Letting go of Your Baby

[0:00] Stepping on to our third sermon here in this series of the book of Exodus.

[0:15] Last week we saw the dictator's disorders, as they call them today, psychologically analyzing this man. We found many things that they would call disorders.

[0:26] And the truth is, as we looked closer, it's really just sins in the heart. And so today our society allows for a lot of stuff. And when you reject their being a creator and a God, then you come up with your own ideas and your own way to describe what's happening.

[0:41] And that's what they came up with. Oh, their personality is filled and riddled with disorders. Well, it's disorder, all right. It's disorderly, like disorderly conduct. But we can call it from the Bible sin and a problem with the heart.

[0:55] Now, today we're going to move ahead into just right into something that we're going to be able to look closer at the outcome of this king and what some people had to deal with.

[1:11] And before we get into chapter 2, notice the last verse of chapter 1, just to draw us back into the setting. It says that Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

[1:28] So this is not an easy time to be a Hebrew. And they're being overworked. We saw that in chapter 1. They're being oppressed. And now the king, the Pharaoh, is insistent upon killing all of the male babies.

[1:43] He's attempting to control not only the people, but also control the population. And this harsh treatment and the taskmasters that he implements into their lives, into their duties, that overbearing and harsh oppression is one thing.

[2:03] But throwing their newborn babies in the river, that's quite another. That's another level of cruelty and of pain. It's not an easy time to be a Hebrew.

[2:13] It's not an easy time to be an expectant mother. You can imagine that while this would typically be a joyous time, a glorious time, a thought of bringing a child into the world, into your family, instead it's a fearful time.

[2:27] There's this unsettling cloud of worry and of uncertainty that accompanies knowledge that a baby will be born. The mothers, I believe, were terrified and completely distraught to think that this baby could be a boy.

[2:44] And they won't know what it is. They won't know what it is until that day comes. And so living under such just ruthless policy of this new king, these people had to have thought twice about even having a child at all.

[3:01] Is it worth it, the pain that we could experience? But this was a reality for these people and for these families. And this new king that came to power in Egypt, he really turned their lives upside down.

[3:14] In chapter 2, we're going to begin here in the first 10 verses this morning, is going to give us a glimpse into one particular family that among many, among the thousands of Israel, the families, just one particular family and how they responded to this, to what they had to deal with.

[3:33] And we're going to see the outcome of their response as well. So together, let's read chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. And then we'll get into the message this morning.

[3:43] The Bible says in verse 1, And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

[3:57] And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daunted with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

[4:09] And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the river's side. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.

[4:21] And when she had opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrew's children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

[4:39] And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. The maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.

[4:50] And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses. And she said, Because I drew him out of water.

[5:05] And the name Moses means drawn out. Not only did Moses get drawn out of water, he, as it turns, he got drawn out of a life of slavery. He got drawn out of certain death.

[5:17] And so his name's pretty fitting, because I drew him out of water. Let's pray. Father, as we study this passage, as we consider a truth tucked in this story, please help to make it applicable to every soul in this place.

[5:33] Help everyone to hear from you. I pray that you would illuminate something in their life, or what it is that this message is for, so that they could understand, and that they could respond, and that you would be glorified in their obedience.

[5:47] Please take this and use it for Jesus' sake, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Now we're reading, we've covered this, some terrible, terrible times for the Hebrews. Some very traumatic, I can't overstate that, some very intense circumstances as a people, but not just as a nation as a whole, but down into the very individual homes.

[6:08] The stress of being pregnant, on top of not knowing what's coming, and if it's a boy, and what they're going to have to do, that had to be some painful, traumatic stuff.

[6:18] There is no clear path forward with how we're going to deal with this, and what's going to happen of all of this. They're just persecuted as a nation. There's no guarantee in the day-to-day of good.

[6:32] So then what do you do? What action should you take? And I want to submit to you that the best course of action, though it's going to go completely against what's innate as a mother, as a parent, it's going to go against what's ingrained in their being, you'd say as every fiber of their being, the best course of action is to let go.

[6:55] To let go. I know that sounds hard, and it is hard. And I want to preach to a message, I'm going to call this letting go, let go of your baby. And now you see the application of the thought of the baby, the mother letting go of her baby, but it may not be a baby at all in your life.

