You’ve just listened to me read this morning’s text. So, I have a question.
What is God doing here? Now, some folk hear that question and look at the
text and they’ll answer, ‘He’s blessing the midwives??’ But they know that
that’s not right. It’s clear that that’s a secondary matter. So, what is God
doing here? And people look at the text again. But they don’t see God doing
anything. He’s not even mentioned – apart for the midwives’ blessing. And
so, there is no answer to my question, ‘What is God doing here?’ And the
reason is that they’re looking for some explicit statement. ‘And God did …’
something. It doesn’t say anything like that, does it? But what is God
doing? He’s doing something. Why else is this in the Bible? God is doing
something. What is it? The answer is actually quite obvious. God is mocking
Pharaoh. He is making fun of the great king of Egypt. It’s obvious once you
know what to look for. There are lessons to be learned from this, lessons
about our God and how He acts and how we are to relate to Him. Listen to
what the Spirit has to say.
We’re up to Pharaoh’s plan B to deal with Israel. Plan A was to work them to
death. That didn’t work, so now he wants the midwives to kill the boys as
soon as they are born. The midwives refuse because they fear God, something
that we’ll come back to in a future sermon. So, they conjure up a story
about strong Hebrew mothers. Scholars today discuss how something must be
missing here since that story is just too lame to be believed. And off they
go with their theories about redaction history and manuscript transmission.
But I think that the lameness of the story is exactly to the point. These
midwives whip up a story that really shouldn’t be believed. And yet,
Pharaoh, fool that he is, believes it. Can you hear the little Israelite
children laughing, as grandfather re-tells the story of a foolish king who
actually believed a silly tale? God is mocking Pharaoh.
Then there’s plan C: all the boys are to be thrown into the Nile. He can’t
get rid of them one way, so he’ll do it another. So, what does Moses’ mother
do? Being the ‘obedient’ subject that she is, into the Nile goes Moses. Ah,
but then what happens? Moses is found by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses’ sister,
Miriam, is in the bushes watching. End result? Moses is rescued, cared for
by his own mother, and that under the protection of the daughter of the
mighty Pharaoh himself – and she gets paid for it to boot! God is mocking
Pharaoh.
Then there is this aspect. Who are the actors in these stories? Who plays an
active role here? Women. Only women. There are the midwives, Moses’ mother
and sister, and then there is Pharaoh’s daughter with her maids. All women.
Is that just an interesting oddity? There are no ‘interesting oddities’ in
the Scriptures. What’s there is there for a reason. The fact that all the
actors are women is significant. In both situations in our text the mighty
king of Egypt is thwarted. The man who rules over one of the most powerful
nations of the day, who speaks and armies march, is thwarted by some people
that he wouldn’t consider as worth a second thought. Pharaoh probably thinks
more of his favorite horse than any of the women in his realm. And yet, he
is undone by a handful of these insignificant women. Can you hear the
laughter now? God is mocking Pharaoh. ‘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 mocks them.’ [Psalm 2:1-4] ‘What God is
doing in our text?’ Now, you know.
Now that we have answered that question, we can look to see how what we have
learned says something to how we are to live. I have a few thoughts for you
to consider. The first is simply this: read your Bible carefully. How many
times have we all read this passage and never stopped to ask that simple
question? And because we didn’t pause to ask the question, we weren’t able
to see something fairly significant. So, read thoughtfully. What might help
is actually to read less at a time. Read less and think about it more. Learn
to ask questions of the text, questions like, ‘What is God doing here?’ As a
result, there will be times when you read your Bible that you laugh out loud
or you will shake your head in disbelief as you see the foolishness of
rebellious men exposed for what it is. There is much more going on in the
Bible than what we normally notice, more going on emotionally – which leads
to my second thought.
Our text has shown us something about who our God is, something about what
He is like. He mocks. He makes fun of those who refuse to bow before Him. He
sees what they are about and then shows us their foolishness. He shouts from
heaven, ‘The king has no clothes.’ This is our cue to join in the laughter.
