Sermon: Hope Dealers | Exodus 1:1-2:10

I’m not sure if you’ve read the book, Unbroken, but if you haven’t you have to- it’s in the top 10 best books I’ve ever read. The book is a true story which centers around a man by the name of Louis Zamperini. A track star who ran in the 1936 Olympics, Louis would go on to serve our country in WW2. In 1943, his plane crashed into the Pacific, killing 8 of the 11 crewmen. For 47 days, Louis and the two others were in a hopeless situation as they were stranded in the middle of the Pacific. Finally, they were picked up, not by Americans, but by the Japanese where the hopelessness continued. For the next two years, Louis spent time in a Japanese prison, being brutally tortured by his captors. When he was miraculously released, Louis emerged a shell of himself, and returned home where the hopelessness continued. Words like mental health and trauma and PTSD weren’t en vogue back then. So Louis coped the best way he knew how- by turning to alcohol, and even contemplating suicide. He just couldn’t see his way out of this darkness that seemed to have enveloped him. Hopelessness had gotten a hold of him.

Felt Need/Historical Context

Ever felt that way? Ever felt hopeless? The people of God did. In fact, that word hopeless is the perfect word to describe Israel as the curtains pull back on the scene of our passage. Scholars are quick to point out that Exodus chapter 1 spans a few centuries. We get a hint of that because Moses, the writer of Exodus says that when Israel got to Egypt they numbered 70 people, but if you keep reading you will notice how often words like, multiplied, fruitful and increased are used. The people of God are growing into an emerging nation, and this frightens the most powerful ruler in the world- Pharaoh. 

And so fueled by his fear of this growing Israelite nation, Pharaoh unleashes a comprehensive plan to oppress and render them hopeless. We first see their physical hopelessness in verse 11, where it says that Pharaoh afflicted them with heavy burdens. Some of us know what this feels like. No, we may not know slavery, but some of us can relate to feeling hopelessness in our bodies. In a crowd this size, some of you have been diagnosed with depression. I remember getting diagnosed with this, and literally feeling like hopelessness had moved into my body. I remember taking my meds one morning and thinking to myself, “how long will I have to do this”? But not only that, we see that hopelessness can also be psychological. Moses, the writer of Exodus, points out at the end of verse 11, that Pharaoh had Israel build store cities, Pithom and Raamses. This is odd, isn’t it? Why not just say he had them build some cities, why mention the names? Because Moses wants us to see these names point to Egyptian gods. Pharaoh knows these Jews don’t worship his gods, so in a bit of gamesmanship, he decides to play with their minds, by having these Jews build cities dedicated to Egyptian gods. What a slap in the face. It’s important for us to see that hopelessness almost always lives in the mind. I’m a touch claustrophobic. I hate tight spaces. I just got stuck on a crowded elevator the other day and just about lost it. I don’t like small airplanes. What I battle with in these scenarios is the pervasive feeling in my mind that I cannot get out of the situation. When your mind can’t see a way out of things, it can wreak havoc on you. And that’s where some of you all are. You can’t see your way out of the debt. You can’t see your way out of the addiction. You can’t see your way out of the bad relationship. That’s hopelessness. 

Pharaoh’s not done. He moves from physical hopelessness to psychological hopelessness, now to spiritual hopelessness. The Hebrew word for work is abad, and it has a wide range of meanings, one of which means to worship. Now, I believe that’s the idea here, because as we are going to see later on in our series, Moses is going to ask Pharaoh several times to let Israel go so that they may worship YHWH, and what’s the word for worship? The same word translated in our text as work. Pharaoh doesn’t just want Israel to build cities to his gods, he wants them to worship his gods. Spiritual hopelessness is the worst kind of hopelessness there is, because most people don’t feel it. But we are all spiritually hopeless, lost without our true Savior Jesus Christ. And this passage is going to show us how to get there. And, you guessed it, Pharaoh’s campaign of hopelessness is not done. Realizing his plan is not working he decides to legislate the mass murder of Hebrew male infants. When the midwives disobey him- more on that later- he commands that everyone get involved and throw the Hebrew male infants into the Nile River. Can you imagine the devastation, the utter darkness and hopelessness these Jewish parents feel. Talk about dark. 

Hope and the Question of God

But it gets worse. Here’s my question, “Where’s God as all of this is happening?” It’s one thing to suffer, and it’s a completely different thing to suffer and not see God. Here’s the central idea of our passage, and it is this: While God’s name doesn’t appear until verse 17, God has been actively and quietly working behind the scenes since verse 1, setting the stage to rescue Israel. And this same God is actively and at times quietly working behind the scenes in each of our lives, even in the midst of hopeless situations, to accomplish his glory and our good. 

