The Point of the Story

Since last May I have preached from Genesis and for the most part we looked at stories about Family Abraham — as someone mentioned last Sunday, a dysfunctional family if there ever was one, and maybe that’s why we can so easily identify. Today we are going to see the point of these interesting stories. The point of the Family Abraham story is Moses.

Moses was the Savior of the Israelites. He delivered them from slavery in Egypt and because of that salvation they became conscious of themselves as a people. Then they began to think back about their ancestral traditions. They began to remember and retell the stories of Family Abraham as a way to further identify who they were and from whence they came. But the salvation of Moses came first.

In this sense, the Old Testament was written backwards. Salvation in Exodus was first. Then the Family Abraham stories made sense because they pointed to why salvation from Egypt was necessary. It is exactly the same with the New Testament.

We tend to think that the Gospels came first because they are printed first in our Bibles. But all of the Gospels were written years, even some decades after Paul’s letters were written. In his letters the Apostle Paul talks mostly about the salvation that comes because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. As Christ’s salvation began to shape Jesus’ followers into a people, there was interest in the teachings of Jesus and the life of Jesus and the birth of Jesus. So the Gospel traditions were written down. But in both New and Old Testaments, salvation is the point of the story. So in terms of my preaching these past months, the point of the story is Moses and we’re going to look today at his birth.

Moses is a towering figure in the history of the world. He is clearly the major character in the Old Testament and the most important person in the religion of the Jews, both ancient and modern. Next to Jesus, he is also the most important character in Christianity. Moses is one of a handful of people about whom it can be said that without them the history of the world would be amazingly different.

As we turn to the birth of Moses, remember last week that Genesis ends with Family Abraham, in the persons of Jacob and his sons, migrating to Egypt where they were treated with respect because Jacob’s son Joseph had become prime minister in Egypt. Over many years the family of Jacob, perhaps joined by other related Hebrews, became a large people. Then the political scene in Egypt changed. The Hebrews went from being favored to being oppressed. That’s where will pick up the story in Exodus 1.

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” 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 became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Some things happen to us that just stick in our heads. For me, one of those happened nearly forty years ago on my first day at Whitworth College in September 1966, I met another freshman who lived in the same dormitory. His name was Ricklen and he hailed from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. We became good friends.

Rick was an accomplished pianist and very intense. I’ll always remember an expression he used with some frequency. Whenever something odd would happen, something out of the ordinary, especially if it were ironic or bizarre — and with Ricklen odd things happened quite often! — he would always say, “Well! That was a strange quirk of cosmic coincidence.” A strange quirk of cosmic coincidence.

I still say that from time to time and think of Rick every time I do. The phrase can be taken, of course, in a positive or a negative way or, perhaps more accurately, in a believing or a skeptical way. It could mean that something odd happens because no one is in control: the universe has nothing or no one to organize and unify it and bizarre things happen by mere chance. Or it could mean that hidden in the odd particulars of day-to-day experience is present the guiding hand of God. Strange things may happen, not by chance but by divine purpose.

The story of Moses’ birth is a strange quirk of cosmic coincidence. God is mentioned only when we are told the midwives “feared God.” The story tells that at birth the great hero Moses was but a helpless child floating on the Nile. The destiny of God’s people bobbed in a basket. The power of imperial Egypt stood arrayed over a single child. Any crocodile could have ended the story with one gulp. But, strange quirk of cosmic coincidence, the daughter of the Pharaoh who tried to kill Moses and all his male kin, saved him and helped prepare him to be a savior.

Really, strange quirks of cosmic coincidence fill many of the Bible’s stories. But all those stories have a point and that is the salvation that God brings. So the Bible wants us to read the stories of our lives in the same way. Like a good novel, there are many twists and turns in the plots of our lives. But in those twists and turns, with the eyes of faith we can see the salvation of God. So let’s think about the point of our stories today with a couple of thoughts to guide us. First this: hardship gives birth to hope.

The Moses story tells us that hardship gives birth to hope. In the text, we read three times when hardship gave birth to hope. First, in his paranoid fear of the Hebrews, Pharaoh oppressed them and made their life and work bitter. Their freedom was severely restricted. But the text tells us, “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied.” Second, Pharaoh commanded the midwives to kill the male babies who were born. But Pharaoh didn’t figure on one thing. These midwives “feared God.” Pharaoh had not counted on that and once more hope was born of hardship. Finally, Pharaoh enlisted all Egyptians in his campaign to destroy Hebrew male babies. But God provided, in the birth and protection of Moses, a savior. Pharaoh’s own daughter became the means through which God acted. Those who wrote down this amazing story wanted to make sure we read it as hardship giving birth to hope. When things are darkest, God provides a way.

I’ve mentioned before that I am constantly trying to rid myself of stuff. So every week or so I sort through another box or shelf and throw things away. I also run across old letters, notes, and diaries that are fun to read. Recently I ran across a letter my mom wrote to me many years ago when I was struggling with whether or not to move from my first church to a new ministry. It was a time of turmoil, both personally and professionally. I was often very discouraged.

