SPEAKER_00: Make disciples for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Spring Valley Baptist Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Spring Valley Baptist Church exists to make disciples for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Spring Valley, visit Spring ValleyBaptist.com.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_01: With my sons Thomas and Will, one of their favorite things to do is to look at old home videos and photos of our family.
SPEAKER_01: What we'll do is we'll take our iPhones and we will mirror our iPhone on the screen of our TV, and then we will go back through the camera roll.
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll look at videos or pictures of them when they were younger.
SPEAKER_01: And then here recently, what we did is we scrolled a little bit further up the camera roll, and we started to see pictures and videos of Becca and I early in our marriage before kids, us when we were engaged, us when we were dating, and that's when my iPhone camera roll stops, is because I got my iPhone pretty soon after we were dating.
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things that sparks in conversation afterwards is can you tell us the story of how y'all met?
SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us some of the stories of y'all dating?
SPEAKER_01: Tell me stories of when you were kids.
SPEAKER_01: And so for Becca and I to look at Thomas and to look at Will and be like, well, Mama and Dada met in the summer of 2010 working at a Christian summer camp together.
SPEAKER_01: And if we had not met there at that camp, you would not have happened.
SPEAKER_01: Well, praise God y'all met there, right?
SPEAKER_01: But then you could go back and think of any particular story.
SPEAKER_01: How any of us are here.
SPEAKER_01: Had my mother and father not played music in church together, then I would not have happened.
SPEAKER_01: And generation before generation, and then you hear these stories, and it's not just somebody else's story where they start talking and they sound like the teacher in the peanuts cartoon.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We're just like, that's nice for you, don't care.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: But you hear differently, you listen differently when it's a part of your story.
SPEAKER_01: What we have in the book of Exodus is God telling the nation of Israel, if this and this and this did not happen, you would not be here.
SPEAKER_01: And Israel, they listen differently, knowing that this is their story.
SPEAKER_01: And so too for us who are here today, those of us who call out to God out of a heart of faith, those who have placed our faith and trust in Him, that we now are a part of the people of God, his own treasured possession, that we now, in hearing the stories of the Bible, the accounts, the historical record of what God has done in and through history, we hear this differently because this is our story.
SPEAKER_01: This is our family heritage.
SPEAKER_01: And my prayer is that we all together would listen differently because this is our story.
SPEAKER_01: And if God had not acted as he did in Exodus, as he did all throughout the pages of the Old Testament, as he did through his son, our Savior at the cross in the empty tomb, then none of us would be here today.
SPEAKER_01: But praise be to God that he did and we are.
SPEAKER_01: And now we have a treasure trove to learn from.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're journeying now today, first Sunday in our fall series through the first part of the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: If you have been with us for any length of time, uh, this is now uh fall number four for me here as the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: The first fall, we looked at the first part of Genesis, and then the second fall, the next part of Genesis, last fall, the third part of Genesis, finished Genesis, and now we're just gonna go straight on to Exodus, the second book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why are we gonna be looking at the book of Exodus together?
SPEAKER_01: Why are we going to be studying this Old Testament book that was written thousands of years ago to a people in a far different geographic region than our own?
SPEAKER_01: Why would we look at this together?
SPEAKER_01: Why are we studying Exodus?
SPEAKER_01: You can write it in first in your outline.
SPEAKER_01: It is inspired by God.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Timothy, the New Testament letter that Paul wrote to his apprentice, his protege in the ministry, Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he said in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_01: All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_01: So when Paul the Apostle is writing to Timothy and he says, all scripture is breathed out by God, including the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That is what he would have been specifically referring to, God's revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And that God breathed nature, that should make us think about some echoes that we hear way back in Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: When God took the dust of the ground and formed man from the dust, and it says there in Genesis that he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature.
SPEAKER_01: God breathed.
SPEAKER_01: That there is that same breath that inspired what is written for us here in God's Word, and now through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, it makes it come alive in our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: All scripture is God breathed and is profitable.
SPEAKER_01: There is great profit.
