Amram and Jochebed's Faith

If you have your Bible Hebrews 11 verse number 24, we are making our way through this chapter in Hebrews I think this is the 17th or 18th message just in Hebrews chapter 11 And we still have to go all the way to verse number 39 That's because we want you to understand how to walk by faith not by sight so it's important for us to realize that the People that the Holy Spirit has chosen to place in the hall of faith are people that exemplify true saving Faith, what does it look like? So as you're turning to Hebrews 11, let me read to you from the book of Ecclesiastes the third chapter the first verse for it says this There is an appointed time for everything and there is a time for every event Under heaven Solomon wants us to understand that everything that happens is appointed He wants us to understand that there are no accidents in the world.

Only divine Appointments he makes it very clear that every event under the Sun happens at a particular time So You need to know that whatever it is. You're going through today have gone through or will go through Has been designed by God for an appointed time In other words God is sovereign. He's in control. He rules over all and Solomon begins with a very simple beginning a time to be born and A time to die So your birthday and your death day are appointed times Where you were born When you were born We're all appointed Your mother Was a divine appointment your father a divine appointment He wants you to understand that when you were born it was that a particular time It was a time that God had designed that's why you are here today that's why you weren't born in the 1800s or the 1500s or beyond that You were born at this particular time so you could experience what it is God wants to experience at this time and so he begins with the illustration of birth Because in Hebrews 11, we're gonna see a couple who has a son Born at the appointed time He was born at a very dangerous time In fact, he was born at the most dangerous time in the history of Israel up to that point The Bible tells us in the book of Acts Acts chapter 7 these words But as the time of the promise was approaching again a very particular time a time of the promise What was the promise?

The promise was 400 years of Egyptian captivity so as You read the text God wants you to know that everything is a divine appointment so in Acts 7 verse number 17 It says but as as the time of a promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph it was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and Mistreated our fathers said they would expose their infants and they would not survive it was at this time that Moses was born It was that a very particular time a very dangerous time In which Pharaoh said the Israelites are increasing in number So every woman that gives birth to a child must be thrown into the Nile River and That's the time of Moses's birth So it was a very dangerous time needless to say But other than that it was a very due time not just a dangerous time, but it was a due time It was time for the bondage to be over Well for that to happen there had to be born a deliverer Who would take them out of that bondage?

and Moses and the sovereignty of God was that deliverer He would be the one who would move Israel out of bondage and lead them on their journey to the promised land So he had to be born at the perfect time at God's appointed time And it happened to be the most dangerous time in the history of Judaism Same time it was due time because God had appointed 400 years of captivity. So the Bible says these words in the book of Exodus the 12th chapter The 25th verse When you enter the land which the Lord will give you as he promised You shall observe This right that's not the verse I want I'm, sorry, which verse did I want?

um I forget hold on a second. I'm gonna get there. What was the verse I did want. Oh, it was so good, too Oh, yeah, it was Exodus chapter 12, what am I thinking verse number 41 I knew I had it right Okay verse number 41 at and at the end of 400 listen and 30 years To the very day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt Say wait a minute I thought you said it was going to be four generations. I thought you said it was going to be 400 years That's what God told Abraham in Genesis chapter 15.

Abraham passed that down to Isaac Isaac down to Jacob Jacob down to Joseph. Joseph knew it was going to be 400 years That's why I said you gotta take my bones out of here when that happens and take me to the promised land But why does it say now at 430 years at the precise time? That's easy because when joseph died Israel was not in affliction They weren't in affliction till there was a another king that arose in egypt Who did not know joseph? So 30 years later there arose a king and that king that pharaoh he enslaved them and they were there for 400 years So 430 years to the precise day everything happened on god's time So it was at a due time it was at a dangerous time that this man moses was born That should do all of our hearts good today Because you were born at a precise time It wasn't by accident The year and the day that you were born Because there is an event there is a time for everything appointed under heaven Time to be born A time to die The bible tells us these words In the book of romans chapter 5 verse number 6 in due time christ died for the ungodly In due time Paul said it this way in galatians 4 in the fullness of time God sent forth a son born of a woman born under the law that he might redeem those who are under the law So when everything had transpired that was at that perfect time Christ was born and christ would die In due time the perfect time So in other words, there are no accidents in your life There are none We say they're accidents, but they are divine appointments because god's in charge And when you come to hebrews 11 verse number 24 you see that played out in the life of moses and his parents Now moses had two older siblings miriam Who's probably somewhere between the ages of 10?

