Moses

About the Series

Tonight moved the Redemption Series out of Genesis and into the book of Exodus, picking up right where Joseph left off: settled in Egypt with his father Jacob and the rest of the family. Genesis had been mapped out through eight "stepping stones," Creation, Fall, Flood, Tower, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. The next stepping stone into Exodus is the man at the center of tonight's lesson: Moses.

Passages: Exodus 1-2; Hebrews 11:23-26

What Was Taught

A Forgotten People

Seventy Israelites moved to Egypt under Joseph's protection, and over roughly 400 years, their descendants multiplied rapidly. As generations passed, Joseph was forgotten, and with him went the favor his memory had provided. A new king rose who didn't know Joseph and feared Israel's growing numbers, worried they might side with a rival group against Egypt. He responded with forced labor as a calculated way to control them. The lesson drew a direct line here to patterns seen throughout history in antisemitism, fear of a growing population, followed by dehumanizing and blaming that group. None of it worked. Israel kept multiplying, because God's promise to Abraham couldn't be stopped by affliction.

Choosing God Over Pharaoh

When forced labor failed to slow Israel's growth, Pharaoh escalated to attempted genocide, ordering Hebrew midwives to kill every baby boy at birth. The midwives refused, fearing God more than the king, and God blessed them with families of their own. Israel kept growing anyway. The point made here: when a government's command conflicts with God's will, God comes first. Pharaoh's next move was even broader, ordering every Israelite boy thrown into the Nile.

Drawn Out of the Water

Moses was born into this danger, a descendant of Levi. His mother hid him for three months, then, unable to hide him any longer, placed him in a waterproofed basket among the reeds of the Nile. Pharaoh's own daughter found him and, moved by compassion, defied her father's decree to save him. Moses' sister, watching nearby, arranged for the baby's own mother to nurse and raise him in his early years, even being paid for it. Pharaoh's daughter later formally adopted him and named him Moses, meaning "drawn out," bringing him into the royal family with access to Egypt's finest education and privilege.

Even surrounded by that privilege, Moses' heritage and his mother's early influence kept him rooted in faith. Hebrews 11 commends exactly that: by faith his parents hid him without fear of the king's decree, and by faith Moses later refused the title of Pharaoh's daughter's son, choosing to suffer alongside God's people rather than enjoy Egypt's fleeting pleasures, valuing the reproach of Christ above all of Egypt's treasure.

Rejected, Then Humbled

Around age 40, moved by sympathy for his people, Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. The next day, trying to mediate a dispute between two Hebrews, he was rejected and scolded instead, a moment the lesson compared to Jesus being initially rejected in His own right to be prince and judge over Israel. When Pharaoh learned what Moses had done, Moses fled for his life to Midian.

Learning to Be Nobody

In Midian, Moses helped a priest named Reuel's daughters water their flock. Invited to dinner as thanks, he was given a place to stay and Reuel's daughter Zipporah in marriage. They had a son, Gershom, meaning "stranger," a name that captured Moses' sense of belonging fully to neither Egypt nor Israel. The shift was described plainly: in Egypt, Moses learned how to be somebody. In Midian, he learned how to be nobody, exactly the kind of humbling God used to prepare him for what came next.

God Was Never Silent

Pharaoh eventually died, but Israel remained enslaved and cried out to God. Exodus closes this section with God hearing their cry and remembering His covenant. Though God seemed silent through these two chapters, He was working behind the scenes the whole time, the same way He still works during our own seasons of waiting. No empire, government, or uprising can stop what God has promised, and there's an invitation in that to see ourselves the same way: used by Him, kept within His promises, and willing to be used.

Talk About It at Home

These are the same questions the group wrestled with tonight. They are a good way to keep the conversation going at the dinner table.

1. What are some ways a culture can "forget" what God has done in the past? What does that look like today?
2. Why do you think the midwives chose to obey God even though it could have cost them their lives? What are some times today when Christians have to choose between obeying authority versus God?
3. Why do you think God sometimes works quietly or behind the scenes rather than in obvious ways? Have you ever looked back and noticed God's quiet hand in your life?

A few easier openers if you want to start smaller:

• Has there ever been a season where it felt like God was quiet? What happened when you looked back on it later?
• Have you ever had to choose between what someone in authority told you to do and what you knew was right?
• What's a time you felt "humbled" that ended up teaching you something important?