God Cannot Be Thwarted

[0:00] We are in the book of Exodus for the first time today, so please turn your Bibles to the book of Exodus, the second book in the Old Testament, right after Genesis and right before Leviticus.

[0:18] And let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word. Heavenly Father, we tremble before your Word.

[0:30] For your Word is truth. For your Word is power of God for salvation. Because your Word is living and active.

[0:45] Because your Word is breathed out from your own mouth. And Lord, we want to hear you address us.

[1:04] Lord, we look forward to, we eagerly anticipate what you have in store for us in this book.

[1:18] So Lord, do the work that only you can do. Exalt the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, in our hearts.

[1:32] Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Help us to live in our identity as servants of God. In Jesus' name we pray.

[1:44] Amen. Exodus chapter 1. I'm going to read the whole chapter. Verses 1 to 22. It says, These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob.

[1:59] Each with his household. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin. Dan, and Naphtali. Gad, and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.

[2:13] Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died. And all his brothers. And all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly.

[2:25] They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

[2:38] And he said to his people, Behold, the peoples of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal surely with them lest they multiply.

[2:49] And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.

[3:01] They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramses. And the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad.

[3:12] And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick.

[3:24] And in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew woman and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him.

[3:47] But if it is a daughter, she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. But let the male children live.

[4:01] So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this? And let the male children live. 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.

[4:18] So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

[4:30] Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. This is God's holy and authoritative word.

[4:43] Just some introductory stuff since we're in the new book. Exodus is a loan word from the Greek word that means going out, or leaving, or departure.

[4:55] It comes from the Greek translation of Exodus 19, verse 1, which says, On the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

[5:07] So it refers to Israel's deliverance from Egypt, which was, in the Old Testament, the single greatest act of salvation that God had worked. But the original Hebrew title for the book is actually not Exodus.

[5:20] It's, And These Are the Names. It's not a creative title, because it's the first words of the book. The first words of the book are, And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household.

[5:34] So in the original, it begins with the conjunction, And, And These Are the Names, to show that it's a sequel to the book of Genesis. It's continuing the story that we have seen in the book of Genesis.

[5:46] And we were in the book of Genesis not that long ago, though I guess maybe it's been a couple years now. And that's why Exodus assumes a number of details that we can only learn from the book of Genesis.

[6:00] For example, Who are the sons of Israel? Why is Israel also called Jacob? How did they end up in Egypt? And where did they come from? Who is this person named Joseph?

[6:12] In verses 6 to 8. And why is it significant that a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph? So all that to say, Exodus is continuing the story of the sons of Israel that began in Genesis.

[6:25] And if you were with us through that sermon series in Genesis, you might recall that settling in a land that is not the promised land of Canaan is frowned upon all throughout the book of Genesis.

[6:38] It's always the people who are outside of the covenant promises of God that settle in places outside of Canaan. So throughout the book, God's chosen line of people, there are always sojourners in Canaan, the promised land, while those who are outside of that chosen line settle in various other places.

[6:57] So for example, Cain settles in the land of Nod. The inhabitants of Babel settled in Shinar. Genesis 13.12 tells us that while Abram settled in the land of Canaan, Lot settled in Sodom.

[7:11] And we know what happens to Sodom. It's destroyed. Later, Ishmael settles in the wilderness of Paran. And then in Genesis 36, it says that while Jacob remained in the land of his father's sojourning in the land of Canaan, Esau settled in the hill country of Seir.

[7:30] Why am I mentioning this? Because the only time in the book of Genesis when the people of God is said to have settled in a land other than the land of Canaan, the promised land, and it is okay, it is the book of Genesis.

[7:43] Sorry, it's in Egypt. And that's because it's a temporary arrangement. Given in chapter, it says in 47.27 that Israel settled in the land of Egypt.

[7:56] And that's because God had already predicted this, said that it would happen in Genesis 15. 13 to 14. He told Abram that his descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and that they will be servants there, and that they will be afflicted for 400 years.

