Exodus 1 - How Do We Find Exodus?

Okay. I'm going to invite you this morning to Exodus chapter one. Together is where we're going to be, Exodus chapter one, as we start a new series in the book of Exodus. And many of you might be familiar, at least with what the title of Exodus represents. It is dealing with some sort of an exit. And we're certainly going to go through that hopefully as a church in the very near future. If you want to be praying for us even this week, on Thursday evening, we'll go to the public hearing with Lehigh City, where the public gets to share their opinions on us. And then the city gets to vote about our future. And so that'll be here Thursday night if you want to be praying. Hopefully that's the last step that we have in order to just be able to move forward with our building and our expansion that we have been longing for forever. I know today is a little bit nicer. Like I get to live over this next year while we build in the stress of we don't really have enough room for us as a church right now. But then I realize on days like today, our holiday weekend, so a lot of people won't be here for holiday weekend. So you guys get dubbed the most spiritual of our church because, well, you're here. Okay, so you're the special of the crowd, but we're thankful for all that.

Anyway, the book of Exodus has to deal with an exiting, especially of God's people out of slavery in Egypt into the promises the Lord gives them. But this book also becomes a picture for us of the grander story of really all of our lives and the plight that we face. We live in a broken world that's full of darkness. God calls us as a light in him and to a greater hope that this world is not our home, that we ultimately belong to the Lord. And every day we get to live in those promises and in Jesus. Our future is always secure. And so we get to rest confidently in our identity in him. And the picture of what Exodus is really becomes a picture for our lives in him. And as we approach this book, if I stay on topic, I'm planning we're going to spend the next 26 weeks journeying through the depths of what this book is about as we think about our relationship with the Lord. And I find that this book is especially endearing if you've ever found yourself on the struggle bus of life. Exodus is definitely that book.

In fact, Exodus is a book that represents a larger section of books within the Bible that we refer to as the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Bible. And if you've looked at the title of today's lesson, we're calling it "How Do You Find Exodus?" And we could mean that in a very literal sense, where I could just say to you, turn to the second book of the Bible. And then you have found Exodus. But more than that, we want to understand this spiritually as it relates to our lives.

The book of Exodus is one book of a category of five books that we find titled often as the Torah, and the Torah is written by Moses. These first five books of the Bible, Moses is credited for authorship. Each one of these books written by him, and you see throughout the Bible other authors of both the Old and New Testament giving credit to Moses being the author. There are several verses that do that. There's just a couple on your screen where they recognize that Moses is the author of the book of the law, which, by the way, the Torah — the word Torah literally translates "law" or "instruction." They would refer to the Torah as the instruction of Moses or the law of Moses. And when you think in terms of the law, we don't need to think just specifically in terms of laws written or rules written. What you're finding in the first five books is an instruction for God's people on how to live in light of who he is.

In fact, if you think in terms of historically where we are as Moses is writing these first five books, this is the Hebrew people who have been enslaved by the Egyptians and now for generations have been treated like property, and their worth is only discovered so far as they can perform. Their value to society, at least by the people around them, is only determined based on what they can produce. Meaning if someone can do something better or someone can produce something faster, it makes them more valuable. And so their ability to perform had determined their worth. But what you begin to discover throughout these five books is that God is reshaping a different identity in them, and they become an example for us to understand how all of us discover our identity — that our worth is not based on our performance, though our lives should reflect the image of God in us, but our worth is intrinsically given to us by our creator. And so as a people who have been oppressed for generations, they're beginning to learn what it means to find their value and identity in a different way, in a better way, in a more hopeful way. And the book of Genesis, as it starts to declare from the very beginning what it means to be an image bearer of God, as you progress through Exodus and on, we're finding throughout this story that it's shaping for them not only how they find their identity, but then how they walk in that identity as they find themselves in relationship with the Lord.

And Exodus is certainly about that. If we were to think categorically about what Exodus unfolds, the book of Genesis, I would say, should be viewed by us as the chapter one of this section of Torah, and the book of Exodus really becomes chapter two of the section of Torah or instruction from Moses. And the way that you see it is how the books of Genesis and Exodus bridge together. When you get to the end of the book of Genesis, you find that it's sharing with you the children of Israel as they find themselves in Egypt. In that particular moment, they're free. But then when you get over to the beginning of the book of Exodus, chapter one, it starts off — and we'll read this in just a few moments — with the children of Israel in Egypt, but now suddenly they have found themselves as slaves. And again, as you dive further into this book, you find different ways how Genesis and Exodus tie themselves together.

