１月９日２０００年『神様なぜ答えて下さらないの？』出エジプト記１〜２章

テーマ：神は黙っておられる時ですら、真実な方である。

１）神は御自信の約束を必ず守って下さる（１：１ー２１）

２）神は私たちを使命のために備えて下さる（１：２２ー２：２２）

３）神は御旨にかなった時に、私達を試練から助けだして下さる（２：２３ー２５）

"Why Doesn't God Answer?"

Exodus 1-2

Given at G.E.F.C. Japanese Dept.
on January 9, 2000

Text: Exodus 1-2

Title: "Why Doesn't God Answer?"

Theme of the Exodus: God saves His people out of the bondage of this
world, and brings them into a new
life with Him.

Theme of the narrative of Moses' birth: God remains faithful to us even
when He seems silent.

Outline:

Even when God seems "silent" in our hardships:

I. He faithfully keeps His promises to us (1:1-21).

II. He is faithfully preparing us for our life calling (1:22~2:22).

III. He will faithfully rescue us from our hardships in HIS time (2:23-25).

Text: Exodus 1-2

Title: "Why Doesn't God Answer?"

Theme of the Exodus: God saves His people out of the bondage of this
world, and brings them into a new
life with Him.

Theme of the narrative of Moses' birth: God remains faithful to us even
when He seems silent.

Outline:

Even when God seems "silent" in our hardships:

I. He faithfully keeps His promises to us (1:1-21).

II. He is faithfully preparing us for our life calling (1:22~2:22).

III. He will faithfully rescue us from our hardships in HIS time (2:23-25).
Introduction:

Have you ever experienced the silence of God? I imagine that all of us
have experienced it at different times and in different degrees. All of us
will go through difficult times, because suffering is an unavoidable part
of living in this world. This world is fallen and we interact with fallen
people. Yet if you have been a Christian for awhile, I bet that you can
share testimonies about how you knew that God was with you and guiding you
through your difficult times. If you are faithfully walking with Jesus, I
would say that this is probably your more common experience. Because it is
often when we are suffering that we feel closest to God, since we have
nowhere else to turn. This is normal.
But sometimes we go through long periods of great difficulty-- yet God
seems so far away from us. We cry out to Him in our trouble, but He
doesn't seem to answer. We look for Him, but we can't seem to find Him.
The suffering just seems to get worse. This is the "silence of God," and it
is probably the most difficult part of being a Christian.
All of God's people in all places in all times have had to learn to deal
with God's silence at times, just as they have also enjoyed His closeness
at times. They have had to learn that (slowly) God remains faithful to us,
even when He seems silent (repeat). God is faithful when times are good
AND when times are bad. His silence does NOT mean that He has given up on
you.
This what the early Christians had to learn when, for centuries, they were
tortured and thrown to the lions for their faith. And there seemed to be
no end to it. This is what the kakure Christians in Japan had to learn
when, for 250 years, they too were tortured and killed for their faith.
And this is what God wanted Israel to learn when, for over 400 years, they
were oppressed, demoralized, and even killed by the Egyptians. And this is
what God wants you to learn today from Exodus 1-2: that God remains
faithful to us, even when He seems silent. And we are going to see three
things that we should know about His faithfulness, even when He is silent.
But now, let's let Moses himself tell us His story.
I. He faithfully keeps His promises to us (1:1-21)

