Exodus 1 - 2011 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational we call this a textual community let's rejoice and learn God's Word in an interactive and enjoyable new way would you turn in your Bibles tonight to the book of Exodus chapter 1 as we can't in continue our way through the Bible Exodus chapter 1 why don't we pray first father we are your people we present ourselves before you tonight as the living sacrifice we understand Lord that your word is alive and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword and we submit ourselves to the truths that we discover in it and it's not about the technology it's not about the music it's not about the sights it's really about hearts that meet with the Living God and commune with you over the truth of your word thank you that you have spoken that you're a God who communicates from heaven to earth and as we continue the story of redemption in the book of Exodus I prayed that our hearts would be excited week by week as we develop that knowledge and an increased hunger for you in Jesus name Amen the book of Genesis was about creations all about beginnings beginning of the heaven in the earth the beginning of sin the beginning of God's plan to eradicate sin to redemption the beginning of a nation the beginning of a family the beginning of God's plan through the person of Abraham and then Isaac and then Jacob and then Joseph so it was all about creation the book of Exodus is all about Redemption that's the central theme deliverance and redemption if you think back Genesis opens up with creation in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth so Genesis begins with creation but it closes with a coffin the last verse of Genesis is about Joseph being put in his coffin death has entered because of sin but God's plan continues 350 years after the close of Genesis after the events in the last chapter of Genesis three hundred and fifty years later - four hundred years is where we come tonight to Exodus chapter one the book of Exodus covers about 40 years in time span but from our vantage point we're dealing with a document that's three thousand four hundred years old it's old it's an old book how many of you think that's old thirty four hundred years yeah that's old and so here's a question why are we studying an old document I mean it's an Old Testament book first of all and aren't we New Testament believers so why do we bother even studying the Old Testament verse by verse isn't it great to go through the Gospels and oh yeah mentioned a few Psalms but why study the book of Exodus if it's that old first of all because it's God's Word and second of all it's tied to the first it's profitable Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 speaks about Moses and the Exodus and the children of Israel and all the things that happened in a summary form and then he says this these things were written beforehand for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come what happened then says Paul way back in Exodus was written and preserved for us today in other words what happened thirty four hundred years ago is as relevant for us today as it was back then yes were removed by time but not by meaning and not by principle and not by power these things were written for our admonition so what we discover is the Bible including Exodus which has a lot of history in it it's much more than history it's as someone well put it and we've heard of many times it's not history it's his story his story of redemption his story of salvation the story that God gave to Adam and Eve that through a woman a child would be born the seed of the woman would conquer Satan in his kingdom and then that was passed on from Adam and Eve all the way down through Abraham as he looked forward to the coming Messiah and God said that God would bless the world through someone that would come from the family of Abraham and that is speaking of Jesus Christ so all of that to bring us to the very first word of the book of Exodus what does it say in your Bible says now it says now these are the names but the Hebrew word is the word vah that's how it begins uh and that is literally and not now but and I like that and these are the names in other words it's the continuation of a story what happened to Genesis is part one and as it continues 350 years later the message of salvation communicated Adam Eve Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph continues now and these are the names in fact that story will continue throughout the Old Testament pointing toward the new pointing to Christ Jesus will come the first time to pay for sins go back into heaven we're waiting for his second coming where he'll reign over the earth and that story will not end until you and I are in heaven that's the last chapter of our lives heaven but the story is continuing here in this book of Exodus so the or now or literally and it begins in Hebrew by saying the remote that's how the book begins and these are the names but Elish a moat and that's why the ancient rabbis used to call the book of Exodus the book of names because we have a list of the names of the sons of Jacob who came out of Canaan and made their way with their families during a time of famine to the land of Egypt Exodus is actually a Latin word it comes from the Greek but it's a Latin word X all DOS from the Greek which means escape or way out or if you like the exit the children of Israel started out as shepherds but they become slaves 350 years later and it's a story of how they made their way out their exit how they exited a time of bondage and came to the land that God had for them now here's the the overarching theme it's deliverance as I mentioned it's deliverance or Redemption how a group of slaves cried out for a deliverer and