If I gave you just a highlight from that, in Genesis chapter 50, the last chapter of Genesis, if you skip down to verse 25 of chapter 50, it talks about Joseph who brought the children of Israel into Egypt. He made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you and shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died being 110 years old. They embalmed him and they put him in a coffin in Egypt." So here's Joseph. He had them swear — I should have read this in verse 24 — swear to them that when they come up out of the land of Egypt one day, that while he's going to pass, they would take his body out of Egypt to the promised land that God had delivered for his people. So this is how Genesis ends. Joseph dies in Egypt, but he makes his brothers swear that even though he's passing away, they will carry his bones out of Egypt back to the Promised Land. And then when you get to the book of Exodus, when the children of Israel are set free, it then says that Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones with you from here." And then when you get to the book of Joshua, chapter 24, you find Joshua burying the bones of Joseph. So you're seeing how the story is tied together in this grander theme of what God is sharing with us as they're finding their identity shaped in him.

Now, finding identity in Exodus becomes critical because when I dialog with people over the book of Exodus and what they think Exodus is about, there's certainly a familiarity of some sort, whether you watched it in a Disney cartoon or a Charlton Heston movie or read it in the Bible. There's some sort of familiarity with what Exodus includes. In fact, if I ask people, okay, give me a snapshot of what you think the Exodus story is about, typically it would go like this. People would say, well, there was this Hebrew group of people that found themselves enslaved, and then God brought the ten plagues, and through the ten plagues, they were brought to this place of freedom, and they ran away all the way to the Red Sea. But they had this panic moment because they realized they were stuck and the Egyptian army was coming after them. And then God parted the sea, and they walked across the dry land to the other side, into freedom. And God destroyed the army. And if that is your understanding of Exodus, I want you to know that's not wrong. But that's only half the story. In fact, that's not even half the story.

If you were to read the book of Exodus, you would find it is 40 chapters. And in Exodus 15, they're singing a song of celebration having crossed the Red Sea. So I would say to you, if that is your understanding of Exodus, you only know less than half of the book of Exodus. And if that's all of Exodus that you know, you're missing the most important part of the story.

If I were to ask people, out of all the things you read in Exodus, what's a phrase or an idea that echoes in your mind, indicative to the type of story people would tell about Exodus, they would often say it like this. Well, the one thing that I remember from this book is that God says over and over again, "Let my people go." I mean, Charlton Heston does it so good when he says that. And that's a beautiful message that's echoed throughout the book of Exodus. And if that is ingrained in your mind when you've read this book, great. I'm glad you've got a part of Exodus in your mind.

But can I tell you that if that is all that you remember, you only remember a part of the phrase that God gave to the children of Israel. And in fact, you're still missing the most important part of the book of Exodus, because God not only says "let my people go," but then he also says "that they may serve me in the wilderness." Or again, "let my people go, that they may serve me." And this idea of serving the Lord becomes a theme that's echoed in multiple ways throughout the book of Exodus.

If I give you another example of how that phrase is used, you actually start to find it expressed in the very beginning of Exodus chapter one. But rather than God saying it, it's Pharaoh saying it. And rather than translating it as "serving," we translate it in other ways. This word for serving is actually the Hebrew word abad, and it can be translated multiple ways. One of the ways it can be utilized is "work." Another way it can be utilized is "worship." And in light of worship, one of the ways that we would maybe more specifically define it is "serving." So in Exodus chapter seven, Exodus chapter eight, what God is saying to Pharaoh — he's saying, Moses, go tell Pharaoh this, to let my people go, that they may abad me, or that they may worship me. And in so doing, they would ultimately serve the Lord rather than serving Pharaoh. And in some translations they'll use the word "serve," but in the ESV they translate it this way: "So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel to work." If you were to go on and read in verse 14, you would see the same phrase repeated. In fact, the word abad is used so many times between verse 13 and 14 in Hebrew that they actually don't translate it word for word every time it's used, because this is one of the more complex verses in all of Scripture to translate, because of how exaggerative the word abad is in this passage. In verse 13, if you read it in Hebrew, the very first word in Hebrew is actually abad. They're saying they need to work so ruthlessly, they made them work so that they were slaves to the work. And it's like, in case you forget this, we want you to know what Pharaoh is doing to the people. They're working on top of work, and they should work because, well, they're here to work. And he's overexaggerating the extent that he's stressing the abad on the people of Israel.