[8:14] But then God promised that he will bring judgment upon that nation that they serve, and afterward that they would come out with great possessions. And so Joseph at the end of his life, at the very last paragraph, Genesis in chapter 50, he reminds his brothers of this promise of God and tells them, hey, when you are delivered from here, take my bones up with you from Egypt.

[8:36] So then Exodus is the fulfillment of that prophecy and promise from Genesis. And Exodus, like Genesis, is written by Moses.

[8:51] Throughout the New Testament, the first five books of the Old Testament, called collectively the Pentateuch, are mentioned frequently, and they're attributed to Moses. In Mark 12, 26 to 27, when Jesus answers the Sadducees who denied the reality of the resurrection of the dead, he said to them, as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

[9:21] He is not God of the dead, but of the living. So he is there citing Exodus 3, and he calls it a book of Moses. And four times throughout the book of Exodus, it self-notes, that the book itself notes that Moses was writing down what God was doing and what was happening throughout the book of Exodus.

[9:40] And so Moses is the author, the principal author, though I'm sure there have been other editors of the book. The dating is also clearly indicated by Scripture, when it was written, and at what time period the events in Exodus take place.

[9:55] So 1 Kings 6.1 gives us a very specific date. In the 480th year, after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build a house of the Lord.

[10:13] So according to that clue, the Exodus from Egypt was 480 years before Solomon's fourth year of reign over Israel, and we know that was 967 B.C.

[10:25] And so that puts the date of Exodus right around 1447 B.C. That's the time period when this was taking place. Now the book can be outlined in three parts.

[10:38] First chapters 1 to 18 speak of the salvation of the Lord. It's the retelling of the Exodus. Chapters 19 to 24 tell us about the law of the Lord.

[10:48] And then chapters 25 to 40 tell us about the presence of the Lord when the Israelites are instructed to build a tabernacle, the tent where God will come to dwell with them, among them.

[10:59] And so it's a story of how God delivers the Israelites and gives them the law to govern them, and then he dwells with them, with his presence in the tabernacle. And that basic outline of Exodus is taken up in the New Testament, fulfilled ultimately in Jesus and in the people of God, because Jesus accomplishes God's salvation through his life and through his death as the Passover lamb and through his resurrection.

[11:23] And then after his ascension, he sends the Spirit of God to set his people apart as holy, and then he writes the law of God upon the people's hearts. So there's the salvation and there's the law, and then finally when Jesus returns to judge the world, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and he will dwell forever with us.

[11:42] God's dwelling place will be with man. That's the presence of the Lord. And so that outline captures the main theme of the book of Exodus, namely that the Lord is present with his people as their Savior and King.

[11:56] That's what we're going to see over and over again throughout the book. And with that emphasis on the presence of God, we're seeing a partial and initial reversal of what happened at the fall, because God's people, Adam and Eve, were exiled from the Garden of Eden, removed from the presence of God, and now in Exodus they're starting to make their way back, though it's not fully there until Christ comes and then until Christ returns.

[12:22] And in this particular chapter, the first chapter that we fear God and not man, trusting that God's sovereign purposes will always prevail. So that was the outline of the book before, and then this is the outline of this chapter.

[12:36] And we're going to first look at the spread of Israel and the dread of Israel that falls upon Egyptians, and then finally the fear of the Lord. Let's first look at the spread of Israel in verses 1 to 7.

[12:47] Verse 1 says, And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household. Then verses 2 to 5 list the 12 sons of Jacob with the accession of Joseph who was already in Egypt, and then they tell us that all the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.

[13:05] But there's something interesting going on here because the phrase, all the descendants of Jacob, is literally all the persons coming out of Jacob's hip. That's a very interesting way to refer to someone's descendants.

[13:19] And that's intentional. Because if you recall from Genesis 32, while Jacob is wrestling with God, asking for his blessing, God in order to make Jacob stop, what does he do?

[13:31] He touches Jacob's hip, puts it out of joint. It's so that Jacob can't continue. But Jacob persists and asks God continually to bless him.

