0:00 Before we do anything, as we start this new book, let's ask the Lord to lead us verse by verse. Can we do that? Let's pray together. Father, we pray that precious hymn together. Holy Spirit, truth divine, dawn upon this soul of mine.
0:21 Word of God and inward light. Cleanse my spirit and clear my sight. And Father, we pray that as we explore this holy book, that You would speak to us verse by verse. We pray for the anointing as said in first John chapter two, the anointing that teaches us. And so, Lord, we just pray right now that you would open our eyes and our hearts to know what you wanna tell us.
0:51 Lord, that we would see the faithfulness of who you are. We would see your goodness. We would see who we are without you and who we are with you. And, Lord, we just ask that there would be clarity. There would be discussion that is free from error, and there would be, Lord, a humility to learn from one another.
1:08 Father, we need your presence, and we pray that you would make it known tonight. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. So we we explore Genesis, and the last portion of our journey was focused on Joseph. But there is one area that we did not have necessarily the time to explore, and will take a little bit of the time today to do that.
1:38 And arguably one of the greatest types in the Old Testament pointing to Jesus, one of the greatest foreshadowings of the person in the ministry of Jesus is Joseph. I mean the details are are everywhere and and they all point to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now we have to be careful with types. Types are the things that we see, the people that we see, almost even the imagery that we see in the Old Testament that points to Jesus because there are those that we can call hyper typers. They type everything.
2:13 This is a type of Christ. It's like, hold on, relax. It's not necessarily a type of Christ. And so some people tend to allegorize anything to just sound deep and spiritual. Oh, this is Jesus.
2:23 Did you know that this was Jesus? Like, no, that's not Jesus. That's just, that's just what it is. And so there are those that are called hypertypers, but there's also just the obvious that when you read it, you're like this this obviously points to Jesus and it stirs our hearts because it makes us see that this entire book centers on him. It points to him.
2:44 So this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna refresh our memory a little bit going all the way back to Genesis 37 where we see Joseph or introduced to Joseph. And right now, we're gonna discuss and some of you may know certain elements and some of you may not, but for the sake of discussion, for the sake of exploring the treasures of this type of Christ Where do you see Joseph being a picture of Christ? We're going to open it up Where do you personally see Joseph as a type of Christ? When you're ready, just lift up your hand and just let us know.
3:14 Yeah. Evan? Forgiveness of transgressions. Forgiveness of transgressions? Yes.
3:21 Yeah. Gil? Sorry? Yeah. You wanted to say what that is?
3:27 Well, what the text is about, how that points to Christ? So even the evil that was done to Joseph, God turned around for good, how does that point to Christ? What was done to Christ end up turning on the enemy's head? Absolutely. He was sold for silver.
4:01 So he's a type of savior. Absolutely. Yes.
4:05 Fear of death over, fleshly passions.
4:10 Joseph resisted temptation. Jesus resisted temptation. Though Joseph was not perfect, there is a picture there. Absolutely. Yes, Aliyah and Evan?
4:20 He was faithful even though he was falsely accused of Nazareth.
4:24 Joseph was falsely accused. Was Jesus falsely accused? Absolutely, he was. Yes, you?
4:36 Yes. The father adopted the children, Manasseh and Ephraim, and the father adopts us in Christ. Yes. They stripped his garment. They stripped Joseph's garment.
4:52 Yes. And they stripped Jesus as well. Absolutely. Do you have it now, Evan?
4:56 Yeah. It's for for foretelling the future. Yes. Joseph totally opens in his life that Jesus foretold himself.
5:02 Okay. Yeah. So So this ability to prophesy and foretell of the future. Mhmm. Yeah.
5:08 don't know if anyone said this, but he operated in wisdom.
5:11 Yeah. He did operate in wisdom. Absolutely. That's a great insight. Joseph and Jesus.
5:17 I'm not saying that the pharaoh is God the father, but Joseph was second in command over basically the entire world.
5:23 No. There there is a picture of pharaoh being almost God the father in some scenarios. And this is why we have to be careful with types. But remember, it's just a it's a shadow, it's a picture, it's not literal but there is yes, Joseph became second in command like Christ sitting at the right hand. Yeah.
5:39 Yeah. Both were 30. Right? Both were 30. These are And the other insight think.
5:51 You can even flip through your pages and look at certain details of how Joseph points to jesus. Think all the way to the beginning of Joseph. Think about the details that He was
6:10 the father. He was loved by the father. Was Joseph a firstborn? Jesus was firstborn. Right?
6:24 What was Joseph's occupation in the beginning? Shepherd. It's
6:35 Provided food for the nation.
6:37 Provided food for the nations. He was a provider and a savior. Yes. Yeah, Gil?
6:41 He withheld his identity.
6:43 He withheld his identity or maybe we can switch it over. His brothers did not recognize him. The Jews did not recognize Jesus. Neither did his actual brothers.
6:56 His bride was a Gentile. Joseph married a Gentile bride and we are the bride of Christ and part of that is because we're Gentiles and we're included into the people of God. Yeah. Because we're Gentiles and we're included into the people of God. Yeah.
7:10 What else can we say? Yes, Aaliyah.
7:14 Thirty seven eighteen. I don't know if anyone said this, but it says they inspired and asked him to kill him. They kept saying, here
7:27 Yes. So people conspired against Joseph, and they did the same with Jesus. His brothers conspired against him. Absolutely. These are great.
7:37 What else? Well, let's take it together. Marfo, yeah.
7:46 Grew in wisdom and stature.
7:47 You grew in wisdom and stature. Absolutely. And so did Jesus. Yeah. That's awesome.
7:59 The two people that were condemned with Joseph, but one was saved and and the other wasn't. Two people went to with Christ to the cross. One was saved. The other was condemned. Yes.
8:09 Beautiful. Any other insights? We pretty much are covering a lot of them. Let's take it from the beginning. Birth were both were firstborns, both were loved by their father.
8:23 Maybe some maybe we missed this one. Both were sent to the tribes of Israel. Remember when Joseph was sent by the father to go to the brothers into the field to check him out? The father sent Jesus to the tribes of Israel. Both were conspired against, but somebody tried to save Joseph.
8:44 Who? Who tried to save Joseph when they conspired to kill him? Reuben. Who tried to save Jesus when he was on trial? Pilate.
8:56 And then he got into the pressure and he let go. It was because of the crowd that he let go of Jesus, but he was trying to save Jesus at one point and then he fell into the pressure. Right? Both were sold for silver. Both went to Egypt.
9:10 Joseph went to Egypt. When did Jesus go to Egypt? When he was a kid. Yes. Tim, we know you just got back from Egypt.
9:18 Both were made slaves. Both were made slaves. Joseph became a slave. What does it say in Philippians two seven? That he, though he was in the form of God became a bondservant.
9:32 He came down as a servant. He was made a servant. Both were falsely accused. Joseph did not do what that what Potiphar's wife said. Jesus did not commit any sin.
9:44 Both were condemned with two individuals, right? One was saved, the other was condemned. What else can we find here after that? When Joseph comes up, who exalts Joseph? Pharaoh exalts him out of the pit, out of prison.
