A Son Is Given

[0:00] If you'll please open your Bibles to the book of Exodus. We're continuing our study there in the book of Exodus.

[0:13] And we are looking today at chapter 2. So Exodus chapter 2. I think I may have mentioned before that we, as we look at a historical book, we'll probably be moving a little faster than we would as we look at some of the epistles.

[0:38] Some of the ones that have more teaching. Today we're going to be looking at 22 verses, but my plan is to come back and deal with the same 22 verses next week and look at a different point. So for now, we're looking at verses 1 through 22 of Exodus chapter 2.

[0:55] So if you'll join there with me as we read. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son.

[1:07] And when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and dabbed it with bitumen and pitch.

[1:24] She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river.

[1:35] While her young woman walked beside the river, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the baby was crying.

[1:50] She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse a child for you?

[2:01] And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me. And I will give you your wages.

[2:13] So the woman took the child and nursed him. 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.

[2:27] One day when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens. He saw a Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand.

[2:44] 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? And he answered, who made you a prince and a judge over us?

[2:58] Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, surely the thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

[3:10] But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

[3:24] The shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock. When they came home to their father, Raul, he said, how is it that you have come home so soon today?

[3:39] They said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and water the flock.

[3:51] He said to his daughters, then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man. And he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.

[4:03] She gave birth to a son. And he called his name Gershom. For he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, we again thank you for your word and ask for your spirit's help as it's open.

[4:18] That you would help us to understand your word and the situation that seems so far, at least in years, so far removed from us. Lord, we pray that you would help us to see how this applies to Christ, how it applies to us.

[4:34] We ask this in his name. Amen. Now, you may remember from last week's sermon that the major problem facing Israel at this point is oppression.

[4:47] And we saw that this oppression was expressed in three ways. This oppression by Pharaoh and ultimately by Egypt. So we see three oppressions in what we looked at last week.

[4:59] First, they were ruthlessly, and that's the word that's being used in the text, made slaves with heavy burdens, which made their lives bitter. And that's really all the words. So ruthless, heavy burdens, lives that were bitter were the words that were used in our text.

[5:14] We also saw God's response last week in chapter 1, verse 12. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. And so the first oppression, make them slaves, make them work hard, make their lives bitter, so that they would not multiply and become strong, which is, in fact, the very thing that happened.

[5:34] There was this reversal that God does in overcoming Pharaoh and his desires. And so then the plan is that Pharaoh has the midwives to kill the male children.

[5:46] It's just they don't do it. We read because they feared God. And in verse 20, we see that they disobeyed Pharaoh, and it says, And the people multiplied and grew very strong.

[6:01] And so Pharaoh's second attempt had failed. And so that led us to where we really ended last week was with the third oppression. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.

[6:19] And that was verse 22 of chapter 1, really, as we ended chapter 1. It's where we left off. And so as that leaves off, we see where we pick up then in verse 2.

[6:29] Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. Then the woman conceived and bore a son. And so we see the dilemma.

[6:41] We have questions about them. We have questions about God's redemptive plan and Israel or God's people there in Egypt. What's going to be the outcome of this oppression?

[6:53] And I want to say, what might we assume will be the outcome of this oppression? The first oppression, they were made slaves. And what happened? They multiplied and spread abroad.

[7:05] Second time, the midwives were to kill them. They multiplied and grew very strong. The third time, all of Egypt is to cast these children into the sea. What's going to happen? And it's not spoken. It's left for us to see as the story unfolds.

[7:17] Are they going to multiply? Are they going to remain strong? Or is Pharaoh going to win this time? Will his plan be accomplished? Will he make them weak?

[7:30] If we can think about this, I'm not one who watches boxing, but you can imagine a boxing match. There's round one. God wins that flat out. There's round two. God won that one too. Now here's round three.

[7:41] Is God going to win? Or is Pharaoh going to win this time? Who's going to win round three of the oppression? We also see with the oppression, there's this gradual escalation.

[7:53] It becomes more and more public. He oppresses them. Then he has their children killed, which is somewhat hidden. And now ultimately he's having all the nation join in.

[8:03] So even the level of oppression becomes greater as the whole nation joins in in putting them to death. In chapter two, which we read most of, at least what we read, the first 22 verses of chapter two, forms a brief biography of Moses' life.

