Now let's open our Bibles together to Exodus the first chapter. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. They came, each one with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin, Dan and Aftali, Gad and Asher. All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. And Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation.
But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty so that the land was filled with them. Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Behold the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them. Lest they multiply and in the event of war they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land.
So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pitham and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. And the Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously and they made their lives bitter with hard labor and mortar and bricks and all kinds of labor in the field.
All their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was Shifra and the other named Puyah. And he said, When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.
So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this thing and let the boys live? And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and they give birth before the midwife can get to them. So God was good to the midwives and the people multiplied and became very mighty. And it came about because the midwives feared God that he established households for them.
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, Every son who is born, you are to cast into the Nile and every daughter you are to keep alive. Let's bow together, please, before we come to our study of the word of God. Would you sing with me the chorus? Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see Jesus, To reach out and touch him, And say that we love him. Open our ears, Lord, And help us to listen. Open our eyes, Lord, We want to see Jesus. Lord that is our prayer this morning. Open our eyes.
As we come to this text in the Old Testament, we pray that we will see you and be drawn to you. We thank you that you speak to us from this sacred book wherever we open it. Today as we look into that portion which is intended to be an example for all of us in this age, may we learn, give heed, obey, and experience your blessings. In Jesus' name, amen. The man was born the only son of his immigrant parents. In time he entered the family business and became quite successful.
Eventually he made the company public and sold stock. It boomed with the influx of new capital. He was prosperous beyond his wildest dreams, and above all of this, he was a Christian. The control of the company was wrested from him in a power play, and before long he was stripped of his position and then released from the company which his father had begun and which he had built. In the process of it all, he lost everything.
He had prayed, he had sought godly advice, but it all seemed to no avail. And he wondered, where is God? Why didn't he intervene? I was doing what I thought he wanted. Didn't he promise to spare us from such devastating experiences? A young woman was employed right out of college by a major firm in the city.
The job seemed like a perfect fit, but before long she discovered that the business ethics of the company were not consistent with the principles she had grown up with in her home and in her church. In fact, she was told to assist her employer in dishonest records keeping. She had always been taught to obey her superiors and to be honest and truthful. Now she faced a dilemma which could cost her the job.
Should she participate in the cover-up or should she take a stand and risk losing her badly needed positions? Sometimes we wonder why we get into the predicaments we do, and we question God as to why he permits the situation to develop that he does. In a low moment we may even feel that God has somehow let us down, that our relationship to him has proved not very effective in sparing us from potential trouble and even actual disaster.
Perhaps we feel that way because we misunderstand or haven't been taught properly what God is committed to do for us. We sometimes have wrong expectations of God. Even when these wrong expectations are not realized, we begin to question, to doubt, and perhaps even to disobey. I believe that when we grasp what God is committed to do for us, our hearts will know how to respond to life's difficult predicaments. It is important that you and I respond to God with trusting obedience.
When we understand what God has committed to do for us, we will be able to respond that way. What does God do for those who are his own? Well, I believe that there are three actions that God takes, and we see them in our text today in Exodus 1. In the first place, he lovingly prepares by going ahead. What is it that God does for us who are his? Number one, he lovingly prepares for us by going ahead. God is not limited to today's activity. He is already active in tomorrow, isn't he?
He is eternal. We see this principle illustrated in the history that is suggested in verses 1 through 7 of Exodus 1. It is the coming of Jacob and his family to Egypt. Through painful rejection by his brothers, the enslavement to the captain of Pharaoh's bodyguard, and the false accusations leading to unjust imprisonment, God was preparing Joseph for an unusual opportunity. It says in verse 6, Joseph was already in Egypt. He was there by the plan of God.
Isn't it encouraging to know that the disasters that we encounter are inevitably God-designed with a view to our personal preparation for God's purpose for us? Did you realize that failure is a word that is not in God's vocabulary?
When you and I go through experiences that devastate us, where we feel that we have failed, where our world has collapsed in upon us, isn't it wonderful to know that that whole thing is God-designed with a view to his personal preparation for us to accomplish his purpose in our lives? I think it is. God planned for Joseph to be in Egypt.
When the famine would come to that region of the world, God placed him, ultimately, in a position as prime minister of Egypt so that he could care for his father and his brothers, the very ones who had sold him into slavery to begin with. Joseph recognizes this himself. That is, that God had gone before Jacob to prepare the way. Would you turn back in Genesis, please, to chapter 45, and let's reiterate just a couple of things perhaps that were said last week so well by Pastor Cramer.