[7:13] It may be a person, it may be a son or a daughter, it may be a parent, it may be parents themselves, it could be a decision, it could be something in the past, it could be something you are holding on to, that the best course of action is for you to let go of it.

[7:31] Just let go of it. It's holding you back. You can't fix it. You can't guide the future. And I want to preach to you, letting go of your baby.

[7:44] There's many things in life, I believe it, I know it, we tend to hold on to some things. And they're not necessarily things that we ought to be holding on to. And I want to learn from this story, and may God take it and apply it to your heart, and into your personal life, for you to let go.

[8:03] The first thing I want to say is, we need to learn to let go of what we can't control. Look at verse 2 and 3 again, where the woman conceived and bare a son, and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months, and when she could no longer hide him.

[8:25] I can't keep doing this. I can no longer control this situation. It's been a risky move to hold on to this baby boy for three months already.

[8:37] I imagine, I could be wrong, I don't have a text to back this up, but I imagine that mom and dad were putting their own lives at risk in violating the king's command.

[8:49] Think back in chapter 1, where the midwives did not follow through with what Pharaoh told them to do. And they came up with an excuse, and so Pharaoh, okay then, fine, but plan B.

[9:02] And I'm going to have to like, I can't just trust them to do the job for me, so what do you do as a king, if you want it done? I imagine Pharaoh, as a king, had to implement some strategy, some system, of keeping track of the Hebrews' babies, whether it was a boy or girl, and having them cast into the river, like he commanded.

[9:29] And again, I'm kind of reading into it, but I don't see any other way. It could not have been easy to keep this baby alive for long, undetected, under the monitors that have been set up by the king.

[9:45] So how are they going to keep the baby alive? Well, today, we'll just hide him today, but what about tomorrow? What about next week? What about a month from now? The man and the woman, by the way, later on we get their names, the man's name is Amram, the mother's name is Jochebed.

[10:05] And maybe Amram and Jochebed, maybe, they had conversations. They talked about this boy. What are we going to do in a month from now when he's a month old, when he's two months old?

[10:17] What are we going to do? I don't know. We don't know. But we're not going to throw him in the river. So what are we going to do? They don't know how it's going to turn out.

[10:28] They don't know what tomorrow holds. But for now, we're going to hide him away. And then what? I don't know. Sound familiar with some things in your life?

[10:41] For now, but then what? I don't know. And in this situation, it wasn't going to go away. Daily, the pressure mounted.

[10:54] Daily and weekly. And it continued to grow. And one month passed. Then two months passed. Three months passed.

[11:06] We can't hide him any longer. So what do you do? We have to act. Cannot keep him in this house anymore. Amram comes home.

[11:17] You can't keep him anymore. He's got to go. I could hear him crying as I approached the house. As I came back from work, Jacobet, we've got to do something.

[11:31] We say this phrase, we say desperate times call for desperate measures. And verse three, verse three is quite a confirmation of their desperation.

[11:42] Look at verse three again. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bull rushes and daunted with slime and with pitch and put the child therein and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

[11:58] Can you be it? Can you imagine being in such a position that you can't keep your baby, you can't keep him hidden and undetected, but you can't fathom killing him.

[12:13] What options are there? Somebody give me an idea because they don't have one. And so she came up with this. I'm going to leave him in an ark with a lid on it floating in the water in the vegetation that grows there along the river.

[12:33] He'll be protected from obvious sight. He'll probably, in the flags, be protected from predators getting in there too quickly or noticing him. I imagine he'll be protected there as well from the river's flow and carrying him away.

[12:48] So he'll be stationary. He'll be somewhat safe. It's the best she could do. It's the best she could do. And then she had to walk away.

[13:00] It was a solution, but she wasn't relieved. She wasn't joying in the name of Jehovah when she walked away from leaving her baby at the river.

[13:11] I imagine everything in her heart screamed, go get him. He's crying. He's hungry. He's cold. Go get him. You can't leave your baby there. Yet she knew, I can't go back either.

[13:25] That'll be drawing attention. I can't let him. It'll be my fault. And so she had to let go. She had to let go.

[13:35] How painful, how necessary though. It was out of her control. Do you see that? It was out of her control. She had to let go. I think the worst thing that she could have done was tried to hold on.

[13:49] Tried to keep him around a little longer, keep him alive, keep him in the house. And so it was important for her, for her husband, for the baby that she let go.

