[Only One God] Exodus 2:1-25 | "She Hid Him"
[Exodus] Only One God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 22:49
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· 453 viewsSunday, March 06, 2022. Exodus 2:1-25 | "She Hid Him" Moses' parents had faith and acted on it. Moses had faith and acted on it. God is faithful, and God is acting! But will God's people have faith and act in faith too? Listen as this text leads us to the object of our faith - the only God who hears, remembers, sees, knows, and also acts according to His covenant faithfulness. This message preaches from Exodus 2:1-25. The title of this sermon: "She Hid Him."
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I. The Reading
I. The Reading
A reading from Exodus Chapter 2, reading from the English Standard Version translation of the Bible.
This is God’s Word:
1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.
5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.
6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity 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 you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9 And 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 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.
12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”
14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.
18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?”
19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.
22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
[ Scripture Reading ~6 min ]
Say Amen
Say Amen
If you receive this as the word of God and not the word of man, will you Say Amen? Amen!
II. The Exhortation
II. The Exhortation
The first chapter of Exodus introduced us to two Hebrew midwives who feared God.
Remember, Pharaoh had commanded that all male children born to the Hebrews were to be killed by these midwives, but the midwives disobeyed Pharaoh and did not do what Pharaoh commanded, because these midwives feared God instead.
We observed that in the text of Scripture, God did not send an angel or in any way appear to these midwives. God did not give them a command, or promise them certain blessings if they disobeyed Pharaoh. These midwives did what they did, and disobeyed Pharaoh, for no other reason than that they feared God.
And as such, we were challenged to consider how:
God is to be feared.
If God never gave us a command, or an instruction, or a promise, or an outcome we are still compelled to obey God and serve God because God alone is to be feared.
When we say that we “fear” God, it means that we reverence God. We honor God. We are in awe of God. But fearing God doesn’t mean we don’t still tremble at His presence. Fearing God doesn’t mean we don’t still shudder.
This is why it is called “fear.”
It is not an unhealthy fear, but rather a holy fear, of a holy, living God!
The first chapter of Exodus introduced us to two Hebrew midwives who feared God. As such, the Scriptures reveal that only one God is to be feared.
This second chapter of Exodus introduces us to people who related to God in a similar way as the midwives, but Scripture doesn’t use the word “fear” to describe the actions of these people. Instead, it uses the word “faith.”
Moses’ parents act by faith. Moses acts by faith. And this text ultimately leads us to the object of our faith - the only God who also acts according to His covenant faithfulness.
Just as we are to have a healthy, reverent fear of God, we are also to have faith in God. And our faith should show forth in deeds of faith.
Faith acts, because God acts. Our faith should work!
James says it this way:
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Romans goes as far as to say it this way:
Romans 14:23-b (ESV)
23 ...For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Faith and obedience go together. And for the people in Exodus Chapter 2, they had faith in God for what God would eventually bring about in God’s time, so they acted by faith.
They had faith in God even though they could not see God, even though they could not see the outcome of what they believed God would do. So they acted in faith.
Church - this text exhorts us, through the examples of these men and women of faith, to act in faith with our lives too.
Because God, the only God, is a faithful God.
This text exhorts us, to believe God in all that we do, on the basis of His Word, even if we do not yet have what we hope for - even if we do not yet see what we believe.
III. The Teaching
III. The Teaching
This text begins with:
A. The Faith of Moses’ Parents [ 1-3 ]
A. The Faith of Moses’ Parents [ 1-3 ]
Look with me at verses 1-3:
1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
The Scriptures reveal that both of Moses’ parents had faith.
Upon first reading of Exodus, it appears that the faith belongs to Moses’ mother who saw that he was a fine child, and hid him for three months, and when she could hide him no longer, she made a basket and placed him in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. Moses’ mother is credited with much of the action.
But don’t miss the first verse about Moses’ father:
1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
I agree with Warren Wiersbe, who points out that it must have taken faith for Moses’s father to maintain marital relations with his wife at a time when the king’s command is that all male babies be killed.
They didn’t have ultrasound machines then. Moses’ parents wouldn’t have known whether this child would be a boy or a girl. It was a considerable risk for them to procreate at such a dangerous time. It required faith.
It requires faith to have children.
I remember Marianne and I talking before all of our children -
we wanted children, we believed God wanted us to have children, but we didn’t know how we could make it work.
There is a considerable cost, medically, to bringing children into the world today.
Hospital bills. Doctor visits. Co pays. Deductibles.
There are other costs too - the cost of clothing, diapers, wipes, a room for the children to sleep in, toys to play with, food, ongoing medical expenses. And as the children grow, these costs don’t decrease, but continue grow! Their activities grow. Their needs grow.
It requires faith to have children.
There are sacrifices involved - someone has to raise them! That is costly!
The average cost of childcare in the United States per year is over $8,000 - per child. . . Most families require both parents to work to live - Families may have one child, barely two, but most can’t go beyond that.
Even Pharaoh’s daughter paid Moses’ mother to nurse him.
Child raising is costly, sacrificial, and even fearful!
The lost sleep as you make sure your child is breathing through the night. The worry over every sickness. As they grow, the worry over the decisions the make.
I remember us saying - “We can’t afford to have children!” But then we realized that if we waited until we could afford children, we’d never have them.
We had to make a conscious decision in our family, to act and obey in faith. To trust God based on the words of Scriptures like —
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
It requires faith to have children.
Each day with a child is a new day to have to trust God on their behalf and to teach them to trust God as they grow older.
Moses’ father took a wife and the woman conceived and bore a son, and this took faith in God during a time when there was no way that this child would be kept alive if he was a male.
