A Deliver Prepared - Exodus 2:1-25

[0:00] Oh, good morning, everybody. Turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 2. So if you remember in chapter 1, we said the Exodus, the beginning of Exodus, we said it was God's promise equals God's deliverance. So Genesis was full of promise. It was full of beginnings, but we didn't really end anything there, did we? We had the beginning of creation, the beginning of man, and then the fall of man. We had a promise to Adam, the covenant made to Adam and Eve. Then we had a promise to Noah as Noah goes through the flood. Then we had a promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Jacob's descendants. A lot of promises, a lot of beginnings.

[0:39] One of the promises to Abraham was that God would make a great nation of his descendants, but that first they would have to go down into a land, a foreign land, we find out is Egypt, and they would have to dwell there for over 400 years, and there God would make them a great nation, but it would not be an easy time. They would be a people that oppress them, and then God would deliver them up out of that. So we've seen that promise through Genesis, and now we're going to see Exodus is essentially the fulfillment of God's promise as God makes a great nation of Israel and then delivers them out of that nation. Why? Because he promised a land to them. He promised the land of Canaan, the promised land. So if chapter 1 was the need for a deliverer, we saw the setup happening here within Egypt, what they had come to. Then chapter 2 is that there's a deliverer that's prepared. If there's a need for a deliverer, well, the next logical step then is, well, if I need deliverance, I need a deliverer. And just as God had revealed through the beginning of Exodus a need for a deliverer and began to prepare his people for deliverance as the world around them began to turn on them, we're going to see in this chapter God preparing his people for, or I'm sorry, preparing a deliverer for his people. And that deliverer is Moses. Moses. We said he takes up one-seventh of all the scripture. Moses, you think, Moses, what a mighty man. And, you know, we're going to spend a lot of time with Moses, but boy, it felt like his life was just flashing before my eyes this week studying this chapter, because one chapter covers 40 years.

[2:13] It's like, wow, that was fast. We don't get a lot of information. We get exactly what God wants to give us. We're going to see 40 years of preparation. We're going to see 40 years next week in the desert.

[2:26] And then it's going to slow down real quick as we go through God's process of delivering his people. In Proverbs 16.1, the scripture says, God is the one who prepares.

[2:45] Preparations of the heart and man, the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. I mean, we don't want it to be our own preparations. We don't want it to be our own ideas. We want it to be the Lord's. God is preparing. God prepares his people for deliverance, but he also prepares deliverance for his people. And how does he do that?

[3:00] Well, he always uses a man or woman. He always uses someone. God doesn't just poof. You know, one minute they're in Egypt, the next minute they wake up and they're in the promised land. God delivers through a person.

[3:12] Let's begin in verse one. And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. So in the middle of chapter one, which was the baby boys are now being thrown into the river indiscriminately, indiscriminately.

[3:28] The Egyptians are putting the Hebrews under bondage and they're using them as slave labor. In the midst of all that, you have this man, it just says, of the house of Levi who took a wife. A daughter of Levi.

[3:40] That doesn't seem like much. So what? What's the big deal? Well, here we see a man who's willing to go forward, to walk forward. That's literally what the word went means. A man willing to walk forward in faithfulness.

[3:51] In the midst of all this, he's not going, I'm not having children. I'm not having a family in the midst of all this. I know this is a crazy world. Forget that. But instead, he chooses to walk forward in the simplest things.

[4:02] It was God's will for my life. Just do the next thing. Just do the next thing. But don't do it in response to fear. Do it in response to faith. Well, who is this man? Well, Exodus 6.20 will tell us when, in chapter six, we get another snapshot of the genealogies of those that are in Egypt at the time.

[4:20] And it tells us that Amram took him Jochebed. So this is Amram. Amram was the son of Kohath, who was the son of Levi.

[4:30] Levi had Kohath and Merari and Gershon. And Kohath had Amram. So Levi was his grandpa. So Amram takes him, Jochebed, his father's sister to wife.

[4:44] So he married his aunt. But she's weird to us, not weird to them. And she bare him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were 137 years.

[4:54] So now we know who this guy was. He goes and he marries Jochebed in the line of Levi. God chose a man who was willing to walk forward in faithfulness.

[5:05] If you remember Abraham in chapter 18 of Genesis, God comes to Abraham when he's on his way to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He's already sent the angels, the two angels down. And he stays back.

[5:16] And Abraham, it says, follows him as he leaves Abraham's camp. And then God begins to kind of speak to himself. But we have a record of that. And he says, shall I hide from Abraham, shall I keep from him that which I'm about to do?

[5:31] He says, for I know that he shall command his household and his children after him. He says, man, I know he's going to be a faithful dad. I'm not going to withhold what I'm going to do. This guy's going to be a faithful dad.

