Preparation For Service [Exodus 2:1-25]

Have you ever hired someone to do a job for you? I suspect if that were the case, say a gardener or someone come into re-model or repurpose your living space. I would imagine if that was the case you would want certain jobs done in a certain way, and you would probably instruct the people in your employment to do thing according to the way that you would want those things done. Furthermore, if you own a business that employs people, you might need to train your workers to do things in a certain way. 

 God too, wants certain things done in a certain way. So how does God train his workers? In fact, the Bible many times says that we are meant not just to see ourselves as workers, but as servants. Maybe you think of God’s servants usually as people in full time employed ministry. We think of people like a minister or a Pastor or a missionary, but as I mentioned we’re all in the ministry, so if that is the case then maybe we should be asking how God trains us. 

 As servants what do we have to do to be trained to serve, or to minister to others. If someone said that he wanted to prepare for the ministry we would probably automatically say well you need to go to Bible college, but today more and more people are forsaking the formal training and prepare people for the ministry in other ways. 

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I have known many people that have gone through the Bible College or university experience and came out on the other side not just, not only prepared for ministry, but with the faith dismantled and destroyed. 

 Other do well in an academic institution and even get ordained but when the go to their first church they crash and burn. I think it is worth asking, what did God do before there were universities and Bible Colleges. In the history of God’s work among people, the Bible College only came on the scene fairly recently. So how did God train people before there were Bible Colleges and how does God train people who don’t go that route at all. Some of the most outstanding leaders in modern times didn’t go to Bible College or University at all. The greatest Baptist preacher who ever lived, a man called Charles Spurgeon of the 19th century didn’t even go to college at all. There are others, a great Bible teacher in the USA named Harry Ironside didn’t go to seminary, yet taught I them for 20 years, and there are many others that you could put on that list. So how does God did train those people, and did God train people before that, and how might he train us today. Well, I think a study of Moses will give us an insight or two into how God prepared him, and us to serve.

 Moses Is Born

 1 And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. 5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. 6 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So, she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So, the maiden went and called the child’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So, the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. So, she called his name Moses, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

(Exodus 2: 1-10)

 I’d like to pause at this point and talk about what we’ve just read, and then we’ll pick up the story at verse 11, a little later. These first ten verses are telling us about the early life of Moses but in order to understand what’s going on in these verses you need to remind ourselves at what happen at the close of the previous chapter. Let me remind you.

 So, Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

 (Exodus 1: 22)

 What is important to remember at the time Moses was born Pharaoh felt threatened by the explosive growth of the Israelite nation, so he commanded that the midwives kill the baby boys, so that they the Israelites wouldn’t continue to grow in numbers. After various other strategies failed, he then commanded that everybody take any male babies and kill them by throwing them in the river. 

 That’s the backdrop for chapter 2, and as chapter 2 opens we’re told there was a man, I think it’s interesting he’s not named, but he will be named later in the book, anyway this man went out and took a wife who was from a Levite family.  Here are two people from the same tribe, which, by the way, will becomes the priestly tribe, and they get married. Now in verse 2 it says, and the woman had a son and she saw that he was a beautiful child and it also tells us she hid him for three months, previously to try and avoid him being taken and killed. 

 The child is described as “beautiful”. Now there is more going on him being a good-looking kid, the Hebrew word is translated, “beautiful”, actually means pleasant and agreeable, most expositors who come to this passage think that there is an idea here of this being more than just physical beauty, it involved a attractive character as well. So, she hides him for three months. It’s important to note that the mother said I’m going to hide him, and I’m going to trust the Lord to keep him safe. So, she exercised faith. 

Hebrews Ch 9, in the New Testament confirms this,  she must have had some kind of revelation, and this is a very important example of living by faith. You don’t just believe in your own faith, in the Bible faith is believing in something God has said. Faith in the Bible is never separated from the object of our faith, the person we have faith in, the person who is the object of our faith is God himself. It saddens me to see how often in the modern church faith is taught as almost a separate thing, just believe and it will be so, instead of Believe in God, look at what he has said, and done and believe he has the personhood and the character he says he is, and you can trust him to do what he says. You can’t believe and trust in God, until you hear God speak. And the fact is that hear, God speaks, and she hear what he said, and by her actions she had faith in Him. “By faith”, indicates that God communicated that this is a special child, maybe she even knew that he was going to be the deliverer and saviour of Israel,  at any rate they trusted the Lord to rescue and save this child, so placed him a basket and his him in the bullrushes of the Nile. They did was make what is called an arc of bull rushes and put the child in it and laid it in the reeds of the rivers bank. So she simply fashioned a bowl shaped boat for this baby and she makes it waterproof by covering it with tar or pitch and putting it in the river.

