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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – Born after Midnight | · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: It's open our Bibles to Exodus chapter two. As we
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Speaker 1: begin the study of the life of Moses, we are
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Speaker 1: going to cover only the first part of the first
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Speaker 1: section of his life. His life, according to the Book
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Speaker 1: of Acts chapter seven, is divided into three forty year segments.
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Speaker 1: His first forty years he spent in Egypt, where he
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Speaker 1: was nursed by his mother and taught by the Egyptian schools.
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Speaker 1: His second forty years he spent in the desert, where
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Speaker 1: he was nursed by solitude and taught by God. The
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Speaker 1: third forty years of his life he spent with a
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Speaker 1: Hebrew people in wilderness, nursed by trials, discouragements, and tests,
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Speaker 1: taught by the law which he personally received from God.
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Speaker 1: Dwight L. Moody said this, he spent his first forty
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Speaker 1: years thinking he was somebody. He spent his second forty
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Speaker 1: years learning he was a nobody. He spent his third
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Speaker 1: forty years discovering what God can do with a nobody.
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Speaker 1: Moses' life is relevant because you and I are in
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Speaker 1: one of those three stages. We are either in the
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Speaker 1: stage of thinking we are somebody, or the stage of
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Speaker 1: learning we are a nobody, or the stage discovering what
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Speaker 1: God can do with a nobody. The best of the three,
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Speaker 1: of course, is the last. Take heart. Moses didn't learn
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Speaker 1: it until he was eighty, and for the last forty
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Speaker 1: years he was effective for God. We get terribly impatient
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Speaker 1: because we are not suddenly off the runway and in orbit,
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Speaker 1: as it were the first few years of our Christian experience.
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Speaker 1: I do not find one biblical case of instant effectiveness.
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Speaker 1: I cannot remember one effective person who suddenly, after coming
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Speaker 1: to know the Lord, went into orbit and never came
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Speaker 1: down until death. That is unrealistic. So if nothing else,
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Speaker 1: we're going to learn the first few steps of a
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Speaker 1: man who discovered late in life what it was to
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Speaker 1: count for God. We have entitled a message born after Midnight,
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Speaker 1: which suggests an untimely birth. And so it was student
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Speaker 1: of Winston church Hill and often read his writings, and
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Speaker 1: was moved just this past week to read his address
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Speaker 1: to the House of Commons. On the seventeenth of April
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Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, five days after his friend, the late
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Speaker 1: President Roosevelt died, he said this to the House of
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Speaker 1: Commons in Franklin. Roosevelt there died the greatest American friend.
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Speaker 1: The Islands have ever known. He died in the harness,
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Speaker 1: and we may well say in battle harness. What an
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Speaker 1: enviable death was his? What Churchhill meant was in the
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Speaker 1: height of success, having seen the demise of Hitler and
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Speaker 1: all of his treacherous ways, Roosevelt died at an enviable time.
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Speaker 1: He had seen the fulfillment of his goes. Moses was
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Speaker 1: just the opposite what an unenviable birth was his. He
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Speaker 1: was born into a land that was governed and ruled
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Speaker 1: by an anti Semitic despot called a Pharaoh. The conditions
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Speaker 1: around the little hut in which Moses was born were
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Speaker 1: nothing less than torturous. His people, the Hebrews, were the
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Speaker 1: object of the whip. They were hated, they were misused,
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Speaker 1: they were maligned, and they were murdered by Pharaoh, the
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Speaker 1: Hitler of Moses' day. It was into this dark era
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Speaker 1: he was born, far after midnight, the darkest day of
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Speaker 1: Hebrew history up till that point. So as we read
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Speaker 1: of his birth, we are not reading of something that
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Speaker 1: was neat and light and delightful, though there are some
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Speaker 1: delightful things in these first ten verses of Exodus chapter two.
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Speaker 1: We'rereading of a heavy, heartbreaking scene now a man from
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Speaker 1: the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi,
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Speaker 1: and the woman conceived and bore a son, And when
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Speaker 1: she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for
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Speaker 1: three months. To begin with, let's give attention to the
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Speaker 1: family of Moses. Moses became a great man of faith
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Speaker 1: because he had a mother and father who were people
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Speaker 1: of faith. They were both Levites, and they were both
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Speaker 1: apparently committed to the things of God. Not apparently, but
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Speaker 1: for sure we know that because of what we read
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Speaker 1: in Hebrews chapter eleven. And I want us to take
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Speaker 1: the time to look over into the New Testament to
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Speaker 1: a verse in the eleventh of the Book of Hebrews.
