Exodus – Salvation by Water

“Salvation by Water” – Sermon by Caleb Campbell

A note for those new to studying the Bible
At DSBC, we work to equip people to discern their own convictions. The teaching below is an exploration of a portion of the Bible in which the pastor gives insights on the text and invites us to think about what we have heard and to draw our own conclusions.

During the live teaching, the speaker will usually place portions of the text on a screen, read it and then ask us to notice interesting things.  The scripture text below is shown in quotes and bold type with italics.

Today we are continuing in a study in the Book of Exodus.  We’re going to be in Exodus Chapter 2, and here’s the question that I want to ask you.  Actually, what I want is that you to think about it.  Have you ever thought about or asked this question: What is God up to?  What is God up to?  You’re seeing things happen in the world.  You’re seeing things happen in your own life.  And you’re saying to yourself, “OK, I don’t quite understand what’s going on here.  Some of this stuff is painful, some of it’s scary.  Some of it just seems quite strange, and I think maybe God is working, but I have no idea what God’s up to.”  Have you guys ever been there?

So here’s the deal.  In your Bible this theme shows up all over the place, and I want to invite you in today to explore this question together.  What’s God up to?  What’s God up to in this confusing circumstance, in this strange situation, maybe even in this painful season.  What is God up to?

We’re going to be in Exodus Chapter 2.   I’m going to catch you guys up.  If you missed last week, I’d encourage you to listen to last week’s sermon.  It’s the best one I’ve done all year on Exodus chapter one.  So go ahead and listen to that.  But I want to just get you caught up. OK, so Exodus is the second book of the Bible.  And by the way, if you have a Bible and encourage you to turn there, Exodus Chapter 2.  If you’re joining us online and you don’t have a print Bible, no problem.  Just go to bible.com.  We’re using the Christian Standard version of the Bible today. If y’all are joining us in person, I believe you got a printout with it, so you can make marks and notations.  If you don’t own a Bible, we’d love to get you one, and those are available in the tables in the back.  Please take one of those as our gift to you.  I want to encourage you to follow along because the Exodus story, chapters one and two are intricately interwoven, not only with each other, but also with the first book of the Bible, which is Genesis.

Genesis starts with God creating humanity.  The whole goal was for God to dwell in peace, blessing and harmony with humans — and for humans to multiply, to go out and fill the earth and to make the rest of the earth like the Garden of Eden, to use the raw elements that God had created.  But the big idea was that God would dwell with his people, and then people — you’re never going to guess — people messed it up.  People gave God the finger, turned their back on God and basically said, “I want to be God, not you.’  Of course, this creates a rift in the relationship, and so now you’ve got humans expelled from the garden, severed from the direct presence, blessing and peace of God.

And so the question is, will we ever get back to Eden?  Will we ever get back to union with God?  Will we ever get back to standing in the direct presence of God, even though we have turned our backs on God?  We’ve missed the mark.  We’ve gone our own way, we’ve done evil.  Even though we’ve done that, is there any possible way to get back to that Eden, being in the presence of God?  Luckily for us, the Bible does not end in Genesis Chapter 3, but continues.  It’s going to answer that question.  In the middle part of Genesis, you find that God is going to do a redemptive work through a person named Abraham.  God goes to Abraham and says, I’m picking you.  Leave your land.  Leave your people.  I’m going to make you, Abraham, into a great people, into a great nation.  You’re going to fill the earth, and through you all the nations of the earth, all the peoples, all the world will be blessed.

So you’re thinking, “Cool God is going to do a work through this guy named Abraham.”  But here’s the rub.  God promised Abraham that he would make him into a great people or nation.  And what do you need to do?  And I hope you don’t mind.  I’m not trying to be crass or anything, but you need to start procreating.  Yeah, right.  Hallelujah, right.  Thanks be to God for his many good gifts, right?

