Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Welcome to Hope for Today, a weekly Bible teaching program that will bring you hope for every day.
It is good to be with you today. Thanks for joining us as we begin our study in Exodus. This is our first lesson from this Old Testament book and as God led the children of Israel day by day, we also look for God's guidance each day and trust him for it. We are heralds of hope and we believe every book in the Bible is inspired by God and will give us a better understanding of him and his plan for us.
This belief leads us to prioritize Scripture in all we do. This starts inside on a personal level, then it works its way out in many of our day to day choices.
Teaching His Word and sharing it via radio is one result of our view of Scripture today. We begin in Exodus 1 and the title is Dealing with Threatening Conditions. It is a closer look at Pharaoh and what made him respond like he did to the children of Israel. We thank God that God is over all people and events. No matter what happens here, his purposes will not be derailed. Turn to Exodus 1 if you can and give your attention to Pastor J. Mark as we begin our study in Exodus.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: What do you do when you are facing a threat against your person or against your loved ones or your property?
You seek ways to protect what belongs to you, don't you?
Sure, that is only natural.
But what about people in power?
What do they do when they are faced with threatening conditions?
I have observed that people in positions of power use all kinds of means to protect themselves.
They may offer bribes to those who have negative information about their personal lives to keep them quiet. Or they may threaten them with personal harm if they expose the facts. They may also become very reactionary and have those who oppose them either imprisoned or even killed.
And so we ask the question, why do they react that way? And the reason is because they are filled with fear. They are afraid of losing their power, their prestige, their position, their perks or the benefits that go along with their position.
So anyone who is in their way they will treat with harshness and with contempt.
In the Book of Exodus, chapter one verse, verses eight through 22, we have the account of how one king, Pharaoh responded when his power was threatened by changing conditions.
And so I want to read this portion of the Scripture for you. If you can follow along in your Bible, that's great. If you can't, just listen. As I read Exodus chapter 1 and verses 8 to 22, here is the Word of God now there arose up a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we are.
Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply. And it come to pass that if war breaks out, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us. And so get them up out of the land.
Therefore they set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And the Egyptians were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor.
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage and mortar, and. And in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other was Puah.
And he said, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the birthing stools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live.
But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. But they saved the men children alive.
And the king of Egypt called for the midwives. And he said unto them, why have you done this thing? And have saved the men children alive?
And the midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are lively, and they are delivered before the midwives come to them.
Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.
From this scripture, I want to show you two basic tactics that men will use when their power is threatened so that you and I can be forewarned. And so we can also be encouraged.
Let's look at the text again and see how quickly that king Pharaoh responded like kings do to threatening conditions.
The first tactic he used was oppression.
Pharaoh wanted to keep the children of Israel in the land because they were performing a valuable service as his slaves.
And so he went out and counseled with his people. And he said, let us deal wisely with them.
He wanted to keep them because he said, if a war happens to break out they might join our enemies and fight against us. And then they will escape out of our land.
And so he aimed to build some kind of restraint around these people to keep them under his control.
Now, Pharaoh wanted to use the skills of the Hebrew workforce. And so he set over them taskmasters or supervisors. And he had them build two important treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses.
He wanted their building skills to make a monument for himself. And so he ordered these cities to be built.
Now, I am told there are still some ruins in Egypt. That look very much as though they had been these two cities that are referenced right here today. Some, like North Korea and China, use slave labor to extract the skills of the people that they oppress.
People are herded into camps or even into factories. And they're made to work long and hard.
Oftentimes, their food supplies and their housing are substandard. That is, they're inadequate.
But these politicians, like Pharaoh, don't care. They just don't want to lose the skills of the people.
So they oppress them.
Pharaoh made life bitter for these Hebrew slaves.
They served with rigor. The Hebrew word implies brutality and violence and ruthlessness.
And so their supervisors were extremely cruel.
Verse 14 tells us that the Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard bondage. In mortar and in brick. And in all manner of service in the field.
So they made them work extremely hard. And they denied them the comforts of life.
I'm guessing that they barely had enough to exist.
There are those in our world today who use those same tactics. It is an effort to make people submit.
You know, Satan is also a leader who uses oppression. But he is also a deceiver. He makes things look pleasurable, even inviting on the surface. But he does it to bring people into bondage. He's a cruel taskmaster, a cruel overseer.
He wants people to keep on serving him and helping to build his kingdom. And if you try to escape his kingdom, he will do all he can to make your life hard and bitter.
