Good Monday morning to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
You have probably heard more than one story about your birth. It seems everyone has a birth story. In my case, I’m told that the first time both my parents and the doctor thought it was time… it wasn’t, and my mother was in labor several hours before they decided it was a ‘false alarm’. The second time it was again a long, long labor. I’m surprised my mother was willing to go through that two more times for my brother and sister, but I’m glad she did! So, what’s your birth story?
Christmas, of course, is all about a remarkable birth story, and these days, as we begin our 30 journey to Christmas, I’m helping us see how events and words spoken in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before, pointed forward to that unique arrival of Jesus, God the Son, to planet earth which HE had created! Yesterday I left you in the palace of Egypt about 1900bc and the remarkable story of Joseph, the favored son of Jacob. Joseph miraculously ended up becoming the Prime Minister of Egypt after he was guided by God to interpret the Pharaoh’s dream foretelling a soon coming famine. (Gen. 41)
In that role Joseph became a type of savior both for Egypt and the surrounding famine-stricken nations, including Canaan where his father’s family was starving. Joseph, led by God’s wisdom, saved many people from starvation death through his God given management of both harvest and famine years.
It’s quite a remarkable story that points forward to God’s miraculous provision of Jesus, His only Son, to come to earth as the Savior of the world.
Today, join me again back in Egypt, but many years later. Joseph was long forgotten, and the current Pharaoh of Egypt knew nothing of the story found in Genesis 37 through 50. Those 70 of Jacob’s family had stayed in Egypt, even though when they came there, fleeing the famine, they told Pharaoh they’d only come for a short while to survive the famine and they would very soon be returning to the land God had given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan. (Gen. 47:4)
‘Good times’ have a way of causing time to pass quickly and people often forget their commitments, don’t they? 17 years after Jacob’s arrival in Egypt, he finally died at the age of 147, still living in Egypt. (Gen. 47:28) Jacob had failed his family by not leading them out of Egypt back to Canaan, the land God had given them. Joseph, sadly, also failed the family by not insisting they leave Egypt and return to Canaan. Neither Jacob nor Joseph could have imagined what their failed leadership would mean for their descendants many years later.
Joseph died at the age of 110 (Gen. 50:26) and by then three generations had been born in Egypt. Egypt was home and no one alive of Jacob’s family had ever seen Canaan or really knew much about it. This large family of Jacob and his 12 sons grew fast and soon they numbered in the thousands. Time passed.
As the book of Exodus opens the year is about 1525bc. Exodus 1:8 says, “A new Pharaoh came to power in Egypt, who knew nothing of Joseph.”This Pharaoh was frightened, not because of any foreign army threatening Egypt from the outside, but a foreign people living among them. Jacob’s family had multiplied rapidly over more than 300 years. They had been enslaved by previous Pharaoh’s but still they multiplied, and this Pharaoh felt something radical had to be done to limit their population growth. His plan was a harsh one… kill all the Hebrew baby boys at birth!
Those born near the Nile River were thrown into the river to drown. Those born elsewhere were killed by any means possible. What a terrible time to be alive and pregnant if you were a descendant of Jacob and his family, the Hebrews.
Exodus 2 tells us the story of such a woman. She and her husband already had two children, a boy named Aaron and a girl named Miriam. In their desperation they prayed and trusted that somehow God would intervene. We have no details of the birth of this baby, but we do know this little family tried to hide their baby boy as long as possible. But finally, after a few months their only option was to build a little basket, put their infant boy in the basket and set the basket afloat on the Nile River, trusting God to do something miraculous to protect their baby son.
Do you recognize the story, my friends? Do you remember the name of that baby boy and how God did provide for his miraculous rescue from certain death? The Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile River to bathe, and she saw the floating basket. Opening it her eyes saw a beautiful baby boy and suddenly she faced a major decision: Her father, the Pharaoh, had ordered all Hebrew baby boys to be killed… but she had a tender heart, and God was working His miraculous plan that would impact millions of people.
Exodus 2 tells us Miriam, that little baby’s older sister, had been watching from a distance and approached the Princess offering to find a nursing mother for the baby. The Princess agreed and God reunited that baby with his mother, at least for the time of nursing, perhaps up to three years. We know nothing of those years but it’s not difficult for us to imagine the love of that dear mother, her profound gratitude to God for sparing her son’s life, and the hours of prayers she and her husband likely prayed over their baby boy as he grew. The record says: “When the child was weaned, the woman took her son to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him “Moses” saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ (Ex. 2:10)
Now my friends, let’s pause right here and reflect on the similarities between this miraculous God provision for the birth and survival in the early months and years of Moses, with the miraculous birth and survival in the early months and years of Jesus.
You know the Christmas story well. Luke 1:26-38 describes the shocking news of Mary’s unexplainable, God accomplished pregnancy. Both Luke 1 and Matthew 1 tell us God sent angels to explain to both Joseph and Mary that this baby would be no ordinary baby, but rather God coming to take on human flesh and live among us!
Have you considered how difficult it was for Mary and Joseph in those months of pregnancy when no one would believe their explanation of what God was doing? And, while not formally enslaved, Jews throughout the Roman empire at the turn of the millennium lived in fear of the harsh unpredictability of the Cesar, much like the Pharaoh of Egypt centuries before during the time Moses was born.
The decree of a census requiring Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-6) was far more than an inconvenience, it was a travesty from a human perspective, for it resulted in Mary’s baby being born in an animal stable due to the overcrowding in Bethlehem! (Luke 2:7) Can you imagine how similar the feelings of both Mary and the mother of Moses, when they held their newborn sons, wondering why God was allowing such a horrific beginning to their son’s lives?
Have you ever questioned God’s timing in your life?
Have you struggled trying to understand WHY certain things are happening to you or around you which are making life so difficult for you?
Do you sometimes conclude that God is too busy and He’s obviously not paying attention to the details and circumstances making your life so painful?
Or do you perhaps conclude that maybe you’ve disappointed God and He’s punishing you with the painful circumstances complicating your life?
May I urge us today to consider this very powerful statement made by that baby boy Moses when he was an adult many years later, as he stood before the Pharaoh and proclaimed God’s message: “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have raised you up for this very purpose: that I might show you My power and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:16) That is exactly what God was doing in the births of both Moses and Jesus at what seemed to be very bad times in human history and very complex circumstances which caused profound anxiety and fear for these baby boy’s mothers as their pregnancies approached the time for birth.
May I invite you to consider that God may want to apply that very same powerful statement to your life and mine right now? How does God want to show you His power and How might His name be proclaimed through your life and mine at this stage of our lives, no matter what the complex life circumstances are for you today?
Here’s a song to help us consider this as we worship God thanking Him for His Sovereignty over all things at all times…
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 2 & Luke 2.
Choose below to read or listen.
Exodus 2
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Luke 2
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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