At one of the darkest moments I received a letter from my mother. She lived just a mile away so it was unusual for her to write. Normally she would stop by to visit. But she wrote a letter and quoted one of my favorite verses from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. (We’ll be looking at Philippians in detail starting next Sunday.) She quoted Philippians 1.6: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work [in] you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” I will never know how my mother knew to write that letter. Strange quirk of cosmic coincidence. But it was exactly the word I needed because when I face despair it is precisely what that verse affirms which I lose sight of. When I despair, I lose sight of what God is doing in my life. I lose sight of how, in the twists and turns of the story of my life, the Lord is writing his story. My mother’s letter reaffirmed what I most needed to hear: God began a good work in me and God will bring it to completion.

The same is true for you. God has begun a good work in you, my friend, and will bring it to completion. We often don’t get to choose what that completion looks like. But we must have faith and know that even when it is darkest, God will provide a way. We must trust that hardship gives birth to hope.

Here’s a second thought. The stories of our lives are about God. That’s what this text about Moses affirms. It talks about political changes in ancient Egypt, about a pharaoh and his paranoid fears, about oppression and sinister plots of destruction. We hear about the improbable circumstances of a baby under the penalty of death being raised in the palace of the one who tried to kill him. The plot has all kinds of twists and turns within just a few verses. But what is this story really about? God. That’s it. It’s a story about God. And we must understand that the biblical story and the stories of our lives are the same story — a story about God.

Have you ever played the Famous Person game? Think of the most famous person you have ever seen in person. Oftentimes that will be the President. Then you can argue with others about whose famous person is really the most famous. It’s also fun to qualify things a bit. Who is the most famous person you’ve actually spoken to? Who is the most famous person with whom you actually had a conversation? Who is the most famous person with whom you’ve ridden in a car? Who is the most famous person to have been in your home? It’s kind of fun to play that game.

I’ve mentioned to you before that once when we were on vacation with our kids, we all quite literally bumped into Muhammad Ali. Merrie actually greeted him and tried to shake his hand. So she gets a lot of points in the Famous Person Game. I probably have to settle for going to a 1984 World Series game with Lloyd Reuss who soon became the President of General Motors. But Lloyd wasn’t that well known outside Detroit or the auto industry. I did ride in a car with him and I did have conversation with him. Nonetheless, in our family, Merrie probably wins the game.

In his day, Pharaoh was the most famous person of all. He commanded wealth the likes of which even our billionaires can only dream about. He had absolute power. He was considered a god. But today we don’t even know who that Pharaoh was for sure, and no one cares about him except, perhaps, a few archaeologists and historians of ancient Egypt. We wouldn’t even remember there was a Pharaoh at all if it were not for a baby born down in the slave quarters. Pharaoh lived a pampered life in a palace of power. Moses was born in a slave shack and set out in a tar-smeared ark on the uncertain waters of the Nile. Pharaoh lived all his life with security guards and armies. Moses’ big sister watched from a distance but would have been no help if one of the Nile’s many crocodiles had decided that the basket contained a tasty snack.

The biblical story is a contrast between human wealth and power and strange quirks of cosmic coincidence in which we see the power of God. Historians have discovered some ancient records of various pharaohs and their dealings with slaves and their building campaigns and their wars and other exploits. But that’s not the real story of what happened back then. The real story, the only reason any of this is remembered or cared about, is what God was doing not with the rich and famous but with a bunch of slaves and particularly with one of them named Moses. The point is, God doesn’t need the rich and famous to write his story. God’s story is written in the lives of ordinary folk who are not famous, who are neither born nor raised in a palace. God’s story is written in ordinary lives like yours and mine.

We can’t always be sure what God’s story is. We can’t yet follow all the twists and turns of the plot. But we can be sure of this. God is writing his story in our lives. In fact, though it may not be obvious, the story of God is what our lives are all about.

So I’ll conclude today with this. The name Moses sounds like a Hebrew word, mashah, which means “to draw out of water.” The text says this is how Moses was named because Pharaoh’s daughter “drew him out of the water.”

In very truth, as Christians we are all drawn out of water. Think not that the waters of baptism are just gentle drops of tenderness fit only for a baby’s nursery. Moses was set forth on the dangerous Nile, threatened by crocodiles and blazing sun. All of us are set forth in baptism on the dangerous waters of life. There is no guarantee that we will have it easy, or be raised by a princess, or live in a king’s court. But we do know that in our lives, drawn as they are from the water, God is writing his story.

We may not realize where all the twists and turns of the plot are taking us. We may not understand all the strange quirks of cosmic coincidence. But this one thing we can say: it is God’s story. God is with us and that is more than enough. That is why we sing today:

[1] The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1990) hymn 492. Text by Michael A. Saward.