A Child is Born

What makes a good story a good story? There's a brilliant opening line to get us hooked. Before we know it we can't put the book down – we fall asleep in the wee hours still holding onto it. The pages fly by as we're taken along for the ride with the character we identify with, the suspense building, the plot twists wrong-footing us. The climax of the story comes in the final chapters and all the pieces fall into place. There's joy in the final outcome or perhaps there's a haunting sadness to it. There may be victory or defeat or something hollow in between like Frodo returning to the shire to find it's just not the same.

And as we open the book of Exodus tonight we open one of the greatest stories ever told. Exodus is a book of great drama and awesome scenes. The story of the Exodus (which literally means 'Going Out') contains classic themes of suffering under tyranny, the fight for freedom and a flawed and reluctant hero.

As we work through the first fifteen chapters of Exodus this term we'll see that this book is a great story, and it's a great story of salvation. In fact the Exodus story is such a pivotal series of events for the people of Israel that God's law, given to them later in this book, instructs them to retell it through the generations so that they remember the LORD who brought them out of Egypt. It's the only story given that treatment. It's a great story of salvation and liberation. But this book is more than just a story of salvation.

It's also a book about the purpose of salvation. In 3.12 God tells Moses, 'When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain.' In 7.16 Moses relays God's message to Pharaoh, saying, 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert.' The Israelites are to be brought out of slavery to Pharaoh into the worship or service of God. So this book is about the purposes of salvation. But again it's about more than that.

It's a book about a sovereign God. It turns out that God is the main character of this book. And he's not a limp, passive God who reacts to circumstances or who waits on standby to improve your life if you only find the key to access his power. He is a powerful, active God who dictates circumstances and who acts with complete sovereign control to achieve his own purposes. He acts to save a distinct, special people for his glory, acting on his sovereign promises to their forefathers. This book is about a sovereign God. But once again, it's about more than that.

It's a book about who God is. 'Let my people go, so that they may worship me.' But who is this God? What is his name? Yes, he is powerful to act and to save and to achieve his purposes, but who is he? Who is this God who sends plagues and who leads by cloud and fire, who gives law and who suffers both with his people as they suffer and because of his people as they are unfaithful to him? Who is the God who calls himself Yahweh ('I AM WHO I AM')? We won't cover it in this series but in ch 34 God reveals more of his identity to Moses. He passes before Moses, proclaiming about himself,

The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.

And just a few verses later God warns, 'Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.'  His name is Jealous! This isn't petty, corrosive jealousy, but burning passion for the people upon whom he has set his love. He redeems the Israelites and expects their allegiance and fidelity in return. He wants their minds, bodies and hearts to be set for him. He wants undivided love and won't share them with any rival. He is committed in love and compassion to maintain his covenant relationship with them, even in the face of their addiction to sin. He is jealous with the jealousy Jesus displayed as he wove a whip of cords and drove the traders out of the temple. They had turned his Father's house into a market with their greed, and Jesus couldn't stand by and watch. He is slow to anger and abounding in love, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. Jesus is the God of Exodus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1.1) Exodus is about a complex God, a God whose thoughts and ways are beyond us, yet who commits to his people completely, with a love that is likewise beyond us.

So Exodus is a story of salvation, but more than that it's about the purpose of salvation, but more than that it's about a sovereign, saving God, but more even than that it's chiefly about who God is. We can expect to see all of these themes develop in the first fifteen chapters in various ways, and I hope that has whetted your appetite to tackle this great book.

So we'd better actually start the book! If you haven't got it open, look up Exodus 1 on page 42 of the blue bibles. I'm going to try to go through the text up to 2.10 adding context and comment, and then sum it all up in the light of this new sermon series.

…

It's lost in translation but the very first word of the book in the Hebrew is 'and'. In other words, Exodus is the sequel to Genesis. Turn back over the page to the last chapter of Genesis. Joseph dies in his old age in Egypt. Then Exodus 1.1, 'and these are the names of the sons of Israel (that is the sons of Jacob, Joseph's father), who went to Egypt…'

So in Genesis, God created the world and the first people and everything was good. Then Adam and Eve disobeyed God's loving instruction and were banished from the garden, his special place of blessing and sent out into a harsh world. Soon there was the first murder and gradually death claimed every generation. The wickedness and rejection of God grew until God wiped out every living thing except Noah, his family and his boatful of animals. In time God chose a descendant of Noah – a childless old man called Abraham – and promised him descendants too many to count in a special land of their own. Abraham had a son called Isaac, who had a son called Jacob, who had twelve sons, one of whom is Joseph of technicolour dreamcoat fame. Joseph was such a brat that his brothers had him trafficked to Egypt as a slave, where under God's power he rose to become Prime Minister under Pharaoh. Following a famine in their land, Jacob and the other 11 sons resettled in Egypt, with a Prime Ministerial welcome. In fact, as Jacob prepared to go and settle in Egypt, God spoke to him in a dream, saying, 'Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.' (Genesis 46.3-4). So God's promises still stand and in fact, things are progressing.

In Exodus 1.6 the generation of Jacob's twelve sons died off but, v7, the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. So from small beginnings of seventy bodies, the Israelites are now everywhere. This is starting to look a lot like the promise to Abraham is being fulfilled. We can read v6-7 and imagine the headlines across the newspaper rack at the local newsagent in Cairo. The Times plays it straight: Israelites now exceedingly numerous. The Daily Mail is slightly more inflammatory: Immigrant population skyrockets – Pharaoh powerless. And of course there's the Daily Express, not quite on the same wavelength: Diana saw UFOs.

