The Worst of Times

Well I love preaching biographical series, taking a character in the Bible and preaching through what all the Bible has to say about that character. I probably enjoy personally that kind of preaching as much as any. So I have felt compelled over the last few months to work on a series on the life of Moses. And this morning we'll begin a series of messages on the life of Moses. Now I know when you mentioned the name Moses, you've already got an image in your mind of what Moses looks like, right? For people, my generation, it's the guy on the screen. Charlton Heston, Ten Commandments, rugged, strong, handsome, confident. For many of you though, your dream works kind of person and you remember Prince of Egypt. And so the image you get in your mind when you think of Moses is of this sleek and trim, quick-witted, fun-loving, tanned hero who looks the same at age 80 that he did at age 18. For others of you, maybe you saw the recent film Exodus, Gods and Kings and for you Moses is Christian Bale. Batman dressed in Roman military garb, you know, with a modern goatee. I mean that's that's Moses to you. Well actually none of those pictures really fit the biblical portrait of Moses. The Bible presents Moses in a more realistic way. Yes, he was a man that God used in incredible ways, but he was also a man who who faced our kind of struggles and who always didn't respond like he should. He was a man who had weaknesses, he was a man of shortcomings, but he was a man who in spite of those was greatly used of God and powerfully impacted a nation and the world. I think as we work our way through the journey of his life, sometimes we will find ourselves nodding with recognition and understanding. Sometimes we will find ourselves smiling as we see ourselves in his life. Sometimes I believe we will probably marvel as we see how God greatly used such an ordinary man. Then I think sometimes we will gain hope and encouragement. Other times I trust we will be challenged by his life to walk with God, to be what God wants us to be. Moses plays a crucial part in the history of Israel, but really in the history of the world. Moses is the one that God chooses and develops and grows to be the leader that God wants him to be, to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt, to lead them to a point where God would himself make a covenant with them as his people. Moses would introduce them to the law of God. Moses would lead them through the wilderness. Amazing man, but very normal man as well. He was a man who at first was fearful, full of doubt and reluctant to even follow God, tried to take things into his own hands and then called it quits for 40 years as far as doing the work of God was concerned. But he was also a man who was yielded, trusting and obedient. We're going to see all of ourselves and every bit of who we are in his life. There is one recurring phrase that describes Moses that comes up over and over again in the Bible. This week I kind of scanned Exodus through Joshua and I was looking for some theme to kind of tie this series around and I found a statement made of Moses 26 times in those books. 26 times Moses is called the servant of God, not the Prince of Egypt, not the great deliverer of God's people, not a great warrior or a fantastic leader, although he was all of those things. Moses is called by God his servant and so I chose to entitle this series becoming a servant of God because as we see God developing Moses maybe we will allow him to develop us into becoming what he wants us to be. All of us, his servants, male or female, adult or child or teen, God wants us to be his servants. And so let's see what we can hear from Moses' life, see what we can see about the way God developed him and ourselves become servants of God. The interesting thing about the account we have in the Bible is that it does not begin with the birth of Moses. It begins by setting the historical context for the life of Moses. And so we find ourselves beginning in Exodus, not with Moses, but with kind of a review of history and a description of the setting into which Moses would enter the world. And so this morning let's look at what if you were living in that day as an Israelite you would have most certainly called the worst of times. What were the times into which God brought Moses into the world? What were those times like? Are they mirrored to any degree in our times? And should we find the same hope? I believe we should in a God who moves and works and is accomplishing his purpose even in the worst of times. The way God introduces the story, first of all, in verses one through seven of the book of Exodus, chapter one, is by telling us about a past history, a past history. Now the first seven verses describe historical content. We'll look at them in just a moment. But the book of Exodus itself, the name of the book, the book Exodus basically is talking about a road out. It comes from two words, which literally mean the way out or the road out. And that's really what the book of Exodus is all about. It is about the way out of Egypt on the part of the people of God. Now God delivered them from bondage in Egypt. But the first seven verses basically give us a little bit of a background from the book of Genesis and tie those two books together so that we're not just starting at a particular point without some background. So let's read the first seven verses. These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family, Rubin, Simeon, Levi and Judah, Issaqar, Zebulin and Benjamin, Dan and Naftali, Gad and Asher, the descendants of Jacob numbered 70 in all. Joseph was already in Egypt. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died. But the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful. They multiplied greatly increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. So what we have here is kind of a backing up to the book of Genesis and reminding us of the past history of how the children of Israel got to Egypt in the first place. And you may recall the story from the book of Genesis. It really begins, this part of the story begins in chapter 37 where Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, is hated by his eleven brothers. He's hated because he's having all these dreams. Actually, the revelation from God, describing that he would rule over his eleven brothers. Well, he didn't hesitate to tell his brothers about that and the brothers hated him for it. And so they decide one time when they're out in the wilderness and Joseph has come to check on them, they're going to kill him. They drop him down in a sister in an empty well just to leave him to die. One of the brothers has pity on him and says, we can't do that. But let's get him off our hands anyway. There's some Midianite traders that come through here. Let's just sell him to them and we'll never see him again. They're on their way to Egypt where he ends up. Who cares? But we'll never see him again. Well, through an amazing series of circumstances ordained by God, Joseph does make it to Egypt and over a period of 13 years and God's sovereign plan and working in his life rises to the second most powerful position in the whole country of Egypt, running a program to help feed people, prepare for a famine and then feed people during the famine. Well, that famine also affects the nation of Canaan or the area of Canaan and so Joseph's brothers and their families now grown to 70 strong decide to go to Egypt to try to find grain to feed their families. Not even thinking about the fact they would ever encounter their brother again. They feel like he's long gone. But again, through a series of amazing, providential circumstances, God brings them back together. Joseph recognizes his brothers. They end up bringing their whole families to Egypt and Joseph provides for them and cares for them in Egypt. And then many years pass, Joseph dies and things begin to change. But that's the history that we're introduced to and reminded of in the first seven verses, this past history. There is a lesson for us to learn, I believe, even with that recounting of the history of how history will got to Egypt. And that is that God providentially works for the good of his people. God is always at work directing the circumstances. That's what's meant by his providence. He's always at work directing the circumstances for the good of his people. We know the New Testament verse. Don't we Romans 8.28? And we know that all things work together or God works all things together for good to them that love him to those who are the call according to his purpose. So we know the principle, but it's really here in the history that we see it fleshed out. God was at work in Joseph's life to bring him to just the place he wanted him to be. And through horrible circumstances, through being a slave and then being unjustly accused and thrown in prison and then being forgotten when he had done something to help another prisoner, through all of those misfortunes it seems God is at work, to bring him to just the place he wants him to be. And God is also at work providentially to protect and care for his people who he gets to Egypt, the place where they will be able to be safe and secure and be able to flourish and grow as a nation. And that's exactly what happens in all of that. God is at work. Over hundreds of years, God is at work developing, growing, working in the hearts and lives of his people. The same is true for us. God is always at work. Whether or not you know it, sense it, see it, feel it. God is always at work. And whatever's happening in your life, God is providentially working circumstances to conform you more to the image of his son, to make you more like Jesus, to grow you spiritually, to develop you into a servant of God. That's his purpose. So God is always providentially working for the good of his people. You may say, well, John, what's happening in my life? Sure, that doesn't feel very good right now. Well, God defines what's good. You see, we have a very limited definition of good. For us good is what's pleasing to me, comfortable for me, easy for me. And for God, what's good is what looks like Jesus. That's what he tells us in Romans 8.29, what looks like Jesus. And so his good in our lives is to conform us to the image of Christ, what Christ is like to make us more like him. And sometimes he has to knock off some rough edges, whittle down some pride and self-interest and ambition. And so sometimes what God is doing in our history doesn't look or feel good, but it is good. It is good. So God is providentially at work for the good of his people. But then the writer of this book, Moses himself, recounting the story, introducing his history, unfolds another page in the story and tells us about a pressing hardship that the nation endured. Yeah, this past history kind of leads us up to the point where Moses wants us to be, to introduce his birth, but he's going to tell us about a pressing hardship in verses 8 through 14. Let's read that. Then a new king to whom Joseph meant nothing came to power in Egypt. Look, he said to his people, the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous. And if war breaks out, we'll join our enemies fight against us and leave the country. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor and they built pithom and ramsees as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. So the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the field in all their harsh labor. The Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. So after Joseph dies, things change. Key word here. Hang on to it. Change. Change. First of all slowly, then drastically, more changes begin to take place. Israelite population has exploded and the Egyptians attitude toward them has begun to sour for slowly again, then more quickly. And what we find is a pattern here, suspicion toward a people group that turns to prejudice, that then turns to persecution, that then tries genocide. That's always been a pattern through human history. And it's a pattern that could hold true even in our day. Why were the Egyptians so prejudiced against the Israelites anyway? Wasn't Joseph an Israelite? Yes, didn't he do the nation great good? Yes, what happened? Well, it got started off kind of rocky because the Israelites were shepherds and the Egyptians didn't like shepherds. If you go back to Genesis 46, you would find that even Joseph told his family, when you come before Pharaoh, tell them you are shepherds. The reason for that is, and Joseph told the Pharaoh that the reason for that is, they'll put you off to yourselves in a part of the land where you'll be kind of segregated from the Egyptians. And that's exactly what God wanted. Because he did not want them to assimilate into the Egyptian culture with the Egyptian gods and religion and way of life. He wanted them to be able to flourish as his people, maintaining their national identity, and then he would later bring them out as his people. So he said, tell them your shepherds. If you read the last verse in Genesis 46, you'll find out why. It says, because the Egyptians detested shepherds. The Egyptians thought shepherds were a low class of people, not really fitting for cultured Egyptian society. And so what we'll do is we'll kind of shove them off in a corner of the land up there at the basin of the the Nile River in land where they contend their flocks and leave us alone and will leave them alone. Well, that kind of prejudice and despising of shepherds after Joseph dies, verses 8 through 10, after Joseph dies, and that history of how he benefited the nation of Egypt fades away, that becomes that prejudice against shepherds becomes a suspicion and a hatred of them as a group of people. And that leads to persecution. That's the pattern that it took. In verses 11 through 15, they're made slaves, and they are worked ruthlessly. So a new policy of hatred is instituted by a group of leaders who don't remember Joseph. Don't care about Joseph. Don't remember the contribution he made to Egyptian society. Forced labor, popularity gone, a desire to really exterminate a group of people with hatred and brutality. Other couple of lessons I think we need to learn from this pressing hardship on the nation of Israel. One is this to be careful about our own attitudes where prejudice is unchecked. It leads to horrible evil. It would lead us down a path that would would change from prejudice to oppression to brutality. That same seed of evil is in our own hearts, and we need to be careful that we do not allow prejudice against any group of people. Stain us from realizing that all people are created in the image of God and need Jesus Christ as their savior. There to be the objects of our compassion and love and outreach, no matter who they are, because we can very easily be tempted to follow the same pattern that happened in Egypt. But there's another lesson for us to learn from this pressing hardship, and that is that God is not absent in your hardship. Change came to the nation of Israel, but God did not forget them. God was not unaware of what was happening to them. If you'll just turn over a page to chapter two of the book of Exodus, verse 23, we're going to look at what's happening in this pressing hardship from God's perspective. 223, during that long period, the King of Egypt died, the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. He's not doing anything that they can see yet. They can't feel that concern yet. But the record is clear. God was concerned all along about what was happening with them. And he remembered his promise to Abraham, a promise he had made 400 years before. It's recorded for us in the Bible in Genesis chapter 15. Look at it on the screen. This is the this is the promise that God made to Abraham. The Lord said to him, no for certain that for 400 years, your descendants will be strangers in a country, not their own, and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. This is 400 years before all of this comes to fruition. What has God promised? But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterward they will come out with great possessions. God remembers that promise. Promise