SPEAKER_01: Some businessmen and women in here, you look at ROI, you have investments, you are doing different endeavors and entrepreneurial kind of efforts.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater profit than studying the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: All scripture is breathed out by God and it's profitable.
SPEAKER_01: It is sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we're looking at Exodus, this is book number two in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: So you go towards the beginning of your Bible, you have Genesis, Exodus right there.
SPEAKER_01: Not having to thumb through to look.
SPEAKER_01: You don't even have to go to the table of contents.
SPEAKER_01: You can go just straight over to Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: The first five books of the Bible are known as the Pentateuch, Penta, right?
SPEAKER_01: Five.
SPEAKER_01: The first five books of the Bible that were written down by Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, written down by Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And we are not going to be looking at this sectioned off from the rest of it, but it is a part of an integrated whole.
SPEAKER_01: And here we are able to see that this, what is written for us, is true.
SPEAKER_01: I just need to put my cards on the table.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a fairy tale.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a fable.
SPEAKER_01: This is not wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_01: It's not ancient myth, but it is, it's epic, but it is a true epic.
SPEAKER_01: I believe, presupposition, God has spoken.
SPEAKER_01: These things happened.
SPEAKER_01: Historical fact.
SPEAKER_01: God acted in history, and it is written for us in his inspired word.
SPEAKER_01: So we're studying Exodus because it is inspired by God.
SPEAKER_01: And second, while we're studying it, it is instructive for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament book, 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: There he's writing to Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: And in that chapter, he is basically summarizing and talking about the whole book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: So you're going to hear 1 Corinthians 10 referred to a lot this fall, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And this is what the Apostle Paul wrote in verse 11 of that chapter, in reflecting on the events of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Now these things, Exodus, happened to them, the people of Israel, as an example.
SPEAKER_01: But they were written down, all of the events, all of the records, everything in Exodus was written down.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
SPEAKER_01: These things happened to the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: They really happened, and they were an example for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But God is capable of doing multiple things at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: Alright?
SPEAKER_01: And he was doing things for the nation of Israel in time, in space, in history, but also, and at the same time, he was acting and recording these things down for us, instructive for the people of God so that we could live lives that are holy and pleasing to him and his son.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us, there is great profit in looking at this.
SPEAKER_01: We can learn from Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: We can learn about God.
SPEAKER_01: We can learn about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We can learn about his story.
SPEAKER_01: We can learn how our story is caught up into his story.
SPEAKER_01: We can hear our family's story.
SPEAKER_01: And we listen differently when we know that it is a part of our family's story.
SPEAKER_01: It's inspired by God.
SPEAKER_01: It's instructive for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And third, it is illustrating the cosmic war.
SPEAKER_01: I've been waiting all week to say that line.
SPEAKER_01: It illustrates for us the cosmic war.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look back briefly at Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to backtrack.
SPEAKER_01: Fall of 2023.
SPEAKER_01: You look at Genesis chapter 3, verses 15 and 16.
SPEAKER_01: And there, if you're a person who likes to underrine, highlight, star, exclamation point in the margins of your Bible, this is like primo real estate right here for you to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Because what we see, Adam and Eve created in God's image to reflect his glory, to live lives of unhindered fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_01: Rather listen to the voice of the serpent, the devil, the enemy, the dragon, the snake.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of reflecting the glory of God, sought to replace them.
SPEAKER_01: In an act of insurrection and rebellion, they took of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ate and gave to one another, their eyes were opened, they realized that they were naked and they were ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: And there in the aftermath, rather than God just smiting them on the spot, he comes down, he asks where they are, he draws them out of hiding, and he looks over them.
SPEAKER_01: He asks, What is it that you've done?
SPEAKER_01: He pronounces a curse over the serpent and consequences over man and woman.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what he says in Genesis 3.15.
SPEAKER_01: What some scholars have called the proto-gospel in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: God looking at the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring, your seed, and her offspring, literally her seed.
SPEAKER_01: And he, that seed that comes from the woman, shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
SPEAKER_01: We have here the proto-gospel unfolding in the pages of Scripture and all throughout history, the enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: God's unfolding plan in the fullness of time to bring a deliverer, to liberate his people from the bondage of sin.