and 13 maybe 14 And aaron we know from book of exodus the seventh chapter that he is three years older than moses So we know that when he's born Aaron is three Miriam is the the oldest one and then there is moses So the bible says in hebrews 11 These words very clearly by faith moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents Because they saw he was a beautiful child And they were not afraid of the king's edict That verse On its own tells us so much About how to raise your children How to raise a godly seed Now remember in hebrews 11 there's more said about moses and Abraham than anybody else in the chapter abraham.

He is the father of the nation Moses, he's the emancipator of the nation And yet it was moses whose parents are mentioned specifically It doesn't give us their names. We know that amram was the father whose name means exalted nation His mother's name was jacobet Whose me whose name means jehovah is her glory Very important in understanding the story Because she was all about the glory of god All about the honor of god the praise of god And amran was all about exalting the nation Above himself Because he wanted to live for the honor and glory Of the lord Now not every parent not every family was this way we'll see this in a moment, but the parents of moses This is how they were And they'd be used in a very powerful powerful way his parents become the example of faith In my prayer for you and for me as parents That we would exemplify true faith to our children Remember we've defined faith for you at least 17 different times because we've had 17 different messages all the same way faith is believing Absolutely in what god says And behaving accordingly to all that god says that's all the faith is it's trusting obedience It believes absolutely in the word of the lord and then it behaves accordingly If you don't behave according to what the word says, that's not faith Faith is taking what god says at face value Because he said it You believe it And you act accordingly And that's what the parents of moses did that's what everybody in the hall of faith did do And so my prayer for you and for me is that we'd understand how to live by faith because moses His parents lived by faith in an era of great anxiety Great complexity Great tragedy Great difficulty unlike you and me today Right No one's telling you you got to take your child if he's born a male and throw him in the la river Or throw him in the pacific ocean No one's telling you to do that But it was for them very dangerous time, but it was the proper time the perfect time For the deliverer to be born God has a plan.

It's moving right on course can't be thwarted So Moses was born at the right time like john the baptist. He was born at the right time He was the forerunner to the messiah, right? So he had to be born at the perfect time to set the tone for the messiah who would follow him And preach the same message that john the baptist preached God's in total control of all that happens so let's look at the parents of faith Then we're going to see the practice of faith Then the product of faith and the prize for faith just four simple points first of all the parents of faith by faith the parents of moses Hit him For three months by faith So important Because there were other parents who did not have this kind of faith listen to what the bible says in the book of ezekiel Ezekiel chapter 20 God is rehearsing israel's history And the lord says make them know the abominations of their fathers ezekiel You gotta let them know this they have to understand this And say to them thus says the lord god on the day when I chose israel And swore to the descendants of the house of jacob And made myself known to them in the land of egypt when I swore to them saying I am the lord your god On that day I swore to them to bring them out from the land of egypt into a land that I had to select it for Them flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands I said to them Cast away each of you the detestable things of his eyes and do not defile yourselves with the idols of egypt I am the lord your god But they rebelled against me And were not willing to listen to me They did not cast away the detestable things of their eyes Nor did they forsake the idols of egypt In other words, there are many parents in egypt Who are committed to idolatry?

These are jewish people And they were ingrained into the egyptian culture They began to worship the idols of egypt So much so that when they were finally Emancipated and they went into the wilderness and they were so upset because moses was on top of mount sinai They wanted aaron to make for them a god that they could see Remember that golden calf?

They needed to have a god. They could touch a god. They could see And now god was a representative of their god jehovah, but they needed someone to see because in egypt they could see the gods It became so a part of their lives that that's how they wanted to live That's all because they were committed to idolatry to abominating their walk with the lord And then there were the parents of moses People who walked by faith not by sight They wanted to honor and live for the true and living god They didn't begin to walk by faith when jacobette became pregnant with moses No, this was habitual to them.