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Speaker 1: You'll turn, please, Hebrews eleven, verse twenty three. By faith, Moses,
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Speaker 1: when he was born, was hidden for three months by
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Speaker 1: his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child,
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Speaker 1: and they were not afraid of the king's edict. The
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Speaker 1: king is Pharaoh. He is the ruler of the land
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Speaker 1: of Egypt, where Moses and his parents lived. We're told
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Speaker 1: here that it was by faith he was protected for
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Speaker 1: those three months. His mother and father feared the God
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Speaker 1: of Heaven more than they feared the King of the earth,
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Speaker 1: and it was no easy task to hide that boy.
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Speaker 1: But it was out of a deep reverence for God
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Speaker 1: an abiding confidence in the Living Lord that they did that.
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Speaker 1: I just wanted you to see it verified in the
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Speaker 1: New Testament. Now back to Exodus chapter two. The chapter
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Speaker 1: doesn't mention it, but Moses was not the first born.
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Speaker 1: He was the third born. He was the baby of
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Speaker 1: the family. He had an older sister named Miriam, who
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Speaker 1: was between the age of seven and twelve. It's really
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Speaker 1: hard to pinpoin her age. And he had an older
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Speaker 1: brother named Aaron, who was three years old at the
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Speaker 1: time of his birth. Moses came as the baby in
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Speaker 1: the family of three children, and we read in the
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Speaker 1: second verse that he was hidden for three months because
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Speaker 1: they saw he was a good child. The Hebrew word
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Speaker 1: means good, beautiful, or well formed. Some people take it
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Speaker 1: to mean that they looked at the boy and they
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Speaker 1: saw a beauty in him that was unique. Most parents,
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Speaker 1: when they look at their little baby, see a beauty
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Speaker 1: that is unique. Often that is the experience of new parents,
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Speaker 1: and the baby isn't beautiful to say the least, but
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Speaker 1: the parents see the child to be beautiful. I take
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Speaker 1: this to mean the opposite. He was in fact beautiful,
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Speaker 1: and it is possible that they saw in his beauty
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Speaker 1: something that was more than beauty. Maybe God revealed to them,
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Speaker 1: in the secrecy of their soul, that this boy is
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Speaker 1: destined to change the course of your whole life and
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Speaker 1: the lives of your people. It might mean that he
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Speaker 1: was well formed, and they didn't need a midwife to
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Speaker 1: come and assist in the birth or the follow up
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Speaker 1: after birth. As we saw last week. The work of
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Speaker 1: the midwife, whatever it means, it was because of something
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Speaker 1: in that birth. They determined it's worth it to do
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Speaker 1: all we can to keep him because at that time,
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Speaker 1: according to the last verse of the previous chapter, they
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Speaker 1: were murdering Hebrew boys. If the Egyptians had known of
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Speaker 1: his birth, he would never have lived to see the
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Speaker 1: sunset of the day of his birth. He would have
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Speaker 1: been murdered. So they hid him. Now, if I may
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Speaker 1: pause for a moment and look at this like a father,
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Speaker 1: I want you that are fathers and mothers to think
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Speaker 1: about the difficulty of hiding a child for his first
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Speaker 1: three months. Those are not usually quiet days, are they?
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Speaker 1: Those are usually tumultus days. I think back to our
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Speaker 1: one of our children. Well, I'll go ahead and tell you,
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Speaker 1: even though he's here, it was our firstborn, and he
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Speaker 1: did not sleep through the night for eighteen months. There
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Speaker 1: were times I would love to have had a basket
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Speaker 1: and a nile river nearby. I know I will get
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Speaker 1: it after the message tonight, and so I just thought
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Speaker 1: I'd go ahead and say that now, and he and
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Speaker 1: I'll talk about it later. But it would have been
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Speaker 1: virtually impossible to conceal that boy for three months. You
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Speaker 1: couldn't have concealed him for three hours, to say nothing
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Speaker 1: for three months. Now, they had a job on their hands.
