Pastor Timothy Patoka 4 Sunday of Build On The Rock: June 24, 2018 God’s Chosen People Exodus 1:1-22 th
1) God allows hardships to come 2) God stays with them through the hardships Did you know that we are living in one of the most anticipated periods of time in the world right now? A period of time that only comes every 4 years? I’m not talking about the Olympics, but it’s something almost as popular. It’s the FIFA World Cup, the international tournament happening in Russia until July 15. Now I won’t hold it against you if you didn’t know that the World Cup was happening. Soccer isn’t that big of a sport in our country on the national level. In fact, the US didn’t even qualify to send a team to Russia this go-around. Whereas just about every other nation in the world is glued to their TVs and radios to hear what’s happening in Russia, we aren’t. Instead we have other events that bring our nation together. Our own sports tournament like the Super Bowl or national holidays like Thanksgiving. These are important events in every American household. But if you’re outside the US, they’re probably not celebrated at all. Every people group has things like these that uniquely identify them – Super Bowls and Thanksgivings for the USA, the World Cup for the rest of the world, or even Rodeo Days for us here in Tucson. This morning we see one such thing that uniquely identified the Hebrews in ancient Egypt as God’s chosen people. That identifying thing was the hardships they went through like the building of the store cities Pithom and Rameses. If you were a Hebrew living in Egypt chances are that you or someone you knew was involved in their building. Yet there was more to this people group than forced labor and hard times. They were God’s chosen people who were allowed to suffer hardships but who also had their God with them through the hardships. 1) God Allows Hardships To Come Things have changed for God’s chosen people since last week when Abraham entered the Promised Land of Israel. In our opening verses from Exodus we hear of Abraham’s 70 greatgrandchildren moving to Egypt. But they soon numbered far more than 70 souls. Our verses tell us, “Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:6-7). As we learn later in Exodus, during the 400 years that the Hebrew people group lived in Egypt their population increased from 70 to around 2 million souls. To give you a bit of perspective, that’s twice the population of the Tucson metro area. It was because they were so many that the new Pharaoh considered them a threat. Listen to what his concerns were. “Look…the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country” (Exodus 1:9-10). 1
Pastor Timothy Patoka 4 Sunday of Build On The Rock: June 24, 2018 The Hebrews were a different people group, foreigners, who had a different culture and religion. Their homes were in the buffer zone between Egypt and her enemies. Pharaoh recognized the potential threat. If his enemies could turn the Hebrews to fight against the Egyptians, then not only would a war be on his doorstep but also reinforced with hundreds of thousands of able-bodied fighters. th
Pharaoh would indeed have to deal shrewdly with the Hebrews was going to reduce the threat they posed without causing them to rebel So he came up with a 2-pronged approach. One to break their spirits and another to thin their numbers. To break their spirits, he enslaved and ordered them to improve Egypt with store cities like Pithom and Rameses. These cities not only functioned as big warehouses, but could also be military garrisons in time of war. To thin their numbers, Pharaoh ordered that every Hebrew baby boy be killed so that they couldn’t keep on reproducing exclusively within their people group. It was not easy to be a Hebrew in Egypt at this time. God has blessed his chosen people with so many children that Pharaoh felt insecure and imposed many hardships over the Hebrews. Not only would it have been physically challenging to be a Hebrew, but also spiritually challenging about their certainty if God was still with them. It would have been tempting for them to think “Why did God bless us this much? If only God were smart enough to bless us with fewer children so that we’d stay below Pharaoh’s radar, then everything would have been fine!” The Hebrews suffered under Pharaoh’s 2-pronged approach for decades. As the callouses hardened on their hands and the cries of baby boys were stifled, it would have been tempting for them to think, “Lord, we’ve been faithful to you this whole time. If we’re your chosen people, then we deserve a better life than this!” As the hardships continued with no end in sight, it’s possible that the Hebrews may have thought that God had abandoned them in Egypt. To blame themselves for the reason why they had lived such a long time far away from the Promised Land. You and I, we live in a time and place far different than the Hebrews did. But we do have a big thing in common, we are both God’s chosen people – those whom God has chosen to have faith, to believe that Jesus is the Promised Savior as prophesied in the Bible. The Hebrews in Egypt looked forward to who was to come, we look back to who already came. In God’s eyes we are the same, we are his chosen people. And as God’s chosen people in Egypt faced hardships that tested their faith, so too do we face hardships that test our faith. We all have different hardships. Some come because of poor choices we’ve made in life. Others come from Satan who targets Christians and their faith. Even more come from simply living in a sinful world. Yet we all share in the same temptation of the ancient Hebrews, the temptation of doubting if God is truly with us his chosen people. In this world, if you work at something you 2