SPEAKER_01: And the serpent who is still writhing around and trying to cause as much destruction as he possibly can.
SPEAKER_01: Threat against the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we look at Genesis and we are tracing from Adam and Eve the line, the heritage, the family tree, looking for the seed.
SPEAKER_01: And God, He preserves a line, He preserves a people, and we see the devil attempting to destroy it.
SPEAKER_01: And so all throughout Genesis and here in Exodus, we're able to see, yes, that there are things playing out on the plains of the ancient Middle East.
SPEAKER_01: But there again, God is capable of doing multiple things at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that it is not only playing out here on an earthly plane, but it is playing out on a cosmic plane as well.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to look with me at Isaiah chapter 51 at some prophetic literature.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you really like prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's look at this as Isaiah the prophet is reflecting on the events in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah with some holy inspiration is looking back, and God reveals to him other things that were actually happening in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 51, verses 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_01: Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.
SPEAKER_01: Was it not you who cut Rahab into pieces?
SPEAKER_01: Now, Rahab, this is not Rahab the harlot from the book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: Different Hebrew spelling, Rahab is a synonym for Egypt, right here.
SPEAKER_01: Is it not you, O God, who cut Egypt into pieces and who pierced the dragon, the serpent?
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Was it not you who dried up the sea?
SPEAKER_01: Preview of coming attractions in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: The waters of the great deep who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over.
SPEAKER_01: You see, there was a lot that was happening, playing out on the surface in the book of Exodus and on the plains of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: But there is more than you could ever possibly imagine happening in the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: Cosmic war, God's purposes, Satan's devices.
SPEAKER_01: But let's not think that this is some sort of cosmic balance of good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: No yin and yang, no dark side and light side of the force.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing that is in balance about this.
SPEAKER_01: God is the one who could just, with the whisper of his voice, melt the earth, the Psalms say.
SPEAKER_01: That God, it is no contest when you come up against Yahweh, the one true God that is recorded for us in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And we see right here what God is doing in the Exodus is he is exacting divine judgment and he is fulfilling his promises of Genesis 3.15, where a seed would come from the woman, a deliverer who would bruise his head, would deal a fatal blow.
SPEAKER_01: And he is going to do this in perpetuating the promise by delivering his people from bondage and the slavery of the land of Egypt and to bring them through wilderness wanderings and into the land of promise.
SPEAKER_01: So God, he has spoken through Exodus, and he wants to speak to your life today.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't look at these Old Testament books just so that we can get a good grade on whatever sort of Bible quiz that might come up in the future.
SPEAKER_01: We don't do it, we don't study it just to learn and accumulate some facts and become puffed up with knowledge, right, that the Bible would talk about.
SPEAKER_01: But no, we come to this, and I pray for you as we sit under God's word together, that he would speak to your life, that your trust and your confidence would grow and grow in him to new heights in this study.
SPEAKER_01: We will see together that God is our deliverer.
SPEAKER_01: So that's why we're studying the book of Exodus today.
SPEAKER_01: This season.
SPEAKER_01: And we come now to Exodus chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: And as we do so, would you join me as we pray?
SPEAKER_01: And so, gracious Heavenly Father, as we come to your word this morning, I pray that you give us eyes to see.
SPEAKER_01: God, that you would give us ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray that you would speak.
SPEAKER_01: For we, your servants, are listening.
SPEAKER_01: It's through Christ we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The first point in Exodus chapter one that I want us to see together is this God keeps his promises.
SPEAKER_01: He's the promise maker.
SPEAKER_01: And he is the promise keeper.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verses one and two.
SPEAKER_01: This is how the book of Exodus begins.
SPEAKER_01: It's with a genealogy.
SPEAKER_01: Exciting stuff, right?
SPEAKER_01: These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: The other 12 are there, I promise you.
SPEAKER_01: But we need to look at this.
SPEAKER_01: How did God's people, how did the nation of Israel come to be in the land of Egypt?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're able to see in the very first word of the book of Exodus, it doesn't come across in each of our English translations, but there is a conjunction, a connecting word, right, for my English folks.
