The Gathering Storm | Exodus 1:8-22

Introduction

Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 1.

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it…

It is with these lines that the immortal and fair Lady Galadriel (the real Lady Galadriel) opens Peter Jackson’s epic retelling of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It is these lines that open the story, beginning with the prologue, that then brings us the audience to the present situation. Like all good prologues, The Fellowship of the Rings’ prologue briefly informs the audience of the history of the situation spanning thousands of years prior to the immediate story’s events and gives clarity about the purpose and direction of the adventure to come.

If you know the story of Exodus, you know that it is a grand story. It is a collision of epic proportions. It is a story of epic plagues, of miraculous deliverance, of hard-hearted Pharaohs, and of splitting seas. There is much adventure to come. However, all good stories need a setting, a prologue, in order that we might fully grasp the significance of the epic to come. And as Pastor Greg began our series last week in Exodus 1:1-7, we were given the opening stanzas of that very prologue. The opening paragraph of Exodus serves as a hinge; a hinge that connects the history of God’s people given in Genesis to God’s people wandering the desert. 

That opening paragraph sets us up well for the epic to come, showing us, as Greg faithfully pointed us to last week, that the God of the Israelites (and our God) is faithful to his people, his purpose, and his promise to have for himself a people for himself to dwell with forever. And we saw last week that God has done that in preserving and prospering the Israelites in the foreign land of Egypt. 

However, the prologue is not complete. The setting has not been fully explained. Like Galadriel said, the world of Exodus 1:1-7 is changed, and much that once was is now lost, for none live who remember it. There is a gathering storm over the multiplying people of God. Before we meet the human hero of this epic, we must comprehend the gravity of the grave situation that necessitates a hero, a salvation, an exodus.

So, out of reverence for God’s holy and authoritative word, would you stand if you are able? To help give us the context of our text today, I am going to start at the beginning of the chapter in 1:1 and read through the chapter. 

“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 seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that 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.

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.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 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. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

—Exodus 1

After reading the first paragraph in Exodus, one is left with the feeling that all is going well with the Israelites. They survived the great famine at the end of Genesis thanks to Joseph and found favor and a home in the land of Egypt. The covenantal language of being “fruitful and multiplying” and of “filling and increasing in number” is deployed here to show that all seems to be well. They are safe in the protection of Egypt, placed there by the providence of God in the famine, and are favored by the king of Egypt because of the providence of God in Joseph’s suffering. What the brothers had intended for evil, God intended for their good. So, all is well.

However, the opening word of our text today, of v. 8 changes everything…NOW. With that single simple word, Moses signals to the reader that the era of prosperity, of blessing, and of favor, was then. And what is about to be described is NOW. NOW the world is changed, and Moses seeks his readers to understand how it has changed. But despite all the changing, there is always and forever one who stands over the chaos, over the storm, of the battle that is about to ensue, and it is the unchanging God who is faithful. So, here is what I believe Moses is seeking to communicate to us in Exodus 1:8-22: Even under dire enemy persecution, the Lord will protect and prosper those who fear him.

As we walk through this gathering storm, and as we close out the prologue to this epic tale, we will see how the final pieces will be set on the board. As we survey the board, we will see that there is a new king on the scene, he is a king that has been deceived, and there is an ultimate King who stands over all, eager to bless those who fear him.

The New King

As said before, what separates this section from the first paragraph of the book is the all-important word “NOW”. Look again at v. 8: “NOW there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph”. We are presented with our antagonist: Pharaoh, King of Egypt. It is the introduction of this new character that ushers in the changed situation. One commentator describes it this way:

With these ominous words, Israel’s sojourn among the Egyptians turned from prosperity to persecution. What had once seemed like a promising place to grow into a godly nation became a house of bondage, a wasteland of backbreaking torment…the situation had changed. A new dynasty came to power. It was in with the new regime, and out with the old. When it comes to power politics, it’s all about who you know.