God sent the Moses and brought them out of the land of Egypt into a land he had promised them way back in Genesis the land of Canaan but there are other themes besides Redemption let me just give you a few besides the overarching theme of Redemption the book is about sacrifice sacrifice in Chapter 12 you'll be introduced to the lamb slain as the blood of the lamb has put over the lentils and the doorpost of every Hebrew dwelling and the death angel will pass over them and that great deliverance the priesthood is consecrated by sacrifice also a sacrificial system will be inaugurated whereby man can approach God man can be right with God through these mediatory sacrifices so the whole book is yes about redemption but also about sacrifice the book is also about ethics when you get to chapter 20 you'll get to the ten what Commandments the ten big words the ten Biggie's that God has for culture but beyond that chapters 21 22 and 23 it's laws of how to get along with each in society and various other laws through the book in fact our modern jurisprudence system in Western civilization borrows heavily from the laws given through Moses so it's about ethics it's also a book about the priesthood will be introduced to a group of priests who will stand between men and God and offer for men sacrifices so man can be right with God and that that priesthood theme is very important because it's anticipatory of another priest we know him as Jesus called in the New Testament our great high priest and the complementary book is the book of Hebrews in the New Testament where Jesus is called our great high priest there's another theme and then we'll move on the theme of the Prophet the predominant figure in the book of Exodus is Moses he's also the author Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy the first five books the Torah the Pentateuch Moses is the author he's the predominant figure but he's also the first prophet in fact in Deuteronomy 18 Moses makes a prediction whereby he points with himself to Christ in the future in Deuteronomy 18 Moses says the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brethren him you shall hear he is speaking of the future leader who would come and he is simply a type of that prophet so maybe this is helpful in the book of Romans Paul portrays Jesus Christ as the second Adam or the last Adam the writer of the book of Hebrews portrays Christ as the second Moses or the last Moses so there's a correlation between their ministry and a typology chapter one is a story of oppression it sets the scene for the deliverance because everybody would ask well what's the big deal why'd the Death Angel the plagues in Egypt chapter one will set the scene for us as it tells us how Israel came to need a deliverer and that's because of oppression a little bit of history might help when Joseph entered Egypt I mentioned this in in Genesis but we don't always remember everything I don't even when he entered Egypt he entered under an Egyptian dynasty called the Hyksos dynasty hy K SOS Hyksos the Hyksos dynasty were a group of shepherds outsiders who came to conquer Egypt they were not indigenous Egyptians that were not native Egyptians they conquered it and they were very favorable toward shepherds and toward outsiders that's how Joseph could be promoted to such a high level of leadership as the Prime Minister that was the 17th Egyptian dynasty but soon after already in the 18th dynasty the indigenous Egyptians had taken that rulership back from the Hyksos dynasty and they were now in charge and they were very unfavorable toward outsiders and that sets the scene for us here now I want to personalize something before we jump right in every one of us has had a Genesis a beginning right we've been born here we are we're breathing we've been born not every one of us has had an exodus a deliverance from the bondage of sin we've been born once but we haven't been born again you've had a Genesis but you haven't had an exodus you're born and you're here and you had a beginning and you're at the stage of life but you've never been delivered out by God's grace from the bondage of sin that's Redemption and that's why Jesus said that which is born of the flesh is flesh but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit Marvel not that I saying to you you you must be born again born again born twice now I've heard people say well does it really matter I mean you've got Catholics and you've got Protestants and then you've got that little sect of believers called the born-again earth I've heard it described that way well I'm a Christian I'm just not a born-again Christian I've had people tell me that and I say then you're not a Christian because jesus said unless you're born again you will never enter the kingdom of heaven it might not matter much now you say it's not true but you might say that but there will come a time when everything hinges upon that and the only way a person can enjoy fellowship with God forever is by the second birth because we're all born and we're all gonna die but if you've been born again Jesus said he was the resurrection and the life will cover that Sunday whoever believes in Me will never die so here's a little axiom to remember if you're born once you'll die twice if you're born twice you'll die once if you're born once physically and you you know receive Christ and you'll die physically guaranteed and unless the Lord comes back which would be a good thing but you'll die once and you'll die spiritually eternally that's twice but if you're born again born once physically but born by the Spirit of God we generated by faith in Jesus Christ you'll only die once you'll never die in an eternal separation from him so it's great that you've had a Genesis in your own personal life but make