But for us, it becomes a picture — a picture of what life is apart from the Lord, and a picture of what life is in the Lord. The Hebrew people, it's telling us, were devoted to Pharaoh forcibly, and he took their devotion. He crushed their spirits and he enslaved them. But then God steps in to call them to something more. And God takes their devotion, and rather than crushing them, God frees them. And God doesn't just free them from something, but we're seeing God's calling them to something. God gave them freedom. God gave them a name. God gave them land. God gave them protection. God gave them provision, purpose, and his presence. And that's ultimately what this picture of Exodus is about.

When you start in the beginning of the story, you find out that the children of Israel are enslaved, the Hebrew people are enslaved. And when you get to the end of Exodus, what you find in the final pages is that the children of Israel have been set free. They've built a tabernacle, and now God's presence dwells with his people. They're experiencing this relationship with the Lord. And so the picture of Exodus is more than just leaving something behind, but it's about what you're stepping into — not in terms of a location, but rather in the presence of your God.

And this idea of abad is reminding us of the thought of what worship really encompasses, what we belong to, where we find our purpose. I say to us somewhat regularly, as a church, you are a worship being. It is impossible not to be. And in being a worship being, you will look for anything in life to give you purpose and value and meaning — something that tells me I matter, something that gives me worth. And the story of this Exodus is a reminder that if you don't find it in the right thing or the right one, ultimately it will overpromise and under-deliver and crush your soul.

So maybe we could ask it like this. What is it that you think you need in life to be happy? What is it that you think you need in life to make you matter? What is it that you think you need in order to have purpose? That if you don't get that thing, you don't think you're going to matter. You don't think you're going to have purpose. You don't think you're going to have worth, and you will not be happy. Can I tell you, if your answer is anything other than the Lord, perhaps you're enslaved. And to be honest, I only have to say it that lightly — you are. God has made you for more. And the Exodus story is sharing with us how these children of Israel found it from this place of brokenness to this place of hope. And that's why we're asking this question today: how do we find Exodus? Because this becomes a picture for all of us to discover in who he is.

Let me give you point number one in your notes and we'll begin to discuss this together. How do we find Exodus? Number one is this: through the patient promises of God. Through the patient promises of God. And the first seven verses, this is what it says. "These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household, Reuben and Simeon, Levi and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were 70 persons. Joseph was already in Egypt." So you're already seeing this tying of the story in Genesis to Exodus, saying God has not forgotten this grander story. And then in verse six: "Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them." And here you're seeing in verse six and seven — and even if you were to skip ahead, we'll read this verse in a minute — you're seeing echoes of what Genesis has already proclaimed to God's people, as if to say to the people in the midst of adversity, God has not forgotten you.

We walk in a broken world, and God has not forgotten you. If you were to go back to the book of Genesis and read in Genesis chapter one, verse 28, you'll find when God created humanity, God said, "Be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth." It's interesting that what God gives us in his command to reflect his beauty in the world — as you read Exodus, Pharaoh becomes the antithesis of all of it, because what he is is an oppressor to the flourishing of people, and what he is is a killer to the Hebrew children who are multiplying. And God responds to each one of those plans that Pharaoh tries to attempt to come against his people. But you're seeing in Genesis chapter one, verse 28, it's being fulfilled here in Exodus — that God's people, he's still walking with his people. They're multiplying even in adversity. They're continuing on. God is faithful to his people.

And this is critical for all of us to consider, because we all have this tendency when we go through adversity to suddenly think to ourselves, but what if God's promises aren't true for me? Here I am in adversity, and I might ask myself the question, God, do you care about me? God, are you real? God, do you love me? And in the midst of the hardship, in the midst of the brokenness of this world, in the midst of the terrible things that humanity can do, God is saying in the beginning of Exodus, I am faithful. I'm faithful.

In fact, this becomes so repetitive for us as God's people that you find it mentioned over and over in Scripture. If I were just to highlight one for you — when Peter wrote his letter in Second Peter chapter three, he's writing to a persecuted church. They're certainly going through adversity and they're asking those questions in life. God, do we matter? God, do you love us? God, do you see us? God, do you care about us? And Peter is reminding them, look, this is not subverting the hand of man. It's not subverting the plan of God. And he says it like this: "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises as some count slowness. But there's a greater purpose to what God is doing, but he is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance."