—Phillip Ryken

It is by the providence of God that we gather this morning to read of regime and dynasty change the day before the Queen of England’s state funeral. 10 days ago, the ancient cry rang out, “The Queen is dead; God save the King!” With those words, the situation in England changed. 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II is over. There is now a new King. And questions remain; in what way will King Charles III reign? Will he rule like his mother, the late Queen; a woman who was devoted to her duty and her faith? Listen to the oath the Queen took in 1953. The Archbishop of Canterbury asks her majesty: 

“Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?” 

Will Charles take that oath? Those are the questions that are raised when there is a change in the sovereign. And Moses makes it crystal clear that this change was dramatic. If power politics is really all about who you know, then this Pharaoh did not know Joseph or the role he played to save the nation of Egypt during the Great Famine. All this Pharaoh knew was that there was this “people of Israel”, multiplying and increasing greatly and growing exceedingly in strength (1:7), so much so that the land was filled with them. It was one thing when they were a small family of 70 people, tucked away in the vast land of Goshen in the Nile Delta; now, they were numerous. To Pharoah, this growing nation within his nation has become “too many and too mighty”. Something had to be done.

And notice how Pharoah communicates this problem to the nation of Egypt. He addresses his people (v. 9), and declares the problem using all 1st person plural pronouns: “they are too mighty for US”, “let US deal shrewdly, “they will join OUR enemies”...Pharoah needs buy-in for what he plans to do. And it is clear that the motivation for this subjugation is simple fear.

And isn’t that the story of human history? The quick and perceived solution to fear is control. And the solution is control because what we actually fear is the unknown and uncontrolled. How often have we experienced unease in our present circumstances and then looked into the future, not sure what will happen next. The stock markets take a nose-dive, wiping away thousands and thousands of dollars overnight; your boss walks in and informs you you’re being laid off; or you receive a diagnosis, and you’re unsure what’ll happen next. It is the very lack of control that causes anxiety and fear to take root in our hearts. See, Pharoah fears what the Hebrews will do IF war breaks out. He doesn’t know what will happen; he fears what could happen; so it’s time to take control.

And control he takes. As you read v. 11-14, we find Moses repeating himself to emphasize the oppression that was placed on the Hebrews. 7 different words are used to describe the subjugation of the Israelites into slavery. Words and phrases like afflict, oppressed, ruthless, work, slaves, made their lives bitter with hard service…the picture is clear: this is brutal and horrible slavery.

But where did this come from? Can such atrocities really happen at the whim of a madman in power? Well, yes…and no. There are bigger realities at play. Ancient and cosmic realities. As we saw last week and repeated in our passage today, the language used throughout this chapter points us back to the Garden of Eden. There God gave his blessing to Adam and Eve and commanded them to “be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it”. It is at the beginning, in the beautiful Garden, that the Lord walked and talked with his people in the cool of the day. But you know the story…enter the serpent. Just like in our story, the picture of blessing and favor is interrupted by the introduction of a villain.

The way in which Moses describes Pharoah and his actions here in Exodus 1 makes clear that Pharoah is not just some paranoid tyrant, but in fact, despises and resents the God that these people represent. Again, as Greg so helpfully showed us, God is faithful! And he is faithful to his people, his plan, and his promise. But notice, it is those very things that Pharoah attacks. He resents God’s people in seeing them as a threat; he resents God’s promise in that the stated reason of dealing shrewdly with them is (v. 10) “lest they multiply”; and he resents God’s plan by fearing that they might (v. 10 again) “escape from the land.” So, what is happening here is not just atrocious human rights violations, but is open warfare declared against God himself. 