The thing is, though, that throughout Genesis there’s this tension, where the promised line of Abraham, they keep bumping up against these hindrances that God ends up overcoming. It looks like God’s not at work.  You know there are people who cannot conceive children.  There’s barrenness.  There are threats.  There are promised ones being put under threat, and this whole thread through Genesis is this promised line coming under threat.  And you, as the reader, are wondering, what is God up to?  What’s he doing?  Because it doesn’t seem like he’s working.  But then it seems like he’s working.

So Abraham has Isaac. Isaac has Jacob.  And Jacob has multiple children.  In Jacob’s day, they leave the land because there’s a famine. Oh, right. In Genesis, we’re wanting them to become a great nation, but there’s a famine.  Oh, and we’re wondering what’s God up to.  There’s this great famine, but God doesn’t seem like he’s working.  But then it turns out he’s working through one of Jacob’s kids, Joseph.  He’s actually been sold into slavery into Egypt, but because of God working behind the scenes, he actually elevates Joseph.  Joseph figures out this plan, where during the seven years of abundance, he harvests all this food and then he keeps it for the seven years of famine. And so Jacob’s family, the promised line, we’re wondering what’s going to happen in them.  Are they going to die?  They actually go into Egypt, where Joseph is.  Lo and behold, God’s at work, and God provides for them.  And so, they settle in Egypt.  And then this is the end of Genesis.

We’re wondering about this small group of about 70 people, this little clan.  What’s going to happen to them?  Are they going to become a great nation?  Then you go to Exodus chapter one, which we talked about last week.  In Exodus chapter one, you see that this small clan of people has been fruitful.  They’ve multiplied, and now they’re swarming all over Egypt.  Many years later, a new king comes to power, and he knows nothing about how Joseph saved the day years before.  He’s threatened by this promised nation.  He’s afraid that they’re going to take up arms and conquer him.  What he does is an act of xenophobic ethnocentrism, like subjection. He puts all the Hebrews into slavery.  Then that doesn’t work. They continue to be fruitful and multiply more. And you’re thinking, oh no, if Pharaoh gets his way, this promised line is not going to work.

Then Pharaoh, so scared of losing his power, says, “I want you to kill all the boys.” Have you guys heard this before?  It’s shocking.  It’s horrifying, right?  In chapter one, he tells these two midwives, “Hey, when you’re delivering babies, check and see if it’s a boy.  If it’s a boy, kill it.”  And these two midwives actually deceive Pharaoh at peril to their own lives.  They deceive pharaoh.  They make up a lie, a story.  And then Pharaoh — the very last act of Pharaoh in that chapter –tells everyone in Egypt, “If you see a Hebrew boy, throw it in the Nile.”

You guys got me?  And we’re wondering about this promised line of Abraham.  We’re on the edge of our seats, right?  What’s going to happen?  Great question. Are you guys excited? Yeah, I am.  I’m really interested to see what happens.  OK, so what’s the question?  We’re asking what’s God up.  OK, so here we go.

“Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.”

Notice that we don’t have their name, their proper names, but we have their tribe.  They’re descendants of Levi.  Back in Genesis, Levi was one of two brothers.  This is a horrible story, and I’m actually not going to go into details.  Something really bad happens to their sister, and to avenge their sister’s honor they go and kill a whole village of people.  This is not in your children’s Bible.  In fact, do you guys want to know why children’s Bibles are only this big?  Because most of the Bible stuff is like horrifying, right?  Could you imagine reading that to your children at bedtime?  Oh, and, by the way, can I give you guys a pro tip?  Don’t do the Noah’s Ark story.  Yeah, there’s a little cute giraffe, there’s a little there’s a little bunny rabbit. But why are all the people floating out in the water?  They’re engorged corpses because of God’s great justice.  Would tell your kid that before bed?  Don’t do that.

OK, so now what do we know about Levi is that he was one who would not, who could not, suffer an injustice done.  He was a person who would rise to action.  He would not suffer an injustice.  That’s one of the things we know about Levi.  So Levi got married, and you’ve got two people from this tribe who are known for not suffering an injustice.

