Bill mentioned how that hymn
had been ministering to him. The Lord blesses us with good
hymns and I know one that has been special to me this week
is a hymn day by day, day by day. I like that hymn. God provides for us all of our
needs day by day. If you will, let's open our Bibles
this evening to Exodus chapter 2. Exodus chapter 2. This chapter covers a little
less than a hundred years. It tells us of the birth and
of the early life of Moses. Matthew Henry called him, that
is Moses, the most remarkable type of Christ as a prophet,
as a savior, as a lawgiver, and as a mediator in all the Old
Testament. The most remarkable type of Christ
in all the Old Testament, Moses. He serves as a type, as he said,
in many different ways. There are two passages of scripture
in the New Testament which have reference to what we see here
in this chapter, and we will look at that in a moment. But I'm dividing the message
this evening, looking at the entire chapter, into three parts. God provides the deliverer. God provides the deliverer. Now, we all know, we've seen
this several times, we know that God promised Abraham a large
increase of children, that is many descendants as the stars
in the sky. And he also told Abraham of their
affliction that they would experience when they would be in another
country, but then also of their deliverance. The time of deliverance
now draws near. In chapter one, we read that
while the Hebrews increased, we saw this last time, the more
that the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, persecuted and tried to destroy
the children of Israel, the more affliction they laid upon them
the greater the increase of the Israelites was. We read that while the Hebrews
increased, that the king of Egypt, in whose country they were dwelling,
he devised many plans, many schemes to destroy them. Not to absolutely
destroy them, but to keep them from increasing in number. First
of all, he charged the midwives. We've seen that. He charged the
midwives as to what they were to do when a boy child was born. And then last of all, if you
look in the last verse of chapter one, he charged all of his people
this charge. 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. So he charged all
of his people, making it legal under the king's command to destroy
all the male children. We have an example here, of course,
of a truth that is declared to us all through the scriptures.
The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught. He
maketh the devices of the people of none effect. This man, he
had his device, but God made it of none effect. The counsel
of the Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of his heart to
all generations. The king of Egypt, that is Pharaoh,
would keep them in bondage. But on God's calendar, the time
had now arrived when they would be delivered from Egypt. The iniquity of the Amorites
was full. That's the reason God told Abraham
that he did not give the land of Canaan to them, to Abraham
and his descendants at that time, because the iniquity of the Amorites
was not yet full. We believe the word of God declares
and teaches that there is a limit for every nation. There is a
limit. There is a cup, and when that cup is full of iniquity,
then that country is destroyed. That was certainly true, rather,
of the Amorites. There were seven nations. I believe
it was seven nations in Canaan, and their iniquity came to the
point, the boiling point, that God would use Israel as his executioners
to destroy and bring judgment upon those nations because of
their sin. They brought it upon themselves.
They brought it upon themselves because of their sin. And what
was their sin? Their sin was idolatry. Their sin was worshiping anything
and everything except the true and living God. No, the Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever. The thoughts of his heart to
all generations as found in Psalm 33 verses 10 and 11. So let's look at this chapter.
Let me read the first three verses. And there went a man of the house
of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived
and bare son. And when she saw him that he
was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could
not 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 laid it in the flags by the river's brink. Now it's
not until chapter six of Exodus that we get the names of this
man and his wife that is mentioned here in verse one. The man, his
name is Amram, A-M-R-A-M, Amram, And he was a grandson of Levi. Now remember the 12 tribes of
Israel. Joseph was one of those, and
he was already in Egypt. And then the other 11 brothers
came into Egypt. The tribes came into Egypt. There
were 70 when they came in. Now there are a large number
of people. But that gives us some frame of time that this
man was a grandson of Levi. a great-grandnephew of Joseph. I think that's the way you would
say that, a great-grandnephew of Joseph. His name was Aram,
and he married a lady, and I'm not sure about the pronunciation,
Jochebed, Jochebed, J-O-C-H-E-B-E-D. But what they did, and what we
read about here in these verses, what we just read about, the
scriptures that night. Moses was not our first child,
we know that. She had a daughter, Miriam, who
was oldest, who we believe was the oldest. And then Moses' brother,
Aaron, was older than him. I was thinking the other day
about Moses being 80 years of age when he was commissioned
by God to go into Egypt to deliver the Israelites. But his brother
Aaron was older than him. His brother Aaron was 83. I believe
that's correct, 83. But anyway, this man and his
wife, we're told here, they had a son. The woman conceived and
bear a son. And when she saw him that he
was a goodly child, I told her mother one time, I said, we were
talking about this verse, every mother, When she looks at her
child, thinks that child is a goodly child. And this lady said, I
didn't. I didn't think one of mine was.
