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We are working our way through the early chapters of the book of Exodus. We’re in Exodus 2 this morning which was read earlier this morning, and is on page 45 in the church bibles. As we work our way through this series in Exodus, we see how God through Moses rescues in a remarkable way the Israelites from Egyptian slavery under Pharaoh. Last week, in Exodus 1, we witnessed the Israelites' oppression under a new Pharaoh, who was threatened by their increasing numbers and power. And it is God (not Moses) who is the central figure in this book. There is a battle unfolding between God (the Redeemer and the great Promise Keeper) and Pharoah, (the unjust and cruel ruler).

In Genesis, God promised Abraham that his family would multiply; that they’d have their own place, that they would be blessed, and they would become a blessing to all nations. Through Abraham’s family the curse of sin would be reversed. And so far, the Israelites have become a mighty nation in Egypt, but they’re not yet in their proper location. Despite their suffering, under the hand of Pharoah, they continue to multiply. God's plan is unstoppable. Exodus 1 concludes with the Egyptian Pharaoh's ruthless act to hinder the growth of the Israelite community. He commanded the drowning of all newborn male Israelite children in the river Nile. That’s how Exodus 1 ends. Then Exodus 2 focuses our attention on a particular Hebrew family (Exodus 2.1-10):

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

So in this tragic time, a Levite family welcomed a precious son. It’s difficult enough to have a new baby, but even more terrifying when his life is at very real and immediate danger. Every cry could expose him. Despite this, they successfully concealed him for three months. But then, we’re told they ran out of options. Drowning the child was unthinkable. Keeping him meant certain death from Pharaoh's enforcers. No available options were acceptable. However, in these extraordinary circumstances, we see ordinary individuals displaying faith. This mother entrusts her son to God. Her actions are driven by faith, not fear of Pharaoh. And so she obeyed the order to cast him in the Nile, but before she did that she placed him in a basket, or ark. The word translated here as basket is the same word used for the ark built by Noah, which was also waterproofed with pitch. So she left her child in the basket among the river reeds. Would the baby (like Noah) be saved through this ark? Will God intervene?

Well, God is in charge, despite life seeming random or controlled by chance or an enemy such as Pharaoh. What follows are many delightful twists of irony as Pharaoh's attempts to hinder God's plan ultimately backfire. Pharaoh's daughter coincidentally arrives at the same spot in the river. She encounters an adorable Hebrew infant and feels compassion towards him. By chance, she encounters an Israelite girl who’s also present. Conveniently, this girl knows a suitable nanny and consequently, a financial arrangement is established to raise the baby. So we end up with Moses's mother being paid by Pharaoh's family to raise the very person who will achieve what Pharaoh fears the most. Pharoah, still unnamed, is mocked for his futile attempts to thwart God's plans. These verses show us the foolishness of trying to prevent God's faithfulness to His promises. And all of this mirrors God's saving work through Jesus, with God so in control that he employs his enemies' schemes and their evil plans to fulfill his own objectives. Through the cross, God humiliates and exposes the forces of evil, disarming them and triumphing over them. Colossians 2.15:

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

And so the child, not yet named, grew up at home and was eventually brought to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him and named him Moses. Why? Because she rescued him from the water. Isn’t that a hilarious line because we can see who’s really in charge? Even if at this stage his hand is somewhat hidden. It is the great Promise Keeper. He is on the move. He is the one who rescues his people. Did you notice Moses crying out when he was found in the river? Just like the Israelites. God saved Moses, building anticipation that He will hear and rescue His people too. But how will that happen? Can you guess?

We’ve got a Hebrew baby raised in Egypt's royal household. It's momentous. He grows up in the family of Pharaoh, ruler of the world's superpower. Even greater than Joseph's influential position in Egypt all those years ago. Moses would enjoy tremendous privileges: a grand home, top-notch education, luxurious modes of transportation, access to secret political strategies, and abundant power, money, prestige, and influence. God can use Moses' exceptional position to bring change and rescue to God's people. Except Eqypt and Pharoah represents all that is opposed to and in rebellion against God. Where worship of the creator God is replaced with idolatrous worship of created things: people, pleasure and property. Spoiler alert: Moses would be the instrument of God's salvation for his people. Yes he would free them from slavery, but he would do it in a way that showcased God as the true creator. And in a way that would expose Pharaoh and his idolatry, proving to a watching world that he is powerless and defeated. All that is to come. Let’s read on (Exodus 2.11-15):

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.

