Well, this evening, again, I said this morning, these are two sort of perspective reorienting sermons, and today I wanted to come back to a long time ago, we went through the book of Exodus, and I couldn't help but to see how important Exodus was and reflect again on Exodus 1 in light of some of the things that we are currently dealing with, and Exodus one provides us great perspective, so we're going to consider that together tonight. I'll read the entirety of the chapter. Exodus chapter 1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us tell shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. so they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and they made their lives bitter with hard service and mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field in all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives one of them was named Shipra and the other Pua when you serve as a midwife to the Hebrew women and set them on the birthstool. If it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, why have you done this and let the male children live? The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 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. and then verse 1 of chapter 2. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. There we'll end the reading of God's Word. Exodus 1 is a really crucial chapter, important chapter that helps set up the entire deliverance of God's people. So it's a pivotal chapter, a crucial chapter that really does set the way for the whole story. It's incredibly helpful, I think, to show what Israel faced and what they endured and what they experienced living in Egypt. They went through one of the most distressing revolutions that is recorded in the scriptures. If you put it in that terminology and you think about it, that's exactly what they faced. A different kind of system that came upon them in the turbulent times that happened. And the Lord in this particular section we're about to see, and we'll see tonight, that the whole plan was being mapped out and purposely worked out so that he would unleash his power and display his name not only to the Egyptians, but also to Israel. And so by the end of this, the Egyptians are begging, begging Israel to leave, letting them go worship their God. It's comforting to remind us, I think, tonight that we're not the first people in history to go from living in a nature and a culture that once valued us and that once appreciated us and that once loved us to moving to a time, we're not the first ones ever to face, moving into a time period where we are utterly hated and despised for our faith and moving into times of persecution. That is not an unfamiliar experience for God's people throughout history and sometimes I think we have to remind ourselves that. The question is, is what was God's purpose in the middle of that and what was God doing through those times that this had to be? Why was God putting his people through this? And tonight we're going to see how ready the Lord was to deliver his people and to show his strength. The story of Exodus is the story of the whole Christian gospel. We went through all of that, and I enjoyed that series very much. So I want you to notice here that this first section deals with this preparation and the persecution that comes, and then it ends by the end of this chapter showing us the plan that is unfolding that had already been in place, which they didn't see. And that's really comforting that in the midst of the things that are happening, there is already something unfolding. There is already a plan that's happening. And we have to remember that when we have these distressing moments. As we open up here, chapter one, we have now gone, we are now years later from the end of Genesis. Fast forward, if you will, some 400 years. What is plainly evident is that the Spirit wants us to see in chapter 1 that God's blessing had so abundantly fallen on Israel in Egypt. But that's not their land. That's not their home. That's not the land of milk and honey. But it sure must have felt like it. It sure must have felt like it. The Spirit is showing us that, that this very blessing that had so fallen on the people of God and had so blessed them and filled them and given them everything in Egypt now had become a real source of problem and contention for the Egyptians. The chapter functions as a preparation for God to show his salvation, but I want you to notice here the shift in attitude of the Egyptians against Israel. I want you to see how quickly everything changed on them. They could barely handle the moment and panicked seeing these things. It must have been awful at this moment. In the first verses, we have all the 70 mentioned here of Jacob's children and the names of the tribes that are provided. You'll notice here that they were given the best strip of land in Egypt through Joseph. Remember this was Goshen. And the Pharaoh in the days when Joseph rose to power gladly gave Israel the best because of Joseph. And the text keeps telling us that these people flourished in number. These people were blessed by the Lord. You'll notice in verse 7 that it says that the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly and they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. The thing that is being emphasized to us is that the promise that had been made to Abraham, the promise that had been made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was coming and you could see the beginnings of fulfillment as this number of God's people was beginning to expand ultimately as the sand on the seashore and as the stars in heaven when even you would come in. So you want to talk about success of the gospel. Well, look at all the nations of the peoples to this day who worship the Lord still. Can you imagine how great that number is going to be on that day? Think about that. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of success. That's a lot of advancing of the gospel to the ends of the earth that has happened. But God was committed to this promise, and we see that unfolding here. The link from Genesis to Exodus is saying one thing. Everything that God had promised to Father Abraham was coming to pass as he's building up this one nation in the earth that would be the blessing to all the nations in the earth in the coming of the Messiah. But chapter 1 presents this terrible problem. The times, they are changing. Maybe you know that song. How about a little Bob Dylan for a minute? Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command. Your old road is rapidly aging. Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand for the times they are changing. Well, that's just as relevant today, isn't it? That's just exactly what they're telling us right now. It's interesting that in verse 6 we read, then Joseph died. And all his brothers, and all that generation, and here it begins. Years pass. It's no longer Joseph's Egypt. Verse 8 says, now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Scary. Scary. Live it for a minute with them. You can imagine the Israelites at home in the evening. I can't believe what's happening here. I can't believe what's happening in this country. Can you believe what's happening in this country? Look at how bad things are getting. Look who was just put into office. Joseph, the mighty Joseph, his tomb's still right there. No one regards him. He was loved, he was revered, he was honored. But now this very wicked Pharaoh rose up. You imagine the panic in Goshen. Who was this? Well, historically, you have two real potential candidates, Whether it was Thutmose III or Moses I, God doesn't really tell us here. The only thing that you'll notice he says here is that this king did not know Joseph. What's important to say is that in the historical development and understanding of pharaohs, what they believed about the office of pharaoh, how this developed at this time, What was happening in the ideology of this very office, do you know what they believe? They believe that the entire Egyptian state was not a man-made political organization. They believe that when the world was created, Egypt was the God-given government that formed the universal order of everything. And Pharaoh was to be known as superhuman and appointed by God to take charge over the affairs of man. He was called by the Egyptians, Lord of the world and God. When you looked at Pharaoh, you know what you saw? You saw what they believed was the incarnation of a god. He had the symbol of the Ureus, which meant the risen one. Meaning that he had supreme power and authority over all the other gods in the Egyptian monarchy. Lo and behold, on that Uraeus was the image of a cobra snake, you'll remember. And you've seen the images of that, to warn everyone that he is Lord. Why does this matter? Well, because we've looked at, last time with the Tower of Babel, that in world systems, they easily turn Antichrist. And why does this matter? because in Genesis that had the Lord had told us that there is this battle going on of two seeds in the earth and there is the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent and as Revelation 12 captures the seed of the serpent stands up to try to devour the son of the woman as soon as he's born this is exactly the stuff that's happening and represents the greater spiritual cosmic battle that the Scriptures present to us here, that we don't often think about. That ultimately behind kings and kingdoms, when they go in this direction and they do become corrupt, there is great, there is great satanic influence of attack. Much more going on than you ever know. That's what the book of Revelation is about. So this battle, this cosmic battle is here captured for us. And remember that the seed of the woman one day would bring forth a champion who would crush the serpent. Well, no wonder we're looking at a kingdom with a king trying to stamp out God's people. Well, here we are in this particular section, and we read in verse 9, behold, that the Pharaoh says, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Let's dealt shrewdly with them lest they multiply and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape we want to deal shrewdly with them so you'll notice here that the emphasis is is that they dealt harshly with them he pits them in hard bondage to build a city after his name what this is telling us is that the same spirit that filled the babel event has filled this event where now they're building this kingdom. It's not a spirally tower. They're building this kingdom for the name of Pharaoh. You'll notice in verses 11 through 14, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. Verse 12, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied. These heavy burdens, they ruthlessly made God's people work as slaves. It was complete subjugation, it was complete oppression and persecution that they faced. I won't go into the kinds of things that happened in this slavery of the period, but I want you to know it's the worst kind of slavery that was been recorded throughout history that was done by the Egyptians. He made their lives, verse 14, bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, working them and harshly breaking them down. I want you to think about that. They were harshly breaking them down. The taskmasters would stand there all day striking at them with big sticks in the heat of the day. Subjugate and destroy. Can you imagine going from living in the prosperous land of Goshen to this? Can you imagine living in prosperous land of Goshen and then moving all of a sudden? What happened? Then it moves that Pharaoh wants to begin to wipe them out. So he goes to the two