SPEAKER_01: There is a conjunction at the very beginning of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: So it really literally, kind of wouldn't, but literally reads, and these are the names.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: And because Exodus wasn't meant to be read in isolation.
SPEAKER_01: It is a sequel to the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: It is a picking up, a continuing of the narrative unfolding of God's acts in history.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see here, what was at the very end of Genesis that God, He was acting and preserving His people.
SPEAKER_01: We saw back in Genesis 3, He promised a seed, He promised a deliverer.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're able to unfold and we're able to see through Cain and Abel.
SPEAKER_01: We're able to see through the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 1 to 11.
SPEAKER_01: Violent time.
SPEAKER_01: A place in time I would not want to live in.
SPEAKER_01: But then we get to Genesis chapter 12, and God chooses Abram that would then be named Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: This would be his line of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: He calls out this pagan worshiper to follow him, to put his faith in him, and he promises descendants and land and blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Genesis chapter 15, verses 13 through 16, he's just gotten done showing Abraham all of the descendants, except Abraham and Sarah, his wife, you know, they're uh they they have their A R P cards.
SPEAKER_01: They're a little bit on the north end of the age spectrum, okay?
SPEAKER_01: They are beyond normal child rearing years.
SPEAKER_01: And so when God says that he's going to bless them with children, they're like, what?
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_01: It's supposed to make us laugh.
SPEAKER_01: It made them laugh.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that when they eventually had their son Isaac, it means laughter.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: And every time that they try to take it into their own hands, they mess it up.
SPEAKER_01: But when they yield to God's promises and follow his word and his leading, then they're able to flourish in the way of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: But look, after God takes Abraham out in Genesis 15 and says, look up at the stars.
SPEAKER_01: Can you count them?
SPEAKER_01: No, you can't.
SPEAKER_01: So will your descendants be so numerous.
SPEAKER_01: And right after that, he says this in verses 13 through 16.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, Egypt, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can just read over things and it just kind of glosses like, oh, 400 years.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'll file that away.
SPEAKER_01: Yo, uh, we we just celebrated 250 as a nation, did we not?
SPEAKER_01: Take 150 and add to that, that is how long God's people were enslaved in the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve.
SPEAKER_01: And afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: As for you, Abram, you shall go to your fathers in peace, Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation.
SPEAKER_01: For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
SPEAKER_01: We're able to see from this, looking back at Genesis, God is not concerned with being quick.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we pray for things, and because of Amazon, we expect it in two days or less, right?
SPEAKER_01: Expedited, free shipping for these kind of requests.
SPEAKER_01: We don't always get it that fast.
SPEAKER_01: And even then, it's not always an answer that we would like.
SPEAKER_01: But praise God that he has not always answered in the affirmative every prayer request I've ever prayed.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to know what my life would look like if he had done that.
SPEAKER_01: But we yield to his wisdom, we follow in his ways.
SPEAKER_01: And we trust this God, He is not concerned with being quick, and this God is not unjust.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because over the course of that 400 years, He says at the very end, the purpose.
SPEAKER_01: We wonder why.
SPEAKER_01: Why this long?
SPEAKER_01: Well, they're going to go into Egypt, they're going to come back in the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing is there are a lot of other people in that land, and God is not just going to wipe them off the face of the earth without cause.
SPEAKER_01: And he's already seeing the trajectory that it's going on, that sin is taking up resonance in the heart of every human, that we are perpetuating violence against one another, against ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And he is saying that his justice will come.
SPEAKER_01: The wickedness of the Amorites is not yet complete.
SPEAKER_01: And so he is going to give time for there to be some repentance, for some to seek a way out in salvation from the judgment.
SPEAKER_01: But God, he's not quick, and he is not unjust.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're able to see unfolding in Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, his Abraham's descendants are going to be sojourners in a land.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what about the descendants?
SPEAKER_01: At this point, there is no baby.
SPEAKER_01: There are no children.
