August 23, 2026 Sermon
Sermon title: “The Story of Moses”
Scripture: Exodus 1:8-2:10
(Other lectionary choices include Psalm 124, Romans 12:1-8, and Matthew 16:13-20.)
Exodus 1:8-2:10
The Israelites Are Oppressed
8Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. 15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16“When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” 17But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
Birth and Youth of Moses
1Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Do you watch “Jeopardy!”? We do, and occasionally we even give the right answer! I did try out for the program twice, but I did not get past the first round. The reason I mention this is that long ago I got the right answer to this question: What is the last word of Genesis? The answer is Egypt! The last line of Genesis is that Joseph was embalmed, and his body was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Why is this important? Because somehow the biblical writers wanted it made known that the Israelites had made it to Egypt. The story of the faith of Israel starts with its deliverance from Egypt under Moses, and in future sermons we’ll look into how the Lord used Moses to lead his people. But in today’s Scripture reading, I hope you noticed what was said: “ a new king arose over Egypt, and he did not know Joseph.” Things change, don’t they? And just because previous Egyptian rulers seemed to enjoy having the Hebrews live nearby, a NEW king came to power who did not know Joseph. A new day had dawned, and that new day indicated that a reversal of fortune was about to happen for God’s chosen people!
The following part of my sermon is a commentary by Roger Nam. Roger S. Nam (Ph.D., UCLA) is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.:
This week’s passage is divided into two distinct units.
The first unit (1:8-22) gives a concise account about how the favored family of Jacob became an oppressed subgroup within Pharoah’s empire. The second unit (2:1-10) narrates the circumstances surrounding the birth and early childhood of Moses.
These two units contrast each other. Consider some of the word choices of the first unit (per the NRSV): powerful, war, enemies, taskmasters, oppress, forced-labor, dread, ruthless, bitter, hard service, labor, task. These word selections signal the tonal elements of this unit. The Israelites populate quickly to the point of posing as a potential threat to the Egyptians. Consequently, the Egyptian king enslaves the Israelite people. When initial rounds of oppression do not work, the Egyptians become more draconian in their oppression, calling for execution of all Hebrew boys. These verses underlie the references to slavery that will appear throughout the rest of Exodus.
Much of this first unit revolves around the idea of fear. The new king of Egypt did not know Joseph and the legacy of provision that he brought to the land. Consequently, the new king feared the potential uprising of the Israelite people. The text does not include a single hint of any rebellious spirit in the Israelites, yet this fear becomes the driving force to a series of escalating oppressive policies, even to the point of planned genocide. Baseless fear is still fear and resulted in generational suffering for the Israelites.
Verse 15 continues the theme of fear and introduces the midwives. It is important to contrast the cowardly fear of Pharaoh to the midwives’ righteous fear of God. With the failure of earlier actions, Pharaoh introduces progressively harsher measures of cruelty. But the midwives do not fear the Egyptian king, despite his signals of dangerous paranoia. Rather, the midwives fear God (verses 17 and 21). Such a fear compels them to defy the order of Pharaoh and openly disobey the royal command to murder Hebrew boys. This blatant insubordination should normally result in summative execution, but God honors this fear and blesses the midwives, not only with their own lives, but with abundant progeny. Pharaoh’s plans have backfired so he escalates even more. He commands murder of all Hebrew male babies. This is the most complete example of infanticide in the entire Bible.
Immediately following this narrative of fear and cruelty, Exodus 2:1 opens the second unit with a sharply different tone. The narrative moves away from this theme of fear and moves to a broader picture of maternal care. A baby from a priestly and holy lineage is born under this plight. The baby is described as a “good” baby. In this case, a good baby does not refer to an obedient and well-behaved baby, who magically never cries. Rather, it is more of a whole and right baby. Through a complex chain of events, both the birth mother and the royal daughter care for this baby, protecting his life, and divinely providing for the most nurturing of environments. The careful placement of the baby (verse 3) shows the manifestation of this nurturing, and the basket (Hebrew, tevat) recalls the protection for Noah’s ark (also tevat) during the flood. This gentle nurturing for the baby will allow him to grow to orchestrate the downfall of the mighty Pharaoh.
The reversal of fortune against Pharaoh is explicitly theological. Pharaoh is king not only of Egypt, but he reigns during a period of cultural and political flourishing with hegemony beyond its borders to the Eastern Mediterranean, covering modern day Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. But as the Pharaoh’s paranoid fear intensifies, God’s response of sovereignty commensurately rises. And Pharaoh’s cruelest edict of infanticide comes back to him in the Passover event. God is sovereign.
When we think of God’s sovereignty, we often associate this with the mighty hand of God, and divine acts when God alters the forces of nature. God’s sovereignty also projects ideas of divine intervention on a massive human scale such as warfare. But in this passage, God protects the baby through these women. It is a different perspective of sovereignty from much of the Bible.
Consider some of the word choices of the second unit (Exodus 2:1-10), again per the NRSV: married, conceived, bore, child, sister, daughter, mother, bathe, pity. God’s sovereignty is manifest through compassion and care. God does not have gender, but in this passage, the analogy of sovereignty is manifest in the care of a newborn through mothers, whether by birth or by adoption. This care is heightened due to the nature of the crisis of infanticide.
But do not mistake this compassion for weakness. Maternal care is powerful. The passage shows that a royal edict cannot defeat the resilient strength of maternal compassion. As Pharaoh increases the oppression, the compassion of the different women ends up raising the one who will truly lead the Israelites into liberation from this oppression. Amen.
Pastor Skip