I didn’t grow up in the hood. I grew up in the quiet suburbs just south of Atlanta. Now my mother grew up in the hood, in the projects to be exact, and that was a source of angst for her as she parented us, because mama was deathly concerned that she was raising soft and sheltered children. One morning over the summer she decided enough was enough. She told me and my sister to hop in her minivan, and she gave us each some money, dropped us off at MARTA- public transportation- and demanded we ride the bus. Now I was about 9, and my sister was like 5. So we board the bus and we are hugging each other for dear life and crying our suburban eyeballs out. Talk about a hopeless situation! But after a few stops, I looked out the back window and there’s mama a few cars back in the minivan following us. When we turned left, she turned left. When we stopped, she stopped. Once this registered, I stopped crying and all was well. I was still in an unfortunate situation, but knowing mother was in close proximity, watching me made all the difference in the world. I had hope. And this is exactly what’s happening in our passage. Israel thinks she’s by herself, but Moses is showing us that God is in “the minivan” right behind them! And that same God has not abandoned us. He’s closer than we think. We have hope. 

If hopelessness is the problem, then hope is what we need, but what is hope? Hope is earth’s uncertainties tied to heaven’s reality. Hope is like a boat anchored at sea. There’s two realities: 1. The boat is being rocked up and down by the waves; 2. But that boat isn’t going anywhere because it’s anchored to something fixed. This is why the writer of Hebrews says, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf”- Hebrews 6:19-20a. Oh friend, the reality of life is this world will toss you around, you will find yourself hopeless at times, but hope keeps us anchored in the only thing that can hold us together- Jesus Christ. Yes, but practically, what does this look like?

I can have hope because God is unwavering in his commitment to me- Exodus 1:1

The writer of Exodus begins the book by talking about the sons of Israel. Why does he say this? Because the name Israel represents God’s covenant with them. This is very intentional. To understand this you have to go back to Genesis 35:9-11: “God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.’ so he called his name Israel. And God said to him, ‘I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.” Don’t you see? By calling them in Exodus, Israel, and by seeing them live out the promise of being fruitful and multiplying, what Moses wants us to see is even in the darkest times, God is unwavering in his commitment to them. And that same God is unwavering in his commitment to you and I, even in the most hopeless of times.

Some years ago my sister went through a nasty divorce, leaving her to wonder what would happen to her and her two children. In the middle of all that I’ll never forget a conversation I had with my dad, asking him what his plan was. Without hesitating he said, “Well, she’s under my covering, and we won’t let her fail.” I believe that’s what God is saying to Israel, “As dark as it is, you are children of Israel, tied to me, and I will not let you fail.” And for those of us who are in Christ, we are adopted into the family of God, where he is unwavering in his commitment to us. This is why Paul would write to the church in Rome, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”- Romans 8:37-39. God is unwavering in his commitment to us. 

I can have hope because God is unwavering in his commitment to himself

Now, if I stop right here you would be right to wonder if you are the center of what God is doing in the world. Exodus, and all of the Bible, helps us to see that you and I are not at the center, God is. Now I want us to zoom out and wrestle with a very practical question. You ready? God, if you knew all of this trouble and hopelessness was headed Israel’s way, why did you bring them to Egypt? Why submit them to all of this trouble. Let’s press this further. God, if you knew moving me here to RDU would end up with me losing my job, or losing that loved one, or going through all of the difficulties I’ve gone through, why move me here, or why allow me to experience that? In order to get at this answer we have to press fast forward. Not long after God rescues Israel and they pass through the Red Sea, Moses is having a chat with his father-in-law, Jethro, and notice what happens, “Jethro said, ‘Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods”- Exodus 18:10-11. A little while later, when they are in Jericho, notice what Rahab says, “For we heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt…And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath”- Joshua 2:10-11. See what Jethro and Rahab are underscoring? The glory of God! The darker the hopelessness, the brighter the glory. Why does God allow us to go through hopeless times? For his glory!

I love watching people work a yo-yo. We’ve seen people do this, where they tie the string of their yo-yo to their fingers, and with a flick of their fingers the yo-yo will go down for a while then back up, down and up, down and up. Some are so skilled at this they can even do tricks like, “walk the dog,” which involves the yo-yo being down for a long time, only to be brought right back up. By the way, who here doesn’t feel like a yo-yo from time to time, where you are just down and down. Now let me ask you something. Who gets our glory when we are watching the yo-yo being worked? Not the yo-yo, but the one who is tied to the yo-yo. The point of Exodus is not to be wowed by Israel’s resiliency, but to be awed by Israel’s God, the one who holds Israel in his hands. And the point of our lives is not to say look at me and my strength, but to say look at the one who is holding me, even in the darkest and most hopeless of times. May we never forget the darker the hopelessness, the brighter God’s glory.