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Speaker 1: Let's look at it very practically. Where can you put
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Speaker 1: a squalling infant and keep him hidden? Well, apparently they
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Speaker 1: did all that they could do to keep him concealed,
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Speaker 1: but they couldn't do it any longer. It finally was
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Speaker 1: to the point where they could no longer keep his
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Speaker 1: identity a secret. Maybe the Egyptians went from house to
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Speaker 1: house checking. Maybe they had a group of midwives who
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Speaker 1: were doing their job and spotting those areas where there
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Speaker 1: were mothers with children, and they checked to see what
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Speaker 1: the birth was and if it was a boy. It
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Speaker 1: was reported it could be that way, sort of a sensus.
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Speaker 1: But whatever the reason, they weren't able to do it
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Speaker 1: any longer than three months. And so the mother designed
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Speaker 1: an ingenious plan. And I am impressed with jacobed the
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Speaker 1: name of moses mother Amram his father. I'm impressed that
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Speaker 1: they were people not only of faith, but a very
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Speaker 1: wise planning. Look at this at the third verse. When
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Speaker 1: she could hide him no longer, she got him a
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Speaker 1: wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch.
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Speaker 1: Then she put the child into it and set it
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Speaker 1: among the reeds by the bank of the nile. With
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Speaker 1: great care, Moses' mother mixed together an asphalt like tar
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Speaker 1: like substance from the banks of the nile, and several
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Speaker 1: coats of mud so as to make this little wicker
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Speaker 1: basket water tight. And she placed into that basket some
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Speaker 1: soft pieces of cloth and perhaps some hay, and she
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Speaker 1: fixed a little a little manger, as it were, a
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Speaker 1: little bascinette, and then she covered it over so as
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Speaker 1: to be sure the child would not drown. And then
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Speaker 1: she set that basket among the reeds of the nile.
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Speaker 1: All my life until just this past a week or two,
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Speaker 1: I have thought that jacobed put Moses in the basket
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Speaker 1: and then sort of pushed the basket out, and the
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Speaker 1: current of the nile carried it down and it sort
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Speaker 1: of rested there where the princess came out to bathe.
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Speaker 1: But that's not what it says. Look at what it says.
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Speaker 1: It says that she took this basket and then she
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Speaker 1: put the child into it and set it among the
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Speaker 1: reeds by the bank. Now I've never seen the Nile river,
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Speaker 1: but I have seen reeds growing in rivers, and if
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Speaker 1: you know, as I know what it looks like. They
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Speaker 1: are rather sturdy plants. And she nestled this basket down
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Speaker 1: and secured it in a very special place. She didn't
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Speaker 1: floated out on the nile and just say, well, God
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Speaker 1: bless you, honey. She took that basket and she set
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Speaker 1: it in a very special place. She put it right
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Speaker 1: where she wanted it. She had a plan, That's what
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Speaker 1: I'm getting at. She wasn't foolish in her faith. She
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Speaker 1: had a great faith in God, a faith greater than
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Speaker 1: it was in Pharaoh. And she knew that God was
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Speaker 1: greater than Pharaoh. But she had a head on her shoulders.
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Speaker 1: I am confident in my heart that she knew the
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Speaker 1: habit of Pharaoh's daughter, and she knew that certain days,
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Speaker 1: in a certain place, Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe, And
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Speaker 1: she knew that at this particular juncture, just before Pharaoh's
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Speaker 1: daughter came to bathe, if that basket were placed in
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Speaker 1: just the right spot, let's see it. And you'll never
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Speaker 1: convince me that she didn't rehearse with Miriam exactly what
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Speaker 1: to say and when to say it, and how to
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Speaker 1: say it. Make it look like a surprise. Miriam, say
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Speaker 1: it in such a way that it looks like it's spontaneous.
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Speaker 1: And I'll be waiting. I'll be right there, ready to come.
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Speaker 1: But we're getting ahead of the story. It says in
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Speaker 1: verse four his sisters stood at a distance to find
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Speaker 1: out what would happen to him. Then the daughter of
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh came down to bathe at the nile. By the way,
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Speaker 1: they have unearthed an obelisk and a couple of monuments
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Speaker 1: upon which have been etched the scene very similar to
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Speaker 1: this one. Some archaeologists believe that it was this scene
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Speaker 1: exactly at that particular juncture in the history of Egypt.