I want to share with you over the next few months the story of the Exodus.
Its the story of how God delivered His people out of slavery and into the
promised land. But this is not just a history lesson about Israel. It is
important for ALL the people of God to remember-- both Jew and Gentile.
Because God continues to deliver His people today. The Exodus is a model
of God's faithfulness. For in the Exodus, we see that God saves all His
people OUT of the bondage of this world and brings them INTO a new life
with Him. The Exodus is YOUR story, just as much as it is mine.
Now how did Israel end up in Egypt in the first place? Well, there are
two parts to that answer. First, a long time ago, the Lord had made
certain promises to Abraham. He promised Abraham that he would have 1)
many descendants, / 2) that Israel would possess the land of Canaan, / and
3) that Israel would eventually be a blessing to all the other nations of
the world. But before all that would happen, God told Abraham that Israel
must suffer in slavery FIRST. And THEN God would rescue us from bondage,
and bring us into the Promised Land.
So from the very beginning, our sufferings in Egypt were part of God's plan
to make us into a great nation. We just needed to trust Him because good
would come from it. Your sufferings that you experience today are also
somehow part of God's mysterious plans. And as difficult as it may be to
accept, we need to trust that God can somehow make good come from our
hardships, just like He did for Israel in Egypt.
The second part of how we came into Egypt is that Joseph, Judah and all the
sons of Israel came to live in Egypt because of a great famine in Canaan.
And God blessed them so much in Egypt that they decided to settle there
permanently. There were only about 70 people of Israel at that time, but
just as God had promised Abraham, Israel grew and grew and grew.
In fact we grew SO much, that the Egyptians became a little paranoid. They
said, "What if Israel joins our enemies and fights against us? There are
already so many of them in the land that we would be completely vulnerable!
They can rise up, attack us, and leave the land before we could even do
anything!" They were worried. So Pharaoh devised TWO plans to control
and suppress Israel in Egypt.
The first plan was slavery. Pharaoh forced all the people of God to become
slaves to the Egyptians, and we remained slaves for 400 years. As we were
whipped and forced to do hard labor, we wondered, "What happened? God used
to bless us SO much, but NOW look at us! Where is God and why doesn't He
do anything to help us? Why is He so silent?" God never did answer Israel
during those 400 years of hardship. He never told them "why" they had to
suffer. But He DID keep His promise to multiply Israel, just as He
promised Abraham. In good times God had been faithful to His promises.
And in bad times God was faithful to His promises. This is important for
all of God's people to remember.
(pause) Then, since his first plan had failed, Pharaoh devised a second
plan to suppress Israel: genocide. He commanded the Hebrew midwives to
secretly kill all the baby boys as they came out of their mother's womb.
But because the midwives feared God, they didn't do what Pharaoh commanded.
And so God protected the midwives from Pharaoh, and Israel continued to
grow and grow and grow. Just as God had promised Abraham. Thus, even
though God was silent during those 400 years of slavery and oppression, He
remained faithful to His promises.
application
Vv. 1-21 of chapter 1 have shown us that even when God seems silent in our
hardships, He faithfully keeps His promises to us. God had promised Abraham
to make Israel a great and mighty nation. More numerous than the stars,
more numerous than the grains of sand on the beach. And chapter 1 of
Exodus shows us that God was able to do it. We see in v. 7 that God kept
His promise during good times. And in vv. 12 and 20 we see that God ALSO
kept His promise during bad times. Times when He seemed the most silent.
So what does this teach us? This chapter teaches us that we should never
think for a minute that God has abandoned us, just because He SEEMS far
away. There are times when God feels very near. Life is going well, your
job is great, your relationships with others are splendid. You are on top
of the world and it is EASY to praise God. But at other times, God may
feel very far away. Life is not going well, you're losing your job, you're
family life is unfulfilling. You feel like you are in a dark pit, and God
is not coming to help you as quickly as you'd like. You cry out, "Where
are you God?" And sometimes you only hear silence. It is very hard to
praise God during these times.
But we must remember that He has NOT abandoned you. He STILL loves you.
But in His unfathomable wisdom He has decided that it is somehow best to be
silent right now. And silence is NOT the same thing as being absent. He
may be quiet at times, but He is ALWAYS right there with you in your
hardship. How do I know this? Because Jesus has made a promise to you in
Matt. 28:20. He said, (slowly) "Behold, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age." He is WITH you right now. And we know that God is ALWAYS
faithful to keep His promises, even when He seems silent.
What else does God promise us? In Rom. 8 God promises that nothing will
separate you from His love. In 1 Jn. 1 God promises that if we sincerely
confess our sins, God WILL forgive you. In Eph. 1, God promises that if we
make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives that He WILL give you the Holy
Spirit as proof of your salvation. And no matter how far away God may FEEL,
as long as you have the Holy Spirit you can have confidence that you are a
child of God. Even when God seems "silent" in our hardships, He faithfully
keeps His promises to us.
II. He is faithfully preparing us for our life calling (1:22~2:22)

