Moses: Learning To Trust The God Who Leads - Part 1
Exodus 1:15-2:10
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Morning, everybody. Morning, morning, morning. I'm excited. As Lauren said, as we've been announcing, we're starting a new series. We're going to be diving into the study of Moses, and not focusing just on him, but really on how God interacts with him throughout his life. Our series' tagline is, "Learn to trust the God who leads." Really, Exodus and the story of Israel coming together is a story of Israel learning to trust God. But it's led by this person, Moses. And as Moses learns how to trust God, then the people follow suit. So we're going to be taking our time focusing on Moses. The book of Exodus is one of my favorite Old Testament books because there are so many foundational moments here for the people of Israel and for our faith. So it is a story of God's people discovering who God is. But like I said, in the forefront is the character of Moses. We want to see him as a leader: how God forms him and makes him, and how God meets him out in the wilderness. He has to learn how to trust God to fulfill God's commands and this redemption plan that God has. So each week, we're going to learn how God forms and shapes and works with Moses, and we'll learn how God can do the same in us and all of humanity. Throughout these ten weeks, we're going to learn that Moses lived an extraordinary life. He had a unique position as the first leader of the people of Israel. He had top-of-the-world moments with the Creator God, while also having some devastatingly low moments, where his sin and pride still came to the surface and had an effect on his life. We've covered some of Exodus before in other series that we've had. But today, we've actually covered our passage from today before, but we're going to look at it from a different angle, like I said. So we're going to be covering in this series Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—all these stories of Moses—but from the specific angle of how God formed Moses, and these moments that helped him become who he was and how he learned to trust God. So let me go ahead and pray for us one more time, and then we'll dive into our passage.
God, thank you again for your word and for the opportunity to gather. God, I pray that through today and through this series, you would teach us more about who you are and show us more of your character. God, that we would come to trust you and love you and put our faith even more in you. And at the end of this series, God, that we would give you even more praise and that our faith would be strengthened as we live our lives day to day, that we could step in peace, knowing that you are in control and that you are sovereign over life. So we pray this in your holy name. Amen.
Now, I want to give some quick background as to where we're at in the Bible. What's going on before we enter into our series? How did we get here? If you are not already there, we're going to be in Exodus, the second book of the Bible. So far, the Hebrew people, what would become Israel, the nation of Israel, had come to Egypt through Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. So this is kind of connecting Genesis to now, through the descendants. Joseph became the prince of Egypt. There's a whole other story, a whole other sermon series. But he was imprisoned and then proved to Pharaoh that he was a man of quality, and eventually became second in command over all of Egypt. And that was great. That moment brought all of his family into Egypt. But then, after Joseph, when he passed away, the relationship between Joseph's family, the Hebrews, and Pharaoh became strained. The leader of Egypt had forgotten what Joseph had done for all of Egypt. So this new Pharaoh feared what might happen if Joseph's descendants, the Hebrew people, the eventual Israelites, had an uprising. They were growing and growing and growing. And he just saw their numbers, and out of fear, he was like, "This could be a problem." In the future, they showed no signs of being a problem, but he just feared what could happen. So out of fear, he oppresses the Israelites. He enslaves them. But it doesn't work. His plan, hoping that the people would just wither and die off, doesn't work. Instead, they multiply. The people become even larger, even more. And this just grows and stokes Pharaoh's fear. So we come to verse 15 of Exodus chapter 1, and Pharaoh comes up with this terrible plan of infanticide to kill all the Hebrew baby boys. It's absolutely awful. It's, I mean, the epitome of evil. He's going to let the girls live. Why? Well, because the boys will eventually fight against Egypt, but the girls could marry into Egyptian life, be used for sexual exploitation or domestic service, but the boys would be the problem. So he reasoned, "If I get rid of all the boys, I'll get rid of my potential Israelite problem." Pharaoh had devised a plan to wipe out his foreseen enemy, the entire people of Israel for the future, because he viewed them as a threat. He viewed them as lesser than the Egyptians. He viewed them as a hurdle that could get in the way of his power, his goals. Let me tell you, the Bible gives us a very clear picture of how God feels toward those who view people in that way. Those people are portrayed as monsters, as agents of Satan. These types of people are the ones who view themselves as gods in a way, and often come toe to toe with God, and are eventually put in their right place. And that still happens today with rulers and leaders. For those who view any part of humanity as lesser, who put themselves above somebody, a people group, or who belittle or abuse someone made in the image of God, God will judge them accordingly. They serve as a warning, and Pharaoh serves as a reminder of who not to be.