And I haven't forgotten that because I thought that was probably
unusual. Most mothers, when they look
in the face of their newborn babe, think this is the prettiest,
the cutest, the most handsome baby that has ever been born
in this world. And that's just so. We are a
little prejudiced, aren't we, about our children. But anyway,
what they did, you might not realize it, you wouldn't. We
wouldn't realize it if we didn't have the New Testament and what
we're told in the New Testament. But what they did here, they
did by faith. You say, well, that's just a
natural thing. They had a child. They keep him
at home for three months. And then they make an ark out
of the reeds and they put him in the river. But they did that
by faith. By faith. Look with me in Hebrews
chapter 11. You know, in Hebrews chapter
11, the apostle names one Old Testament saint after the other
and combines a lot he doesn't even name. But he tells of the
exploits, if I could use that word, which they accomplished,
which God allowed them to accomplish by faith. In other words, by
believing God. Here in Hebrews 11 and verse
23, we read, By faith Moses, when he was born. Now he's not
talking about the faith of Moses there. He will in the next verse. But here, it is the faith of
his parents. 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
command. He was a type of Christ in this. Just as Herod sought to kill
the Lord Jesus Christ when he found out that he had been born
in Bethlehem. He sent his soldiers to kill
all the boy children two years and younger from the region of
Bethlehem. So Moses, from his birth, the
king sought to kill him, sought to destroy him. But his parents,
they did what they did by faith. They believed God. That's what
it means, isn't it? They believed God. They believed
God. The king's commandment to them,
the law of the king to them was to cast your son into the river. And not only to the parents,
but also to everyone else. That was the command of the king.
But for three months, we read, they lived in disobedience of
the king, and they did that by faith. No doubt their life probably
was in jeopardy by not obeying the king's command. Seems like
this has come up recently in my messages two or three times,
and that is, we are to obey the civil rulers, that God has established
them. Scripture tells us that in Romans
13, but only when they do not command us to do something or
not to do something that God commands us to do or not to do. And then our allegiance is not
to the powers that be, but rather to God Almighty, that is, as
God's children. They probably did what they did
at the risk of their own lives. They did it by faith. That's
what the word of God tells us. Now the fact that the scriptures
declare that they did this by faith has caused many of the
writers, those that I read, many of them believe that they had
some kind of special revelation that God had communicated to
this man and his wife. It's not recorded, of course,
in the Old Testament, but this is believed because faith has
to have a foundation. Faith is built upon the Word
of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. They did what they did by faith. That has caused, as I said, many
of the writers to believe that they had a special revelation
that their son was the son that God would raise up to be the
deliverer. Another passage in Acts chapter
seven and verse 20, we won't turn there right now, but we
will in a minute. We read this, in which time Moses
was born and was exceeding fair. Now that's the King James translation.
He was exceeding fair. Here in our text, we read that
he was a goodly son. There was something special about
Moses, about his appearance from a baby. There was something special.