SPEAKER_01: And so God, in time, gives Abraham and Sarah Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: And then Isaac and his wife have Jacob, Jacob, who is then later renamed Israel, one who wrestles with God.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jacob, Israel, has twelve sons who would then be the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And then one of those sons, Joseph, he's the one who gets a lot of the focus of the end of the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph, Joseph and the coat of many colors, right?
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't technical or anything like that, you know, but like he had this coat of many colors, or Hebrew, it could be translated also, coat of long sleeves.
SPEAKER_01: It was the supervisors that wore the long-sleeved coats.
SPEAKER_01: And in this, Joseph was elevated above his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: His brothers didn't like this too much.
SPEAKER_01: Joseph was a little bratty, let's be honest.
SPEAKER_01: And his brothers sold him into slavery in the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And so Joseph, who had been elevated in his family, was thrown into the pit and sold into slavery.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then he was put into Potiphar's house and quickly rose, second in command of this powerful man, falsely accused of rape, and then thrown into prison.
SPEAKER_01: And while in prison, rose up in the ranks, forgotten but still elevated in power, and then he interprets a dream, brought into Pharaoh's house, essentially made the prime minister of the land of Egypt, and helps to preserve the Egyptians from a severe famine.
SPEAKER_01: And then in time, those brothers, those brothers who sold them into slavery, they come knocking on Egypt's door.
SPEAKER_01: We ain't got no food.
SPEAKER_01: You have some food.
SPEAKER_01: Can we have some food?
SPEAKER_01: They don't recognize Joseph, and in time he is revealed.
SPEAKER_01: He gives them blessing, he gives them food, he forgives them.
SPEAKER_01: His father Jacob is brought back.
SPEAKER_01: He sees the son that he thought he lost decades earlier, alive.
SPEAKER_01: Then Joseph has, through his connection with Pharaoh, the land of Goshen and the land of Egypt, this section of the land where they can grow and flourish and where they're preserved.
SPEAKER_01: Their father Jacob dies, the brothers are like, okay, we were only alive because dad was alive.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's going to give it to us.
SPEAKER_01: But then Joseph's like, how wrong you are.
SPEAKER_01: Because, and then in Genesis 50, 20, again, if you're an underlining person in your Bible, Genesis 50, 20.
SPEAKER_01: He's looking at his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Joseph said.
SPEAKER_01: As for you, you meant evil against me.
SPEAKER_01: But God meant it for good.
SPEAKER_01: To bring it about that many people should be kept alive even as they are today.
SPEAKER_01: Again, God is able to do multiple things at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: And in his sovereign rule, he is able even to use the evil devices and plans of those who would enslave and sell their own brother as a part of his plan to save and preserve life.
SPEAKER_01: So God, he's not concerned with quick, God is not unjust, and God is not concerned with comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And then God is not without a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: So now look at verse 5 of Exodus chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: So all of the descendants of Jacob, so that's the 12 tribes, the nation of Israel, they were 70 persons.
SPEAKER_01: 70 people, big family, but not quite a nation, right?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a clan.
SPEAKER_01: But they were 70, and Joseph was already in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 6, then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.
SPEAKER_01: But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and they multiplied and grew increasingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear some of the creation mandate from Genesis chapter 1 and 2, where God looks at Adam and Eve and says, Be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_01: And here, Israel is helping to fulfill that mandate.
SPEAKER_01: They are increasing and multiplying greatly.
SPEAKER_01: The last generation is gone, but God continues to fulfill his promise from Genesis 15 that the nation would grow and would increase and be more numerous than the stars.
SPEAKER_01: So Israel, they are faithful to the creation mandate, and God is faithful to preserve his promises.
SPEAKER_01: And so, how is this instructive for us?
SPEAKER_01: There are a few things that I need you to know.
SPEAKER_01: God has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: But God's plan might not be on your timetable.
SPEAKER_01: And God's plan might not be the most comfortable for you.
SPEAKER_01: But we can trust that God's plan is not without purpose.
SPEAKER_01: You're not always going to be able to see it.
SPEAKER_01: You might still have a lot of questions.
SPEAKER_01: And there will still be some things that you can only gain clarity on when you come into his glorious presence someday.