Anyway, in addition to the Abraham promise, the growth of the Israelite population resonates with God's command to Adam and Eve to multiply and rule over his creation in his blessing. This nation is to grow and to bring God's blessing to all nations. But for now it's not a nation. The people have no leader, no government, no army, and crucially to God's promises, no land of their own. So the Israelites have settled in Egypt much as people migrate to and settle in the USA today, for example. They are part of the multi-racial society – they're distinctive but not they're not separate. But the land of the free and the home of the brave is about to descend into a place of chaos and tyranny for the Israelites.

A new king, possibly as part of a new dynasty, takes the throne of Egypt. This king doesn't know the history of Joseph and his family, of dreams interpreted, of famine managed and of royal blessing for them to settle in the best part of the country. He sees the Israelites as a threat and decides that he needs to be shrewd about controlling them so that they aren't able to join Egypt's future enemies and leave the country. In 11-14 he sets them to hard labour. The hype and suspicion about the Israelites spreads through all Egypt, and they are worked ruthlessly, building great cities and working the land. Next, Pharaoh issues the appalling command to the Hebrew midwives to kill every boy born to an Israelite woman. In fact, more starkly, to kill every son born to an Israelite mother.

A month ago I was in a delivery room of the maternity ward at the Queen Elizabeth hospital for the birth of my second son, Ethan. On one wall in that room there's a set of cupboards, one of which houses a fold-down table with a mattress and a lamp and various bits of medical equipment. When Ethan was born, the midwife took him over to the table to clean him up and clear his airways – just a bit of help to get him started. And to try to get inside the suffering of the Israelite women, I've been trying to imagine how it would have felt if instead of helping Ethan, the midwife had quietly smothered him instead. I've got to admit it's not a thought I've been able to entertain for long.

But to their eternal credit, the midwives feared God more than Pharaoh, and they didn't obey him. So, going public with his policy, Pharaoh gives the most ruthless edict of all. Look at v22, 'Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.' The river that is the source of the fertility of Egypt is to be used to dispose of the sons of the Israelites. But among all this, v20, God blesses the midwives with families of their own and causes the people to keep on growing. This is the first indication of the battle that is to come in this series.

The contenders and the prize are identified: God and Pharaoh will line up against one another for ownership of Israel. Pharaoh will contend to oppress and abuse them for his purposes. God will contend to liberate and bless them for his glory. And the first battleground in this struggle is the maternity ward. Pharaoh attempts to suppress the Israelite population by murdering the sons, while God is committed to growing a great nation and to bringing his people out of Egypt.

And that brings us to Moses. Read with me verses 1-6.

Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.

So while Pharaoh spreads the chaos of oppression and the slaughter of baby boys, God sends his secret weapon – a baby boy.

While Pharaoh uses the great river with its crocodiles, snakes, hippos and fish to dispose of the sons of Israel, God safeguards his saviour in a basket on its banks.

While Pharaoh and all his earthly power rages against Israel, God warms the heart of Pharaoh's own daughter to look on the baby Moses with tender compassion.

While Pharaoh inflicts sorrow on the mothers of Israel, God brings joy to one mother, who is paid to care for her own son on behalf of the princess.

'Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.' (Genesis 46.3-4)

God's promises cannot be left unfulfilled. This God who will establish a nation for himself cannot be thwarted. His power extends far beyond the frontline of the visible battleground. His power permeates the royal household itself – the stronghold of the most powerful man in the world. God's power is absolute and he has a rival claim on Israel. He is determined to forge a relationship with Jacob's descendants and that means he will shatter Egypt's grip on them. While Pharaoh spreads the chaos of oppression and the slaughter of baby boys, God sends his secret weapon – a baby boy.

This is like Christmas all over again. Later in their history Isaiah will label God's people as a people walking in darkness because of their rejection of God. But...

...on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned… For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders… Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end… The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.'  (from Isaiah 9.2-7)

In the weakness of human birth and most especially in the weakness and apparent foolishness of death, Jesus achieved on the cross something that the great events of this book only point to. Jesus achieved our freedom from slavery to sin and death and became the only way for us to be part of God's eternal people.

I said earlier that God is a jealous God, that in fact God says that his name isJealous. I said that Exodus is about a complex God, a God whose thoughts and ways are beyond us, yet who commits to his people completely, with a love that is likewise beyond us. He is a God who redeemed the Israelites and expects their allegiance and fidelity in return. He wants their minds, bodies and hearts to be set for him. He wants undivided love and won't share them with any rival. He is committed in love and compassion to maintain his covenant relationship with them, even in the face of their addiction to sin. Yahweh wanted Israel and would not settle for anything less.

And the same God wants us. He wants you, today, now. He wants you so badly that he was willing to pour out all his anger at your infidelity, your rejection of him, onto Jesus on the cross – the climax of the great story of salvation that spans not just Exodus but the whole bible and all of history.

So as we kick off two new sermon series today, it's a great time to be part of HTG. Come in the mornings to see God's promises and his plan of salvation acted out across the whole bible in our Bible Overview. Come in the evenings to see the Old Testament demonstration of God's salvation in the historical exodus from slavery of his newly-formed nation. Come on Thursdays from the 27th January to see God live on earth as a man, Jesus, in Mark's eye-witness account of his life.

Exodus is a great story, but it's more than just a story. God is today, now, gathering a people for himself. He is drawing a people together, pulling them out of slavery to sin and into his joyful, willing service, and all this by a baby who became a saviour.