[5:42] I want him to know what's coming next. And here's a man who just was a faithful dad. In verse 2, and the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

[5:55] It doesn't mean that he never misbehaved. Or when he was born, it was just kind of like, ah. You read Josephus, the Jewish historian, and he writes, you know, he's trying to paint Moses as this amazing guy.

[6:07] Like, he came out, you know, pretty much walking and talking and ready to conquer the world. But the word goodly, it just means favored. Or literally favored by God. So there's something about this child that they knew God's going to use this boy.

[6:21] They've already had Miriam, Aaron, and now Moses. And there's something about it. Whether they had a dream or God spoke to them, in some way, they know God is going to use this child.

[6:33] And they hid him three months. You think, well, okay, well, how hard is that? Well, if you think of it, for three months, I mean, you know, a baby's a baby, right? Now, to all the moms, they're like, this is my baby.

[6:44] He looks so different than every other baby. And he's the most beautiful baby. But it's a baby. We get to about three months. They get a little older. They start developing. You're like, oh, that's a baby boy. That's a baby girl. Now you can kind of tell a little more.

[6:56] This child is looking more like a male. At this time, you would not have seen baby boys. If you went to the grocery store, if you went to the supermarket, if you went to school, if you were out and about pushing your stroller, there was no baby boys in the Hebrews, among the Hebrews.

[7:09] You may see some Egyptian baby boys. But there were none. So this is a huge, huge step of faith for them. This is a huge risk. You can turn to Acts chapter 7 if you want, or you can, I'll put it up on the screen, but we're going to be there quite a bit.

[7:23] Acts chapter 7 and Hebrews 11. You know, the Bible is great because the Bible comments on itself. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen is giving his account before the Sanhedrin.

[7:37] He is giving his defense. They have had enough of this man. If you remember where Stephen comes on the scene, they needed someone to kind of run the food ministry, just to hand out food.

[7:48] And the criteria for that was a man of good reputation, filled with the spirit and wisdom. That was just to hand out food. I mean, he wasn't teaching Sunday school. He wasn't a pastor. This was just a guy who was going to just hand out some food.

[8:02] And he was mighty in word and deed and in the spirit. And he began to reason with those who were his former friends. His former friends were part of the synagogue.

[8:13] And they began to debate him. And man, they couldn't come against him. And so they decide, we're going to lie and we're going to besmirch his character. We're going to get rid of him.

[8:24] And so he's giving his defense here. And in Hebrews, I'm sorry, in Acts chapter 7, beginning in verse 17, he says, as he rehearses Israel's history, But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose which knew not Joseph.

[8:43] We saw that last week. The same dealt subtly with our kindred. And the evil entreated our fathers, just as the serpent in the garden dealt subtly, so that they cast out their young children.

[8:56] To the end, they might not live. Now, the way Stephen paints that there, that could mean they cast out their young children. They, the Egyptians, cast out there, the Hebrews' young children.

[9:06] Or it could be they were so pressured that there were those Hebrews who cast out their own children, afraid and responding to the pressure of the world. And in which Moses was born, in this time, comes Moses.

[9:19] And he was exceeding fair, again, to God is the idea, and nourished up in his father's house three months, just as we saw there. So there we see, again, this idea of him being favored, of him being fair.

[9:31] It's not just that he was a pretty kid. It was that God had a plan for him at this time. In Hebrews 11, we have commentary on this as well, 11.23.

[9:42] Speaking of Amram and Jochebed, Moses' parents. It says, So now we see their response to hiding him was a response of faith.

[10:02] They get in the hall of faith just because they chose to have a baby and protect that child because they saw that God had a plan for his life. Listen, every baby that comes into this world, God has a plan for their life.

[10:15] Every baby is exceeding fair to God. Yes, Moses had a specific task as a deliverer and a pre-type of the deliverer ultimately to come, Jesus. But every baby is just as fair and just as set apart to the Lord.

[10:30] But it was a reaction of faith. This wasn't just, oh, we're going to do this. This was in response to their trust in God specifically. And what does it say there? They were not afraid. Does that mean they just went out and flaunted this?

[10:42] That they said, we have baby Moses, there's nothing you can do, you know, because God's protecting us? No, I don't think so. You see, faith answers to a higher king. It doesn't answer to the king of this world.

[10:54] And faith does not respond in fear or to the feelings of fear. Having faith doesn't mean I never feel afraid. No, I'm going to feel afraid. But the Bible calls fear something we act upon.

[11:06] When you look in Scripture and, you know, and you see whenever the angels appear to people and say, fear not. It's not just don't feel afraid. It's don't react and respond to that feeling. Is love a feeling? Sometimes, right?

[11:18] Feeling goes along with it. But man, love's a choice. Love is a choice. Agape love is a sacrificial love that I choose to continue to have towards someone, whether I feel it or not, right?

[11:29] That's the same with faith. They were not afraid. It didn't mean they didn't feel afraid. It just meant they did not act upon those feelings. They acted in response to a higher king and a higher calling.