sure that there's also an exodus the time of deliverance from the bondage of sin well chapter 1 is divided sort of into three categories it's a short chapter so we'll make it through people prosperity problem that's how it's divided there are people and you'll see lots and lots of people and they're very prosperous that's the second prosperity God blesses them they multiply and because of that there's a problem now those three elements happen to unfortunately have been repeated in many cultures throughout history wherever Jews live people prosperity problems I want to touch a little bit of on that tonight verse one now these are the names finally verse one these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt each man and his household came with Jacob now as the list of people begins we begin with Leia remember that first wife of Jacob Leia and Rachel Leia's six sons are mentioned first in their birth order from Reuben to Zebulon Reuben Simeon Levi and Judah Issachar Zebulun and notice then it says , and Benjamin Benjamin was not a son of Leia Benjamin was the second born son of Rachel now Joseph was the firstborn he's not mentioned of Rachel and why isn't he mentioned because he's already there in Egypt he was already there before they got there no need to list him that was obvious they came because he allowed them to come so Benjamin is mentioned dan Naphtali GAD and Asher all those who were descendants of Jacob who were 70 persons for Joseph was in Egypt already questioned why were the children of Israel in Egypt to begin with why didn't God just give to Abraham like he promised that he'd give him land right he said I'm gonna give you this real estate for you and your your generations to come why didn't he bypass Egypt why did God let them go down into Egypt he predicted this even before it happened and then he sent them out of Egypt in this great deliverance why Egypt two reasons number one he wanted to prepare his people for the land he wanted to prepare the people for the land there were only 70 people he brought them to Egypt a place where because Joseph was in charge they would be well treated well respected and they would flourish they would grow in numbers they could multiply Egypt was like an incubator a national incubator an incubator is safe and warm it's very warm down in Egypt you can be outside like all that it was safe and warm and like an incubator they could flourish and they could grow in numbers and so that's the first reason to prepare them for the promised land reason number two God had to prepare the promised land for them I want you to jog your memory and think way back to Genesis chapter 15 when God reiterates the promise that he's going to give Abraham and his children's children's children a land and they're gonna be blessed and they're gonna prosper but then God throws something in it goes because the iniquity of the amur rights has not yet been completed in other words God is saying I will wait 400 years before I judge the amorite s' the Canaanites the perizzite the termites that turn off the lights all those people that lived in the land of Canaan I'm gonna in 400 years I'm gonna give them 400 years that land has to be prepared for you in other words God wouldn't just eradicate a people and displace the people out of a piece of real estate God would give them 400 years to repent now I don't know about you but I think 400 years is showing a lot of patience God would wait 400 years before he ultimately judges a nation over just a little over 200 years and God's been pretty patient for us just to show you how patient God is he waits 400 years until finally the Lord says these people are so wicked and like a rabid dog they are not only destroying themselves but they're infecting everybody else around them the best thing for them as well as anybody else is to exterminate and eradicate them that's the only thing that can be done but he waits 400 years before they get displaced and taken out by the people of Israel so that's why they're in the land of Egypt what I want you to notice is the book begins with names these are the names it's not here's how many people here's the numbers it's not a book of numbers it's it's not a book of um considerations what do I want to say demographic categories it's a book of names their names are written now to us when we read names in the Bible of psycho these are so hard why read the names we wouldn't care about the names but if your name was in that list you'd care so I always like to read names whenever I can't pronounce some and these are pretty obviously important names but you remember what Jesus said he said the Good Shepherd calls his sheep by name and he leads them out so this group of very distressed people are being called out by God from Egypt into the Promised Land verse 6 brings us to our second category and that is prosperity and watch what happens and Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation so Joseph died and his brothers and all that generation but the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty and the land was filled with them before I jump right into that and explain that and go through it to the next one we just got a text question that came in and we're speaking about Moses being a prophet right in fact he said God is going to raise up a prophet like me well the question that we got in is are Abraham and Noah considered prophets no not in the technical sense certainly they had a prophetic ministry by the way they lived and by what they believed and in the culture in which they existed they were God's mouthpiece as they were learning lessons of faith but in the technical sense it was Moses who said God has raised me up to be a prophet and another prophet will arise that will be similar from among your