SPEAKER_01: But I hope that we all together could remember the words attributed to Charles Spurgeon where he says, When you can't trace God's hand, trust his heart.
SPEAKER_01: Trust that he has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: So the nation of Israel, they are growing, they are exceedingly strong, filling the land, but things are about to turn south.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the next part.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh oppresses God's people.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph, and he said to his people, Behold, the Israel, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
SPEAKER_01: Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.
SPEAKER_01: And they built store cities for Pitham and Ramses for Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a new king.
SPEAKER_01: There's a new leader, there's a new Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: He comes to power and he doesn't know Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't remember this man from a foreign land who's come in and helped to preserve his people through famine and cause them to flourish and prosper.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't remember, and Pharaoh, he doesn't care.
SPEAKER_01: But there's two things that Pharaoh does care about: minimizing the growing military threat and growing his economy.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're getting larger.
SPEAKER_01: They could turn on us.
SPEAKER_01: And also they're getting larger.
SPEAKER_01: They could build for us.
SPEAKER_01: And what this shows is that when you have no knowledge of God, the one true God, the God of Israel, Yahweh, you will be controlled by fear and greed that will lead you to oppress other people.
SPEAKER_01: But the plans of the wicked will not ultimately prosper.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the next verses, verses 12 through 14.
SPEAKER_01: But the more that they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad.
SPEAKER_01: The opposite of the intended effect.
SPEAKER_01: And the Egyptians, they were in dread of the people of Israel, and so they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field.
SPEAKER_01: And all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear the word work, work, work come up again and again?
SPEAKER_01: That they are seeking to oppress God's people.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Pharaoh, his problem is only getting bigger as he is set in opposition to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so they ramp up the oppression while God's people push further out.
SPEAKER_01: They're ruthless, hard service, enslavement, and then at the peak of the oppression, murder of the infant boys of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 1, verses 15 and 16.
SPEAKER_01: Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shrah and the other Pua.
SPEAKER_01: Again, if you're an underlining person, I like underlining both of their names.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see why in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh said to these two women, When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool in the delivery room, if it is a son, you shall kill him.
SPEAKER_01: But if it is a daughter, she shall live.
SPEAKER_01: This is the height of oppression and the depths of depravity.
SPEAKER_01: And then killing these babies.
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 22, Pharaoh instructing anybody that sees a baby boy to throw the baby into the Nile River.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: He calls in these two Hebrew midwives that were in charge and tells them, if you see any baby boys being born, I need you to kill them.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: They were a threat.
SPEAKER_01: Growing fear.
SPEAKER_01: And just imagine the position that these two women were put in.
SPEAKER_01: The pressure that they must have felt.
SPEAKER_01: In that culture, Egypt was the top world superpower.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh, the top leader of the top superpower.
SPEAKER_01: His people thought he was a god.
SPEAKER_01: They are called in front of this man who tells them to kill the Hebrew baby boys, and they are probably feeling some turmoil and tension.
SPEAKER_01: And we we see the oppression, we see the enslavement, and now this call to kill these Hebrew baby boys.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to see this, we need to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: There is an enemy that is seeking to wage war against God's people in every age.
SPEAKER_01: And those who are anti-God, fueled by fear and greed, enslaving and murdering, creating a culture of death.
SPEAKER_01: And so, church, we don't need to be surprised when this happens.
SPEAKER_01: But know that we will not stay there and we don't have to settle for that.
SPEAKER_01: The call for all of us is to fear God and not any mortal man.
SPEAKER_01: We see this next in verse 17 through 21.
SPEAKER_01: God fearers obey him rather than man.
SPEAKER_01: We see that in verse 17 explicitly.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: But the midwives, Shifrah and Puah, but the midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
SPEAKER_01: And so the king of Egypt, he called the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this?
SPEAKER_01: And let the male children live.
SPEAKER_01: And the midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.
SPEAKER_01: It's funny, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: They are engaging in a little civil disobedience, fearing God rather than fearing man.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a little uh a little deception going on here.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a little underhanded kind of backslap compliment.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, the Hebrew women are just built tougher than the Egyptian women.