10:05 The father has exalted Jesus and bestowed Him the name that is above every other name. There's something that said in Genesis 41 when Joseph is brought out, it says everybody bow and everybody bow to Joseph and everybody will bow to Jesus one day. We're gonna see that. What else happens? He marries a gentile wife.
10:26 Jesus has a gentile bride. The brothers come and see Joseph. They could not recognize him. They did not know who He was, but eventually Joseph did reveal himself and then they recognized Him. One day Israel will know that Jesus is the true Messiah.
10:48 The brothers bow down before Him. The Jews one day will bow before him. What else can we say? Or any anything else popping in our minds? Yes.
11:16 That's really yeah. That's I've never heard that, but there can be something there in the sense where he kind of made things hidden. And I think that plays into his identity a little bit too, how he was hiding his identity. Right. That's an interesting one.
11:36 Anything else? Think about the sons again. Think about Manasseh and Ephraim. We already mentioned that they were adopted by Jacob being the father but they were also included into the people of God though they were Gentiles. They had a Gentile mother and they were adopted as Gentiles into the tribal status.
12:06 So they were brought into the tribal status and were recognized as the people of God. And that's the same for you and me that when we come through Christ, we are included, we are grafted into the people of God. This is an exciting one. This right here, Joseph because of Joseph being elevated, who got the benefits of pharaoh? His family.
12:34 His family had access to the blessings and the resources of Egypt because of their association with Joseph. And you and I have every blessing in every spiritual matter and anything in the heavenly places because of Christ. We have access to all those resources. Now before we move on, could anybody think of any but anything else or do you think we covered it? Preached in Genesis 37 through 50.
13:07 And so we say, thank you, Lord, because your gospel, your gospel is being preached from beginning to end. Well, now we come to Exodus chapter one, and this is an exciting book. Does anybody know what Exodus means? Exit. I know that's deep.
13:30 Exodus to exit, and why is that the title of this book? Everybody just mumbled, I didn't hear a thing. Because what? Because the Israelites are gonna exit Egypt. Absolutely.
13:45 The people of God are gonna be exiled now. And there are many themes in this book. One of the themes is God's faithfulness. We're gonna see right off the get go God is faithful to His Word. And there's also a now think of the the the structure of the book.
14:00 There's something in the middle of the book. It's literally in the middle of the text of the entire book of Exodus that is so important for us to grasp when we get there. It's gonna be vital. Can anybody think of the central thing that we're gonna find in, in the middle of this book? And it's central because it's central.
14:17 Anybody know what it is? There's there's a there's a situation, there's a scenario that unveils in this book that will change the course of this nation, that will really change the course of the timeline of history? The 10 Commandments. Yes. So specifically it was the covenant made at Mount Sinai in Exodus nineteen and twenty.
14:43 That's literally the center of the book. And so God makes a covenant with His people, not just a covenant with His people. God comes down on the mountain to speak to the people. That's some big stuff. And so we are we're we're gonna be built up now and going into this this scene where God meets with the people of Israel and it is absolutely crucial that we understand what that means for us even as believers today.
15:09 And so we're being built up to that and from that place in Exodus, in the middle of Exodus, really it changes the whole course of the the nation of Israel and the people of God in general. And so we start in verse one of chapter one of Exodus, and it says this. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, 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. Joseph was already in Egypt.
15:46 Then Joseph died and all his brothers and all the generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. So let's just stop there and talk about these few verses. Sounds like a summary, but there's some insight in it.
16:07 What can we say about these few verses here? Yes.
16:11 They succeeded despite the death of Joseph.
16:14 They succeeded despite the death of Joseph.
16:16 Oh, that's a good insight. They succeeded despite the death of Joseph. And we'll talk about that in a moment. And the Bible is trying to tell us that for a reason because of verse seven here, but the people. So we're gonna get that in a moment, but that's we'll hold on to that thought.
16:33 Let's explore other things that we see in there. What else do we see in here? Yes, Tim. That's an important that's an important insight. God is faithful despite all the mess ups that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob put together.
16:49 God's purpose is being fulfilled. Yes. What else can we say? Tim?
17:00 -Uh, the land was filled with them. So that they're outnumbering the Egyptians.
17:06 -Yes. It's it's happening quick. Does anybody know the span time? Does anybody know how much time is covered? You said, I want to see if anybody else knows it.
17:17 How many years? Four hundred years. Right? How do we know that? Yes, so God prophesies to Abraham saying that the people will be in bondage, people will be in another land for how long?
17:33 Right. So we know that this happens over four centuries. Anything else that we see? So the Bible is trying to tell us something. Look at verse five, All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons.
17:53 Then you go to verse seven, But the people of Israel were fruitful, increased greatly, they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them. So they started with 70 people and they grew to be a number really we don't know until later on when they exile we get an idea of how many were there. But what does that speak of? We already touched on it. The faithfulness of God.
18:15 Despite what? It tells us for some reason then Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. So this generation dies, but guess what doesn't die? God's promise doesn't die. God's purpose doesn't die.
18:27 God's plans does not die. What does that say to us? This is what it says to us. That despite a faithful generation, a generation in which experience revival, despite godly men, godly leaders, anointed people of God, despite them, they come and go. They come and go.
18:46 Men of God, woman of God come and go. And God's plan, God's gospel, God's purpose does not die with people. It moves on. It moves on. And so God uses people, but God is not dependent on people.
19:03 That's exciting and frightening. God doesn't need us. God just uses us for his glory. I believe he uses us because He gets maximum glory when a human decides to partner with God instead of going with the flesh in the world. I believe God gets so much glory out of that and He's pleased by that.
19:24 But there's something here that despite people, God's purposes move on. God's not dependent on us. We really need to think about that. We really need to think lower of ourselves not in the sense of who we are and our identity in Christ, not in the sense of our self esteem, but sometimes we think there are people out there, trust me, that think that the Kingdom of God can't move on if they're not going to be used by God. There are people who really think, you know, that gospel is not going to get it's not going to reach if God doesn't use me.
19:55 You know, this church won't move on if they can't use me, if they're not willing to use me. Oh, God doesn't need you my friend, especially with that kind of an attitude. Can I give you a couple examples? Okay, look at this. In Joshua one:one-two, I just want us to see how God speaks of this transition between Moses and Joshua.
20:19 After the death of Moses in Joshua one:one-two, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord See how the Bible describes him? He's a servant of the Lord. That's an identity that you and I should strive for. Servant of the Lord. Moses was a servant of the Lord.
20:35 The Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses my servant is dead. Okay? What does it say right after that? Now therefore arise. Wow.
20:51 Like there's no like celebration, there's no recognition. No. Moses my servant is dead. Now okay. Get up.
20:56 Let's go. We gotta get going here. We gotta program to move on forward. Do you see this? It's not that he's he's he's downplaying Moses' faithfulness.
21:04 It's the idea of, okay. He's gone. Let's move on. God is not dependent upon a man or a woman. God is not there nervous when a man does not decide to respond, oh, this is the call of preaching the gospel.