[11:41] And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes. So she weaves this basket, you think a three-month-old? I don't know. So the basket's going to be about that big. And daubed it with slime and with pitch and put the child there in.

[11:54] And so she pretty much coats it, weatherproofs it, waterproofs the whole thing. And she puts him in. And she lays it in the flags of the reeds in the river's brink, in the Nile. Now you think, man, there's crocodiles in the Nile.

[12:07] That's pretty risky. What we're going to see here, the pharaoh's daughter is going to come to bathe in the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter is not going to just jump in for a dip and have the risk of being eaten by crocodiles.

[12:19] The Nile was considered sacred to the Egyptians. It was one of their gods because they said, well, life comes from the Nile. So it's the god of the Nile. And they would go and they'd ceremonially bathe in the Nile.

[12:29] And so they had protected areas that they would build that you could go, that the royalty could go, that the wealthy could go and bathe ceremonially and worship the Nile god where they wouldn't be eaten by the alligators or crocodiles, whichever one it is.

[12:45] Either one hurts. So you can kind of see here the wheels turning in Jacobo's mind. Well, I have to throw the baby in the river. All right, I'll put the baby in the river.

[12:57] God can work, as we saw last week, through the world system. God can keep his people through the world system. And God can deliver his people out of the world system. That's up to God to decide.

[13:07] But at this point, so she goes and she places him in this ark. In Exodus chapter 1, if you remember, when Pharaoh charged them, he said to his people that they should cast their children into the river.

[13:25] At some point, all of these Hebrew women and these Hebrew men who are having these children, they either had their children taken from them or they themselves would have to go and do this.

[13:35] And so for Moses' mother, this is something that she was going to make sure in faith that she was going to do herself. Not in response to Pharaoh. This is in response to God.

[13:47] Yes, it's still within Pharaoh's system, but she's responding to God in the midst of Pharaoh's system. God always makes a way for his people. It may just not look like what we expect, does it? Right?

[13:58] You've heard truth is stranger than fiction. The difference between fiction and reality, what is the difference? Fiction has to make sense. Fiction has to make sense because it's coming from the human mind and it is, the idea is, it needs to make sense to you so you will buy it and read it.

[14:12] Reality doesn't have to make sense. Many times it doesn't. Right? God is not fiction. God is reality. He comes from outside of our minds and enters into our reality and is so shocking.

[14:24] The gospel is shocking. God's word is shocking because of the grace and the love that it gives us. That just can't be that God could unconditionally love me. He does. That's too crazy even to be made up.

[14:36] Well, it's not made up because God's truth is not fiction. And so by faith, Moses' parents, he hid him. They hid him for three months. And by faith, they also released him.

[14:47] Moses' mother, what did she put into that basket? As she closes the lid and she releases that into God's care, she puts something she loved, something beautiful, something precious, something fragile, and something alive into this basket and just lets it go.

[15:03] You know, she didn't have a fishing line. Like, Lord, I just put this into your hands. And she's pulling it back. She's let it go. And she's going to walk away. Luke 17, 33.

[15:15] Jesus said, whosoever shall seek to save his life, something we love, something beautiful, something precious, something fragile, something alive. Whosoever seeks to save his life, she'll lose it.

[15:26] But whosoever shall let it go. She'll literally fling it away is what the wording in the Greek. Cast it away. Whosoever shall lose his life. Preserve it. She'll come upon it again. She'll receive it back.

[15:37] There's also something else in this verse. The word ark that's used. And she built for him and put him in this ark.

[15:48] The only other time that word in Scripture is used is referring to Noah's ark in Genesis. The only other time that word is used. Noah's ark was pitched within and without as well.

[16:02] Within Noah's ark was placed something love, something beautiful, something precious. Both of these arks were used to deliver God's people. Both of these arks carried God's deliverer in type.

[16:13] Moses, Noah was God's deliverer. Because in and through Noah would come the Messiah. The ark of God's deliverance, both arks carried God's deliverer.

[16:25] Both arks were the saving of God's people. And both arks were entered into by faith. Remember in Genesis when God calls Noah into the ark, it says he said, come in to the ark.

[16:36] He called him in. He was already in there. Noah had to enter by faith. He could have said, you know what, God? We built this. I just can't do it. This is just too crazy. I mean, this can't be true. No one would write this fiction.

[16:50] That the world's going to be destroyed by a flood. Everybody's going to die. I just can't. I just can't do that. He had to choose to enter in by faith. And so, as well, was Moses placed in there by faith.

[17:03] She had to release him and let him go. Jesus, in 1 Peter, Peter writing, kind of using the flood and the ark as an analogy and a picture of Jesus.

[17:16] He says this, beginning in verse 18 of chapter 3. It's a little small. For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.