midwives, you'll notice here, who were in charge of helping with the births, and he commands them to kill all the sons that were born on the birthstool right then and there. You put them out. The goal was then to stop the population of Israel and to assimilate their women by wiping out the race itself. So every sort of evil under the sun is captured in Exodus chapter 1. When any government throughout history has utterly corrupted itself, You ever notice how the womb becomes the great attack point? Isn't that something? Isn't that something? How much blood is on the hands of a nation hypocritically crying out for justice right now? Feel how awful a time this is when you've never known this and you've known acceptance and respect and freedom and you flourish in a kingdom of this world and then it turns on you. That's a tough and bitter pill to swallow. And all of a sudden, you're hated. All of a sudden, you're despised. All of a sudden, your religion is laughed at. And you can hear in the Israelite home all the worry, what is going to happen to my kids and what is going to happen to the grandkids? Can you hear these discussions? I mean, if we're just starting to face this, imagine where this thing's going to go. It's exactly what they're thinking. we haven't known slave life. We haven't known concentration camps. We haven't really, we've read a lot about the cruelty of leaders in the past. We sort of never think there could be a Hitler again, do we? These are the kind of things that come upon us and you think what in the world is happening and look at how scary the world can really be. And I think what Exodus 1 is telling us is don't forget there is a cosmic battle playing out. There is a war happening in this cosmic battle that ultimately is aimed at the Lord and his anointed. And that's a battle no one should really want to try to take up arms. You see, this is exactly as the world begins to come after. This was Revelation 11 and 12 when it said that when, when, when the devil was defeated, he was thrown down to the earth and he took out his wrath on the woman, on the church. That's all he can do. That's his ultimate aim. That's his ultimate goal is to assault the people of God because he's defeated. And he wants to break spirits. He wants to subjugate. He wants to make people so discouraged that they feel like giving up. He wants to lay upon us heavy burdens and heavy distresses and wear us out in all of this. That's what you're feeling right now. You're feeling weary through all of this. You're fearing you're feeling the burden of all of this and you're wondering where's the deliverance? Where's the strength? Where's the help in the midst of all this? It's wearisome. And that's my concern as a pastor is through the weariness of this all as the devil is breaking down and laying heavy burdens on people and casting. And this is not that he's nice to the world, I want you to know. Look at their burdens. He doesn't care a lick for anyone. He wants to destroy everyone. But his ultimate rage is at the people of Jesus. He roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And Exodus 1 shows us this reality, that this reality that we really don't think about too much happening behind the scenes, that when we've enjoyed life this way, and we've enjoyed the hand of restraint on all of this, and all of a sudden that hand of restraint is lifted up by the Lord, and now it's like lifting hell's lid and we see what this can be, we now are panicked in the midst of all of this. Why does God allow these things to happen? Here's Israel, fat, plentiful, exceedingly powerful. Egypt was a wonderful place to live. And now all of a sudden this new king has come and everything has changed. He's breaking their spirits. He's crushing them. Let me give you a few reasons why this moment was so needed. First is, what was Israel's danger living so comfortably in Egypt? Have you ever seen those t-shirts, Life is Good? Ever seen, you know, Everything's Great, Living the Dream stuff? Anyone wearing those right now? I haven't seen one in a while, have you? I haven't seen the Life is Good t-shirt. What do you think that problem might be for the people of God in the midst of all this? Well, listen. Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramesses, as Pharaoh had commanded. They had the best of Egypt. Tell me what would be the great problem for them. Would you want something better than that? You see, when everything is the best in this world that you've been given, Canaan and the land of milk and honey doesn't look that much better, you see? How much have we fallen into the American way of life and confused that with the overwhelming blessing that is coming of God's city and what he's prepared for those who love him? Sometimes God has to uproot us from the world, doesn't he? Sometimes God has to do this to prepare us for a much better land and a much better place that he has for us. Second, did Israel know their God? Who's been complaining for a long time that the church is asleep in America? Did Israel know their God? Were they really separate from Egypt? What we find is that as soon as they come out, we're fighting the battle that all these idols that they had been accustomed to and had enjoyed in Egypt and actually worshiped and bowed down to, that these were really in their hearts. That's the first thing that happens at Sinai when they erected a golden calf of what they had learned in Egypt and tried to mingle that with the worship of the Lord. It had gotten into their hearts. How much has American idolatry affected us? How much are we a separate people to the Lord? Think about that question. How much has idolatry affected us that we don't know what separation is anymore? And you see, what begins to happen in the midst of this, beloved, is the separation. These two Hebrew midwives, you go out