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Reading Exodus 1:8-2:10

Jacob's sons have been living now in Egypt for many years and they have prospered growing from a family limited family clan into a mighty nation in their own right.

Then occurs a change in ruler over Egypt perhaps a whole new dynasty comes into power. And this new dynastic King does not know about Joseph and about all his positive contribution to Egyptian life during the time of those terrible seven long years of famine. Thus the new King feels in no way indebted to Joseph's own people, he feels no sense of obligation to them and instead of regarding the people with favour concentrates on the present in which he can only think of them as a potential threat.

This in itself has something to say to us. The history of the people of God includes ups and downs and both are under the careful directing hand of God. Being on the up one moment does not ensure that that will always be the case for God's people but then again sliding from that position of importance to an oppressed state does not indicate either that God has given up on His people.

There are similarities between Israel's position in Egypt and the position of Christians in the UK today. Christianity has played a remarkably important role in British life and has given our country so many of the good things which we rightly cherish. But a generation of leaders have come onto the scene that "does not know Joseph". And instead of treating Christians with respect a squeeze has been put both on Christian morality and Christian practice. It is not illegal to be a Christian and one remains free to hold ones views but increasingly attempts are being made to restrict those rights to the private sphere.

Matthew Taylor, Tony Blair’s former chief political advisor, insisted that people were still free to voice their beliefs in public.

But Clifford Longley, a Roman Catholic writer, accused him of missing the point, saying: “It’s not about saying things in public, it’s about doing things in public. It’s about the right to act according to your beliefs.”

How important it is for us to learn to think Biblically. I suppose it is the natural tendency of the human heart affected as it is by the fall to place ourselves centre stage and to assess everything that takes place by how it impacts us individually. We have no problem receiving good things in life – we don't complain about the problem of good do we? – but when things happen to us that we don't like so much we do ask questions about suffering. At bottom we unthinkingly assume that God's purpose is to provide for our comfort and when He doesn't something is wrong.

There are some interesting responses to the question of suffering which we can identify in the life and times of Moses which should help us as we live our lives in post Christian Britain.

Nowhere are we told that God's ultimate purpose is to secure our immediate individual comfort! He works to secure His own purposes which are long-term and involve the promotion of His own glory. This He procures through the advancement of His plan of redemption. Deliverance was to come for the people of Israel and ultimately they would be brought into the Promised Land but deliverance would be from a dire situation and would not be instantaneous!

We notice too that God uses suffering as a disciplinary device to draw His people from the world to Himself. It was when the people groaned because of their slavery that they called to the Lord for help. Would they have done so had life been comfortable and cosy in Egypt? Our own experience suggests that we go more readily to God when we're in trouble than when all is well!

Thirdly we learn that God is not indifferent – indeed He sympathizes with His people even when He brings suffering into their lives. He hears the cry of the people and raises up a deliverer for them. For us as NT Christians one look at Calvary should be sufficient to convince us for all time that God is not indifferent towards us!

God also uses suffering to engender a forward lookingness in us as we eagerly anticipate deliverance and the full accomplishment of His promises – the Promised Land and further yet for "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."(2Pet.3:13).

The new King in Egypt was seriously concerned about what he saw as the potential threat of the Israelites. He saw them as a political threat but behind the scenes we understand another battle to be taking place. Satan was at work trying to destroy the nation through which God's Messiah would come. If Satan could succeed in destroying the Israelites then the Seed of the Woman promised back in Gen.3:15 would never be born and the Serpent's head would never be crushed.

God's honour then was bound up with the survival of the people – let's see just how He providentially and sovereignly saw off the attacks on His people.

In ch.1 there are three successive policies introduced that were designed to destroy God's people:

1.       Forced labour – this was the first policy and was something of a covert operation – shrewd is the word. The aim wasn't just to benefit from cheap labour but rather to exhaust the people so prevent them multiplying and ultimately cause a reduction of their numbers.

The policy back-fired as persecution so often does. The people were made fitter and stronger as a result of the hard work and became even more virile – their numbers continued to grow!

2.       If hard work couldn't tire the people then a more direct form of population control must be attempted. Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew mid-wives to intervene directly and kill new-born baby boys.

But the hard work had made the Hebrew women fit and strong too – they were vigorous and gave birth to healthy children. The mid-wives too weren't prepared to act in such a callous way and refused to kill the new born. Oh would that all our own medical profession refuse the callousness of abortion as those faithful mid-wives refused to carry out their reprehensible orders!

That God approved of the courage and bravery of the mid-wives is demonstrated as He blessed them with families of their own.