[8:20] And I do mean very brief. 22 verses takes a little while to read, but you realize that these verses cover basically the first 80 years of Moses' life.

[8:31] Two-thirds of his entire life is covered in these 22 verses. And so a biography of Moses. And again, I thought good for us to spend two weeks looking at what takes place in Moses' life.

[8:42] And so today, what I'd like for us to see is really the resolution to the third oppression. And what I see as a resolution to the third oppression is this.

[8:53] A son is given. You saw that transition. It leaves off with, they're to kill the sons. And then it moves into, now this is one family. And they had a son.

[9:06] And you're left thinking, well, what's going to happen to this son? Is he going to die or not? But the resolution, and today I want us to look at the idea, the title of the sermon really is, A Son is Given.

[9:17] And then next week, I want to look at Moses' leaving Egypt to move to Midian, his life there in Midian. What takes place? So for today, focusing on a son is given.

[9:30] And we see that, as I said already, in verses one and two. God has given them a son. And that then begs the question, what's going to happen?

[9:42] Will he live? Will he survive? Will he be cast into the river? Now, for our men's retreat, I spoke from Hebrews, and one of my lessons was on Moses.

[9:55] So those of you who are at the men's retreat, there's a little repeat today. There's going to be a lot more repeat next week. I hope you still come. I hope it was beneficial then and will be again. But for now, it says, When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.

[10:12] Now, I talked about this, as I said, a little bit in the men's retreat, but what does that mean? She saw that he was a fine child. Or, some of your Bibles, some of your translations may have that he was beautiful.

[10:26] She saw that he was beautiful. Now, I don't want you to raise your hands because maybe some of you are more honest. But, what mom doesn't think their child's beautiful, right?

[10:38] Don't parents in general think their kids are the best looking kids there ever were? Right? They tend to think they're... So, what in the world is the Bible saying to us here? And I've told the men a story that I'll share with you guys.

[10:50] If you don't like this story, at the very least, you can pray for me. Because you can see my sinful heart. But, I remember when I was at seminary, and maybe I shouldn't say where, what class, or anything like that.

[11:02] Let's somehow get somewhere. But, I was in class, and there was this guy sitting in front of me. And we were using our laptops to take notes and to follow along with the teacher.

[11:13] And this guy in the background to his laptop was this baby. And I'm looking at the baby. And, again, you guys can pray for me. But, it was a little scary look.

[11:25] It was the ugliest baby I'd ever seen in my life. Again, pray for me. Okay? But, it was this really, really ugly thing. And it was a background for his computer.

[11:37] And you begin to think, is this some kind of security system? No one's going to steal that computer. And then I hear him. As one of the students comes by, we're in a break. And he says, we just had our first child.

[11:50] And isn't he beautiful? And he asks about three students. And I'm dreading it because I'm behind him. So, finally, he turns around. He slams this laptop in my face. Woo-hoo!

[12:01] You know? Look, I just had my first baby. Isn't he beautiful? And I had really, I had come under conviction previously that God's word calls us not to lie.

[12:16] And so, I didn't want to lie to the man. And so, what do you do in that situation? Well, I spoke the truth. No, I had not exactly that. What I said to him was this.

[12:27] I said, congratulations. Congratulations. Because I meant that. It's great to have a child. And surely he can't always look like that. You know? He's going to grow up and change. Congratulations.

[12:38] And he said, isn't he beautiful? And I go, congratulations. It's starting to get awkward. And then he asked me a third time, isn't he beautiful? I go, congratulations. And I get up and walk out of the room.

[12:49] But I thought, if that man can look at that child and say, he's beautiful, then what in the world is Moses' mom talking about here?

[13:00] Or what's God's word telling us about Moses' mom when she looks at her baby and says, he's beautiful? He's a fine child. So, she hit him. What Hebrew mother didn't look at the child and go, it's a fine child.

[13:14] I don't want him to die. There shouldn't have been a mom there. Which, again, I think speaks to the horrors of abortion. That we live in a time where people can look at a child and say, I don't want him to live.

[13:27] But there probably wasn't a Hebrew mom that looked at the child that didn't think, he's a fine child. I don't want him to die. So, what in the world is God's word telling us here when it says this? Well, it's quoted two other places, which is one reason I mentioned this in the sermon at the ministry street.