and you kill. And the text makes very clear that all of a sudden, testing of their faith, they started fearing God. It's beautiful, isn't it? And they wouldn't do it. Yeah, when the government's telling us to do things that are flatly against the law of God, we don't do it. And here's the glorious truth in this section. When you start to see this unfold, you see that actually what's beginning to happen is as the persecution is unleashed, as the problems are exacerbated, as the great pains are falling on God's people in the midst of it, Pharaoh couldn't defeat them. That's being shown. Did you notice how many times it says in the midst of this persecution that they kept multiplying? That they kept multiplying exceedingly and as the midwives wouldn't listen to Pharaoh? See, I believe as soon as Pharaoh gave the decree to kill the sons of the Hebrew women is actually a true statement. I don't think they lied at all. I think what happened was they started popping them out in power. They couldn't keep up with it. They were so lively, these Hebrew women, that in the birth pains, the child, they couldn't even get to the stool. The children were already in the mother's arms. And the point is, is God was actively working and blessing and strengthening his people in the midst of this in surprising ways. Listen to Spurgeon. The church probably never increased at a greater rate. Listen to the statement. The church probably never increased at a greater rate than as when her foes were most fierce to assail and most resolute to destroy her. You can't explain that if God was not with us in these things. See, that's a huge encouragement to whatever comes. That it's there that he loves to work and there that he begins to show real power in overturning the wisdom of the world in surprising ways. Let me give you one more thing that's happening here. All of a sudden in Israel, what's it producing? Groaning. a groaning for deliverance, a Savior. Notice what happens at verse 23 in the next chapter. And you don't have to turn there, I'll read it. In verse 23 it says, During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew. What a great verse. You know what they're doing? They're praying. They're groaning. They're crying out to the Lord. That's a beautiful thing. And lo and behold, as you open up chapter 2, that in the midst of all this comes this statement that should ring such a bell for us. Now, a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman, the woman conceived and bore a son. God was ready to send a deliverer right there in the midst of this. And God has always done that for his people. And what you need, what I need ultimately in this life, is a savior who can deliver us from the misery of our bondage to sin. But you see the story of this unfolding everywhere in the scriptures. By chapter 2, this woman has conceived, and this little son would be put in a little ark. Same word as Noah, by the way, built the ark. And that little ark would be put on the Nile, and that little son would be brought into Pharaoh's household and would be God's deliverer who shows us Jesus. You see, it's really anticipating the great story that one day in Bethlehem that a woman conceived and bore a son in the midst of a world of opposition and hate and they called his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. If he did that, think of the great truth then that's held out for us. That Savior has already come. What that means is, is that as we begin to face the very same things that Israel faced in a land that was not their home, we have to remember that at these moments. Don't love the world. Don't love the world. Don't love the things in the world, what it represents. Don't fall into its system. It's perishing. God's plagues are coming on it. That's what you're going to see happen. His plagues are coming on it. And if it rises up against us, don't be troubled. Jesus told us when we see these distresses, when we begin to see these things happen, lift up your heads for your redemption draws near. Jesus is ready to return again on the clouds of heaven to come and take us to our land, to come and take us home. Maybe the very things that we're experiencing and where this goes in the future is all the hallmarks and representing that that time is at hand. This is how the New Testament writers describe these things. This is how we are to think. So whatever happens in this life, in all circumstances, When I'm full, I'm content. When everything's taken away, I'm content because I belong to the Lord. What is your only comfort in life and death? That I'm not my own, but that I belong body and soul and life and in death to my faithful Savior, who has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of Pharaoh, Satan, and watches over my life in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, everything that's happening, all of it together is working out for my salvation. Because I belong to him, therefore, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me, in the midst of this madness, wholeheartedly ready and willing to live for him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for these words tonight that encourage us in the midst of changing times and changing seasons. We don't know what that will look like, but we certainly see that the tides have turned. And whatever it is, we're so thankful that you are planning and have already purposed a great deliverance that is already marked out. Let us have confidence and see that no matter what comes for the future generations, they're going to be stronger than us. They are going to be stronger than us. Because when these tests come, your great power falls upon your people in surprising ways. how encouraging. Bless us this week with this mentality and let us serve the Lord with gladness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.