Exodus 1-2 • Hope in a Small Package

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

This is not just a day of commemoration, but of commencement. As we acknowledge what God has been doing and say that is foundation for what we are called to do, to build on the shoulders of those who have gone before us and acknowledge that even as God has been faithful to them, we believe He shall be faithful to us in our calling as we march forward. And I don't know a better place to look in the Scriptures to emphasize that than the book of Exodus. We'll start that series today. So let me ask that you would look in your Bibles at Exodus. We'll look at chapters 1 and 2 this day, but focus on that message of commemoration and commencement. After all, the book of Exodus is commemorating what God did as He released His children from bondage from which they themselves could not escape. He was providing for people who could not provide for themselves.



 And at the same time, He was calling them to a promised land to establish a nation from which our Savior would come. Commemoration and commencement, they are both before us.



 But as I mention us, you might begin to think that either this celebration or that is the Scriptures is about what God's people have done, just so that we make clear who gets the credit.



 Let's look at the final verses of chapter 2.



 Exodus 2, verse 23.



 Who gets the credit for the legacy and the mission?



 Verse 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.



 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.



 God saw the people of Israel, and God knew."



 You know the story. We've told it numerous times even this day, that this grand church that now is in this wonderful facility began in a very different place.



 A mission for children in a rail car in downtown Peoria.



 The rail car was certainly novelty, but probably also necessity, given what was the nature of our town at that particular time. It's hard to put ourselves back there now, but the city limits of Peoria at that time were only a mile square.



 Total population?



 14,000, which swelled again by half when 7,500 Union troops were put here for both training and ready deployment, either by river or by land, wherever the battle would take them.



 The troops combined with the main industry of Peoria at that time, what was the main industry of Peoria at that time? I see you all saying it.



 Distilleries, nine distilleries, and six breweries.



 We were the world capital of alcohol.



 Now there is a title to hang your hat on.



 But with all the troops and that industry, what that meant was Peoria was teeming with



 docks and drunks and drugs, yes, even then, and floating casinos, yes, even then, and taverns and brothels and 1,200 children within the city limits.



 And it was those 1,200 children whose voices someone heard and someone remembered the mission of their God. And someone saw an opportunity to reach and someone knew if the faithful people would reach, God would remember and He would save.



 And He would do His work because the people of God had turned to Him in faithfulness. It is an important reminder, not just for sentiment in the psalm, but for our own commemoration that it would be commencement. That we would not on this day just be looking past and patting ourselves on the back and saying isn't it great what we have done? That we would actually perceive that we have been given that faithful legacy as privilege for the mission to which we are now called. That beginnings were wonderful, but beginning again is our calling.



 What makes us willing to do so?



 First remembering that God can use faithful people for a forever purpose. Despite trial, despite sin, despite time, God can be at work through people who believe



 that He really is working.



 If you look at the opening chapter of Exodus, it is clearly just a tie to the book of Genesis that preceded. The book of Genesis ends with Joseph's brothers and father coming to Egypt to get food from a famine in their land. And so the opening verses are just a tie. We recognize the names. Verse 1, "These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, and Benjamin, Dan and Naftali, Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons."



 Joseph was already in Egypt.



 We read the names, but the account is laden with significance in every word chosen to make the ties with the book of Genesis.



 After all, God is working a plan in the midst first of betrayal.



 Joseph was already in Egypt.



 Well how did that happen?



 Those same brothers named in the list because they were jealous of their father's attention for Joseph.



 Had him sold into slavery and took his multicolored coat, dipped it in animal blood, and said to a grieving father, "A wild animal killed him."



 It was nothing but betrayal.



 And what ultimately led to that betrayal being discovered is a famine in the land of Israel.



 And so the brothers and the father have to find a way to eat. And so they go down to Egypt only to discover that the child sold into slavery now has a Pharaoh's position and has the ability to judge them and to kill them.



 He does not.



 Instead they are there in the land and they prosper.



 But as a consequence of their prospering, other things happen. Verse 7, "The people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong. So the land was filled with them.



 Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph and he said to his people,



 "Behold, the people of Israel are too many, too mighty for us. Some 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." Verse 13, "So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves."



