Turn with me again tonight to
Exodus chapter two, if you would. Few stories in the Bible are
more familiar to us than the story of Moses. He's one of the
few characters in all of the Bible that were told something
of his life from infancy and to his death. And no doubt Moses
is a commanding and dominant figure in the Old Testament.
All of God's early dealings with Israel was done through Moses.
Moses is unique in many ways. He was a child of a slave and
yet the son of a queen. He was born in a hut, but he
lived in a palace. He was born into poverty, yet
enjoyed unlimited wealth, and he was a mighty warrior, and
yet the meekest of men. And he had the wisdom of Egypt,
but the faith of a child. He was backward in speech, yet
he talked daily with God. He was trained with a sword,
but he fought his enemy with a shepherd's rod. He was a fugitive
of Pharaoh, but an ambassador of heaven. And he was the giver
of God's law, but he was an object of God's grace. He died alone
on Mount Nebo, but he was with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. The childhood of Moses is one
also worthy of attention, and in the first 10 verses here of
Exodus chapter two, we have a brief account of his infancy. And let
me say in the beginning that in preparing tonight's study,
I once again was made aware of how all things, past, present,
and future, come about by the sovereign will, purpose, and
providence of God. And the child of God wouldn't
have it any other way. Now as you know from our first
two studies in this book, the king of Egypt was determined
to stop the rapid growth of the Hebrew people. He put them under
taskmasters and he afflicted them with great burdens. Yet,
God and His divine purpose and providence blessed them and increased
them. And the scriptures say, the more
that Pharaoh afflicted them, the more that they multiplied
and grew. Exodus 112. Then the king gave
orders to the Hebrew midwives to kill every male child born. Yet once again, the evil designs
of Pharaoh were overruled and spoiled by God, for we're told
that the midwives feared God and did not, as the king of Egypt
commanded them, but saved the men children alive, Exodus 1,
17. Then we read in the last verse
of Exodus chapter one, that all God's over rulings didn't seem
at all to discourage Pharaoh one bit. And in verse 22, we
read or we're told, and Pharaoh charged all his people saying,
every son that is born, you shall cast into the river and every
daughter you shall save alive. And I find it very interesting. During the very time and under
these conditions of Pharaoh's murderous decree, God determines
in his wise counsel and providence to bring forth the birth of the
future deliverer of his chosen nation. So look at verse one
of Exodus chapter two. And there went a man of the house
of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived
and bare a son. And when she saw him, that he
was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could
no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes,
and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child
therein. And she laid it in the flags
by the river's brink. Here again we see the sovereign
providence of God, this time in preserving the child that
would become the deliverer of Israel. How comforting it ought
to be. I'm telling you it should. How
comforting it ought to be to every child of God that God is
always, always working all things. I like the way that sounds. He's
always working all things after the counsel of his own will,
and it's for the good of his elect and for the glory of his
own great name. And as I said a moment ago, I
wouldn't have it any other way. It's there that I can rest. It's
there that I find peace and comfort. In studying this, much to do
has been made by several commentators and preachers alike concerning
the love of Moses' mother and the beauty of the child that
caused Moses' mother to act as she did. The Bible makes it very
clear that it wasn't motherly affection and it wasn't parental
infatuation or the comely appearance and specialness of the child
which brought about this deliverance from Pharaoh's decree. It was
faith. It was faith. God-given faith
and nothing more. And I won't turn you there, but
one verse of scripture in Hebrews chapter 11 tells us that, verse
23, we're plainly told that by faith Moses, when he was born,
was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper
child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. Now
I don't know, but to me it seems very apparent that the parents
of Moses received some kind of direct or indirect communication
from God informing and instructing them what to do. I know this
much, God has a way. He has a way of effectually speaking
to men and women without ever audibly saying a word. God has
a way to lead his people to fulfill his desired end. And God leads
his sheep in the paths of righteousness for his namesake, for his glory,
for his honor. And God causes his people to
desire and pray, show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths. And at the same time, he accomplishes
his desired end. Now that's the kind of God that
we serve. Moses' parents somehow perceived that God had a special
purpose for him. We're not told how, but it's
very obvious that he did. But to think that Moses' parents
thought he was too fair or too goodly or even good looking to
throw him to the crocodiles is not only vain, but it's ridiculous. And remember, it was Moses who
recorded the first five books of the Bible. And in the book
of Exodus, he refers to himself as a goodly child in verse two
of chapter two. But that simply means goodly
in the sight of the Lord. Stephen in the book of Acts chapter
7 verse 20 refers to the child Moses as a fair child. And the marginal reference in
my Bible adds fair or proper to God. You see, God saw Moses
as proper, as good, as acceptable in his sight. Why? Because God
made him so. God made him so. And some of
you, like me, are old enough to remember that old song, You
Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby. You remember that old song? Come
on now, you're not that young. You must have been a beautiful
baby. You must have been a beautiful child. But that's not what this
is talking about. No sir, it's not. The writer
of Hebrews tells us that the parents of the child Moses acted
on faith. which always excludes any outward
factors found within the one who is given grace, mercy, and
faith. You see, faith, like grace and
mercy, is the gift of God, and it's exclusive of anything within
the center, especially something as vain as good looks. Now, we
often bestow things upon folks for outward, carnal, and fleshly
reasons. Good looks, a pleasant personality,
and other outward qualities often cause us to show favoritism and
to show special attention, but not God. How do I know that? Because that's what God's word
says. The Bible says, man looks on
the outward appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart. God's
all together, unlike you and I. Have we figured that out yet? altogether different than we
are. It was simply God given faith that caused them to hide
this child for three months. And that was a dangerous thing
to do. And God let them know somehow,
some way, we're not told how. that God had a special purpose
for this child. And the Hebrew word rendered
here good or goodly in verse two is a word frequently used
by Moses in the first five books of the law. And in most places,
it refers to a sense of goodness, which is the result of being
made so by God. Now, truly the only good in any
of us is the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth is this, Moses' parents,
like the Hebrew midwives, feared God more than they did Pharaoh.
