Good evening. You got your notes, your crib sheets? Tonight we're gonna do Exodus chapter two. That means last week we did Exodus chapter one. Very good, at least you're awake. I have to check sometimes. What did we learn in Exodus chapter 1? Okay, Exodus 1 covers 280 years. We get the list of those who were from the loins of Jacob. So those who were part of the family through marriage aren't listed. And we find that they were a very small number when they came. And then 280 years later, the Israelites are seen as a problem. And we looked at the political answers and Some of us thought, gee, I've heard that before. Things that have been going on today. So as we get into chapter two, chapter two and three really are one unit because they're from Moses before the burning bush to Moses coming into Egypt again. as sent back by God. So two and three are a unit, but we're gonna study them as they're broken apart by those who made the chapter divisions. You understand that those aren't part of the actual original text. They were put on many, many centuries later. So before we get into that, Pastor, would you open this in prayer, please? Thank you for the opportunity to be in the Word tonight. Bless everyone as he instructs and guides us, we pray. And may your Holy Spirit, of course, oversee everything that's done here. Keep everyone safe, those that aren't able to come. We pray that you return to be here on Sunday. We ask you to bless and speak to our hearts through your Word. Thank you for this great book in the Bible, Lord. We pray your blessings upon us as we look into it. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So at the end of chapter One, the political situation is that all of the Egyptians are supposed to, according to Pharaoh, be paying attention to the Israelite families. And every time there's a baby boy born, they're supposed to grab that baby and throw him in the river. And that's the political situation that we see at the beginning, or the social situation, I'm sorry, at the beginning of this chapter. Now, as we go into this, I want to talk about a few points that aren't in the chapter. This is about, starts with the birth of Moses. Moses has an older brother, right? Who's that? Aaron. What's the difference in their ages? Three years. Somebody else got it faster. I think Miriam was about seven at the time. She's even older. I think that's where you got the seven from. It's only three years, and Aaron doesn't appear to have been born while all of this problem is. So the difference between the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two is something less than three years. It's a fairly short time. We should keep that in mind as we go. With that in mind, in chapter two, there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. So it begins with a couple getting married. They're both members of the tribe of Levi. How many people were in the tribe of Levi when they came into the nation of Egypt? How many sons did Levi have? I'm sorry? Yeah, I didn't put it in the notes. I believe he had four sons. So out of that comes these two that marry each other. They're cousins to some extent. And so we need to think about that. These two people are gonna have children, and we should understand something. These children are gonna have a heritage. And that heritage starts with the choice of spouses. And when we choose spouses, we need to be really careful with that. We need to teach our children. The heritage of their children begins with that. So verse two, the woman conceived and bear a son. You notice a pattern here. What do we talk about? All through Genesis. Conceived, life begins at conception. The message continues, there were 18 times in Genesis, and then we start right away, the first birth recorded in Exodus, it starts at conception. So she conceived and bear a son, and this son is born when the Israelite sons are supposed to all die. And she saw him that he was a goodly child, and she hid him three months. The term goodly means this is a very healthy baby boy. Any mother that's had a son, had a baby born, do you ever think your kids are ugly? Your kids are the prettiest kids that ever born. This can be taken just that lightly, but it also, he's a goodly child. He's a child that she wants to raise and so she hides him three months. So she keeps the child away from the infanticide that Egypt is trying to make happen. Now, where did she get the idea that she could, or where could she have gotten the idea from the record that we have that she could ignore Pharaoh and do this? From the midwives. When we make choices, other people are watching, and sometimes we don't know who or what effect they would have. We need to be careful of the choices we make. The midwives set an example, and this woman follows it. Now, whether it was direct or indirect, we don't know. But we should see that pattern here. When we read this, we should understand that. We should look back at the midwives and say, wow, it spread. Verse 3, when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein and laid it in the flags by the river's brink. So it's a woven basket. She lines the inside with mud, which I hope she let dry