In Genesis 3, after the Fall, God speaks first to the serpent, cursing him, saying: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

This enmity, placed there by God himself, is between the offspring/seed/line of the woman and the offspring/seed/line of the Serpent, that ancient dragon. Open war is being waged by the serpent against God’s people because he knows that there is coming a snake-crusher who will bring about his demise. The serpent, using Pharaoh as a puppet, enslaves the people of God. Enslavement is the ultimate form of control because it views the enslaved as property, claimed by the owner. That is his goal…to take mastery of God and his people. That is always the goal of sin…to usurp God and his throne. And as the Israelites experienced this oppressive enslavement, they are prone to forget God just as quickly as the new pharaoh forgot Joseph. Suffering has a way of narrowing our focus on life. Philip Ryken writes, “It is suffering that inserts the question marks into the story of our lives.”

That’s right. Suffering is like a storm at sea, battering our boats, threatening to capsize our faith, tempting us to ask the question, “Where is God and doesn’t care?” It’s impossible to get your bearings from the stars when you’re surrounded by battering waves and clouds obscure your view. It’s disorienting. And that had the same effect on the Israelites. Where is God? Has he forgotten his promises? Is he actually an unfaithful God? Doesn’t he care?

So, this state-sponsored oppression has cosmic dimensions. But even in the midst of this tremendous suffering, there is hope. Remember, Pharaoh, the puppet of the serpent himself, has the expressed goal of stopping the multiplication of the Israelites. But…v. 12 gives us a surprising result. 

“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.”

—Exodus 1:12

This is so like God. Just as he dealt with the serpent in Genesis 3, just as he dealt with the brothers of Joseph in Genesis 50…God causes the very means intended for the destruction of his people to become the means of their blessing. The harder they were oppressed, the more the people multiplied, and the Egyptians’ fear turned into dread.

God has not lost control. He is the author of this story. No matter the suffering, the oppression, the evil intentions of men and of the Devil, all things must work out for the good of those who love God! In fact, we know God is ultimately in control of this story because of the promises he made to Abram hundreds of years earlier in Genesis 15:13-14, “Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”

Notice, the affliction brought on Abram’s offspring not only was not a surprise to God, but it had an end date. And no evil will go unpunished, because our God is a God of justice, and that evil nation will know that he is the Lord when he comes to save his people. Charles Spurgeon, commenting on the preserving faithfulness of God in our suffering says this:

[I]n all probability, if [Israel] had been left to themselves, they would have been melted and absorbed into the Egyptian race, and lost their identity as God’s special people. They were content to be in Egypt, and they were quite willing to be Egyptianized. To a large degree, they began to adopt the superstitions, and idolatries, and iniquities of Egypt; and these things clung to them, in after years, to such a terrible extent that we can easily imagine that their heart must have turned aside very much towards the sins of Egypt. Yet, all the while, God was resolved to bring them out of that evil connection. They must be a separated people; they could not be Egyptians, nor yet live permanently like Egyptians, for Jehovah had chosen them for himself, and he meant to make an abiding difference between Israel and Egypt.

—Charles Spurgeon

We today face a similar threat. The church must remember at all times that we are not of this world, but belong to God! And the suffering of the Israelites, and oftentimes the suffering of the church in a hostile environment, is the means that galvanizes the people of God. It is God who preserves us, and keeps us, and holds us fast. 

Throughout this epic, Moses desires that the Israelites wandering through the desert would open up their lens to see beyond their circumstances to faithful God who has not abandoned them. He is working in the storm. And the same is true for us. One glance at the history of the church and it will tell you it is in the crucible of persecution and hostility that produced the greatest gospel fruit. So, as we live today in a hostile culture, a culture eager to see our God mocked and the very nature of his creation upended, take heart that it is this heat that can produce the greatest fruit.

So, Pharaoh's work camp had failed to produce his desired results. Something else must be done. So we turn to scene 2…

The Deceived King

Pharaoh’s work camp program is escalated to death camps via infanticide. If brutal, harsh, and bitter work is not able to slow down their fruitfulness, then he must destroy the fruit itself. So, Pharaoh calls before him two Hebrew midwives and he gives them a clear command: when a Hebrew woman gives birth to a boy, they must kill him. With this declaration, Pharaoh makes himself not just an enemy of God, but an enemy of life itself. He values the Israelites so little that he finds no misgivings about murdering the innocent children.