brothers so they could be considered but not in a technical sense so Joseph died back to our verses and all of his brothers and all bad generation the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly multiplied and grew exceedingly in the land was filled with them when I read this my first response is to say boy can God keep a promise do you remember back in chapter 12 of Genesis God says Abraham I will bless you and I will make you a great nation and in you all the peoples of the earth will be blessed a few chapters later in Chapter 15 God says hey Abraham come outside look up see all those stars see if you can count them you can't count the stars in the heavens because they're so innumerable just like the the sands on the earth so shall your descendants be I'm so gonna bless you that your descendants are going to multiply into a huge group a mega group and so they multiply just like God promised now 350 400 years later they have grown into a sizable nation how many people came into Egypt seventy you know how many there are now we're gonna get to it in Chapter 12 and later on in Exodus over 600,000 men will be counted age twenty years old and above not including women and children we believe there were between two and three million people this is a population explosion it's huge huge huge numbers but something happened not only does Joseph die not only this time go on but verse 8 shows us the problem and/or now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph that's a problem what that means is he didn't know the significance or this significant role that Joseph had once played in that history of that nation in that culture where he had come from and what he had done this king this Pharaoh missed the significance if he would have remembered that he would have never let happen what happens in this book boy how quickly we forget our own history what happened in Egypt I think is happened in America I think it's happening before our very eyes I think we have a generation of Americans who really don't know our history of one nation under God and the belief system of our forefathers and the separation of church and state issue which not at all reflects what the original framers meant it to mean it just meant we don't want the secular world to tell us spiritual people what to do not let's keep spirituality out of the work place had nothing to do with that but how quickly we forget our own history we have a great heritage we've lost it how many of you ever heard of Harvard University yeah it was John Harvard who started that 1636 he started Harvard not to be a cool Ivy League school but he started it for the ministry to train up ministers so because he said we'd read to leave an illiterate ministry to the next generation we want these people to be schooled and understand the truths of Scripture and be equipped in their generation boy you'd be hard-pressed to find some of those kind of people that believe that around Harvard University these days it's turned completely in the other direction so here's a new king he forgot his own history he didn't know the significance of Joseph and he's not yet called Pharaoh he will be in a little bit he's a king now the word Pharaoh interestingly enough originally never referred to a person did you know that it referred to a place Pharaoh means great house and the original term meant the palace of the king later on its usage found itself in reference to the household or the people around the king and eventually it was assigned to the individual himself he is a pharaoh he is one of these rulers over Egypt but at first it simply meant the great house verse 8 or verse 9 after the prosperity we now get in verse 9 and he said to his his people look the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we come let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and it happened in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so go up out of that land who was the Pharaoh during the time of the Exodus what was the name of the Pharaoh during the time that Moses appears before him and becomes the deliverer well we don't really know there's a choice between three one is guy by the name of ammos the first who is the founder of the 18th Egyptian dynasty you know that indigenous group that took it back from the Hyksos Kings number two Amenhotep thus the first is the second choice and the third choice is put Moses the first so you take your pick one of those guys is this guy but this this Pharaoh is well he's the dictator and he has a plan he has a strategy to minimize the possible damage that could occur because of the Jewish problem now I'm using up a key word in world war ii adolf hitler saw that there were Jewish people in Europe living in communities that had grown into huge numbers and were becoming very prosperous and that bothered him it bothered him and he called it the Jewish problem because he thought what could happen if this gets out of hand and they sort of take over for us and so he came up with it was called the final solution to the Jewish problem and that was to kill 6 million of them to eradicate all Jewish people and the lineage of Judaism from Europe and he tried really hard to do that well he wasn't the first one to come up with that Pharaoh and later on we'll see many other occurrences of this in the Bible they also wanted to do this but having said that you need to know that's from a human perspective there's a divine element in play whenever we're talking about human government in human affairs you must always remember that there is a sovereign God who isn't up in heaven going oh no what do I do now God's sovereignty means that he's behind the curtains pulling the levers and allowing certain things to happen for a reason God is stirring up stirring