Now I will tell you, I don't know why this has been the case, but over the last few weeks here at our church — and maybe even a little bit longer than weeks — I have probably had one of the more exhausting seasons of ministry I've ever had in my life. And I try to think, am I exaggerating this? I don't think I am. And it's not because — I'm not saying this to say woe is me, poor is me. I don't want to put the attention on me in this. But I do want to say it's really because as a pastor, I get the joy of walking with people through seasons of life. And for whatever reason, over these last few weeks, maybe a little more than a month, there has been a special amount of tension in what people have gone through — losing loved ones, and even some great things, celebrating some weddings, and mental health battles, people in and out of the emergency room and in ICUs and difficult things. And even late last night, I found myself up at the Wolstenholmes'. And many of you might be aware how Azalea Wolston has been struggling with a brain tumor, and she and Kai have been a part of our church for not a terribly long amount of time, but long enough to get to know people in our church. And they've come to know Christ fairly recently. And Azalea, you could see the light come on in her eyes when she came to know the Lord. And she was excited about baptisms. She couldn't wait to be baptized at our end of summer baptism, where many of you were baptized. And then she came to me a few weeks ago and said my diagnosis has come back and the cancer is very aggressive and I don't have much longer to live and I don't think I'll make it to the baptism. Can we just do a unique baptism for me ASAP? And so we did, on a Saturday night. We just pulled that baptistry out. She invited family and friends, and they've not been very public about their struggle. They've kept that a little bit closer to their vest and they've just enjoyed being a part of our family and their new faith in the Lord. And Azalea and Kye and their youngest son were all baptized here, and they shared their testimony afterwards. And I will tell you one thing I will never forget as a pastor is just seeing the hope in her eyes, knowing the road she was walking. You could see, even though her body was worn out, there was this deep joy of anticipation for all that she had in Jesus. But even in that struggle, spending time with the family last night as she passed away about 10:00 last night — and the questions in people's hearts and minds they were asking, and why. Why does this happen? And how can I know that I have a greater hope?

And anytime we go through certain adversity, we ask that question of ourselves, don't we? Here we are facing a hard time, just like Peter says here, just like the children of Israel were going through their enslavement, they're asking the question, God, why? God, do you care? God, I need to understand. God, do you love me? God, am I forgotten by you?

We ask those questions. But can I tell you the better answer for our lives is not "why." Why is an important question, but why is not the most important question. And here's the reason — because even if you were to get an answer why, it doesn't necessitate that you're going to have the strength to do anything about it. That answer may not be comforting. And even if you did get the answer, before a sovereign God your mind probably couldn't even comprehend the totality of what it means. Rather than have the question answered "why," can I tell you the more important question is "who." Who's going to deal with it? Any time we face a problem in life, we need a greater answer. We need a greater warrior. We need a bigger victor. And for the children of Israel, rather than getting the answer "why," they're getting the answer "who." Who cares about them? Who steps in for them? Who ultimately delivers them? And how do I know I have that hope?

And for us today, we get the expression of that being seen in a very tangible way, more than just the story of Exodus unfolding. You see God's faithfulness over and over again throughout the Bible, but we get the ultimate picture of the cross and what it represents for us — of a God who promised that he would deliver, a God that became flesh and took his life as a servant of servants, from being the King of kings, to offer himself for you and for me, so that we could ultimately find deliverance in him. The greatest answer for us is not "where" or "why," but "who."

When you think about the book of Exodus, it's not just about them being delivered from something and going somewhere else. It's about the ultimate destination being the presence of God himself, where our hope lies. Through the patient promises of God.

How do we find Exodus? Number two is this: looking to God for deliverance. Looking to God for deliverance. And when you read this Exodus story, you start to see that not only is it painting a picture — I'll read it here in just a moment — but not only is it painting a picture for the Hebrew people and what they went through, but it becomes a beautiful picture that's used in Scripture for the rest of us.

Exodus one, verse eight: "Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, 'Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply and if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore let us' — they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Rameses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel." Here it is again — they realize, even as they're coming against the people of Israel, that there's something greater happening here, and they're attempting to stop God's plan. But God is still on the move.

"And so verse 13, so they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in all kinds of work in the field, and all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves." Abad.