[13:43] And then that's when God gives Jacob a new name. And he says to him, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.

[13:55] It is then that Jacob receives that new name and becomes the father of the nation of Israel. It's now the people of God are finally becoming, kind of coming together and having its own identity as a people and as a nation.

[14:10] So Moses is alluding to that incident when he says that all the persons coming out of Jacob's hip were 70 persons. And that's why he also, in verse one, calls the sons of Jacob, the sons of Israel, to remind us of that promise that God had made.

[14:26] And that promise is now being fulfilled. 70 is not that many people, but it is a number that represents perfection in scripture. And here comes the nation of Israel.

[14:37] Now we get to watch them grow. Even though, as verse six tells us, Joseph died and all that generation with him, verse seven assures us, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly.

[14:51] They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. Look at how many words Moses uses to tell us of Israel's population explosion.

[15:02] They were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, grew exceedingly strong and the land was filled. With them. And that's no exaggeration. According to Numbers chapter one, verse 46, around the time of the Exodus, shortly afterward in the wilderness, there were 603,550 men over the age of 20.

[15:24] So that means the total population, you count the woman and the children, is likely in the millions, counting them all. And so from 70 to millions.

[15:37] And there's something else that Moses is telling us here also, besides the fact that the nation of Israel grew very numerous. Do these words ring a bell, kind of remind you of any verses from scripture?

[15:49] Fruitful, increased, greatly, multiply, filled. They're echoing God's creation mandate to Adam and Eve in Genesis 128 and his mandate to Noah after the flood in Genesis 9, 1-2.

[16:07] Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. So then, the chosen people of God are fulfilling God's command to humanity what the rest of the world was not fulfilling.

[16:22] God's initial blessing to humanity is now continuing through the nation of Israel. So this is also a fulfillment of a promise. It's also a fulfillment of the specific promises that God had given to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because he said to them numerous times throughout the book of Genesis that I will bless you and make you a nation and your offspring will be as numerous as the stars of the heavens, as the dust of the earth, and as the sand of the seashore.

[16:51] And that's now being fulfilled. That's all great, but here comes the conflict of the story. Verse 8 says, Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

[17:05] The word know in Hebrew has a range of meaning. It could refer merely to kind of surface knowledge about a person, but it can also refer to intimate relational knowledge of a person.

[17:18] So this doesn't necessarily mean that this Pharaoh knew nothing of Joseph, though it can mean that. But even if Pharaoh knew something of Joseph, he didn't care about him.

[17:31] In the same way, people might say to someone, Who are you? Not because the identity of that person is unknown, but as a way of dismissing them or ignoring them.

[17:42] So this new king over Egypt did not know Joseph. The way that Joseph, as a powerful ruler, second only to Pharaoh, had delivered Egypt and its surrounding nations from the seven years of severe famine with the guidance of God and wise stewardship, that memory is now distant.

[18:03] This king feels no obligation whatsoever to Joseph and his progeny, his people, the Israelites. So this prepares the way for verses 9 to 10. And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.

[18:20] Come, let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply, and if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Notice how Pharaoh shrewdly uses this us versus them mentality, that contrast.

[18:35] He says to his people that those people, the people of Israel, are too many and too mighty for us. The descendants of Jacob, think about this, the descendants of Jacob have been living in Egypt for almost 400 years.

[18:52] It's longer than our country has been around. And still, the king of Egypt does not consider the Israelites his people. Instead, he sees them as a security risk, a potential threat to his rule, so he stirs up xenophobia among his own people.

[19:12] He stokes their fear of losing power, and then he turns them against the people of God. This is a common tactic used by rulers to this day.

[19:24] Look at how numerous they have become. Look at how powerful they have become. They are not one of us. We must contain them. We must control them.

[19:37] We must send them to concentration camps to re-educate them. That's how the Holocaust was justified. Six million Jews killed in Nazi Germany throughout Europe.

[19:53] That's how the Armenian genocide was justified, where 1.2 million Armenians, many of them Christians, were killed in the Ottoman Empire. That's how the Rwandan genocide was justified, where 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutus.

