EXODUS 2 Lesson # 2
Resisting Evil: Risk, Not Fear, In Combating Evil.
I. Greetings.
II. Introduction: Standing Against the Flow.
Note: We are going to talk about choosing leaders today….
Q What in your opinion, is a strong leader?
Years ago in a high school locker room, that great room of intimidation, a rough neck, wrestler, stood on the benches and made a derogatory crack about Easter. He got a few laughs, then a smaller kid, a wrestler as well, stood up, voice shaking, said: “Please don’t talk that way about Easter, its not funny.” The room grew silent, and rough neck said: “OK”. The kid was a mormon, not known for being overly religious, but that day he grew 10′ tall in my estimation. (You could open with one of your own stories here.)
We are going to speak of leadership today. How God works to bring it about and how true, important leadership develops and starts. Hard times, rough times require strong leadership, Israel was truly in a bleak state, it needed a strong leader. Let me show what thinks a strong leader is. It may surprise you.
III. A Wild Effort of Hope: Exodus 1:22-2:10
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 1:22.
Q What was Pharaoh doing to these people?
An = Pharaoh had embarked on a destructive, life destroying, cruel agenda. These people were suffering horribly.
RQ Can you imagine being a mother in those days?
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 2:1-4.
Q According to verse 2, why did this mother hide her child?
An = All males were to be killed, but this ordinary woman thought her baby was a fine child. Very typical of mothers. In Hebrew though this has another nuance:
She saw her child was not just a fine child or beautiful good. In Hebrew it says she saw that her child was “good”. This is the same word used in Genesis 1 to describe God’s view of creation. >>>> Lets turn to Genesis 1:4. Here we see that God saw that the light was good. Read also 1:10, 1:18, 1:21, only the phrase saw that it was good.
Note: This mother was like God, i.e. she was “godly”. She saw the goodness of creation and she disobeyed the Pharaoh. She did not go along with the horrors of society: she hid her child. Instead of giving in to evil, she saw something good and but then acted.
Q This woman did something, why do we seldom see people stand up against wrongs?
An = In this case, it seemed foolish to try. It would never work. It never will, unless there is a God, like the God of the Bible. The Bible often starts its most amazing stories with the courage of woman (I Samuel 1).
>>>> Have someone re-read Exodus 2:3-4.
Q Why was it getting harder to hid the child?
An = Of course, it became harder and harder to hide the child, no doubt, because, like all babies, his lungs grew stronger and he could cry louder, so she put him in a basket, actually the word here in Hebrew is the same word in Hebrew used to denote Noah’s ark. Moses was put into an ark! As Noah’s ark saved the human race from extinction, so this little ark, saved this little, as of yet, unnamed baby from a brutal death.
Q What did his sister do?
An = The sister stood to find out what would happen, in Hebrew it literally says she waited to “know” what would happen. One woman saw, another waited to know. We will come back to this. Our chapter opens with some woman seeing and wanting to know, and it will close with these same two words.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 2:5-6.
Q We have another woman here, what did this woman see?
An = This woman also saw, heard the baby’s crying and took pity. What is interesting is that she is not a Jew, a member of God’s chosen people. She is a non-Israelite but she did what was right. The Bible does not mind saluting and praising those who do good, whether they believe and belong to God’s people or not. We should be the same.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 2:7-10
Q Who raised this baby?
An = Its hebrew mother, and she got paid to do it.
Q What was the baby named?
An = Moses. An egyptian name. Moses was “drawn out” of the Nile, “drawn out” of certain death. One thing about potential leaders. You are not saved for yourself but saved to give. >>>> Have someone read Matthew 10:8. Life will never be meaningful until you start to live this out.
IV. Three Attempts At Saving Those In Need. Exodus 2:11-25.
A. First Attempt At The Role of Savior. Exodus 2:11-12
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 2:11-12.
Q What does Moses “see”?
An = Moses, also sees, just like the woman spoken of above. This time, he does not see good, but he sees injustice and he, like the woman who raised him, did not go along.
Note: The word in Hebrew for “kill” is actually a word meaning to strike (nakah) and so the Egyptian was either attempting to kill or had killed the Israelite.