This is very different from the common notion of God. To so many people, and
sadly, I have to include too many Christians, God is a cardboard person. He
has no emotions. He is basically unaffected by what happens on this globe.
There He sits in heaven, doing nothing. He is aware, but there is no
response to what’s going on with us, no emotional response. He is untouched
by our reality. And history moves on while this god stands aloof. He is
cold, uninvolved and detached from our situation. The most that we can
expect is maybe a thunderbolt thrown in rage. This God can get angry – at
friend and foe alike – but that’s about the extent of His emotional
involvement in our world. Now, you know what that sounds like? That sounds
like the Moslem notion of God which the missionaries told us about last
week. That sounds like Allah: unaffected, uninvolved, unemotional. Oh sure,
He may answer a prayer here and there, but it’s in the style of some
terribly rich noble who, from a safe distance and with a handkerchief
carefully held to his nose, tosses a few pennies to some peasant he
immediately forgets about. Is that our God? Absolutely not! Our God enters
into the fray. He sees exactly what is going on. And He responds, with
passion, to the events of the day. And sometimes the passionate response is
to mock. ‘Yep, that sure is some king you’ve got there: fooled and undone by
some powerless women. I know I’m impressed!’ That is not the response of
some cardboard god. That is the response of a God who is, dare I say it,
rather human, a God who feels and is emotional, and isn’t afraid to show it.
Now, I want you to take all of that and apply it to your prayers. What kind
of God do you pray to? Is He a cardboard god who has no heart, no feelings,
no passion? Is He a god who is distant and emotionally uninvolved in your
life? Is your greatest hope just to gain a few pennies, condescendingly
tossed your way? Or are your prayers a kind of payment to placate this aloof
tyrant? ‘Gotta keep the despot happy, or who knows what he’ll do?’ If that
is the god you pray to, stop. Those prayers are a waste of time. And down
deep, you know that. The God of the Bible, on the other hand, is a
passionate God. He feels. He responds with emotion. And so, when I pour out
my heart during my prayers and the tears begin to flow, my Father in heaven
is crying with me. He understands what I feel and He is moved by it. And I
know that because this God revealed what He is like in Jesus. I do not pray
to a cardboard cutout. I pray to a Person who feels and responds with
emotion. That means that my prayers are anything but a waste of time. What
kind of god do you pray to?
This leaves one last thought from our text. We see, once again, the familiar
theme: God uses weakness. In that culture, who would have been considered
weaker than some women, especially some slave women? But that is who God
used to frustrate one of the most powerful men in that world. And that is
what He always does. He uses the weak. So, who faced Goliath? God used some
runt of a kid who went into battle against a giant with some pebbles.
Weakness. And the best example, of course, is our Lord Jesus. Do you know
why God uses the weak? ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made
perfect in weakness.’ [2 Corinthians 12:9] There’s a passage worthy of
meditation.
We live in a culture that exalts power and being in control. If we were to
spend sufficient time in another culture and then come back, we would see it
everywhere – and be aghast. But we don’t see it. Nonetheless, it’s true.
Before I came to be pastor here I was the principal of a small Christian
school. And the unofficial motto of that school was ‘academic excellence’.
What we parents and teachers meant by that was, ‘Our kids are going to be so
smart that they can kick your kids’ butts. They will be prepared for the
best colleges and then the best jobs.’ Let’s hear it for academic
excellence. It was a motto of pride and of power – and none of us saw it.
But God uses the weak. And so, He used a handful of unnoticed women to
frustrate a powerful king. But then a question needs to be asked. ‘Who in
our text was actually weak, and who had real power that made a lasting
difference?’
When we started this series I told you that my goal was not to make you
great experts in the book of Exodus. My goal was that you would get to know
your God better. I think that I’ve given you some things to ponder about
your God. Take the time and meditate on these things.