“The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.”  (Verse2)

Check this, the woman became pregnant, gave birth to son.  What’s supposed to happen?  According to Pharaoh, you throw him in the Nile.

OK, when she saw that he was beautiful … I actually don’t like that translation, because every mom thinks her kids beautiful, and most of them are wrong. In Hebrew, it actually means good.

So we’re going to get kind of Bible nerdy today.  I hope that’s OK with you.  If it’s not OK, I’ve got a list of great churches for you to check out.  So she gave birth to a son, and when she saw that he was good, she hid him for three months.  Why did she hide him?  Because what was Pharaoh going to do?

“But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch.  She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.”  (Verse 3)

But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket.  Not a great translation, and here’s why.  This word in Hebrew, the only other time it’s used, it’s translated as ark. It’s the same word for what Noah put all the animals and his family in.  You see, Noah was saved through the waters.  He was saved through the waters.  The waters were going to kill everybody, but Noah was saved through the waters in in an arc, OK.  And so, this is like a miniature ark.  She makes a miniature ark for him and coats it with asphalt and pitch, the same things that got coated on Noah’s ark.  She placed the child in it in the ark and set it among the reeds … *** TV, time out

How many of you have ever seen the movies about Moses?  There’s always this scene where — usually they’ll refer to it as the Red Sea — the Red Sea parts.  It’s not actually the Red Sea.  It’s the sea of reeds.  So if you skip ahead in Exodus, when Moses leads the people out of Egypt, they’re being chased by Pharaoh, who wants to kill them, God does a miracle where he parts the waters of the sea of reeds.  Now the people of Israel are saved through the waters.  And the waters mean death, right?  What are the waters in your Bible?  By and large, they mean death. They’re saved by going into the watery abyss of death.  Do you guys see it?  How’s Noah saved?  In an arc through the watery abyss.  What’s going to end up happening to the people that Moses saves?  They go through death.  They go through the waters to find redemption.  Notice that with Moses you get a miniature foreshadowing of what’s about to happen.  The Bible is so cool. ***

OK, check this out.  Where did she put the baby?  In the Nile.  What did Pharaoh say to do with your baby?  Did she obey or disobey Pharaoh?  This is compassionate subversion.  And at this point in time, you now have two midwives who engaged in this conspiracy of compassion.  To subvert the king of this world, who is trying to demand an injustice, now you have his mom, the daughter of Levi, who could not suffer an injustice notice.  This theme will continue.  So, are they obedient or disobedient?  OK, so check this out.

“Then his sister stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.”  (Verse 4)

OK, so now we’ve got a sister who stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him.  So where is he?  He’s in an ark by the Nile, among the reeds.  Is this bad parenting?  Is this good?  Is she hopeful? Is she in despair? We don’t actually know Pharaoh’s daughter.  Who ordered that the babies get thrown in the water? Lo and behold …

“Pharoah’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank.  She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, opened it, and saw him, the child – and there he was a little boy crying.  She felt sorry for him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrew boys.””  (Verses 5-6)

A little boy.  Notice what he’s doing.  OK, pay attention to that.  You are going to have to remember when we get near the end.  You’re going to have to remember crying.

OK, he was crying, and she felt sorry for him.  Again. Compassion.  And what did she say?  “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”  She looks upon the baby and identifies Moses as what?  A Hebrew boy.  Notice that she gives him an identity of Hebrew boy.  I love this. She just says he’s one of the Hebrew boys.

“Then his sister said to Pharoah’s daughter, ‘Should I go and call a Hebrew woman who is nursing to nurse the boy for you?’”  (Verse 7)

I wonder if I could find anyone to fit that description.  Right?  I think I want to make a little bit of a case.  I think that we’re meant to understand Pharaoh’s daughter as being in on the conspiracy of compassion.  She must have known what dad ordered.  She definitely knows what she’s supposed to do with this baby.  And now notice what happens. I think that Pharaoh’s daughter is wise to what this sister is proposing.