But this is the background, right? So this is our picture of what's happening in the life of the Hebrew people, and this is the context for which Moses enters into the story. And this is why the people are crying out for help. They're crying out to Yahweh, saying, "God, help us. We're being oppressed. We're enslaved. We don't see any hope. God, please help us." Our passage's theme this morning is: God is always at work. Even when we can't see it, before we're even aware of his presence, even before we may arrive at the scene, God is always at work. And we'll see this in the plans that God has for Moses. Even before Moses is an active part of the story, God was at work. Exodus chapter 2 is the start of Moses coming into the Bible.
So who's on this scene? Before Moses arrives, who are we talking about? Well, we'll of course have Moses eventually, but we're talking about Pharaoh. We're talking about midwives. We're talking about a mother and a daughter. And we're talking about an Egyptian princess. With all these characters, the stage is set. So let's get into the very first moments. Read with me, chapter 2, verse 1.
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 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. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him, coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed him in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 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 will 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."
And throughout Exodus, we see these recurring themes that build upon each other. And we have a couple of them in our passage this morning. The first is a miraculous birth, because the circumstances we're looking at mean that Moses shouldn't have been alive. But in God's upside-down kingdom, upside-down from how the world operates, God uses people to make sure that his plan comes out on top. And a part of that is how many women feature in this story. And in a patriarchal society, for this many women in ten verses to be the heroes just shows that God is at work. It sounds like a setup to a joke. What do two midwives, a mother, a daughter, and an Egyptian princess all have in common? Well, they all disobeyed and rebelled against a human leader's commands in order to save a life. And thereby they served God and helped set the stage for Moses to become the leader that God needed for his people.
And the first part of God moving in our story for the sake of Moses is through two Hebrew women, Puah and Shiphrah. This is back in chapter 1, verses 15 through 22. But these two women set the stage for how Hebrew boys got past Pharaoh's plan. It's quite an honor for Hebrew women to be named, and God names two of them here for helping to preserve the life of Moses and the lives of countless other Hebrew babies. Because Pharaoh had commanded, "Hey, whenever there is a Hebrew baby boy, you midwives are to take that baby boy and throw him into the river to drown." And when they heard Pharaoh, they went out and it did not happen. And Pharaoh gets this report that all these Hebrew baby boys are living. And he comes and calls the midwives back and says, "What's happening?" And they, which I love, they just said, "Well, these Hebrew women are not made like the Egyptian women. They just deliver too fast. We can't get there in time. Every time we get there, the baby boy is already alive. So sorry, we can't do it." And we can read between the lines there and know what they were doing and how intentional it was. And God honors that. God loves that. These midwives did not fear Pharaoh. They feared God, not a man. They feared God, not a dictator. They feared the Creator, not the snake in our story, Satan. Because in this story, Pharaoh is that evil presence, and they don't listen to him. Even though these midwives may have known that they were honoring God in their disobedience to Pharaoh, they did not know God's full plan. They didn't do this because they knew, well, one of these baby boys is going to become Moses and is going to become this leader of Israel. No, they just, in their circumstance, in their situation, chose to honor God and say, "No, we're not going to throw these baby boys in the river. We're going to honor life and honor these humans, these little babies that are made in the image of God." So God can use us in many ways. God is at work in ways we don't know. That's our first point: God is at work in ways we don't know.
Moses didn't know this. The Hebrew midwives didn't know this: how much of a plan they were part of, or how much they played a part in God's plan. But God is at work in ways we don't know. And sometimes I have this thought that we're going to get to heaven, and all the conversations that we get to have, and I think it goes two ways. We'll be able to share with other people, come up to them and say, "Hey, you never knew this, but when you did this, when you showed up for me, when you prayed for me, when you did that, it affected me. I never told you; you never knew on earth, but in heaven, now I get to tell you that you played a role in my life and me becoming closer to God. God used you." And hopefully we get the other conversations too, where people are coming up to us and saying the same thing, saying, "Hey, I never got to tell you. You never knew this, but God used you to benefit my life. God, you were a part of God's plan for me. And I just want to thank you for that." I think a lot of Hebrews are going to thank Puah and Shiphrah for what they did in honoring God.