 The story is not very pleasant so far.



 Betrayal, famine, slavery.



 And God is faithful?



 Where do you get that?



 It's actually in the opening words of verse 1.



 "These are the names of the son of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household."



 His name was originally Jacob. He's a liar. He's a conniver. What his sons later do to Joseph is what they only learned from his own example. And yet the same Jacob, the conniver, is now called in the book of God, Israel, because God has changed his name. No longer is he identified as Jacob, the conniver, the one who will make his way by his own wiles and strengthen the world. Instead, he's named Israel.



 God gives him that name. And it's a name that means God rules.



 God is going to accomplish something that Jacob cannot by his own wiles and wealth and strength. God is going to rule over his sin. God is going to rule over the betrayal. God is going to rule over the slavery. God is going to rule over the famine and bring about a plan that is amazingly gracious.



 Because what God is doing is saying even to Jacob and all who will follow in his train,



 you may think you can make your way, but you need a God.



 And if you call out to him, he will help you. Despite the trials and your own failures, he will help you.



 And time does not itself undo that promise.



 The time that is described here we miss because we forget how Exodus fits into the longer plan. Centuries before, in Exodus 15, God had made a promise.



 The promise was this. Exodus 15 and verse 12, "As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram.



 And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners," and as they won't be there forever, sojourn, "your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years.



 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions." We've lost track of the account. Here is God making a promise to Abraham. An old man who says, "I'm dried up like a stick." God says to that one, "I will make you a father of many nations."



 And God so makes a covenant with Abraham that what he shows him by a smoking pot going through animals that have been cleaved in two is a covenant promise.



 Then God says, "May it so happen to me, as has happened to these animals, if I do not fulfill my word, I will make you a father of many nations." And Abraham can't do it. He's old and in the moment he's asleep when the promise comes. And God says, "I am the covenant keeping God. I will do what you cannot do." And 400 years later God is doing it in the book of Exodus. Why 400 years?



 Because God said to Abraham, later Abraham, father of nations, "I will give you the land to which I call you." But at that point the land is occupied by the Amorites, evil, numerous armies that Abraham cannot overcome. He's just one person.



 Now three generations later Israel goes into Egypt.



 How many go? Did you catch that in verse 5 of Exodus 1? All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.



 Well 70 persons can't have much success in the land of the Amorites of Canaan.



 And so for 400 years they are afflicted.



 And what happens?



 They increase and they multiply. So that by Exodus chapter 12 when the people are released, do you remember how many people actually left Egypt under the banner of Israel?



 600,000 fighting men, which means you're not counting grandma and grandpa and you're not counting the kids.



 Those who account all say between two and four million people are leaving Egypt to go into the Promised Land. Finally God has in that incubator of Egypt created the nation that He already promised. But they have no resources. What are they going to do? How can they go against the Amorites with all their cities and armies?



 Because you may remember that God said to Abraham, "And when they are released they will go out with many possessions."



 Now the plagues and the trials start between Moses and Pharaoh until finally Pharaoh responds to Moses' plea, "Let my people go!" by saying, "I'll let you go." Moses says, "Wait a minute.



 We need some resources."



 And Pharaoh said, "Ask whatever you want of my people. You just get out of here."



 And as the people of Israel are going, do you remember there is the plundering of the Egyptians. They have wealth and resources such as they never imagined. They are now many people, a great nation, a prosperous nation, ready to go to the land of promise. They have been plagued.



 They have themselves betrayed others. They have turned from God. They have wandered down paths they should never have gone. And God is saying, "May it happen to me as happened to these animals if I am not faithful to my promises."



 I will make this a great nation. I made that promise to Abram and he fulfills the promise.



 Time and trial and sin and personal failure may all seem to say, "The grace of God doesn't apply anymore."



 And God is saying, "My grace is greater and I will make happen what needs to happen so that my plan will be fulfilled for your family."



 A lot of you know Kathy and I were just last week in Germany celebrating our 40th anniversary by going to her family's historic farmstead in church.



 The church in the little town of Blossheim that we visited is only 800 years old.



 See we're just babies compared here at 150 years.