This was their life They lived this life They they had taken time to understand That somewhere in egypt Would lie the bones of joseph remember last week's message And maybe they would take a journey Maybe a walk in the evening every day past the memorial of joseph's bones To remember the power of god the presence of god the promises of god the perfection of god The precepts of god the plan of god the purposes of god all there in the bones of joseph And they would walk by them remembering that 400 years 400 years and it's over And we go to the land of promise And they lived in anticipation of that because they knew that their time was near Their time in bondage was coming to an end So they make their journey past those bones Believing in what god had said because they trusted absolutely in the promises of the living god So they walked by faith they did not walk by sight and their faith was Dependent upon god no matter what the circumstances It wasn't that all of a sudden The king of the pharaoh of egypt comes up with this plan and they're like, oh now what do we do now?

And it wasn't like listen It wasn't like the fact that they could go down to the local clinic have a sonogram and realize what they're having It's gonna be a girl boy. So glad it's gonna be a girl easy to walk by faith if it's a girl, right? But it's a boy. Oh, no Now what are we gonna do they live in anxiety for how many months having seen the picture on the screen before them? No didn't have that they had to wait to the birth of the child They had to actually wait Nine months to figure out the birth of the child There was no gender reveal before the birth and then at the birth They weren't quite sure there would be a gender reveal because if it was a boy boy, what would you say?

What would you celebrate? right so They had to wait She gives birth It's a boy. Did they panic? Do they worry Do they live in fear Nah It's not am ram and jacob bed It tells us they didn't fear the kings. He did the kings. He didn't meant nothing to them Because they served the king of kings They knew who the lord god of israel was so by faith They lived in other words. They lived Based on all that god has and here's the great thing They could not read The bible there was no bible So they lived based on what had been passed down from generation to generation to generation you and me we open our bible We read it.

We can read about israel's history. We can read about the gospels christ and the gospels We can read all this stuff and realize wow, man. This is great. God wants us to live by faith. This is wonderful but am ram and jacob bed Had nothing to read but had been passed down And they believed Absolutely See that there's no excuse for us not to believe There's no excuse for us not to behave according to what it is. We believe because we have it all before us We have the inspired infallible and errant word of god right here in our hands there.

You are without excuse We could go back and say well Maybe israel lived in idolatry because they didn't have a bible to read and after all maybe they didn't hear everything that everybody else heard And so maybe we can see a little bit how they would move toward idol worship Still no excuse But you can almost excuse them from a distance because they don't have what we have They would say of us if they could look into the future, uh, there's absolutely no excuse for those people in the 21st century Because they have it all written down before them so here they were living the life of faith because They truly believed in their god they knew God They knew god How many times we quoted to you daniel 11 32 on wednesday nights Those who know their god display strength take action You know amram and jacobed displayed strength Took action Why they knew god There's no excuse not To display strength and take action unless you don't know god Because if you know him the by part of that is strength and action and that's what amram and jacobed did That's how they lived Their lives So the challenge before them Was to trust the true and living god for all that he was going to do now the story in exodus Is all about jacob summation of the story in hebrews Is about the parents of moses That tells us that both were unified in their faith Both That means that amram would have to be involved in leading his wife in the realm of faith leading her Toward godliness and she partnering with him in that godly pursuit They both lived a life of faith not just jacobed but amram and jacobed although Amram is not mentioned in exodus chapter Two when it comes to the birth of moses But both of them were unified both of them believed both of them had absolutely no fear of the king's edict And not one person in this room today has faced an edict like that That means you have no excuse to ever fear anything Because you've never faced anything like amram And jacobed We should be ashamed of ourselves if we fear something Less than this Because that would mean that my faith Is as not as strong as I thought it was and I need to know my god all the more Greater he is he that is in you than he that is in the world And fearing god is absolutely paramount in the life of the believer Now you will notice the faith of mom and dad Was the exact same faith That moses would demonstrate And next week you're going to see that moses Never feared The king of egypt If you want your parent your children to be strong parents, you've got to be strong You want your children to live without fear you got to live without fear Remember I've told you a hundred times what you parents do in moderation your children will do in excess good or bad, right?