[17:40] While the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. Then he tells us this. The like figure, wherein to even baptism, does also now save us.

[17:51] And he qualifies that. Not the act of baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh going down into the water, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. Those who get baptized, their conscience answers toward God in that, yes, I believe.

[18:03] I believe in the Messiah, and so therefore I get baptized. But the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He's saying, just as Noah went into the ark, and in a sense passed through the waters of death, waters of baptism, and came out the other side alive, in the same way Christ went down into death and came back to, rose again back to life.

[18:25] In the same way we, in type, take part of that as we go down into death with Christ in the waters of baptism and come up again. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the ark, our ark, who has gone before us into death.

[18:39] Jesus, the one that if we enter into him, he takes us through those waters of death, the waters of baptism, and into new life. And in the same way here, we have this picture of Moses, God's deliverer for God's people, in pre-type going through the waters before he ever leads them through the waters at the Red Sea.

[19:00] And his sister stood afar off to see what would be done to him. You know, she's an older sister. She's like, why is he eaten by the crocodiles? Can't wait to see that. No, I don't think so. I think she's standing off in faith, right?

[19:11] We just saw that Moses' parents, their response to what's happening here is not fear. Their response is faith in God. And we're going to see how they're passing that on to their children. His mom walks off. She's like, I placed him in God's hands.

[19:23] We don't know if she told his sister to stay here, but Miriam stays and watches to see. I think she wants to see what is God going to do to deliver? What's going to happen? And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside.

[19:37] And when she saw the ark among the flags, or the reeds, she sent her maid to fetch it. So she's coming to wash, like we said, ceremonially. And she sees this black basket floating.

[19:49] And when she had opened it, she saw the child. Behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion. That word compassion means to spare or to pity.

[20:00] I don't know if you guys did it or not, but, you know, the song we just did that, speaking of the Lord's compassion, it's just crazy how the Lord puts that together. And she had compassion, meaning to spare, to pity.

[20:14] She had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. And you can see her conditioned response, right? She's an Egyptian. These are the Hebrews' children. These aren't babies. These aren't lives. These are Hebrews' children.

[20:24] They have a specific end to them. There's a conditioned response here. But what happened? Three things that she did that I think were very different than how she'd ever interacted with Hebrew children, right?

[20:37] The world wants to keep us apart from what's happening out there. It doesn't want us to have a heart of compassion. But she drew near, so she took the baby and brought him near.

[20:48] She saw and she heard. Three things. Compassion comes when there's personal interaction with the needs of others. As we're allowed to draw close to something and we see the actual needs and we interact with, we hear the cry and we see the suffering, the heart of compassion is birthed.

[21:06] The world would keep it away. The world would keep us only viewing things through the lens of social media or in a distance or that someone else or just give a dollar extra at the grocery store and I can keep myself removed from that.

[21:17] But to actually enter into someone's sufferings, to actually enter in and allow that heart of compassion to be built. And Pharaoh's daughter, oh, I'm sorry.

[21:29] And then she said, then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter. So she runs up, says, shall I go and call you a nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you? I love this. Did Pharaoh's daughter say she wanted that?

[21:40] No. This is just Miriam running up with a moment of inspiration that God gives her. She asks this question. And what is the result of this question? She asks a question regarding life, the life of the child.

[21:51] And what does it do? It nudges Pharaoh's daughter towards seeing this particular life is valuable. All she does is she just brings up life. She says, this baby should live. What can we do to help this baby live?

[22:03] Can I go and call someone to help you? And she just nudges Pharaoh's daughter to where she now sees this life. This particular life is valuable as well. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, well, go.

[22:15] And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, take this child away and nurse it for me. And I'll give you your wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. And so Jochebed receives her son back essentially to life again, casting him out into the river of death, thinking I'd let go of him.

[22:32] And now she receives him back and she gets paid for him. And the child grew and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. And she called his name Moses.

[22:43] And she said, because I drew him out of the water. That's about what, seven years, five years, four years, three years. I don't know how old he was when she brought him back. And now Pharaoh's daughter gives him the name Moses.

[22:55] That means deliver or delivered from water or delivered out or be brought out or literally delivered through the waters is Moses. Moses' parents gave up something they could not keep to gain back so much more.

[23:11] And when we're all parents at some point, we can't keep our kids. We have to give them up to the Lord. The sooner we turn them over to the Lord in faith, the sooner we realize that God looks at each one of those lives and says, hey, I have a call in that life.

[23:25] That one's mine. And that one's mine. And that one's mine. And that one's mine. But we gain back so much more because we gain back not just our children, but we gain back a brother and sister in Christ. In Acts chapter seven, we're told about this event.

[23:40] Stephen writes and tells us that Moses, when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds.

[23:52] A very different picture, this Moses, than the one we're going to see 40 years later when God's telling him at 80 years old to go back and rescue his people. And Moses goes, I'm not mighty in word or deed.