[20:09] That's how the Rohingya genocide was justified, with 25,000 Muslim Rohingya were killed when they were killed by the Burmese military. It goes without saying, but eliminating people who are unlike us is never the way to try to preserve our cultural influence or societal power.

[20:29] even if wicked rulers go to Zahn. In setting himself and his people against the people of Israel, Pharaoh puts himself in direct opposition to God himself.

[20:43] Because as I mentioned earlier, in Genesis 15, God had promised to Abram that his descendants will come out of the land of affliction after 400 years of sojourning. And anticipating this, remember Joseph said to take my bones out with you, but that's precisely what Pharaoh is trying to prevent.

[21:00] He doesn't want the Israelites to leave the land. It's interesting, right? On the one hand, he feels threatened by them, but on the other hand, he doesn't want them to leave. So what's going on is he wants them to be just big enough for him to be able to abuse them and use them for labor, but he wants them to be just small enough that they'll never be a real threat to his rule.

[21:19] So he wants to control them. So Pharaoh reduces Israel to back-breaking slave labor as a way of subjugating them and controlling the population.

[21:34] He says in verses 11 to 12, therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramses, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad and the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

[21:53] The Israelites are sent to forced labor camps to build store cities for Pharaoh and by reducing the Israelites to slave labor, the Egyptians are trying to break their spirit and strength.

[22:06] They're treating them like cattle, thinking perhaps that they can tame and control them like livestock, hoping perhaps that if they exhaust them with work that they would stop having so many children.

[22:20] But ironically, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied because it's the promise of God. The Egyptians learned very quickly that God cannot be thwarted.

[22:34] God's plans always prevail. And in Genesis 9, I mentioned this earlier, of God's command to Noah to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

[22:46] God also said to Noah in that same passage, the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every birds of the heavens and upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea.

[23:01] Into your hand they are delivered. So it's ironic. Here the Egyptians are treating the Israelites like cattle, like slaves, but instead it's the Egyptians that become like the beasts of the earth who stand now in dread of them.

[23:18] If we fear God and fear no man, those who oppose God and his purposes will stand in dread of us. The Egyptians are spooked because the Israelites continue to grow so they redouble their efforts to oppress them.

[23:33] It says in verses 13 to 14, they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service. In mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field in all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

[23:46] Notice the repetition, the verses, verses 13 and 14, they begin and end with the statement that the Egyptians ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves.

[23:59] And that frames the middle section in that they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick in all kinds of work in the field. Many of us having grown up with much freedom and much comfort, we don't know what it's like to be made bitter with hard service.

[24:21] To do work that is so intensive and unrelenting that it literally breaks our back, drives us to despair. Brick making was that kind of labor.

[24:34] There's ancient literature that mock brick makers because they were always muddy and always miserable. That's what the Egyptians forced the Israelites to do. And in this short span of two verses, there are five words that contain the Hebrew root for serve.

[24:53] The word slave, the word service, the word work, they're all variations of the same Hebrew word for serve. And this is significant because the book of Exodus poses this question again and again.

[25:06] Will the Israelites be servants of Pharaoh or will they be servants of the Lord? And that's why in his confrontation with Pharaoh, God says over and over again, let my people go that they may serve me.

[25:25] And here again then, we see Pharaoh standing in direct opposition to God's purposes. He wants Israel to serve him rather than God.

[25:39] He forces Israel to make store cities but later, God will liberate Israel to commission them to build his tabernacle. The word tabernacle and store city in the Hebrew sound almost exactly the same and are spelled almost exactly the same.

[25:55] So there's a contrast there also. The Israelites should not be reduced to slave labor serving Pharaoh and building his store cities because they belong to the Lord and should be serving the Lord and building his tabernacle.

[26:11] who are you serving? Who are you working for? Are you merely building storehouses of man?

[26:32] Or are you building God's house? You might be working hard to build a company or a career but what are you doing to build up God's people?