Moses is no longer a baby. He knows that he was adopted as an abandoned Hebrew baby and he belongs with them, not with the slave drivers and the rulers of Egypt, and their suffering troubles him. Did his mother tell Moses about God's dealings with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph before giving him to Pharaoh's daughter? Is that how he came to know of God's promises? Did he see his mother's faith that he served a God who kept his promises? Did she also share with him the belief that he was sent to deliver God's people from captivity in Egypt? We don’t know the precise details. But, we see here a man aiming to free his people from slavery and to lead them in their uprising. And so one day, Moses observed an Egyptian attacking a Hebrew and, finding him alone, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The following day, he encountered two Hebrews engaged in a dispute. He gets involved, he’s trying to sort them out. So he confronted the aggressor, who challenged his authority and brought up the incident with the Egyptian. So what’s going on here? Was Moses wrong to take matters into his own hands or were the Hebrews wrong to reject the rescuer sent by God, resulting in delayed rescue and prolonged suffering for 40 years?

Moses indeed murdered the Egyptian, as revealed by the text and his secretive behaviour. And because of that, he suffered the loss of his influence and favour with the Pharaoh. On the other hand, wasn't the Hebrew questioning if God chose Moses to save his people? By accusing him of wanting to kill them, they doubted his good intentions and expressed mistrust in him. Well whatever is going on, one undeniable truth is that God's purposes are not hindered by our mistakes and failures. It’s helpful to look at the two New Testament passages that comment on Moses' life: Stephen's speech in Acts 7 and Hebrews 11, which was read earlier. Here is Acts 7, and Stephen’s speech (Acts 7.22-28):

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarrelling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbour thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

The Israelites are criticized for not trusting in what God has provided, while Moses is praised for his act of salvation. The writer to the Hebrews also approves of Moses' faith in identifying with the oppressed Israelites. Hebrews 11.24-26:

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

So I take it that we are to see in what Moses did here a mirror image of what God would do to Egypt. Moses was acting as Gods agent and is answering for us that question of how God was going to rescue his people. So in Exodus 2.11 we read that Moses looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. God too would look and see. In Exodus 2.12 he struck down the Egyptian. God too would later be described as striking down the Egyptians. But Moses then had to flee Egypt and he went to Midian – to the very people who had taken Joseph down to Egypt in the first place. Immediately, he confronted another injustice concerning the daughters of a priest and once again acted as a deliverer, mirroring what God would do through him. Exodus 2.15-20:

…But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”

He meets Reuel (aka Jethro), a priest and friend of the God of Abraham, and father of the seven harassed daughters. In Exodus 2.17, we read that Moses saved them and in Exodus 2.18, he delivered them. All signs that Moses will be the instrument for God to save his enslaved people. Exodus 2.21-22:

And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”

Moses sided with God over Pharaoh at a cost, but was provided for by God in Midian, where he found a wife, family, and a home in a land of freedom to worship the Lord. In his son's name lies a subtle reminder of Moses' struggles during this period. He went from the height of “success” to shepherding in a desert for forty arduous years. Initially, there were indications we’ve seen that God had a role for him in saving his people, but then he found himself merely a wanderer in a foreign land. Was he wasting his life? Did the Lord have no purpose for him? Again, Hebrews 11 sheds light on what was going on here (Hebrews 11.27):

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

He trusted God to govern his future, not knowing what would come next. Sometimes we must wait, trusting God for clarity in His time. Moses saw him who is invisible. By faith he trusted that God’s hand was fulfilling His purposes even if apparently hidden and unseen. He may not have seen it at the time, but God was preparing him. Moses became a husband and father in Midian, learning essential lessons about love, humility, service, and leadership. He lived in the wilderness, learning about its geography and topography, preparing him for future challenges. He worked as a shepherd so that he could learn to be the shepherd God’s people would need. His experience as an outcast fostered empathy for the suffering of God's people in Egypt. Most of all he learned, in a community of God’s people, to know God as a prayer-answering and faithful God. And yet, and yet, all still seemed hopeless for God’s people back in Egypt. But there is always hope. God’s hand may appear hidden. But he remains faithful. Exodus 2.23-25:

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

This chapter ends with Israel crying out in desperate prayer, echoing Moses' earlier cries when he was in danger on the Nile. Look at the verbs. They groaned because of their slavery and they cried out [literally, ‘scream’] for help and their cry for rescue is their desperate prayer. Israel’s situation is dire, but the crucial question is what God intends to do about it. The answer is that God will rescue them from Pharoah, just as he rescued Moses. There are four verbs of God identifying with his people: He heard…remembered…saw…knew. Was God remote or absent? Was he forgetful? No - he never abandons his people, never forgets his promises. He is faithful, sustaining his people and advancing his kingdom. What’s going on in this narrative narrative is the unfolding of the promise made to Abraham. His actions at this stage may appear to be behind the scenes, but we are to see and to trust that God is faithful even when you can’t see what he’s up to. But in the coming chapters we will see his power and his hand. He is a God who keeps his promises.

What does this have to say to us today? What does it say to our church on our anniversary? With narrative passages like this, we can't rush too quickly to immediate applications. As the story unfolds, those things will become clearer and clearer. But let me suggest three areas perhaps that we could look at for how we can live in the light of these wonderful versus how we can apply them to ourselves:

Firstly, that reminder that God is a faithful God who keeps his promises. He promises Abraham that he will reverse the effect of sin, that he will rescue and gather for himself a people, that he will put them back in a land where everything is perfect again. God is a God who is faithful. We know that he went on to keep that promise through Christ, through his death and resurrection, his ascension and through the way he gathered together a church. And we know that one day he will come again in fulfilment of that promise, to fulfil and finalise that rescue of his people. And there may be times when his hand seems clearer to see. Jonathan talked about that times of revival in our history. He talked about churches filled with 2000 plus people. In our denomination, average church attendance in 2022 is 23 people; 22 adults and one child. If you’re a Church of over 100, then you’re in the top 95% of churches. Those are the statistics from 2022 that have just come out. But God's purposes are bigger than our denomination. God's purposes are bigger than our time. He is working out his purposes. And we need to trust him, even when around us, it appears like things are not. We should ask ourselves: Are our action, are the options that we choose from, born out of faith? Out of trusting that he is a God who keeps his promises?

The second area to think about is to see this wonderful picture of God saving and providing a Saviour. But Moses was called Moses because he was ‘saved’. But he's not the ultimate saviour. He highlights the true Saviour who is to come. Jesus means ‘saviour’. Moses means the one who was saved and Moses is a picture of Jesus. He's a picture of that true and ultimate saviour that God sent to die, to rescue us from slavery from sin. And years later, Jesus, too, would be born in a time much like. The time where boys would be killed by King Herod. His life would mirror so much of Moses. His escape to Egypt, the return to Israel. His sacrifice on the cross. So as we think and look at the life of Moses, let's allow it to lift our eyes to that true saviour. Let's thank God that he provided for us. Let's thank God for his rescue.

And then finally we see the cries of God's people and God's compassion of them and his answer to them. He is a God who hears. In the New Testament, all the world is encouraged to cry out to God for salvation. Trusting in Jesus death on the cross. We too are to cry out to him and only him. For help, for forgiveness, for saving, there is no other name under heaven by which we are to be saved. Perhaps these elements of their cry that resonates with you, perhaps at times you feel ‘there must be more to life than this’. This perhaps you feel ‘I cannot carry on’. ‘Life is hard’. Perhaps you too feel that need for help and freedom. Well, the good news is that Jesus brings that freedom and that forgiveness and that rescue. And brings us and gathers us into his Kingdom of light.

And if you want to know more then I’d like to invite you to join us on our upcoming Christianity Explored course, beginning with a taster and takeaway evening on Tuesday the 30th of January. More details in our weekly e-mail and Pete will mention that a bit later on. So let's remember that God is faithful. Let's remember that he provides a wonderful saviour. And let's remember that he is a God who hears and answers when we cry out to him. Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father,We thank you for showing us your faithfulness as our God, Redeemer, and the great Promise Keeper. Thank you that you are a God who saves – and have defeated every enemy. Help us to trust and patiently wait on you, knowing that your hand is always at work. Help us to live by faith, trust your promises, and recognize your faithfulness in every season of our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.