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1. The Midwives and Moses’ parents listen to God! (Exodus 1-2:8)

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Lesson

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Main Point: There is blessing in listening to God and obeying Him.

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Shiphrah and Puah had respect for God. So He gave them families of their own. - Exodus 1:18-21

Background/Review

Say: In the book of Genesis, God made a wonderful promise to Abraham that his descendants would be MORE than the number of stars in the sky and more than the grains of sand on the beach! We know that God ALWAYS keeps His promises.

Ask: Who can tell me what “descendants” means? a person’s children, grand children, great-grandchildren, etc.

Say: God certainly kept His promise! By the end of the Genesis, Abraham had MILLIONS of descendants! Because God kept His promise to Abraham, there were many people who believed and trusted in God. At the end of Genesis, we see that Abraham’s descendants, called Israelites, had all moved to Egypt. God blessed them, and more and more Israelites were born in Egypt.

Trouble In Egypt

Say: Let’s turn to the second book of the Bible: Exodus. Look at the first two letters in the word “EXODUS”, and this will help you remember what this book in the Bible is all about: EXIT! The book of Exodus is the story of the Abraham’s descendents, the Israelites, exiting Egypt.

In Exodus 1, we see that there were so many Israelites in the land of Egypt, that the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, was worried. Listen to what he said:

“Look,” he said to his people. “The Israelites are far too many for us. Come. We must deal with them carefully. If we don’t, they will increase their numbers even more. Then if war breaks out, they’ll join our enemies. They’ll fight against us and leave the country.” So the Egyptians put slave drivers over the people of Israel. The slave drivers beat them down and made them work hard. The Israelites built the cities of Pithom and Ramses so Pharaoh could store things there. - Exodus 1:9-11

Pharaoh had no idea how powerful God was, and He didn’t understand how much God would protect His own people. The harder Pharaoh tried to make things difficult for God’s people, the Israelites, the more God blessed them and protected them.

But the more the slave drivers beat them down, the more the Israelites increased their numbers and spread out. So the Egyptians became afraid of them. - Exodus 1:12

Say: Since making them slaves and increasing their work didn’t seem to be working, Pharaoh had another idea. He called in the midwives (the women who helped babies being born) and ordered them to KILL all the baby boys. Pharaoh thought that by killing all the baby boys, he could reduce the strength and the number of Israelites. He intended to make sure there were never enough young men to fight in an army against the Egyptians. But the Bible is very clear: Killing babies is WRONG (Psalm 106:38, Proverbs 6:16-17)!

Ask: To whom should these midwives listen: God or Pharaoh? God.

But Shiphrah and Puah (the midwives) had respect for God. They didn’t do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live. - Exodus 1:17

Note to the Teacher: God honors these women even by mentioning their names in scripture. Not once is the Pharaoh’s name mentioned, yet these two godly women are mentioned by name! “The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.” - Proverbs 10:7

Then the king of Egypt sent for the women. He asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

The women answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like the women of Egypt. They are strong. They have their babies before we get there.”

So God was kind to Shiphrah and Puah. And the people of Israel increased their numbers more and more. Shiphrah and Puah had respect for God. So He gave them families of their own. - Exodus 1:18-21

Say: There is blessing in obedience. Obeying God is ALWAYS the right choice!

Pharaoh’s plans were not working. Even though the Egyptians had forced the Israelites to become slaves, the Israelites were still having babies, and the midwives would not kill them. So now, Pharaoh made another desperate attempt to kill the baby boys.

Then Pharaoh gave an order to all of his people. He said, “You must throw every baby boy into the Nile River. But let every baby girl live.” - Exodus 1:22

How terrifying! What kind of king would make such a law? And what kind of person would throw a baby into a river? Ask: Was Pharaoh listening to God? NO!

Say: In Genesis chapter 3, God promised that the Deliverer would be male and born of a woman (Genesis 3:15 & Genesis 12:1-3). And in Genesis 12:3, God promised this Deliverer would be one of Abraham’s descendants (Galatians 3:8). When Pharaoh ordered that all baby boys be killed, he was being used by Satan to try to eliminate the birth of our Savior.

Ask: Will God keep His promise to send a Deliverer? YES! God ALWAYS keeps His promises.

Moses Is Born (Exodus 2:1-8)

Say: There was an Israelite couple from the tribe of Levi, Amram and Jochebed who had a baby boy (Exodus 6:20). The Bible says that he was a “fine child”. There was something special about him. (Hebrews 11:23 says that he was no ordinary child).

The Bible says that children come from God (Psalm 127). Every child is the product of God’s creation (Psalm 139:13-14), and is “good” in the eyes of God. Moses’ parents refused to put their child to death because God had created him, and because this meant that, this child (like every other child ever born) was good in God’s eyes.

Say: By faith, Moses’ parents hid him for three months, but soon hiding him became impossible. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to hide a baby? Moses’ mother got a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch to keep out water. (This was the same kind of tar that Noah used to waterproof the Ark). She placed Moses into the basket, and set it in the reeds of the Nile River. Miriam, Moses’ sister, was sent to see what would happen to him.

Just at that time, Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile River to bathe. She saw the basket in the reeds and heard the baby crying.

Ask: What was Pharaoh’s law? That all baby boys be thrown into the Nile River.

Should Pharaoh’s daughter obey his wicked plan? No.

Say: Pharaoh’s daughter felt sorry for the baby, and she wanted to keep him as her own. Although Pharaoh’s daughter wanted to keep the baby, she had to figure out a way to feed the baby. There were no baby bottles back then. All babies were fed from their mother’s body. It was then that Miriam appeared. She told Pharaoh’s daughter that she would find someone to feed the baby.

Then his sister spoke to Pharaoh’s daughter. She asked, ‘Do you want me to go and get one of the Hebrew women? She could nurse the baby for you.’

‘Yes. Go,’ she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this baby. Nurse him for me. I’ll pay you.’ So the woman took the baby and nursed him.” - Exodus 2:7-9a

Isn’t God wonderful? Not only did Moses’ mother get to keep her own baby, but she was even PAID to feed him! The Bible says that after the baby could drink from a cup, he was taken to Pharaoh’s house where he became Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. Here he was named MOSES, which means, “drawn from the water”.

Ask: What what’s Pharaoh’s order? Throw the babies in the water. But now, living in Pharaoh’s own palace was an Israelite boy named “taken from the water”! I wonder if Pharaoh could have forced everyone to keep throwing babies in the water while he had adopted one of those little boys as his own grandson. More than likely, this was part of God’s plan to protect His people from Pharaoh. Come back next week to see what happened next to little Moses.

Application: The midwives and Moses’ parents LISTENED TO GOD and obeyed His ways. God blessed them both! Moses was safe, and God was going to use him in a wonderful way to set his people free! When we listen to God and obey his word, we will also be blessed!

Make sure you obey the Lord your God completely. Be careful to follow all of His commands... If you obey the Lord your God, here are the blessings that will come to you and remain with you.

You will be blessed in the cities. You will be blessed out in the country. Your children will be blessed..You will be blessed no matter where you go. - Deuteronomy 28:1-6

PPT MAIN POINT

Main Point: There is blessing in listening to God and obeying Him.

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Unless otherwise noted the Scriptures taken from: Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version, (NIrV®)

Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998 by International Bible Society  /  Used by permission of IBS-STL.  All rights reserved worldwide.

Special thanks to John R. Cross, The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, GoodSeed International.

Related Topics: Children, Children's Curriculum

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