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Speaker 1: For some unknown reason, two daughters of the Pharaoh ran
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Speaker 1: for a period of time as co regents over a
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Speaker 1: section of the Nile, and it just maybe that Moses'
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Speaker 1: mother knew that, and she planned that basket to be
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Speaker 1: placed near one of the co regents over that area,
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Speaker 1: because the Nile was the god to the Egyptians, and
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Speaker 1: she knew that that daughter, who carried a lot of
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Speaker 1: swat in the court, upon seeing that new baby, would
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Speaker 1: take that baby and would raise that baby in some way.
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Speaker 1: And so with this careful and genious, well thought through plan,
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Speaker 1: she carried it out to the last detail, and down
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Speaker 1: came Pharaoh's daughter, the princess, to bathe. It says she
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Speaker 1: saw the basket among the reeds. Look at that. It
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Speaker 1: didn't float down there, it was placed there. She saw
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Speaker 1: the basket, and it says she sent her maid and
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Speaker 1: she brought it to her. Now, we would a great
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Speaker 1: deal of this if we did not imagine Moses's mother
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Speaker 1: right this point. There's not a mother in the congregation
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Speaker 1: who has any trouble imagining the feelings of that mother.
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Speaker 1: Can't you see her standing on her tiptoes, watching with
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Speaker 1: bated breath, especially when she heard her baby cry. Can't
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Speaker 1: you feel with jacobed, what she must have felt. Now,
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Speaker 1: she had no proof, but what that daughter would take
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Speaker 1: that baby and plunge it right into the water and
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Speaker 1: drown it right there. She had no assurance, and so
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Speaker 1: she trusted in God to give that mother, to give
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Speaker 1: that woman a sense of a mother heart. They have
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Speaker 1: discovered through some archaeological digs that some of the most
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Speaker 1: ancient religious rituals of the Egyptians included a statement of
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Speaker 1: trust that many Egyptians took before the God of the Nile.
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Speaker 1: It said this, I quote, I have afflicted no man,
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Speaker 1: I have not made any man weep. I have not
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Speaker 1: withheld milk from the mouth of sucklings. They found that
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Speaker 1: written in archaeological finds, and it may be that that
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Speaker 1: daughter of Pharaoh had taken that oath. So when she
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Speaker 1: found that baby to keep her trust before that river God,
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Speaker 1: taking it as from its womb as it were, she
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Speaker 1: held that baby to herself and Jacobed at that moment motioned,
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Speaker 1: you know, to Mirryam to make her move, and she did.
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Speaker 1: The daughter got that baby. I should say that the
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Speaker 1: daughter of Pharaoh took the baby. She opened it, she
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Speaker 1: saw that the child, it was a boy. It was crying,
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Speaker 1: and she had pity on him. She said, this is
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Speaker 1: what well of the Hebrew's children. She knew, either by
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Speaker 1: its dress or just the circumstance she saw when it
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Speaker 1: was a boy. Obviously it was some It was a
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Speaker 1: Hebrew child. Some mother, not wanting to see the death
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Speaker 1: of her son, would rather risk its life and among
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Speaker 1: the Hebrew, among the Egyptians. And so she realized that
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Speaker 1: she has a Hebrew baby on her hands, and she
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Speaker 1: wonders what to do. Josephus adds an interesting thought. I
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Speaker 1: don't know if it's true or not, but it's interesting.
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Speaker 1: It says that she took the baby to several of
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Speaker 1: her maidens to see if one of them could nurse
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Speaker 1: the child, and there was no success. And at that
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Speaker 1: point Miriam came and brought the suggestion of the mother.
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Speaker 1: Now that makes a nice, neat story, but it doesn't
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Speaker 1: say that in this text. All we know is that
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Speaker 1: Miriam came and asked about her brother's future. Look at
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Speaker 1: how she did it. Says Mary, the sister said to
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse for
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Speaker 1: you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the
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Speaker 1: child for you? And she didn't tell her that it
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Speaker 1: was his mother, certainly not. She had rehearsed it. She
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Speaker 1: had a very careful plan, and she says, I may
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Speaker 1: be able to find just the right one. And Pharaoh's
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Speaker 1: daughter said, go ahead, And the girl went and called
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Speaker 1: the child's mother. Now, can you picture the mother right now?
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Speaker 1: A mother never ran faster than Jacobin ran from her
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Speaker 1: hut to that very place where her baby was. But
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Speaker 1: she had to be very, very careful in this whole process.
