Series: Exodus
Title: Christ in Moses’ Birth
Text: Exodus 1: 22-2: 1-10
Date: October 16, 2016
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Exodus 1: 22: And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
· Since the midwives did not carry out his orders, Pharaoh, charged all “his” people—the Egyptians who guarded the mid-wives.
· Every Hebrew son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
· Imagine how terrifying it would be to even know you were having a child.
Exodus 2: 1: And there went a man of the house of Levi, [Amram] and took to wife a daughter of Levi. [Jochebed] 2: And the woman conceived, and bare a son: [Miriam was around 15, Aaron was 3, now Moses] and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3: And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. 4: And his sister [Miriam] stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5: And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 6: And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. 7: Then said his sister [Miriam] to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 8: And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. [Moses’ mother, Jochebed] 9: And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. [Pharaoh’s daughter paid Moses’ mother to nurse her own child] 10: And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: [drawn out] and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
Everything that comes to pass in time is God working his eternal decree.
· In eternity, God decreed to exalt his Son, Christ Jesus.
· God decreed to save his elect through faith in Christ.
Proposition: God works all things in providence to exalt Christ and save his people as he decreed from eternity. We see God working all things in providence to show us this in a type.
Titled: Christ in Moses’ Birth
Divisions: 1) An example of faith, 2) Christ in the ark 3) God’s sovereignty in bringing all to pass
I. FIRST, WE SEE AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH IN CHRIST OUR DELIVERER—Exodus 2: [Amram and Jochebed married.] 2: And [Jochebed] conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
A. Herein Moses is a type of Christ. Moses was hidden in Egypt during his infancy and so was Christ (Mat_2:13).
Mat 2: 13…the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
B. God the Holy Spirit gives Moses’ parents as an example of faith. (Turn to Hebrews 11)
Hebrews 11: 23: By faith, Moses when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.
1. “By faith” “they saw”——they saw with the eye of faith; they discerned spiritually.
2. What did faith see?—(Turn to Acts 7)
Acts 7: 20: In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, [The margin reads “fair to God, it also means “God’s representative.”]
App. Christ is fair to God and in Christ, all God’s elect are fair to God even as Christ is fair to God. But here faith saw that Moses was fair to God as God’s representative—he would be the one through whom God would deliver Israel out of Egyptian bondage.
3. By telling us this was an act of faith we know God revealed this to them by his word because “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom 10: 17)
· They heard the word of God passed down from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
· They heard the word of God through Joseph that God would visit Israel and deliver them from bondage.
· It seems God declared to them that Moses was fair to God as the one through whom God would deliver Israel out of Egyptian bondage.
· Moses knew this later—Acts 7: 25: He supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them.
4. So by God’s word, by God’s grace, by God’s gift of faith, they believed God—faith saw Moses their deliverer.
B. Faith will be tried by God. This was a great trial.
1. This powerful, wicked Pharaoh commanded all the male babies be thrown in the river.
2. But faith believes God will save us by Christ our Deliverer, even when it appears otherwise to the natural senses. So faith obeys God rather than men.
Hebrews 11: 23: By faith, Moses,…was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.
App. All the examples in Hebrews 11 are examples of faith in great trial overcoming one way, by looking to Christ in faith.
Hebrews 12: 1: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, [the sin of unbelief] and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2: Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2)
II. SECONDLY, WE SEE CHRIST OUR DELIVERER IN THE ARK—Exodus 2: 3: And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.
A. The law of the land sought Moses and he could not be hidden from it. The all-knowing God and his strict justice seeks the sinner and we cannot hide from God and his law.
Job 4: 18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: 19 How much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? (Job 4:18-19)
Job 9: 2…how should man be just with God? 3: If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand…20: If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
Job 25:4: How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
B. The answer is in this ark of bulrushes—“she took for him an ark of bulrushes.”
1. By his unmerited grace, God took for his elect, Christ our Ark before this world was made.
2. It was a vessel made of “Bulrushes”—a reed so light, so pliable, vessels made of it could be folded up. The Son of God took for his people this light and pliable thing called flesh like unto his brethren.
Heb 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
3. She “daubed it with slime and with pitch”—she “smeared, befouled” the ark “with slime and with pitch”
· Christ took flesh that all the “slime” of his people’s iniquities might be laid on him, that he might be fouled with the sin of his people
· So God smeared him with the slime and pitch of the sins of his people
2 Cor 5: 21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
App. Brethren, we cannot comprehend the shame Christ bore for us on the cross as he owned our sin to be his own and the perfection of faith in his holy heart as he was made a curse and bore divine justice—all of which it took to save us from our sins. In the same Psalm 40, where Christ says,
Psalm 40: 7 …Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart….[Christ also said]…12:..innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. 13: Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me. (Ps 40:12-13)
C. “And she put the child therein”—
Note: We usually look at Moses as a type of the law. The only way the law could be upheld was by the law being in Christ and fulfilled by him on the cross!
1. But sticking with our type as a sinner saved by grace, Moses had no hand in any of this. Every sinner God saves is as helpless to save ourselves as the infanct, Moses, was.
Tit 3:5: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,…
Isa 57:12 I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
Ro 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
2. Moses did not even put himself in the ark, he was put in the ark by another. Likewise, before the world was made, God put his people in Christ our Ark.
1 Cor 1:29: That no flesh should glory in his sight. 30: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
2 Tim 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,…
D. “and she laid [the ark with the child inside] in the flags by the river’s brink.”—the river, like divine justice, only touched the ark.
Gal 3:13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
App. Being in Christ on the cross, divine justice fell only on Christ so that we died in him, but his elect did not have to suffer the condemnation we deserved.
III. LASTLY, BRIEFLY, WE SEE GOD’S SOVEREIGN PROVIDENCE TO EXALT CHRIST AND DRAW OUT HIS PEOPLE—Exodus 2: 4: And [Moses] sister [Miriam] stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5: And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; [God moved her to do that] and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. [God moved her to do that] 6: And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. [God turned her heart] 7: Then said [Moses] sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 8: And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. [God made her hear Miriam’s suggestion as a good idea] And the maid went and called the child’s mother. 9: And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. [God uses even our enemies to provide for his people] 10: And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. [Pharaoh’s greatest enemy was raised in Pharaoh’s house with Pharaoh’s resources—because God made it happen] And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
A. Pharaoh’s aim was to destroy Israel so they could never be delivered from him.
1. Yet, God used Pharaoh’s own daughter and his own resources—to provide the very best of everything for the very one who God would use to deliver Israel.
2. Not only that, God brought Moses to his own mother and had her paid out of Pharaoh’s house to raise her own child.
Job 5:13: He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
B. The very river of death that the devil and wicked men thought would destroy God’s church, was God’s way of exalting his Son and saving his church in him on Calvary’s cross.
1. Just as Moses was drawn out of the river, God raised our Savior and all his elect in him.
App. Seeing that is the case, brethren, rest assured, from the garden to this very minute until the end of time, while this wicked world is seeking to destroy God’s church, God is working all things—using even our enemies—
· to exalt Christ,
· to bring his children into his church,
· to provide for us and
· to deliver every last one of his elect children.
2. Everything that happens in time is God working out all His eternal decrees — “for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things” (<580210>Hebrews 2:10).
· From the least to the greatest actions,
· God is ordering and working everything for his own glory and the salvation of his people
3. Every elect child of God has been drawn out in Christ when he was raised!
· Is being drawn out in irresistible grace to faith in Christ
· And at last shall be drawn out of this world into heavenly glory!
AMEN!