21:20 You know what God does? Oh, this is the scary part. God can give a man the call and that man refused the call and truly be called. And you know what God does in those moments? What do you think he does?
21:32 Do you think he bites his nails in heaven? Do you think he has his heart broken? What do you think God does in those moments? He finds somebody else. You say prove it.
21:43 I say, I won't. The Bible will. In first Samuel 16. First Samuel sixteen one. This is after Samuel lost his call.
21:55 This is after Samuel blew it. He not Samuel, Saul rather. Samuel calls out Saul for blowing his responsibility as a king. And this is what happens. Samuel, because he's a prophet, and if there's one thing you know about prophets is this, that they are close to the heart of God.
22:14 A prophet feels the thing God feels. He preaches what God wants to preach. He doesn't just preach a mission. He preaches the way God feels about it. And so even after Samuel finds out that Saul falls, Samuel spends the entire night angry crying out to God.
22:30 And after Samuel is confronting Saul and Saul does not repent the way he should have repented, God says, I stripped the kingdom away from you. And look what happens here in sixteen:one. The Lord said to Samuel, this is the Lord. This is our compassionate, merciful, tender God. He is those things.
22:50 But he's making a statement here. Look what he says in one Samuel sixteen:one. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons.
23:11 God will just find somebody else. He can raise somebody else. A 100 people can say no to being the next Billy Graham. God will find somebody in the hundred and first person. He will.
23:24 And so we can't think in a way where, Oh, well God no. God doesn't need you or me. We are privileged to be used by God. But His gospel, His program, His purposes are not dependent upon man. That's a glorious truth when we come back to Exodus one.
23:41 Because despite Joseph, despite Jacob and these patriarchs, the purposes of God continue. And And then we move on here in verse eight. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 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.
24:15 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for pharaohs store cities, Fitham and Ramses. What's happening here? Yes. Smart Phil.
24:31 The Egyptian seed, the growing number of Israelites when they try to control the population by, part labor.
24:42 Yeah. So population control. There's fear now. There's fear in pharaoh that this could get out of hand. Yes.
24:53 The pharaoh forgot the the past and what God did, for him to rule the Israelites.
25:00 That's the reason for all of this mess. This pharaoh did not know Joseph. We'll talk about that more in a moment. Yes, Tamara. Okay.
25:12 No problem. Anybody else? Any other insight in these verses? Yes, Sofia. Yeah.
25:44 So pharaoh over these years, we don't know how many pharaohs have come by after this moment, but we realized that this pharaoh failed to know who Joseph was and who these people were. Yeah. Evan and then Tim. Go ahead.
25:54 This pharaoh is power hungry and he's fearing the light of the Israelites.
25:58 Yes. He is power hungry. Absolutely. He's afraid.
26:01 The blessing that Joseph had that everything that he touched was mindful was transferred over to the Israelites.
26:08 You see that even though that
26:09 they're going through affliction, that they're getting, you know, more burdens on them, they're still blessed and they're still growing. They're still multiplying.
26:18 That's right. Yes. It goes back really to the promise of God that they are to be fruitful and multiply, and Joseph does have a part in that. Yes?
26:26 I was gonna ask that. I was gonna say regardless of what they did, since the more they fit, the more they multiply Yes. The God's plan. And I was looking at Isaiah fifty four seventeen, so it's more than
26:38 Yes. So we see verse 12, a crucial thing, 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. Now go back to verse eight. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
26:55 Now if we were to continue with that parallel that Joseph is a type of Christ, how many problems in this world are due to this issue? There arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Christ, who did not know Jesus. And if we don't want to go down that route, let's just talk about Joseph. Really, if you knew Joseph, you knew who Joseph served. You knew Joseph had a God, the real true living God who solved all the problems in Egypt.
27:25 And for some reason, this king did not know don't know Jesus. Leaders in the nations, leaders in homes, leaders in churches, they did not know Christ. And that was the source reason why all the mess came about in their lives, in the lives of other people. Yes, Salida.
27:50 I know something in verse 10. It says he didn't want them to escape from the law, not just enemies of Egypt, but they he didn't want them to escape from the land. Maybe he did have an idea that something good came from them being there, but he just wanted them to keep safe there.
28:10 Yeah. This king is twisted. We're gonna see that in a moment. But as we look at this, what assumptions can we make? Why wouldn't this king know about Joseph?
28:21 I mean, these things are the history of what happened here is monumental. So so why wouldn't this king not know about who Joseph was which resulted in him not knowing who the true and living God is? Yes, Gil?
28:34 They say that maybe the Israelites have the devil to proclaim what God has done.
28:40 Okay. So Gil is saying that the Israelites were failing to proclaim who God was. What else can we say? Marfa?
28:47 National pride of saying we don't want a he we don't want history to know that a Hebrew saved us.
28:54 Okay. There could be pride there. So was it a willful ignorance, or was it an ignorance that was something that he just had? Yes, Phoebe. He
29:05 did not wanna know that. He didn't he cared because of searching for
29:13 She didn't wanna know. Okay. So who here would say he did not want to know? He just was ignorant. He didn't care to know.
29:19 He has his own agenda. He has his own purpose. So, yeah, you guys are saying yes. Now the other side, should we possibly say that he was failed and he was, in a sense, misguided or misinformed of not knowing what God has done in the past? That the pharaohs before him failed to impart that information to him?
29:44 It's a subject of debate. Was it his own heart or was it because he failed to be informed by previous pharaohs or previous leaders? We don't really know. If it was his own willful ignorance, that's a problem. If it was because of failed information being passed down to him, that's another problem.
30:07 And that's a possibility because we see that happening throughout the Bible. We see it throughout the Bible where there is a failed discipleship almost, where the older generation fails to disciple the newer generation, the older generation fails to inform the newer generation, and something happens in that newer generation that could have been avoided if the older generation was serious about who God was. Here's an example. Go to Judges chapter two. Judges chapter two verse eight.
30:43 Here's a perfect example of that. The context is Joshua comes into the promised land with his generation and we can take it back here. Let's go. Yes. Verse verse eight.
31:02 And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord died at the age of 110 years and they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the Mountain Of Gash. Now look at this verse. This is probably one of the saddest verses in the Bible. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.
31:32 What was the result of that? The next verse, and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. The older generation failed to disciple the newer generation. There was a teaching failure there and so the newer generation did not know the Lord nor did they know the works of the Lord. And what did that result in?
31:57 Compromise apostasy. I believe this, the apathy of the older generation will result in the spiritual destruction of the next generation. The apathy of the older generation will result in the spiritual destruction of the next generation. Just think about this for a moment. Think about the people in the Bible in the Old Testament that were discipled and how that brought about fruit in the next generation.
32:31 Who did Moses have as a successor? What did that result in? Fruitful ministry, a continuation of the purpose of God through the assistant Joshua. Joshua was there all the way from the beginning. He was following Moses.
32:46 Moses was teaching him, he was his assistant to Moses, and finally when Moses was passing on, he laid hands on Joshua, said, You're next. God sees that, God honors that and Joshua leads him successfully. Now who did Joshua have a successor? Who is his successor? Nobody.