Now, why kill only the males? 2 reasons…1) boys become men, and men become warriors. If Pharoah’s fear is that the Hebrews will become a military threat to him, he must stop them from growing militarily. But there is a second reason…2) by killing the boys and letting the girls live, he forces those girls, when they grow up, to marry Egyptian men. Thus, their bloodlines are mixed, and the Hebrews become Egyptians themselves. He will force the Egyptianization of the Hebrews. This is an ancient form of genocide. This same method was used by the Assyrians on the conquered nation of Israel before Judah’s exile, producing a mixed race named after the former capital of Israel: Samaria, home of the despised Samaritans. 

Once again, the serpent is at work. His desire to own God’s people has not worked; so he progresses to outright destruction and the mixing of the two offsprings. How can the seed of the woman crush the head of the serpent if the seed of the woman has become the seed of the serpent? If suffering won’t break their backs, he will force them to become Egyptians. He really is a crafty serpent.

But these two women were not like Pharaoh. Their suffering has not given way to hopelessness. To stand before Pharaoh, these simple, humble women are standing before what that society believed was god on earth. Pharaoh was seen to be semi-divine; the embodiment of the beings of the gods themselves. To disobey these orders is to disobey the gods themselves. Once again, fear is the tactic of choice. So, for them to push back against that much societal and governmental pressure would require fearing something even greater. And v. 17 gives us the answer: “but the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.” T. Desmond Alexander comments on this passage by saying, “By highlighting their fear of God, the narrator indicates that their disobedience to Pharaoh is prompted by much more than a humanitarian concern for the baby boys. Their civil disobedience arises out of a commitment to God and a desire to see his creation plan fulfilled.”

What we see from these women is an act of what is commonly called civil disobedience. We live in a cultural moment where that might resonate with us. It seems like a live question today: “where is the line and when do I fire up my civil disobedience.” And we ask those questions for good reason. It seems every day, our ruling authorities seem to take more and more ground against our Christian convictions. That’s undeniable and unavoidable. 

However, before we get too far down the road of pointing to this passage to justify any and all civil disobedience, we have to pause. I’m reminded of when Pastor Ryan preached on Romans 13 last May, recalling that for Paul, Christian duty requires obedience. And, according to Romans 13, God has placed governmental authorities over us, and our inclination must be obedience first. However, when the thing mandated directly contradicts the expressed will of God, we are to obey God rather than man. So, it is obedience at all times. 

The Lord’s providence had brought the Israelites to the nation of Egypt, and it was the Lord who prospered and blessed them there, and it was the Lord who placed Pharaoh on his throne. All authority is derived authority, and Pharaoh’s is no exception. Our authorities are no exception. So by ignoring the command of Pharaoh, the Hebrew midwives were obeying…they were just obeying the one who outranked Pharaoh and to whom their ultimate allegiance belonged. We must always obey God…as Peter puts it in Acts 5:29 after being commanded by the chief priests and rulers to stop teaching in the name of Christ, “We must obey God rather than men.”

It didn’t take long for the Pharaoh to realize that his plan wasn’t working. Considering how the Lord has worked thus far, there was likely a male baby boom that caught the attention of Pharaoh. So, he hauls those same midwives in front of him and demands they answer for themselves. Notice their response; they didn’t outright claim something contrary to the fact, but instead claimed that the reason all these boys have been successfully born is because the Hebrew women are strong and vigorous, UNLIKE the Egyptian women.

Much could be said and plenty has been said about the ethics at play in this scene. Were the midwives right in deceiving the King? Isn’t God a God of truth? We may sympathize with their actions, but haven’t they lied? And doesn’t Proverbs 12:22 say “The Lord detests lying lips”? All of these are fair questions. So how do we reconcile this?