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Speaker 1: And it says the girl went called the daughters the
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Speaker 1: child's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child
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Speaker 1: away and nurse him for me, and I shall give
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Speaker 1: you your wages. Oh well, that's terrific, isn't it. Not only
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Speaker 1: get to raise your own child, but you get paid
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Speaker 1: for it. It's a terrific plan. That's the reward of God.
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Speaker 1: When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even
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Speaker 1: his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs sixteen seven.
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Speaker 1: Never doubt that when your ways really please the Lord,
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Speaker 1: he'll take care of those enemies one by one. And
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh's daughter said, look, i'll pay you if you'll take
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Speaker 1: this little one and take care of it. And so
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Speaker 1: the plan was enacted. I want to stop here and
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Speaker 1: make some application. To say that you are a person
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Speaker 1: of faith is not to say that you are not
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Speaker 1: a person who plans. There is a strange sense in
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Speaker 1: our day that planning and faith don't go hand in hand.
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Speaker 1: Those that are unemployed say, I'm just waiting on the
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Speaker 1: Lord to provide a job. And if they come to
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Speaker 1: me for counsel, I say to them, but where have
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Speaker 1: you put in your resume? Or I'm just waiting on God,
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Speaker 1: or really you don't mind going hungry for a while,
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Speaker 1: then would be my response. It's like the old revolutionary soldiers.
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Speaker 1: Trust in God, but keep your powder dry. You see,
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Speaker 1: to what by faith does not mean you don't think
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Speaker 1: to spend money foolishly and then to think by faith
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Speaker 1: somehow the till will be replenished. That's not faith. To
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Speaker 1: do something that is stupid and lacks wisdom in planning,
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Speaker 1: and then to tag it faith is not faith at all.
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Speaker 1: It's presumption. Now, on the other hand, to make a
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Speaker 1: statement and to trust God and to do all within
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Speaker 1: your own strength, that's wise to pull it off. That
22:55
Speaker 1: goes hand in hand with wisdom. Now, I don't know
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Speaker 1: how this applies to an interview this evening, But I
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Speaker 1: know how it applied to one great woman of the
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Speaker 1: past whose name was Susannah Wesley. She gave birth, in
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Speaker 1: her span of life to nineteen children. That's not a family,
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Speaker 1: that's a litter. That's a large number of children. Now,
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Speaker 1: you may be a great woman of faith, but if
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Speaker 1: you have nineteen children, you better have more than faith
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Speaker 1: going on in your home. Can you imagine feeding nineteen children. Well,
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Speaker 1: of course she didn't raise them all. She lost some.
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Speaker 1: But the fifteenth was a fellow named John John Wesley.
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Speaker 1: The youngest boy was a fellow named Charles, a writer
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Speaker 1: of over eight thousand hens, and he declared even in
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Speaker 1: the height of his life, of his career, that he
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Speaker 1: owed so much to the faith of his mother. But
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Speaker 1: if you study the life of Susannah Wesley, you'll discover
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Speaker 1: that she was more than a woman of faith. She
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Speaker 1: had a real plan for raising her children. She had
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Speaker 1: twenty one principles that she lived by in the raising
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Speaker 1: of her children. Here's one of them. When my child
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Speaker 1: turns one year old, and some of them before then,
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Speaker 1: he is taught to fear the rod and cry softly,
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Speaker 1: by which he escapes an abundance of correction which he
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Speaker 1: might otherwise have had. That's a plan. She was not
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Speaker 1: only a woman of faith, she used a rod. You
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Speaker 1: don't raise nineteen children without a rod, by the way,
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Speaker 1: And you can have all the faith in the world
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Speaker 1: that you want, But if you don't have a plan
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Speaker 1: for discipline, you have a circus. You don't have a family.
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Speaker 1: You have an incredible experience in that home or that
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Speaker 1: place you call home. Susannah Wesley was a woman of faith,
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Speaker 1: but she also had a plan. That's what I'm saying
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Speaker 1: about Jacobed. Jacobed was a woman of faith. What Moses
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Speaker 1: had imbibed into his life, he imbibed it from his mother.
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Speaker 1: Not only is faith faith in God, but it is
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Speaker 1: a wise plan as well. They go hand in hand.
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Speaker 1: And so this agreement came to pass. And I'm sure
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Speaker 1: the part about the money was a surprise to her.