One of the translations has that verse there in Acts chapter seven
as he was beautiful unto God. He was beautiful unto God. You know, it's very possible
that the houses were searched every three months. Pharaoh had
his soldiers search the houses every three months to see if
there was a babe in the house or not. So they were able to
hide the son. I've always thought that they
could keep the babe quiet maybe for three months, but as he grew,
grew older, then he would make more noise. And the neighbors
would hear. And the neighbors would know,
there's a baby in that house. There's a baby in that house
that they have not told us about. But anyway, they could only hide
him for three months. And when the three months was
up, then the wife, the mother, did something special. Let's
read on. In verse three, about halfway
through the verse, it says, she took for him an ark of bulrushes. We read of several arks in the
scriptures, don't we? The ark of Noah, in which eight
souls were saved when God destroyed the world with water. We read of the ark of the covenant,
which was placed in the most holy place in the tabernacle,
a picture of Christ. And we read here of this ark,
this ark that Jochebed made for her son, made out of the reeds,
more or less, and the river there. And dubbed it with slime and
with pitch and put the child therein, and she laid it in the
flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to wit, to watch what would be
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. 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 will give thee thy wages. And the woman
took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought
it unto 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. When they placed the babe in
that ark, no doubt they knew where to place the ark on the
river, in a very strategic place among the flags of the river.
And Miriam, Moses' sister, was there to watch, to see. They
probably knew, I'm convinced, they knew that this was a place
where the princess bathed, where she would come to bathe. And
she wouldn't come alone, of course. She would come with what some
people call her ladies-in-waiting. She was accompanied by others.
They didn't see the ark. Have you ever noticed that? They
didn't see the Ark. These women who walked along
the side of the riverbank who accompanied the princess, they
didn't see the Ark. Only the princess. And maybe
it was because of her position when she got into the water to
bathe. I don't know. But she's the only
one who saw the Ark. And she had it brought to her.
And when she opened it, Moses cried. Was that providential
or not? It's all showing us the providence
of God, how that he worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. This didn't happen by accident
that the babe was placed in that ark at that particular place
at that time that the princess saw the ark and when She had
the ark brought to her and opens it up, there's a babe. That's
enough in itself, just to look at a little baby, three months
old, to call for compassion, but then the baby cries. And
that certainly pulled on her heartstrings. Her heart was stirred. Albert Barnes said that the Egyptians
regarded such tenderness as a condition of acceptance on the day of reckoning. In other words, the Egyptians,
according to Albert Barnes, they believed that there's going to
be a judgment. I think most all peoples believe
that. There's going to be a judgment.
And they believed that. And they believed on the day
of reckoning, such tenderness would be a condition of a person
being accepted or not accepted. they would have to answer, I
have not afflicted any man. I have not made any man weep.
I have not withheld milk from the mouse of sucklings. And so
it may have been her religious training that moved her. False religion, yes, but moved
her to have compassion. And in spite of her father's
command, It's her father, he's the one that gave the command.
If she had obeyed her father, she would have thrown that babe
into the river right then. But in spite of her father's
command, she's moved with compassion. And then, lo and behold, she
agrees to pay Jochebed to attend and nurse her own child. No mother
ever nursed her own child. with more compassion than she
did. She would have done it for free,
there's no question about it. But the princess pays her, pays
her to nurse and attend her own child. Who can read this and
not see the sovereignty of God in this arrangement? Pharaoh's
house, now think about this, Pharaoh's house is now supporting
And will educate the one that God had ordained and was raising
up to deliver his people. The very thing that Pharaoh did
not want to happen. He did not want the Hebrews to
escape. He enjoyed the fact that they
were servants to him. And now he's going to feed and
educate the man that God's going to use to deliver his people. You can't fail to see God's sovereign
providence in that, can you? At the age of two or three, there's
a difference of opinion as to how old a babe was when the babe
was weaned, but two or three, when Moses was weaned, he was
brought to the princess to be her adopted son. Now many believe, and this is
not factual, I mean it cannot be proved, it may be true, it
may not be true, but many say that actually this put Moses
in the line to become the king. That Pharaoh had this daughter
who had no sons, no children rather, and now she has a child. That's what many say and believe. But like I said, we can't prove
that one way or the other. But we do know this, that once
she brought him to the princess, he learned all the wisdom. That's
what we read in Acts 7 and verse 22. Egypt was a world power. It was a well developed nation
as nations went at that time. And the scripture says, he learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. Some believe those deeds there
may refer to him as a soldier even, fighting in the armies
of Egypt. All right, let's read on verse
11. And it came to pass in those
days when Moses was grown that he went out unto his brethren.