And so you want to model to them no fear you want to model to them nothing But faith so that they in turn can see the faith model before them. That's why paul says to timothy be thou An example in your faith your love your speech your purity your conduct But in your faith the way you trust the living god so others can see that The godly woman of first timothy 215 if she continues in faith love sanctity and discretion She lives the life of faith She raises a godly seed That's what you want to do That's the parents of moses Nix is the practice of faith By faith moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents Now, why did they why did they hide him?

Because god said so by faith What faith is believing what god has already said So by faith god had told them to hide their son And they did it for three months Now think about that How do you hide a child for three months? They're going to cry right? They're going to be hungry They need to be taken care of they need to be changed they need to be bathed But you got to keep the child quiet So no one can hear him because if the king finds out He's going to the nile river So they had to hide him a text says this By faith moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child So you think well he was beautiful.

He was cute he was handsome Of course, we're going to hide our child. We'd love the way he looks Listen every parent thinks their child is cute I've never met a parent who didn't think that their child was the cutest boy cutest girl best looking baby in the world, right? And we come up and they introduce them to us and we're like, whoa I'm, not so sure. You know i'm saying we don't really respond that that way We're kind of nice about it. But I mean after all the parents say they love their child and rightly so But it wasn't the fact that they were sitting back thinking oh so cute so look at that little Dipples in his sheet.

He's so cute. We're gonna hide him three months. Oh, no, no Acts says he was a lovely child In other words, it's a phrase that deals with god's design for their life. It wasn't how the child looked But god's special favor toward the child For instance samson Had strength solomon had wisdom David was the deliverer when he defeated goliath Samuel was was a wise man as a prophet because he had this forward-looking Life, they were all special people special calling for god. In other words god had in his life a divine approval and a divine calling And that's how the parents knew They knew because god had set him aside And so they're going to follow god They're going to do he says He had been set aside for a specific purpose And so they were able to see what the natural eye could not see They could see that god was going to use him specifically for his glory And they trusted god For that so they would defy The faith or defy the king and live By faith They practiced their faith because they had understood what god had said And behaved accordingly Now there were other parents according to acts chapter 7 Who killed their children It says It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so they would expose their Infants or put them out to die other parents Kill their children Well, the king said we got to kill him.

So hey, there you go into the night you go. There you go kill the child King said so not moses's parents No, they believed in the sanctity of life They believed in the purity of the life They believed that god had ordained life That god was behind life And god had a plan for every single life not certain lives So they protected their child Because god had said so They knew that he was divinely appointed and divinely called The product of the faith it says and they were not afraid of the king's edict They weren't afraid Listen the product of faith is simply no fear How do you know you walk by faith you fear nothing else?

You fear no one else. That's how you know, you're walking by faith. You're not afraid of anything or anyone And moses way back in the book of deuteronomy as he was writing A reiteration of the law knowing he was about to die said these words he says You and your sons and your grandsons must fear the lord chapter 6 of deuteronomy verse number 2 Verse number 13 you shall fear only the lord your god and you shall worship him. Why? Because you shall not follow other gods any of the gods of the peoples who surround you for the lord Your god in the midst of you is a jealous god He says I was raised by a family who had other gods around them But didn't worship them other families did When you go into the promised land, you got to realize that there'll be so many pagan gods around you You cannot worship them.

You need to fear only your god because he is a jealous god So the lord commanded us to observe all these statutes verse 24 To fear the lord our god for our good always and for our survival chapter 8 verse number 6 Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the lord your god to walk in his ways and to fear him And all throughout the book of deuteronomy he reiterates the fact that you need to fear the lord your god Walk in his statutes keep his commandments, but you need to fear the lord your god as if he's saying look by example This is how I lived because by example, this is how my parents lived This is how you need to live you walk by faith and not by sight and the product of faith Was that they would live without fear And that fear produced peace Peace in their lives Peace Because while every other family not every other most every other family was throwing their two-year-old or newborn children boys into the nile river And were filled with anxiety filled with trepidation feared with all kinds of mixed emotions I remember jacob Nah great peace Great peace have those who love thy law and nothing causes them to stumble psalm 119 165 They love the law of god.