[13:42] Hebrews 11.23. It says, So, Hebrews tells us the reason that they hid the child was because he was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's eat it.

[14:08] But notice, by faith, Moses was hidden by his parents. It was faith that led them to hide their child. Likewise, Stephen in Acts 7.20, you know, he kind of recounts redemptive history.

[14:22] And when he gets to Moses, he says, At this time, Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight. Which I think helps us maybe even more to understand. There's something in his appearance that made him greatly to be desired.

[14:39] They wanted to keep him because they liked how he looked. Now, there are probably many ways we can understand this. Part of me thinks that there's some allusion here to Genesis 3.15.

[14:50] The hope that there would be the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. And I've talked to you before that I'm really convinced that over and over again we see examples of parents who were hoping that their child would be that male child who would come and defeat Satan.

[15:08] And so there may be something about him that they thought, This is the one. This is going to be the Savior who will defeat Satan. There are a number of commentaries that believe that there was some form of direct revelation that was given to Moses' parents.

[15:24] And I would not rule that out, though it's not specifically said to us here. What does it mean that they, by faith, saw that he was beautiful? It means they believed something that was communicated to them from God, whether that be from what they understood, oral tradition.

[15:41] Remember, there's no written word at this time. Oral tradition of what God's done in the past, Genesis 3.15. Or otherwise. Maybe someone like Noah, who in a way becomes a type of Christ.

[15:52] Somehow, I think they beheld that Moses was going to be a type. By type, I mean not a kind of Christ, but a prefigurement of Christ. He represents to us what Christ one day will accomplish.

[16:05] He's going to be a Savior. That may be that something was disclosed to them. But one way or another, what I want you to see is that they chose to save him, not just because they thought he was cute. It's so much more than that.

[16:17] It's by faith that they're acting. They believe something about this child. It's necessary. I know I said to the men as well, and I'll say to you, that God had prophesied already that the time in Egypt would be 400 years.

[16:35] And then they would be delivered. And so a family that knew this and was faithfully holding to this would have to believe that there would be coming one who would be that deliverer, that Savior for them.

[16:46] How much of that they understood? What do they hope in? I'm not quite sure. But either way, they acted by faith in hiding him. It wasn't just because they thought their baby was cute, not just like every other Hebrew parents, that they didn't want their child to die.

[17:01] But by faith, they believed something about this child was special. And so they hid Moses for three months. And verse 3 tells us that they hid him as long as they could.

[17:16] And those of you who have had three-month-olds probably understand why they were no longer able to hide that child. He probably became vocal enough, he was loud enough, that they began to worry that the neighbors are going to know, we've got a baby in here.

[17:31] You can only hide him so long or keep him hid. And I think when it says they could hide him no longer, it may well be speaking of the parents, maybe the authorities, maybe they're coming door-to-door looking for children.

[17:42] But remember, all of Egypt had been given this mission. If you see a Hebrew male child, you throw him into the river. They're commanded to. It's not just that it's okay for you now to kill Hebrew boys.

[17:57] We won't charge you for this offense. It's now almost to the point that we're going to charge you if you don't do your duty. You're obligated to kill these male children. And so as soon as Moses is discovered, his parents know that he would be killed.

[18:12] And so they hid him as long as they could, and when she realized she could do it no longer, for whatever reason, whatever that may look like, she decided she could hide him no longer. I mentioned Hebrews 11, 23.

[18:27] I quoted it earlier. They saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid that the king's eat it. I think we learned something else, too, about how they acted in faith.

[18:39] They were not afraid that the king's eat it. What was the king's eat it? It's what I just said. The male child was to be cast into the river. If they didn't do it as a parent, then someone else was to do it.

[18:50] But it says they didn't fear that eat it. I think with that eat it is also the implied threat that if you don't do it, there could be penalty, maybe even your death.

[19:03] If Moses' parents don't kill their child like they're commanded to, maybe they would be put to death. But by faith, they did not fear even death. They didn't fear what the king or Pharaoh could do to them.

[19:15] What does that look like? Well, I think they trusted that God would spare them, that God would spare the son. I'm not sure what they expected exactly, but they believed that God was more faithful.

