Amen. Thank you all for your beautiful singing this morning. What a blessing that is and an encouragement. We now come back to the Word of God and to Hebrews chapter 11. You won't be surprised by that. We are continuing our journey through some of the greatest examples of faith that are found in the Old Testament. And we have gone through all the examples that are found in Genesis. that the author of Hebrews wants us to reckon with or think about. We saw from the very beginning Abel, and then Enoch, and then Noah, and then Abraham, and Sarah, and then on down to Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph. And certainly these are examples of what it means to live by faith, but we now come to, in fact I think I said this last week, their story of those individuals kind of makes up the bulk of the book of Genesis. It really tells the story And then as we think about how this author in Hebrews continues, we come to the next figure, and he is a towering figure, certainly one of the great figures of the Old Testament, and that is Moses. And he is found, or his story begins, as it were, in the book of Exodus, one of the great books of Scripture. And so we want to consider him today and think about what it is that it says about him. But we want to recognize, first of all, that he is a towering figure. And we can establish that in many different ways and regards. Certainly, we would see that there is a large part of the Torah concerning his life and his ministry and his leadership. Certainly, we could agree with that. But also, we'd want to recognize the importance of the role that God gives him. which is why he has such a large part in the Torah, right? God gives him this incredible role as leader and even one of the, you might say, co-administrator of the covenant, along as Hebrew says with the angels on the heavenly side, he is a mediator, co-mediator of the old covenant at Sinai. And so he has this important role, but he's also a prophet. He is the one who speaks to the people of God on God's behalf. You know, that's one of the things that is said even by Moses himself, that he is a prophet and that there will be another who will come like him, unto him they should listen. And that is really what we see in the New Testament. We would also recognize that he has all these roles that are held together in this one man in his ministry, blessed by God to do these things, and we would recognize that he is important. I mean, in Hebrews it says that he was a steward over all God's house. Can you imagine that statement? I mean, Joseph, we said last week, was a steward over Potiphar's house. That's pretty important. That's an honor. But Moses held that position, if you will, over all the affairs of God in the Old Testament as it came to leading the people out of Egypt and the covenant being given and them being set on the right track, so to speak, to enter the promised land. All of that was the role God gave Moses. If we didn't know from the amount of text that he's in in the Torah or the roles that he played, we certainly would recognize that he was held in the esteem of his people, right? Israel looked back to Moses as a great leader and would often speak of him in those terms. And Jesus would correct them like he does with Abraham and say, well, I'm not sure you really understand much about Moses. But regardless, you know, Moses was a great man. In fact, he's a type of Christ. And we see that over and again as the author of Hebrews says that he was a steward over all God's house. He says, but Jesus, the Son. One is a servant, one is the Son. And so as we look at Moses and we see a great servant, maybe one of the greatest servants reminded yet he isn't the son, right? He still points to and is inferior to Christ who was to come. And so as we think about it for a moment, we want to recognize how important he is and the typology of Moses is almost endless, right? If we could have several months of sermons just pointing on the life of Moses and as typology of the coming Christ, We'll point to just a little bit of that today, but that isn't our main purpose. As we think about Hebrews 11, then we need to recognize that we see the importance of Moses there, because most people like Enoch and like Abel and so on and so forth, they get a single verse. an example, a single verse to say how they're an example of the faith that we ought to live by. But Abraham and Moses are given sections of the text. Again, kind of a nod to their importance in the story of Israel and how the people he's speaking to, Jewish Christians, would know those names and revere those names and that they too would be held up as examples of what you are called to. The same sort of faith that they had. And so as we look at this today, I want us to think about this one who God is going to use from the perspective of today's text as a mighty deliverer and how he ought to show us what faith looks like. And today, more specifically, his parents will show us what faith looks like. So I'm gonna read the text one more time. It is very short. Ben read it a moment ago. We're gonna go back to Genesis and see, excuse me, Exodus and see a few of the things that are said there. But it says, by faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's command." I want to look at two points today. First of all, a time of great danger, and second of all, an act of bold faith. Let's pray together. Fathers, we come now to your word. Help us to hear it. Help us to believe it. Help us to understand it. Help us to do all things to lift up the name of Christ and to bring honor to his holy name. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Beginning first of all with a time of great danger, I mean the text itself points to a time of great danger. And if you know this story, you know this time of danger that's being referred to. There's some interesting circumstances that are changing in the text. You remember at the very end of Genesis that we looked at last week as we kind of surveyed the last 24 chapters or something of Genesis, you remember we talked about Joseph coming into the land of Egypt, sold there by his brothers, Him believing the entire time that God had a purpose in all of that and that God would use him to a great end as he'd promised to in that dream from his youth. And so he went there and he served the Lord eagerly and rose up in Potiphar's household. And then we know what happened. He was lied about by Potiphar's wife, thrown into jail, serves there. Well, eventually the day comes and God's providence shows forth and Joseph is elevated to the right hand of Pharaoh himself. and this was for the saving of Israel, right? The saving of Egypt's kind of the byproduct. I mean, it's good that Egypt was delivered from starvation as well, but the purpose was to save Israel here, to save God's people, to keep the promise alive. And you remember they were given the land of Goshen, the fairest land in Egypt, and it was a good place for the children of Israel, but it was not God's intention that they remain there forever. I wonder a little bit in his Providence if some of the bad things that befall them are all a part of them not becoming too happy in Goshen, not too comfortable in Goshen, because Goshen's the kind of place you could be comfortable living and think, who needs the promised land? We've got something of a promised land here. But as we come to the book of Exodus, things begin to change. As we consider those things, we recognize that the pharaoh who had Joseph serving him has departed from the scene and maybe many pharaohs after him. And we come to a pharaoh that the Bible describes as one who no longer knows Joseph. If you have your Bibles, turn back to Exodus 1. We're going to read just a few verses to get the events that are happening here. Exodus 1, beginning at verse 8, reading through the 11th verse. Now, there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of a war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaohs supply cities of Pithom and Ramses." Now I want to stop there for just a moment to think about how the events have changed. This favored people, right? a favored servant of Egypt in a sense. He was serving the Lord, but to Pharaoh it benefited Egypt. And so he blessed him, or as you'd say, God blessed him through Pharaoh, right? God blessed Joseph with this position of land. He blessed him with favor, I think is how the Bible says it over and over again. He found favor with those who were in command, those who were in charge. And in Egypt, it's harder to find someone more in charge than Pharaoh. And Pharaoh has favor now for Joseph and all the family comes down and they live in the land and everything seems to be going well and then eventually as they multiply and they grow as a people in this place of refuge and of supply and everything that they need, now a new Pharaoh arises who does not remember Joseph. My friends, we could go down a beeline here and say the real problem is they don't remember God. They don't remember what God did. They don't remember the deliverance they received at the hands of God. Yes, Joseph was the one who administered all of that and who was the one who understood the dreams and was able to interpret them and put them into action, but it was God who delivered Egypt for the sake of his people. They've forgotten it. My friends, there is always a danger in forgetting what God has done. Even in the history of Israel, we read of a generation that arose that did not know God. My friends, it is an urgent task for parents to teach their children the things of God. But as we come back to this text, we want to see for a moment that not recognizing who Joseph is or why he's in the land or why this people is so favored and so numerous, He just sees them, I think, maybe in one sense a rational way, divorced from any idea they are there as a blessing, they could be a threat. Right? They're not loyal to the throne of Pharaoh. Who knows what will happen if we allow such a numerous people to be in our land? Who knows what will happen? In those days, that might have been a valid concern. It may not have. But Pharaoh didn't know the people, who they were from. He didn't know Joseph. He didn't know Jacob before him. And so again, he's concerned. So what does he do? He says, let's put hardship upon them. Let's make things difficult upon them. Look what it says continuing what we read just a moment ago. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, and mortar, and brick, and in all manners of service in the field, and all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor." In other words, the idea here is what they said, okay, this isn't working, putting them under labor. Let's put them under harder labor. Let's make things more difficult. Most of you have heard this story from childhood. You know how this goes. But the amazing thing that this tells us of the providence of God is, Pharaoh can't do anything. Because the more he afflicts them, the more God blesses them. And so he comes up with a more radical plan in verse 15. The king of Egypt, Pharaoh himself, spoke to the Hebrew midwives of whom the name of one was Shifra and the name of the other was Pua. And he said, when you go to do your duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthing stools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live. So Pharaoh takes this as a serious threat. He's saying at this point, it's time to get involved and actually begin to decline the number of Israel, right? 20 years down the road, this would make a big difference. Begin to kill the male children and allow the women to live. And my friends, this is a story that we're looking at a narrative, if you will, our history of the events that happened concerning Moses. And we're going to see great courage and faith out of the parents of Moses. But don't miss this example of faith and courage here. Because these Hebrew midwives are put in a position, they're the first ones told, you go and kill these children so that we can begin to harm the numbers of Israel. And what does it say that they do? Well, if you just continue, read, but the midwives feared God. and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?" And the midwives said to the Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women, for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew mightily." Now again, I'm not telling you something most of you don't know. You know this text. But I want you to think about for a moment, here are these two midwives that Pharaoh put to death without a moment's thought. without a moment's thought he would end their lives just over inconvenience. And here they decide because they know what he's asking is wrong, they decide whatever it costs us we're not going to do it. Whatever it may cost us personally we're not going to do it. We're not going to obey this wicked edict. Now I talked about beelines in a sermon, it's not hard to see where you could go with this one, right? About our duty to obey God rather than man. That there might be situations we are called to figure out the formula there on what we ought to do in very difficult situations. These women, there's no question for them. To kill these children is murder. It is murder. And God has said, I'm not to commit murder. And therefore, the only thing I can do is disobey. Disobey. they come up with a very clever way of doing that, don't they? In saying that, you know, we get called and before we get there they've already had the children, there's nothing we can do. Pharaoh's evil heart is not going to be satisfied and so he decides let's take it another step further and he tells his own people, go and find the Hebrew male children and if you find them, cast them into the Nile River. Kill them. Kill them. Cast them in. I don't know if he would hope that they would drown or be eaten, whatever the case might be, this is a wicked man commanding something wicked. And we see that. But I want you to think for a moment, to keep focusing on those midwives, because the text says that they feared God. They feared God. They feared him more than they feared Pharaoh himself. One of the things that we as Christians are to do is to fear God, right? Not men, fear God. And the Bible has many verses we could turn to that end. But I want us to continue and think for a moment, because as Pharaoh gets intent on ending the lives of these young Israelites, we come to the narrative that we want to look at today about the birth of Moses. And it says, And a man of the house of Levi, this is chapter 2, verse 1, took as wife a daughter of Levi. And so the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months." Now the drama here, as we move into our second point, is pretty obvious, right? The situation is stark. All the first, all the children, all the male children of Israel are to be killed, to be killed. And now we come to a specific one that is being mentioned here. One who we know will be of a great importance. I mean, his place in the narrative here makes it clear he will be of great importance. It's one of those things that is, there are many blessings to have read the Bible many times. One of the things that we can forget is not knowing what's gonna happen, right, as we're reading the text and we read about this individual who comes on the scene and his parents look upon him and they decide to hide him and you may wonder what will become of this child. We know the Bible well and so we know what the story will be. But this is a moment of danger, a moment of grave danger. And notice it says that as they looked upon their child. And it says this both in the Hebrew in Exodus and in the Greek in Hebrews. It says they noticed or looked upon him and saw that he was a beautiful child. And that's an interesting word because it does mean beautiful or handsome. It also means striking. And I think we should never think that, you know, what the Bible is telling us is Moses was a good-looking baby and therefore he