“’Go,’ Pharoah’s daughter told her.  So the girl went and called the boy’s mother.  Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages’.  So the woman took the boy and nursed him.” (Verses 8 -10)

OK, so check this out.   What Pharaoh wanted to do was kill every boy because these Hebrew people, God’s promised, were, frankly, a threat to his power.  And notice that through the humble, compassionate subversion of two midwives, one mother who is in the clan of Levi, one Princess and one sister — so five women are making Moses’ life possible in this moment through their conspiracy of compassion.

Moses is saved and, moreover, don’t you see the irony of what’s going on here?  Who’s paying the mom’s wages?  Where does Pharoah’s daughter get her money from?  Do you see the irony here?  Pharaoh thinks he’s in charge, but notice what God’s doing.  He’s using the faithful, humble subversion — this conspiracy of compassion.  These five women are used to bring about God’s ultimate redemptive plan.

It’s what God’s up to, right?  You’d see a baby in a little ark in the reeds and you’re like, “Is this God’s plan?  How is this God’s plan?  What is God up to?”  But do you see how, notice this.  Has God entered the scene yet?  Have we have we heard from God yet?  Nope, he has not been an active player in the narrative thus far.  OK, keep that in mind.  Oh, there’s this song, that goes “Even when I don’t see it, you’re working.”  Yeah, have you guys seen what’s God’s up to?  Hold on.  Whose son does he become?  Pharaoh’s daughter.  OK, so now Moses has a new identity.

Let’s keep going.

“When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son.  She named him Moses, ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” (Verse 11)

I love this.  She named him Moses because, she said, “I drew him up out of the waters.”

OK, so his name is Moshe, because “I brought him up out”.  So it’s a play on words.  Moses, in Hebrew, is a play on words.  It sounds like drew him up out of the water, but it’s actually in the wrong tense.  It actually implies he will bring up out of the water.  And what does Moses do?  What do we know that Moses eventually does? He leads the people through like the Sea of Reeds, Pharaoh’s armies chasing. And what does he do? He leads them through.  He draws them up out of the waters.  Do you see it?  Here’s the other crazy thing.  In Egyptian, it could also be son of  …

Who is he the son of?  Well, now we’ve got him being identified as the son of two of these women, right?  OK, this is going to come back here in a little bit.  OK, here we go.  Oh, by the way, here’s my objective.   I want to leave you with more questions than answers.  Because what we’re reading is ancient, meditative, wisdom literature, not a car manual.

My objective today is for you to receive this and then to walk away and think about it for the next 27 years.  And then just to go like “Oooh!”  And I’ll do you one better.  I think that the best way, if you really want to mine this wisdom out of here, is to get with a bunch of people who are different than you and talk it through.  In fact, we gave you guys some what?  Are these called bookmarks?  We gave you guys some bookmarks with some great questions.  Here’s your assignment.  Take some people from your church out to lunch today.  Ask some of these questions about Exodus 2, and then maybe you’ll become wise in 100 years.

Alright, so let’s keep going.

“Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor.  He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people.  Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.” (Verse 12)

Years later now, Moses has grown up.  What happened in between?  We don’t know.

OK, so let’s just notice a few things. One, notice that we’ve got an Egyptian and a Hebrew here.  What is Moses?  Well, he’s both.  In fact, I think Moses is wrestling with an identity problem.  Right, so he sees an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his people.  Now remember his mom and dad came from which tribe?  Levi, right.  And we know Levites could not suffer in an injustice.  And it was through his mom and sister also having that same temperament, that same value.  “We’re not going to suffer this injustice.  We’re going to do what’s right, if not by Pharaoh as by God.”

Notice what he does.  He sees an injustice.  And there’s no indication that he knew necessarily that he was a Hebrew yet.  Did Moses know that he was Hebrew?  The narrator tells us that he is, but did Moses know?  It could well be that Moses merely sees an injustice.  In fact, later in the text, we’ll see that he doesn’t seem to have an ethnic consideration when he stands for justice.