[19:30] I think even, though yet it has not been given, but remember the Ten Commandments are coming. I think I mentioned this last week, that God has written the law in the heart. We see, for example, that Cain is judged for committing murder.

[19:43] There was some understanding in people that murder is wrong. Even today, you can read philosophers that would argue murder is wrong, just as a principle. We know it's not good to kill people.

[19:55] To some extent, they, in faith, wouldn't kill their son. They trusted God. Even, I think the way I expressed this to the men was, they feared God more than they feared the Pharaoh.

[20:10] It's more dangerous. It's more scary for me to break God's commandments. Again, though that commandment had not yet been fully given, it's more scary for me to violate God's law than it is to violate the king's law.

[20:24] And, of course, that has implications for us, too, in how we interact with our government. I want you to note, as well, that they did hide the baby.

[20:37] Now, I'll point that out just to say that they are disobeying the command of the king. And how are they going about it? They're not flaunting the baby. They didn't get a carriage that had a baby-on-board sticker on the back and ride it all around Egypt.

[20:53] Flaunting the fact that they had a baby. Daring someone to kill their child. I think we could say they were wise in their disobedience.

[21:03] They disobeyed the king because they were obeying God. It was an act of fate. But they also didn't tempt God or put God to the test. God, are you going to save my baby? Look, I've got my baby-on-board sticker.

[21:15] You know, we've got blue balloons out there on the mailbox in front of our house today. They were wise about how they went about it. I think we see examples of this even in Jesus' life.

[21:26] There was an appointed day for the crucifixion of Jesus. And yet we see Jesus, he withdrew from the crowds when they sought to kill him. For example, we see that in Luke 4.30 and John 8.59, Jesus withdrawing from the crowds.

[21:40] And there's part of us that want to say, well, God's sovereign? And the time of the crucifixion hasn't come yet. Maybe a way of me expressing this is to say we have to balance out the sovereignty of God with secondary means.

[21:52] God uses secondary means, and we want to be wise in how we go about these things. It's also interesting to see that they obey the king. In a way. Right?

[22:03] Three months they hide him, and then what do they do? They cast the baby into the river. And how does she go about doing it? Well, she builds... The word here is actually ark, which is interesting.

[22:13] Just like we would think of Noah, who was... Him and his family were delivered through the ark. They built a boat out of the bulrushes. She lines it with bitumen and pitch, which is basically making it waterproof so the water can't penetrate through the cracks.

[22:31] So she built a boat to put him in. And then I'm going to see, because this is how we might operate too, that if this was discovered, what would you say? Well, you said I had to cast my baby into the river.

[22:42] That's what I did. I put him in the river. In a boat. But she does cast him into the river.

[22:54] Now, understand that there's probably a lot more to this than just killing the Hebrew children. Pharaoh is ordering them to cast their babies into the river.

[23:04] And remember that Egypt is a polytheistic culture. And they worshiped gods of nature. So probably most familiar to us is Ra, who was the god of the sun, the sun god.

[23:19] But they had numerous gods that they worshipped. One of them is Hopi, Hapi, H-A-P-I, was their river god. And so understand that I would say there's probably more to this than let's just kill the Hebrew children and make them weak.

[23:37] It's also a competition between gods. Let's make the Hebrew families sacrifice their children to our gods. Or to our god.

[23:50] And in that way, they become weaker. And so does their god, Jehovah, Yahweh. And so I would imagine, at least, that Pharaoh and the Egyptian families viewed this as a sacrifice to their river god.

[24:10] And then in verses 4 through 9, we see the saving of this son. And I'll probably quickly move through this. It's a story that's really familiar to you, and you see it pretty plainly expressed here.

[24:28] But if we understand that casting these babies into the river was a sacrifice to the Egyptian gods, then the deliverance of any child is the defeat of that Egyptian god.

[24:41] That was supposed to be his child, but he doesn't get it. Instead, this child's rescued from his clutches, which might say is, if not the final victory of this round, of the battle that we talked about before, at least is a major blow that God gives to the Egyptian gods.

[24:58] So Moses is saved. And there's some irony in the story that we see. For one, he's saved from within the same house that had declared his death. Pharaoh had said he was to be put to death, and he's rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, the same household.