They trusted more in God's ability to protect and to preserve their
child than in Pharaoh's ability to destroy him. They hid the
child in their home for the first three months until keeping him
from Being discovered there eventually became impossible. Now, stay
with me on this. The time came when something
different had to be done. And here is a beautiful picture
of redemption and what happens next. You see, eventually the
law of Pharaoh could not be avoided. Obedience to the letter of the
law must be made. That's the case with every son
and daughter born of Adam. We have a beautiful picture of
that here. God's law must be perfectly kept. God's justice
must be perfectly satisfied. And what a picture of redemption
we have in the verses before us. The law of Pharaoh required
that all the male children born must be thrown into the river
Nile, including Moses. That's what the law of Pharaoh
required. And Moses was, after three months,
thrown into the Nile. But the difference was this.
He was in the ark of bulrushes, covered and pitched. And again,
we have a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. This ark,
that basket, the word ark actually means box. That box of Moses
was pretty much the same as the ark or the box of Noah. Just
a lot bigger box for Noah. It was pitched within and without. And in order for the Ark of Noah
and the Ark of Bulrushes here to float, it had to be pitched
within and without. And we see that in verse three.
And it was daubed with slime and with pitch. It had to be
able to resist the water. And what a picture of the blood
of Christ. It's our atonement. It's our
covering. It's our righteousness. It's
that pitch that causes us to rise above the surface of the
condemning waters of God's wrath. You know, it wasn't the great
craft and building of Noah's Ark or the basket of bulrushes
that kept the water out of it. Man's devices, man's skill, man's
ability, the work of man's hands cannot and will not keep God's
wrath and judgment off the sinner. It just, it can't and it won't. But the blood of Christ will.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. covered within, covered without,
covered with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the word pitched means. It means to make atonement. It
means to cover, to cleanse, to purge, and to pardon. Our atonement, our payment for
sin is made by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's provided,
it's pitched to cover and to cleanse chosen sinners. Then
there's the word ark here also seen in verse three. And the
first time the word ark is referenced in the scripture is in Genesis
chapter six, speaking of the ark of Noah. And then the second
time it's referred to is right here in Exodus chapter two. Now
listen, Christ is our covering. He's our pitch. Just the same
as the ark was for Noah, and this ark was for Moses. The water
fell on the Ark of Noah. We saw that very clear in our
study of Genesis. Moses was thrown into the water
of the River Nile. And both waters represent the
wrath and the judgment and the justice of God. And in both cases,
water was the instrument of death. In both cases, death was by drowning. In the case of Noah, the rain
also fell on Noah. In our text, Moses was also put
into the water. But they were both found in a
pitched ark. And that's the difference. That's
the only difference. Only the pitched ark made the
difference between life and death. And friends, it's no different
today. Christ, the ark of God, is the
sinner's refuge from the judgment and the wrath of God. Both the
Ark of Noah and the Ark of Moses was pitched inside and out. And
both provided a watertight protective covering. Both pictured the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the parents of Moses took
him to the most unlikely spot that carnal reasoning would have
ever thought to take him, was the very place where the other
babies were drowned. And the infant Moses was placed
on the brink of the river, the place of death. And is it not
so with salvation? Death is the wages of sin. And
from this there can be no escape. Having flagrantly broken God's
law and holy justice, God demands the execution and the carrying
out of sins penalty. God's justice must be satisfied. It has to be in order for God
to be judged. But this doesn't close the door
of hope against you and I. This does not necessarily seal
our doom. There's some good news to be
heard, and it's called the gospel. And that gospel proclaims and
declares God's gracious provision of an ark of safety, a place
of refuge, from the wrath and the judgment of God. The gospel declares that life
comes to us through death. It sure does. Though Moses was
brought to the place of death, he was made secure in the ark. That's what I want us to see.