should live. You know, if he'd been a little less handsome a baby that, well, we could just throw him into the river. That's not at all what it's saying. In fact, one of the Reformers in his commentary on this said, it's a reminder that as we look with eyes of faith we look upon the inside as God sees. And so again, the fact that this is done by faith on the part of the parents is a reminder that it isn't talking about his physical beauty. But I think it is using the tense of that word to say, or the gloss of that word to say, striking. They noticed something different about him. They looked upon this child and saw something in him. I don't know exactly what it was. The Bible doesn't tell us. But as they looked upon him, I think to be in keeping with what Hebrews has been all about, they saw in him something of God having a plan. And God using this child according to that plan. Now that doesn't mean if it was a child that didn't have a great plan in terms of God using as a redeemer that it would have been okay to just say, well it doesn't matter if he lives. Obviously the parent should have done all that they could for their children and resisted as they could have. But again here this child they recognize has an important task to play in God's deliverance of his people and exactly how they understood that we don't know. But it says, by faith they looked upon him and saw that he was striking or beautiful, saw that he was in this sense impressive. They looked upon him and knew, we must do something here. And it says, by faith they hid him for three months. For three months. Now, as we said a moment ago, the midwives are a picture of courage and faith. So too are the parents of Moses. As we read the Exodus account, we might focus on his mother. That's Jochebed is the one who you see mostly in Exodus, but in the Septuagint and in Hebrews, it clearly says parents. And even if she's the one taking the lead, he knows this is happening, right? His child didn't get thrown into the river. He knows that child's around. And he's actively involved in hiding it. And in fact, if Moses is found, it's not gonna be just the mother who's gonna be put to death. Their entire family will be put to death. And so he is very much in this with her in deciding that we must save this child however it is that God would have us to do it. And it says for three months they hid the child, and that's an interesting timeline. A lot of speculation surrounding that timeline. Maybe during those first three months they could keep him quiet, or maybe he was blessed in some way to not be crying all the time. Or maybe they convinced people that weren't present that it was a daughter, and for a while the crying was indistinct enough that they could think it was a daughter. Who knows? But at some point, after three months, they couldn't hide this child any longer. They knew it had become too dangerous. And so what do they do? Turning him over to Pharaoh is not an option. That was an option that would have been done at his birth. They say, we have to trust the providence of God. We're going to put him in the river, but not in the way that they want us to. We're going to create an ark. That's what the text says. They created an ark. Look at it right there. It says that when they could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river bank. You know, we often say a basket, and I think maybe that's to help children understand, but the Bible uses ark here, I think, very distinctly and importantly. An ark was the method by which God saved his people. And in a sense, the promise, in a way, is on the line here, because God has chosen Moses to be the one who will deliver his people. If Moses dies, well, that story's in trouble, isn't it? That story's in trouble. God is not going to let Moses die, and I think his parents believe that. If we've been right all along and God has a purpose for this child and we've hidden him not in vain, but we've hidden him according to the purpose and providence of God, then if we do the only thing we know to do with him, which is make this ark and put him in it and put him in the water, God will deliver him. Don't know how, but he will. I'm sure they thought somebody will come along and find him. It's amazing who did come along and find him. It's one of the great ironies of the way God works, right? The idea that this people is going to rise up against Egypt and the Pharaoh needs to eliminate all male children. Certainly if he knew there was one child that would grow up to be the deliverer of his people, that's the one we need to kill. And by God's providence he ends up being raised in Pharaoh's household. Those are those kind of ironies that we almost begin to miss over time because we read the text. Again, I said it's nice to be able to see with fresh eyes sometimes. God works in ways that overturn power and show that he is in charge and in control. And so this child goes to be raised in Pharaoh's household. I don't want to say a lot more about that because Hebrews will, and we want to come to that in its proper time. But I want us to think for just a moment that those parents had faith that God had a plan. They had faith. They couldn't see every detail. They couldn't see every step. They didn't know, okay, I'll do this and then God will do this. At some point, they said, just put