SPEAKER_01: But then we're able to see how God responds to what these women do.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20, so God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21, and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
SPEAKER_01: And so these two women, these two Hebrew midwives, Shifra and Pu'ah, feared God rather than the most powerful man on earth at the time.
SPEAKER_01: They feared God.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to fear God?
SPEAKER_01: It would not be right for us to look up the English definition of the word fear and slap that up against the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we're like a horror movie, like.
SPEAKER_01: But rather, the fear of the Lord is a compound word in the book of like in the language of Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: It is an awe, a respect, a reverence for God.
SPEAKER_01: A way that we could get close to it is uh so a few years ago, my wife and I celebrating our anniversary, uh, we went the farthest away from home we've ever been.
SPEAKER_01: We went to Mexico and I got to go to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: Never seen the Pacific?
SPEAKER_01: I've seen the Gulf, I've seen the Atlantic, I'd never seen the Pacific before.
SPEAKER_01: And so we traveled by plane, we finally get there, we're taken by shuttle to the hotel, and we're checking in, and the man behind the counter is telling us all the amenities of the place we're staying, all of the things that we do.
SPEAKER_01: And at the very end, you know what he says?
SPEAKER_01: You can't get in the water.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, what?
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't want to swim in the ocean anyway, but I don't like being told that I can't.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean I can't get in the ocean?
SPEAKER_01: It didn't take long before we're walking to our room and we go by the water and we see, and it's not like the gentle lapping of the water against the sand and serene.
SPEAKER_01: No, but it is the crashing of gargantuan waves upon the rock, sending a spray of ocean water 15 feet in the air.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, yeah, I ain't swimming in that.
SPEAKER_01: There is a healthy respect for that which could destroy me if I engage with it in a wrong way.
SPEAKER_01: I can enjoy it, I can be around it, but I have to come to it on its terms, not my own.
SPEAKER_01: And for us to fear the Lord, realizing he's not safe, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis said.
SPEAKER_01: That he is not safe, but he's good.
SPEAKER_01: And so for us, as we come to God to have this fear of him, and when we fear him, we need not fear anyone or anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Not even the most powerful man on earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so these women, they feared God more than Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: And if they had feared Pharaoh more than God, they would have bent the knee to Pharaoh and done this heinous thing that he had commanded them to do.
SPEAKER_01: But since they feared God more than Pharaoh, they bent the knee to God and did not do what he commanded them to do.
SPEAKER_01: They preserved life.
SPEAKER_01: And we know these two women by name.
SPEAKER_01: You know who we don't know by name?
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: His name is never mentioned in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Intentional omission.
SPEAKER_01: You know whose names we do know?
SPEAKER_01: The first two pro-life heroines.
SPEAKER_01: Shifra and Puah.
SPEAKER_01: That should be on the baby list names.
SPEAKER_01: Let's bring it back.
SPEAKER_01: Because right here, these two women were important enough to be named.
SPEAKER_01: They engaged in a little civil disobedience, a little costly obedience that we have seen and will see in the pages of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, not bowing down to King Nebuchadnezzar's large golden statue of himself and getting thrown into the fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_01: But there was another in the fire that preserved them through.
SPEAKER_01: Or like Daniel that we've seen, Daniel, who's not necessarily a little boy at this time, but probably a senior age citizen, that he is engaging in a little civil disobedience, a little costly obedience.
SPEAKER_01: That he does not abide by the king's decree that you should pray only to the king.
SPEAKER_01: He prays to the one true God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And he is thrown into the den of lions, but an angel of the Lord stops the mouths of the lion, and he is safely preserved through, and his accusers are the ones that are actually turned around and thrown in.
SPEAKER_01: Or we look forward to the New Testament, the book of Acts, and Stephen.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen, one of those deacons there.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen, who preached a fine sermon that's recorded for us, word for word, in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And Stephen, who at the end of it is taken outside of the city and has stone after stone, brick after brick, hurled at his skull until he breathes his last.
SPEAKER_01: He would fear God more than he feared those who would seek to silence him.