before she put the child in, and the outside with pitch to make it waterproof. And then she goes, have you ever been where there's a river but right along the bank there's these bulrushes that are growing like this? She stuck the arch in among those bulrushes. It wasn't going anywhere. And that's what this means. And by the way, it says the river, the Hebrew term could be an irrigation channel, but it's probably not as we'll see in the context. This is probably a direct part of the Nile River in the Delta where the flow is gonna be relatively slow and the vegetation is gonna do its job. Verse four, and his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. So there's an older sister who can be stationed near the bank, near enough to watch over the child. This is Miriam, we'll learn about her name and see her in action several times. Now we don't know exactly how old she is, but the indications are she was probably, as we go on, she was probably in the six or seven year old range, and she's stationed to watch this child. Think about that for a minute, that's a responsibility. And she's supposed to do it such a way that she doesn't arouse any interest in what she's watching for, so that the child will be safe. And she's up to the task. as a relatively young girl. So in verse 5, the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and in vain walked along by the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. There's a lot of argument about what goes on here. Was it common to just go out and take a bath in the river? We don't know. And it's really not that important to what's going on here. We should not get into those distractions. What we should see is God has led this very influential Egyptian woman specifically to the point where he needed her to be to recognize this baby and start the process of this baby being prepared for the work that God has for him. God has chosen a person A person who doesn't even know who he is and doesn't really care to do something very specific for him. God can do that. When we read this, we should praise God that he did so. Verse six, when she had opened it, she saw the child and behold, the babe wept and she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. How does she know this is one of the Hebrew's children? Circumcision. They are similar enough in their appearance so that Joseph, having been groomed to fit into Pharaoh's court, fooled his own brothers. So it wasn't like white and black. They could develop features of one to the other. The only way that she would know for sure is Moses was circumcised. And so she knows it's one of the Hebrew's children. And this is Pharaoh's daughter. Do you think she knows what her father has determined should happen to this boy? But she has compassion. And every time we see that word compassion in the Bible, it results in action that helps other people. Compassion is never just an emotion. It's never just pretty words. It leads to action that helps other people. She had compassion on the child, so she made a decision on the spot to spare the child. And we should understand that when we see that. That word compassion tells us that right away. So verse seven, then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? Why would it have to be a Hebrew woman that would nurse this child? Yeah, remember? Even in Joseph's time, they wouldn't even eat at the same table. Egyptians and Hebrews. An Egyptian woman would let this child starve to death before she'd nurse it. It has to be a Hebrew woman or it's not going to work. But the other thing that we should see here is she didn't have to call Moses' sister. The girl stepped up. She had courage to step up and speak to Pharaoh's daughter. This is a young woman of significant courage as well as resourcefulness. Now, she clearly didn't reveal her relationship to the baby. She just stepped up and made an offer. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. And the maid went and called who? The child's mother. She goes and gets the child's mother, which is also her mother, and says, you know, Pharaoh's daughter's figured out that this baby's there and needs a nurse. What better nurse than the child's mother? Now, in verse 9, Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, the child's mother, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. This woman has had the courage to protect her baby, to do whatever it took to try to keep her baby alive, God has honored that courage in the face of what the official position was to the point that she's not going to be paid to mother her own child by the government that would normally kill her, I mean kill him. Does God work miracles or what? That's why this book, it should really grab you. Verse 10, and the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water. So the child grows and was weaned, this is three to five years that he's been raised by his own mother, but eventually she honors the contract, which is what we should do when we make a promise, no matter how hard it is, we need to honor the contract. Most likely, yeah. He's previewing. But you're right. Absolutely. We'll see some of that. That's where part of this is going to go. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Where'd you read that? Hebrews 11. Good. That's a great passage. Yes, it is. So does that mean now we can all go home because you've given the rest? Oh, okay, okay. So Pharaoh's daughter gives this child an Egyptian name. Moses is an Egyptian name, it's not a Hebrew name. And yet it's going to become the most famous Hebrew name of the Old Testament until David. Think about that for a minute. So she calls his name Moses. She said, because I drew him out of the water. That's where she first, Pharaoh's daughter first saw this child. And then it jumps. It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out unto what? His brethren. There's the first proof of exactly what pastor was just talking about. his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. Moses grew up knowing he was ethnically a Hebrew, no matter what the benefits he was getting of growing up in the ruling Egyptian family. So as an adult, he goes out to see what life is like among the rest of the Hebrews, which he sees as his people. How old is he then? I'm sorry? It doesn't say here, but in Acts chapter seven in verse 23, Stephen said he was 40 years old when he went out to look at the burdens of his brothers. So we should see that. Again, the New Testament is the best commentary on the Old Testament, so we should see 40 years old. And so he goes out and he sees something going on. He sees an Egyptian severely beating a Hebrew. And we should see the implication here that there was no infraction that would legitimately lead to such a beating. The Egyptian was just doing it because this was a Hebrew and he could. We've never seen that, right? And that's the situation that gets his attention. So verse 12, he looked this way and that way, and when he saw there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. Moses sets himself up as judge, jury, and executioner of this situation. Can he do that? He's part of the ruling family in an autocratic government. Pharaoh could do that, but could Moses? I see you shaking your head, Mr. Easton. Why do you say that? How do you know he doesn't have the authority? How do you know he doesn't have the authority? We can know that by the evidence here. How do you know? Because he hid the evidence. He knew he did wrong. When your kids are young and they do something wrong, what do they do? You may not have even told them it's wrong. Yeah, the law was written in his heart. He knew he had done wrong and so he hid the evidence. Now, don't miss the little things. He hid the evidence, he knew what he had done was wrong. And when he went out the second day, the second day, when it says the second day, it's not sometime later, it's the very next day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together, and he said to him that did the wrong, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? So he comes out and he sees two Hebrews fighting, and one of these men was clearly in the wrong. That's what he means here when it says him that did the wrong. And he says, why in the world are you fighting among yourselves? The Hebrews were in a situation where the Egyptians were treating them badly. Why are you fighting among yourselves? Save this for the Egyptians. He intends to make peace. And we need to understand that. Moses thinks he's going to make peace between these two men. And the man that he spoke to said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known. See, Moses thought that the guy that he rescued the day before was going to keep the secret. There's no secret if two people know it. It's only a secret if you're the only one. And Moses learned that the hard way. And this guy says, what are you gonna do now? You gonna kill me? And so obviously Moses now has a problem. And he's gonna fear for his life. Because the Egyptians could treat the Hebrews however they wanted. But because it was an Egyptian that he killed, he would be considered guilty of murder. Why is that? The Egyptian could beat the Hebrew and yet Moses couldn't intervene without that being murder? It starts with slavery. It's the attitude of slavery. We saw this in the Antebellum South. We see it all over the place. Slavery corrodes the morals of the slaveholders. Now when Pharaoh, verse 15, heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. The news reaches the palace, Pharaoh, reaches the logical conclusion, Moses is killed in Egyptian, Moses must die. And so Moses runs east into the Sinai Peninsula. Now Hebrews 11, 27 says, it wasn't from fear of Pharaoh that he ran. What does it say here? You're reading my notes. I asked what it said here. Yeah, Moses knows that he's got something that he's trying to serve God. And that's something that his mother steeped in him. And so he's got to get away and figure out, what am I supposed to do here? And so that's what he does. And he gets out into the Sinai Peninsula. And it says he dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. So this is not as soon as he gets there, this happens. He's settled down. He feels he's safe from Pharaoh. And one day, he sat down by a well. We don't know what he's been doing. It probably is a