Note: This was not necessarily an act of passion. Text says he looked around.
Note: The New Testament comments on this verse. It says Moses threw something away. Lets see what Moses threw away.
>>>> Have someone turn to Hebrews 11:24-27 and read for us.
Q What did Moses throw away?
An = When Moses helped the Egyptian he too walked against the flow. He doomed his brilliant future. He had a nice secure future and gave it up. He lost his social security. He would have been a key person in an “world power” and had a comfortable life.
Note: He hid his deed, but later it was to cost him dearly Standing up for the weak always will. It cost Jesus Christ His life. But remember! we do not know Pharaoh’s name, but Moses was used to change lives forever. It seems like Moses made a choice between righteousness and going with the flow, and he made a choice between comfort or cost: Most people choose comfort.
B. Second Attempt At the Role of Savior. Exodus 2:13-15.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 2:13-15.
Q Is Moses appreciated here?
An = Not quite!!! Moses is totally unappreciated by his own people. We risk and we pay prices to defend the weak not because of the applause, but because it is the right thing to do. Some folks only serve or defend when the applause is certain to be there.
Q How is Moses rewarded for standing up against injustice?
An = Moses now finds himself running for his life and our episode ends with him sitting in the middle of “no where” by a well. The price has begun. Lets see what the New Testament has to say about this. Turn to Acts 7:22.
>>>> Have someone read Acts 7:25-29.
Moses not only prefigures our rejection when we do good or try to help but he prefigures Christ. Remember Jesus was rejected by his own people. So do not be discouraged as you work to bring harmony or work at your church. Jesus understood quite well it is a costly job.
C. Third Attempt At the Role of Savior. Exodus 2:16-22.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 2:16-17.
Q Does Moses sit idle in the face of injustice?
An = Again, Moses cannot let injustice go on and sit idle. He now helps some women.
Q What is the precedent given Moses from his past, as far as helping those in need?
An = Moses’ past has given him the precedent of not letting injustice take place. Remember the woman, five of them: 2 midwives, his mother, his sister, Pharaoh’s daughter, all did not “go along” with injustice. Now Moses helps women who are being mistreated. Moses is living now in the “best of his tradition”. Great leaders come about that way.
Note: Many want to have a place of prominence in the ministry but they do not see what these women saw, and they did not see the things Moses saw.
Q In that world, are women understood to be unimportant?
An = No, but the Bible has a different view of women than is often portrayed by its critics.
>>>> Have someone read Exodus 2:18-22
Q Is Moses appreciated by this pagan, foreign priest and his family?
An = They appreciated him. He gets a wife. It is funny, that Midianites, not Israelites appreciate Moses. But thank God for some of you who do appreciate what others do for you.
Q What does the name Moses chose for his child indicate how he perceived his situation?
An = Our story ends with Moses acknowledging that he knows the life of a foreigner in a strange land. He now learns, first hand, the plight of his people. We must pay costs or we will not know how others truly feel. Just as Jesus knows our plight. He did not come as a king, but experienced rejection, hassle, non-appreciation, of not only his own people but his own family.
V. Conclusion: Exodus 2:23-25.
>>>> Lets read how our chapter ends, have someone read Exodus 2:23-25.
Q Did the Israelites pray?
An = No. They did not pray. They acted like baby Moses and did what Pharaoh’s daughter found him, they merely cried out.
Note: The king died. The situation changed, so could yours.
Note: In all that we have read there is no mention of God. God seems hidden, yet we know He is preparing the way for Israel’s redemption. God may be preparing right now, but we do not see it.
Note: Finally, remember the two words I pointed out: saw and know. Let me show you how they re-emerge. Notice God’s response in Exodus 2:24-25. It has a four parts, represented by four verbs.
God heard their groaning.
God remembered His covenant. God never forgets His promises. Who knows what He has promised your grand parents or great, great grand parents.
God saw.
God knew. The NIV says “was concerned” but in Hebrew the word is know. God knows our sorrow.
Note: He waits to see if women will “not go along” with injustice and awaits a man that will become like them and become a stranger in a strange land. He desires to begin His redemption through us: men and women who do not fear first, but SEE.
God wants those who go against the flow.