he made to Abraham and then on down through his son Jacob, his son Isaac. God remembers his promise. And God's heart feels the pain and hardship of his people. Look down at chapter three, verse seven. When God calls Moses, which we'll get to later, verse seven, the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. And I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. God had not forgotten them. And even though they can't see it and feel it yet, God has not forgotten them. He hears. He's concerned. He's going to act. And my friend, the same is true for you. None of us knows really what changes 2016 will bring to us. We might be able to see some on the horizon that look kind of gloomy. The job market in our area is not very secure. Is it? You keep reading headlines about some of the major job opportunities in this area, seeming to vanish into thin air. And so some of you are concerned about your job. Some of you are concerned about making ends meet. None of us knows what will happen with our health this year, although some of you may have received doctors reports already that have stunned you and frightened you. You're not sure what 2016 will bring to you. For some of you, sad to say 2016 will bring a broken family. I wish it were not so. But for some of you, you will experience some of the deepest heartache and pain you can ever experience in this coming year. None of us knows for sure what we will face. But there is one thing we know for sure. God knows he has not forgotten you. He hears your cry and his heart is moved by what you're going through. And he is at work. You may not see it right now. You may not feel it right now. You may not even sense his presence and you may weep on your pillow at night and wonder where he is. But he knows he remembers his promises to you. He cries with you. He hears your cry to him. And he is at work. He promises that it was so with Israel and it is so with you, even in the pressing hardships that you may face in experience this year. God is at work. He has not abandoned you. He is not absent. He is at work. You may not see it yet or feel it yet. He is at work. Please trust him. You can trust him whatever you're going through now. But then it seems to get even worse. The slavery, the pressing hardship is bad enough. But then the writer of this text introduces us to a plan of horror, a plan concocted by the king by the Pharaoh that was horrible, horrible, verse 15. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives whose names were Shippra and Pua when you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool. If you see that the baby is a boy, kill him. But if it is a girl, let her live. Pharaoh institutes this absolutely horrific plan to stop the population growth of Israel. He meets with the midwives. Childbirth was very different in that day. There were no fancy hospitals or even crude hospitals. There were some medicine, practice of medicine and doctors. It was mostly a religious deal in Egypt. But the Israelites probably were not privy to that privilege in Egypt. They operated like most ancient New Ester and people did. Midwives would deliver babies into this world at home. You know, the process of bringing children into the world has changed a lot, even in my lifetime. When our oldest daughter was born, there I say how many years ago, it was 1976, you can do the math. We left for the hospital in a rush that Sunday morning and I called our youth pastor and said, you're up today. He thought I was joking. I said, I'm not joking. You show up, I won't be there. We went to Moore Memorial Hospital in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Jeannie got checked in and the doctor told me to take a hike. I was to be nowhere around. There were no waiting rooms for expectant fathers. There was no being with the mother in that day. We had a 77-year-old obstetrician who came out of the 19th century and practiced medicine like that. He didn't want to die anywhere around. You know what I did? I found a waiting room somewhere else in the hospital to sit down and just wait. Nobody was going to come tell me anything. So I kept going back to the nursery window that I could look through from the hallway. You know how I found out Amy had been born? I saw a nurse bring a baby over to a bassinet back in the room and I'm straining to see what's going on and I watched her as she put what I thought was and sure enough I could make it out the name King on the bassinet. That's how I found out. Fast forward 12 years to Missy's birth. In Indiana, Casiasco Community Hospital in Warsaw, Indiana. And I'm told to scrub, put on the proper garments and actually go into the delivery room and when Missy was delivered, they quickly took her and washed her off and handed her to me. I held her even before Jeannie did. It's amazing. Well today the whole family's apart, you know? The birthing room at the hospital, everybody's there and the baby's born in the room with all the kids there and the husband, you know, how to end and everything and it's just crazy. What's up with that? You know actually midwifery is coming back in devote but in this day it was a very common thing. It was the only way really for a midwife to help a Hebrew mother sitting on two rocks called the birthing stool to deliver a baby. Now here was what Pharaoh said when the baby is delivered you quickly determined its gender. If it is a boy, you snuff at its life immediately. If it's a girl, you can let it live. What a heinous, horrible, murderous plan. And yet up into 2003 it was done every day in our country. 