Genesis 45, beginning in verse 5. Joseph is speaking now to his brothers, and he says, and now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve you for a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.
Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not delay. Four times in our text, Joseph testifies it is God who has arranged my life. Now I remind you again that that life in Egypt included a lot of disappointment.
It included hardship, confinement, disaster from a human standpoint. But Joseph realized the principle we are talking about, that God prepares a way for us. He goes ahead of us, even in our tragedies, so that when we get there, it is all prepared for us. That is what he did for Jacob. And Joseph was his instrument. God is always out in front of us, going on ahead of us to prepare in ways unknown to us now.
Is it any wonder, folks, that Jacob before he dies testifies of Yahweh of the Lord, calling him his shepherd? Genesis 48.15. Where is the shepherd? The shepherd is out in front of his sheep. Jacob recognized that God had been out in front of him in ways that he had not known for years and years and years, preparing for that particular instance of the famine. He called Yahweh his shepherd. Perhaps that is the same reason that David picked up on that theme, saying, the Lord is my shepherd.
As he recognized in his own experience that through the hardship and tragedies in his family, through the failures in his own life, through them all, God was working, was even out in front of him preparing the way to bring good out of bad. This principle that God is preparing for us by going ahead is true whether we be in the will of God or out of the will of God. That's right. I can give you an illustration of each. Let's think of Elijah for a moment, who is very much in the will of God.
As he proclaimed to the king a drought upon the kingdom, God said to him, Elijah, now you go to the brook Cherith and there you will be cared for. And he did. And the scripture tells us that ravens brought food for Elijah, meat and bread, morning and night, day after day after day, and he had water from the brook. God went before Elijah, prepared those birds, and from whatever source they got the food so that when Elijah was there he would be cared for. So the brook dried up eventually.
And God said to him, now I want you to go over here to Zarephath on the coast. And there is a widow there and she's going to take care of you. So God directed him to that widow. She was about to prepare the last meal for herself and her son, thinking that that was all that there was for her. And now this prophet comes on the scene and he wants a piece of the pie. And she complains to him that all she has is enough for herself and her son and then they're going to die.
And she insists that he get part of it and promises that if he does, God will take care of her. And miraculously the meal and the oil were sustained until the time of trial was passed. There is a prophet in the will of God and God went ahead of him, preparing the way just like he does for you when you walk in his will. Let's think of those who are out of God's will, who are his children but who are not walking in obedience. What of them? Does God go before them too? Yes, he does.
And I think of Jonah, who was told by God to go to Nineveh and preach to that great city and he said, no, I will not go and went the other direction, got on board a ship to escape and what did God do? Well, it says he prepared a great fish. Now you don't grow a fish overnight. God had been preparing this fish for years to pick up the prophet. And the time came that the fish did his work and the prophet got turned around.
I want you to know that those of us who are the children of God have a loving heavenly father who is out in front of us in our days of disobedience preparing for us too. Preparing means and circumstances intended by him to be as it were a great fish that will bring repentance to our hearts and cause us to turn around and to do what God tells us to do. God lovingly prepares for us by going out ahead. Joseph accepted this truth so beautifully, didn't he?
After Jacob had died, the brothers were concerned that now Joseph would seek his revenge upon them. It would be only human to do that, wouldn't it? We could understand the bitterness that now might come forth from his soul because of the years of which he was robbed in fellowship with his father. Because of the circumstances which might have been bitter to him, would it not seem only appropriate for him now to strike back at them? Jacob would not know, but he does not do that.
This principle we're talking about had soaked completely to the bottom of his heart and it brought forth beautiful fruit in his life. In Genesis 50 and verse 20 he says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. God was at work. God was going out in front of Jacob, preparing the way for him through his own son to preserve him.
I want you to know whatever your circumstances are today, God is already in tomorrow, and He's in Tuesday, and He's in every day of this week and of this month, and He's preparing. He's making the way so that when you get there, the circumstances will be just what you need at that moment, just what you need.
Let that soak into your soul so that if there come those disappointments, if the world does collapse, then you recognize that while someone may have meant it for evil, God has been working in that situation for good and give him thanks for it. Do not doubt God's working, beloved. Do not doubt His preparing for you. He's already out there in your future designing what He already knows you will need when you get there.
For those of you who have graduated recently from college or perhaps from high school, recognize as you face your future with a lot of question marks at this point, God is already in your future if you're His child, preparing the way for you. The best thing in the world for you to do is trustingly obey Him every day. That's the right response. You don't have to be bitter over today's disappointments.