[26:48] His church? His temple? Is your life dominated by your work to the neglect of the worship of God? Even when you work you are not ultimately to work for man or for yourself but you are to work for God as an act of worship.

[27:10] Colossians 3 23 24 says whatever you do work heartily ask for the Lord and not for man knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

[27:23] If you work only for men you will not work as you ought to. You might cut corners and slack off and no one's looking or you might overwork and enslave yourself to man because you're expecting to receive your reward from man and not from God.

[27:45] Are you living as a servant of man or as a servant of God? Pharaoh is thwarted again in his efforts to control Israel so he resorts to even greater atrocities he says in verses 15 to 16 then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew woman and see them on the birthstool if it is a son you shall kill him but if it is a daughter she shall live.

[28:17] After enslaving God's people and exploiting them the wicked king resorts to infanticide and then he tries to hide it. He commands the Jewish midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill the male babies when they are born.

[28:34] If they are probably not the only Hebrew midwives because if that was the case they would have been really really busy. But Pharaoh doesn't need to command all the midwives to do that right?

[28:49] Because his goal is not the extermination of the Jews it's control population control so he wants enough Jews to press into service but not so many to risk rebellion so even if only two midwives cooperate he could kill a significant number of male babies Hebrew babies over time limiting and he could in doing so also limit the number of people who are in the know and keep himself from being exposed in his sinister plot.

[29:20] And why male babies? Because the line the family tradition passes on through the men in this culture Egyptian men can take the Hebrew woman but if the Hebrew men continue to marry Hebrew woman then that line that family that identity continues presumably he expected the midwives to kill the babies without being detected coming to acting like they're helping with the birth and then the unthinkable act I'm sorry the baby didn't make it.

[30:02] which was common neonatal deaths were more common back in those days it's a wicked plan and he's turning the Hebrew midwives against their own people and violating the king's command of course would have dire circumstances and so these Hebrew midwives have to decide for themselves whether they will preserve their own careers their own livelihoods perhaps their own lives or save the male babies that they have in order to kill and verse 17 to 21 tell us what happens next but the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them but let the male children live so the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them why have you done this and let the male children live 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 that's a way to rub it in his face so God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong and because the midwives feared

[31:11] God he gave them families Shiphrah and Pua's defiance of Pharaoh is a display of remarkable courage because remember that Pharaohs were treated like gods in those days had absolute power in their nation Rachmire who served as prime minister under Pharaohs Thutmose the third and Amenhotep the second in the 15th century BC describes the Pharaoh this way quote what is the king of upper and lower Egypt he is a god by whose dealings one lives the father and mother of all men alone by himself without an equal that's what Shiphrah and Pua are up against David and Goliath situation certainly except a lot worse since verse 21 tells us that God gave Shiphrah and Pua families in response to their obedience to him at the time of the Pharaoh's command they did not have families so they didn't have husbands to protect them or look after them maybe they were young women or single girls or maybe widows

[32:22] Shiphrah is a Hebrew name that means fair or beautiful and Pua is a Canaanite name that means little girl here are Shiphrah and Pua the fair girl and the little girl defying one of the most powerful man most powerful ruler in the ancient world and how were they able to stand up to Pharaoh twice this passage tells us because in verse 17 verse 21 they feared God they were not controlled by the fear of Pharaoh because they feared God if you grew up by the ocean swimming in its waves you're not going to be afraid to swim among the ripples in the pond this doesn't mean that Shiphrah and Pua were terrified of God it's referring to their reverence their acknowledgement of

[33:25] God's authority and power it's the fear that constrains them to live with integrity knowing that all that they do ultimately is accountable to God to fear the Lord is to live in humility before the presence of under the authority of and then for the glory of God Proverbs 29 25 to 26 says this the fear of man lays a snare but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe many seek the face of a ruler but it is from the Lord that a man gets justice so Shiphrah and Pua knew that they did not seek the face of Pharaoh they sought the face of the Lord God and sought his protection and his justice instead of fearing man they feared God and trusted in him if we want to stand up to crooked bosses and rulers we too need to cultivate the fear of the Lord if we want to serve the Lord we must fear him and not men and Shiphrah and Pua are rewarded for their fear of