So God is at work in ways we don't always know. The next characters set the stage for Moses being able to live; that's the first part. The next one is Moses' mother and sister, and they're faced with this mandate that has gone out over the land to throw baby boys into these waters of death. And Moses' mother does end up putting Moses into the water, but safely. Now, I cannot imagine being in this scenario. I know that there are those throughout history who have had to face some dire, just terrible circumstances regarding their children and protecting their children. And as a parent of two, imagining a mom making a basket to save her child, covering it with pitch, knowing that even then this is not a guaranteed scenario—"I'm just giving this baby a chance"—my heart breaks. In the text, they cover it so quickly, but you can just, if you take time to pause and put yourself in Moses' mother's shoes, and the time that it must have taken, and the time to develop this plan to say, "This is what I'm going to do. This is the best shot for Moses to be able to live." And then to have to bend over and put the baby in the basket and just push it out into the river.
This brings up another recurring theme throughout the Bible: a person going down into a pit or into waters that symbolize death, where God miraculously meets them and brings them through whatever death scenario into greater glory afterwards. In the Bible, this is, like I said, either a pit or chaotic waters, and the person usually miraculously survives and is brought about for God's plan. So we think of Noah and the flood, those chaotic death waters that meant death for the rest of the world, but God brought them through that scenario. If you're familiar with Joseph, he was thrown into a pit by his brothers, meant for death, but God brings him out of that pit. Think of the Israelites in the Red Sea: they're going to go through the waters that should have killed them, but God brings them through for glory on the other side. You think of Jonah being thrown into the waters, and God meets him where he's at and brings him through, sustains him. You also have Daniel and the lion's den, being thrown into a pit. It should have meant death, but God brings him through; Daniel is brought through, and he lives. And from all these images in the Old Testament, we get the idea of baptism, dying to self, being brought through water, being made new for God's purposes on the other side. The culmination of this theme is Jesus on the cross: going into hell, defeating death, and being raised to life in the resurrection. I know I just covered a lot right there, but I think it's helpful to step back and get the broader perspective of what that theme means and then to get back into our story.
And so we know that Moses is put into a basket. And the Hebrew word for basket here is the same word for ark. It's a little baby ark. And for the Hebrews who would read these stories, that would link them to, well, what's the only other story with an ark in it? Noah's ark. And how did that story end up? Amazing. God was there. And so already we know God is at work. This little baby ark: God is going to do something miraculous. He's going to rescue Moses. And Moses in this little ark is sustained by God in the midst of chaotic death waters. A theologian says, "As the ark in Genesis bears on the water, the saving remnant of humankind, the child born on the waters here will save God's imperiled people." There's a part of the way that God works in our lives that builds faith for the future. Often through trials and trauma, but as we see God work, that grows a deeper faith in us. And the next time we face anything, as we continue on in life, we have a deeper faith. We'll get to it later in our series, but when they get to the Red Sea, I just wonder, does Moses look out into the waters and think, "I think God's got us? Everyone else thinks this is death, but I've been through something similar before. I've faced death waters before, and God's sustained me." How often—this is the question I want to ask right now—how often is that true for us? And this is the slide: God's work in the past can serve as fuel for our faith for the future. As you look back on your life, do you have moments, maybe they're traumatic, maybe they're tragedies, do you see where God sustains you, where he brought you through? And hopefully that can give you faith. Say, "God, you got me through that. You didn't have me avoid it. You didn't have me circumvent that entire heart situation, but you got me through it, and now I have more faith in you because of that." God's work in the past serves as fuel for our faith for the future. We've got to store those things up. We've got to remember what God has done so that when we face hard times, we have fuel to get through it—what God has done in our lives.