up the Pharaoh why because he wants the Israelites out of Egypt into the land that he promised to Abraham so he's got to get him out of there and that truth comes to us and the Romans chapter 9 verse 17 where Paul says for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose I have raised you up that I may show my power in you and my name will be declared in all the earth whenever you see a politician or a king or a dictator any ruler do something or say something that you don't agree with or you think is in a dangerous direction yes certainly you should pray the Bible says we should pray for all kings and all those who are in authority but you shouldn't sweat it because you had to understand something these kings are just pawns on God's chessboard they really are in the Book of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar had a dream one night and it bothered him it was in chapter 4 and he said I had this dream of this tree that grew up and it was so big it could be seen from one end of the earth to the other and as I was watching this big huge tree this watcher he called it or angel from heaven said cut down the tree and strip it of its branches and scatter its fruit and only leave this stump and then the stump is referred to in terms of a personal pronoun and he will eat like the beasts of the field and he will become an outcast and eat the grass like the animals of the field until seven seasons pass over him and he understands the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he wishes and so Nebuchadnezzar goes Wow such a heavy dream dream what could that be referring to what's that tree Daniel says that's you you're gonna be cut down God's gonna cut you down to size buckaroo you think you're so high and mighty and he did he walked out to babylon one day and said look at this this mighty babblin that i have built for my glory at that very moment a little voice came from heaven that said your kingdom has departed and he went crazy went nuts he grew his hair out not that that's bad but he grew his fingernails out like Howard Hughes and toenails and he went out like a beast and started eating grass until seven seasons passed over him and he learned his lesson and humbled himself before the Lord so Pharaoh is being stirred up so the children of Israel can be taken out brought into another land we see that all the way through the Bible come to the New Testament you have a you have a problem if the Messiah is gonna be the son of Joseph and Mary and Micah said the Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem got a problem because they live like 90 miles north in Nazareth how do we get him from Nazareth to Bethlehem easy just God has to take the little pawn on his chessboard Caesar Augustus and say I think the world should be taxed and registered everybody should go back to the homeland of their forefathers which forces Joseph and Mary to go to the town of David which was Bethlehem and the scripture can be fulfilled so it is with Pharaoh here and he'd verse 10 come let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and it happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us as they go out of the land of Egypt now what are the questions that we just got by text message is that the Gospel of Luke tells us that there were 75 people not 70 people that were brought in here it says 70 these are the 70 sons that are counted and it is thought that if you add Joseph and a couple of the daughters that aren't mentioned that it totals up to be 75 it's actually something we covered a little more in depth in Genesis so you can see that study verse 11 therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens and they built for pharaoh supply cities Pithom and Rameses now this pharaoh has a two-stage solution to the jewish problem stage number one afflict the adults make them work really hard break their back so they don't have any stamina any willpower less they would revolt so that's what this is all about he saw them as a security risk it is believed by some that at this time one out of every three people who lived in Egypt were actually Outsiders immigrants not native Egyptians Pharaoh saw that as a security risk because what if one of the nation's therefrom comes and attacks us our own people this one out of three is going to join our enemies and fight against us so he saw this as it posed a security risk and he had to do something about it it's understandable but it does reveal a bit of paranoia it's a strategy that of some it's a strategy to go into a nation in very small numbers but then over time take it over by expanding your population base it has been done I read an article this week it was a New Zealand newspaper and it was reflecting about some of the home on trees this person was from in Europe and his family and he was reading an Islamic document that the Muslim strategy in Europe has been to go to Europe and small numbers and then overpopulate have as many children as possible so that you become a dominant majority in population over hundreds of years and they will wait hundreds of years and then eventually have enough stamina to insert themselves in law and bring in Sharia law etc and changed the landscape politically and culturally of that nation so that can be a real problem Europe is experiencing that problem now Egypt felt they were experiencing it then but verse 12 the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew and they were in dread of the children of Israel get this picture a bunch of shepherds that's all they were then they became a bunch of slaves and the Egyptians are in dread of them because whatever they do to overturn them and lower their station in life God overturns that and blesses them and multiplies them and prospers them so they multiplied