Good morning and welcome to another edition of the Morning Devotional. My name is Pastor William Hill. I'm the pastor of Providence Presbyterian Church. We are located in Evansville, Indiana. It's great to have you here with me at the beginning. Of a brand new season, this is season six of the Morning Devotional. We are now working our way through the Book of Exodus. In season five, we completed the Book of Genesis, and it seemed natural at least to just go ahead and continue right on through the Pentateuch, and that is my intention going forward. Today is Monday, October 3rd, 2022. This is edition number one of season six. As I said, we are going to be working our way through the book of Exodus. We'll be doing this as we did before, one chapter at a time, pulling out a couple items from each chapter that may help you and benefit you in your Christian life, give you some more information about God's word and thus direct and guide your steps as you seek to serve the living God. So this morning we'll be in Exodus chapter one. Let's pray first and then we'll consider this chapter together. Our God in heaven as we look to your word now and we seek to understand these things. We pray that you would bless our time, that you would be gracious to us and help us, that we would truly understand the things of your word. We pray for your mercy and your grace, that you forgive us for our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and you would cause us to walk in your ways. May your word help us with that, as we know that you've given it as a light to our path. And so may you illumine our minds, even now we pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Well Exodus chapter 1 really opens and continues the narrative that began and ended in the book of Genesis. We note that at the end of Genesis, The people of God now have been relocated from Canaan into Goshen. They are now there in Egypt. Joseph, who was functionally made the prime minister of all of Egypt, has safeguarded his people. God has blessed his labors and has used him to protect the covenant line. And so they are there in Egypt, Jacob dies, Joseph dies, and Exodus opens with a list of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. Now this is a restatement, really, that we see given to us through the blessing of Jacob in chapter 49 of Genesis. But we have this statement, the list of the sons of Jacob that come into Egypt. We have the restating of Joseph's death and all his brothers and all that generation. Verse 7, the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. In verse 8 begins what is a very difficult period in the life of God's people. We read there in verse 8, Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. Now this king, as we know, and as we continue to read through the book of Exodus, is a wicked man. He is a god. He does not fear God. like his forefathers. He has no regard for Joseph's people, has no regard for the Hebrews, has no regard for God's people whatsoever. He takes advantage of the situation, he uses them, and he enslaves them, he places them under harsh labor, and so he sets taskmasters, verse 11, over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. And they built then therefore for Pharaohs thorn cities, and they labored as slaves in this land. Exodus really is portraying this period of time of God's people. It is portraying this slavery as a form of bondage that you and I experienced before we came to Christ. We were slaves to our master Satan. He was a cruel taskmaster. He has no fear of God whatsoever. And we did according to his bidding. much the way the people here in Egypt are languishing. But worse, the people are plunged into this great misery of slavery, but not only that, Pharaoh erects an edict that all the male children should be put to death. We read in verse 15, "...and the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was Sifra and the other Pua, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live." Now this of course is really typifying the events that are going to happen at the time of Christ when he came and Herod the king heard that there was one who was born king of the Jews. He was fearful. He reacted and he set out an edict to kill all the males two years of age and under. Now this is a picture of that. This is setting up the coming of the mediator here in Exodus. That is of course the mediator and the person of Moses. But what is interesting in this first chapter is the way that people respond to this wicked and godless edict of Pharaoh. And so we read in verse 17, but the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. but let the male children live. Now, here we have very much a lesson for us as we seek to live in this world in which we are part. We as Christians are called to a different culture, a different context, a different life than the world around us. And there will be many times in our lives where we'll be called upon by wicked people, be called upon by godless people to do something that is clearly antithetical to that which God demands and commands of us. And we ought not do it. We ought stand for the truth of God. We ought to stand in righteousness and holiness and do exactly what we what is right to do. That, of course, governed by the very scriptures themselves. This, of course, would be an edict of murder. This would be an act of murder. And so these Hebrew midwives, it clearly tells us in the text that they feared God. This isn't to say that they were afraid of Him necessarily, but they had a healthy respect and a healthy understanding of who He was. as the God of their people, as the one true God who abhors this kind of evil action. And so they refused to do it. And as we recognize that those times in our lives, we too must be willing to stand for truth. Now we must be willing to suffer the consequences that come from those as well. This is not to say because we stand for truth and we do the right things that the leaders of our world or the people that stand in authority over us are going to be pleased by that. They may heighten our misery and they might create even more hardship for us or even kill us. But be that as it may, we must stand for the glory of God. We must stand for His truth, His righteousness. And so they answer the king shrewdly The king called the midwives, 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 so the Edict continues. But God continues to bless the obedience of His people, even as He will bless our obedience. We do not know how He may do that, but He does bless the obedience of His church, His people. Well, I trust these times are helpful for you. I hope they are. If you have any comments or questions, please leave me a note. The way to contact me is there before you on the screen. And so until Tuesday, when we take up Exodus chapter two, may the Lord bless you today and may you serve Him. God bless.