In Christ our substitute, we too have been put in the place
of death. We died in Christ. And sin no more has dominion
over us. We're dead, dead to sin. And
it was faith that placed him in the ark of the bulrushes.
But it wasn't Moses' faith. It was the faith of his parents.
And it's faith that puts us in Christ, our ark. But it's not
our faith. It's the faith of our Lord and
His gift of faith to us. And again, just as Moses was
brought out of the place of death, so when Christ rose again, we
rose with Him. Christ is the ark of safety and
refuge. And the picture of redemption
doesn't stop there. Look at verse four. And his sister,
that's speaking of Moses' sister, stood afar off to wit what had
been done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came
down to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along
by the riverside. And when she saw the ark among
the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had
opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept. And
she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews'
children. I couldn't help but to think
in reading those verses what tender care and provision that
the providence of God arranged for the infant Moses. And then
as I thought about that, I couldn't help but to think how We have
illustrated here the tender care of our Heavenly Father to us.
No matter what the circumstances are, child of God, God is out
to do you good. He's out to do you good. He works all things together
for that very reason. For the good of them that love
the Lord, who are thee called according to His purpose, Scripture
says. And if you belong to Christ, you're no less called according
to God's purpose than Moses was. And in verse six, I think we
see our story very well. When she opened the ark of bulrushes,
she saw the child, and the child cried and wept, and she had compassion
on the child. And when God finds us in Christ,
our ark, he sees us in his beloved. We cry unto him for mercy, grace,
and forgiveness. and he has compassion on us for
Christ's sake. That's the gospel. What a picture
of our redemption, but the picture doesn't stop there. Later we
discover that Moses entered into the household and palace of Pharaoh
and how well that pictures the mansions on high that our Lord
has gone to prepare for us. And truly whom God elects, He'll
see their salvation all the way through to glorification. Isn't
that what Paul said? He foreknew us. He predestinates
and chooses us. He affectionately calls us. He
justifies us. And then He glorifies us. Right
on into glory. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. that where I am, you may be also.
God sees to it that our redemption is fully accomplished. Truly
salvation is of the Lord from start to finish. Truly we're
saved by grace through faith. And it was all determined by
the will and the purpose and the providence of God Almighty.
Now look at verse five again. And the daughter of Pharaoh came
down to wash herself at the river. And her maidens walked along
by the riverside. And when she saw the ark among
the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had
opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept. And
she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews'
children. And then said his sister to Pharaoh's
daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew
women? that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's
daughter said to her, go. And the maid went and called
the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto
her, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I'll give
thee thy wages. And the woman took the child
and nursed it." Now, that is the most amazing thing. But it's
not really when we consider who's behind this. It wasn't by chance,
it wasn't by accident that Pharaoh's daughter went down to the river
at that exact day, at that exact time. Moses wasn't lucky, I'm
sorry folks, Moses wasn't lucky that Pharaoh's daughter found
him. There's no luck, no accidents, no chance happenings in a world
ruled by God Almighty. I hope that you see that by now. God doesn't only direct the rise
and fall of nations and empires, but not one sparrow falls to
the ground. Not one hair from your head falls
that God's not aware of and that He didn't direct to fall. Now
that's just how far we can take that, even to the numbers of
hair on our heads. What happens in time was predestinated
and appointed by God in eternity. You can write it down. Do you
believe that? Well, I'm convinced of it. You
see, for God to be God, that has to be so. It just does. Oh, Lord, I know that the way
of man is not in himself. Boy, I've learned that the hard
way. It's not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Jeremiah
10, 23. Now listen to me. It was God
who put it in Pharaoh's daughter's heart to go to the river and
to bathe at that particular time. It was God who caused Pharaoh's
daughter to bathe at that particular spot. It was God who caused her
to be moved with compassion rather than anger. that some Hebrew
mother had defied her father's decree. And it was God who caused
this haughty Egyptian princess to yield to the suggestion of
a little Hebrew slave girl to retrieve a nurse for her. I'm
telling you, and it was God who made the princess willing for
a Hebrew mother to care for the little child. And of course,
in the providence of God, that was the child's own mother. Now I'm telling you, only God
can do this. Only God can do something this
incredible. And isn't it not a blessing to
each one of you here tonight to know that of Him, And through
Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. And when I read verse nine again
this morning, I couldn't help but to rejoice. And I'm going
to be honest with you, I chuckled. I chuckled at the divine providence
of God. Pharaoh's daughter finds the
child, determines in her own mind and heart to adopt the child,
sends the child back with his own mother, and then pays her
wages to nurse it. Isn't that incredible? Isn't that amazing? Well, that's
our God. He's an amazing God. Didn't think
about it much, but this gives the parents of Moses ample time
to teach him and influence him in the admonition of the Lord
in his earliest years. Boy, God knows what he's doing,
doesn't he? Have we figured that out yet? I don't know what I'm
doing. I'm telling you I don't. That's
why I've learned to pray, Lord, let me not have my own way, my
own will, because it's usually the wrong way and the wrong will.