They love what god said. They loved it so much. They lived in peace They weren't afraid of the kings. He did The product of faith is great. Peace not only that great protection God protected their son For those three months god protected their lives throughout the whole process, right? God watched over them. Not only that there was great prudence Why because he had to act wisely they had to be really wise about what they did with their son And god would grant him the wisdom to behave properly And then when he turned Three months old They realized he was getting too big so wisdom In the mind of jacob bed was to weave this basket put it together Put the child in the basket put the basket in the nile So in essence, they took the baby and put him in the nile just in a basket in the nile, right?

And they put him out there Where pharaoh's daughter would come to bathe? Wisdom would tell them the time she came to bathe wisdom would tell her Her emotional state wisdom would tell her what to do with the child place in there where to put miriam So she would be able to see and say to pharaoh's daughter. Hey, I have a hebrew woman I know that would be glad to nurse your child right Because there were no baby bottles in those days There was no formula that you could mix up and put together and feed the children.

They had to be nursed And so there was great wisdom behind all they did why because by faith By faith the parents hid moses by faith They saw that he was divinely called and divinely appointed by god by faith They did not fear the king's edict and when you live by faith the product of that is peace Is prudence And it's protection god will always protect you because you fear him I'll have anyone else Or anything else And then comes the prize of faith It's so great Because you go back to the book of exodus It says these words Pharaoh's daughter said to her go ahead So the girl miriam went and called the child's mother Then pharaoh's daughter said to her take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages So the women took the child and nursed him The child grew and she brought him to pharaoh's daughter and he became her son and she named him moses And said because they drew him out of the water.

What was the prize of faith? The prize of faith was the blessing and opportunity. She had to nurse her son And take care of him and teach her son and watch over her son all on the king's dime The king paid for it And pharaoh's daughter had compassion on the little boy And that was all ordained by god So she was called Because miriam was there I know a hebrew lady who could nurse the child take care of him. And so she did until He would be adopted By pharaoh's daughter Now listen careful Hebrew hebrew Literature tells us That he would take care of moses until he was weaned She would take care of moses until he was weaned And hebrew literature would tell us that's as up to three years of age, maybe four years of age Egyptian culture teaches us that a child would not be weaned until they were six or seven years of age So now you have a discrepancy in terms of time but What do you know?

You know that moses understood the promises of god In other words Jacob did not miss the opportunity She did she knew her time was brief Three four five six seven years maybe at the most so she knew that she didn't have a lot of time, but we knew from egyptian culture that the Child was not adopted until he was older So the child would able to walk and talk and go to the bathroom by himself and all those kind of things So here was jacobed nursing this child training the child Taking the child for walks taking the child past the bones of joseph So we would at least think they were doing that to reiterate in his mind the promises Because how did moses know in exodus chapter 13 to take the bones of joseph?

Who told him that? How would he know that? Unless someone told him but who would tell him his mother His mother would inform him of the promises of god. She would inform him of of what god had planned for her son and and for the nation She would instill in him the fact that he was a deliverer. He was divinely appointed by god He was born at a dangerous time he was born at In in due time because he was born for the purposes and plans of god And she would be able to reiterate these things and all the promises that had been passed down for hundreds of years She was reiterating to her son Over and over and over again time was short So she told him and he grasped it He understood it He'd been taught the truth of god she had no no idea we don't even know she made it out of Bondage or not We don't know she died while they were still in bondage.

We don't know We don't know if she saw miriam rise to a great magician and prophetess We don't know if she saw aaron rise to the iranic priesthood. We don't know if if she was able to see moses lead Two million disgruntled jews out of egyptian bond. We don't know We don't know when she died But She didn't miss the opportunity, you know, so many parents today Missed the opportunity We get so busy with everything else that really doesn't matter thinking that matters But the one thing that matters is to instill your children the truth of god's holy word To model them walking by faith and not by sight showing them exactly what god's word says and then living accordingly And the jesuits used to say give us a child For seven years And after that you can take them and do whatever you want, but all we need is seven years Isn't it ironic that in the psalm psalm 128 The bible says how blessed is everyone who fears the lord Think of amram and jacobet Who walk in his ways?