 Well we learned the story because of the family in that area for so long. The family farms that were divided among children generation upon generation could not be divided anymore and provide food for those families. And so two brothers and a cousin went from Blossheim to Bremen to the United States thinking surely famine, no food for us, no future here.



 800 years our family's been in this place and now it's not room for us. Surely they must have felt abandoned by God that God had forgotten them and yet what was happening as those families eventually were brought over by the brothers and the cousin and grew and prospered in Illinois and Iowa is we saw an amazing faithfulness of God to a family and farms and industries that have now prospered from that original small spark.



 It happens over and over again in Peoria, Illinois in a rail car.



 A few kids come in because the YMCA is concerned about children being nurtured in the midst of the awfulness that was downtown Peoria at the time.



 I don't know how many kids were there.



 Rail cars at that time might have had 40 or 60 adults. Were there 40 or 60 children or maybe they could crush in a few more? Maybe there were 70 like these.



 But God was building a church. He was building a people. He was giving us not just a future but a mission that remains for us this day. If we will remember that God can use people who might seem the most obscure facing the greatest adversity for still amazing plans of his own. God can use courage in obscurity for eternity. We see it in this account that we know so well. There was first this awful law that Pharaoh himself gave. Remember it? Verse 14.



 "Even after their lives were made bitter with hard service and mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field, in all their work, the Egyptians ruthlessly made Israel work as slaves. But then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shippra and the other Pua, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you kill him.



 But if it is a daughter, she shall live."



 You know, we have it kind of doused in the sweetness of Sunday school literature that we grew up with maybe and don't hear what was just said.



 Make them work.



 Break their bodies so they're no threat to us. Break them slaves and increase their burdens in such a way that they can't think of rebellion because they are too decimated in strength to actually be any threat to us. And that's not the worst of it, not just the tasks.



 Break them by terror too.



 If a male child is born, kill him.



 And if it's a girl, let's save her for what we want to do with her later.



 It is ancient story. It is modern ethnic cleansing.



 No different than ISIS and Boko Haram. We see it even yet happening in our world and we recognize the people of God must have said, "How is this in the plan of God?



 How is this faithfulness to our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?" But God was working His plan and He was working His plan by the courage of just a few people.



 Shipra and Pu'ah do not do what Pharaoh says. It would be wrong to kill children like this. So we read in verse 21, "Because the midwives feared God, He gave them families."



 It's kind of nice to know this is a version of you reap what you sow.



 They save families so they got families, but more than that is being said. The courageous actually get names.



 Verse 15 that I read by quickly, we need to settle a little bit, "Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shipra and the other Pu'ah, who is named in the verse, who is not named in the verse."



 The midwives are named who's not named.



 The king of Egypt. Now I know that if you watch the Charlton Heston version of Ten Commandments, he's got a name, right? That's Ramses. It's not in the Bible.



 Whoever is the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh is never named. Who gets named? Who gets remembered for generation after generation after generation? Who gets remembered?



 Those who fear God more than man. Those who are courageous to do what God requires.



 Shippra, and Pu'ah, which as you think about it are wonderful names for midwives if you're practicing the ancient form of Lamaze, you know? Ship, ship, rah, ship, ship, rah, ship, ship, Pu'ah!



 Now in the history of preaching that's known as comic relief.



 Their names are remembered.



 We sometimes feel if I do things for God, it will not matter.



 No one will remember.



 But God is saying for those who will stand for Him, I remember Your name.



 But more than that, you are participating in a mission grander and more important than you could possibly imagine. Verse 20 of chapter 1. So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew strong.



 Through those in isolation doing what is right, God is multiplying His purposes.



 For this congregation I've mentioned before when an academic entourage went to China in the mid-1990s to speak to the then Chinese premier, Xi'an Xi'an, to ask for some relief for the Christians who were under great oppression at that time in the nation of China. And as that entourage was given permission to speak to Xi'an Xi'an, you do the classic thing in Asian culture, you exchange gifts.



 And the gift that was given to Xi'an Xi'an was a gospel of John with a suggestion, perhaps, Mr. President, you could read this.



 And he responded, "Perhaps I shall read this in honor of the nanny who raised me who was a Christian."