But we can't go wrong praying as our Lord Jesus did and say,
Lord, not my will, but thine be done. Pharaoh makes a decree
to have every male child murdered and drowned. And God in his sovereign
will, purpose, and providence sends the very male child that
will be his people's deliverer to Pharaoh to live in his house
to eat his food, to clothe, to educate, and then in the end
to embarrass and defeat. Now that's God. That's God. Remember that Egypt and Pharaoh
very well picture and represent the world and the prince of the
power of the air, Satan. And in the end, It'll be revealed
to all that God, before the foundation of the world, defeated this pathetic
adversary named Satan. Yes, he bruised the heel of the
seed of woman, but Christ the seed crushed his ugly head. Therefore, we read the words
of Paul, for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in
thee. and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. And that's exactly what God did. He raised Pharaoh up to bring
him down. He did so to show forth his own
sovereign power. Pharaoh, you're not in control.
I'm in control, God says. And his own name is declared
and has been and will continue to be declared throughout the
earth. Now, let me show you one more
thing and I'll finish for tonight. Look at verse 10. It says, And the child grew,
and she brought him into Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses,
and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. Now who's
that? Pharaoh's daughter. I'm telling you friends, you
couldn't make a story like this up. Moses became the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. He becomes the grandson of Pharaoh. He becomes the brother of the
next Pharaoh. Now, we've been referring to
this child all along as Moses, but he's referred to only as
a child and as a babe until the princess names him here in verse
10. This is the first time that the
name Moses appears in the scripture. The first time the name Moses
is mentioned in the scripture, and it was Pharaoh's daughter
that named him. Well, maybe that's not exactly
correct. It was God that named him. It
was God that named him. Did you know that the name Moses
means drawing out? It means to be taken out. She
tells us why she named him that at the end of verse 10, and she
called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out
of the water. But really, it was God that named
him Moses, because God drew him out of the waters of death. Moses was in the waters of death
and judgment, but he was in the ark, and he was pitched with
a covering and by the will and the purpose and providence of
God. Well, that seems to be the theme of this message tonight,
doesn't it? The will and the purpose and the providence of
God. Moses was pulled out. He was
taken out. He was drawn out of the water.
He was drawn out by the love and the mercy and the grace of
God in Christ Jesus. I can't help but to think But
what our Lord said in John 6, 44, no man can come to me except. The only exception of our inability
is the fact that the Father which hath sent me draw him. Drawn
out. That's what you are, child of
God. You're drawn out. You're taken out. And Christ
said, I'll raise him up at the last day. I think of what Jeremiah
31.3 says, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. Drawn thee. What a picture of
God redeeming his drawn out ones. You can call me Moses if you
want. I'm drawn out, taken out, delivered. from the wrath and the judgment
of God, and it was God that delivered me. Our redemption comes only
one way, not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. Friends, it's not of him that
willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. And isn't it obvious from our
study tonight that God is on His throne, He's ruling, and
He's reigning, and He's having His way in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay
His hand, not Pharaoh or anyone else. None can stay His hand. That means none. That means none. God is in the heavens and He's
done whatsoever He has pleased. And He's still doing whatever
He pleases. And He'll continue to do whatever
He pleases. And the most wonderful thing
about that is that everything that He does is for His people's
good. I tell you, it might not mean
much to have me on your side, but to have God on your side.
If God be for us, who could be against us? I'm telling you,
this is so. You're here tonight only because
God gave you an interest and a desire to come. That's it. If He so wills, He can take away
your desire and your will to hear His glorious gospel. So,
what does the believer do? Well, we work out our own salvation
with fear and trembling, but while doing so, We bow and acknowledge
that it is God that worketh in us to do His will and to do His
good pleasure. You know, that's what God does.
He does His own good pleasure. I can see that clearly in this
chapter of Exodus, chapter 2. God does what He wills. Lord,
have mercy on us. Have mercy on us in Christ and
for His sake. Amen.