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Speaker 1: That was an added benefit. But my to think that
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Speaker 1: God honored that plan is just incredible. Jacobed took that baby,
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Speaker 1: and it says she nursed him verse nine. How long
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Speaker 1: she had the child, we're not told, but the next
25:42
Speaker 1: verse begins with a hint. And the child grew and
25:47
Speaker 1: then she took the child back to Pharaoh's daughter. In
25:51
Speaker 1: other words, I'm suggesting that she had the boy longer
25:54
Speaker 1: than just when he was weaned, which would have been
25:57
Speaker 1: three maybe four years the most she had the child
26:04
Speaker 1: while he was growing. Now, she didn't have him until
26:08
Speaker 1: he was grown, because verse eleven says when Moses had
26:11
Speaker 1: grown up, he went out among his brethren. So he
26:15
Speaker 1: wasn't grown up when he left the home, but he
26:18
Speaker 1: was growing. She had him, let's say, during the preschool years.
26:27
Speaker 1: So should every mother here to night. You should be
26:33
Speaker 1: very careful if you are a mother of preschoolers with
26:37
Speaker 1: the whole matter of leaving your children for some one
26:41
Speaker 1: else to raise. I go out on a limb when
26:45
Speaker 1: I quote from the works of James Dobson, a rather
26:49
Speaker 1: lengthy quote that relates to this subject. He is working
26:53
Speaker 1: at the USC Medical Center in the whole area of
26:56
Speaker 1: child behavior and is quite an authority on the subject.
27:00
Speaker 1: Here is what he says about the matter of mothers
27:04
Speaker 1: of small children. A recent issue of Esquire magazine featured
27:08
Speaker 1: a series of articles entitled does America Suddenly Hate Its Kids?
27:14
Speaker 1: The theme of that publication is interesting to me or
27:18
Speaker 1: it deals with a social trend that I have also observed.
27:22
Speaker 1: We have come through a period of extreme child centeredness,
27:26
Speaker 1: where the entire world revolved around the next generation. Mothers
27:31
Speaker 1: in the fifties and the early nineteen sixties devoted every
27:34
Speaker 1: ounce of their energy to raising the best educated, best mannered,
27:39
Speaker 1: best fed, best clothed, best medicated kids on the block.
27:44
Speaker 1: But the pendulum has swept back, as pendulums do, to
27:49
Speaker 1: the other side of the continuum now, said Esquire. Many
27:53
Speaker 1: American women have apparently decided that raising children is an
27:57
Speaker 1: enormous interference and sacrifice. How can a woman do her
28:01
Speaker 1: own thing when she's changing diapers and handling the rest
28:05
Speaker 1: of the routine chores on nursery hill. As a result
28:09
Speaker 1: of this radical shift in values and attitudes, our little
28:13
Speaker 1: ones are often resented and rejected, or even hated. I
28:20
Speaker 1: have been witnessing evidence of the same disenchantment with parenthood
28:24
Speaker 1: in my professional experience, Right Dobson. One young mother told
28:29
Speaker 1: me in a counseling station, quote, my kids hang around
28:33
Speaker 1: my ankles and try to take all my time, but
28:36
Speaker 1: I kick them off. I tell them you're not going
28:39
Speaker 1: to wreck my life. End of quote. A gruesome set
28:44
Speaker 1: of statistics seems to validate the hypothesis proposed by Esquire magazine.
28:50
Speaker 1: The killing of children under one year of age has
28:52
Speaker 1: been increasing year by year, rising fifty one percent from
28:57
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven to nineteen seven. Furthermore, there are now
29:02
Speaker 1: between two and four million cases on record per year
29:06
Speaker 1: of battered children who have been brutally beaten and burned
29:10
Speaker 1: and drowned by the adults in their lives. More than
29:15
Speaker 1: ninety percent of these tragic incidents occur in the children's
29:18
Speaker 1: own homes, which should be the place of safety and love,
29:25
Speaker 1: and as might be expected, the most severe injuries were
29:27
Speaker 1: inflicted by mothers in single parent homes, a fact which
29:33
Speaker 1: reflects the frustration and desperation experienced by some young mothers today.
29:38
Speaker 1: He says in conclusion, one of the cornerstone philosophies of
29:42
Speaker 1: the feminist movement asserts that it is impossible for a
29:48
Speaker 1: woman to be fulfilled while staying home and raising children.