33:03 An entire generation falls on their face. Elijah, man of God, anointed. Who is his successor? Elijah. Elisha.
33:19 Who was Elisha's successor? Who followed Elisha? No one. You know what happened? Elisha died with his anointing, And so when a dead man fell on his bones, that dead man came to life.
33:37 He didn't pass it on to the next generation. Now I'm not trying to be mystical here that you can pass on an anointing. This is we're talking Old Testament here. But there's a principle that he failed to disciple and that brought about compromise in the next generation. This is why discipleship is so important.
33:53 This is why we need to pour into the younger generation. This is so crucial. We cannot ignore the younger generation. We cannot fail to teach, to inform, to let them come alongside with us because they're the future. We're gonna die one day.
34:13 Who's gonna take it on? Who's gonna who are we passing the baton to? And so in your own mind, in our in our own lives, though we're young now, majority of us, and nobody's old in here. Everybody's you're either wise or you're young. We need to think this way about our own lives, whether your family, your children, your younger brother, your younger sister, to pour into them, to tell them the works of the Lord, to tell them who God is.
34:42 You know the world they criticize the church. You know what they say? You indoctrinate kids. You should not that's brainwashing. You know, that's a tactic of Satan.
34:49 That's why you're saying that. You're indoctrinating your children. You're pouring into this and now they're they're forced to believe that. Yeah. That's what the devil wants because the Bible tells us to tell our children the works of the Lord.
35:02 The Bible tells us that when they rise, when they get up, when they're walking, to teach them the Word of God. Of course you don't want us to teach them the Word of God. That's it. Absolutely. And they failed to do that right in Judges.
35:17 They failed to pass it on to the next generation. And so the argument here is perhaps even this pharaoh was failed to be informed of what God has done in the past, though he's a pagan. It's an argument, but we can still run with the principle. He's intimidated by them. Yes, Ken.
35:39 Elisha did have a, disciple.
35:52 He was he was he was the disciple of the future.
35:56 That's actually a good point.
35:57 Yeah. And so I think in McFerrill's case, that probably he was informed. But he'd be a fool of us, so we're
36:05 Right. And that's the second part as well. We have Gehazi, but even after Gehazi, we could probably argue that he could have found somebody else. But what we need and that's a great point too. Just because there is a faithfulness done in presenting the works of God to the next generation because there are godly parents, and there's some mystery to this, and I don't understand it to this day.
36:26 There are godly parents, and just because they're godly doesn't mean their children are gonna be godly. That's an element to it I don't understand. I really do not understand it because we see it happening as well. But that does not negate the responsibility for us to teach the next generation. The principle is not, well, either we do it or we don't do it, they're gonna make a choice anyway.
36:48 No, no, no. God's commanded us to do it. And whatever the results are, that's not up to us. The results are up to God. And so, yes, that's a great point.
36:56 That makes it full circle that though we do pour into the next generation, it is possible for that next generation to still reject it. Yes. But still, we have to do our part. We have to do our part. And like Gehazi, if they want to follow the path of money, if they want to follow the path of the world, they can do that.
37:13 They can do that. That's a great point. Thank you for bringing that up. Look here at verse 12. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad.
37:25 And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of this And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of this And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of this And the What can we say out of that verse? We already mentioned some things, but what else can we say about that verse?
37:43 Yes, I do. Even in times of reflection, God will prosper. Yeah.
37:49 God's purposes still flourish. In fact, there's something about persecution, there's something about pressure in which the people of God flourish even more. That's another mystery I don't understand. Maybe we can talk about it. So we see here let's go back to verse seven.
38:05 Despite the leaders being dead, despite the men of God passing on, there's a new generation. God's purpose is still move forward. Not only that, even when all hell breaks loose on the people of God, they still are fruitful. And that's not just true in the old covenant. Do we see that in the New Testament?
38:22 Where do we see that specifically for the church?
38:24 When they were first persecuted, they dispersed all around the world.
38:28 Yes. So Stephen was persecuted, Saul approved of his execution, and it says that there was a great persecution that hit the church, and they scattered abroad. But there's this one little verse that is so crucial that makes this so glorious. It says that those that were scattered went about preaching the word. And if it was not for that persecution, the next part wouldn't have happened probably or it wouldn't have happened for a long time.
38:53 Who goes into what city and sees revival? We see this in Acts chapter eight. Who goes into what city right after the persecution?
39:02 Philip. Where does he go? Sumeria. And so because of the pressure, because of the persecution, they they were forced to move abroad. And when they moved abroad, they went around preaching the word.
39:13 And he ends up in Samaria, sees a move of God, probably one of the greatest revivals in history, because of Samaria, the nature of the people of the Jews and the Samaritans. Revival breaks out and we say praise God. Even when devil throws out his best, the church will always prevail. I take comfort in that. I don't know about you.
39:33 Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail. It doesn't matter how wicked the world it doesn't matter how wicked it doesn't matter how apathetic a generation is. God's purposes will always prevail. And the invitation for us, in light of all that we've been speaking about, is are you willing to partner with his purpose? God doesn't need us, but he's inviting us to be a part of it.
39:54 That's how this works. In the midst of God's sovereignty and the free will of man, God's purposes will move on. Even though a billion people say no to him, God somehow will find some man, and the invitation's extended to us. It's going forward with us or without us. God's gospel, his purpose, his kingdom is being advanced with us or without us.
40:15 I don't know about you. I want to be in it. I want to go along with it. I don't want to miss it. And so that's the invitation for us.
40:23 And so we see the pressure here that no leaders. Yep. They're all gone. Okay. They still are fruitful.
40:29 Now we see some persecution and they're even more fruitful. And then something happens. They ruthlessly, in verse 13, made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter and with hard service and mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field and all the work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. So we see a progression of the pressure of pharaoh against the people of Israel. There's a spiritual background behind this.
40:58 Well, we can ask the question now. Okay. This is surface level pharaoh being intimidated by the people of Israel. What's the spiritual background? Is it really pharaoh?
41:09 Who is it? Satan himself. What's the problem that Satan has with these people at this time of history? What's with the genocide? Why is Satan stirring up in a moment mass murder amongst babies?
41:31 Because he knows what? He knows something. The promised seed is coming at any moment. That up to this point, this tells me something about the devil. Up to this point, the world, the people of Israel specifically, are seeing God's promise unfold all the way back from Genesis three.
41:58 And you know who's not happy about it? The devil. You know what that tells me about Satan? He studies. He studies.
42:08 He's observant. He watches. Where do we see another genocide happening in the New Testament? Very similar to this. Herod in Jesus' birth.
42:18 It's almost a mirror image. Kill all the babies, the male children under two years old. Why? Because he sees the prophecies being fulfilled. That says something that he watches.
42:29 He studies. He knows the scriptures guys. He knows this. It says in Revelation that the devil is going to wage even more warfare. He's going to be even more aggressive because he knows that his time is short.