 And the story unfolds of a single Canadian nurse who wanted to be in missions but could not identify with a mission organization. So she goes to China and to make her own way, she becomes a nanny to a wealthy family and raises the future president of China.



 And by showing him kindness and Christian love with courage and obscurity, what does God do through her life?



 Decades later, an American entourage says, "Mr. President, could you perhaps read this and ease up some of the pressure on the Christian?" Now I can't tell you anything happened as a consequence of that meeting. I can't prove anything.



 I can tell you that through the rest of the 90s and the early 2000s, pressure came off of the Christians and you know the results, quite literally millions of Chinese becoming Christians.



 I cannot prove that it's because of the dedication of that one Christian nurse, but it would not surprise me.



 It's the way God works. And it's not just something far away and long ago. I mean, I think of those two brothers and the cousin that came from the little town of Blossheim where there was no more farmland to distribute. And they came here to the United States and they came to Illinois and Iowa. And we were just in Blossheim and I would tell you if it had not said in German the name of the town, you would have thought you were in Peoria. Same terrain, same environment, same climate, same look, everything, because they came from that part of Germany and they settled in this part of the country where it reminded them of home, where they knew how to farm, where they knew how to make things go here. And what they did as soon as they got the crops planted and their own homes built, you know the next thing they did? They built churches and they built schools for children and they established a seminary in Dubuque, Iowa for the best and the brightest of their young people to be trained to be ministers for the next generation. And I recognize that Kathy's family and my meeting her and my being here and before you now and the ministry that I might have in a little bit in this church is a consequence of God's long vision of through a people who thought they had been abandoned, wasn't much to do. But no, we are here to build churches and we are here to establish schools for the young people of our community and we are here to see that the ministry goes beyond us. The next generation shall praise the Lord and we will take care of that. And I think of what happens in this church is we continue to believe that God is doing that through us, that if we will have courage, if we will continue to train young people in a town where there is adversity now, I mean think what Mayor Artis said even this morning, I mean he was so candid and honest about the challenges facing this community.



 But I look around and face you now and I think of Youth for Christ in this town and Child Evangelism Fellowship, regional centers that are right here.



 The fact that we have 23 nations now who are here with our English as a second language training and so many of the people who come are moms.



 The dads are at work, the moms come so they can help their children and we have opportunity for those moms and their young children. Campus outreach, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, the headquarters of things here that are multiplying faith for generations.



 Dear girls, brigade boys, the vacation Bible school that will be just around the corner for us.



 That's our legacy and it's our mission to believe that God is saying to us, "I can do amazing things through a people who are committed to me if they will have courage in the time of adversity, if they even think they are too obscure to matter, I will use my people if you will but trust me and move forward in my care." Why would we believe that? Because we see God using the smallest little things to accomplish great purposes of His own. In chapter 2 He uses a baby boat for a blessed hope. You know the story. There's just this little basket of reeds and bitumen that's put together with pitch to



 be a boat for a boy so he won't be killed.



 And just by chance, His mother puts him in the Nile River in a little inlet of reeds



 where Egyptian women bathe. And just by chance, the woman who bathes that morning is the daughter of Pharaoh.



 And just by chance, she is more merciful than her father.



 And just by chance, Moses' sister is still watching from the reeds and she comes out and says to Pharaoh's daughter, "You know, if you want a nanny, I think I can find one for you." And just by chance, it's Moses' actual mother. And just by chance, he therefore is able to learn the ways and the faith of the children of Israel.



 And just by chance, when he gets to be an adult, verse 10 of chapter 2 says this, "When the child grew older, she," that is Moses' mother, "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."



 And inside we are thinking, God drew him out of the water. None of these things were by chance. God was working a plan. It was so minuscule. It was so insignificant. But God was taking faithfulness and using it. It was not the first time that God would use an ark to save a people through water. You remember the account of Noah? Noah built the ark. Who shut the door?



 God shut the door. "This is my hand," says God, "saving my people." And there would come a time later when these same Hebrew people, having left Egypt, would cross the Jordan River to go into the Promised Land, and ahead of them they would carry that ark of the Covenant. Don't think Indiana Jones, think Scripture.