That's what they did When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and there will be well with you your wife So be like a fruitful vine within your house your children like olive plants around your table Vines and olive plants were symbols of of abundance and blessing in judaism And the man who fears the lord has The pleasure of your wife clinging to you. Listen, if your wife is not hanging all over you You got a problem She should be vines cling and climb right your wife should be clinging on to you climbing up you every day If she's not doing that it's simply because you do not fear the lord and walk in his ways You fear the lord and walk in his ways your wife is stuck to you like gorilla glue You know and she just climbs up your shirt over your back down your down your backside around your ankle She just can't stop getting her arms off you because she just can't get enough of you Because you fear the lord but your children ah Like olive plants around the tree around the table You know what it is about olive plants right in the first seven years nothing really happens But in the first seven years everything that's going to happen Must be cultivated So in the first seven years of of olive plants nothing really takes place But in year 10 to 15, that's when the fruit begins to produce itself Based on what you did the first seven years There's a reason the holy spirit uses all of plants as an example for your children and the blessing they bring Those first seven years are crucial So crucial that they cannot be substituted with anything or anyone else you mother must be involved in your child's life Wholeheartedly hook line sinker everything is all about your children those first seven years Because they're the most important years You're investing into the lives of your children Because what happens after that Is a byproduct of the first seven years Their personalities develop their characters develop all those first seven years You gotta pay attention to this.

This is so important an olive plant Okay grows best in rocky hard soil Comfortable It doesn't grow best in soft supple comfortable soil Tells you how to raise your kids, right? We want our our kids to rise in a cushy comfortable environment If that's the case you're going to have some issues when they get older Because all the plants grow best in rocky hard soil Because it's through the it's through the discipline of your children It's through the nurturing of your children. It's through the protection of your children It's through the working of the things you do with your children that cultivate the ground all around them that they might grow into the the evergreen that an olive plant grows into Because it's an evergreen And while it grows If it's cultivated properly in those first seven years Go to israel today There are olive trees in the garden of gethsemane That are over 2 000 years old Why because The first commandment with the promise is what honor your father and mother and your life will be long upon the earth There's great age that comes to the olive plant if cultivated properly Here was amram and jacobet They knew nothing about psalm 128 Wasn't written yet But they knew that moses was that divinely appointed child They knew that they were going to invest into this young boy and they were going to use Whatever it is.

They knew about god and invested into him because their time was short At best they had maybe six or seven years at the least three or four years But whatever it was they invested into their son so he would understand it. He would grapple with it He would come to grips with it and god would settle in his soul So god would use him as a great emancipator of israel His parents taught him about joseph's bones Why they were there And they needed to go to the promised land because god had called him to go there.

So as he grew he learned Because he had two parents a mother and a father Who walked by faith? And not by sight How about you what are you doing today to raise the godly seed Look at amram and jacobet And ask yourself Am I following that example?

Because if you haven't been you can start today Don't think it's over for you. The door is shut. No, the door's never shut Start today Go back ask forgiveness and begin today Living that life before them honoring god Showing them the way of god That they might live for his glory let me pray with you father.

Thank you lord for today the opportunity you give us As brief as it is it's an opportunity for us to be challenged and to grow in our walk with god Pray for every parent in the room every mom use them in a mighty way in the life of the child help them understand that The time is short Yeah, we could have maybe for 18 years maybe but what if he only had him for six or seven years Help them to see that those formative years are crucial to the development of the child That lord even invest deeply and sincerely in the lives of their child and children and father we pray That god you'll go before us That no matter what has happened in the past Today's a new day A new day to live for the glory and honor of god.

It's never too late to follow god It's never too late to serve god For those who feel like they've failed Encourage them lord that that failure that they perceive Could be used as great fruit today for the glory of your kingdom We pray this in jesus name. Amen