Watch this – ‘Looking all around another …”  Another way to say it is that he looks to his right and to his left.  And remember when Moses goes through the waters.  Where are the waters?

So here you have this redemptive moment where Moses is going to stand in and step up for justice.  And Moses looks around.  But notice where Moses doesn’t look.  He looks to his left and he looks to his right.  Where does he not look?  Now watch this.  Moses has a desire to make things right.  But does he?  Moses takes matters into his own hands and exacts justice according to his version of it.  He does not say to God, “God, help me understand what’s what to do here.”  He doesn’t pray.  He just acts, he acts violently, and he strikes down an Egyptian and buries him.  So now he’s doing deception.  Either manslaughter or murder, depending on how you want to look at it.  And he’s leading with this core principle, this core value of seeking to do right, seeking to make things right, seeking for justice, right?  Standing up for the oppressed, but he does it by his own power and by his own means.  And what does he do?  He just propagates more evil.  Do you see it?  Might that be a word for us today — that the ends don’t justify the means?

All right, let’s keep going.

“The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting.  He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you attacking your neighbor?’   ‘Who made you a commander and judge over us?’ the man replied.  ‘Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’”

The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews.  Now what did we have in the first scene?  Who were the two people fighting?  And Egyptian and Hebrew.  Now what does he find?  Two Hebrews fighting.  And he asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?”

“Who made you a commander and judge over us?  Now here’s the here’s the trick.  Guess what Moses is going to become.  But has God made him that yet?  You see, he’s he may be trying to step into a position, to step into a calling, that God has not called him to yet.  Do you see it?

OK, “Who made you commander and judge over us?  Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”  He buried the dude, the corpse, because he wanted to hide, right?  He wanted to hide it, and guess what happened?  He was found out.  Is Moses in trouble?

OK, so scene one — he sees a Hebrew and Egyptian fighting.  He steps in, he slays the Egyptian who, in his mind, is the wrongdoer.  And so, he propagates evil, even though in his mind he thought he was doing the right thing, doing the justice thing.  And now he sees how that action has produced not only sour fruit, but also that he’s going to be in trouble with Pharaoh.  Watch this.

“Then Moses became afraid and thought, ‘What I did is certainly known.’ When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. 

Now, has Pharaoh been trying to do this for a while?  I think we get the implication that his daughter has been protecting Moses.  But now that Moses has done manslaughter or murder, that protection is going to work no more.  Do you guys maybe see that in the text?  Ah, Moses is growing up.

But what is God up to?  Here’s this warrior for justice, stepping up and, in his mind, doing the right thing.  And it keeps not working.  In fact, it keeps failing on him.  And now Pharaoh found out and is trying to kill Moses.  What happens to Moses?

“But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian and sat down by a well.? (Verse 15)

Moses flees from Pharaoh and goes to live in the land of Midian and sits down by the well.  Another way to put that is he settled in the land.  We’re not to read the narrative like these two Hebrews were talking to him – like he turned, ran all the way to Midian, and then sat down, right?  So he made his way to Midian, and then he settled there. OK.

“Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters.  They came to draw water and filled throughs to water their father’s flock.  Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock.”  (Verses 16-17)

Now, the priest of Midian had seven daughters.  Seven oftentimes is used as a literary device to refer to the number of perfection.  OK, so Moses at this point in time, we don’t think that he’s been looking for a lady.  But now there are seven daughters, and notice what happens.

Where’s Moses?  He’s sitting down by a well.  They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away. But Moses came to their rescue.  Third act, right?  Remember the first one was the Egyptian and the Hebrew, and then it was the two Hebrews and now he’s like, “OK.  Third times a charm.”  Notice Moses is a man of action.  He’s a person who steps in when he sees an injustice.

He steps in and comes to their rescue and watered their flock.  Also, now, what we get here is some humility.  Notice that he takes the extra step of doing what?  Watering their flock OK. Now this could be an act of compassion.  It could also be a real suave move.  Like “Hey girls, can I get you something cold to drink?”   I don’t know.