[24:04] But right now, it says that Moses is being taught in all the ways of the Egyptians. And it came to pass in those days, in verse 11, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren.

[24:16] So he's about 40 years old. And he looked on their burdens. Look means to deliberately identify. It has an idea of emotion and empathy within it. He looked on their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian, smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren.

[24:32] Something happens in Moses's heart. Or something happens that causes him to see God's people now as his people. Well, what happened? What happened all those years ago that would have maybe influenced him in this way?

[24:47] We can never underestimate the effect of a godly influence in the life of a child. You never know what that influence will do. You never know the fruit that it's going to bear 20, 30, 40 years later.

[24:58] For Moses, what was he, four years old maybe, five years old when he was taken back to Pharaoh's court, raised? What does the enemy do?

[25:09] He puts a layer and layer and layer of the world system. Says, yes, I'm going to teach him in all the ways of the Egyptians. He's going to be mighty in word and deed. God's never going to be able to use this man again. And little did he know there's a seed that God had planted in there as a child that would bear fruit years later.

[25:28] Acts chapter 7 verse 23 says, and when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. Why? Because God's word had been planted in his heart and it was taking fruit now.

[25:42] And he looked as he goes and he sees the Egyptian here in verse 11. He looked on their burdens and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. Interesting. He would have seen this his whole life.

[25:53] This is nothing new. The Egyptians were always smiting the Hebrews. But what does the world do? It kept him apart from it. Oh, no, no, no, no, Moses. You don't need to go into Goshen. You stay over here. The difference is now what?

[26:04] Moses is drawing near. Moses is personalizing this. Moses is seeing this and Moses is responding with compassion. And he looked and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew.

[26:15] He said, that's my brother. And he looked this way and that. So he looks around. And he saw there was no man. He slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When you have to look around to make sure nobody's looking, stop and think about what you're doing.

[26:30] It's probably not something you want to be doing if you're afraid of other people seeing you do it. Moses, at this point, Acts chapter 7 is going to tell us again, Moses knew who he was.

[26:42] Moses knew he was God's deliverer. He knew he was called to deliver God's people. And he supposed that these men would know that too. He says, guys, I'm here to deliver you.

[26:53] But God's will must be accomplished in God's way. Moses can't just go about this the world's way. What does he have right now at his disposal? What tools? Only the world's way. Jesus said in John chapter 10, I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly.

[27:09] God's way leads to life, the world's way, Egypt's way. Egypt's method of solving problems is death. This is what Moses had learned. Oh, I know how to get rid of a problem.

[27:21] You just get rid of it. Oh, there's someone smiting the Hebrews? I'll just get rid of them. God will not use the world's methods to accomplish his will.

[27:32] Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.

[27:44] And my thoughts than your thoughts. And we know the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. God's not going to use the world's methods to accomplish his will. Can God work through the world's system?

[27:55] He can, but he will not use the world's methods. Even as Moses' mom, even as the two midwives from last week, God used them within the world's system, but they did not use the world's methods.

[28:08] And when he went out the second day, so Moses is kind of like, Hey, that worked out. I'm God's deliverer. One Egyptian at a time. I'm going to take him out, and then this is going to go great.

[28:21] So super Moses goes out the second day. And behold, two men of the Hebrews fought together. He thought, Ho, ho. I can take care of this. And he said to him that did wrong, wherefore do you smite your fellow?

[28:34] And he said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Unwanted advice is criticism. That's not in the scripture. It's just a good saying.

[28:44] Unwanted advice is criticism. He said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known.

[28:57] Again, in Acts chapter 7, verse 25, it says, For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them. But they did not understand.

[29:09] He said, Who made you a prince and a judge? A prince indicates one who has the right to rule. A judge is one who has the right to determine actions. And in rejecting Moses, they said, You do not have the right to rule over us.

[29:21] Neither will you tell us what to do. We're not going to let you. And so we see God's deliverer rejected at his first coming, isn't he? He will come the second time to be received, but not the first time.

[29:35] And just like Jesus, Moses was favored by God from birth. So was Jesus. He was miraculously preserved in childhood. He was mighty in words and deeds. He offered deliverance to Israel.

[29:46] And yet they rejected him in spite. And they rejected the right of him to be their prince and judge. Moses, in Egypt at this time, he was the correct man with the correct calling.

[29:59] But he had the wrong method and the wrong timing. Just because God has called us and placed a calling on our life, we then don't just get to run with that and do it. We still have to wait God's methods and God's timing.

[30:10] Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. So Moses buried this Egyptian in the sand, I guess, or else rumor just got around.

[30:22] And they found out that Moses had murdered this man. And Pharaoh, this was his adopted grandson. This was the son of his daughter. He now seeks to slay him.