and grew despite the Egyptian persecution I guess Romans 8:28 even works in the Old Testament we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose so God is overturning that and it's all working out to be good what happened in Egypt happened since the 1940s in China you see in China at one time there was a freedom of religion of sorts much more than what happened after the Cultural Revolution of 49 people are allowed to practice Christianity as well as bhoot Buddhism which is one of the central religions they're 149 there was a massive crackdown on other faiths the cultural revolution forced Christians underground or into house churches secret meetings a pastor's were rounded up and killed or imprisoned and it's been going on for a long long time in that country when we were finally able to get into China and find out the status of Christianity in that nation we were thinking the numbers must have dwindled considerably we found just the opposite had happened that actually exponentially grown into the millions upon millions upon millions as they were being persecuted God blessed them more and more and more and you know why that happens because persecution against Christians will separate the chaff from the wheat whenever there's persecution when you have to pay a price for believing in Christ fewer people will say I believe in Christ there's no bandwagon effect anymore see when times are good and laws are for the believers oh it's great let's just have a big party for Jesus but when you get persecuted for Christ it's like no I've thought about that I'm not into that so it will separate the chaff from the wheat and the chaff Rice's and people look at real Christians and it will motivate some well that's worth living for I think I want to be a part of that fact I know of one pastor in fact I know him he's the national pastor well-known who says that he prays for persecution to come to the United States because he says I know what will happen it's happened for the last 2000 years the church will actually get strengthened because of it we'll be more stronger than we are now so the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor verse 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar in brick and in all manner of service in the field all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor God made two kinds of promises to Abraham good ones and I don't want to say bad ones let me rephrase that Pleasant ones and not so pleasant ones there were pleasant promises Abraham I'm going to bless you I'm gonna multiply you and they got to Egypt they were blessed and multiply but there were other promises that weren't so Pleasant in Chapter 15 of Genesis the Lord said Abraham your descendants will multiply more than the stars that you can see right now and and that and the grains of sand that you can look down upon you can't count them all I'm gonna bless you that way but know for certainty that your descendants will be in Egypt for 400 years and the Egyptians will afflict them for 400 years now if Abraham would have had a Bible or written text that would be one verse he wouldn't underline you have favorite verses in the Bible you have pleasant verses there's certain ones that you like my God shall supply all your need according to it yea underline that one there's certain ones that stick out to us we love them there's other ones we don't underline in this world you will have tribulation that's cool I like damage they're not so pleasant they're a promise however God promises blessing but also God promises that there will be affliction for him and God is keeping his promise no people group in history have suffered like the Jewish nation you'll see some of it in biblical records you see a record of it here what other nation has survived as a distinct people group and race after 400 years of slavery to deportations to total destruction 'he's 2,000 years of dispersions and a holocaust and come back to their land as the ancient people that they once were speaking the ancient language they once did no one but throughout their history they have been targeted they have been persecuted you'll see it here you'll see it throughout the Bible in fact it all starts in Genesis 3 as soon as Satan gets the information from heaven that a woman is going to have a child the seed of a woman who's going to destroy his kingdom he goes on the counter-offensive how do I get more information what do I do to stop that child from being born who is that child he didn't have the full information yet until the Bible unfolds his first attempt to kill the seed that was promised is when Cain killed Abel he thought that must be it Abel must be it I'm gonna make sure he dies so it ends God's program it didn't work so God decides to corrupt the entire world so God destroys the whole world with a flood but there were eight people the family of Noah that were preserved and a whole new population began because of now we see it here with Pharaoh and pretty soon we'll find out that the Messiah is promised through the lineage of King David and that Bethlehem is the place of the Messiah so another evil emissary will be raised up to kill all the babies in Bethlehem it wasn't just some wild man's paranoia was more than that it was satanically inspired persecution anti-semitism is satanically inspired persecution it's more than just prejudice it's satanically inspired because here's the premise if God's plan of redemption depended on the existence of a nation and the continuance of that nation if you could destroy that nation you will for it God's plan of salvation that's a heavy statement in it what if I said that if you destroy all the UNM grads you'll toward God's plan of salvation not so much it'd be a horrible thing I'm not suggesting it in jest or