In this scripture text, oppression didn't really work. Because the scripture tells us the more Pharaoh afflicted the people of Israel, the more they multiplied and grew.
You know, there is a part of man which rises up when hardships come. And when oppression is applied, there is a part of man which rises up and will not be put down. It is his spirit, the human spirit.
But those in power will often use oppression in similar ways. As King Pharaoh did when he oppressed the Hebrews.
It is a pity that some looking in on those conditions. Don't really see the Truth.
Pharaoh went beyond oppression, and he used a second tactic, which. Which is suppression.
If oppression will not work, then suppression must be employed. And so Pharaoh commanded the midwives to kill all of the boy babies. He said to them, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrews, and you see that a son is born, you are to kill him. In other words, do away with him. Don't let the mother know. Just kill him. He wanted to suppress the growth of the male population.
There are leaders today who decree the murder of their opposition. Just wipe them out. Do away with them. Get rid of them in any way that's possible.
Reports come to us from certain countries where this is practiced today, the use of suppression. And one way that this happens is through forced abortion.
Certain genders or ethnic groups are aborted to preserve the power of a particular race of people.
We have global leaders today in government, in academia, and in big business who insist that our world is overpopulated. And they see people as the problem.
So they embrace abortion on demand under the euphemism of family planning, and they export that ideology to the developing countries of the world.
But you know something? Their real goal is simply to preserve the power they have and to continue to live their lavish lifestyles. But I tell you, ultimately, like Pharaoh, they will face the judgment of God.
You see, God will not be mocked. You can't disobey his commandments and hope to escape the consequences.
There are many passages of scripture that warn humanity of trying to escape God's judgment on their disobedience.
Pharaoh had to learn this the hard way.
Pharaoh commanded the midwives to kill all the boy babies or to drown them in the Nile river to get rid of them. There was no thought of pity, no thought of mercy.
His only thought was to preserve his position. So he was willing to use this extreme kind of violence to destroy the baby boys.
He thought he had figured out a foolproof way to get what he wanted. But his plan didn't work. Because the midwives feared God, they obeyed God's laws. They risked their lives to defy the order of the king. They refused to do what the king of Egypt commanded them.
Instead, they saved the male children alive.
They understood where the real source of power was. And because they feared God like that, he rewarded them. The text tells us that God gave them families. He honored their faithfulness to him by giving them children of their own.
It is encouraging to know that even today, some refuse to cooperate with this kind of suppression. In various countries around the world, they refuse because they understand that God's law is the highest authority.
They care for children who survive abortion or who are abandoned at birth.
They hide Christ followers from godless authorities who are seeking to arrest them. They care for the disabled and the disadvantaged, and that's because they see all human beings, regardless of race or ethnicity, as valuable because they are made in God's image.
When the godless powers face threatening conditions, there is no limit to their evil actions as they try to preserve their power. But those of us who look to God will risk our lives to be honest and true to him and to our fellow men.
So take heart the schemes of men and Satan will not ultimately succeed.
God will deliver the righteous either from threatening conditions or through them. Amen.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Thanks J. Mark for this teaching from Exodus and thank you for joining us. It is a privilege to study God's word and and grow in our walk with Jesus. Now let's take what we've heard and allow it to affect our lives. Jesus tells us about a wise man and a foolish man. The difference between these two was the wise man put what he heard into practice. The foolish man did not change his ways. Let's be like the wise man, not the foolish. We bless you as you follow Jesus and put his teaching into practice.
If you have any questions or if you would like today's teaching, please contact us and ask for it by title or passage. We also have a study guide available designed to help you learn more from each of these lessons in Exodus. It is called the Hope Herald and if you would like one, we would be happy to send you one.
Here are a few ways you can reach us. The quickest and easiest way is through email. Our email address is mailheraldsofhope.org if you don't have email, you could send us a letter. Send it to Hope for today, box 3, Breezewood, PA 15533. Another way you can contact us is through our website. Our website is heraldsofhope.org While you're there, please look around on our website for this teaching and other similar teaching. There you will also find other resources available from Herald of Hope. Again, the website is heraldsofhope.
We thank you again for joining us for today's program. I encourage you to join us again next week as we continue our journey through Exodus. We look forward to being with you then and we'll leave you with this thought from first Timothy. But you Child of God, pursue righteousness, Godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith.
Sa.
