Exodus 2:1-10

To show that it is better to trust in God than to obey godless men’s ungodly edicts.

Those were difficult days in Egypt in the region of Goshen, for the Hebrew people enslaved there, it was bitter harshness at the hands of the taskmasters who were carrying out Pharaoh’s orders. Even greater was the plight of the newborn male babies.

There is something to be learned from their experience, and it is exemplified in the experience of Jochebed, Moses’ mother. Because of the issues at stake, it is better to trust God even in the hard times than to heed the godless edicts of man.

• The edict
  • The scheme (Exodus 1:15-22)
    • Because the Israelite population continued to grow, Pharaoh devised a plan to reduce their numbers after he was unable to work them to death
  • The action
    • The midwives were instructed to kill the newborn males
  • A new plan to cast the babies into the Nile
    • This is not so different from China’s scheme or abortion in our own country
• The event
  • The courage of the midwives and Jochebed
    • Midwives could be killed for disobedience
    • Jochebed could suffer greatly
  • The challenge of the event
    • Civil disobedience
      • Jochebed’s civil disobedience
        • God enabled her to see more than a baby
      • The disciples in Acts 4:19-20
      • Esther
• The end result
  • The providence of God
    • God worked through a woman of faith
  • The persistence of Jochebed
    • Defying all that Pharaoh determined
    • Miriam’s role
    • The training in God’s law
      • Hebrews 11:23-26
  • The deliverer
    • This baby would be a giant of a man of faith who would defy Pharaoh’s decrees.

Jochebed stands as a powerful testimony that it is better to trust in God even in hard times than to heed the words of evil men.

She shows that trust in God will:

• defy the ungodly king’s orders
• will trust in the providence of God
• will trust God to work out the details of His purpose in her son