The next person to enter into our story is the princess, someone completely unexpected in this story, someone who we may think initially may uphold the orders of her father: killing the Hebrew baby boys. But thankfully, like the midwives, like Moses' mother, she chooses life. And Moses survives these waters, the very waters that Pharaoh meant for his death and the death of all Hebrew boys. He's there floating among the reeds. And it's a way of foreshadowing the future triumph that Israel will have over Egypt. I want to draw our attention to verse 6. It says, "She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him." This baby was crying. And as I was preparing the sermon, this verse kept getting me choked up. I want you to put yourselves again in the shoes of this Egyptian princess. You've gone down to the river for your daily routine. Bathing is the beginning of the day. And you hear a baby crying. Without any conversation, any of us, when we hear a baby crying, can safely assume some things. One, the baby's in need; babies cry when they need something. Two, babies can't help themselves; this baby needs someone to address their needs. This baby keeps crying; the baby doesn't have anyone. And so, just in a split second, we hear—if we were there at that river—we would also know something's not right. And it just breaks my heart to know that there's a little baby boy in a basket. And the injustice, and how this encapsulates the vile hate that this decree has brought about. The result of Pharaoh's evil heart is heard in these babies' cries. A mother forced to abandon her child and a child in desperate need of a mother. And these cries, if you've ever had a kid or you've been around kids, I imagine it's the kind of cry that's not just a whimper. It's not just the cry like, "Oh, they're a little tired. Oh, they're a little hungry." It's that wailing. It's that crying that the baby is almost inconsolable, that level of crying. There's times as a parent when I'm mad or frustrated with my girls, even though when they're crying, I'm like, "Ah, they just—they didn't—they wanted dessert. They don't get dessert. And now they're crying about it." And that's, yeah, they can deal with it. But there's also different types of cries as a parent that you know that there's no room for my preferences—like, right. The immediate thing is they just need to be picked up. They need to be held. They need to be comforted. And I think that's the kind of cry that the princess hears. It's this dire situation of a baby crying its little heart out. And we know that this cry is different because this is the only time in the entire Bible that the word "weep" is used for a child. Every other time in the Bible, it's the word "cry" in Hebrew. But here, the Hebrew word is for weeping. And I can't help but wonder if Moses' cries symbolize Israel's cries to God: just, "We're weeping right here, God. This is... there is no other answer to our problems but God's divine intervention." And, like the princess, God will come to the rescue. This Egyptian princess—her heart breaks for this little baby. And the Egyptian princess models a savior in our story, rescuing the baby from death. And in verse 10, "When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son." The princess adopted Moses just as God does with us. And she named him Moses, which means, "I drew you out of the water." Moses, as we know, becomes this pivotal part of God's plan, and it's already being foreshadowed right here.
God is at work before we arrive on the scene. God is at work before we are a participant in what's going on. God is at work in ways we don't see in the moment. And sometimes we won't see until heaven. God is at work in a way that only God could have orchestrated. Miriam, Moses' sister, is there at the scene when the princess draws Moses out and offers, "Should I get a Hebrew woman to nurse this child?" And then Miriam was able to bring Moses' mother to the princess. And just again, God's at work here in a way that only God can. In her state of slavery, now she's getting paid to be Moses' mother. Only God can do something like that. Only God can bring about such a reality to heal the pain that she just went through of having to give her child away. I can imagine that scene too. Just, you're probably in mourning and in depression having just watched your baby go down the Nile, and then your daughter comes running back, out of breath. "Mom, you're not going to believe this. Pharaoh's daughter wants you to raise Moses." Can you just imagine the tears of pain to tears of joy that God had brought about? God took her situation, a slave having to give up her son, and flipped it upside down where now she's getting paid to raise her son.