tongue-in-cheek it would be horrible but it probably wouldn't alter the history of redemption in any grand sense but if you can destroy Israel as a nation you can toward God's plan and purpose and that starts in Genesis 3 and goes all the way through up through the Holocaust even to what we're seeing happening today in the Middle East Satan at work as the Invisible War continues now we get to stage number 2 stage number 1 was to afflict the adult stage number 2 is to annihilate the newborns the babies as we bring this to a close now I have a question on my screen that actually is going to be answered but I'm going to give you the question then we're gonna read down and we'll answer it so you'll know what it is the question is God bless the midwives even though they lied is it ever right to lie well now let's read the story we'll get down to it verse 15 then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives of whom the name of one was she FRA which means beauty she must have been beautiful this she was when she was a baby that's when she was named that and the other name was poo ah you're looking for a great name for your newborn daughter how about now forget poo I don't don't do that but that name means splendor so you've got beauty and splendor these two midwives weren't the only midwives these were probably this supervisory roles these were the two who were in charge of all the other midwives midwives typically had no children of their own their full-time position was to help the birthing of others who were having babies and so they probably had no children of their own perhaps unable to conceive at this point and he said the Pharaoh said to them when you do the duties of the Midwife for the Hebrew women and you see them on birth stools if it is the son you shall kill him but if it is a daughter she shall live it's interesting that the Pharaoh comes up with this and I bring it to your attention because I want you to just remember this by the time we get to chapter 12 11 and 12 it seems as though God never forgot this he didn't let this go he wasn't willing to let this go in fact the ultimate and final plague upon the Egyptians is the death of their firstborn to keep that in mind Pharaoh's trying to kill all of the male children to eradicate the race God never forgot this and this will be one of the plagues that comes upon Egypt but the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them but saved the male children alive so the midwives now had to make a choice their choice was do I obey the visible king or do I obey and fear the invisible God do I get afraid of the visible king or do I fear the Lord the invisible Lord the invisible king and do what he wants so it says they feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them but saved the male children alive the government gave them a command the command was a death sentence for children these two women however believed in something called the sanctity of human life and even though it was acceptable and even though it was allowed and commanded by the government they didn't do it they refused to do it now they didn't like picket to get their message across let's just put signs up and we'll pick it and for a pair of Pharaoh's Palace they didn't do that rather than trying to change the world through picketing they decided I'm just gonna obey God I'm gonna just do what God's laws tell me to do in this social matter I'm not gonna kill these children alive this is the first instance of civil disobedience they disobeyed the government the government gave them a law they didn't do it now what is Romans 13 tell us to do in the New Testament to obey the laws of the land right to honor them to pay taxes to whom taxes do to honor to whom honor is due but when a law of man tries to supersede a law of God then we do what the Apostles did in Acts chapter four and five a law was passed there they couldn't preach the gospel they couldn't tell people publicly about Jesus a law was passed in Jerusalem it's illegal to bring your message across so what are Peter and John do it tell the gospel to everybody they break the law why because Jesus had given them along go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature I think they qualified as part of the every creature there's part of the creatures in the every creature scenario so here goes when they got arrested and the government said why did you do that didn't we tell you you couldn't do that and Peter said yeah you did you're gonna have to figure that out yourself but as for us we must obey God rather than men so these Hebrew midwives are blessed because they in this sense civilly are obeying God and not man God's law supersedes man's law they're preaching not the gospel but they're bearing the truths of the invisible God before the visible King so the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive and the Midwife said to Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they are lively and gave birth before the midwives come to them that's not necessarily a lie that could actually be the truth in fact as I read it it's not like they really answered the question why they just made a statement well you know the Hebrew children are different they had their kids really quick that could be actually the truth they didn't say and we decided not to obey you because this is what is written and God blessed them as you will see because of it therefore God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very mighty I love it God used two women to outwit a dimwit love the people that God chooses and he gets the glory and so it was because the midwives feared God that he provided households for them don't you love that they would see those babies being born maybe they didn't have husbands of their own