Sermon Tone Analysis

Jr. Church

Personal Privilege

Gregg, Bernie, Claire, Lauren, Wayne & Kirk - searching

Everyone - praying, giving, welcoming

Allen, Mark, Jim & Wayne - preaching

Wife - supporting, educating, packing, unpacking, decorating, hosting

2nd & 3rd grade class - encouraging

If you asked a devout Israelite in the OT period “Are you redeemed?”

they would have said YES! – and then taken you aside to tell you the long and exciting story of exodus.

If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Exodus.

Exodus is the second book in the Bible.

If you are following along in the Bible in the pew in front of you, we’re on page 47.

Exodus sits in a larger portion of the Old Testament known as the Torah, which are the first five books of the Old Testament.

In that larger body of books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), one commentator has said there are six major themes that are developed

1.

God’s blessing on all nature and humanity

2. God’s promise to the patriarchs

3. God’s deliverance in the exodus from Egypt

4. God’s self-revelation in covenant, law, and tabernacling presence at Sinai

5.

The wandering in the wilderness

6. Preparation for entrance into Canaan

Starting this week and for the next seven Sundays, we’ll be focusing in on Theme #3 - “God’s deliverance in the exodus of Egypt” which is found primarily in the first fifteen chapters of Exodus.

So, here’s a high level view of what these eight weeks will look like

Today Ex. 1 Delivered from Inescapable Slavery

10/13 Ex. 2 Delivered by an Imperfect Mediator where we’ll sketch out who Moses is and contrast with Christ

10/20 Ex. 3-4 Delivered by an Infinite God - We’ll understand more about the Identity of the God who Delivers - I AM

10/27 Ex 5:1-7:6 Delivered by an Irrevocable Promise - We’ll focus on the Covenant Faithfulness of God in Chapter 6

11/3 Ex. 7:7-11 Delivered for Irreplaceable Worship - we’ll take a high level view of the plagues and see that 10x God says - then you will KNOW that I am the Lord

11/10 Ex. 12-13 Delivered with Illustrated Reminders Passover, Blood: We’ll look at how the Passover and the blood of the Lamb on the doorposts were were tangible reminders of God's Deliverance and how they find their fulfillment in Christ

11/17 Ex. 14 Delivered with Interwoven Judgement - We’ll see how God saves his people and simultaneously judges his enemies - God's glory through judgment (book) to aid in preparation

11/24 Ex. 15 Delivered for Inspired Singing - Where I’ll give an overview of the text, and then share a pastoral plea for robust congregational worship through song

But most of that is for another day, today we focus on Exodus 1, and I’d like us to stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

Prayer - May the Words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord my Rock and my REDEEMER, my Deliverer, OUR deliverer.

The book of Exodus is almost entirely composed of narrative.

Narrative texts don’t always very easily divide neatly and sometimes dividing them too strictly can have you miss the big picture of what is going on.

So before I divide this text up and give you three nice little points to fill out let’s not miss the big picture from what we read.

In Exodus chapter 1, we see that the promises of God are being fulfilled in spite of extraordinary opposition.

It may not land on you in its full force at first glance, but a careful reading helps us understand that God is at work in spite of what seems like inescapable slavery of his people.

So let’s look at a closer level and see first of all in verses 1-7 that

The Deliverer acts in history to fulfill His promises.

The first hint of this fulfillment of previous promises is the continuity of God’s word that is seen with the first word in the Hebrew text.

Begins with the word “and” a literary practice that appears in almost all the historical books of the OT

This is the continuation of a larger story and that larger story included (if you remember) both 1. God’s blessing on all nature and humanity and 2. God’s promise to the patriarchs

This is an unfolding of God’s story but it sits in the context of real events with real people with real names and real places.

Walter Kaiser Jr. has said:

“History, at once the scandal and the uniqueness of biblical faith, is the sphere of God’s revelation.

While heathenism and modern scientific naturalism affirm that only nature is ultimately real, Greek philosophy and Oriental mysticism attempt to [disassociate] humanity from both nature and time.

In Exodus, both nature and time are real and not nuisances; they are participants in the fabric of God’s revelation.