[25:17] She had pity or compassion on him, we read in verse 6. Unlike Pharaoh, who had no compassion on the children. We could also, and I won't spend time doing it this week, although I may come back to it in a future week, but her actions closely parallel what God will do for his people in chapter 3 in rescuing them.

[25:38] Her actions become almost a type of what God does in rescuing his people. Also, I want you to understand that the providence of God is what brought her to the river that day.

[25:48] She comes down to bathe, but the baby's there at the right time. She's in the right place. She looks in the right location. Even, I think, Moses cried. She opened it, and there he is.

[25:59] Apparently, he wasn't crying, or they might have heard him rather than seeing him, but she opens him, and he gives this pitiful little cry at the right moment that causes her to have compassion on this child.

[26:10] We see the sovereignty of God even in that. God was sovereignly watching over and protecting Moses. Miriam was there, Moses' sister, kind of looking from a distance, making sure things were okay with Moses.

[26:23] It's unclear what would have happened if the boat started sinking. Was she going to jump in? Was she going to try to save him? We're not sure. But she's looking over him, but more importantly, is that God's looking over him.

[26:34] God sovereignly is watching out for this child. And we know that's true, not only for Moses, but for all of God's people, that he sovereignly watches out for his people. The very fact that he's saving Moses, you guys, if you know the story, where we're headed in chapter 3, we know that he's saving Moses is because he's sovereignly looking out for all the people.

[26:53] So he's in the midst of providing a savior for his people before they even cried to him.

[27:03] They haven't yet cried out for deliverance as a people. And already he's in the point of, he's caused the birth of a savior, he's preserved the life of this savior for them. We see as well that Pharaoh's defeated.

[27:15] I said, what's going to be the end result? Oppression number three. Is Pharaoh going to win? Well, he killed a lot of babies, I'm sure. Many, maybe most, maybe all but one of the Hebrew children from a generation were wiped off.

[27:28] Did Pharaoh win? Did he weaken God's people? Did he make them so that they could not stand against him? No, because what one child's rescued? The child through whom they will be delivered.

[27:41] The one through whom strength will be displayed. And ultimately, it wasn't the strength of the people that they're going to rely on. It's God. It's God's strength that will be displayed in the plagues that will come.

[27:56] So Pharaoh's defeated. Job 5.13 says that God catches the wise in their own craftiness. And the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

[28:07] Remember the wording that was used in chapter 1? Pharaoh shrewdly oppressed the people. And in his shrewdness, God catches him in his shrewdness.

[28:17] The very plan that he devised becomes his own downfall. It's his daughter who delivers this one child who becomes a deliverer, a savior. A.W. Pink writes, Pharaoh proposed to deal wisely with the Israelites.

[28:36] And yet, in the end, God compels him to give board, lodging, and education to the very man which accomplished the very thing that Pharaoh was trying to prevent.

[28:47] Thus was Pharaoh's wisdom turned to foolishness and saving his devices defeated. So you see the irony of it. Guys, I told you there's a book on the book table. Maybe it's still there. But Redemptive Reversals that talks about some of the irony in which things happen.

[29:02] People do plan these things. And God uses their very plans to reverse it and bring salvation. Here's one instance of that. Chapter 1, verses 9-10. And he, this is Pharaoh, said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.

[29:17] Come, 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. Let's deal shrewdly with them lest they escape from the land.

[29:27] And what happens? His shrewdness is what ultimately brings their escaping from the land. And I love A.W. Pink points out not only that, that Pharaoh ends up raising in his own household.

[29:41] The one who's going to cause their deliverance. He educates him in all the education that was available to the Egyptians at that time. We see another ironic reversal in verse 9.

[29:58] His true mother's allowed to raise him. And not only that, she's paid to do so. Isn't that something? There could be no greater provision. God allows Moses' mom to raise Moses and Pharaoh's going to pay to make sure he can do it or that she can do it.

[30:16] And so you can imagine her, she goes out. Anywhere she went that she brought this baby with her, everybody would want to kill the baby. And she'd say, what? No, no.

[30:28] I'm raising this child for Pharaoh's daughter. This is a royal child. You can't touch him. She's got universal protection from everyone. And she's getting paid to do it. And so, when the child could be hidden no longer, God makes it so he doesn't have to be hidden.

[30:50] I don't want to belabor this long, but there's something, I think, interesting that happens in this chapter as well. Pharaoh's plan is to kill the sons.