I can have hope when I’m walking in the fear of God- Exodus 1:17
Frustrated that his plans to suppress Israel are not working, Pharaoh legislates that the midwives kill all the Hebrew male infants. This doesn’t work either, as they resist. Pharaoh calls two of them in, and the text tells us in verse 17 that these two midwives fear God. Over and over again, the bible calls us to be people who fear God. A part of what that means is that God is to have unparalleled reverence and awe from our lives. When we truly fear God, all other fears roll back. “The fear of God is the death of every other fear; like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it”- Charles Spurgeon. “The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else”- Oswald Chambers. We see this with these two women. Because the fear of God was the operating mechanism of their hearts, they were more than fine with telling Pharaoh no. But I must also point out that to fear God does not mean to be scared of God. We avoid things we are scared of, which is exactly what Adam and Eve did in the garden when they sinned- they hid from God. Just the opposite, the fear of God is a relational term which nurtures intimacy in our walk with Christ. The psalmist says, “The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant”- Psalm 25:14. 

Practically speaking, if hope is earth’s uncertainties tied to heaven’s reality, then the fear of God, which fosters our relationship with God, is the rope which connects the two. The fear of God, therefore, allows us to access two vital things we see in these midwives- hope and faith. Because they feared God, their hope was not in Pharaoh, but in God. And because they feared God, they took a leap of faith by disobeying Pharaoh in order to obey God.

The best way I can explain this to you is bungee jumping. To bungee jump you need faith and hope. Bungee jumping involves some sort of a rope or cord tied around you, and attached to something fixed. Now that cord tied to something fixed is the idea of hope. If there’s no hope- no cord tied to something fixed- you won’t take the leap of faith. And in the same way, you and I will never live lives of faith like these two women, until we are tethered securely to God, which is what the fear of God does. What this means is the fear of God pushes me to take sin seriously in my life. There’s no way I can walk in disobedience and fear God at the same time. Secondly, the fear of God means I am willing to part with anything and everything in my life that puts me at odds with God. 

I can have hope because I have a deliverer- Exodus 2:1-10

Now Pastor JD and myself have started this series on the book of Exodus today because we want to draw your attention to the central theme of the book (and that of the Bible) which is rescue. And what’s blatantly clear in our passage today is Israel is in need of rescue- physically, psychologically, in their families, and most importantly spiritually. Notice the unconventional ways God is working to bring about their rescue. Pharaoh wants the male infants killed because he doesn’t see the female ones as a threat- he sees them as weak. So what does God do? He uses these “weak” women- like midwives, and Moses’ mother and sister and Pharaoh’s own daughter(!) to begin the process of rescue. And then when we come to chapter 2, we see an infant named Moses, being placed in the Nile, which was supposed to be the place of drowning, only to be the one who would be drawn out from the water and deliver his people. Don’t you see? God is using those whom Pharaoh looked down upon- women and a Hebrew male infant- to rescue Israel. And this is a theme all throughout the Bible, as God delights in using the least likely to rescue his people. He uses barren women like Sarah and Hannah, youngest sons and future adulterers like David, uneducated sounding Jews like the disciples, and a little baby named Jesus, who like Moses, was born during a time when the mass slaughter of Jewish male infants was legislated, to provide our hope-filled rescue. 

Now notice one more thing with me. The Hebrew word for basket is found in the story of Noah (Genesis 6-8). You know what that word means? Ark. In the story of Noah, the whole world has been in rebellion, so God decides to destroy the world by a flood, and commands Noah to build an ark. By faith Noah builds and his family boards the ark and they are rescued. And in the same way, by faith, Moses’ mother builds this little ark, and Moses is rescued, so that he may rescue Israel. And for you and I, Jesus, the true and better Moses, sees us in our spiritual hopelessness, and is inviting you and I to be rescued by faith as we board the ark of his salvation.

Which leads me back to where we began. Remember we talked about Louis Zamperini? Well, I didn’t finish the story. We left off with him being hopeless, as he is giving himself to alcohol with his marriage and himself spiraling out of control. In such hopelessness, he hears of a guy named Billy Graham who is doing a crusade near his home in Los Angeles. Louis goes, hears the good news of Jesus Christ, walks the aisle and allows Christ to rescue him. Louis would experience a transformation that was stunning. Over time the darkness and bitterness left him. Sure enough the light and joy and hope seeped in. I don’t think Louis would have ever gone to hear the gospel if he didn’t first allow his hopelessness to drive him there. Friends do you feel spiritually hopeless? Let God rescue you today.