FHBC Sermon Notes

Exodus 1-2 - The introducing the main theme of one of the greatest stories in the Bible. A story of the sovereignty of God!At the start of this story, it appears that God is not the center of the story. His name is not even mentioned until the end of the story at the end of chapter 2. Yet, looking back on the story, in light of all of scripture, we realize how active he is in each moment.

This is much like our own lives. We sometimes do not seem to think God is absent, not at work. Yet he is still on his throne.  Always!

Seven Scenes of God's Sovereignty

1. God multiplied a family into a sizable nation.  (1:1-7) 
We are actually beginning this narrative in the middle of a story. It is the story of how a family became a nation. It is the story of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, who having moved to Egypt, he and his twelve sons, grew as a family into a great people, a people that in turn would be enslaved.  Over a time of 400 years, the family grew from a family of 70 to a people of millions. This is a miraculous explosion of peoples. It is evident in the text that it is miraculous. The people of Israel were "fruitful and increased greatly."  It is the command given to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply. That command is only given to Noah, and ultimately again to Jacob. The command is not given in this fashion to Abraham or Isaac, but to Jacob. In this verse we see its fulfillment and from the promises and covenant of God, we know that it is not the work of man, but the work of the hand of God.

2. God prospered Israel through hard slavery. (1:8-14)
This multiplication was of concern to the king of Egypt. He enslaves the people and attempts to crush them with such hardship, and the killing of all their sons, such that they would never be able to prosper and multiply.  Yet, this is not without plan. Back in Genesis God told Abraham what would happen. They would be in Egypt for four hundred and they would be slaves. This isn't God reporting this. This is his declared will.  He does this show that he may show himself to his people in a miraculous fashion unheard of before hand. Their slavery to the Egyptians showed was able to demonstrate that even as slaves, these people were not Pharaoh's but God's.  To be the servants of God, the slaves of God, they must know a former taskmaster, an evil taskmaster, so that as the slave of God, the servants of God, we may know true freedom, found only in the will of God.

3. God preserved life through the faithfulness of Hebrew midwives. (1:15-22)
Pharaoh had a policy of secretive killing of sons. He made it the policy that the Hebrew midwives were to kill by drowning any son born, but let the daughters live.  Yet the midwives refused to do this, and we see that God protected and blessed them for doing so.

4. God delivered a deliverer for His people. (2:1-10)
Pharaoh's plans with the midwives failed, so expands his attempt at genocide. He made it the public policy to kill all Hebrew boys. Yet despite this we see Pharaoh's own daughter disobeying the edict and through the hand of mercy from God, the child that would be the deliverer of His people was protected and brought in the protective custody. 

An interesting word play is the word for basket is also the word for "ark" the same as the world for Noah's ark and the ark of the covenant, the constant bearer of God's salvations.  Cool! 

5. God drove Moses into exile to prepare him for future ministry. (2:11-15)
Moses was angered by the injustice seen against what he knew was his people, and kills a man who was oppressing one of the Hebrews. Yet, this was not God's time for rebellion or justice yet. As such God uses this time to drive Moses into exile for forty years of preparation for him to be the mouth of God and the hand of deliverance.

6. God provided for Moses' needs while in a strange land. (2:16-22)
Moses arrives in Midian, without a manner of livelihood, and God provides. Provides a place to live, a wife, a father-in-law that provides wise council.

7. God remembered His covenant in the midst of Israel's painful groans. (2:23-25)
"God heard their groaning, and God remembered..." This is the remembrance of the word of God. This is an active remembrance. It is more that just a mental recollection.  It is the action that moves in response. God "makes himself known to them".  In the chapters the follow, there is now question that God is moving and acting. This action lets us realize that even in the beginning, he was preparing hearts, minds and peoples. He is the architect of history.

Truths about God's Sovereignty

1. God always remains present with his people.

2. God directs all things so that His purposes might be accomplished.

3. God uses extreme hardship as a means to accomplish His purposes.
Pain is Gods hidden treasure.

4. God always accomplishes His purposes.
God always wins!  He has won the battle.

5. God makes himself known as He acts to carry out His purposes.
We are so concerned about jobs, this and that, all that keeps us busy. Then we ask where is God. But look! God is there!.  He is active and our lives, and his word is a clear declaration that He is present, He is good, and He is active in all things.  Amen.  (Psalm 37)