 What's in the ark of the Covenant that leads the people across the Jordan River on dry land? There are the tablets of the law that establish the holiness of God. Here is the butted staff of Aaron that reminds people God can bring life out of dead sticks. He can bring many nations out of Abraham and the new Israel.



 And finally over the ark are the cherubim who showed the power of a holy God, but their wings are spread over the mercy seat.



 Where people begin to realize that we cannot meet the standards of a holy God, we have the hope of the nations because God provides in blood His mercy.



 It's the gospel in a small package. It's this statement that God is saying to His people, "Though I am holy, you have hope and it is by my mercy." And it's that gospel that leads them into the Promised Land. It is that gospel that is still ours to share if we will but do it. To say that for the children of this community, as we are being called into the local schools through a faith and school initiative, to take the gospel to people who don't hear it or know it or have any sense of its reality, that we the people of God by a mentoring program and the public schools can say to people, "God is holy, but you can have hope because His mercy is real." And if that becomes the message that we take by our compassion, God can use it in marvelous ways. After all, He does it right here. He does it for Moses. I mean, the accounts just throw us because God is ultimately taking Moses out into the desert. What's so wrong? Yes, He's now in Pharaoh's household, but as He gets a little older to about age 40, He sees an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew.



 And as a consequence, the Bible tells us Moses looked both ways and then killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.



 Nonetheless by verse 15 of chapter 2, Pharaoh finds out and he's out to get Moses. And Moses flees to the land of Midian at age 40, and he's in the desert for 40 years.



 What kind of a plan is that?



 "Oh, I'll call Abraham back." I'll call Moses back, says God, at age 80 to free my people.



 So when he comes back, what does he know?



 He knows the ways of the Egyptians and the personality of Pharaoh and how to negotiate and leverage him so God will let the people go.



 And then where do they live for the next 40 years?



 In the desert. Who has just learned how to live in the desert for 40 years?



 Moses.



 He has in the household of Pharaoh received the literature and learning of 3,000 years of Egyptian history preparing to write scriptures that we now have. But he's not just learning the inspired scripture that he can write by the mechanisms that have been poured into him.



 Free tuition that came from Pharaoh.



 He's also learned how to survive in the desert.



 God was working his plan. God was doing something greater than he could possibly have done for himself.



 Why?



 Because God heard the groaning of the people. God remembered his covenant. God saw the people, and God knew what he was going to do about it. It's that message that we want to remember always that God is the one to be trusted because he is the one who has shown himself faithful and so we who know we do not measure up to his holiness still have hope because we remember his mercy and turn to him afresh to tell the world what they must do. Oh, I know sometimes the train seems like it is too slow, off schedule, run off the tracks but the prophets long ago declared that that train of grace was on a sure destination and it would do what God intended to take away the sins of the world.



 What? What did those people early say to the kids who gathered in Peoria? I don't know what they said. But it was something like, "This train is bound for glory."



 So get on board, little children.



 There's room for many a more.



 Oh, but Lord, sometimes the train doesn't seem to be going where it should.



 If you had been at the cross, you would have thought that.



 The hiss of the brakes is the gasp of the sun as they put thorns on his brow.



 The rattle of the rocks and the rail bed, the roll of the dice as they gamble for his garments. The roar of the engine, the clamor of the crowd, "Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!"



 The pummel of the tracks, the rism of the lash as they stripe his back, the driving of the pistons, the pounding of the hammers that drive the nails into hands and feet, and the wail of the whistle, the cry of the lamb, "Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabachthani! My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"



 So that you and I would not be forgotten.



 That we who had our sins placed on him, the one who got on the train when he knew where it was going, would ourselves be free of sin and possess his righteousness by the great plan of God. This is still our mission. God will be faithful to a people who are faithful to his mission. What is our mission?



 To say to everyone out there. This is just God's little boat.



 This is just his ark. This is just his train.



 And this train is bound for glory. So get on board, little children. There is room for many a more.



 Get on board. This train is bound for glory. This train by the grace of God. Amen. Father, so work your will and weigh into us that we who name you, Lord, might truly believe you are, not limited by time or trial or our weakness. You are accomplishing your great purposes. May we trust you and invite more and more people on this train for its bound for glory by the grace of God in whom we trust. In Jesus' name, amen.