Notice they were his brothers. He recognized, his mother had
taught him that he was a Hebrew. He knew that, even though he
was raised as an Egyptian and recognized, we'll see in just
a moment, as an Egyptian, But he went out to his brethren, went out to his brethren and
looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting
an Hebrew, one of his brethren. Some believe this Egyptian was
one of those taskmasters that caused the Hebrews to serve with
rigor. We saw that last week. And Moses
looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was
no man, he slew the Egyptian, hid him in the sand. When he
went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove
together, and he said to him that did the wrong. And notice
he's just speaking a word of advice to this man. He's not
setting himself up as a judge. But he recognized who was in
the wrong, obviously, and he asked him, wherefore smitest
thou thy fellow? And he said, who made thee a
prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as
thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, surely
this thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing,
he sought to slay Moses. Look with me in Acts chapter
seven. We'll just read what we're told
here. This is the best commentary on
those verses. Acts chapter seven. This is in the speech of Stephen. In Acts chapter 7 and beginning
in verse 23, well we'll read verse 22 also. And Moses was
learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty
in words and deeds. And when he was full 40 years
old, It came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children
of Israel, and seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended
him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian.
For he supposed his brethren would have understood." Now,
you see, Moses was under the impression already that he was
going to deliver his people. He thought Obviously, that they
would understand, but they didn't. It wasn't God's time. And God's
deliverance would be done in such a way that God will get
all the glory, not Moses. He supposed his brethren would
have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them,
but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself
unto them as they strove and would have set them at one again,
saying, sirs, your brethren, why do you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor
wrong thrust him away, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge
over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst
the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying
and was a stranger in the land. of Madinan where he begat two
sons. So, also look in Hebrews 11, back
to Hebrews 11, the comments on this. calling us here for one particular
thing in Hebrews 11 verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach
of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect under the recompense of the reward. Now notice this,
by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. That verse there has to be talking,
speaking about when he comes back into Egypt and delivers
them out. Because it says not fearing the
wrath of the king, he did fear the wrath of the king. That's
what we're told here in Exodus chapter two. It was because of
his fear. Now, back in Exodus 2, 15, now,
when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses, but
Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian,
and he sat down by a well, or above that, in verse 14. And
Moses feared when that Hebrew told him, are you going to kill
me like you did the Egyptian? Then out of fear, Moses fled. Now, the verse there in Hebrews
said that he feared not the wrath of the king. So I believe that's
speaking of a later time when he comes back into Egypt. Now,
let me be quick here. The second part of the message,
God instructs a shepherd. In verse 15, he fled, and he
fled, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt 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. And the
shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and
helped them and watered their flock, and when they came to
rule, Their father, he said, how is it that you have come
so soon today? And they said, an Egyptian delivered
us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for
us, and watered the flock. And he said unto his daughters,
and where is he? Why is it that you have left
the man? Call him, that he may eat bread. And Moses was content
to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah. his daughter,
and she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom, for
he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. And I would
just point out here that though Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of Egypt, he had not been learned in the work of a shepherd. And I say that because when his
family, when the brothers came into Egypt, Joseph told them
not to tell Pharaoh that they were shepherds. And he said not
to do that because every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians. So what does he do? He runs away
to the land called Midian. And by the way, this priest here, or the land,
rather, Midian, was named after a descendant of Abraham, Remember
after Sarah died, he married another wife and had several
children. Her name was Keturah. And one
of those settled in this place and he's called a priest. And
evidently he was a priest of God. And we'll see that later
in Exodus, a priest of God. But the point I want to make,
Moses, he had been schooled, he'd been learned and everything. but not in being a pastor. And that's the work he's going
to do. That's going to be his life work. He's going to be a
pastor of the nation of Israel. And a pastor who watches after
sheep needs patience and endurance and love. And Moses, we know,
he showed all of those things as we go through the book of
Exodus. One other point, and I'll just
say, the people began to groan, the Israelites, they began to
groan, and God heard their groaning. May the Lord bless this word
to each of us tonight.