 So, as a side note, please note the bible said there was oil in the middle east 1000’s of years before we knew it could have an energy value. Some 19th century archaeologists who were employed by the Standard Oil Co, to survey this area, based on this verse. Because some executive of Standard Oil read his Bible,  and thought, I wonder, Standard Oil established, there was oil in the Middle East.  At any rate they put this baby boat, now this wasn’t just a case of abandoning him, there was a plan behind this because the mother apparently instructed the sister to go and watch and see what happened. The sister stands off afar, indicating this was intentional because the placed the baby near to where the daughter of the pharaoh came down to bathe at the river there. As the princess is bathing some of her maids are walked along the riverside and when they saw the little boat among the reeds, and they go in and retrieved it. When they look in it, they saw the child crying and it said she had compassion on him. Now remember what are you supposed to do with Hebrew male child? Right, throw him in the river, and who are the showing the baby too, Pharaoh’s daughter.    Who says I’ll keep the child but first go find an Hebrew maid to nurse her for me, and immediately Moses sister steps up and says, I’ll go find you one. So now Moses, aunt is now going to find the nurse maid, talk about the providence of God. And who does she fetch? Moses’ real mother.

 Pharaoh’s daughter then says to her take the child away, nurse him from me and I’ll pay you. I mean it couldn’t get any better than this, I’m gonna let you be the one to mother this child. She trusted God to save him, and God not only saves the child, but let the real mother nurse him, and she will pay her to do it.

 That’s God doing abundantly above all that we could ask or think. So, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted Moses and he called his name Moses saying because I drew him out of the water. So again, we have the Lord working to save this guy’s life and make him the proxy grandson of Pharoah, the very guy who commanded that he be killed. That is the way the Lord works, it’s just incredible.

 What we have here in these first 10 verses is meant to teach us that God is protecting and preparing Moses for his future ministry. And he is doing it providentially. The seeming coincidences in this passage like, Pharoah’s daughter happening to bath right where the reed basket was floating? The baby crying at just the right moment and thus draw attention to himself. Moses’ mother being chosen by pharaoh’s daughter to be his nurse, all those questions point to the fact that God’s providence is clearly evident in his care of Moses. Miraculously he was restored to his own parents in an amazing display of God’s control over events. Moses’ mother is united with her child which in a way that is legally sanctioned by the house of Pharaoh, and she was even remunerated for her services. In God’s sovereignty he kept the bay safe from Pharaohs own edict, and even made the child a member of the royal family to do that. The point here is God providentially protected Moses. God didn’t work supernaturally here, he works providentially means through natural means behind the scenes to accomplish his will. It also meant Moses would receive the finest education in all of the world at that time because he’s now a member of the royal household. 

 We are told in the New Testament in Hebrews Chapter 11 that Moses was taught in the school of Egypt. Yet Hebrews also tells us he will choose later to refuse to be identified as a son of Pharaohs daughter, choosing rather suffering and affliction alongside the people of God, instead of enjoying the passing pleasures of Egypt. He chooses God’s greater riches, rather than any treasure in Egypt. By all this, God is preparing him, then what is he preparing him for? 

 11 Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12 So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?” 14 Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So, Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.  (Exodus 2: 10-15)

 If the first ten verses are describing his early life, verses 11 through 15 are describing his escape from Egypt. The story so far is rather straightforward, we know from a passage in Acts Chapter 7, especially verse 23, that Moses was about 40 years old when this happened, and we know from that passage that I’ve already referenced in Hebrews that he was now a man of great faith.  He is a 40-year-old man and he’s aware that God is going to use him and he goes out and he sees the burden that’s being placed upon his brothers, the children of Israel, and when he sees an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Israelites, he kills him, thus siding with his own people over Pharoah people. What I think is really interesting is it says, he looked first, so Moses looks around first to check no-one would see him when he killed the Egyptian. When the thought no one was watching he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

 Moses is stepping out of line, he took the matter into his own hands, and he killed the Egyptian who was beating one of the Hebrews.  However, several days later when he sees two Hebrew men fighting and he tries to break it up one of them says, “Who put you in charge, are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian”. Moses didn’t know that anybody knew about this, as a matter of fact he had looked all around and didn’t see anybody watching but now he finds out that it was in fact witnessed, and the word is out and frankly I think he panicked. With good reason I might add sure enough when pharaoh heard about this matter, he set out the word to kill him but Moses. flees to the adjacent land of Midian, and next time we see him we find him there sitting on a well.