[30:34] There's no loyalty in the world. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian and sat down by a well. There's no loyalty in the world. And a Hebrew is a Hebrew, no matter how much he looks like an Egyptian.

[30:48] No matter how much education he's had. No matter how much the world has worked on him. A Hebrew is a Hebrew. One from beyond will always be one from beyond. Jesus said, if the world hates you, know that it hated me first.

[31:00] It never accepted me either. And so now Moses travels down to Midian. Midian, this isn't just like an overnight journey. This is quite a hike. He's really booking it. All the way down around the north end of the Red Sea and down into Midian.

[31:14] Midian means strife. And Moses there goes to Midian, this place of strife. And what does it say he does? In the place of strife, he found a place to rest. Next to a well. Next to the source of life.

[31:27] Moses is like, I'm done. It's over. I've murdered a man. I'm never going to be used by God. I'm just going to run. But I don't think he's running here in fear. And we're going to see that a little later as we have different commentary on the Bible as we finish this up.

[31:40] I don't think Moses is running in rejection of the Lord. I don't think he's running because he thinks God has abandoned me. I think he thinks he's blown it. But his faith is still in God. But in this place, there is this man here who has seven daughters.

[31:53] In verse 16, it says that he's the priest of Midian. And his seven daughters came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. So remember, Abraham had Sarah as a wife who had Isaac.

[32:06] And then after she died, Abraham takes another wife, Keturah. And she has a bunch of sons. One of them, excuse me, one of them is Midian. So he's in the land of Midian.

[32:17] So this would be one of Abraham's descendants through Keturah, through Midian. And here it says that he is the priest here, the priest of Midian. So he's a man who follows the one true God at this time.

[32:29] He has seven daughters. And they came to water their flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away. So the other shepherds. But Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. So Moses stood up on behalf of the flock.

[32:43] And he delivered the flock from the hand of the shepherds who would take advantage of them. And then he fed this, or he watered the flock with life-giving water.

[32:55] The deliverer provided protection and access to life-giving water for the flock. The flock of who? His future bride. The flock of his future bride. And when they came, the girls came back to Reuel, their father.

[33:10] He said, how is it that you are come so soon today? Now you think, wait, I thought his name was Jethro. Well, it is. Right here he's, and I'm not pronouncing that. Right? I listen to what the pronunciation is and I can't pronounce it.

[33:21] So we're just going to call him Reuel. Reuel means friend of God. And then later on we'll see him called Jethro. And that means his abundance. This is a man who knew God and loved God. But the girls come back and he's like, what are you doing here so soon?

[33:35] This doesn't usually happen because usually, you know, you're pushed to the side. You're taken advantage of. Well, Moses, what did Moses do? He showed unaccustomed care to these women and unaccustomed care to their flock.

[33:46] And that resulted in unaccustomed success to where their father is like, what's going on? And they said, well, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock.

[33:59] The deliverer. I love how they use that word. He delivered them out of the hand of the shepherds. Delivered means to snatch away or to rescue. Jethro knows something's different here. He's not just any old Egyptian.

[34:10] And the man's got seven daughters, right? We see how all the other men treat these daughters. Pushes them aside, watered their own flock first. Here's some guy come, stands up for them, takes care of them.

[34:20] And he's like, and you let him go? I've got seven girls. I need some husbands. They're like, well, dad, you said not to talk to strange men. And so he's like, go and get him and bring him back. Moses looked like an Egyptian, but he was at heart a Hebrew and a true shepherd.

[34:37] And he said unto his daughters, where is he? Why is it that you've left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. So the deliverer wouldn't come into their home until he was first invited. Invited in to dwell with them.

[34:49] And Moses does come in and tells us in verse 21 he's content to dwell there. So now we have more years passing as Moses comes and lives there. And he takes Zipporah, his daughter, Jethro's daughter, to wife.

[35:01] And so here we see the deliverer. He comes and dwells with the bride. He becomes joined to the bride, but only after first delivering the bride. Deliverance must come first.

[35:12] And then he's able to take the bride, the bride, and to join himself with the bride and to dwell with her. Zipporah, it means like a bird, like a warbler. It sounds nice, but it actually has within it the meaning of a Twitterer.

[35:25] Like a tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet. So we're going to find out later as we continue on through the book. She's a spicy girl. So he has Zipporah.

[35:36] You wonder why Moses is on the backside of the desert when we find him in the next chapter when God comes and delivers him. He's like, I'm going to work. In verse 22, And she bare him a son and called his name Gershom.

[35:49] For he said, I've been a stranger, or literally a sojourner in a strange land. That means, Gershom means foreigner, stranger, sojourner. Moses said, I have been a sojourner in a strange land.

[36:00] I don't think he's just referring to Midian here. I think he's looking back to Egypt as well. Like, I have, there's just no place for me. There is no place for me. Hebrews 11, 27 gives us some insight to this moment.