2200 a year, partial birth abortions. Thankfully our Congress outlawed it in 2003. President Bush signed it into law. It was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2007 by the slimmest of margins five to four. It comes up again. I'm not sure. I'm not sure but what the law we have now would be overturned. Here's the lesson. It is an evil society that sanctions the killing of its young. I'm not talking this morning. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not talking about mothers who may be in your past. You made a terrible mistake. You recognize that. You've grieved over it for years. You've sought God's forgiveness. You've struggled with your feelings in the guilt. My friend, I'm not piling on to you this morning. What I'm talking about is a culture and a government that sanctions the killing of its young. You know what makes my blood boil? You know what troubles me is when videos come out about the horrible practices of Planned Parenthood and leading figures in our country are more concerned about how those videos were detained than what they show and what they tell about. There's something wrong with our culture and our society when that happens. When there is no value on human life, a society that sanctions endorses, defends the killing of its young is an evil society worthy of God's judgment. A plan of horror. But in the midst of the worst of times, in the midst of pressing hardship and a plan that is absolutely horrible, there are people of honor. There are people of honor in the midst of all that. Just like there need to be people of honor in this church today and in our culture today that stand for what's right, stand for biblical values. They're named these two midwives. They get their name in the Bible for a good reason. You know there's some people get their name in the Bible for a bad reason. There are two ladies mentioned in Philippians who were fighting with each other and Paul names them. Man, I wouldn't want my name in the Bible for that. But this is good. This is good. Look at these people of honor, verse 17. The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the King of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live. Then the King of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live? You talk about pressure. Here are lowly midwives who don't even rank on the social scale in Egypt. I mean, they don't even make the law or rung of the latter. These Hebrew midwives. And they're standing before the most powerful ruler in the world at this time. You talk about intimidation. Not these ladies. They're heroines. They fear God. More than they fear any human ruler. So verse 19, here's their answer. The midwives answered Pharaoh. Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive. So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people. Every Hebrew boy that is born, you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live. These ladies are heroines. Now some have raised the question, did they lie to Pharaoh? Hebrew women are more vigorous, give birth before the midwives arrive. Was that a lie? May have been. May have been. If so, God did not bless them because of their lie. God blessed them because of their faithful obedience to him. But I'm not so sure they lie. It may have been. Hebrew women were certainly hardworking women in that culture. They were out in the fields just like them in. They were more vigorous than the have it easy Egyptian women. Maybe it was true or maybe the midwives told their compatriot midwives just delay showing up. Don't get there quite as quick and it could very well be. The babies were born before they got there whether that was a design or not is really not the issue. What God highlights is that they were faithful to him. They feared him more than they feared Pharaoh. So they were not in the least intimidated by Pharaoh. And God blessed them for their faithfulness. These midwives were definitely staunchly pro-life and they stayed that way. They would not put these babies to death. All of them are going to live if by God's grace they can live on their own. And so they are faithful to God. Here's the lesson that we learn. Submission to God is our first priority. Submission to God is our first priority. You see these Hebrew midwives are much like some other heroes in the New Testament. The apostles in Acts chapter four. You remember the story Acts chapter four. The apostles are preaching in the name of Jesus in the temple. They're arrested, they're beaten, they're worn not to preach in the name of Jesus anymore. They're let go. Where do they go? Straight to the temple to go back and preach. In fact before they went back they said, well you political leaders you judge whether or not is right to listen to you or listen to God. But we cannot help but say what we've heard and seen. So they go back. They're arrested a second time put in prison. An angel lets them out of the prison. And this time they go back to the temple and start preaching again. They're arrested again and they're worn. Don't we told you? Don't preach in the name of Jesus anymore. And the amazing answer of the apostles Acts 529 we must obey God rather than man. That's what these Hebrew midwives were doing. That's