29:54
Speaker 1: This view must be meeting widespread approval. As stated earlier,
29:58
Speaker 1: almost half the mothers in this nation are employed outside
30:02
Speaker 1: the home. While this percentage is much higher than a
30:05
Speaker 1: few years ago, the greatest increase is being seen with
30:09
Speaker 1: mothers of preschool children. One in every three mothers with
30:14
Speaker 1: children under six is employed today. That statistic distresses me
30:21
Speaker 1: more than I can find words to express. Who is
30:26
Speaker 1: at home to care for those impressionable babies? Who is
30:31
Speaker 1: taking mom's place. Fifty years ago, half the households had
30:36
Speaker 1: at least one adult beside the parents living with the family.
30:41
Speaker 1: Now the figure is only four percent. Here is the answer.
30:47
Speaker 1: There is no one else at home. I realize as
30:53
Speaker 1: you hear that, that it might seem as though I
30:55
Speaker 1: am imposing guilt upon some of you that find it
31:00
Speaker 1: necessary to work. My desire is not to raise up guilt.
31:04
Speaker 1: My desire is simply to declare what I see to
31:06
Speaker 1: be biblical principles that ought to be carefully thought through.
31:11
Speaker 1: I'm not addressing every working mother. I'm not really addressing
31:15
Speaker 1: working mothers that have children that are in school. I'm
31:19
Speaker 1: talking especially to mothers who have children preschool age, and
31:27
Speaker 1: mainly to you, be very very careful thinking through your plan,
31:35
Speaker 1: calling it necessity that it is that, and be very
31:44
Speaker 1: careful in the arrangement of your children's growth, that if
31:50
Speaker 1: you in fact must work, you work the bare minimum
31:56
Speaker 1: and the child is in the very best care possible. Ideally,
32:01
Speaker 1: if it's at all possible, do not work. Frankly, I
32:08
Speaker 1: am impressed with the fact that God exalts the role
32:14
Speaker 1: of the mother. Not once is Moses' father mentioned in
32:19
Speaker 1: these first few verses, not that he isn't important, nor
32:23
Speaker 1: that he is a living He was alive and he
32:26
Speaker 1: was important. But nobody can take the place of the
32:30
Speaker 1: mother with the preschool child. Nobody. Now finally the transfer
32:40
Speaker 1: where he is adopted. There's a lot of emotion in
32:43
Speaker 1: these few verses, which we close with. Verse nine concludes
32:47
Speaker 1: the woman took the child and nursed him, and the
32:49
Speaker 1: child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and
32:55
Speaker 1: he became her son. He had a new home suddenly.
33:08
Speaker 1: Some of you have experienced that in a broken home.
33:12
Speaker 1: Some of you experienced the crushing fracture of divorce by
33:17
Speaker 1: your parents, and you were shifted from what you knew
33:21
Speaker 1: to be one home to another home, and it will
33:25
Speaker 1: be a living memory for the rest of your days.
33:28
Speaker 1: Others of you were raised in various foster homes. I
33:31
Speaker 1: know some in our own church, one especially that went
33:34
Speaker 1: through over a dozen homes in his earlier years of
33:38
Speaker 1: growing up. And you know this by experience. That is
33:42
Speaker 1: one experience I have never entered into personally, but I
33:48
Speaker 1: have imagined what it would be like. Not only was
33:51
Speaker 1: it an adjustment for Moses, but I again think of
33:56
Speaker 1: the mother, and I want you to do that. In closing,
34:00
Speaker 1: I want you to picture Jacobed who took her boy
34:06
Speaker 1: by the hand out of the little hut where she
34:09
Speaker 1: had nursed him and raised him and taught him a
34:12
Speaker 1: love for the God of the Hebrews and a place
34:16
Speaker 1: of for God in his life. And she escorted him
34:20
Speaker 1: to the polished palace of the Pharaoh, and she deposited
34:25
Speaker 1: him on the steps, taking him from her arms, putting
34:31
Speaker 1: him in the arms of Pharaoh's daughter, and turning and
34:35
Speaker 1: going back home. F. B. Myers says, the mother's heart
34:43
Speaker 1: must have suffered bitterly as she let her boy go
34:46
Speaker 1: into the unknown world within the great palace gate, and
34:51
Speaker 1: very lonely must have been the little household when the
34:55
Speaker 1: last kisses had been exchanged, the last instruction given, the
35:00
Speaker 1: last prayer offered. What a crowd of tender thoughts and
35:06
Speaker 1: curious speculations and eager yearnings must have followed the little
35:10
Speaker 1: lad of the Hebrew home as his mother took him
35:14
Speaker 1: and brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.
