Exodus: Going With God #2: Going With Life

Exodus: Going With God #1: Going With Life

Text: Exodus 1:15-21

I need to make something clear before I start this message. We are going to talk about abortion and those who willingly take innocent lives. People just like Pharoah here in Exodus 1. And though what Pharoah did and what the modern servants of Satan are doing today is morally wrong and in the eyes of God a great sin, it is not our right, nor the commandment of God to do stop them by violence. We are to pray for them, we are to reason with them, we are to vote against them but we are never justified in violence against them. We are the worst hypocrites if we preach God so loved the world and then strike out in the name of God in hatred. The apostle Paul considered himself a murderer and yet God’s love reached him. We have been sent with the Gospel and the love of Jesus to change the world, not with a rifle or hatred.  

Exodus begins with the attempt to destroy all the male children of the nation of Israel. Satan has desired to destroy the seed of Abraham so as to make the coming of the Promised One impossible. The murder of Abel was his first attempt. Here is an attempt on a larger scale, which was followed by many others. We see other attempts in Exodus 14, 2 Chronicles. 21-22, all the book of Esther  and lastly the killing of the babies under 2 years old in Matthew chapter 2. Throughout the history of Israel during this age Satan has made repeated attempts to exterminate God’s people. He knows God’s purposes and promises to the seed of Abraham and even in the book of Revelation at the end of this age, he will continues to try and destroy those who are God’s.

Pharoah’s Plan - Exodus 1:15-22

15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah (fair), and the name of the other Puah (splendid): 16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

Satan’s Servant

The new ma-levo-lent Pharoah sees that controlling the Hebrew by making them slaves and driving them into the ground is not working. In fact, the Bible says Exodus 1:12 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. So he proclaims a new executive order and delivers it to the two midwives in charge of all the midwives working among the one million women of Israel. He orders Exodus 1:16 When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

In this commandment we see Pharoah acting as Satan’s servant, even as a type of Satan. Jesus said that Satan is original murderer and the father of lies. Speaking to the Pharisees and scribes in John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

In the garden of Eden, God created life, Satan brought death. Satan has inspired or controlled every murderer since Cain and Satan has always had a highly placed servant, like Pharoah, ready to strike the children of Israel. With this act in Exodus, Satan begins a systematic plan that he hopes will bring about his ultimate purpose, which is to stop the coming of Messiah by destroying the bloodline through which the Messiah would come.

Still Serving Satan

We know the story and even though Satan was not successful, and Jesus was born through the line of Abraham, Judah and David, the Devil is still recruiting new servants to delay, disrupt, or destroy the works of God and to retaliate against the people of God. He began with Adam, then concentrated his rage on Israel and now he has extended his hatred to the New Testament church. Satan’s hatred is so deep that all of God’s creation must be marred by sin and marked by his evil touch.

He was once an Angel of Light, the archangel Lucifer but he rebelled against God and tried to take the very throne of God. Instead, he was cast down from heaven and now seeks to pollute what he could not take. He especially hates that part of creation that was made in the image of God and so Satan works through his servants on earth to eradicate mankind.

Satan’s servants today are everywhere. They lead our nations, they teach our schools, they are the billionaires that control social media and the moguls who censor the news.

These lackeys of Lucifer work in the foreground and the background with one purpose in mind, to remove any semblance of God in creation, to even deny creation itself. The greatest effort is against God’s highest creation, mankind. They may call it saving the earth, they may call it birth control, they may call it a vaccine, or they may call it healthcare or global warming or transhumanism or the latest scientific breakthrough to longer life and immortality. Whatever they call it, it comes down to the harm of mankind.

In the past the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Ammorites worshipped Baal and Moloch. They sacrificed their children on the bloody altars of bloodthirsty gods. Today the workers of iniquity are not so crude. Now the sacrifices are called abortions. But make no mistake it is still a child being killed, this time while in a mother’s womb. That child, though unborn is living and has a soul and

The Bible tells us that Genesis 2:7 7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. No other creature was created in this fashion. This verse tells us that in the life of every human being is a spark, a breath of the divine. Call it the soul or the spirit but what is clear is that we are not animals that evolved, we are each of us, images of God, created by Him to serve Him.

In our modern world the scale of abortion is really beyond our comprehension. We can not actually grasp the terrible scope of Satan’s hatred enacted though His servants. The Pharoah of Egypt was a rank amateur compared to today’s henchman of Satan. He only sought to kill the Hebrew males but today all children are at risk.