42:45 I know this sounds almost blasphemous but hear me very clearly. I sometimes wish Christians had more ambition than Satan. Satan, I admire his ambition. He knows his time is short so he gets to work. I'm gonna destroy as many souls as possible so that you can be eternally separated from God.
43:03 I know my state. I know where I'm going. So I'm gonna make this as painful as possible. He knows his time is short. He studies.
43:10 He knows. He sees the signs. Why don't Christians see the signs? I don't know because they don't study the word of God. And Satan has this ability to watch and to study.
43:20 That's why we must know the word, and we must know our adversary, and we must know his ways because he knows your ways. He knows human behavior. He can tell when God's about to move in a place, and he's gonna do some stuff to kind of ruffle the feathers. He knows. He's seen it.
43:38 He's seen move of God. He's seen revivals. He's seen when somebody gets serious with God. He goes, Oh, no, no, no, no. I've seen this before.
43:44 I'm going to do something about this. This tells me something about the devil. He studies. Let's be better students than him. Verse 15.
43:56 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew mid this is glorious. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of them who was named Shiphrah and another 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. And did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. What can we say about those glorious verses?
44:38 So much can be said. Yes?
44:40 You feared God more than man.
44:42 Fear God more than man? I mean, this isn't just any man. This is pharaoh. Yes, Evan? I'm going back to your comments
44:49 on saying, you know, this
44:50 this is gonna be through a man. Right. So it's killing all male. Otherwise, it would just kill all the females.
44:54 So the male is specific. There's well, let's talk about that. Why would pharaoh, in the natural mind, want to destroy
45:00 the male? Because they they can fight. They're women, no.
45:06 He if he's worried about war breaking out, he's probably gonna go after the male because they're stronger in physical stature. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. They continue the line.
45:16 They continue the line. Yes. So here's the other strategy. Okay. There's less Hebrew males.
45:21 Now the Hebrew woman can mingle with the Egyptian men, and now it's contaminated. Yes. Yeah. Liam?
45:30 I thought it was kinda odd he went to the Hebrew Midwest, and so I just replaced him. I think it was kinda like a, what do you
45:43 Yeah. So there's much debate about the Hebrew midwives. Are they Hebrews or are they are they actually Hebrew midwives or are they midwives to the Hebrews? And the people that debate this, I personally think more towards their Egyptians being midwives to the Hebrew woman. It's up for debate.
46:02 But I believe that he's going through his own people to perform his own plan. That's a good point. Anybody else? Any other observations?
46:34 We'll get to that. But, can somebody answer maybe help Tim with that question? Yeah, Leah?
46:39 I would say no. Because you're even though you're disobeying a direct order to kill someone, it's
47:03 Sure. We all know that. Right? That we are bound to the government unless the government asks us to break break God's laws. Simple as that.
47:11 But we're gonna get to another question concerning these Hebrew women and what they did. And it's a it's a debate amongst people about whether they were ethical or not. But just think about these women, two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. The fact that they are named carries great significance. Moses by the Holy Spirit names these women for a reason.
47:39 He holds them up in honor and to be an example for the people of God for generations to come, which is so significant because God honors people who fear God. You know who he doesn't honor people who don't fear God. How do we know? Pharaoh's not named. And so you can be a midwife, and God will recognize you and honor you, or you can be a king of a nation.
48:10 And people might fear you. People might honor you, but you know who doesn't? God. And there's something else about Shifra and Puwa. They're not prophets.
48:24 They're not priests. They're not queens. They're midwives. But God still recognizes them, God still honors them, God still sees them because they feared Him. They feared God, and this is a huge thematic theme throughout Exodus because God wants a people that will fear Him.
48:54 When we come to Exodus nineteen and twenty, the purpose of God even coming down on the mountain to speak to the Jews, what what does he say to Moses? He says, Fear not. I've just come to see if the fear of God is in you. What? He says it literally.
49:07 Fear not. I've just come to test you to see the fear of God is in you, but you just told me not to fear. Yeah. Because it's a different kind of fear. We've tried to downplay the fear of God, and I'm trying to be be careful here.
49:23 We're trying to downplay the fear of God to just say, oh, it's just a recognition of who he is. No. I believe it's a trembling kind of fear. I believe that. I believe it's a recognition of the majesty and the awesome power of God that causes us to be reverent and obedient and afraid of him in the sense of afraid of disappointing him, but not being afraid of him because you can't be intimate once again with somebody that you're afraid of.
49:46 That's why he said fear not I'm just here to test you to see the fear of God is in you. But we see that the Bible, the Holy Spirit puts Shufra and Puah in the beginning of this book because the whole purpose of this book is to raise up a people that will fear God. And God, he has the same agenda today, even in the new covenant. They feared what God could do to them more than what pharaoh could do to them. And Jesus tells us to do the same thing.
50:12 He says, hey hey hey hey, listen. Don't fear the one who can kill the body but can't kill the soul. Rather fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Matthew ten twenty eight. You know what he's saying?
50:26 Don't be afraid of those that will kill this but can't kill the soul. Fear the one who can do both. I don't like that. Well, I'm just a messenger. The fear of God in Shifra and Pua was a standard for the people of God.
50:47 The midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives. So it seems as though these two midwives are kind of like superintendents. They're kind of like the generals of all the other midwives. For there to be only two midwives in all of Egypt seems ridiculous.
51:06 So it seems as though it came to them, the command, and they were supposed to spread that about to all the other midwives. And now he calls him in because this doesn't happen over a few weeks. This must have happened over a few years for him to notice. And he says, wait a minute. I I this doesn't make sense.
51:24 So he calls these midwives over, and what does he say? Why have you done this and let the male children live? Verse 19, the midwife said to pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they are vigorous and gave birth and give birth before the midwife comes to them. Just think about that confrontation. Hey, I told you to kill all the male children.
51:55 Now, why didn't you do it? Well, Ferrell, I gotta tell you. They're strong women. So they pop out babies before we even get there. Did they just lie to Ferrell?
52:21 Let's talk about this for a moment. Yeah? She gave She
52:32 gave birth on her own. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
52:43 Alright. Well, that's they there's we got some personal insight onto this. I
52:49 They didn't necessarily say what the two midwives said to everyone else. They just said that they left the male children, but maybe they saw they were already born or they weren't there when they were born. So maybe that was the truth. They just didn't go through the trouble of killing them after seeing them.
53:09 So did they tell the truth? Yes. Was it the whole truth?
53:17 is, 90% truth still true? Yeah. But Sure.
53:22 What about Rhea? When she lied, was it justified?
53:28 Hold. Let's let's talk about this. Hold on. Is lying ever justifiable? That's the ethical question about this text.
53:35 It's not? Well, look at verse 21. Is does it serve the purpose of God so it's justifiable if it serves the purpose of God? Just because it was a lie, doesn't mean God can't use it? Well, God can use anything.
54:11 He can use a donkey. He can surely use a lie. Possible that these Hebrew women were strong and that they gave birth on their own without even calling the midwives to come in. That could be partly true. But it's probably most likely that they did not because that's not the full story anyway, that they did not tell the truth.
55:00 And then the question comes back to this because we see in verse 21 that God blesses them with with families. How does that line up with God's character? Yes, Sofia.