You don't have to become anxious over tomorrow's unknowns because God lovingly prepares for us by going ahead. Maybe we see a second thing here in our text that God does for us, a second action of God. It is that He graciously provides by stirring up. Israel's situation became very pleasant in Egypt. There was prosperity for Jacob and his descendants in Goshen. To them was committed the very best of the land of Egypt.
Their numbers multiplied as the years passed, being only 70 in number as they came into the land. They soon grew to 150, 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000. Over the centuries that they were in Egypt, God so multiplied and prospered this small family of people that coming in as 70, they would eventually go out in excess of 2 million. In the course of some 350 to 400 years, they grew to that extent.
Several centuries after the patriarchs had entered the land, there was a change that occurred that we see mentioned in chapter one of Exodus in verse eight. It says, a new king arose and he did not know Joseph. Just a little bit of a sketch of Egyptian history might help here. These dates are not agreed upon by all biblical scholars, but this seems to be the general agreement and it fits well into biblical history.
Joseph was prime minister or viceroy of Egypt during what is called the 12th dynasty of Egypt. It was a period of affluence. There were those who called it the golden age of the art and craftsmanship in Egypt. Later though, that golden age was gilded and the culture of Egypt declined. In time to the passage of generations, some outsiders conquered Egypt. They were called the Hyksos peoples. They were Semitic in origin and Asiatic.
They subjugated the Egyptian people themselves for about 150 years. But eventually, they were gradually driven out of Egypt so that the Egyptians themselves controlled their country again. After Ahmose I, another great Egyptian period began. It was the 18th and 19th dynasties in Egyptian history. It was at that time that a wave of nationalism overtook the Egyptians.
They had a special dislike of course for the Hyksos people who had been driven out, but also for anybody of Semitic origin, of a similar origin as the Hyksos. Of course, that included the Israelites, for they were a Semitic people. That seems to be the historical background for what we see here in verse 8, a new king who did not know Joseph. That is, he did not have regard or appreciation for Joseph or for his descendants. Now, of course, he knew history in Egypt.
He would have known the name of this man had he looked at the records. He would have known the deeds of Joseph. But now some three centuries have passed and there is this wave of nationalism and a dislike for Semitic peoples. Therefore, a new dynasty came into place that had little use for Semitic people like the Israelites. There were two historical reasons for their lack of appreciation for them in addition to the one that we've mentioned in the first place.
There was rapid growth in the population of the Israelites. They did not want to take a chance in Egypt again of a Semitic people overcoming them. And when they saw this population explosion, they began to be very concerned about it. In verse 9, it says that. There was a second historical reason in verse 10 and that is that they were concerned that if they could not themselves overcome Egypt, that they might ally themselves with Egypt's enemies.
And they did not want to take a chance on that according to verse 10. Beyond these historical reasons, we need to point out a couple of spiritual reasons for what it says happened to the Jews in Egypt. One thing that's important to remember is that Satan from the very beginning desired to destroy the possibility of the seed of the Redeemer.
He was there present in the Garden of Eden when the promise was given to Eve that from her would come the one who would eventually crush the head of the serpent, Satan. And so from that time on, he sought to interfere with that line of the Messiah, to pollute it if possible, if necessary to destroy it, but by any means to interrupt it so that the Messiah could not be born. You must understand as we come to the history of Exodus 1 that that is behind the scenes. And it's a dominating thing.
It is not small. Never forget that in the history that takes place around us, in the invisible, in the realm of the Spirit, there are overarching, dominating things that are happening that we may be ignorant of. Here we know that Satan was seeking to destroy the Jewish people. And again, the purpose is that he might keep Messiah from coming. He has always had a special hatred for the Jews. But there's another spiritual reason behind this that may surprise you.
And to find that, we need to go to the Psalms, to Psalm 105. We have here a Psalm of Israel's history. Notice in verse 16, it says, And he, God, called for a famine upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. Then he records some of Joseph's history. Verse 23, Israel also came into Egypt, thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And he, God, caused his people to be very fruitful and made them stronger than their adversaries.
Now, look at verse 25, And he, God, turned their heart to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants. Does that surprise you? Why was there a change of attitude toward the Jews in Egypt? Partly because God ordered it. God did it. What was God doing? God knew that Israel would be content to remain in Egypt and to enjoy the prosperity there. Therefore, God was doing something. He was graciously providing for his people by stirring up hatred against them. You say providing for them, yes.