Thus our book begins with a list of names and takes us to real places and persons in the Near East.”

So Exodus continues the story of the Deliverer fulfilling his promises like the one in

and

and

And here in Egypt, hundreds of years later, the nation is becoming very great.

Look at verse 7

In Hebrew you can see at least five roots for the word “grow” and you really can even see it in your English Bible.

The point is: The people of Israel GREW and GREW and GREW and GREW and GREW.

God is at work - the DELIVERER is acting in History.

But this salvation will not be without obstacles.

Notice in verses 8-15 that:

The Deliverer must overcome the enslavement of His people.

I say he must overcome and not “he overcomes” because really chapter one is more about understanding the problem not seeing the full solution yet.

Some of you are here today within the sound of my voice and you are completely enslaved to sin and held captive.

And frankly unless by God’s grace you understand your plight and the trouble you’re in you’ll think things are just fine and dandy and you’ll think you have no need for a deliverer.

Remember there was nothing special about the Israelites...

Their father Jacob had betrayed his brother Esau by tricking him out of his birthright.

His sons: By getting rid of their brother Joseph, had tried to deny their father’s blessing.

One of the sons of Jacob, even had sex with his daughter-in-law.

The sons of Israel and their families were all sinners, but they may have been tempted not to look for the fulfillment of God’s promises if they had faced little or no oppression in Egypt.

One author has said, “It is hard enough for us to leave aside the treasures of this evil world even though we suffer in it.

How much harder is it for us to desire the new heavens and new earth when our lives here are comfortable?”

Our sufferings help us look for our salvation.

Or to quote Charles Spurgeon, “The whip of persecution is helpful, because it makes us learn that this is the house of bondage, and moves us to long after and seek for the land of liberty—the land of joy.”

Yes, the people of God were enslaved, but THE DELIVERER - ultimately Jesus Christ will ransom his people - like the hymn says:

Ye Chosen Seed of Israel’s race

Ye ransomed from the fall

Hail Him who saves you by His grace

And crown Him Lord of All

So the Deliverer must overcome our enslavement and he certainly fulfills all of God’s promises.

But finally we see in Exodus chapter one that

The Deliverer must defeat Satan and death.

Pharoah in this story typifies the strategies of Satan - always warring against life by creating a culture of death.

You’ll remember God’s promise in

Throughout all history Satan has been working feverishly against God’s plan to deliver the world through a baby boy.

We see it in Exodus 1 and it’s seen again in the first parts of the NT with Herod’s infanticidal rage.

All of Satan’s efforts to destroy life continue even into our present day - Satan hates life because every human being is made in the image of God.

So as Christians we are pro LIFE, we are pro FAMILY and we love BABIES & Children who are a gift of God.

But Pharaoh’s rage and Satan’s schemes were defeated through the work of two very reverent, God-fearing women who’s names are recorded for us:

Shiphrah (shif’-rah) which means something like “beautiful one,” and Puah (PYOO uh) which means “splendid one.”

And both of them lived up to their names!

They’re kind of like the Mary recorded in the gospels as having anointed Jesus for burial...

You might say that wherever the good news of God’s Salvation in the OLD TESTAMENT is told, these ladies will be remembered.

Pharaoh - the KING OF EGYPT is unnamed.

Other Elders of Israel in the next few chapters will be left unnamed

But these two women - overseers of the Hebrew midwives - they’re names are recorded.

So God, in his providence uses these two faithful women to preserve the seed of the woman who will one day deliver his people - both Moses, and ultimately Jesus Christ.

There is one more point of irony to note in this story.

Douglas Stuart points out in his commentary that the act of attempting to kill the baby boys by throwing them into the river is flipped on its head just a few chapters later in Exodus, God will drown an entire army of “grown up Egyptian boys” in the Red Sea.

The deliverer often tends to use the very instrument intended for harm to bring about the ultimate good - which is the redemption of His own people for His own glory.

The Gospel of Luke records Jesus taking Peter & John and James with him to the mount of transfiguration...

The word he used for “Departure” is the greek word “Exodus.”

What was it exactly that Jesus accomplished at Jerusalem?