“Persecution and Protection” — Pastor Dave Zuleger
Sermon Outline
Exodus 1: Persecution and Protection
Introduction: God is There
Promises (vv.1-7)
Persecution (vv. 8-154)
Provision (vv. 15-22)
Pointers (looking ahead)
South Cities Kids
Setting: The people of Israel are in Egypt. It started out well there - Joseph saved the people from a famine. The Pharaoh at the time loved him and trusted him and so Israel was treated well and cared for.
Eventually another Pharaoh came that didn't know about Joseph and didn't like that the people of Israel were filling their land. It made him nervous. He thought they might go against him someday.
So, he decided to oppress them. To oppress means to unfairly and wrongly push others down, hurt them, and treat them poorly so you can have control and power over them. So Pharaoh treated them badly, made them work harder, and even hurt them while they worked.
God's There: But, God is always with his people! Even though they were treated poorly, God kept his promise to Abraham that his people would be great and multiply! And they did. They kept growing even when they were being treated poorly.
Pharaoh Gets More Angry: Since they kept growing, this made Pharaoh more upset. And so he made a rule that there could be no more baby boys from Israel and he wanted to hurt the people of Israel and their babies. But, God made a promise to bless those who would bless his people and curse those who would curse his people. That promise would soon come true.
God's Still There: But, God protected the baby boys. He sent two brave, courageous women who knew God was the real King and not Pharaoh. They trusted him and wanted to obey him more than Pharaoh. So, they saved all the baby boys. God blessed these women for doing good! He kept his promise to bless those who bless his people.
Can you think of situations where it would be easy to disobey God? But, even though it might seem like disobeying is better or simpler - it's always better in the end to trust God, obey him, and trust he will be with you
Points Forward:
One of the baby boys saved was Moses. Moses would lead the people of Israel out of slavery to Egypt. And eventually do you know who would come from the family of Moses and the people of Israel? Jesus! So, these women, in obeying God, even though they didn't know it at the time, were part of God's plan to save the whole world through Jesus! Isn't that amazing! All we can do is trust God and know that he will use us as we obey him.
This slavery points to a spiritual slavery. Satan wants to keep us in slavery to sin. He wants to keep us trusting other people. But, God wants to save us from our sins. He wants to provide for us and protect us through Jesus. Do you trust Jesus to forgive your sins? Do you want to be rescued from slavery to Satan and sin?