fairly short time. And I say that because in verse 16, now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. As he sits there, these girls show up. I'm sure the priest of Midian had no sons, otherwise he wouldn't have had just his daughters out there. It's not normal in a situation like that where women are not protected if they're alone. But they show up to water their father's flock. and says he's what, the priest of Midian. It doesn't say at this point what kind of a priest he is. All we know is he is the priest of Midian. He's the head priest. But in verse 17, the shepherds came and drove them away and Moses stood up and helped them and watered the flock. Considering these are the priest's daughters, The shepherds treat them with surprising disrespect. They drive the women and the flocks away, not just to have the first turn, but intending to keep the water for themselves, as though it was a private well. But Moses sees what's going on and says, wait a minute, I'm supposed to stand up for the underdog. I can't do it in Egypt, so I might as well do it here. And that's what he did. Not only did he do that, not only did he drive the shepherds away. Remember, Moses, as a son of Pharaoh's daughter, would be trained militarily. He'd be a soldier. He'd know how to fight. So a few rabble shepherds is not gonna be any problem for him. But he doesn't just drive them away. What does he do? He waters the flock. He serves them. Moses is beginning to learn a few things. And so having done that, the girls take the flock and they come home. Verse 18, when they came to Ruel, their father, he said, how is it that you have come so soon today? So apparently this was a repeating pattern. It wasn't just a one-off. This has been going on so long that when they show up early, their father says, what happened? Now he's called Ruel here, which the translation of that is a friend of God. In chapter 3 in verse 1, he is called Jethro, a title meaning his excellence, and we'll always see him as Jethro after this verse. But here he's introduced his rule. They're the same person. We should understand that. So he says, how come you're here so soon? And they said, an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock. See, Moses hasn't been there long enough, but what he still appears Egyptian. He's been raised in an Egyptian family, and so he looks like an Egyptian. And so that's why they say an Egyptian helped us. And not only did he help us with the shepherds, he helped us with the water. And what does rule say in verse 20? Where is he? Why is it you have left the man? Call him that he may eat bread. He berated his daughters, although it's gently, but we should, you know, it's a gentle rebuke for not having brought such a man home. At least give him a meal for his efforts. Now we need to, be friendly towards strangers. And in that time, especially in Desert Herdsman, that was common, is you gave especially friendly strangers courtesy in your home. Verse 21, and Moses was content to dwell with the man. So again, Moses has been there a while, but he hasn't settled on what he's gonna do. How's he gonna support himself? Where is he gonna live? He hasn't got a settled home. And so when this incident comes along, And he's helped Rule's daughters. Rule says, you want a place to stay? And Moses says, yeah. He was content to dwell with him. And he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. So this high society Egyptian has now settled down to life as a desert shepherd. Is that a bit of a change? So now he's gonna learn some other things. He's adaptable already, if a little headstrong, but now as a shepherd, what is he gonna learn? How many of you have taken care of animals, especially significant herds, 20, 30 animals? Nobody? I'll tell you one thing you learn in a hurry is patience. Because they never do what you expect them to. So Moses is gonna learn patience, and he's gonna learn how to live in the wilderness. And in verse 22, she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I've been a stranger in a strange land. So his first son is born apparently fairly quickly. And again, that name, just as with the names that Joseph gave his sons when they were born during the years of plenty, it indicates that Moses thinks, okay, this is where I am for the rest of my life. That's really what he's saying when he uses this name, Gershom. I'm a stranger in a strange land, and now this is where I am. However, verse 23, And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. So some time passed. We don't know how much at this point. We're not told. But there's a new king. He's no longer seeking to find and execute Moses, but he continues the program of harsh treatment of the Hebrews. And it says they cried. and their cry came up to God. We need to understand something here. They're looking for a way out. They aren't directly turning to God. They're just complaining, but God's listening. Sometimes when we complain, God's listening, and he does something about our problems, even though we haven't consciously turned them over to God as we should. We should see that mercy in God. God cares about us even when we fail to recognize that he