SPEAKER_01: So we see this.
SPEAKER_01: Two instances where people were delivered from their troubles and oppression.
SPEAKER_01: One who was preserved through it and faithful unto death and received his eternal reward.
SPEAKER_01: That we can see that we are supposed to fear God, obey him more than any man or group or anything that sets itself up in opposition to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so in applying this to your life, will you fear God or will you fear man?
SPEAKER_01: Will you bend the knee to the Lord, the one true God, or will you bend the knee to other lesser people who set themselves up as little g gods?
SPEAKER_01: Will you fear Him and serve Him?
SPEAKER_01: Will you participate in the worldly system of oppression?
SPEAKER_01: Will you perpetuate a culture of death?
SPEAKER_01: Or will you experience the heavenly system of freedom and deliverance and perpetuate a culture of life?
SPEAKER_01: Know this.
SPEAKER_01: This might cost you.
SPEAKER_01: Fearing God might cost you a job.
SPEAKER_01: Fearing God might cost you comfort or access or privileges.
SPEAKER_01: But what you have on the other side of costly obedience is joy and delight in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus knows what it's like to endure through costly obedience.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus, he was not controlled by the fear of man, but rather he sought to do the will of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He endured shame and scorn and threats and eventually endured torture, humiliation, and execution there on a Roman cross.
SPEAKER_01: And so now, when the time comes for us to enact what we have decided, whether we will fear God or fear men, let us follow in the footsteps of Jesus as we see in Hebrews chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: There in verse 2 it says this that we look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus Christ, in the fullness of time, came as the fulfillment of God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: That he is the seed talked about in Genesis 3.15, who would bruise the head of the serpent, who would himself be bruised in his heel.
SPEAKER_01: That he is the one who has worked such a great salvation for us, who has set us free not from slavery in the land of Egypt, but slavery from sin to the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And that we now fear him, we respect him, we are in awe of him.
SPEAKER_01: And now we place our faith and our trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: And so the call for us is to turn our back on our sin, to stop serving ourselves, to repent, to disown our passions and what previously brought us pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: And now we find him as our greatest passion and pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: That we believe that we believe that he has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that he loves us.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that he died on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that he rose again from the dead, never to die again, and we believe that one day he will come back for his own to all who have received him.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that he conquered death.
SPEAKER_01: And now that he offers new life today.
SPEAKER_01: We look to Jesus and we see that God does in fact keep his promises.
SPEAKER_01: We look at Jesus and see that it's not just Pharaoh, but it's it's the devil who oppresses God's people.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus, in perfect and loving unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, obeyed the will of his father instead of the will of the devil and acted on our behalf to preserve life.
SPEAKER_01: So similar to Becca and myself, if we had not met at that camp in 2010, then Thomas would not have happened.
SPEAKER_01: For the nation of Israel, if God had not made and kept his promises and preserved throughout Genesis and Exodus, then God's people would not have happened.
SPEAKER_01: And for all of us here today, spanning out from beyond this place, if Jesus had not done all that he had done at the cross and the empty tomb, then you would not happen after this life.
SPEAKER_01: But praise be to God that he has.
SPEAKER_01: And this can be your story.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your sovereign acting and your movement through history and through our story.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that as we come to your word again and again, week by week, that you would show us, instruct us, lead us in the way that leads to life.
SPEAKER_01: That we would find abundant eternal life in your Son.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for keeping your promises that you are the covenant-making, covenant-keeping God.
SPEAKER_01: And that though there are lesser gods, people that would set themselves up as gods all over this world, we behold you, we worship you as the one true living God.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the name of Jesus we pray.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to the Spring Valley Baptist Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Spring Valley Baptist Church is a growing, multi-generational, multicultural church located at 91 Polo Road in Northeast Columbia, South Carolina.
SPEAKER_00: And led by Pastor Blake Jenkins.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love for you to join us each Sunday morning for our worship service at 9.30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: and our life groups at 11 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to learn more about our church, visit springvallybaptist.com.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know more about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, email us at communications at springvalleybaptist.com.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.