55:12 Agree that lies under just in fact,
55:59 So it's kinda back to Evan's point because, I mean, Ananias and Sapphira lie, but what happens? That on the spot, why would they lie why were they lying? For the sake of financial gain, for the sake of seeming to be godly in the eyes of men? Yes. Okay.
56:14 So God looks at the hearts.
56:16 I'm completely off base it doesn't look like they really answered the question at all. Okay. They just said, well, the Hebrew woman gave birth before we got there. They could've still killed the male age after they got there and after they were born. And just look.
56:34 To me, it just seems like a diversion of the question.
56:37 Okay. So was it even just a diversion of the question? Well, whatever whatever it was, it seems as though pharaoh was satisfied with it because he didn't ask any more questions. Yeah. Kinda going off that God you
56:50 know, it says in 20, God dealt well with the request. He dealt a lot, so it means that they were,
56:56 you know, working towards it. Mhmm.
56:59 Yes. The verse after that kind of gives us insight. And that's where there's this kind of tension and this friction.
57:21 So when, Nazi Germany, when they were to knock on your door and say, hey. Do you have any Jews in there? And they open the door and say, nope. I haven't seen them. This is a Rahab situation, exactly like a Rahab situation.
57:33 Okay. You guys ready for the answer? I need one person to go to Joshua chapter two just lift up your hand if you're there and you want to read it. You got to read it out loud though. First.
57:57 Can you read Joshua chapter two? We're going to use, as Paul mentioned, Rahab as an example here because it's very similar. If you can read out loud Joshua chapter two verse three down to verse six.
58:13 Then the king of Jericho sent Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house. The lady have come to search out the land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, true. The men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
58:28 And when the gate was about to close at dark, they the men went out. I did I do not know, the men, where the wet where the men went. I do not know. Sorry. It's okay.
58:41 Pursue them quickly for you. We'll overtake them. But she said, when she had brought them up to the roof and hid them in the stocks of flats that she had laid and ordered, on the roof. So
58:55 Okay. So we we understand the situation. The servants come in. The messengers, the spies come in. She hides them.
59:01 They come to the door to say, hey. Where are the guys that came in? She says, they left. But really, they were hidden. Okay?
59:06 Now anybody at James chapter two? Evan, can you read James chapter two verse 24 down to verse 26? Yeah. James chapter two.
59:22 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith. In the same way, it was not Rahab, a prostitute, justified by works when she received messengers
59:33 For as the body, apart from spirits, that's also faith apart from works.
59:39 Here's the argument I I wanna make here. This isn't about faith. This isn't about any of that. I want us to look at James chapter two verse 24, 25, and I want us to see what the Bible honors Rahab for. It says, and in the same way in verse 25, was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
1:00:07 It doesn't talk about how she received the messengers and told a lie to the soldiers in Jericho. It says that they she received them and she sent them out. That's what the Bible recognizes her for, not for the fact that she told a lie to those that were after them. Do we see that in James chapter two? And so when we come back to Exodus chapter one, this is the argument that we can make that God honored and rewarded them for what they did not for what they said.
1:00:40 He did not honor them for saying that half truth. He honored them for not killing the babies. And it's up to God and them about what happened with the lie. But what we can say is that He honored them for what they did do, not what they said. Doesn't want to give us it doesn't want to put us put the spotlight on how they said this half truth and how it's like, oh, well, God, what are you gonna do about that?
1:01:05 The focus was on the fact that they feared God. Remember, they're not the people of God anyway. You guys understand this? If they're Egyptian midwives, they are not even a part of the covenant people of God. And so here, God is honoring them for fearing God, which is a phrase that even the world used back in the day, I'm a God fearing man.
1:01:26 It doesn't necessarily talk about anything about them coming into covenant with God like Rahab did, but we do see this, that God honored them for what they did, not necessarily for what they said. Is that clear? That make sense? It doesn't want to put the spotlight on what they said and how whether it was a half truth, a 90% truth. It wants to go in the spotlight of the fact that they feared God and did not kill the babies.
1:01:50 So this is the the the the weight here that's being
1:01:52 I think another plan to poke at is the purpose of a good life is that these babies.
1:02:12 And it goes against the bureaucratic world that they take to save lives. But our doctors have before abortion to do exactly that.
1:02:22 So this this And legally, they do it. Right. So
1:02:26 Well, this is this speaks about the sanctity of life, how God honors the life of a baby. And this is this is without there's no doubt about it, and so we see it there. But the focus is less on what they said and more on what they did, and God wants us to focus on that as well. Yes. Well, some argue that they were not literally Hebrew midwives, like they were not Israeli midwives, but they were midwives to the Hebrews.
1:02:53 Part of that is that Pharaoh would not ask Hebrew midwives to perform such an act on their own race. And so there are most likely midwives that were Egyptians that were midwives to the Hebrews, but people debate. Yeah. That's a good question. Justify.
1:03:28 it be like, this is like, would it still be a sin? Like, does he know what he's saying?
1:03:33 Yeah. And the huge debate with that is there's something called situational ethics so that, depending on the situation, do we cover an evil with a lesser evil? Does God honor that? And I can't answer that necessarily straightforward. I think it's it's the argument is that there is wiggle room when it comes to situations like that Nazi Germany scene.
1:04:01 And, I think it comes down to the heart of the matter where it's I'm doing this not for my selfish gain. I'm doing this not to promote myself. To for any other selfish reason other than to cover a greater evil. And so, I mean, I think the debate I think it's clear in scripture that it is a lie and a lie is wrong. But then we come to the place where, okay, well, situationally, is it is it right in some circumstances?
1:04:35 That's a really good question, and there isn't really a black and white answer to it. That's what I would say. I think the black and white answer is the fact that, yes, lying is wrong, once again, but situationally, is it right? I think that when we honor God in every element, He'll honor us. And I know that's tough to hear because it's like, well, you're gonna let people get you're gonna let people die because you you're because you don't want to just tell a little white, you know, lie?
1:05:02 You know, let people die? And it's it's tough. It's hard to understand. But in my heart posture, in my understanding of the scriptures, there's no command that warrants, Yeah, lie if if this happens or lie if that happens. I don't think the Bible gives us room for that because we would take advantage of that.
1:05:20 You guys understand? I think the Bible wants us to be black and white because if we have any room other than black and white, we will take that to the dirt. And so there isn't necessarily black and white answer to that specific question. All I have the black and white answer, and this might make people feel uncomfortable. I'm sorry.
1:05:39 This is my authority. Is that lying is wrong. You just got really quiet in here. But what we can talk about that afterwards for sure. But I think when it comes to the commands of God, they're clear.
1:05:56 Once again, situationally, is there wiggle room? We can maybe even talk about it now. Does anybody have an opinion on that?
1:06:05 Yeah, Marshall. Well, when you like to save somebody else's life, aren't you putting yourself at risk too? And isn't it is it not, how do you say it? It defeats selfish gain. It does defeat selfish gain.