cares for us. And so he's listening and he's willing to help his people even when they don't turn directly to him. In verse 24, God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. What does that mean? Had God forgotten all about it? It means when God gave that covenant to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that they were terms of that covenant. He had told Abraham, for example, that his descendants would serve in a foreign country for 400 years. He had told Jacob that he would build Israel into a nation in Egypt. So God's looking at the situation and he's looking at the covenant, he's saying, okay, it's time. My term for the building of the nation has been fulfilled. It's time to do something. That's what that word remembered means is he marked the fact that there was something to be done, he'd promised, and it was time to do it. He knew all along, but he was waiting for his timing. Israel had intended to grow and become strong through the conditions of their slavery. Sometimes we can grow spiritually in situations we'd rather not go through. Ever had that happen? That's what's happening to the nation. But in verse 25, God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. God marked them, and he said, okay, it's time, I'm gonna do something. And it's that attitude, or that statement from God, is it's time, he's going to do something, that we'll move into chapter three, and we'll see what God does about it. Any questions? Chuck. First, please. 19, OK. Right, it doesn't say why. And that's why he must have looked like an Egyptian, sounded like an Egyptian. He obviously wasn't one of the Midianites. He wasn't a desert dweller. But the Egyptians, they reached out in areas that they didn't rule, obviously. Powerful nations do that. But it had to be that he looked like an Egyptian. Still clean-shaven, still dressed as an Egyptian city dweller. Anyone else? So if I get this right, if I'm going to acquire that, I'm going to kill it. Make sure you don't leave any witnesses. Careful about that. He would have had to kill an Egyptian, I mean, a Hebrew to do that. Walter? Maybe I should make a distinction, but it might help. The Midianites. Where did the Midianites come from? Did I put that in the notes? I didn't put that in the notes. Joseph was sold into that, right? He was sold and taken down to Egypt, right? Yeah. Yeah, those were descendants of Ishmael. I had to stop and think through that. But yes, Midian, the founder of the tribe, was a grandson of Ishmael. Anyone else? Yes. Clearly. Well, again, you say a Gentile, but as Ishmaelites, they were descendants of Abraham. They just weren't descendants of Jacob. Anyone else? Master. We've got a few minutes to go to prayer, so we'll do that. I'll pray and then we'll wake up and spend a little bit of time praying. The list is lengthy. I want to ask you to pray for Tom, I'm sorry, Stan Nelson. He called me last night. He's down here from Canada and he's been a great friend of the church here, was in the church many years. His brothers, he has five brothers and three of them are very ill, have some issues. So Tom, I don't know if some of you know Tom and Debbie Nelson. He fell a while ago and broke his neck, fell off the log trailer and broke his neck. And so he could have been paralyzed and Stan's just marveling that he's going to be OK, I guess. And his brother Dave, as well, and John. He's got three brothers that are very, very sick. I don't think they're going to be here with us much longer. Stan's not the greatest in great shape physically, but he's been a great friend of the church. So pray for that family if you would. Anybody else have something to add to the prayer list? Anything at all? Your niece doing okay? State take care of it. Pray for Ron Wagner to get his truck back. His transmission's not good. Right, Ron? We're praying for your truck. Okay? So you can get your truck back. Otherwise, it's a cold winter in New Hampshire. I want to share one thing that I thought was really... I was praying for this guy, I don't know his name, but I was driving through I don't know what town, I've been everywhere, but there was a big protest out there. People were saying, no kings. So I'm driving through town at the lot, and there's a bunch of people in one corner, and they've got their signs up, no kings, they're protesting Trump, I think. But across the street, there's one guy with a sign. You know what that sign said? Jesus is king. Amen. It's just not that awesome, man. There's a big protest for no kings, and there's this one guy, giant sign. That's good. Jesus is king. He is. Pray for that. Father, we thank you for the good teaching tonight from Brother Everett. Just pray and continue to bless him as we go through this second book in the Bible. Just give us insights into things that we didn't think about before. Make us better, more like Christ. We pray as we study together. Give us a good prayer time now as we wake up and spend a few moments praying for some of the Different needs Lord. There's so many needs and we all are a needy people So we pray your blessings upon our prayers now as we bring them before your throne of grace in Jesus name. Amen