Parting The Waters – Warrenville

Passage: Exodus 2:1-25

Speaker: Steve Hands

Series: Coming Home – A Journey Through Exodus

Parting The Waters

What will God do about the problems that we are groaning about? Does God even care? Sometimes it seems like our groaning before God lands on deaf ears, but God hears the groaning of his people. In Exod 2:23–25, God hears the groaning of his people, remembers his covenant, and is concerned about his people. God did not begin consideration about the problems of his people when he heard their groaning; God had been preparing a leader for many years before. SinceGod prepares and prunes us for his purposes, we can be faithful where we are placed(Exod 2:1–22).

First, God prepares us for his purposeseven as a child (Exod 2:1–10). While Exodus 1 sets the stage for God’s protection over all the people of God, chapter 2 brings that story more personal as it looks at one man. The heart-wrenching story of a mother not able to care for her child culminates with sending this child down a river. Providentially, Pharaoh’s daughter herself finds this child, and Moses’ sister (again providentially) connects the child with his mother to be nursed in Pharaoh’s house. Ironically, the Pharaoh who sought to kill the Hebrew children has a Hebrew child raised in his home to save them from his hand! Pharaoh’s daughter names this Hebrew child, “Moses,” meaning drawn out of the water, and Moses will lead God’s people through the waters of the Red Sea.

Also, God prunes us for his purposes(Exod 2:11–15). Moses had the proper passion for his own people, but he takes God’s plans into his own hands and kills an Egyptian (Exod 2:12). Moses’ actions have their own consequences, so he has to flee Pharaoh to be exiled in the land of Midian. Yet, just as God prepares us for his purposes, He also prunes us for his purposes. We often seek God’s work in our way by our power — and end up getting in the way! So, God often prunes us in “Midian” so that we might be better prepared for his purposes.

Since God prepares and prunes us for his purposes, we can be faithful where we are placed(Exod 2:16–21). Moses could have been resentful in Midian after decades in Pharaoh’s court. Yet he steps out not in bitterness but blessing; when Moses sees a need before him, he steps in with compassion to help the daughters of the priest of Midian (Exod 2:16–17). As a result, he is invited into their family, and Moses is content to live there and serve and begin his family there (Exod 2:21–22). Instead of being resentful of the loss of his position in Egypt, Moses is faithful in little things in Midian which further develops him for what God has in the next stage. Similarly, we must be faithful where we are placed, trusting that God is working out his bigger plan.

So what? God does hear the groaning of his people (Exod 2:24). And God is already at work in the big problems of the world, but His plan is often through little people. We can be confident that God prepares and prunes his people for his purposes, so we can be confident and faithful where He has placed us.