3.       Having failed twice to reduce the Hebrew population the King tried a further policy. All Egyptians were told to throw out any Hebrew baby boy into the River, the Nile – infanticide was cautioned by the state and all citizens called upon to carry out the sordid task.

What a bleak situation it was for the Israelites – but the night is always darkest just before the dawn!

It was at just this time that an unnamed couple who already had two children discovered that they were expecting a third.

I wonder how they felt as the pregnancy developed. If it were a baby girl then they would have no problems but what would they do if it were a boy… They had some nine months to try to prepare themselves.

God is not mentioned in the description of Moses' birth but His presence is to be discerned in every detail – God was preparing for the deliverer of His people to arrive on the scene and God can be trusted not to make mistakes. The nations may well rage but He who sits in the Heavens laughs for it is His purpose that will stand!

The nine month period ends and the baby is born – what would their emotions have been – joy at the safe birth and a healthy baby, consternation because the healthy baby was a boy and that would put them on a collision course with government diktats. Can God be trusted in such a situation?

When we're confronted with difficult decisions and choices, when the whole world seems to be against us, we too need to know that God can indeed be trusted!

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that Moses' parents exercised faith. Having hidden the boy for three months with increasing strength and increasing strength it was becoming impossible to keep his existence a secret – what were they to do?

They acted "by faith". Now faith does not mean believing hard that what we want will actually happen – faith is not to be confused with the power of positive thinking. Faith is taking God at His word! Moses' parents evidently knew something of the promises of God given to the patriarchs and they believed these promises to be true. Perhaps they were given some special revelation that somehow their son was to play a prominent role in the accomplishing of God's plans. The believed that Pharaoh's edicts were contrary to God's laws and they chose to fear God rather than Pharaoh.

We don't know whether their action of making a little ark for Moses was a result of following direct instructions or whether it was their own way of finding a solution – humanly speaking it would seem a very strange way to proceed as any Egyptian finding the baby would have an easy task of throwing it into the River in accordance with Pharaoh's instructions. But Moses' parents weren't washing their hands of their son – Miriam is posted to keep close watch on what would happen next.

And what happens next is a happy concordance of events that to the believer signifies God's providential control and to the worldly person amounts to luck.

An Egyptian princess finds the ark – as the ark is opened the baby cries and his cry touches her heart. This princess is bold enough to go against the direct orders of her own father. (Now we mustn't necessarily imagine that as Pharaoh's daughter she would be able to twist her father round her little finger as a cherished daughter is often able – this Pharaoh may have sired as many as 100 children of which 60 were girls!)

But God is at work. What she does bring no repercussions down upon either her or the boy she has saved up out of the waters. As Moses is brought into the world he benefits from divine protection and soon after he benefits from royal protection too. He will be brought up in the education and culture of Egypt and hence well prepared for the task that lies yet 80 years off in the future.

There are some lovely touches of irony in this birth narrative that demonstrate just what the Lord is able to do for His people and we should not miss them. To see the extent and scope of God's influence and power will stand us in good stead for the tests and trials that will come our way.

Ø  At the very time when baby boys are ordered to be destroyed the baby Moses is born and protected. Centuries later another baby born to be the deliverer of His people will also be under threat of death as Herod orders the massacre of the innocents but Jesus escapes and finds refuge in Egypt of all places!

Ø  The baby who will go on to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt is himself saved from death by an Egyptian, a daughter of the very man responsible for the extermination plan.

Ø  Moses is brought up by his own mother but at the expense of Egypt as the princess pays for Moses' mother to nurse her own son! Is this a little foretaste of what will happen when the moment of the Exodus arrives and the Israelites leave having plundered the Egyptians?

Ø  The eventual deliverer is brought up within the privileged elite.

Let us learn from the ways of God in the past.

He remains faithful to His promises and although the enemy may try to oppose God's people and threaten to undermine all of God's purposes, God neither abandons not alters His plans.

Nevertheless as God pursues His plans He does not necessarily do so in ways that foster our immediate comfort! He may well see fit to pursue His own ends in a manner that seems so slow as to be non-existent to us at times.

We must come to understand what His plans and purposes actually are and then learn to exercise our faith in what He has said and promised. Trying to have faith in our own wishes and desires is likely to lead us into considerable difficulty especially if these are contrary to God's revealed will.

Let us take heart that the God who was well able to restore His downtrodden people remains the same today. From our viewpoint we may believe Christianity to be on a downward slide but He can still hear the groans and cries of His desperate people when they turn to Him in faith.

To God be the glory.