By Faith Amram and Jochebed-Moses-Israelites-Rahab
February 12, 2023
Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
Midwives: Exodus 1:15-17 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
Pharaoh decreed Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Yet, when Moses was born, his parents refused to do it. They disobeyed the king’s edict, hiding baby Moses for three months. WHY? Because they feared God more than any person including Pharaoh. They had faith in God and it gave them the courage to do what was right even if it meant certain death.
And by faith, we can do the same thing. By faith, we can be bold enough to obey God even if others don’t like it. We can have the courage to obey God even when others might be offended. By faith, we can do what’s right even if the world is doing what’s wrong. (We are the church-body-bride)
There are a lot of metaphors for the church these days. Some see it as a hospital for the sick and wounded. Some see it as a family where everyone is accepted, and some see it as a school where we are taught the word of God. These metaphors all have something to offer, but they don’t really capture the essence of what Jesus designed the church to be.
Matthew 16:18 “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” In other words, Jesus sees the church as “an army that not only engages the enemy, it defeats the enemy to see the Kingdom of God advance.” FEAR GOD MORE THAN YOU FEAR ANYBODY ELSE
Hebrews 11:24-27 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
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- Look at the choice Moses made.
- He gave up a palace for a shepherd’s tent.
- Riches for poverty.
- Prominence for isolation and humility.
- He could have had prestige, power, wealth, respect, and worldly authority.
He could have enjoyed everything Egypt had to offer.
But he gave up earthly glory for heavenly glory. He decided to live by faith for the next life instead of for this one.
Moses couldn’t identify with both the Israelites or the Egyptians. He had to choose one or the other. What he did must have seemed ignorant-stupid by all worldly standards, yet it is the same choice that individuals have made for God down through the centuries, (NAME PREVIOUS MENTIONED) And it’s the same choice you and I make every day whether we realize it or not.
By faith…MOSES FORSOOK THE WORLD. By faith, Moses turned away from its passing pleasures. By faith, Moses gave up wealth and fame even if it meant slavery, criticism, and mistreatment. That’s what Moses did.
You can’t do both. Jesus made it very clear: Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; You cannot serve God and mammon.
We can pursue the Approval-Praise-Pleasures of this world, or we can choose to persevere by faith because we see him who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
Exodus 12:12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
While they were still in Egypt, God told the Israelites to sprinkle the blood of a lamb on the posts of their doorways.
God was about to come and kill every firstborn male in every house in Egypt, but anyone who was under the blood of the lamb would be spared. So that’s what Israel did in obedience to God. They stood under the blood of a lamb, and God not only delivered them from death; God also delivered them from Egypt.
1500 years later, God Himself sprinkled the blood of His Lamb on two wooden posts. Those posts formed a cross on which Jesus died in our place so we wouldn’t have to. John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Now, all God asks of us is that we, by faith, believe and depend on what Jesus did for us there, and we’ll find deliverance not only from death but also from this world’s grip on our passions and desires.
Through the blood of a lamb, God delivered Israel from death AND from Egypt. Pharaoh, who had enslaved them for hundreds of years, now ordered them out of the country, but their troubles were far from over. After Israel fled Egypt, Pharaoh thought about all the slaves he let go. So, he changed his mind and came after them with his entire army.
That’s when the Israelites found themselves backed up to the Red Sea. There was a mountain to her right, a mountain to her left, and the Egyptian army closing off any way of escape. Then God told them, “Cross through the sea,” and that’s exactly what they did!
Hebrews 11:29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
Exodus 14:21-22 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
The difference between the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and the Egyptians who followed them was not courage, but faith. The Egyptians had just as much (or more) courage than the Israelites, but not the same faith — and they each had different fates. The Israelites passed through on dry ground and the Egyptians drowned.
Moses and the Israelites were able to cross the Red Sea on dry ground because they believed God. Pharaoh and the Egyptians, on the other hand, drowned in that same sea, because they believed and trusted only in themselves.
Don’t believe in yourself as the Egyptians did. Believe in God like the Israelites did and follow Him to victory. By faith, do what God asks you to do even if it seems impossible.
(Spies refused to go in-wandered 40 years-Jordan River) Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
God told the Israelites to march around the city once a day for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day. It seemed like a silly idea, but they did it, because they believed God, and because they believed God, God brought the walls down!
Joshua 6:21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
ONE FAMILY WAS DELIVERED FROM DESTRUCTION. Rescued from certain judgment. That’s what Rahab, the prostitute.
Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
Joshua 2:8-11 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Rahab was in Jericho when the walls fell down flat, but she found deliverance because she believed in Israel’s God.
She was not saved because of who SHE was – she was the town prostitute. She was saved, because of who GOD was, the One she trusted by faith to rescue her when her world was literally falling apart.
Matthew 1:5-6 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David. 28 Generations later Jesus would come.
Go ahead and step out in faith!
By faith, fear God more than people. By faith, forsake the world.
By faith, follow the Lord even when it seems impossible; Red Sea, and most of all, By faith allow God to deliver you when your world is literally falling in around you.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
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