You see, for them to have stayed in Egypt and to have enjoyed the prosperity in Egypt would have meant they're missing the best that God had for them, which was Canaan, the promised land, as a part of the Abrahamic covenant. So God began to stir up their situation of contentment. He began to turn their conditions so that they were uncomfortable, so that they were hated, so that pressure came upon them. It was God doing this. Canaan had his purpose in it.
But I want you to notice that God is at work here. God is at work graciously providing for his people by stirring up their situation. What was God going to provide? Well, we see him here providing discomfort, but we're going to see him provide a deliverer too. On the one hand, God is providing for his people a motivation to get out of Egypt.
If he had not done that, I am convinced that they would have stayed in Egypt and would have eventually mixed with the Egyptians and would no more have been Israelites. And the result of that may well have been the Messiah would not have come, could not have come. So God had to get his people unhappy enough, stirred up enough, enough in discomfort that they would desire a deliverer who would take them out of their bondage into what God had provided as the best, the promised land.
Would you please keep in mind, as I do as well, that God's goal is not to make us happy and wealthy in this world. There is a wicked theology that is being taught today in some Christian churches that says that God has desire to make us prosperous and wealthy and healthy in this world. And that is not true. If blessing comes, praise God for it. If evil comes, praise God for it. God has not committed himself to make us happy and wealthy in this world.
He does not seek to make us content with our earthly situation. Rather, he is committed to mature us, to stir us up, to prepare us for the blessings of the new heaven and new earth and the new Jerusalem. Even while he desires for us to make the most of our earthly pilgrimage, God wants us to be pilgrims, not residents. So God graciously provides by stirring up our circumstances so that we will not become comfortable in the world. That may be what's going on in your life today.
Consider it, because that's something that God does for us. He does it for all of us. When we get to the point of thinking that we've got it made now and we're self-sufficient and we can do without God, it's at that point that God is going to begin doing this. Not because he dislikes us, but because he loves us so much.
He will begin lovingly providing for us by stirring us up, making us uncomfortable so that we will trust in him and look to him for what is best, not merely what is seemingly good for the moment. There's a third action of God that we have to point out as we go on. That is that he faithfully preserves by watching over us. The oppression of the Egyptians culminated with the terrible command of verse 16. God used the midwives who feared him to nullify Pharaoh's murderous edict.
The value of life to these midwives was greater than the orders that they received from their ruler, from the government. In their response to Pharaoh in verse 19, the question must be honestly asked, did they lie? Well the language here seems to indicate that they did. It can be understood in a different way that they perhaps did not lie, that they evaded him.
If they did in fact lie, please understand that the blessing that came upon them from God, and God did bless them, was not because of that, but because of their saving of lives. But this whole instance provides an occasion for us to examine biblical ethics. Because what we have here really is a conflict among three moral absolutes. Number one, God tells us to obey those who are rulers over us. We are to obey the government. In this case they were to obey Pharaoh.
Another absolute is that we're to tell the truth. We're to be honest. The third absolute is that we're to save human life. Human life is sacred, it's valuable. Three absolutes, but there's conflict here. How do you deal with that? What do you do when ethical principles are in conflict, such as the young lady in the office who was commanded to do what was wrong, but had always been taught to obey those who were an authority over her?
Well there are three positions that are common in how to resolve this. There's a position that is called non-conflicting absolution. Those who take this position would say that what the midwives did was immoral, it was wrong.
They believe that God would have provided, and I'm quoting here from some material in the study guide that Insight for Living puts out, that God would have provided the midwives a way out of their ethical dilemma, one that would not have involved a violation of God's moral directives. These Christians think that there is never any real conflict between absolute norms, since God will always pave a road that can lead one out of the apparent dilemma. It's non-conflicting absolutism.
If there are conflicts, you simply look to God to provide a way out of it. The problem I have with that is that I've had some situations where God didn't provide a way out. It's nice and idealistic, but it doesn't fit with the real world, at least in my opinion. There are those who take a position called conflicting absolutism.
These believe that the dilemma the midwives faced was a real one, and in such situations, they say, God knows that no matter what a person does, he will have to break one of his laws. So the Lord commands that he violate the directive that will produce the lesser evil, and then plead for God's forgiveness of his sin. In the case of the midwives, since they chose the lesser evil, God rewarded them.