[31:03] And so we have this vision of all the sons dying. But do you guys, did you notice the movement throughout this whole chapter, at least as far as we've read so far? Who are the primary actors in the chapter?

[31:16] They're all daughters. And again, I don't want to make too much of this, but I do think there's something being pointed out to us in this chapter. Pharaoh's plan is to kill the sons, so God uses the daughters to accomplish his purpose.

[31:29] Let me illustrate this. Moses' mother, Jochbed, conceived and bore a son. She saw his beauty, she hid him and prepared the boat for him.

[31:40] It's his daughter, her daughter, Moses' sister, that watches over Moses. It's Pharaoh's daughter who discovers Moses, protects him, and makes him a son.

[31:52] It's Jethro's daughters, and again, we're not going there today, but it's Jethro's daughters that meet Moses at the well and end up providing safety for Moses. They protect the deliverer.

[32:05] And then, Moses is given Jethro's daughter, Zipporah, who provides Moses with a son. And so, I think again and again we see it's the daughters, it's the daughters, it's the daughters.

[32:18] Even, what says, the wife, his wife, a Levite woman there in verse 1, not specifically a daughter, but we get this idea that, okay, Pharaoh, you think you're going to win this battle by killing off the sons?

[32:32] Well, God can use daughters, and he does to accomplish his purpose. In verse 10, we see the position of the son. When the child grew older, this may only mean that she weaned him.

[32:43] We're not sure how long she raised him, but at least he was no longer being nursed. 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.

[32:55] So Moses becomes the son of Pharaoh's daughter. We talked a little bit already about what this means in terms of room, board, education, the wealth that would have been available to him.

[33:05] But Moses is the grandson to the Pharaoh who is the greatest ruler of the greatest empire in the world of that time. He's a part of the royal family. Think of all the privileges that would have been afforded to him.

[33:20] And he's given a name which means to draw out. And it's actually, this name actually means to draw out in Hebrew and it seems to be that Moses' daughter understands this. Maybe it's Moses' mother that helps or Miriam or some other way, but she names him Moses because she said, I drew him out of the water.

[33:39] Moses also is a little bit of a play on a Hebrew royal name. If you think of like Ramesses, you see at the end it's M-S-E-S. It's missing the O there, but that's an Egyptian word for the son of and it's usually combined with a god.

[33:57] So Ramesses was the son of Ra, the sun god. Or another way of saying that is Ra, the sun god, has given us this sun. And so Moses almost has a similar name in Egypt, but there's no, there's no Egyptian god tied to his name.

[34:11] Instead, there's a Hebrew meaning that's given to it. He's drawn out of the water or as it says, drew out of the water. Literally, it means to draw out. Now, we're told that Moses' I'm sorry, Pharaoh's daughter names Moses this because she drew him out of the water.

[34:31] But the name just means to draw out, which is providential because what does Moses do? In fact, Isaiah 63, 11 uses the exact same language and speaks of Moses as the one who drew out God's people.

[34:46] And so, Moses is given the name to draw out. We might even think deliver or deliver is his name. Because he was delivered from the water, but it's also because in God's providence, he will be the one who will deliver his people.

[34:59] He will draw them out of Egypt. So she names him a name that's even mocking the very thing that her father set out to do. We don't want them to be drawn out of here, so we're going to kill one child we save and we name him the drawer outer, the one who's going to do the drawing out.

[35:21] And, again, though I don't think it's a major point, I do think there's some importance that this section ends in verse 22. Moses is given a wife in verse 21, and it says, she gave birth to a son.

[35:34] And so, it's not just one son that's given, there's a grandson that's given, there's more sons that are given. God's continuing to provide for the birth of sons, even though, in many ways, it's prohibited or against what Pharaoh has designed to do.

[35:48] We see, as it were, a continuation of the thwarting of Pharaoh's plan and the Lord's provision. Verse 19, notice what it says of Moses there. As, this is, again, and Jethro's daughters are describing him, they said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.

[36:11] So, how is Moses described? He is a deliverer. He's the one who delivered us out of the hands of these shepherds. And really, that's a word that we might use for a savior.

[36:22] Which really leads to the second major point that I want to look at today, and that's that we know that there's a greater son that's given to us. I've said already that Moses is a type of Christ.

