from slavery to sin, from the decree of death that hangs over our
heads the moment we enter this world, we must each experience, for
ourselves, God’s exodus.
At several points in Israel’s colorful history, oppression seems to be
self-inflicted. God allows it to happen in hope of turning a wayward
nation back to Him. Such is apparently not the case here in the open-
ing chapters of Exodus. What does this tell you about the nature of
people and of sin? About the plan of redemption? About the character
of God?
2. A Deliverer Is Born (read Exodus 2:1-10)
"Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she
became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a
fine child, she hid him for three months.” “When the child grew
older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.
She named him Moses, saying, T drew him out of the water’ ” (2:1, 2,
10, NIV).
What begins as a tragedy ends like a fairy tale. A slave couple's
baby, born under a death decree, is found by the killer's daughter,
rescued, and given a royal upbringing. The difference between this
and the fairy tale genre is that this is not fantasy. It actually hap-
pened!
Exodus highlights the issue in the great controversy between
Christ and Satan. God blesses His people, Satan oppresses God's
people, and God provides a redeemer. An Egyptian tyrant’s death
decree seeks to snuff out the life of a deliverer, but God finds a way
Lo protect His chosen one. It is difficult to escape the parallels be-
tween the attempts to destroy Baby Moses and the life-threatening
decree of another tyrant who sought similar means to get rid of an-
bther Deliverer. The story of this Deliverer is the focus of the gospel.
[t is the focus also of Revelation’s “Great Controversy” message.
See Revelation 12:1-17).
Two other concepts characterize the story of Moses’ early years.
First, ordinary people were the heroes. Women—faithful midwives
Ex. 1:15- 21) and a hopeful mother and sister—were used by God to
oring about His plan. Godly parents, Amram and Jochabed (Ex.
5:20; Num. 26:59), end up in faith’s hall of fame because they
zrusted God to bring about deliverance. “By faith Moses’ parents hid
him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no
ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict” (Heb.
11:23, NIV). Faithfulness, expressed by ordinary people, produces
axtraordinary outcomes.
Second, God’s purposes, often unseen by human beings, are being
worked out in favor of God’s faithful people:
What quietly pulse What quietly pulses through so much of this
record is the remarkable providence of God. At every turn little
avents (or big ones!) forwarded the purposes of God in Israel and