You find that this particular story is one that the rest of Scripture picks up and continues to paint a story for us, saying, don't just look at this as some one-off story. We want us to recognize that this is the plight of the world, and all of us can find ourselves enslaved under the authority and rule of the brokenness of what life is.

If you were to even take the idea of the picture of the Egyptians and just consider how the rest of the Bible unfolds — here's the superpower arising during this day, the Egyptians. But then after the Egyptians come the Assyrians, and then come the Babylonians, and then ultimately the Greeks and then the Romans. All of it becomes this foreshadowing of a greater spiritual battle that we are in, in a broken and dark world. But there is a deliverer for our lives who gives us a greater hope that is to come. And you find those themes peppered throughout the Bible, like in Revelation 11, talking about the two witnesses. It says they will lie in the streets of the great city of Jerusalem, the one that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt. Sodom is this place of debauchery, and Egypt is this place of oppression. So even the last book of the Bible is saying these empires continued to try to enslave our souls. But then there was the Lord who was crucified.

Or in First Peter five, when Peter is writing this letter, he's writing to a people that are being persecuted, and he's writing, recognizing the church that's in Rome. But rather than refer to them as Rome, he uses the picture of Babylon. And he says, "She, the church in Rome, who is at Babylon, which is the capital of the Roman people, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings." Or in Revelation 14, it takes a theme again of an angel. "A second followed, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great.'" So you're seeing these great empires that become a symbolic representation of all of our lives and what can happen to the soul if we are entrusted to anything else than the freedom of what God gives us.

Even Paul in Romans six says it like this in verse 16: "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God, that you were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves to righteousness."

Now I know when we read the word "slave," that might give us a little bit of whiplash — saying, wait a minute, I only have two options here, like a slave to one thing or a slave to another thing. In either case I'm a slave. I don't want to be a slave. But here's the picture that is being painted for you and for me: that if you give your life over to anything other than the Lord, it will capture you in such a way that it will crush your soul. But to recognize your life was made and designed to be with the Lord — and not just a part of who you are, all that you are. And Mark chapter 12, verse 29 to 31, the Lord says this: "The greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength." All of you, body and soul, belonging completely to him. And truthfully, you are not in the place that you need to be until your life is given over to him in that way. And it's only in that way you find true freedom.

So the story of Exodus is not about just simply they were let go from somewhere. It's not even necessarily that they were about going to a new destination. It's about they're leaving behind a place of brokenness, and they're finding their relationship in who God is. And in so doing, no matter where that path might lead, they know they're going to be okay because they know who they're walking that journey with.

Which brings me to the last point. By walking faithfully with the Lord through adversity. How do we find that Exodus? By walking faithfully with the Lord through adversity. And I want you to see the way that this is painted. I think it's incredible.

In verse 15 it says, "Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah, and the other one was Puah. 'When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, she shall live.' But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, 'Why have you done this and let the male children live?' Verse 19, the 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.' So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, 'Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.'"

And here's what's amazing in this section. Certainly the oppression continues — Pharaoh continues to try to ramp up on the Hebrew people. One of the things that is so incredible about this section is also something I have found throughout my time of being a Christian — one of the more irritating things about the book of Exodus. And when I read the book of Exodus, one of the things I always ask myself quickly is, which Pharaoh is this? And if you read Exodus from beginning to the end, what you find out is it never tells you. Now, I think there is some context to the book of Exodus where I will share with you, when we get to that point, who I actually think the Pharaoh is, or at least the time period when this Pharaoh would have lived. But this is the uniqueness of what God is declaring to us through this book, and he wants us to see this.

When you read this particular book of Exodus here, you find the midwives, and it tells us readily who these midwives are, or at least two of a group of midwives most likely. But it tells us who they are. It's Shiphrah and Puah. And then you get to Pharaoh and you're like, how irritating. Because if you're a history buff and you like to look up those things, you're like, I find this frustrating. You know, I want to do a little digging. I want to know a little bit more about who this Pharaoh is. And the Bible never gives him the dignity of honoring his name.

Why does the Bible do that? And that's precisely the point. What it's saying is, what matters to this world isn't often what matters to the Lord. And what matters to the Lord are these two women. These two women become the catalyst for change among the Hebrew people. And even more than that, other people groups find freedom through this story too. But it's these two women.