[36:13] It says, by faith he, Moses, forsook Egypt. His response to leaving Egypt was faith, not fear. Not fearing the wrath of the king. Well, wait a minute.

[36:23] We just read how it said he heard Pharaoh wanted to kill him, and he was afraid. Yes, that was a response. He felt afraid, but his actions were that of faith. He did not fear the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who was invisible.

[36:36] Well, what does that mean he didn't fear? Well, I think it means he stayed in Midian. He didn't keep running. He said, I'm going to stay here. I'm going to trust God. If Pharaoh wants to send a hitman after me, Pharaoh can send a hitman after me. But I'm going to trust God.

[36:47] I'm going to endure as seeing him who is invisible. And for the next 40 years, Abraham, I mean, Abraham, Moses is going to continue to endure as he looks to the one who is sustaining him.

[37:00] And I think Moses is probably relating more with Hebrews 11, 13 at this moment than anything as he names his son Sojourner. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

[37:19] I think this is where we find Moses's mental state at this point. I think we find Moses, a broken man, a man who thinks I've tried and I failed, but a man who is still trusting God, whose faith is in God.

[37:32] And it came to pass in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. We're fast forwarding now. That was like 40 years between those verse 22 and verse 23. The king of Egypt died.

[37:45] And the children of Israel sighed, means to groan by reason of the bondage. And they cried for help. And their cry came unto God by reason of the bondage. That word cried is literally to call out for help.

[37:56] It's not just like they were crying because they're sad, the pain. They're calling out and saying, God, help us. God, help us. God's people cried out to God. At what point?

[38:07] And when they became sick of Egypt and his bondage, it took 40 years for them to start calling out to God for help. So we can handle this. We can figure it out. We can work in this system. And eventually they realized another pharaoh now.

[38:21] Maybe if we can just get rid of this old pharaoh, he died. Yes, a new pharaoh, a new administration. Nothing. And they begin to cry out to God for help. And what happens?

[38:32] God hears them. And God heard the groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham. That word heard is to hear with the idea of responding to what you've heard. The idea of obeying.

[38:43] Like when you tell your child, you know, go sit at the table. You know they heard. But did they hear with a response of obedience? Or did they just hear it? This, the idea here, is responding to what they've heard.

[38:54] So God hears. He's responding to their groaning and remembered. That doesn't mean God forgot. It means he's turning his mind to them. He's actively turning his mind to the covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

[39:06] And God looked upon the children of Israel. And God had respect to them. Remember what we said about compassion? Drew near. He saw. And he heard. Or she, Pharaoh's daughter.

[39:17] And here you see God doing what? God sees. And God hears. And God knows. And God's response is compassion. God acted upon his word.

[39:32] His word to Abraham. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God also acted upon his heart, which is compassion. Compassion, if you remember, comes when there is personal interaction with the needs of others.

[39:47] God is not an aloof God. God is near to those who have a broken heart. Isaiah 59.1 says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. Neither his ear heavy.

[39:59] It's not plugged up, that it cannot hear. Isaiah 53.4 says, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. As God responds to what's happening.

[40:10] God's response is that he has a man who's been 40 years in the desert. 40 years learning, I'm not God's deliverer. I can't deliver these people. Moses' self-effort could only take him so far.

[40:24] The more he tried to further, the more he tried, I'm sorry, in his own effort, the further he ended up being from God's deliverance. Here's a man thinking he's supposed to deliver God's people, and now he's as far away from God's people as anyone could be.

[40:38] You know, the more we try in our own efforts, the further we get from God's deliverance, too. The more we try to fix this world or fix ourselves, the further we get from God's deliverance.

[40:52] The man God would use to deliver his people, well, he must first learn he needs a deliverer. Before I can be used by God to do any good in this world, to do any good, to deliver anyone else, to share with them deliverance, I have to first be delivered, don't I?

[41:08] And I can't do that in my own self-effort. 1 Timothy 2.4 says, God will have all men to be saved. What's God's will? God desires all to be saved. There's not one baby he's looking at and going, not that one, not that one.

[41:21] He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. John 5.24 says, God's deliverance is by one way.

[41:42] It's by entering the ark that Jesus made for us, the ark of his deliverance. He would have all men to be saved, but how do they do that? Not by hearing his word. The word that I can't do it myself.

[41:55] I can't deliver it myself. I'm going to go down into death, but who's going to take me out? Who's going to draw me out of that river? Only Jesus can. And as we put our faith in him, we pass through the waters of death to the other side, to life.

[42:13] But having done that, man, we just have the tendency now to think like Moses, I've got it. I'm God's man. I have God's calling. I have God's salvation.

[42:23] I have God's deliverance. I'm going to go out and I'm going to live for Jesus all on my own. In Galatians chapter three, Paul writing to the Galatians who kind of had the same mindset. They were going to do something on their own.