“When they returned to their father Reuel, he asked, ‘Why have you come back so quickly today?’  They answered, ‘An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds.’” (Verse 18)

An Egyptian?  Wait.  Is he Hebrew or Egyptian? Do you remember that Pharaoh’s daughter called him a what?  Hebrew.  And now the daughters of Reuel call him what?  OK, do you think that he’s got an identity conflict going on here?  Which one is he?  It seems to me like we’re meant to understand that God is shaping Moses by the things God is allowing him to experience.  You guys ever been there before?

“’He even drew water for us and watered the flock.’  ‘So where is he?’ he asked his daughters.  ‘Why did you leave the man behind?  Invite him to eat dinner.’”  (Verses 19-20)

This guy’s thinking, ‘This is great.  He’d make a great son-in-law, invite him to eat dinner.”

“Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.  She gave birth to a son whom he named Gersom, for he said, ‘I have been a resident alien in a foreign land.’” (Verses 21-22)

Moses agreed to stay with the man, of course, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses and marriage.  So now he is married, and she gave birth to a son, whom he named Gershom.  Oh, this is so cool.  I think the text is leading us to believe that Moses here is experiencing all of this pain, suffering and confusion to shape Moses into the type of person that God wants to use to bring his promised people out of captivity.  God is using these circumstances.  God is using these painful moments to shape and mold Moses.  Moses, I think, in all of this, is still not confident about who he is.  The son’s name is Gershom, and that means stranger.

Names are super important in the Bible, but this Gershom — he even names his first-born son “stranger”.  I think that Moses is viewing himself as a stranger in a strange land.  I don’t know where I fit.  I don’t know who I belong to.  I don’t know where I am.  I don’t know who’s people I am.  And he names his son Gershom. Notice why.  For he said, I have been a stranger, a resident alien in a foreign land.  Does he mean Midian?  Or Egypt?  Does he mean Reuel’s house or Pharaoh’s house?  Notice the shaping.

“After a long time, the king of Egypt died.  The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor; and they cried out; and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God.” (Verse 23)

 The King of Egypt died. And what do we hope will happen?  Liberation.  We’re hoping that we’ll get a new king and we’ll have what?

OK, here we go. It keeps going.  Even though there’s a new Pharaoh, it keeps going, and they cried out because of their difficult labor.   What did the cry do?  It ascended to God.  Now notice this.  What was Moses doing in the ark in the reeds when Pharaoh’s daughter found him?  He was crying out, and what happened?  God provided a means of redemption from the death waters.  That cry went up to Pharaoh’s daughter, and Pharaoh’s daughter metaphorically came down. The cry goes up, the redeemer comes down.  The cry goes up.  And God comes down.

“And God heard their groaning; and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob and God saw the Israelites; and God knew.”   (Verses 24-25)

God heard their groaning.  He’s now acting.  Do you see it?  We’ve gotten this far into the Book of Exodus, and God has not yet acted in the narrative.  And yet here he acts.  He heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  And God saw the Israelites, and God what?  God knew if you were an Israelite in that scene, would you be happy about this news that our cries have gone up?  And what’s about to happen?  God’s going to come down.  Throughout this entire narrative, we have not seen God acting, have we?  Well, he hasn’t been a named actor, right?  But have we seen God acting?  You see, sometimes it’s really confusing when we see the world working as it is, experiencing the things that we’re experiencing, the circumstances that we find ourselves in.  We maybe even would say, “God, why don’t you answer me?  God, where are you God?  What are you up to?  And it’s really good to know that God knows that when our cries go up, the redeemer comes down.

Moses tried to execute justice in his own way according to his own power, and it ended up just begetting more evil.  But Moses as a redeemer points us to the ultimate Redeemer.  For all of humanity have turned their back on God, going our own way, which ultimately just leads to chaos, corruption and death.  We cry out to God.  God, save us from this mess. God, redeem your people.  God, would you save me?  And when the cry goes up, what happens?  The Redeemer comes down.