Pastor Timothy Patoka 4 Sunday of Build On The Rock: June 24, 2018 expect to be rewarded for it. So easily we take this attitude towards God and think that because we’ve lived for God, it’s only right that he gives us something back in return. An easy life without too much stress. Material blessings so we don’t have to ask for financial assistance. A sense of belonging and fulfillment within our hearts. And when God doesn’t deliver as we expect him to, we can doubt if we God is with us. When God doesn’t deliver as you and I expect, has it ever crossed your mind that maybe it’s because that God has turned a blind eye toward you for something you did? God demands that we live and holy and perfect life at all times in thought, word, and action. We don’t do that! We can’t do that! We anger God with our mistakes and disgrace his chosen people with our immoral lives! How could he be with us if we can’t live as his chosen people? th
2) God Stays With Them Through The Hardships Don’t doubt if God is with you. Believe it. God is and will always be with you because you are counted among his chosen people. And this is true even in the midst of hardships. And to see how true that is, let’s look back to the Hebrews in Egypt and see how God was with them during Pharaoh’s 2-pronged attack. Pharaoh’s 1st prong was to enslave the Hebrews so that he could break their spirits and subject them to a mentality of powerlessness. But the more Pharaoh tried, the more God blessed them. As Exodus tells us, “But the more [the Hebrews] were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly” (Exodus 1:12-13). In Pharaoh’s 2nd prong he commanded the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill the baby boys at birth. They wisely did not listen to Pharaoh. Instead they listened to God. And how was God’s continued presence made known to them? Exodus again tells us, “So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own” (Exodus 1:20-21). No matter how hard things got for the Hebrews, God was always with his chosen people. This has always been the case. God will always be with his chosen people no matter what their hardships are. But if you had to look through all of history, you know what would be the greatest example of this? When God the Son, Jesus Christ, physically walked with them. Jesus came from the same people group who built Pithom and Rameses. Being God himself, Jesus never doubted if God was with him. He is God and is always with the 2 other persons of God! And as true God, he lived the perfect life that only God can. He died the innocent death that only God could because it was the death for every person’s sins. And you know who gets the benefit of that unique death on a cross? People like you, me, and every other person whom God has chosen to be his and to have his gift of faith. Not because we’ve earned it somehow. But because of his grace and love alone.
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Pastor Timothy Patoka 4 Sunday of Build On The Rock: June 24, 2018 And because God has chosen you to be counted among his chosen people, that also means he will be with you in all of your hardships. Our God isn’t like you and me. He won’t change his mind about your chosen status or regret bringing you into his family. He will never abandon us. He is our God! We are his people chosen by him long before we did anything for God! And one day we will see this ever-present God with our very own eyes when he welcomes us into the heavenly realms. th
Let God’s continual presence be your confidence as you endure your hardships. Are you suffering the result of a poor choice in the past? Don’t beat yourself up. God the Son died for that sin and has forgiven you. And God will be with you whenever you suffer again because of that past poor choice. Are you suffering because Satan has targeted you and the faith that God has chosen to give to you? Look at the Hebrews in Egypt who suffered for decades as a result of blessings God chose to give them. He will not leave you to the hands of Satan. God has already beaten Satan and given us the crown of life. And he will send his angels to guard you and protect you in all your ways from Satan. Are you suffering simply because this world is broken and troubled in so many sinful ways? Take heart in God’s promise that he will not abandon you to the wear and tear of this life. Get yourself into God’s Word on a daily basis to remember his promise to you – because he has chosen you to be counted among his chosen people, he will also be with you in your highs and lows of life. There are events that identify one people group from another. Super Bowls and Thanksgiving for the USA. FIFA World Cups for the rest of the world. Rodeo Days for Tucson. The store cities of Pithom and Rameses for the Hebrews in ancient Egypt. Those Hebrews were God’s chosen people of that time, those whom God had chosen to give his gift of faith and promised to be with through all things. Never was that more comforting than when Pharaoh oppressed them with his 2-pronged approach of slave labor and the murder of baby boys. In today’s time we find those who have faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior from sin as those counted among God’s chosen people. We too go through hardships for a multitude of reasons and face the temptation to doubt if God is really with his chosen people. But we don’t have to doubt that. We’ve seen what God the Son did while he walked with God’s chosen people – he lived, died, and rose as only God can do. And not only that, but God always promises to be with his chosen people as they go through their hardships in life. May God help us to rely on this promise whenever hardship comes our way. Amen.
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