1:06:23 And, when you lay down your life for, you know, somebody that,
1:06:30 So you're saying just to understand, you're right. You're saying it is appropriate or it's not appropriate?
1:06:36 It is. Mhmm. Let's let's write
1:06:39 Because you're covering another greater evil with a lesser evil.
1:06:42 And you're putting yourself at at risk Right.
1:06:45 By saying that there is somebody or there's not anybody in here. Yes. Okay. That's an interesting perspective.
1:06:53 I agree with you that what this book says is black and white, and lying is absolutely wrong. But the world isn't so easy, and Satan tends to muddy the water between black and white and, tends to make the line very hard to see between what's right and what's wrong sometimes. Right. But, and some situations demand that you have to try to take a path or at least for others to have the demand the least amount of sin and then and sometimes you can't get out of doing something. There are some situations like Situational ethics.
1:07:33 Yeah. Yes. Where it's not, I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing for you to say a white lie to save a life or there there are so many situations you can bring up. I honestly can't think of any, but none are coming to my mind. But
1:07:53 I think it's it's, it's easier talked about than experience when you experience it. Right? But, no. These are good. Paul, you had your hand up?
1:08:00 but I didn't. What I was gonna say was, I the main objection that I've heard is that if you tell the truth, you're testing God. That's what I've heard. So you test God in the sense that you're presuming upon him where you can act in wisdom and avoid something by not saying it explicitly or saying something else. Instead, this is what I've heard.
1:08:20 I don't agree with that. But I've heard that people say you're testing God by telling the truth. If Rahab would have said, yeah, the spies are upstairs, you would have been testing God. And, not to say the wrong thing. Right.
1:08:31 It's wrong though because it's a lie. It's a sin. Right. Right. God will assist
1:08:35 you if you tell the truth.
1:08:36 And this is I I wanna give this answer. Remember what, Jesus told the disciples? It's a great point. Remember what Jesus told the disciples? He says, listen.
1:08:43 When they when they arrest you and they put you in synagogues and you're gonna testify, I'm paraphrasing here, do not even think about what you will say an hour before, but in the moment the spirit of God will give you the words to say in this situation. And I think partly if this because once again the black and white says lying is a sin and there are situations where we feel like we need to compromise. Can we trust God for even this that even in the moment when you need to give an answer for something, the Holy Spirit can give you the wisest words to express what you need to express in a way where you both honor God and honor the people that are involved in the situation. You say, well, that's too good to be true. Well, that's how good God is.
1:09:29 And that's how powerful his Holy Spirit is. So even in those moments where Jesus says, listen, you might be arrested. You might be placed in a place where you gotta say some things You know what? In those moments, don't even worry about what you're gonna say. Why?
1:09:40 Because the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say. And there are moments like that, where even you hear missionary stories where people go onto the field and there are situations like that. Where are the Christians? Where are this and where are the And in the moment, you can read about these. I wish I had examples.
1:09:54 Where they say something and it was the right thing to say just like pharaoh in which they just kind of divert. Don't even ask more questions. Though it's debatable whether what they said was right or wrong. But in the moment, the Holy Spirit can give you the right words to say. And so I don't want to here's my conviction, and I hope you hear me right.
1:10:13 I don't want to ever compromise what the Bible says to what I think is right. And so I want to hold the scriptures of the utmost integrity. Even to the smallest iota, the smallest dot, I want to be able to honor this word. And trust at the same time that even in those moments where it's debatable, that I can take a text like in Luke where it says don't even worry about what you're gonna say. Don't even think about it.
1:10:40 In the right moment, in the time, the Holy Spirit will inspire you to say the right things. Does that make sense? Yeah? Did you have anything?
1:10:49 When Satan is is preparing that he is a liar and murderer from the very beginning Yes. And he intended for man to agree with him what he said, At that point in time, man went against the word of God and was a side of sin. In this case, sin is trying to get his being in power, accomplish what he said, and
1:11:32 So when you think that stand on the side of God, exactly, God is wrong. Find a way to preserve those and give the wisdom for best to be perfect.
1:11:42 Yes. Absolutely. And I wanna give you the verse just for for us to go back to it. In, Luke 21. I wanna go to verse 10 just for us to feel secure what the Bible says.
1:11:54 Luke 21 verse 10, it says, then he said to them, nation will rise against nation, There will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and pestilences and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons and you will be brought before kings and and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth of wisdom sorry, a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered even upon parents testify of the gospel in the midst of those situations but I believe the principle goes even deeper.
1:12:44 The fact that God can give us a mouth and wisdom in moments where we are pressured to maybe not say or say something that we should not say. That make sense? And so with that with that question, yes, lying is wrong. And in those moments where, God forbid, if you find yourself needing to say something that might cost somebody's life or cost somebody's, you know, whatever it may be, that God can give you a mouth of wisdom, that God can fill your mouth with the words to say in such a way where as you're saying it or as you finish saying it, you say, That was not me. And you say, Well, I've never experienced that.
1:13:18 Well, here's the truth. You and I will experience it when we need to experience it. God will interject and intervene in those moments when we when he needs to. Bishop, you had your hand up.
1:13:57 As this is meant as a measure. If somebody comes to my house,
1:14:41 Absolutely. And I think it comes it comes back to situational ethics. It comes back to that to that idea of do we do we do we perform a certain act that's a lesser evil for the sake of covering a greater evil? And, a bishop made a great point that even if you defend yourself in somebody trying to murder you, you have every right to defend yourself. But even within that, there's debate.
1:15:06 You say, what's the debate? In you dying, is God glorified? It could be not. I remember sitting in a living room with two two fathers that just had children like they had they're my friends, they're young children and they went at it with this subject. They went at it.
1:15:23 The picture that they painted was what if ISIS came to your door and says, if you're Christians, I want to kill your family. And one was saying, I would defend my family. The other one said, no, because for the glory of God, we would have to become martyrs. And just sitting down, them going at it, I was like, oh my goodness. And so it's it's tough with these situations.
1:15:41 And so I come back to this argument that God gives the wisdom and the and the and the leadership in the moment, in the moment. Yes, Ken.
1:15:52 I think it's something that has to do according to your old faith itself.
1:15:57 Mhmm. Where you're at with God.
1:16:00 Like, if you take that that young girl that was killed in Columbine, Okay? They asked her if she believed you got it while they're standing there with guns. And she said, yes. Well, you're going to be right now. And they shot her.
1:16:17 Mhmm. There's, a movie called China Cry. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. No. But there's a woman there when right after World War two, and it and Mao Zedong took over.
1:16:30 She was being interrogated because of her background being, rape, that means we're taught in Christian schools. And they kept badgering and badgering and badgering and asking her if she was a Christian. Why did she say she was? They put her in front of a firing squad and shot at her, and she did not die. She fainted and never got hit.
1:16:52 Alright. Then they interrogated her and
1:16:54 asked her why she didn't get hit by the bullets. Well, of course,
1:16:58 she didn't know why she didn't get hit.
1:17:01 it was God. So then they sent her to a laborer deal. And she was she wrote for she was it turned out that they were supposed to get like a maternity leave. She was actually pregnant. This is a true story.
