Exodus 2:11-25

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It's where every day you and I, we get together, have a little bit of coffee, get into God's word and grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis to Leviticus. Today, we're at Exodus chapter two. Why don't we have some coffee?
We'll pray and we'll jump into God's word. Let's pray. Father, you are an amazing God. You've given us your word, and you've given us your spirit. We pray now that you would help us and teach us. We pray that we would walk in your ways, that we would understand your word, and that it would impact our lives forever. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, we're at Exodus chapter two. Exodus chapter two. And we'll read verses 11 through 25. 11 through 25, here we go.
Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, I mean he's a grown man, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting. And he said to the one who did the wrong, Why are you striking your companion? Then he said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? So Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. When Pharaoh heard this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
Now the priests of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. When they came to Ruel, their father, he said, How is it that you have come so soon today? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew water, enough water for us and watered the flock.
So he said to his daughters, And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread. Then Moses was content to live with the man. And he gave Zephora his daughter to Moses, and she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger in a foreign land. Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died.
Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out. And their cry came up to God because of the bondage. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do, right? So there's really a few things happening here, and man, is it a zoom, fast forward type story.
We went from Moses being a baby boy to him being weaned, given to Pharaoh, and now he's a grown dude. He's a type of guy that could fight with someone bare hand and kill him. He goes out and he sees an Egyptian beating one of his own brethren, one of the Hebrew slaves, and he kills him. He clears away, makes sure nobody's around. Knocks him off, buries him in the sand, thinks he's gotten away with it. And then he goes out the next day and he sees two Hebrews fighting against each other.
Moses had been filled with this idealistic view of his Hebrew brethren. It reminds me of things that I would hear about with the Black Panther Party and stuff like this, you know, the type of camaraderie and things. But it doesn't just happen to be even that. I mean, gangs and stuff like that do this, right? high ideal of camaraderie and perfect union.
And then people turn against each other. He sees them fighting against each other. He said, what are you guys doing? And the guy's got no, no patience for Moses, right? You're going to kill me like you did that dude. Moses realizes jig is up. He's been discovered and he knows that he's going to be a wanted man. The Pharaoh is going to want his own head. He has to get out of Dodge. So he flees. Flees through the desert, flees to the other side of Sinai, goes all the way to Midian. And there in Midian, he's got enough size to fend off a couple guys and to help some ladies water their sheep.
They go home, they tell their dad, here is Ru'al, later on his name is Jethro. People always have nicknames it seems. He goes home, the girls go home, they tell dad. Dad's like, how did you guys get your chores done so early? This dude helped us. He said, why did you bring him home? That's the type of guy you want to have around.
So they bring him home and Moses is willing to live with him. And then what does he do? He gives him a daughter, Zephora, and they have they have a son. He names him Gershom. Right. He's he's he's in exile himself. And so he goes out. And as he's out in exile, God's people cry to him. And this is where I want to lean into.
Some people will hear about covenant theology and they'll hear about the covenant of grace. They'll hear about these things and they'll say, oh, you're just imposing this on the scriptures. I'm going to suggest to you That is not that we impose it on the scriptures, we're just not satisfied with a bare moralistic story. But we read and listen to what God says.
And here, in verse 23 and 24, it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Right. The one who had wanted even Moses's head. And the children of Israel groan because of the bondage, and they cried out and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning. Right. And that's where most of the time the story stops. But that's not the that's not it. It's not just that God hears their groaning. But there's a reason he must respond.
And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God had made a promise, and He had verified that promise, sealed that promise with an oath upon His own name, because He could swear by nothing greater. And because of the promises that He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He was going to make it good. He remembers his promises, even though the people have been in slavery.
And God looked upon the children of Israel and acknowledged them. This, yes, this is a story. This is the story of Moses and how he's sent in the exile, leaves Pharaoh's house and gets to Midian. But it's also the story of God remembering his covenant. Here's Israelites. He remembers his covenant. He acknowledges them and he's going to do something about it What's the best verse to summarize this? Well in my bible no surprise here. I have verse 24 double underlined But I also have some other stuff single underlined. You can tell me what you have in your bible.
Lastly see calling What are we called to do? Cry out to god in your affliction He does hear us Cry out to God when things are hard. He remembers his promises. Cry out to God when there is oppression and difficulties. For he hears us and he cares for us.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that this is not just a story. But this is the story of your redemption, your covenant faithfulness. We come to the scriptures and we learn about who you are. And Father, we pray that you would please work in our hearts. That we would trust you, love you, walk in your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.