As of 2021 it is estimated that there are around 73 million induced abortions worldwide each year.

Yet, if you go online and search for the greatest causes of death worldwide, you’ll get heart disease which is about 19 million a year. Even if you search for the greatest cause of death for children, you’ll get gunshots or car accidents which amounts to way less than a million a year, even counting suicides and wars. Abortion is not listed under those causes of death, it is ignored and yet In the United States alone abortion has killed more than all the deaths in all the wars our nation has ever fought… combined.

 Servant of Satan in Alabama article by Micaiah Bilger  Mar 1, 2019   Montgomery, AL

I read a story recently about an  80-year-old man named Louis Payne and his employer, the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa. It is estimated that Mr. Payne in his career has killed over 80,000 babies in his lifetime. Payne has been working at Alabama’s largest abortion facility for 25 years, but he has been a licensed ob-gyn since 1972 and was believed to be doing abortions even early in his career.

Though he retired in 2014, he started working at the abortion facility again in 2015 because it could not find an abortionist to replace him. This is one man, one servant of Satan who has killed 80,000. Imagine the totals of people like Margret Sanger, Planned Parenthood, the drug companies that make the morning after pill, and the leaders of our own government in Washington DC.

Providence’s Protection - Exodus 1:17-21

 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? 19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. 20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. 21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

Savior’s Servants Disobey

The midwives of the Hebrews may have been Egyptians or they may have been Hebrew slaves in charge of all the midwives who cared for the women and newborns in the tribes of Israel. I always enjoy looking at the meaning of the names in the Bible, these two heroes were named Shiphrah which means fair and Puah which means splendid. They certainly live up to their names.

They told Pharoah that the Hebrew women delivered too fast. This probably wasn’t a lie but was the cunning plan of Shiphrah and Puah. They probably instructed all the midwives throughout the region of Goshen to take their time when they got the call that the baby was on its way. Whether it was a plan, or even if it was a deception, the outcome is the same, these two righteous women would not obey a sinful law.

They feared God and did not obey the commandment of the king of Egypt but saved the children alive. God used these two women to save all the future generations of Israel and to protect the Messianic bloodline that one day would mean the salvation of all mankind.

They didn’t know any of this though. All they knew was that the command from the King was evil and against God’s law. That was enough and they would not obey.

Isn’t it amazing the people God uses, especially the faithful women of the Bible. Here the midwives obey God and overcome Pharoah’s plan. Later in this same story it is the faith of Moses’ mother and sister that save the future leader of the nation and through him their people would be set free.

Serving The Savior May Mean Disobedience

This is the first time in the Bible of what we call civil disobedience today. The refusal to obey an evil, immoral law of man because of the greater, higher law of God. We must understand that once again, this is a balance of the Christian life. On one hand God’s word clearly tells us to obey the civil authorities who rule over us. We clearly read this in places like Matthew 20:21–25; Romans 13; and 1 Peter 2:11.

Romans 13:1-3 ​1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.

But notice the fifth verse of Romans 13 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

Our obedience is a matter of fearing judgement, but it is also a matter of our conscience. When the laws of God are contrary to the laws of man, then as Acts 5:29 shows us in the example of Peter and John, “we ought to obey God rather than men”. This is what the midwives did. It is what the people of God have done whenever they are faced with ungodly rulers and immoral laws.

Daniel and the Three Hebrew Children

This principle of “civil disobedience is most clearly seen in the story of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah better known as Shadrach; of Meshach; and Abednego. When Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful king the world had ever know up to that time, told them to bow before an idol or be thrown into a burning fiery furnace there reply was

Daniel 3:16 O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful, (we don’t need to worry) to answer thee in this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

That is the answer every true child of God has made to every evil ruler, government or despot throughout history. “We don’t need to think about what we will do. We will not obey that which is against our God. We will obey God rather than men.”

When Pharoah sees that his original plan with the midwives isn’t go to work then he goes to his own people to care out his final solution to the Hebrew problem. Doesn’t that sound familiar.

Pharoah’s Final Solution - Exodus 1:22

22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

Satan’s Surrogates

Now Pharaoh broadens his commandment and instead of using the midwives he turns to his own people, who have been desensitized to seeing the Hebrews as people but only as a subclass of slaves. So, Pharoah tells all the people of Egypt to spy on the children of Israel and if they see a newborn male child then they are to kill it. I imagine this would have been done by reporting it to the Egyptian taskmasters or soldiers, but the way the Bible puts it any common citizen had the duty and the right to kill any male babies as long as it was Hebrew.