1:17:13 She was pregnant and God had already told her that she was gonna leave the country, find out, with her whole family. She was pregnant. She did not give birth to that baby until after she was ejected from the country because she had written mousy tongue at some other leaders every day asking why
1:17:37 she wasn't getting her maternity leave. There you go.
1:17:40 And they finally got married and then threw her out of the country and she did not give birth until after one year. That's how long she was pregnant, one year. It's it's a movie. It's a Chinese and then she became an evangelist and came over to The United States, but eventually her whole family got out of China. Her father was experimenting on it back here.
1:18:03 But eventually, she got dessert with the ashes. So the whole family did leave her alone. I'm really lucky to be here. So that's
1:18:11 there's real life examples. There's real life examples. But that's an She
1:18:17 chose the same, and, yes, she was a Christian. They were out in front of a fiery spot. And and so
1:18:24 Yeah. I I read this, story in the has anybody, read, has anybody ever read, Jesus Freaks? Yeah. There's one story in Jesus Freaks. Probably one of the I haven't read the whole book, but one story that moved me, really moved me was, I believe it was in I believe it was in Russia.
1:18:43 And I don't wanna misquote anything, but the situation was like this where a family was taken out because they were believers. And, to get them to deny the faith, they took the young one of the youngest boys. I forgot how old he was. They brought the boy out and they were gonna kill him and they were in fact beating him in front of the family. And they said, they said to the father, all you need to do is deny Christ and we'll let this child live.
1:19:09 And the child spoke out to the father and says, Don't you dare do it. Don't be a coward for Christ. And they killed the child and I forgot what they did with the family. And so this is what this is this is what I I want to get to. Situationally, it's not easy to give a black and white answer.
1:19:28 I'm gonna get to you in a moment. It's not easy to give a black and white answer. I'm not gonna pretend to know all the answers either. All I know is this. What I see in the totality of scripture is that there is these moments where we see situations like Rahab and even these two midwives.
1:19:42 We see that the argument here, I'll give you one side. One aside says, look. They did it and God didn't punish them for it because they were covering an evil with a lesser evil. Okay? We're not gonna die on that hill.
1:19:54 And then there's secondly where it's where you just wanna be as you wanna be as holy in all your actions and all your decisions, and you say no. Even in those moments, not that I'm gonna be unwise and say go ahead and kill them. But that in those moments to trust in the Holy Spirit to give you the words to say in which it would divert the situation or maybe not depending on what the will of God is. I know this one makes more sense than this one. Yeah.
1:20:23 Just wanna make one more thing. And I don't know if we can use this for this reason, but, Bible does say that, you know, if if you think something is wrong and you do it, then it's a sin. So if you're could it be that God honors what your conscience is when you think of something wrong, you can notice what you think of something to do, that God will honor that.
1:20:46 Right. Yeah. I know what you're saying. This is enrollments. I think with that verse in specific, it's a good point.
1:20:54 I think the context suggests the the gray areas, that we we tackle in life. That if it's a sin for you to drink alcohol, you feel convicted of drinking alcohol and it's a sin to you, and you do it anyway, you're going against your conscience, and that's a sin. If you think this is a sin and it's not necessarily clear and you go for it anyway, you're sinning. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm saying it's it's for the gray areas.
1:21:15 And I think what you're trying to get at though is what everybody's trying to argue is that you're not lying for your own purpose. You're not lying to get something out of it. You're doing it to protect other lives. You're doing it to protect a certain person. So it must be justifiable because God sees your heart in it.
1:21:30 You're not trying to do it to manipulate something. And And I believe that's where you're trying to get get at. Right? Yeah. Well, we're we're hearing both sides arguments from both sides.
1:21:39 I know you had something. I wanna honor that. You had something.
1:21:42 wanted to say, I think the important thing is just in all of whether it's dying for Christ or having miraculous and that which you're spared like that. It's just that he's glorified through it. And we read about these stories still. We read about Jesus'
1:22:01 Oh, and with one yeah. Did you have something? Right. Yeah. So that's Piper was talking I'm sure Piper was talking about how we should be excited and joyful when people persecute us because it testifies that the Spirit of God is in on us.
1:22:45 I think when it comes back to this understanding of is there situations where we can do this, you hear you see stories like this even in scripture and you say, well, surely we can. And you hear real life examples of others where they don't and you see God glorified and I remember even this short story of a friend, not a friend, somebody I really know really really well and they were on their way home and they were speeding a little bit because they had to get to their kids and, they got pulled over. And, in that moment, you know, what does the officer tell you? Why were you speeding? You know?
1:23:18 And in that moment, they could have came up with so many excuses, but they just felt in their hearts to say, I just I'm gonna tell you the truth. I have my I have to get to my kids. No. No. No.
1:23:26 No. I know it's not an excuse, but I'm just being honest with you. And as this person is explaining it, the officer gets a call on the radio, says, we need backup. We need backup. And they said if it wasn't for this call, I would give you a ticket, but go ahead.
1:23:39 Went back to their car and that person left driving thinking to themselves, Lord, I just wanted to honor you in that situation and I felt like you just honored me. Now we come back to this text. We conclude with this. When you and I choose to fear God like these midwives, two things will happen. Two things will happen when you and I choose to fear God.
1:24:01 Number one, we will anger those who do not fear God. When you and I choose to fear God, we will anger those who do not fear God just like pharaoh was angry with these midwives. When you take a stance for the word of God and you proclaim the whole counsel of God, guess what's going to happen? Those who do not hold to the whole word of God will be angry with you. When you preach the uncompromising gospel, those who do not believe in the full gospel will be angry with you.
1:24:28 When you obey every detail of this word, those who do not obey every detail of this word will be angry with you. And so when you and I choose to fear God, people who don't fear God are not going to understand you. They're going to be angry with you. They're going to criticize you. They're going to look at you.
1:24:45 But secondly, when you and I choose to fear God, we can guarantee this, God will honor our lives. Look at verse 21, And because the midwives feared God he gave them families. There is something so soft about that verse. Why? Historically some people are would argue against this but I see that this tells us that what I'm about to say is most likely true.
1:25:10 When you were a midwife in this time it was most likely because you did not have a family of your own and so you would take care of the families of other people and you would have that time to help give birth to other people to have a family. And it's as though God sees these midwives and he sees them no family, but they chose to fear God not knowing what would be the result of that. And you know what God does? He says, I'm gonna give you your own family. I'm gonna give you your own family.
1:25:41 And without spiritualizing it too much, when we fear God we produce fruit. There is fruit in our lives. There are things that God blesses us with that would not be true if we did not fear God. And so two things happen when you and I choose to fear God. We will anger those who do not fear God But the part of fearing God is not wanting to anger God that I'm willing to make anybody angry as long as God is pleased.
1:26:06 And secondly, God honors those who fear Him. And this is from the first chapter in this little story. God wants to tell the people of God this is the fruit of fearing Him. Fear God. Fear Him.
1:26:22 And so the result in verse 22 is that this persecution escalates. Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that is born of the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. So what will happen next? Well, we'll find out next week. Let's pray.
