Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19940918.htm

THE MAN MOSES: LEARNING HOW TO BE USED BY GOD
Part I: Discovering That God Can Use Us
(Exodus 1:1-2:10)
  1. Introduction
    1. When someone comes to faith in Christ, he is given a new life with a new outlook and aspirations.
    2. However, many believers have become discouraged at the obstacles they face in reaching those goals of winning unsaved relatives to Christ, of discipling others into maturity, etc.
    3. If anyone faced obstacles to being used of God, it was the infant, Moses. Yet he was eventually used of God to organize the slaves of Israel into a mighty nation, and give to Western Civilization its code of ethics in the ten commandm ents. Ex. 1:1-2:10 demonstrates the power of God to use him!
  2. Discovering That God Can Use Us, Exodus 1:1-2:10:
    1. At the beginning, Moses face great obstacles to being used of God, Ex. 1:1-22:
      1. The people of Israel sojourned in Egypt under the protective care of Joseph, Gen. 47:27.
      2. But when Joseph died and another Pharaoh who had not known Joseph came to the throne, problems erupted for the people of God, Ex. 1:1-22:
        1. The new Pharaoh felt threatened by the numbers of the foreign sons of Jacob living in the land, v. 8f.
        2. Accordingly, he decided to treat them as slaves to hold them in check, 1:10-11.
        3. However, the more he afflicted them, the more they multiplied in numbers, 1:12. Accordingly, the Egyptians beefed up the servitude, making life miserable for the people of Israel, 1:13-14.
        4. In fact, Pharaoh urged the midwives to kill the male infants born to the people of Israel and save alive the daughters so as to make the Israelites diminish in number and to incorporate the daughters into the Egyptian households, 1:15- 16.
        5. The midwives feared God, and refused to obey Pharaoh, making the problem grow, 1:17-19. God blessed the midwives by giving them their own families with lots of children, 1:20-21.
        6. Pharaoh then modified his command, saying that all the male infants born to the people of Israel were to be cast alive into the Nile while the daughters were to be saved, Ex. 1:22.
      3. When Moses was born, there was an automatic edict out to have him thrown into the Nile River, no questions asked!! As a helpless infant, the greatest power in the world at the time wanted Moses killed! That's about as tough as tough can get against being used of God!
    2. However, God's power reversed the obstacles, putting Moses into a marvelous position to be used of God:
      1. When Moses was born, God provided a courageous, godly mother to nurse and hide him for 3 months from being cast into the Nile, Ex. 2:1-2.
      2. Then, by faith, his mother devised a marvelous plan, cf. He. 11:23: Knowing that Pharaoh's daughter daily bathed at a certain location in the Nile, and counting on this woman's having a motherly instinct to save a baby that was also a beautiful child, she decided to put Moses into a floating ark near the place that Pharaoh's daughter would bathe, Ex. 2:3. Miriam, Moses' older sister, watched from a safe but caring distance to "get involved" at just the right time, Ex. 2:4.
      3. Sure enough, Pharaoh's daughter arrived, discovered Moses and expressed love for the infant, Moses, Ex. 2:5-6. Moses happened to be crying at the time, and this helped the woman feel compassion!
      4. Miriam then appropriately appeared to suggest that she get a nurse for the infant until he was able to leave the nurse for the palace of Pharaoh's daughter, Ex. 2:7.
      5. Miriam of course took Moses to his mother, and everything worked out well, Ex. 2:8. In fact, Moses' mother was paid by Pharaoh's daughter to nurse her own baby, Ex. 2:9!
    3. By the power of God, an infant who was under Pharaoh's edict to be destroyed at birth by drowning in the Nile River came to be taken into that same Pharaoh's palace to be raised as Pharaoh's foster grandson! On top of this, Pharaoh's money paid for Moses' mother to nurse her own infant!
Lesson: No matter what the obstacles are to our being used effectively of God, nor how helpless we personally are either to KNOW or to REMOVE those obstacles, God is able and willing to use us to accomplish His tasks! We always ought to be encoura ged that we can succeed in God's plan!