him in the ark and put him in the water. And I'm sure as they were following along, you know, they were praying. I'm sure they were praying, God, deliver this child. We don't believe we've done this in vain. We believe that you have a purpose for this child. God, deliver him. Deliver him. God worked it all out. We don't have to recount the entire story, but the family gets to be involved in raising even while he's in Pharaoh's household. He gets the best of everything in Pharaoh's household. And God sets up, as we'll see coming up, that Moses now has to choose between a life in Pharaoh's house or a life identifying with the people of God. God has worked all those things together in this story, and we see in this story a trust in that providence of God by these parents. We know their names, but they're not otherwise important to the story of the Bible except this scene, really. where they show their belief in God, in His promises, and they act in faith as God would have them to do, as God would have us to do. They trust God. And in fact, as you think about it for a moment, it's a point of desperation they're brought to. It's a point of desperation. We often think if we're walking by faith, we won't come to moments like that. to moments of desperation where everything around us seems to be shaking and we're not sure what to do and yet they had been stepping out and walking in faith and keeping Moses alive for three months and yet they came to this climactic moment where all would be lost if they do not act and they don't know what to do except to put this child in the water and trust God. Sometimes faith calls us to be like that, to be in those moments You know, in those moments where sometimes it almost feels like we're guessing and just leave it to God and say, God, we're just going to let you have the results. What does the Bible say about things like that? The cast, the lot is cast, but it's every decision belongs to the Lord. Sometimes we don't realize that it is in God's providence. And we just need to turn it over to him and say, God, I give it to you. Do your will. And then as we think about it for a moment, I want to see there's a couple of connections here that are important. First of all, a connection to Christ. This story of this Redeemer, I mentioned he's a type of Christ. Certainly he is a deliverer and Moses himself says there'll be another one like him that the people should listen to. There's a lot of similarities. A lot of dissimilarities too, but there are a lot of similarities. Here is a child born under the reign of a tyrant. Here is a child that's part of a campaign to wipe out all the children of God. In Christ's example, of course, to wipe out all those born in a particular place of prophetic importance, right? Bethlehem. It says wipe out all the children that could be of that age that we get rid of Him. And where does the Messiah go? Into Egypt. The entire purpose of Moses is to lead the people out of Egypt. But if you remember our prophecy well, or the wording of Matthew well, it says Jesus goes into Egypt so that God can call his son out as well. Again, that type and anti-type that's so important in the way Matthew records the events of Christ's life. We see a connection there. But there's something else we need to see as we try to bring this to a close. And that's the importance of this message to Hebrews. to those who had received this letter originally. I mean, we're recipients of it as well. It's important to us. But when you think about it for a moment, Moses, this person that they would revere, that they would look up to and hold out as an example, that they should walk by faith-like or should emulate Moses, this great leader of the people of God. I say Moses was in difficult times as well. His parents were in difficult times as well. The whole world would seem to them to have been against them. If you're in Egypt, whatever Pharaoh is doing would seem to be every earthly power against you. And yet his parents said, we will fear God rather than men. We will fear God rather than men. You think about that for a minute, the message is not even that subtle, is it? Why are you thinking about leaving the church to go back to the sanctuary? The fear of men. The fear of men. You're dictating your activity and how you will serve God and how you live out your life based on the fear of men. That's not even what the Old Testament showed you. Look at people like Moses' parents. Look at those midwives who said, we will fear God rather than men. And we will do what is fitting and right before God. And we will trust Him with the results. Doesn't mean it's always going to be easy. We recognize that God doesn't promise the road will be easy, but he does call us to live by faith and walk with a trust in his providence and his love towards us. When you think for a moment about the message, I think, to these Hebrew believers, it's pretty simple. Yeah, things are difficult. Times are tough. They may even be dangerous. But my friends, walking by faith means trusting God. Trusting God. When it gets down to it, that's what we're all called to do. Whatever situation we're in, whether it's danger, whether it's difficulty, whether it's mountaintops, walk by faith and trust God. For he is a God who holds all things in his hands and he keeps his promises to his people.