The Preparing of a Savior

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THE PREPARING OF A SAVIOR

Exodus 2:11-22

Preparing a Savior

Last week we saw in the beginning verses of Exodus, the way God provided a savior for His

people by protecting that savior from the very beginning of his life –

-While the Pharaoh had called for the killing of all baby boys, Moses’ parents and

Pharaoh’s own daughter thwart the will of Pharaoh and become God’s instruments to

preserve the life of the one God would raise up to deliver His people.

-God provides a savior by protecting that savior!

Today we will see that God provides a savior by preparing that savior to be God’s chosen

deliverer –

-God provides by protecting and preparing a savior!

I refer to Moses as a “savior” because what he does to deliver God’s people is a picture of what

Jesus does in delivering and saving His people –

-Remember, two weeks ago we saw the parallels between Moses’ birth and Jesus’ birth –

-400 silent years between Genesis and Exodus and between OT and NT

-The birth account of both Moses and Jesus is given

-The male baby genocide by Pharaoh and later King Herod

-The redemptive name of “Moses” and “Jesus”

-Today we see two more parallels which help us see the picture of Jesus in Moses –

-Just like with Jesus there is one life account between His birth and ministry, we

see that our text today is the one account of Moses’ life between birth and God

calling him to his earthly ministry.

-This time the parallel is a contrast not a similarity –

-What was Jesus know for in the one account? Wisdom.

-The point of our text today is the Moses doesn’t act wisely but impulsively and foolishly.

One last parallel –

-Jesus is prepared for His earthly ministry with 40 days in the wilderness where He fasts,

prays and resists the temptation of the devil.

-Moses is prepared with 40 years in the wilderness – and today’s texts spans those 40

years.

Read Exodus 2:11-22

Pray

Two Manly Encounters

In the account we just read, we witnessed two displays of masculinity –

-There two times that Moses sees someone (or some ones) who are weak and

vulnerable, and he steps in to protect them.

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-Encounter #1 – An Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave.

-Encounter #2 – Seven sisters being harassed by Midian shepherds.

-In both cases Moses is protecting the weak.

Why do I call these “manly encounters” or two “displays of masculinity?

-Because, in part, what it means to be a man is to protect the weak and vulnerable.

-This is accounting to God’s design!

-Gen. 2:15 – “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work

and to keep it.”

-To “keep” means to “guard, preserve or protect” –

-God made men to be protectors which is why men are typically bigger and stronger than

women.

-It is part of God’s design.

Even though the world does everything it can to ignore and reject anything to do with God’s

design, it still can’t ignore what everyone intuitively knows is true –

-Ill. Of how manhood’s protective characteristic is seen…

-Moses’ reaction in both encounters is a good and godly instinct!

Encounter #1 – Man’s impatience

-While Moses acts on the manly impulse to protect the weak, he clearly goes overboard

and acts in a way that was not appropriate – and certainly not characteristic of the savior

God would prepare.

-There’s four indications from this text that Moses goes too far and then we will look at

another text that makes the matter even more explicit –

-One – His bad conscience –

-He sees the Egyptian beating the Hebrew, then (v. 12) – “He looked this

way and that, and seeing no one…”

-Now, why do you look “this way and that” just before you do something?

-Why don’t you want someone to see?

-You must know what you are doing is wrong!!!

-Two – Kills the Egyptian –

-Again, verse 12, he “struck down the Egyptian” –

-We get the very strong impression that this killing is premeditated.

-Three – Hides the evidence –

-He hides the guy in the sand!

-Four – He is afraid and runs –

-When he realizes this crime was not hidden, he is afraid and runs!

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-Five – Acts 7:22-29

-Moses was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was

mighty in his words and deeds.”

-Part of his education was in hand-to-hand combat – which explains

how he killed the Egyptians with his bear hands!

-Most telling is when it says (v. 25) – “He supposed that his brothers would

understand that God (in his mind) was giving them salvation by his hand –

but they did not understand.”

-Don’t you just hate it when people don’t realize how awesome you are!

-Here I am – your savior!

-Thanks but no thanks!

-Cross reference – Elkanah asks his wife Hannah, “Aren’t I better to you than 10

sons?!”

-Moses thought he was ready to be the savior but God wanted a savior who

was not full of himself but empty of himself!

-This goes tongue and groove with what we talked about last week –

-While there is clearly Satanic oppression against the people of God, God

overcomes by using simple, ordinary means –

-Hebrew husbands and wives having babies – pretty ordinary!

-Hebrew midwives fearing God and protecting life – that’s what they do!

-A Hebrew couple seeing their child was precious – that’s normal!

-A Egyptian woman protecting a baby – very natural!

-God uses simple, ordinary means to accomplish His will –

-This should cause us to double down on our commitment to ordinary,

normal, Christian living –

-God is not asking us to build a rocket –

-Pray, minister the Word, witness, give, serve…

-Moses tries to take matters into his own hands; he’s impatient – and fails!

-God doesn’t need heroes – He needs the humble; those who live ordinary, regular

and normal Christian lives.

-Ill.

-We aren’t awesome – God is!

-We aren’t amazing – God is!

-God knows best –

-Moses not only needed 40 years of Egyptian education, he needed 40 years

of being emptied in the wilderness in order to be the savior God was preparing

him to be.

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Encounter #2 – God’s preparation

-Moses, being a man, steps in to protect the weak –

-Notice that he doesn’t kill anyone! (That’s progress!)

-And notice these words, in verse 17 – “…but Moses stood up and saved

them and watered their flock.”

-It seems he does good without going overboard.

-God is going to give him a very simple, humble and ordinary life –

-Married with a couple kids –

-Working as a shepherd…

-Acts 7:29 – “…he became an exile in the land of Midian.”

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-Moses says of himself –

-Exodus 2:22 – “She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom,

for he said, ‘I have been a sojourner in the foreign land.’”

-We know this was a humbling time –

-For the Scripture says when he was 40 that he was “mighty in word and deed”

(Acts 7) but in Exodus 3 he’ll say to God “I don’t have anything and I can’t talk.”

-And it was a time that Moses learned to identify with God’s people –

-In Egypt, they were shepherds and sojourners!

Application