[14:03] She needed to let go of something that she could not control. Church, I don't know what the Lord, I bet you he'll put it on your heart if there's something that he wants to deal with you about.

[14:14] And if it's out of your control, like honestly, you can't fix it. You can't make it work your way. You can't make it better. The best thing you can do then is let it go.

[14:29] But you're not just randomly throwing it out into the universe because there's something that takes place when you let go and let's see that now. The second thing I want us to consider is that we need to let go so that God can work, so that God can take it from here.

[14:47] Get your hands off the wheel, I'll take over from here. Watch this. You know what? Here's a phrase that I know that this is stated all over. You've heard it.

[14:57] Let go and let God. Just let go and let God. And that's a very appropriate thought for this story and for this message.

[15:08] It's easy to say that. I understand it's harder to do that. In verse number four, we read that his sister stood afar off to what will be done to him. And so, Jochebed told Miriam, you keep an eye on him.

[15:24] You keep an eye on him. She didn't fully let go in that sense, but she had to leave. I can see his mother, Jochebed, walking back home.

[15:35] I can see her with every step crying. I can see her heart broken. I can see her praying, Oh God, God do something. Help him. He's cold.

[15:46] He's crying. He's miserable. Help him. Oh God, it's in your hands now. As she walked back, how hard it had to be to walk away. But it was.

[15:57] When she let go, it was in God's hands now. She allowed it to lay in the hands of her God and allowed him to now work. There's nothing more she could do and truly I'd say that only God, only the Lord God could look on a situation like this with her letting go of it and now it's just there.

[16:22] But only the Lord God could take this thing and fix it. Only God could make it work together for good and he can do that. It's grave. It's painful.

[16:33] It's traumatic. It's scary, but he can take it. And put it in his hands and watch what he does. And that's exactly, I believe, what God's waiting for. Month number one, month number two, month number three made no difference to him.

[16:50] What he was waiting for was for mom to let go so that then he could take over and work. He knows it's bath time for Pharaoh's daughter. He knows that Pharaoh's daughter is not cold and calloused like her father.

[17:05] Why, if she hears a baby crying, that girl's got compassion. She'll take that baby. She's not going to care what dad says about the Hebrew boys. She knows exactly what this is.

[17:17] It's one of the Hebrew children. And I'm going to keep it alive, she decides. And now I want you to see here that when Jacobed lets go and allows God to work, watch how God works and does some things that only God himself can do.

[17:35] Consider this. When she let go, she let God use Pharaoh to fulfill the will of God. Now, the way this story resolves, as we've read it and continue through the future, the way this thing settles up, it is nothing short of incredible, of evidence of God's hand.

[17:57] It is the level of irony that comes out of this passage is only something the Lord can do. Notice this. When she lets go and lets God work, God's going to use Pharaoh to fulfill his will.

[18:11] Pharaoh's own daughter brought a Hebrew boy into Pharaoh's household. Now, I don't know if she lived at home at the palace, but nevertheless, he's the monarch.

[18:24] I mean, he is supplying his family. They live off of his dime, so to speak. So he's providing for, he's sustaining one of the Hebrew children, the ones he's sworn to kill and destroy, and yet he himself is the one that's feeding and nourishing and raising up.

[18:44] Talk about irony. Only God could make that happen. There's something else, though. He's housing the very man that would one day make his biggest fear a reality.

[18:57] And what's that? Well, back in chapter 1, verse 10, he was afraid that those people would join with their enemies and get them up out of the land. He didn't want to let those Hebrews go, so he started oppressing them and putting taskmasters on them and afflicting them and getting rid of their boys and not allowing them to grow up a standing army or so forth.

[19:16] What Pharaoh's doing is housing the very man that would one day deliver the Hebrews out from Pharaoh's control. He raised him as a grandson.

[19:30] The Bible says he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was trained to be a leader and get this, he took that training to lead the people of Israel right out of Egypt.

[19:42] Talk about an ironic situation. You can only get that by letting go and letting God do something that only God can do. Why, Amram and Jochebed couldn't have accomplished that.

[19:57] They couldn't have manipulated situations to bring these things about. No, only God could do that. So how do we get to there? We let go. We let God do what he wants to do.

[20:08] Could they even imagine that God's going to do this? Well, if I'll just let go of him, then God's going to do it. They didn't know any of that. We'll get to that next. Before that, they need to let go and let God use Pharaoh.