[42:35] He said, Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you. He's talking to believers. These are the brethren.

[42:46] He said, guys, you're not continuing in this truth. Yes, you believe Jesus was crucified for your sin, buried and rose again, that you might be saved. But this only would I learn of you.

[42:59] Received you the spirit by the works of the law, by effort, by keeping commandments, or by the hearing of faith. You just believed and you received God had something good for you. Are you so foolish?

[43:10] Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? You see, we can rest in the finished work of God's deliverance for salvation and we can rest in the finished arc of his deliverance for equipping for our lives as well.

[43:26] And they all come together in one person, don't they? Not Moses, but Jesus. So this morning, as we close, what is it?

[43:41] What do we need to place in the arc of God's deliverance? Jesus has gone in already for us. Jesus is our deliverer. Do I need to place my own life there? Do I need to take my heart and my life and my future and my eternity and say, God, I'm placing this in the arc of your deliverance.

[43:56] I'm just going to let it go and I'm going to trust you. What is it God is asking us to let go of and to float out in faith onto the waters of his deliverance? I've held onto this long enough that I'm going to let it go.

[44:09] What do we need to place in that basket this morning? What do we just need to release? Let it float away into God's care. On the other side of salvation, this side, the side we're on, we can carry so many things that God would just have us to let go of.

[44:25] So many things he already has a plan for. So many things that he's already delivered us from. He's just waiting for us to let go of them. You think of the Hebrews, 40 years, 40 years before we read, they called out, they cried out to God for help.

[44:39] Was God's help there? It was there at year one, but they were not willing to cry out. Moses, as God's deliverer, took him 40 years before he was a man who would respond to God.

[44:51] We're going to see next week. He's still putting on the brakes. But man, we need to let it go and just rest in the ark of God's deliverance. We need to know that God's deliverance has been fully accomplished on our behalf.

[45:06] Revelation 21, verse 5, And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and they're faithful.

[45:18] And he said unto me, It is done. It's done. It's already been done for us. So in essence, there's a little basket open. We could put a basket down here.

[45:30] We could all come forward and throw things in it. You know, if you've been to some youth conferences where they make a cross and you write something on a piece of paper and you go nail it to it, it's a very visceral thing. But man, that doesn't matter if it doesn't happen in your heart. What do you need to put in God's basket?

[45:42] What do you need to just let go of and say, God, I'm going to trust you to be my deliverer. I'm going to trust you to deliver me from that. I'm going to trust you as I deliver this to you. I'm not going to try and do it on my own anymore. All my wisdom and all my strength.

[45:55] Just like Moses, it comes to nothing. It is done. And so Lord, we thank you this morning that Lord, you have prepared a deliverer. Not like we would expect.

[46:06] Not as the world prepares a deliverer. We would expect the Moses with the learning of the Egyptian, the wisdom of the Egyptians, mighty in word and deed.

[46:17] We would look at that man and say, that man is ready to deliver God's people. Why was he ready? And you looked at him and you said, no, he's just beginning. We got a long way to go. Lord, the way you prepare a deliverer is very different.

[46:31] You sent your only son into this world and we think here comes the king to rule, but you sent him to die. You sent him to take upon you a crown of, to take upon himself a crown of thorns, to bear a cross, and to die.

[46:45] Nobody would have ever written that story. That is a fiction that would never come from the heart of man, but is a truth instead that came from the heart of God, that Jesus would enter into our world, would take our sin upon himself, would go down into death, the ark of our deliverance, and bear that through death into life.

[47:06] And all we have to do, just like Noah, enter in the ark, just like Moses' mother, just place in the ark our very lives. We do that this morning, trusting you, Jesus, not only for our salvation, but trusting you to carry, Lord, in your ark everything that we are trying to carry on our own.

[47:27] We love you and we trust you. We thank you, Lord. It is finished and it is done. In Jesus' name. Amen. You know, I think sometimes we can put Moses and Abraham and all these people on a pedestal and we can think, wow, these mighty men, look at all the things they did.

[47:44] But as we read through the scripture, they all just did one thing. Abraham believed God was counted to him for righteousness. Moses' parents responded in faith. Abraham, Moses, they responded in faith.

[47:55] So we have the same exact opportunity. It doesn't matter what our training is or who we end up being. We can all respond with the same faith they did.

[48:06] And we can all look to the Lord and say, Lord, you have delivered me. Use me to deliver someone else. And God will faithfully do that. The Lord bless you and keep you.

[48:17] The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord be gracious unto you. Lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you. If you want to eat lunch, we'll be next door and I'll hang out for a little bit.

[48:31] So have a great week. Again, for a little bit here we go. I think it's far from us to bless you.⅁ I'm going to happen sometimes dad to look up and dream that's what he wants to live during this period.

[48:43] And again, there's a lot of to look up because of his long before letting stop through the frame and just if what he be on machine World who came to the