Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Do you remember years ago the swimmer Michael Phelps?

The guy was an unstoppable force when it came to swimming.

He still holds the record for most gold medals, 23.

The closest to him is 9.

When you watched, you knew the guy was getting gold.

And it was amazing that even when everyone thought he was done, he came back in 2016 to Rio De Janeiro and still won more medals.

He was a must watch athlete, not just in Olympics, but overall in society at that point.

No matter how hard they tried, he was seemingly unbeatable.

But as we know, everyone eventually breaks down.

He no longer swims in Olympic competition.

No one has a perfect body forever.

He’s not that same person.

But the illustration helps to that end, because I want to show you in this text today, even in some of the darkest days and incredible threats against Israel, God cannot be stopped.

And he cannot be stopped even today.

READ THE TEXT

CTS: Be confident that the promises of God will not be thwarted.

Introduction to Pharaoh: The Offspring of the Serpent

As we enter this text, we are immediately given a new character to engage with.

We have seen that God’s people have multiplied greatly.

The time has been 430 years between the death of Joseph and now.

Pharaoh's over time have been positive toward the Israelites because they knew what Joseph and his family did.

There is some indication that the Pharaoh of Joseph’s time was a Hyksos Pharaoh, which were foreign people that became king in Egypt.

They were not full-blooded Egyptians.

This was seen as detrimental to the Egyptian culture over time, and we now enter a new king who has finally had enough.

Foreigners have shaped culture long enough, but now a full-blooded Egyptian is on the throne and will do whatever it takes to keep the culture pure from foreigners.

This then leads us into verse 8.

Before we go further, I want to expand on the theme that we have already talked about in detail last week, but needs to be seen here and throughout the rest of Exodus, particularly the first half oIIf it.

Remember that the Serpent, Satan himself, is in direct rebellion against God.

He uses two primary means to carry out his purpose: deception and assault.

He tempts or he outright attacks God’s people throughout Scripture.

He is the Deceiver, the Tempter, Accuser, and hates God and His people.

What we see here in Exodus is the work of a king, Pharaoh, but we must also view him as an offspring of the Serpent, for what he does here and throughout show that he is in direct opposition of God himself.

Ryken outlines the work of Pharaoh in this way:

He resents God’s people (meant for God’s glory, they were to be free to serve him)

He rejects God’s promises (that they were to be a great nation)

He resists God’s plan (to give a land to call their own)

Keep these things in mind as we walk through the text.

I.

The Threat of Oppression Fails (8-14)

I want you to keep this text in mind from Genesis 15:13

Its a reminder that this part of the promise and covenant made to Abraham was that before God’s people would take the promised land, they would go through difficulty and a long period of time of suffering before they promise would be fulfilled.

Here we are.

Something we should remember is that God ordains hard times and sufferings in our lives in order to bring us to His promise.

It was the case with the Israelites, it is the case for us today, and this text shows that with clarity.

A. The attempt (8-11)

The threat of the Israelites is founded in a common tactic of those that desired to eliminate a people group.

It has happened throughout history, and it has worked in many instances.

What we see here is an attempt to subjugate a people by keeping them under their thumb.

What Pharaoh does is begin to make the argument, because he hates these people, that they are growing too big, too powerful, and if they get any bigger and continue to roam freely throughout the land, they will be able to overthrow us and leave the land.

Obviously, though he hated the people, he also desired for them to stay because of their economic contributions.

He also wanted them to be in the land, because of his very plan to enslave them to be a workforce for his purposes.

Pharaoh wanted glory.

He wanted cities built, and what he saw was a workforce toward that end.

Keep them in check, enslave them.

They would build Pithom and Raamses, two Egyptian cities.

This enslavement would not only provide a workforce, but it would also bring about death.

This heavy burdens, enslaved people throughout the history of the world, some die in these conditions.

They would be weakened, and it would discourage multiplication because (a) they were too exhausted to pro-create (b) they wouldn’t want to bring children into a world like this.

This was the plan, to subjugate God’s people and to stop their growth.

Remember, Pharaoh as a seed of the serpent resents God’s people, rejects God’s promises to make them a great nation, and resists God’s plan to move Israel out.

B. The failure (12a)

Verse 12 shows us what happens.

But…When you see that word, it should cause us to pay attention carefully.

We see that word show up so many times in Scripture, pointing to the fact that God is working, despite the plans and machinations of men.

Despite rebellion, despite sin, God is still working and in control, even using these very trails and oppressions to bring about His promises.

Instead of stopping growth, it actually was the catalyst to their growth.

The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied.

What Pharaoh did was actually cause them to grow faster.

Very clearly, we see that God is not thwarted by the plans of Pharaoh.

In this spiritual war, where Satan is trying to destroy God’s people, he only fulfills the plans of God.

This has been evident already throughout the Genesis narrative, culminating in the Joseph narrative at the very end of the book, where Joseph says to his brothers these words from Genesis 50:19-20

Powerful Pharaoh, considered most likely at that time the most powerful person in the world, cannot thwart the plan of God.

Satan cannot thwart the plan of God.

We get echoes of the Genesis narrative, the command of the promise to be fruitful and multiply, and also the promise made from the seed of Eve, to crush the Enemy, the Serpent.

We see the promise played out from the Abrahamic covenant, that a great nation will come from you, and in that seed the nations of the earth will blessed.

C. The results (12b-14)

The results are that God’s promises continue, and that he will not let His promises fail because of some big shot Pharaoh.

He won’t let his racism, his evil work prevail.

Yet, we also see that the results of them growing leads to more fear from the Egyptians.

In turn, they become even heavier handed on the Israelites.

They became ruthless, making their sufferings greater.

Here is the reminder for us as God’s people: we are not immune to suffering.

We see here that God will keep His promises, but it doesn’t mean that we are exempt from living in a lost and fallen world.

We live with people that are in rebellion against God.

God has allowed this rebellion.

He even says throughout the Bible that God’s people will face suffering, even of their own doing or the doing of others.

Jesus even promised to the church John 15:18

The church, who are the finality of God’s people, in the early days right after Jesus’ ascension, were persecuted relentlessly.

Even by a man who would later become Christianity’s greatest missionary and writer of Scripture himself, Paul.

The scattering of God’s people then led to this in Acts 8:4

It is often in the fires of persecution, of suffering, that God’s people spread faster and further.

This is evident here in the Exodus text.

It is evident throughout the Bible.

And it should remind us that no one in the world is at a disadvantage just because they are under persecution.

It is where God purifies his church, makes it healthy, and causes it to spread faster.

While Christianity is waning here in the US, in places like China and other places where persecution is heaviest, God’s people are growing exponentially.

Do we want to experience persecution?

No.

But just because we don’t want it doesn’t mean it’s not part of God’s plan.

We can trust that God is going to bring about his promises.