But God makes a way. And these parents acted in faith that God would make a way and they were not afraid of the king of Egypt’s command. Their faith overcame any worldly fear.
Moses’ mother looked at her baby in the same way that God looked at all Creation that he created, and saw that it was good - he was “a fine child,” a “good child.” A gift from God. So she acted in faith and hid him.
And when she could hide him no longer, she acted again, making a basket, or ark, placed the child in it, and placed it in the river.
And as we have heard read, God does what only God can do - and orchestrates a way so that Moses is saved by the daughter of Pharoah, the daughter of the man who commanded that he be killed. And Moses is nursed by his own mother.
And when Moses grew older, imagine the faith it must have taken for Moses mother’ to bring her child back to Pharaoh’s daughter to become Pharaoh’s daughter’s son!
The Faith of Moses’ Parents. It was a faith of action.
Faith acts in obedience to God, even in the midst of significant obstacles. Faith fears God rather than man.
Parents and Grandparents — Don’t minimize the role your faith plays in the lives of your children and grandchildren. Don’t overlook the responsibility you have to pass on your faith to them!
Paul said to Timothy:
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
First, The Faith of Moses’ Parents.
And next,
B. The Faith of Moses [ 11-15 ]
B. The Faith of Moses [ 11-15 ]
We look now at verses 11-12.
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.
12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
A note on these two verses - this is an example of doing something in one’s own strength. Moses attempts to deliver one of his own, a Hebrew, in his own strength. And he will learn, and we will learn, that God’s people will not be delivered in Moses’ strength, but by God and God’s strength! (TTC)
Notice at the end of verse 11, the text says that Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew,
“one of his people”
Moses knew of his Hebrew identity, even as a prince in Egypt.
By faith, Moses embraced his God-given identity. He was not the daughter of Pharoah, but he was a Hebrew. The Egyptians were not his people. The Hebrews were his people.
And Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people, and struck down the Egyptian killing him, and hid his body in the sand.
That took faith, because what Moses did would not be viewed favorably by Pharaoh. This is why Moses hid the Egyptians body.
It took faith for Moses to not just know the Hebrews were his people, but to act on that knowledge, willing to give up his comfortable life as a prince in Egypt and suffer as one of his own.
Willing to give up the momentary pleasures that the palace affords, so that he might attain a greater reward with God.
Verse 13 continues —
13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”
14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
Moses’ action had consequences, but not acting by faith had greater consequences for him.
And so it is, Church, that faith in God requires courage in the moment to do what is right before God, even it if it is hard. Even if it will lead to discomfort. Even if it will end relationships. Even if it means charting a new course and sacrificing the things we enjoy.
We question whether or not Moses was justified in killing the Egyptian, but the text doesn’t answer that question nor condemn Moses for it. What is clear, is that it was a decisive action to save one of his own people from being beaten, likely to death, and Moses’ intervention required courage and was costly.
Moses’ faith acted in a way that gave up his Egyptian comfort and made him a marked man on the run.
Moses’ faith believed in something better for his own people, not his pretend people, and Moses was looking forward to a better reward.
Faith is willing to leave the past behind and follow God into the unknown and unseen, believing that God is there in the unknown and the unseen.
The Faith of Moses’ Parents.
The Faith of Moses.
And at the end of this chapter, in verse 23, the text leaves Moses for a moment and turns to consider the people of Israel.
And for the first time in the book of Exodus, having seen the midwives act, having seen Moses’s parents act, having seen Moses act, we finally see God presented and revealed as acting.
And in God’s acting, we learn of —
C. The Faithfulness of God [ 23-25 ]
C. The Faithfulness of God [ 23-25 ]
Let’s read verses 23-25 again:
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
In four decisive actions God bursts forth on the scene as one who is is not absent, but acting in His time.
God heard. God remembered. God saw. God knew.
God Heard
God Heard
God heard the cry of his people for help. God heard their groaning because of their slavery.
God Remembered
God Remembered
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To bring their offspring out of this land and give them the land he promised.
When the Bible says God remembers, it’s not that God ever forgot. It means God is about to act. God’s remembering means God is now acting.
God Saw
God Saw
God saw the people of Israel. He saw their sacrifices. He saw their need. God is not blind or distracted.
And -
God Knew
God Knew
God knew what was going on. God was not ignorant of the plight of His people.
Take comfort Christians — take comfort, Church!
This God has not changed.
He may be silent. He may be waiting. He may not be intervening.
But God still hears.
God still remembers.
God still sees.
God still knows.
And God - the only God, acts.
And this brings us to the —
The [Christ] Conclusion
The [Christ] Conclusion
As we look at how God acts to deliver His people from slavery in Exodus, we are drawn to anticipate and remember how God has acted and is acting to deliver his people from sin today.
If you cry out in faith to God to save you, God will hear your cry for help!
And God will remember the new covenant established by the blood of His Son, as God sees His Son and knows the cost by the cross on which Christ died and gave Himself for you.
God hears, and in Christ - God may be heard.
God remembers, and in Christ - God may be remembered.
God sees, and in Christ - God may be seen.
God knows, and in Christ - God may be known.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Exodus Chapter Two moves us to a question of faith —
Moses’ parents had faith and acted on it.
Moses had faith and acted on it.
God is faithful! God is acting!
But will God’s people have faith and act in faith too?
Will we have faith in God in what we say and do?
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
God, give us faith over fear,
give us faith to suffer rather than to sin,
give us faith in the greater riches and eternal reward of Christ,
and give us faith to endure for what we can not yet see, except by faith in you.
In Christ, give us greater faith today, strengthen us to obey, remind us of how you first loved and first acted as the only God, the faithful God. Amen.