(pause) When Pharaoh saw that none of His plans to suppress the people of
God were working, he commanded all his people to cast every Hebrew baby boy
into the Nile River. Well, my mother kind of obeyed that order. You see,
when I was three months old, my mother cast me into the Nile in a basket so
that I may live. But my mother was smart-- she didn't leave the basket in
just any random location. She left the basket in the place where the
Pharaoh's daughter would normally bathe. Because she knew that if the
Pharaoh's own daughter could see this little baby and feel compassion for
him, then the baby would be safe. Because how could the Pharaoh deny his
own daughter's desires?
My mother's plan worked and the Pharaoh's daughter adopted me. And she
called me "Moses", which means "to take out" because she had "taken me out"
of the Nile river. But of course, God was really the one who made my
mother's plans successful, because God had given me a special calling.
Even my name was a hint about my calling. Moses means "to take out"-- God
had called me to "take Israel out" of Egypt. Although I didn't know about
this calling for sure until I was about 80 years old. So if you are still
not 100% sure of your calling in life yet, don't worry. I wasn't sure of
my calling in life until I was a senior citizen!
I know NOW that God was quietly preparing me for my calling over the
course of my life, through various situations. For example, God has put a
concern for defending the oppressed into my heart. I remember when I was
about forty years old I saw an Egyptian beating one of my fellow
Israelites, for no apparent reason. I was so angry by what I saw, that I
looked around to make sure no one was looking and I killed the Egyptian.
Don't get me wrong, I am not promoting murder. But I believe that in this
situation, God had allowed it as a picture of the judgement that He would
soon bring upon Egypt. Soon, God would not judge merely one Egyptian who
was oppressing one Hebrew. Soon, God would judge all the Egyptians who
have oppressed all of the Hebrews.
But I became scared that news of what I had done might spread to the
Egyptians, so I left Egypt and went to the land of Midian. And as soon as
I got there, I had ANOTHER chance to defend the helpless. I found seven
young women trying to get water from a well for their father's sheep, but
some shepherds were driving them away. So I jumped into the situation and
helped them. The father was so grateful that he asked me to live with
them, and he even gave me one of his daughters as a wife. So I lived there
in Midian for the next 40 years, wondering if God would ever break His
silence. Why was God keeping me here in Midian watching sheep when my
fellow Israelites are suffering in Egypt? When will God finally rescue His
people from bondage?
application
Vv. 1-22 of chapter 2 have shown us that even when God seems silent, He is
faithfully preparing us for our life calling (repeat). Moses watched his
fellow Israelites suffer in Egypt for 80 years, but God remained silent.
But although God was silent, He was not absent. For God was shaping His
servant during those 80 years for His life calling.
In v. 10 we see that Moses was separated from His mother, who was a slave,
and grew up in a palace instead. God orchestrated this so that Moses would
be equipped later to lead millions of God's people. In vv. 11-17 we see
that Moses received life experience in defending the oppressed. God
orchestrated this so that Moses could later have boldness in confronting
the great Pharaoh and say "Let my people go!" In vv. 18-21 we see that
Moses gained experience taking care of sheep in the wilderness of Midian.
God orchestrated this so that Moses could later be able to take care of
God's people in the wilderness for 40 years.
God was preparing Moses for 80 years before He ever spoke to Moses, and
Moses didn't even know it. When we go through those painful periods of
experiencing God's silence, we need to remember that silence does not mean
absence. God is using your trials and life experiences to prepare you
somehow for His service. And like Moses, you may not know why God has
allowed these things to happen to you until much, much later.
He has given each of you a special calling, ALL of you have a special
calling. Some of you are called to minister to businessmen, some of you
are called to minister to other housewives, some of you to other salesmen,
some of you to youth. All of these people have issues and pains unique to
their life experience that only YOU are equipped to relate to. Why?
Because God has been quietly preparing you all your life to reach out to
these people. In your happiest times, and also in your saddest.
If He has called you, He WILL prepare you. We need to remember that it is
often at our darkest moments that God is doing the most significant things
in our lives. Sometimes it is when we are at our lowest that our souls
become the most impressionable, like soft clay. And it is often during
these dark times of the soul that God can shape us the most for His
purposes, like a master potter fashioning a prize vase.
God sometimes does seem far away from us when we go through hard times.
But even though God SEEMS to be silent, let's remember that 1) He
faithfully keeps His promises to us, and also that 2) He is faithfully
preparing us for our life calling. Let's conclude now with vv. 23-25, and
see what Moses has to say.
III. He will faithfully rescue us from our hardships in HIS time (2:23-25)

My people suffered under the Egyptians for over 400 years before God
finally broke His silence. God had kept his promise to Abraham about
making Israel as numerous as the stars, and now He was ready to fulfill His
promise about giving them the land of Canaan as well. God was finally
ready to set His people free! I was 80 years old before God finally sent
me to Pharaoh, but I will save that story for next month.
My point in bringing this up at all, however, is to tell you that God does
not remain silent forever. When you are suffering and all you want is to
be taken out of it-- time seems to just stand still. When God doesn't
answer for days, weeks, months, or even years His silence can seem like
forever. But remember, God DID finally rescue us out of Egypt. But He
only did so when HE thought the time was right. My people waited 400 years
for God to answer their prayers for freedom. So don't be frustrated with
God if you have to wait a few weeks, months, or even a few years. Don't
worry, God is faithful. He WILL break His silence someday. And He WILL
rescue you the hardships you face today, but only in HIS time. I know this
from experience.
Conclusion:

The big idea of the first two chapters of Exodus has been that God remains
faithful to us, even when He seems silent. We have seen that even when God
is silent, 1) He faithfully keeps His promises to us, 2) He is faithfully
preparing us for our life calling, and 3) He will faithfully rescue us
from our trials in HIS time. So my final charge to you today is this:
don't give up when it seems like God is far away from you in your
hardships, He only SEEMS far away. He is actually there with you just as
He has promised. Remain faithful to Him even though you don't feel like
it, and patiently wait for His silence to break. Let's pray.