Sermon - September 5, 2010
The Gospel: 1,
2 This is the Word:
3
4
Man With a Mission: Against All Odds
Ex. 2:1-10, Acts 7:19-22, John 10:
20-27
Most of us are very familiar with the
story of Moses. 5 We remember the baby in
the bulrushes, adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, who grew up to lead the
Children of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land. The story is as
familiar to us as the one about Noah, the ark and the animals. But are
there lessons Moses can still teach us? How did he wind up in the river
in the first place? What was his mother thinking? How did a Hebrew
become successor to the throne of Egypt? Today begins the sermon series
on Moses: Man With a Mission. This morning's sermon: Against All Odds.
The story of Moses doesn't begin on the Nile. It goes back to Joseph
and how the children of Israel got into Egypt in the first place.
6As you recall, Joseph was sold by
his brothers and then traded on the slave block in Egypt. By God's favor
Joseph rose from obscurity in Pontipher's dungeon to become Pharaoh's
advisor, and prime minister over all Egypt. 7
With Pharaoh's blessing, Joseph relocated his entire extended
family, Father Jacob, eleven brothers, their families, tents,
belongings, sheep, goats and oxen to the fertile territory of Goshen
where they richly prospered and multiplied.
Four hundred and thirty years later, a Pharaoh rose to power who
had no knowledge of Jospeh, or respect for his lineage.
8 This Pharaoh saw the Hebrews as a threat to the security of
Egypt, and attempted to subdue them. First he submitted them to forced
labor. But the more oppressed they became, the more prolific was their
offspring. Then Pharaoh attempted to decimate the future of the Hebrews
by commanding their two midwives to kill all males as they are born: a
difference by only seconds to today's partial birth abortion. You could
call it a Midwife Crisis. However, we read in Exodus 1 that the second
attempt was no more productive than the first because the Hebrew
midwifes Shiphrah and Puah feared God more than they feared Pharaoh
9 Face
to face with the man who held them on a knife's edge, they told
Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women: they are vigorous
and give birth before the midwives arrive.” Ex. 1:19. God honored
their bold faith by giving them families of their own.
Thwarted by the first two attempts, Pharaoh, with the power drive of
a steam roller, plows through the Hebrew population ordering his men to
throw all male babies into the Nile River ( to drown, or feed
crocodiles). We don't know how many babies were sacrificed to the
currents of the Nile.
10Those were the harsh and
humble circumstances under which Moses was born: slavery, hostility, and
a death sentence the moment he took his first breath. Amram and Jacobed,
kept their unnamed baby hidden until he was three months old. How do
you hide a lusty, healthy infant for three months? By that time
something had to be done. Jacobed is a woman I admire.
11 When she saw her child was beautiful -well, every parent
does – but this baby was destined for work of God, and reflected that
grace in his appearance – Jacobed sought a way, at all costs to preserve
the life of her child.
It is amazing what God will do through a mother's love, especially a
woman of faith. Mothers have prayed for wayward children to see them
come to Christ and become great leaders in the Church. Mothers have
prayed for sickly children to see them made whole. Mothers have prayed
for children of limited ability to be blessed a thousand times over by
that child's trust and love.12
Jacobed placed her baby in a papyrus basket she covered with pitch, and
set afloat among the reeds of the river bank, and in God's loving hands.
Did she plan it? Did she scope out the river's edge, close to where
Pharaoh's daughter would bathe? Did she purposely wait those long three
months until the season was warm? Did she lead her older daughter
Miriam along the route, instructing her what to do and what to say? The
Bible doesn't say, but Jacobed had the character and the determination
to have done just that. Jacobed was slave laborer, powerless in the land
of Egypt, but in the eyes of God she was available and faithful. It's
almost as if she said, “Fine Pharaoh, you want my fair son tossed in the
river? Here, but on God's terms, not yours!” Next time you are hard
pressed to do something difficult, nor to your liking, or not your first
choice, give it to the Lord. Let Him direct you as to what is to be done
and how – then it will be to His glory, and your great benefit.
13 On a warm day, as she is
bathing in the river, Pharaoh's daughter spied the basket floating in
the reeds and orders her slave girl to fetch it. The sight of this
beautiful Hebrew baby crying moves her to compassion.
14 And
as if on cue, Miriam steps out from her hiding place in the cattails and
offers, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby
for you.” Pharaoh's daughter has not yet said anything about keeping
the baby as her own. Miriam lets the princess assume the baby would be
hers and offers to bring a wetnurse: none other, of course, than
Jacobed, her mother.
Even though God is not mentioned once in this poignant drama, His
love and providence orchestrated it from the beginning.
15 This is what He promised to
Abraham as we read in Genesis 15:13-14 Then the Lord said to him,
'Know that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own
and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. Bit I will
punish the nations they serve as slaves, and afterward they will comeout
with great possessions. 16
There are no coincidences in a believer's life. It was no coincidence
that Jaocobed's infant was spared three months. It was no coincidence
that crocodiles were not lurking at the water's edge. It was no
coincidence that Pharaoh's daughter caught sight of the basket and took
pity on the crying Hebrew baby slated for death. It was no coincidence
that Jacobed, not only had her child returned to her arms under royal
protection, but was paid to do what she gladly would have done: noursish
and nurture her own child. It was no coincidence, that this child,
Moses, who escaped death at birth, and death by drowning would be raised
under Pharaoh's own roof, and bring life and deliverance to the people
Pharaoh intended to exterminate.
17 Moses' story teaches us
God's loving presence is here, whether or not we feel or acknowledge
Him. His will is active, whether or not we collaborate with Him. His
providence is here, whether or not we seek Him. His grace is here,
whether or not we choose to receive Him.
18 The Hebrews groaned under
the oppression and wrath of Pharaoh. They cut straw and stomped mud for
Pharaoh's treasure cities under the whip of brutal task masters. They
were the possession of a ruler who was possessed by power and opulence.
Their life was meaningless before Egypt and the world. But in the eyes
of God, they were His chosen people whom He loved, for whom He provided
in His time, deliverance and a land of their own as promised. Against
all odds, His servant to be, Jacobed's baby, the adopted son of
Pharaoh's daughter, Moses, rose to defeat Pharaoh and his army.
Sometimes we feel defeated and forsaken.19
Maybe like the Hebrew people under oppression, you might think God has
forgotten you, closed His eyes, or at the very least, is watching over
some one else, not you. That's the devil's tactic - all lies - to
distract you from the truth, to seed doubt in your heart and weaken your
faith. Let the words and truth of Jesus sink deep into your spirit:
20 My sheep listen to My voice; I
know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. Jn 10:27-28.
When Jesus was born, like
Pharaoh, the wicked King Herod ordered all male babies to be
slaughtered. Like Moses along the banks of the Nile, Jesus entered the
waters of the Jordan, to be raised up as the deliverer of all people for
all time. 21 Just as Moses
survived and thrived against all odds, against all odds of death and the
grave, Jesus rose up to give to all who believe, eternal life. His
Power over death gives us power to live.
The testimony is clear. The truth absolute: God loves you,
watches over you, provides and protects you against all odds. When we
lay aside our presumptions, our pride, our preconceptions about
religion, and simply admit that without our Lord,
22 we are as helpless as a baby in
the bullrushes,or a lamb at loss, God rushes in to pick us up, nourish
us, coddle us, and keep us in His love. Amen.
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