The End of the Beginning

[Scripture reading for the day is at the end of this post.] Well, our summertime series on Genesis is officially done… but the story we began hasn’t ended yet, so let’s keep going with the Old Testament for a few more weeks!

Today’s sermon is called “The End of the Beginning” because we are at the end of the book of Genesis, and the word ‘genesis’ means ‘beginning’ – and also because we are at the beginning of the end of Israel’s time in Egypt.

For a quick recap – so far we have seen the faith of Abraham, who believed God’s promise that he would be the father of a nation. The apostle Paul says in Romans, “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:3) So Abraham sets an example for us as we trust God’s word to be the foundation of our lives.

We saw the same faith in Isaac. We’ve seen Isaac’s children – Esau and Jacob – fighting with each other, and cheating each other, and behaving as if they didn’t really believe God’s promises. In spite of this Jacob is blessed with two wives and 12 children and many herds and flocks. But when his beloved wife Rachel dies in childbirth, Jacob sets his heart on the two sons she gave him: Joseph and Benjamin.

And we’ve seen Joseph’s story: how his jealous brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, how he rose to power in the service of Pharaoh, and how he saved thousands of lives during the great famine – including the lives of his own family, who came to Egypt looking for food.

One thing I want to point out about Joseph before we move on to Exodus. Just like Abraham sets us an example of faith, Joseph’s life can be understood as a prophecy of the Messiah. There are parallels between the life of Joseph and the life of Jesus that gave ancient Israel – and give us – a picture of what the Messiah will look like.

Here are just a few of the parallels:

• In Egypt, Joseph was thrown into jail when he was falsely accused by someone in his own household (Potiphar’s wife) and then turned over to a foreign legal system and a foreign prison. Jesus was thrown into jail when he was falsely accused by one of his own (Judas) and turned over to a foreign legal system and a foreign prison.
• The formal accusation against Joseph was the very thing he did NOT do (sleeping with his master’s wife). The formal accusation against Jesus was also the very thing he did NOT do (trying to take over the throne of the Jewish nation. The charge nailed over his head on the cross read: “King of the Jews” – but Jesus said “my kingdom is not of this world”. They weren’t listening.)
• Joseph descended into jail and ministered to people while he was there; Jesus, in between his death and resurrection, descended into hell and ministered to the people there. Both Joseph and Jesus work to set the captives free.
• Joseph is raised from jail and made king over all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. Jesus is raised from the dead and is “seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”
• Those who sinned against Joseph – his brothers – came to him in their need and were reconciled; those who sin against God – we who are Jesus’ brothers and sisters – come to Jesus in our need and are reconciled.

So we see the Gospel message in the life of Joseph, embedded right here in the Old Testament.

With this in mind, today’s reading begins with some very significant words. It says: “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph”.

It goes without saying this Pharaoh didn’t know Joseph personally. Between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus 350 years have passed, so nobody is still alive who knew Joseph personally. But Joseph was an important figure in Egypt’s history: Joseph saved Egypt from a seven-year famine. And in the process Joseph made Pharaoh – and by extension, Egypt – exceedingly rich.

During the famine years, people spent all their money buying food, and that money went to Pharaoh. When they ran out of money, the people sold their land – and the land went to Pharaoh. When they ran out of land, the people sold – essentially themselves, that is, their labor – and the benefits of that labor went to Pharaoh. Some people became temporary servants, others became slaves – but all of them belonged to Pharaoh. So Pharaoh benefited richly from Joseph’s work.

But now 350 years have passed. In the in-between time, Egypt has seen internal unrest, assassinations, a rebellion here and there, a few Pharaohs who didn’t live more than a year or two after they took the throne. And in the process of all this, many of the people who had sold themselves into slavery under Joseph took advantage of the confusion and fled the country.

Meanwhile what had started as a temporary economic necessity under Joseph – that is, a work-for-food program during the famine – had become an institution of slavery that Egyptians felt entitled to: slavery, which was accompanied by unspeakable cruelty and prejudice (as we have seen in our own nation’s history).

350 years have passed since Joseph. To put that into perspective for us: 350 years ago, the city of Brooklyn, New York was chartered. The first human blood transfusion was performed. Sir Isaac Newton saw an apple fall to the ground and discovered gravity. And Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, was born.

When you put it that way, 350 years doesn’t sound all that long. Our reading says this new Pharaoh “didn’t know Joseph”. Today, if you said “this person doesn’t know Sir Isaac Newton” or “this person doesn’t know the Wesleys” you wouldn’t be saying “they never met” – you’d be saying either “this person is not very well educated” or you’d be saying “This person doesn’t care what Newton says” or “doesn’t care what the Wesleys think”.

So if this Pharaoh doesn’t know Joseph – was it a lack of education? No. Egypt was, and still is, one of the most highly-educated nations in human history. So if this Pharaoh doesn’t know Joseph, it’s because he chooses not to know.

And people who ignore history do not lead nations well. And that’s exactly what happened here. Exodus tells us:

[Pharaoh said to his people], “Look, the Israelites are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” (Exodus 1:9-10)

Pharaoh is choosing to lead his people by setting them against each other. First he divides them by national heritage. But after 350 years all the people who came to Egypt during the famine now think of themselves as Egyptians! (Our own country hasn’t even existed for 350 years yet, and all of us think of ourselves as Americans, no matter what country our families came from.)