[36:34] He's a deliverer. He's a savior for God's people who are in bondage as we've already talked about how that relates to sin. So, this passage that we're looking at today is really about the birth of a savior, a deliverer, one who will draw out God's people.

[36:52] And of course, we know Moses is a savior, but he's not the savior. He's teaching us. He's showing us. He's foreshadowing that there will come a greater savior.

[37:04] There will come another son that will be born. One who's deserving of far more glory even than Moses receives at the hand of Pharaoh.

[37:16] Hebrews 3.3 says, For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house himself.

[37:28] So, Hebrews makes that same comparison. He's counted worthy of more glory even than Moses. In Luke, when it speaks of Jesus' birth, the shepherds and the angels, when the angels appear to the shepherds, they say, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

[37:49] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ, the Lord. And so, what they tell of is the birth of a Savior. And I think that's the message that's meant to be communicated to us here in Etzis chapter 2.

[38:07] A Savior has been born. And it teaches us, it points us to a greater Savior that we're to look for, that we're to long for, even that we now at this point look back to, but at least for those in that day they would look forward to a coming of such a Savior.

[38:23] One who's like Moses, but greater than Moses. And of course, that's kind of toward the end of Moses' life he prophesied, there will come a prophet greater than me. And that's who they were longing for.

[38:34] But he is a type of the Christ who would come. God provided his own son to be our Savior. This son, born under death sentence, but saved.

[38:44] We talked about that last week that Herod had said all the male children were to be born, much like Pharaoh did. And yet he's delivered by going to Egypt and ultimately brought back out of Egypt.

[38:58] I even think about how Moses was placed in the place of death, or at least on the very edge of the place of death as he's put in the river. And he was delivered.

[39:12] And we think of Christ who was taken to Golgotha, to the cross, to the place of death. He wasn't delivered from death. He died for our sake. But after three days he was delivered from death.

[39:26] He was resurrected. And he now lives as our living and victorious Savior. And I talked about already how, I don't want to put a one-on-one, I'm not trying to say that Pharaoh is a type of Satan.

[39:37] I'm not sure that's true. What I would say is that at least for a time, Pharaoh and Satan's purposes are one and the same. They're joined together in one purpose and that's to kill off the male children.

[39:50] Now, Pharaoh may not have understood that they were becoming a Savior who would defeat Satan. But Satan's understood this. He was there when that curse or that prophecy was given. And so the purpose for Satan at least is that this child would not survive.

[40:06] And I said the purpose is the same when Jesus is born and yet God delivers the Savior that he might save his people. So the salvation of God's people here is going to set a pattern for us of the salvation of God's people spiritually throughout all time.

[40:24] That's the major point we're going to see over and over again and I want to point you to in the book of Exodus. I don't have to belabor that now but what I want you to see is that the gospel is here being presented to us in the book of Exodus. Moses becomes a type of the one who will come.

[40:37] He is a Savior. He is a Deliverer. He's spared from death that he might as it were at least for Moses give his life as Jesus actually does give his life that his people might be saved from their bondage to sin.

[40:50] They might be delivered. They might pass through the waters and ultimately enter into the promised land which wasn't Canaan. That's a type too. That's not the reality. If we begin to imagine that what we most desire is to somehow recreate Israel as a nation or Jerusalem as a nation or Jerusalem around Jerusalem to make that the promised land we've missed the point altogether.

[41:16] God has saved his people through the coming of his son to the death of his son to the resurrection of his son that we might one day dwell with him forever. What we lost in the garden but to a greater extent that we might be in his presence forever which ultimately is not just heaven but is the new earth the new heavens that he will create in which we will dwell with him forever.

[41:36] But we also understand there's no hope of salvation apart from the Savior Jesus Christ. Just as God's means of salvation for all his people in Egypt was Moses so also God's one and only means for salvation for all people is through Christ.

[41:55] There is no other name by which a man can be saved. Let me just a few final points of application as we close.

[42:08] Pharaoh makes one big mistake in round one and round two and round three. What does Pharaoh keep doing? He leaves God out of the equation. He doesn't factor in the fact of their God.

[42:20] The God of the Israelites. And so God thwarts his plans. He defeats Pharaoh and his gods. And we're going to see more and more of that as we go throughout the book of Etsis.