what the apostles did. Today believers in many parts of the world are doing the same thing. Believers in Sudan, believers in China, believers in the Middle East and Southeast Asia in oppressive countries, Islamic countries are standing for their faith and many of them dying for their faith. I got an email just this week from a young man that I taught at ABC, Laopi Zoo. Laopi came from India to do his training here. He went back to his homeland and his begun establishing churches in very poor rural areas in India. In his frantic letter this week he was appealing for prayer and for help because he was preaching in this one of these villages, very poor village where people make and sell charcoal to try to keep food on the table. He had established a church, people have gotten saved and he established a church and he's teaching this church in this little village. It's the only Bible-believing church anywhere around. He's teaching this church that you need to know Jesus first before you become a member of this church. That church members are believers. He's teaching the Bible and the political leaders in town did not like that. Forced the church, said they were going to. They were going to force the church to become a church of another denomination common in their area which allows anyone, believers, non-believers, anyone to join. It's like a social club. Laopi said we cannot do that and they ran him and all these people out of town, took their homes, took their church. He's frantically appealing for some help to build at least little lean-tos for his people to be able to live in. This is going on all over the world where people are saying we will obey God rather than men and they're paying the cost for it. We know so little of this but it may be coming to our doorstep. We need to fortify ourselves in biblical truth, graciously and lovingly and yet firmly stand for the truth of scripture just like these midwives did, just like the apostles did. The reason why Delegate John O'Neil came to meet with me this week was to let me know that today was religious freedom Sunday. We kind of got in late on it but I hope you will go to the website and check out what's happening. He told me a chilling story that efforts are being made in all 55 counties in West Virginia to do what was attempted in Houston a few years ago, a couple years ago, to open up all restrooms to any gender and their efforts just beginning in some counties it's already happening in Lewisburg where an ordinance has been drafted and a pastor over there is opposing it and paying the price for it. It's coming to every county in West Virginia and so John O'Neil and others like him, Tim Armstead and others like him who are strong believers are intending to introduce into our legislature this year legislation that will protect churches and Christian ministries in the face of this onslaught in every county of our state and he was pleading with me please please get your people to call their senators and delegates from Mercer County and encourage them to support whatever legislation is drafted for religious freedom in our state this year that's the reason for the announcement in the bulletin today directing you to the website where you can get the information please take that seriously we can't just sit back and do nothing we have to take a stand and that's one way we can do it the other way we can do it is to firmly but graciously and lovingly say we love all people we welcome all people here regardless of past of history of sexual orientation whatever we welcome all people to come worship and hopefully come to Christ but you will use the gender appropriate restroom and we will not back down from that now that may be the issue in our day that may be the issue that's on our doorstep for the Hebrew midwives it was the command from government to kill baby boys they would not do it when we are demanded to go against biblical convictions we have to have the strength to be people of honor and say no we fear God more than we fear you we have to be willing to do that the worst of times those are the times into which Moses was born worst of times if you had lived in that day you would have said it can't get any worse than this those are the days that God brings on the scene a man who will be a servant of God and he wants to see us follow him in obedience in the worst of times friend listen God is at work don't give up don't despair don't give up hope God is at work in the worst of times he is at work he is at work in your life I believe he is at work in our church he is at work in our culture God is at work so here's the thought I leave with you trust God to be at work in your life even in the worst of times trust God to be at work even if you don't feel it or see it trust God to be at work in your life even in the worst of times trust him trust him he is at work let's pray Father thank you for the confidence we can have in you to be developing servants of God even in the worst of times and Lord we believe you want us to be and do as you called Moses eventually to be and do so Father help us to be your servants help us to be people of honor who will follow you and have a commitment to obey you rather than man if that choice is forced upon us help us Lord to choose you and to follow you Lord I pray that you would bless in this time help us to respond as you would have us to in Jesus name we pray amen