ we have that experience. With Christ we desire more of what we have tasted and seen in the Lord. Apostle Paul says that we see in a mirror darkly, we don't understand all that we wish to know. We long to see the Lord face to face. We raise our cry unto the Lord. What is the cry of the church? Maranatha -- come, Lord Jesus. We are longing for Christ's return when he will make all things new, when he will raise the dead and introduce a new creation here on earth.
God has not forgotten, he remembers us, he remembers his promise. There is a purpose in the in-between, though we're not always able to comprehend it. But never forget this: we are part of the story, many chapters after Moses, but we are part of the story. God's hand remains active even when unseen. Now I wanna share in conclusion a poem with you, and this is a poem written by a man named Grant Colfax Tuller.
But it's become more widely known because of the people that have really embraced it. Corrie Ten Boom, a woman that was persecuted by the Nazis for helping the Jews, really loved this poem, as did Elizabeth Elliot, whose missionary husband, was killed by the Auca Indians. They clung to a poem like this for understanding the hardships that they went through and, and I hope this is an encouragement for you also as we think of the story of Moses in this light.
Now, this is using the imagery of tapestry, and that's actually a tapestry that Corrie Ten Boom would use in her illustration. The front, you can see and understand what it is. The back's a mess.
My life is, but a weaving
between my God and me;
I cannot choose the colors
he worketh steadily.
Sometimes he weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget he sees the upper,
And I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern he has planned.
My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me;
I see the seams, the tangles,
But he sees perfectly.
He knows, he loves, he cares,
Nothing this truth can dim;
He gives his very best to those
Who choose to walk with him.
Let us come before the Lord in prayer that we would have such faith to walk with him.
Dear Father, we, we thank you for this immense privilege that we have to hear the testimony of, of how you worked your plan across the ages. To have the privilege to be able to look at Moses' story and to understand what you were doing, even when Moses didn't understand completely all that was to come.
Father, we pray that you would give us such faith, that you would, by the Holy Spirit, enable us to have trust and faith in you in this in-between. Even while we don't understand all the things going on around us, even when we don't understand the hardships we go through, even as we're faithfully walking with you, father. Father, help us to not doubt your faithfulness, but to trust that you are working all things together for our good.
Father, we rest on your promise, looking forward to the return of Christ when all shall be made well, until that day comes, father, help us to persevere. We ask this, the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we worship God and hear the preaching of his word. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)