the children of their own and but because they decided they're gonna make their work that and they're gonna serve others and they're gonna wove a God that God said you know what I know you I love you and I'm gonna let you be blessed in this regard he provided households for them so mr. perfect came along and they got married so Pharaoh commanded all of his people saying every son who is born you shall cast into the river and every daughter you shall save alive a little bit of a different strategy and the first strategy or the previous strategy the idea is I'm gonna have my Watchers my police make sure that the midwives are being watched by these supervisory midwives tell their midwives to do not let the Hebrew children live but they're police there weren't enough of them and they couldn't be fast enough whenever a Jewish family was having a baby in whatever part of Egypt so he sort of makes all of the egyptians sheriffs he deputized as all of them he gets the whole nation involved if you hear that there's a male child born you will throw him into the river and every daughter you will save alive that though that happens you'll see in the next chapter and the next that there's one child who isn't drowned who isn't killed who does survive they couldn't kill him and that is a little boy named drawn out of the water or Moishe and will be introduced to him next week we have a final question before we close tonight we have one minute left the question is are God's promises to the Jewish people transferred to Christians now that there is a new covenant no there is the blessing that God promised to the Jewish people that will go to the Jewish people God has a whole nother set of promises for the church and the Bible distinctly differentiates between the Jewish nation and the Covenant that God has with them and the people of God by faith can be Jew or Gentile the church now if you are a Jewish Christian you will have certain blessings in your heritage that will be both because you are Jewish and both because you're a Christian but having said that doesn't matter who you are you can be Jewish you can be Gentile you can be American you can be Argentinian you can be European every culture every person must come to God through the one God has sent from heaven and that is Christ if you're Jewish you're not automatically saved if you keep rituals you're not automatically saved if you're religious you're not automatically saved the Bible talks about the need to repent of your sins be born again and that the blood of Jesus Christ cover you and that's what gets you to heaven let's pray together father in heaven we thank you for this time and we thank you for this wonderful group of people so many that would pack out a facility like this on a midweek to hear the truths of a book that was written the in this account 3400 years ago but it was written for us for our admonition it's very relevant to us today and I just thank you for their hunger and their thirst for truth and I pray you would reward that you said you were a rewarder of those who diligently seek you we thank you Lord that we've all had a Genesis and those of us who know Christ have also had the Exodus deliverance from the bondage of sin to become your people I now pray for anyone who might be among us to who doesn't know Christ personally they've had a Genesis they've had a physical birth but they've never been born again they've never received Christ personally as Savior and his Lord and I pray Lord that you would just do your work in bringing some to know you tonight in this place at this time as you're praying as your head is bowed as your eyes are closed and you're thinking about not only the message but what I'm speaking of now if you've never received Christ personally and you'd like to do that tonight I'd love to pray for you or if you have received Christ at some point in your life you you made some religious decision you joined a church you were at a Christian camp and there was an emotion that you felt and and you made some kind of a movement or decision but tonight after all these years you're not walking with Christ I'd like to pray for you too but I'd like to know who you are so I know who I'm praying for so if you've never received Christ or you want to come back home to him and reaffirm that commitment I'd like you to raise your hand up let me just see who you are and I'll pray for you as we close just keep it up for a minute god bless you sir on my left toward the back and in the middle on my left side anybody else raise your hand up in the back on my right in the balcony a couple of you in the balcony a few of you in the balcony anyone else just slip your hand up you're saying yep I know I need to do this I want to know the purpose for which I'm existing I want to give my life to Christ raise your hand let me see it anyone else quickly raise up right there in the front couple of you thank you and over here to my right am i right toward the back a couple more of you and to my left another couple well father I pray along with my brothers and sisters for those whose hands have been raised their heart is saying I need Jesus and we affirm that and we thank you for them and we pray that as they receive Christ into their heart by faith in prayer you you make all things new that they'd never be the same they'd walk with you and enjoy life with you and know why they're here give them a sense of peace that passes their understanding they couldn't even figure it out why they're so happy and peaceful and the purpose for which they exist in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 11,304

Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Exodus, Sermon

Id: 4zawBiJ6nfU

Length: 57min 59sec (3479 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018