This brings about our next point: God is at work in ways we don't expect. She would have never expected this to happen. We don't always understand what God is doing. We don't always know how he's going to do it. And sometimes God is at work in ways we don't expect. We would not have drawn it up that way. We would not have planned for it to happen that way. But God's plan, which is perfect, is something often unexpected. I just want to review this passage with you all. So in our passage this morning, it showed us that one, God has a purpose for Moses. Two, God worked in ways unknown to Moses. Moses is just an infant at this time. He has no idea of what's happening. But through the women, through the midwives, through his mother, through the princess, in this upside-down God way, God worked in ways unknown to Moses. God's plan for his people and Moses took time. Sometimes we come to know people in the Bible when they're adults, and God called them and they respond. We got to know Moses as he's a baby. And even if we were to draw it up, we would think, "Oh, for Moses to gain influence over Egypt and Israel, man, him becoming a prince, that's a pretty good way. If he becomes a prince, he's that much closer to being in a position of power." But as we'll go on in our series, we'll see that God had other plans. And from this moment to the moment that Moses becomes the leader of Israel is eighty years. Eighty years before he comes back to Egypt and says, "Pharaoh, you've got to let God's people go." God's plan for his people and Moses took time. We also see that God's plan for Moses meant enduring a life-threatening situation. Like I said, that theme that is true in the Bible is often true in our lives too. We might have to be thrown into the pit or enter into chaotic waters and see that God would bring us through them. Not out of it necessarily, not going to avoid all the pain and suffering in the world, but we might have to see that God brings us through something. Then we also see that God redeemed what was meant for evil for his good. God took this plan that Pharaoh had to kill all these Hebrew boys, and God intervened. And we're going to see throughout our series how God uses that, changes it for his good.
And church, what I want us to see this morning is that all those things are true for us today too. God has a purpose for you. God works in ways you cannot see. God's plan in working out your life may take time, longer than we often like. We want it now. We want God in the next day, preferably in the next hour. "God, could you just change this next thing, this thing that's happening?" And to look at Moses' life, and it took eighty years. God's plan for you may mean enduring near-death moments, maybe emotionally, physically, spiritually; you may endure some very low lows. God can redeem whatever you are facing for greater glory than you could ever imagine. Whether here on earth or in heaven, God can redeem whatever you are facing. And as you look at this list, let's keep this list up here for a little bit. Which one is speaking to you today? Maybe you're feeling a bit lost, doubting your self-worth. Maybe your life has been more wandering than intentional steps, and you feel less than. Be reminded that God has a purpose for you. Maybe you're wondering where God is, because you haven't seen his direct hand in your life recently. And maybe you're wondering if God's even real, or is this a matter of God having an issue with me? But let this be a reminder that God works in ways that we often cannot see. Maybe you're wondering why God hasn't answered your prayer yet. Maybe you're wondering if things are going to get any better for you, or if this is just this hardship that you face, that's just life. Life is never going to improve. God's plan and work for you may take time. It's so hard to be patient. But oftentimes it's in the waiting where God meets us. Maybe you've gone through what you feel like is hell and back, and maybe you've done it a few times. Maybe you've endured a loss. You have lost a spouse, a child. Maybe you've had your life flipped upside down and still haven't fully recovered yet. And you're wondering if this is just how life is going to be. May this be a reminder that God's plan for you may mean enduring near-death situations, going into the pit, being thrown into chaotic waters, but being sustained by God and God alone. Maybe you think your situation is too far gone and there is no hope. But may this passage remind you that God can redeem whatever you are facing for greater glory than you could ever imagine.
If this is you, then I want you to be encouraged. Look at Moses' birth story. See how God has worked. And know that the same God who delivered Moses from Pharaoh's plan of death, who delivered Moses from the Nile, these waters of death—the same God who provided miraculous means for an upbringing is the same God who is looking after you. It's the same God who loves you, who has a plan for you, has purpose for you, who is with you, who sustains you. That's the God we serve. That's the God we worship. And that's the God that we can expect, maybe in ways that we don't expect, but we can know that God is at work. He is always at work.
Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, thank you again for our time this morning. And I pray that wherever we are, Lord, whether we're facing a pit-like moment or chaotic waters in our life right now, when we are feeling hopeless and lost, or maybe we feel like we're just enduring a long stint of suffering, God, I pray that through your word, you would remind us of who you are and that we would put our full hope and trust in you. And as we see how in the past you have miraculously brought about Moses' life, enduring near death, circumventing and overcoming plans meant for evil, God, I pray that that would give us hope today, that you can do the same for us. And even when we don't see you in our lives, even when we think, "God, I mean, you just don't feel close. Are you even working in my life?" I pray that we'd be reminded that maybe it's in ways we can't see. That in the background, underneath the surface of the waters, God, you are working for your glory and for our good. So, God, I pray that you would encourage us this morning. Give us deeper faith to cling to you with everything that we have. And this week, each day, each moment, God, I pray that we would look to you as our Savior and trust that you are leading us. Give us wisdom. Give us faith. We pray this in your Son's holy name. Amen.