[34:33] God verse 21 says and because the midwives feared God he gave them families families in Hebrew the phrase is literally he gave them houses because house can represent the household and the word also sets up a wonderful contrast because the term Pharaoh literally means the great house it originally referred to the palatial estate of Pharaoh of the Egyptian king and then eventually it came to refer to the king himself so here Shiphrah and Pua defy the great house and receive houses from the Lord themselves if you guys are into history maybe some of you are wondering at this point who this infamous Pharaoh is because Egyptians kept a pretty good record of their kings and it is possible by corroborating historical and architectural data with what scripture tells us to identify the most likely candidate but I'm not going to tell you the name because scripture doesn't tell us you'll search in vain through the chapters of

[35:43] Exodus for any name of Pharaoh none of the Egyptian kings are named in the book of Exodus but God is named Yehovah the Pharaoh is not named but guess who else is named Shiphrah and Pua the Hebrew midwives are named in Exodus chapter 1 surely Moses if he knew the name of those two midwives would have known who the Egyptian king was but he doesn't name him to make a theological point because from God's eternal point of view this Pharaoh however powerful he may have been is an anonymous non-entity but these Hebrew midwives they are his precious daughters the heroes of the story from God's point of view so that children can be named after them so their names are here your name might never be found among the who's who lists of the world you might not make it to any kind of hall of fame but I can assure you that almighty

[36:59] God creator of the universe is not impressed with those lists what ultimately counts is not whether or not you are known by man but whether or not you are known by God whether or not he has called you by name Isaiah 43 verse 1 says now thus says the Lord he who created you old Jacob he who formed you oh Israel fear not for I have redeemed you I have called you by name you are mine the book of revelation mentions again and again a book called book of life on which is written the name of God's chosen people the names that the Lord Jesus will confess before his father and before his angels saying these belong to the kingdom they belong to me

[37:59] I have saved them but anyone whose name is not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire is your name written in that book if you want your name in the book of life of the lamb who was slain you must confess the name of that lamb the Lord Jesus Christ Pharaoh is even more upset and so at the end of this chapter one he resorts to even greater atrocity he says then Pharaoh commanded all his people every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile but you shall let every daughter live now he's indiscriminate not just the ones that the midwives happened to find all the male babies take them down 1500 years or so later another king would try to do the same to try to wipe out the seed of Israel to try to kill the Messiah who was born King Herod tries to kill the male babies but

[39:01] Jesus like Moses his forerunner the one who foreshadowed him Jesus survives by God's to fulfill God's sovereign purposes and this Jesus lives the life of perfect obedience and then he dies on the cross for our sins to pay the penalty for our rebellion against God we are described in scripture as enemies of God but Romans 5 10 says while we were enemies like Pharaoh we were reconciled to God by the death of his son Jesus the son of God became a son of man and died for our sins on the cross as our representative as our substitute and it's by his death and by his resurrection that he reconciles us to God even though we've been rebelling against him as every bit as much as the Egyptians as Pharaoh himself if you're here today and you have not confessed the name of Jesus

[40:04] I urge you to confess the name of the Lord Jesus he promises us in Matthew 10 verse 32 everyone who acknowledges me before men I also will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven acknowledge the name of Christ confess him as your Lord and Savior and our good Lord will call you by name and you will find your name indelibly written in the book of life forevermore let's pray God we rejoice this evening that our names are written in the book of life ours are the names that should have been blotted out from history never remembered because we are rebels guilty of treason sinners against the most high

[41:08] God who has done nothing but good for us and yet Lord you have been so gracious and merciful to us thank you for sending Jesus to save us thank you for engraving our name in your book through our faith in Jesus thank you for knowing us intimately calling us by name and leading us every day of our lives so that we need not fear any man help us to live in the fear of the Lord always in Jesus name we pray amen