[20:21] They need to let go and let God prepare this man Moses to become the leader that God would one day use. Let's think about it for a minute. You know the story of Moses.

[20:33] You know what takes place in Exodus. If you do, then let's put a few things on top of each other. Did Ambram and Jochebed know that their son would meet and speak to the creator, to the great I am that I am?

[20:52] Did they have any idea that one day he'd be out in the backside of the wilderness and hear his name, Moses? Moses. That is God calling the man.

[21:05] He's looking at a flame of a fire and the voice tells him, loose your shoes were off your feet. You're standing on holy ground. What on earth? Nobody's ever done this before.

[21:16] Nobody's had this encounter like that. God manifesting himself within a flame of a fire and speaking with a voice to a man. Did these parents looking at their three month old baby boy know?

[21:31] Of course they didn't know who God was going to take this boy and make him to be. Did they ever imagine that it would be their son that would come back to Israel and relieve them and deliver them from their oppressors and their affliction?

[21:46] That it would be he that redeemed Israel? Did they know that their son would be a miracle worker? Did they see that in the baby boy? Did they know that he'd spend days and nights without end on a mountaintop with God?

[22:02] In communing with God in the presence of God? Did they know that his face would shine with such glory that the people were afraid of him? Put a veil on your face, Moses. We can't stand to even look at you.

[22:16] And they're looking at their baby boy saying, what are we going to do? Let go? Let God take it from here. God knows what he's going to do. They had no idea that in 80 years from now he's going to come back and lead these people out and the world is going to wonder at what took place.

[22:36] Did they ever consider that Moses would deliver those holy laws and statutes to govern this nation that they are part of, this holy nation, this kingdom of priests, that Moses would give them those laws, that Moses would pen the first five books of God's holy and eternal words, their baby boy.

[23:04] Yes, Amram, Jochebed, let go and let God have this man. You know, there's going to be some problems.

[23:15] You don't see it, but you're going to hear one day that he murdered a man. You're going to hear that he fled and he's gone. And nobody knows where he is. Pharaoh's probably tracking him right now.

[23:28] He's a dead man. He killed an Egyptian. He's as good as dead. All the pain. They had no idea. They didn't know what God was doing.

[23:39] They don't see it today. It's taking time. It takes time because God is going to speak to that man. God is going to call him and put his hand on him and guide him and empower him and fill him with his Holy Spirit.

[23:54] let go and let God have this man. Let God have him so that God can work because God had a work he sought to do but mom and dad had to let go.

[24:08] I think this situation is like so many situations in our lives. It's filled with things we just don't know. We can't see how it's going to pan out. We don't know the future. It could be raising kids.

[24:18] It could be kids trying to discern their path in future and in life and just not understand and not know. Or maybe it's just stuff in the past that's plaguing you and you can't let go of it and you can't figure out how you're going to work things out today much less tomorrow.

[24:35] Take a lesson when it's out of your control. Let go. Let go so that God can take over. Let it in the hands of God.

[24:46] And when you do that, there's one more thing I want to point out. When you let go, you need to let go of that situation, of that person, of that scene, whatever it is, so that you can hold on to something else.

[25:02] You need to let go of it because there's something that God's telling you that you need to be holding on to. Keep your place, but flip back to Hebrews. Go all the way back to Hebrews and chapter 11.

[25:19] Hebrews 11. You don't need to hold on to the baby.

[25:31] You need to hold on to something else. In this chapter, this is that list, they call it the hall of faith. This is that list of all those Old Testament saints that did something in obedience to God by faith.

[25:45] They obeyed the Lord by believing what He said and they're written here as saying, hey, the Bible's filled with examples of faith that we can follow, that we need to look to.

[25:56] They're testaments to us. They're testifying their life as a witness. And some of them, man, they're the top notch guys in the Old Testament. There's Abel. There's Enoch that was translated.

[26:09] There's Noah in verse 7. There's Abraham. He's called the father of faith. There's a few more. There's Moses. We see Moses get several mentions.

[26:22] But do you know who else gets mentioned on this exclusive list of Old Testament saints that acted in faith? The faith that we're supposed to follow today.

[26:33] You know who gets mentioned? Moses' parents, Amram and Jochebed. Look at verse 23. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandments.

