Sermons from Bible Baptist Church of Puyallup: WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE CRIED

WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE CRIED

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Exodus 1:1-22 (KJV)

Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:

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.

But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

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?

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.

Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

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

Exodus chapter 2:1-22 is the account of the birth and of the raising of Moses.

He comes up again in our story, doesn’t he?

Exodus 2:23-25 (KJV)

And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

What did God do when the people cried up to God?

Exodus 3:1-10 (KJV)

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.

Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

· God saw their affliction

· God heard their cry and

· God sent Moses

Notice what Moses was to do,

Exodus 3:15-20 (KJV)

And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:

And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.

And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.

And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

· He didn’t gather them for a rally

· He didn’t gather them for a protest

· He didn’t gather them together as an army

He gathered them to give them a message from God. and

He then went into Pharaoh to plead that they be let go.

I. ISRAEL DID PRETTY WELL IN EGYPT FOR A PRETTY LONG TIME

Exodus 1:1-7 (KJV)

Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

Egypt never really was supposed to be their home.

It was not where God’s promise for them existed.

· They were there for a time and

· They were there for a purpose

But I get the impression that they might have grown used to it, comfortable with and even successful in it.

They had a good land in Egypt – natural resources, they were left alone to do their own thing in the land of Goshen

They had a good heritage in Egypt – Joseph had worked his way to the top. Egypt had great respect for him, and they treated Israel well because of that.

They were fruitful in Egypt –

· They increased abundantly

· They multiplied

· They waxed exceeding mighty and

The land was filled with them.

Sounds to me like there was no real reason for them to want to dwell where God promised them.

There was no real reason to take Joseph’s bones back, like they had once promised him.

There was no real good reason or them to go back where Abraham had built them altars to worship God at.

There just wasn’t any really good reason for them to:

· Live where God wanted

· Worship how God wanted

· Witness the way God wanted

They were not doing too badly right where they were.

I just have to tell you that I think there is a lot of Christianity, especially in the United States, that looks just like that.

We’ve done pretty well for a very long time.

We too have a good heritage in the United States. We can look back to

· The first and second great awakenings

The revivals of:

· Jonathan Edward

· John Wesley and George Whitefield

Later on of:

· DL Moody and then

· Billy Sunday

We have the heritage of very good (even if not godly) men like:

· George Washington

· John Adams

· Thomas Jefferson

· Patrick Henry and

· James Madison

As Baptists we might regale in the memories of:

· Isaac Backus

· John Clarke

· James Gano

· John Leland and

· The Danbury Baptist Association

Our heritage has been such that, for the bulk of United States history it was expected that those holding public office be at least nominal Christians. A number of them were practicing believers.

Almost all of them, until recent years held membership in a local church, and attended regularly.

While the Baptist concept of separation of church and state has been a watchword in American politics, it was understood that this meant the government was not to restrict free worship and never that Christian were not allowed in government.

· We’ve built grand church buildings

· We’ve raised millions upon millions for missionary efforts

Christians have done very well.

Until what? About 100 years ago.

Notice secondly that,

II. EGYPT BECAME INCREASINGLY HOSTILE TO ISRAEL

Exodus 1:8-14 (KJV)

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

Suddenly, maybe imperceptibly, the government of Egypt lost respect for the heritage of Joseph.

Eventually a Pharaoh came to reign who had no regard for Joseph, or his family at all.

All he saw was a strange people in “his” country.

· They didn’t live the same way

· They didn’t worship the same way

· They didn’t earn their living the same way

What’s more they had excessive, in his eyes, influence in his world.

They were a threat.

But there were enough of them he knew he couldn’t just make a decree and write them off.

He had to deal wisely with them.

He put them to work

· He moved them to places they hadn’t been before

· He gave them grand projects

Then he

· afflicted them and

· burdened them

But the more he afflicted them, the more they thrived.

Christian historians might squabble about the exact details of it, but I think the same thing has happened in the United States.

In the summer of 1925, a schoolteacher in Tennessee by the name of John Scopes was accused of teaching human evolution.

The trial got national attention when Clarence Darrow squared off against three-time Christian presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan.

Darrow made a mockery of Bryan’s Christian faith and, although Darrow lost the trial, he turned public opinion against Biblical creation and toward human evolution.

The teaching of Biblical creationism was supplanted by the theory of evolution, and eventually that gave way to what every one of us was taught was evolutionary science.

In 1962 the United States Supreme Court removed prayer from schools,

· Then the Bible

· Then the Pledge of Allegiance

Gradually, almost without our every seeing it happen, the education system turned

· Away from Christianity

· Away from Americanism and

· Toward godless socialism

But really Christians felt like they were still doing really well.

· We still built big buildings

· We still sent lots of money to missionaries

· We still felt like we are a light in our world

Notice what else happened in Egypt,

Exodus 1:15-22 (KJV)