So those who take this position say there will be conflict between absolutes, and what we're to do is to see which violation will produce the lesser evil, go that way, and then beg God to forgive us. Frankly, I have a hard time with that one too. You may not, and that's fine if you don't, these aren't something to argue about.
But I believe that there's a third position that is right, it's called graded absolutism, that when God's laws come into conflict, a person is morally obligated to obey the higher law, and morally exempt from keeping the lower law. Thus, when the midwives obeyed the higher command of saving lives, they did not sin, and that is why God blessed them without rebuking their lie. It's called graded absolutism.
It seems to me that that at least fits best with the text that we have before us in Exodus chapter 1. Now whichever ethical position you take, the thing you must struggle with is to do what God wants you to do, and that's what these midwives did. And because they did what they did, they were instruments of God to faithfully preserve the Jewish people. God was watching over this whole thing. You and I can be assured that in our circumstances, God is committed to our preservation.
Not merely our preservation in this life, but more importantly to His eternal purpose. Peter tells us in the first chapter of his first epistle that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope, which is being kept for us in heaven, who he says are being kept for it on the earth. Is it not wonderful to know that God today is faithfully preserving us by watching over us?
My personal opinion is, and it's only worth an opinion, is that we are headed into tough days in the not too distant future in our culture, in the lifetime of many of us here. It is wonderful to know that as we look at the potential of tough days ahead, that God is committed to faithfully preserve us. And I repeat, not just to preserve us for three score and ten years. God is committed to preserve us in this world until His will is done.
But the best thing is that God is committed to preserve us unto His heavenly kingdom, so that we may enter into that kingdom and rule and reign with Jesus Christ eternally. God is committed to that, so that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ. That is a wonderful thing. God has kept the Jewish people down through the history of the world. It is absolutely amazing to students of history that the Jewish people could still exist today as an entity.
It is only done by the preservation of God. Why? Because God is not finished with them. Because God still has an end time purpose for the Jewish nation. And they will turn to Him one day and repent of their rejecting Jesus Christ as Messiah. And be restored. And the fullness of the Abrahamic covenant will be fulfilled to the Jewish people and to the nations of the earth. God faithfully preserves by watching over His own. We are His today by faith in Christ. Enjoy that.
What does God do for His people? Well, He lovingly prepares. He graciously provides. He faithfully preserves. Now knowing that, how should I respond if I am like the man whose company was taken away and I am left with nothing? What am I to do? I am to see God at work in all of that somehow. And I am to trustingly obey Him where I am at today. I don't know what your security is right now that may be collapsing. I don't know what the disappointment is that may have come to your family.
I don't know what the heartache is that you have been facing. But I want to ask you today, how have you responded to that child of God? Because God is at work in your circumstances and not for your ill. And all He wants you to do today is to look up into His face who is your heavenly Father and say, Father, I don't understand. I don't see how you are working at this point and may never. But Father, I will trust you and I will obey you.
You see, the question is not whether we understand the working of God. But it is whether we trustingly obey what we do know. I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn to humbly obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for but everything that I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all men most richly blessed. I believe to that statement. There echoes in heaven an amen for a man by the name of Joseph. Would you bow with me please.
Dear child of God, have you been struggling with your circumstances, wondering where God is in all of it? You too have prayed and nothing seems to happen. Frankly, as you sit here in church today, you feel like throwing your Christian faith overboard. You may be heartbroken. Circumstances have come to you which have been bitter and disappointment. Whatever your situation today, will you look up to your Heavenly Father and say that you will trustingly obey in your circumstances?
Do not ask to understand, though He may give you understanding in time, but ask for strength to trustingly obey Him. If you are here today without a personal faith in Jesus Christ, I want you to know that 2,000 years ago God went ahead of you and prepared a Savior for you who died on the cross for your sins and rose again. How He loves you and wants to come into your life to cleanse it of its sin. He wants to restore you to Himself. He wants to begin working in your life.
Will you receive Him today by an act of faith? Understand that it is the Lord Jesus Christ that you are receiving, the only Savior, that He loves you and gave Himself for you. Will you give yourself to Him? Commit your life to Him? Consider in the quietness of these moments as the Spirit of God has spoken to us and applied to our lives what needs to be from this word. I pray that each one of us will be able to respond in obedience to the Spirit of God.
God deliver any of us from walking out of here having heard but not willing to obey. Thank you that you are at work, that you are preparing, you are providing, you are preserving. Help us to see that afresh today by faith. Help Joseph of old to look at our circumstances in life and say, but God has been at work. In Jesus' name I pray this. Amen.