[26:54] This wasn't Moses' faith. Before he ever got on to having faith in verse 24, it started with his two parents. And if you think they had faith to hide him for three months, how much more to walk away from their baby boy in an ark tucked into the reeds at the river's brink.

[27:19] When she let go of her baby, she didn't let go of everything. She clung to faith. She clung to faith. He clung to faith.

[27:33] Boy, that's big. You may not catch it yet. May God, the Spirit of God, help us to sink into yours to connect this to you, bear witness this to this in your life.

[27:43] They didn't let go of everything. They held on to something even more substantial. It's the substance of things hoped for. They had an expectation by holding on to faith that God would work this thing out.

[27:58] She let go of her baby, but she clung to faith and so much the more. we learn from this passage that when a situation is beyond our understanding and it's beyond our control, when it's out of our control, you don't know what to do.

[28:15] The best thing you can do, the right thing for you to do is to let go and to turn it over to God, to lay it at the throne of grace, to allow him to take it from here, to work the way he chooses, because you can trust he'll choose right, he'll do right, he'll never fail, and you say well I can't do that.

[28:40] You just don't get it. I can't do that. I have a tendency to hold on. Well that's your flesh, that's fear, that's this control thing inside of you.

[28:51] No, you can do that through Christ which strengthens you. You can let go. It's too hard to do. Yeah, it's hard to do. Letting go when it's your baby, when it means so much to you.

[29:07] But if God's revealing it to you this morning to let go, then he's telling you it for a reason. Let go and allow him to start working and what you do in the meantime is you hold on to faith.

[29:20] You hold on to something that has got enough substance to get you through and to keep your heart and your mind through Jesus Christ. I want you to consider this closing thought from that passage in Hebrews and how that relates back here in Exodus chapter 2.

[29:38] Is when you let go, when you're doing so, when you cling to faith, you're being an example to others that need to see that example.

[29:51] Jochebed and Amram, why you don't see it, you don't perceive it, it's not a reality to you at this moment, you're hurting and you're clinging to faith. What you're doing is laying down a testimony, a witness for all others to see that has to be written down in Hebrews 11 for me to see.

[30:14] What you're doing when you cling to faith, you're teaching Aaron and you're teaching Miriam that when it's out of our control, children, we trust God.

[30:25] we trust, we're people, we walk by faith and that testimony is declared. Your life and your testimony can be declaring to your children and to your church, this is how you walk by faith.

[30:43] I will witness, I let go, I let God have it and I'm clinging to faith and that's written down. It's written.

[30:56] You want to be an example of holding on? You want to be an example of making things worse? Do you want to be an example of things falling apart in your life because you can't let go or do you want to be an example of faith?

[31:10] And teach your children how to trust God, how to allow him to be their God. God, you're going to have to let go. I wonder this morning, are you facing some test in your personal Christian life?

[31:29] Some test in your life and the Lord's maybe even now stirring in your heart that you need to do this. You need to learn a lesson from this woman and this man.

[31:40] You need to let go. You need to let me have it. You need to turn it over. Are you facing that? Are you feeling that? This is for you. This is for you.

[31:52] This testimony is for you. And they got mentioned in Hebrews that that's legit. That wasn't some flake. That was real. Their faith was real. And you need it too.

[32:05] So what do you do when it's out of your control? You let go. You let go and you let God. And in the meantime then, you cling to faith.

[32:17] You trust Him. You deliver it at the throne of grace and stay there. And keep praying. And keep believing. And keep trusting. And allow His peace to fill your heart.

[32:30] Allow His grace to sustain you through your days of fear and doubt and uncertainty. And when you hear that your boy killed somebody and has fled to a far land, you trust God.

[32:42] You don't let go of faith. And you have no idea. You won't maybe see it. But in the end, that thing comes back around. And oh, the joy. And oh, the glory of God.

[32:53] When Moses comes back to Egypt. And what a deliverance. And what a mighty hand. But they had to let go. Let's bow our heads together.

[33:09] Bow your head, please. Please bow your head. And let's have a moment this morning to think about something before the Lord. Each one individually. EternalXLinse who was a Tranении or Ent obrigada. Especially if you don't have a mind here in the end.

[33:26] Which one was you. Maybe you don't have it in your head. Is there best any way to your head? Do you In El In May?

[33:37] Absolutely? What đó Do you Do you really in In your name? Really? Alicia鬼.