[42:35] But I thought as we think of application and I know as much as we want to relate to people in this story it's probably not Pharaoh that we're hoping to relate to but are there ways in which we leave God out of the equation?

[42:48] When we make our decisions in life do we forget about God his word what he's commanded? in Sunday school we were talking some about this and the idea of lordship how we tend to make ourselves lord we make decisions what we think are good or maybe we only want to go along with what God says when it agrees with what we say which really means God's not lord but we're lord do we sometimes leave God out of the equation or is he lord of our life?

[43:18] I said in Sunday school and I'll say again that I think every time we sin we leave God out of the equation or at least we skew the equation we imagine that what God has said doesn't really matter what matters is what I want to do that I'm lord do we make decisions in our life without considering what God has spoken do we consult God's word do we go to him in prayer or do we just do what we want to do and so I want to encourage you don't be like Pharaoh understand that there is a God that there are consequences for the things we do that he's given us his word secondly I want you to understand that in all that takes place in our life God is working God is sovereign over everything that takes place sometimes that's behind the scenes sometimes it's not obvious maybe most of the time it's behind the scenes how God's working I think of those that were living in Egypt in that day the Israelites the Hebrews most of them lost a child maybe two children three

[44:31] Moses is gone for 40 years before he comes back to deliver them this edict may have been in effect the entire time there could have been many male children that were put to death and yet God is still working to deliver his people he hasn't forgotten them I think sometimes we get trouble when it seems like God's forgotten us for 40 minutes right things are not going well for an hour and we're God where are you for 40 years they may have been under this curse but the whole time God's working to train and raise up I said he was gone for 40 years from his birth 40 years that passed before that so maybe even 80 years this edict could have been in effect but God's working this whole time to deliver his people to bring them out of that we saw in the passage numerous ways in which what I labeled after

[45:32] I think it was G.K. Bill ironic reversals ways that things look to be going one way only for God to use even the deeds of sinful men to reverse the outcome and save his people those who devise crafty plans against God's people fell into their own trap do we believe that God's working do we leave justice to God or do we feel like we have to we have to justify ourselves or bring justice to ourselves maybe a related idea with that is that God triumphs over evil we see this in our passage I think this is especially true for the sake of his people God triumphs over evil for the good for the sake of his people Hebrews 10 30 31 for we know him who said vengeance is mine I will repay and again the Lord will judge his people it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God do we believe that I think if we did it would change how we live it would also change how we view other people I think sometimes there's much room for us to pity because we know men like

[46:40] Pharaoh maybe men like just some of the Egyptians that were just normal people who were grabbing babies and throwing them into the river it's a fearful thing to fall into the hand of God I hope this isn't too much of a stretch but I thought one application is to understand that Moses' mother at some point she can't hide her child any longer and I thought it could be encouragement to realize that the same is true for us we can't always hide or shelter our children at some point we have to give them over to the hands of a caring God do we believe do we trust that God is going to care for and look out for our children in better ways than we can I think we're encouraged to from the passage and then the passage also calls us to live by faith as Moses' parents did and I hope Lord willing next time we'll see even how

[47:42] Moses lived by faith but we're encouraged to live by faith to trust God over and above the powers and authorities God and what's right and so they live by faith and so we're encouraged to as well and more than all I think this passage is teaching us to look to and put our trust in the Savior there is no hope of deliverance apart from Christ have you trusted in Jesus Christ are you looking him to be your Savior do you even see that you need a Savior do you imagine and so I want to encourage you all to put your hope and trust in Jesus Christ let me encourage you as well that after the service we'll be going downstairs and having lunch together we brought plenty of food if you're visiting with us please come and join us for that and then we're going to take the Lord's table together and it gives us a second chance to contemplate that reality together dear heavenly father we thank you that you have not left us in bondage in as it were

[49:06] Egypt you have not left us in a place where our lives are bitter and ruthless service but you spiritually you have delivered us you have freed us from bondage to sin you have made us your children because we are united to your child Jesus Christ we rejoice in that savior just as the people of israel would have rejoiced in the day that they're delivered by the hand of Moses lord we have had a greater deliverance a greater salvation by a greater deliverer a greater savior whose name we praise lord help us to be thankful for that deliverance help us to worship our savior we pray amen