But Pharaoh divides the people by heritage. And then speaking to the native-born Egyptians, he instills fear of the ‘other’ – that is, anyone with foreign roots. He makes the people afraid by saying ““they” are more numerous and more powerful than we are”. Is this true? No! – not yet anyway. But he says it and they believe it.

And then Pharaoh institutes a policy of legalized discrimination “or else “they” will increase”. And he rationalizes it by talking about national security: he says, “otherwise they will join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land”. (We can almost hear Pharaoh saying “we’re taking back Egypt for the Egyptians!”)

Nowhere is there any indication that the Hebrews were causing any problems or trying to leave Egypt. They were happy enough there, at least until this Pharaoh came to power. But – as we have seen in the lives of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob – God is behind the scenes, advancing God’s kingdom. And in a move of great irony, God uses Pharaoh’s own plans to ‘keep the Israelites down’ to inspire the people of Israel to rise up and leave Egypt.

But we’re not there yet. For now, Pharaoh sets up taskmasters over the Israelites and puts them to hard labor, making bricks, and cutting stone, and building cities. But God is with the people in their oppression, and their numbers increase even more. Now the native-born Egyptians really are afraid, because the tactics are backfiring. Oppression only makes the people of Israel stronger.

And then we come to the birth of Moses, who will be the deliverer of Israel Background note: Moses will be 80 years old when he leads Israel out of Egypt. So the hardships described in today’s reading continued for 80 years. This downhill spiral lasted for three generations. So by the time of the Exodus, slavery will be all the younger generations have ever known. And that’s significant, because (1) they will have a hard time trusting a savior. They will have a hard time believing anybody can set them free… and (2) once set free, they won’t know quite what to do with their freedom (which helps explain things like the golden calf).

There’s a parallel to this in our own time. Human beings, all of us, are slaves to sin. In the gospel of John, Jesus says, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34) and none of us is perfect yet. So all of us have been slaves all our lives, and so has every generation before us. So when the Savior Jesus comes along, we have a hard time trusting, just like the Israelites did. We have a hard time believing that freedom can actually be ours. And so often we find ourselves saying, as it says in scripture, “Lord I believe; help my unbelief”.

And like ancient Israel, when we are set free, we don’t always know quite what to do with our freedom. Most of Paul’s letters in the New Testament deal with this problem. When we are set free by faith in the Lord Jesus, the law is fulfilled, and all things become permissible. But Paul says in I Corinthians:

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. […] The body is meant for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. (I Corinthians 6:12-13 edited)

So whatever we do in our bodies becomes united to Christ. We are free; but we must use that freedom in harmony with the Lord who saved us. This is a hard lesson for us, and it will be a hard lesson for the children of Israel.

But we’re not to the Exodus yet… so back to our story.

So the Israelites are multiplying in Egypt and growing strong under their oppression, which makes sense, because those who survive oppression by definition will be the strong ones. So Pharaoh tells the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male babies. But the midwives feared God, and disobeyed the king’s command.

When Pharaoh questions them about their disobedience, the midwives say “the Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women: they are vigorous and they deliver before we can get there!” (Which fits neatly into the Egyptian stereotype that “the Hebrews are stronger than we are”!)

So Pharaoh changes the law: he says every boy baby must be thrown into the Nile.

I imagine at this point the decent people among the Egyptians must have known Pharaoh was wrong. When they saw those babies floating in the river their hearts must have gone out to the Hebrew people. I imagine Moses was probably not the only child pulled out of the river by Egyptians.

But there was one particular baby who caught the eye of Pharaoh’s daughter. She sees him floating in the Nile and decides to adopt him as her own son. I imagine Pharaoh was none too thrilled about being presented with a Hebrew grandbaby, but his daughter loved this child. And, guided by God, the baby’s quick-thinking sister sets it up with Pharaoh’s daughter so that his mother is paid to nurse her own child!

And Pharaoh’s daughter named the baby “Moses” because, she said, “I drew him out of the water.” The word ‘Moses’ in Hebrew means ‘to draw out’ – which is where she got the name. But in a twist of irony – and in a twist of prophecy – the form of the Hebrew word she used actually means he who draws out (not he who is drawn out). This baby will draw out his people from Egypt and out of slavery.

God’s plan continues. God is in charge of history, and that never changes.

This we can trust: God has a plan for creation. God had a plan back then and still does now. History has a goal. The human race has a destination. The destination is not “progress” as the world thinks of it. The destination of history is not a thing or a set of morals but a person – the person of Jesus Christ. God is guiding all of history to the focal point of our Lord Jesus.

No matter what the Israelites see around them – and no matter what we see around us – God doesn’t change. So as we go out into the world this week, and in the weeks ahead, fear not! – our times are in God’s hands. Our job is to be alert and aware, and to do whatever good we can, guided by the Spirit. Take Moses’ sister as an example: she watched over her brother, and when Pharaoh’s daughter found him, offered to find a nurse for her brother. Likewise we also need to be watching for opportunities… because in these difficult times, God has something for us to do.

Let’s pray… Lord, the news we see and hear is not good and seems to be getting worse by the day. Calm our fears; help us to trust and hope in you; and help us to know what you would have us do, to give help to your people and to sustain life in a world obsessed with death. Thank you Lord Jesus for being our Joseph, and our Moses. AMEN.

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Scripture Reading:
Exodus 1:8 – 2:10 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 19 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.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

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Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church, Hill Top United Methodist Church, and Fair Oaks Retirement Community, 8/27/17
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