“Looking First” – FBC Morning Light (1/30/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:16

Well, good Tuesday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading plan, we're reading, we're beginning of the book of Exodus, reading the first four chapters, and I want to just mention a thing in chapter one and then focus on something else in chapter two.

00:31

And in chapter one, it struck me as I was reading verses 8 through 16, you know,

00:37

Pharaoh, Pharaoh, he distrusts the Hebrews, and he's got this irrational thinking about them that they're going to rise up and overthrow the

00:51

Egyptians, you know. And so instead of just letting them live in peace and safety and be productive people in his country, he oppresses them.

01:05

And it's that oppression that ends up creating problems for the

01:11

Egyptians down the road. So anyway, I was struck with the fact that God will use man's irrational thinking and behavior to accomplish his ultimate purpose and fulfill his promises.

01:27

Isn't that an interesting thing? I mean, the people of Israel, if it hadn't been for the oppression and the bondage of Pharaoh, they would have been perfectly content to keep living in Egypt and never end up in Canaan.

01:42

All right, that's one thing. The other thing I wanted to point out is, you know, Moses, you know the story of Moses, and he grows up and he has sympathy for the

01:53

Hebrews, his people. And he sees these, he sees this Egyptian mistreating one of his people, one of the

02:03

Hebrews, and he ends up killing him. But before he does so, here's what I want you to notice.

02:08

In chapter 2, verse 11, it says it came to pass that Moses was grown, he went out to his brethren, he looked on their burdens, and he saw an

02:16

Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So, it says in verse 12, Moses looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the

02:28

Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And what I want to focus on is that first part of verse 12, he looked this way and that way and saw no one.

02:41

Now what is it that compelled him to look this way and that way? It was the fact that he knew what he was about to do was wrong, and he wasn't going to do it if somebody would see him.

02:55

And I think that's a simple reality of human life, isn't it? That when we know we're going to do something wrong and we don't want to get caught, what do we do?

03:07

We look this way and that way, we look around, we make sure nobody's watching, nobody's going to see me, because then

03:14

I think, I'll get away with it. Well, Moses didn't, and as the story progresses, and you know that, and the reality is, you and I won't either.

03:27

We may look this way and that way and see nobody else around and think that we can go ahead and get away with what we want to do that is wrong, but the ever -seeing eye of our

03:39

God is always watching, he always knows, and he will deal with that, just as he dealt with Moses.

03:50

Now Moses ended up having to deal with his sin, his crime, by 40 years of exile out in the wilderness, but yet God used that as well.

04:01

It was all part of God's purposes and God's work in the lives of Moses as well as his people.

04:09

But anyway, let's summarize today. In the first place, don't despair at the irrational thinking and behavior of people who hate

04:21

God and hate his people. God uses that for his purposes, and don't be deceived by thinking that if you just look around and you see nobody that's watching you, you can go ahead and get away with something that you shouldn't get away with, you shouldn't even be doing.

04:39

No, don't think that way, because you have a God in heaven who's ever -watching. So our

04:44

Father and our God, I pray that you would teach us these things today and encourage us with the first and challenge us with the second.

04:52

And this we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well listen, have a wonderful Tuesday, may the