And if you just consider these two women compared to what the world would say is valuable in light of what God says is valuable, what we should find in reading a passage like this is that it mentions the Pharaoh's name multiple times — and it doesn't ever take any moment to mention who these midwives are — because after all, they're a part of this slave group of people. And so when you look at this in contrasting ways, here you see the idea of a ruler, no name mentioned. And then the idea of the slaves, but their names are mentioned. Here you have a wealthy individual, no name mentioned, but then you have these poor people and their names are mentioned. Here you have a male in a society that would have been patriarchal in its dominance, but no name mentioned. And then you have women who would have been treated more like property during this time period than having intrinsic worth, being created in the image of God. And their name is mentioned.

Why is God doing this? To help us understand the significance of who we are in light of any season that we walk through in life, as representing the goodness of this God and the hope that he delivers us, and declaring to this world that you have no authority over me because I know who I belong to. That's what it says about these ladies. They fear the Lord. They know that maybe there is an oppressor above them, but their greatest ruler sees them, and their life is given over to him. And because they belong to him, they choose to live for his glory rather than the other's. And in so doing, God brings about a change.

And guys, I would say the same for us — that this world has this tendency to want to pressure you, try to conform you, try to force you to affirm what they want rather than who God is. And for us, there's a way that God calls us to walk into this world to make a difference in who God is. It's to recognize, look, the world's going to come against me with systems, ideas, thoughts, try to oppress me, try to silence me, try to stop me. But there is one thing that carries me forward in all things, and it's not what the world has to say about me. It's the confidence I have in my relationship in the Lord. And because of that confidence, I don't need other people to affirm me. It's always nice to encourage each other, but to say I'm already confident in who I am because I know where I belong — not so much in a location, but who I'm with.

And so because of that, there's two ways I would say God's people are called to walk in this world. One is with compassion, because people are not our enemies. Even though the world might try to get you to affirm all sorts of things that are contrary to God's Word, we can still walk with compassion. I care about you. And we do so without compromise. And because I care about you, this is where I'm standing. Doesn't mean I hate you. Doesn't mean that you're my enemy. But it means I know that the importance of who Jesus is and the purity of that truth is critical not only for my soul, but your soul too. And because I love you, I'm going to hold this with compassion towards you.

But here's what God says. And in so doing, we get the joy of journeying with the goodness of God in this world. Shiphrah and Puah become an example that when all of the world it might feel like is standing against you, and they have ample reason to be afraid, at least in a worldly sense, what it means to stand confidently because they know who they are. And in knowing who they are, they can have compassion for people around them, and in so doing, live without compromise because of the Lord who sees them.

In 2010, there was an accident that happened in Chile that some of you might be familiar with. It was a mine that had collapsed. And in the collapsing of that mine, no one knew if the miners had actually survived. And for the next 17 days, crews worked above the ground, boring holes into the earth over half a mile deep, hoping to pierce into a cavern to discover if anyone had survived the collapsing of that mine. Over and over, they repeated this process, not sure what they might discover, hoping inevitably, at one point or another, they might find a cavern. And eventually, on the 17th day, they did. On the 17th day, they were able to drill all the way down, and the miners below were able to attach a message saying they were safe in a shelter. The 33. And when they pulled that out and they saw the message, the world was elated.

But here's what's incredible. It still took two months before the first miner was able to get to the surface. However, that tiny borehole became a sense of hope for all the people below, because before they were just simply in darkness. But now, even though they sat in darkness, they knew that rescue was on its way. And they began to deliver things as they tried to bore a hole into the earth — they began to deliver things to the miners of which they would need, food and water and care, sent down as they continued to work boring these holes. And eventually they were able to create a circle big enough that they were able to send this device down into the earth. And if you were claustrophobic, it didn't matter. This is your only way. But one by one, they pulled forth the 33 miners. And you see, as each one came to the surface, there was a celebration. You see on the right, one of them receiving a hug. And on the left, one of them's got a flag wrapped around his shoulders from his country as they were victorious in coming out of the hole. But as each one came out, it represented something greater.

You know, sometimes we go through circumstances in life where we realize, I don't have the strength, and I can't do this. But can I tell you that sometimes in life, you don't need to be the answer — that what you need to know is that someone greater is there. He sees you, he cares about you, and help is already on the way. And in the midst of that darkness, knowing that God is the one who is your ultimate deliverer, it gives us hope to move forward as God's people.