With this action Pharoah is no longer just a servant of Satan but he is now a surrogate acting in the same way that Satan himself would have acted. His inclusion of the all the people has terrible consequences when God sends his plagues upon the nation that so callously killed.

The newborn boys were to be killed by being thrown into the Nile River. The Nile was worshipped as a god by the Egyptians. Each newborn death then was a sacrifice to their great god of the river. When Moses returned and told Pharoah to release his people and he refused Moses and Aaron then turned the Nile into blood. Now it was a symbol both of the death of the newborns and the death of their falsely called god. The God of the lowly Hebrew slaves slew the god of the great Egyptians as the consequence of the slaughter of the innocents.

Satan’s Stand-ins

Just as Pharoah, the supreme power of Egypt commanded babies to be killed in Exodus, another supreme authority in our nation in 1973 ruled babies could be aborted simply because they were inconvenient, unwanted or would interfere with the career or education of the mother. The vast majority, 93%, of babies are aborted for the reason of inconvenience. Imagine that.

In 1990 at the height of abortion deaths there were 1.6 million deaths from the procedure. That number slowly came down but was still almost one million every year. That makes it by far the single highest cause of death in our nation, much, much higher than cancer, heart disease or car accidents

Then in 2022 the Supreme Court did what many believed would never happen, they ruled that Roe Vs. Wade, the case that legalized nationwide abortion, was wrong.

Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that the 1973 Roe ruling and repeated subsequent high court decisions reaffirming Roe "must be overruled" because they were "egregiously wrong," the arguments "exceptionally weak" and so "damaging" that they amounted to "an abuse of judicial authority."

Just as God used two midwives to overcome the infanticide of Pharoah, he used millions of simple, common men and women, who prayed, marched, voted and gave to stop nationwide abortion in this country. Abortion still goes on, but praise God it is no longer the law of the land. There are states that legalize it and God will deal with them, but our nation is no longer required to allow the killing of the unborn.

Just as there are consequences for evil laws there are blessings for moral and upright laws. We have a long way to go, but let us rejoice that we have reversed one of the worst marks of unrighteousness our nation has ever lived under.

The principle of sowing and reaping is found throughout scripture, it applies to individuals, families and yes to nations. We cannot forget or ignore it.

Isaiah says in 3:10-11 10 Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

Hosea speaks to the nation in 10:12-13 12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. 13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way,…

Paul says it to us as New Testament believers, in Galatians 6:7-10 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

This truth was never so important as a guiding principle for us as it is today. We sow what we reap, both corruption or life. And because that is true than we as the people of God in this age must not grow weary in well doing because when the time is due, we will reap the good we have sown in the work of God.

This is why we do not shrink from telling the truth, why we vote and most importantly why we preach the Gospel. For in due season we shall reap the joyous harvest of saved souls and redeemed lives.

A Christian Mother’s Love

Jess Colgrove  was a friend that I went to Bible college with. After college, he went to Portugal as a missionary and later pastor a church in Big Spring, Texas. We used to go to summer camp and Bible conferences together, though we’ve lost track of one another lately. I remember one year at summer camp as LeeOra and I were talking to Jess and his wife Thelma, they asked to pray for a very serious situation in their family. Their only daughter was pregnant and at the same time had been diagnosed with cancer. The doctors plainly told the family that they could not treat the cancer without killing the baby in the womb. They advised that she abort the baby and get treated for the cancer. What a terrible decision to have to make. I wonder what one of us would have done, but I know what Jess’s daughter said, “No treatment until after the baby is born.” The doctors told here it would be too late, they needed to sacrifice the child to save the mother. But the mother refused such a sacrifice. She determined if it came down to it she would sacrifice herself to save the baby. And my or my, didn’t we pray. And one day we received word that baby was born healthy and strong. The prognosis of doctors was wrong, while the passion of the mother was right. After the delivery she received chemotherapy and was healed of the cancer. I will always remember this story because it is a wonderful example of the faith and love a mother for her unborn child.

The outcome of these kinds of situations are not always so joyous. At our churh we have experienced both the joy and the sadness of our own members, friends, family and loved ones going through the same valleys and challenges.

Conclusion

And though the we cannot know how all our prayers will be answered, we can know this that choosing life, protecting the innocent and obeying God is always, always the right decision. And we can know that God will reward that obedience in His due season. Never doubt it.