Certainly, there is a difference between deceiving someone who neither expects nor deserves the truth and someone who does. In almost all of our daily interactions, the people we talk to expect and deserve the truth. My wife, my boss, my friends expect and deserve the ruth. However, in sports, we often deceive our opponents. Maybe we run a trick play or pump-fake a basketball, feigning a shot, and then driving to the hoop. Are these moral dilemmas? Of course not! In sports, your opponent doesn’t expect you to be wholly truthful but expects you to try and throw them off. And in justified war, evil enemies do not deserve the truth. They may use the truth to harm or kill innocent people. And what we find in our story is that Pharaoh had declared open war on the God of Truth and his people. The real deception had taken place in Pharaoh’s heart. He was so deceived by sin that he did not deserve the truth, with which he could continue his wickedness.

That said, Moses’ central aim in this story is not for us to focus on the ethical parsing of the actions of the midwives, but to see the bigger picture: despite his best efforts, the Hebrew midwives played Pharaoh for a fool. Even their explanation to Pharaoh is a backhanded insult…the Hebrew women are just so much stronger than the women of Egypt, we can’t make it in time! Once again, Pharaoh’s plans are thwarted. The deceiving serpent of the Garden is repaid here by 2 Hebrew midwives…the tables have truly turned.

These 2 heroic women feared God over any man, and thus acted accordingly. And like what often happens in stories, we can judge a character by what happens to them. And what was the result of their actions? They are blessed by the true King, the High King…

The King of Kings

In v. 20, we have the conclusion of the matter. Despite the suffering of the people in slavery, despite the tyrannical and murderous commands of Pharaoh, the two midwives receive divine blessing from the king over all. Look at v. 20…while Pharaoh had dealt harshly with the Hebrews, the Lord dealt well with the midwives. Because of their faithfulness and fear of the Lord, they are fruitful. It is unclear if only barren women served as midwives, but the language of their receiving families suggests that, before this ordeal, these women had no families. They spent day after day delivering child after child to happy mother after happy mother, with no family of their own. But when they were called upon to be faithful, they showed themselves worthy. And the Lord honors them with the families of their own. The fruit of their faith to the fruit of their wombs.

And already, in just one chapter of Exodus, we see a pattern emerging. That when all seems lost; when the circumstances feel as though they could not be any grimmer, the Lord is faithful to bless his people, those who fear him. Try as he might, Pharaoh fails in suppressing the blossoming people of God. 

The reason he can’t get his arms around this situation is that his worst fears are true: he is not in control, he is not all-powerful, he is not God. The serpent’s feeble attempts to replace God fail in utter reversal. King David probably had many situations in his mind when he wrote Psalm 2, but these words are fitting for this story as well.

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. …Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

—Psalm 2:1-4, 10-12

What Joseph knew, what the Hebrew midwives knew, and what Israel will come to know very clearly is that our God sits enthroned above all. He is the king. He is to be feared above all else. And blessed are those who take refuge in him! The suffering intended to destroy the people leads ultimately to their deliverance. Once again, what man intends for evil, God intends for our good. 

Conclusion

This reality, the reality of the sovereign rule and reign of God, is the ballast for our boat in the storms of suffering and persecution. And in case we are tempted to think that, “yes, that’s all well and good for the Israelites and for those midwives, but how do I know that that God, that sovereign king cares a lick about me and present circumstances?”...may I remind you that this God, this transcendent, almighty, incomprehsible God became one of us. In Christ Jesus, we who were once like the Egyptians, like Pharaoh himself, belonging to a hostile nation, have been brought near. Through Christ’s death, he suffered in our stead. And through Christ’s resurrection, he rose victorious over death itself. The head of the snake has been crushed! As Paul says in Colossians 2:13-15, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

All must be well because Christ has secured us. It is he who protects us and prospers us in our suffering. Even if our suffering includes dire opposition, Christ reigns over all. All things must work together for my good! So, dear Christian, when all seems lost, hope in the victorious Christ!