 What can we learn from that? Well, I think there’s a huge lesson here and that is murder is not the means of accomplishing God’s plan. Remember, God wanted Moses to deliver the children of Israel, but he didn’t want Moses to take matters in his own hands. Moses wasn’t depending on the Lord at this point, he wasn’t trusting the Lord he was saying I can handle things on my own leading him to flee. If we were looking for a leader today, based on what we have seen so far, would we think Moses  is the man for the job? I mean he said so himself, he is not qualified, and now he has become a murderer. But the Lord is still going to use him, so this situation now has to become part of his preparation. There’s a very valuable lesson here and it is, don’t try to things you way without trusting the Lord. Although God may still use you, but he will have to deal with the other stuff first.  The problem now is that he decided to do it his way, not God’s way .

 There’s one more short little passage in this chapter that’s the end of the story, we paused at verse 15, with him sitting by the well, verse.

 16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. 18 When they came to Reuel their father, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?” 19 And they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.” 20 So he said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. 22 And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.” 23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.  (Exodus 2: 16-25)

 He’s far outside of Egypt now, he’s over in the Sinai Peninsula and this priest, who experts think was probably a priest of the true God, has seven daughters It’s their job to feed the animals and they come, and some shepherds at the well try to shoo these women away. However, Moses steps up and helps the women. It worth noting I think that this is the third time in this passage that he has tried to intervene in a situation. The first was when an Egyptian was being was beating one of the Hebrews and he stepped in to save the Hebrew, the second is when the two Hebrews were fighting each other, and now this third time is when he meets these young girls, and he steps in to help them feed and water their sheep. When the girls got back to their father, they tell him what happened, and he says how come you are back so soon. So, it seems that because Moses helped them, they got everything done a lot faster than they normally would, and the father says how did you get done so quick.

 They say an Egyptian helped them, this suggests he was probably still dressed like an Egyptian and he probably had an Egyptian accent as well and spoke their language. At any rate they thought he was an Egyptian and and they said he saved us from these shepherds who wanted to chase us away and then he helps us drew water for us and the flock. The father says to the daughters, why did you leave this man go and get him and invite him to dinner so I can thank him. One thing leads to another, and Moses ends up not only getting a meal, but a wife. The passage closes by telling us that the pharaoh who had ordered Moses’ death has died, but things continue to get worse fror the children of Israel back in Egypt.

 So, the children of Israel began to cry and say Lord deliver us from this slavery and the text tells us at this point that God remembered his covenant that he originally promised Abraham Isaac and Jacob, in that he would give their descendants the land of Israel. So, the Lord remembered, and now he’s going to get Moses to come and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. We know from some other passages of scripture that he remained in that situation in Midian for another40 years, he got married and had a son. So why did the Lord allow him to spend all that time in Midian and the Sinai Peninsula. There’s possibly several answers to that, but I would like to suggest one reason is because the Lord was training Moses. He lived and survived in this desert for 40 years and you may know already that that is where he was going to take the children of Israel too. He is learning the geography and the layout of the very place where they’re gonna to end up wandering for another 40 years. There is 40 years of wilderness wandering to come. So, now he spend 40 years learning about the place where he’s going to practice his ministry for the next 40 years.

Summary

 The Lord providentially protected Moses and when he had to flee Egypt because he had killed an Egyptian the Lord used that situation to prepare him for his future mission by taking him to the very place where he was going to be based with the children of Israel for 40 years.

 Let me suggest the principle we all need to learn from this. Namely the Lord prepares people for service by sometimes sending them to the school of Hard Knocks. That’s where you learn to serve the Lord the number one lesson in the curriculum is, do not try and things in your way, or in your own strength, but rather follow God’s will and depend on his strength. God had predicted that his people would be in the land of Egypt as slaves for 400 years, just  as said in Genesis 15:13. Calendar wise Moses’ initial actions we’re 40 years premature. He killed the Egyptian when he shouldn’t have, so apparently, he needed more training in the desert.

Conclusion.

 Whatever you are going through, the Lord can use in your future to minister to help other people. That is very important. God can use everything that has happened to you, everything you have done in you life, good or bad, to help other people The way he will do it is he will bring somebody into your life that’s going through the same thing you went through, and you will then know how to help you, and in the future, you can use that experience to again hurt other people. So, be encouraged because  whatever you are going through today, just might be vital to a ministry you will have in the future.