35:20
Speaker 1: Just picture that for a moment. He became the son
35:27
Speaker 1: of another woman. As we shall discover, he became a
35:33
Speaker 1: student in a whole new school of learning designed to
35:38
Speaker 1: prepare him for the throne. I am convinced that this
35:43
Speaker 1: daughter of Pharaoh had in her heart the desire to
35:47
Speaker 1: make him some day the pharaoh of the land. He
35:51
Speaker 1: was almost that. When he left Egypt. He was given
35:57
Speaker 1: a new name, Moses, which is sort of a mixture
36:01
Speaker 1: of two words, an Egyptian word that means son and
36:05
Speaker 1: a Hebrew word that means to draw out. She drew
36:10
Speaker 1: out her son, she named him Moses. He didn't have
36:15
Speaker 1: that name until the daughter of Pharaoh gave it to him.
36:19
Speaker 1: A whole new lifestyle. The amazing irony of God's divine
36:25
Speaker 1: plan is that the very one she nurtured, she raised,
36:28
Speaker 1: and educated, became the instrument of the sword in the
36:37
Speaker 1: court where he was raised. It's an ironical story, isn't it. Now.
36:43
Speaker 1: I want to say something to every one of you
36:45
Speaker 1: here that can identify with various facets. Some of you
36:48
Speaker 1: mothers can identify with this, some of you fathers with
36:52
Speaker 1: other things. Some of you young people with others. You
36:55
Speaker 1: think back to your childhood, maybe you feel as though
37:01
Speaker 1: you were born after midnight. Some of you never knew
37:06
Speaker 1: what it was to have a parent's love. Your home
37:10
Speaker 1: life and your situation has been what we could call
37:13
Speaker 1: fractured almost since the earliest days of your memory. Your
37:18
Speaker 1: parents perhaps broke it off. You came at a poor time,
37:22
Speaker 1: as it were, inappropriate would be a kind word. You've
37:27
Speaker 1: never known the security of a faithful mother and father
37:30
Speaker 1: who built their lives into you. And so somehow you've
37:34
Speaker 1: sort of been adopted by the times, sweeping to and
37:38
Speaker 1: fro from one crest to another, sort of in the
37:40
Speaker 1: surf of life, and just sort of cast up on
37:44
Speaker 1: the beach. And you put it together with a little education,
37:47
Speaker 1: and here you are just making ekeing out a living
37:50
Speaker 1: or maybe even a life. Not a lot to shout about. Well,
37:56
Speaker 1: the beautiful message that I have for you is that
37:58
Speaker 1: God's hand on your life has perhaps just begun to
38:02
Speaker 1: make its mark. I do not believe there is any
38:08
Speaker 1: such thing as an accidental birth. I do not believe
38:15
Speaker 1: in the believer's life there is any such thing as
38:18
Speaker 1: an ill timed birth. You may have come to a
38:25
Speaker 1: home that was financially strapped. You may have known brokenness
38:29
Speaker 1: and hurt and insecurity since your earliest days. But I
38:32
Speaker 1: want you to know you were not an accident. I
38:40
Speaker 1: am sure that it was meant the right way. But
38:44
Speaker 1: I was informed that I was an accident, and I
38:48
Speaker 1: figured if I was born an accident, I may as
38:50
Speaker 1: well live like an accident as best I could, and
38:53
Speaker 1: so I did. That had a telling effect in my life, frankly,
38:59
Speaker 1: until one day I just discovered that God can use accidents,
39:04
Speaker 1: and God can use those that seem ill fitted for
39:06
Speaker 1: something that you might call a significant life. And all
39:10
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the pieces began to fall together. But
39:12
Speaker 1: it started when I believed in my soul even though
39:16
Speaker 1: I was born after midnight, that weeping may endure for
39:20
Speaker 1: the night, but joy comes in the morning. He isn't over,
39:24
Speaker 1: he isn't finished. He's not through with you yet. Heard
39:29
Speaker 1: those words, God is not finished with you yet. Moses
39:34
Speaker 1: could have turned into some sort of bitter, angry young
39:37
Speaker 1: man fought the system, despise this new situation, as some
39:44
Speaker 1: of you are fighting in the bitterness of your heart
39:47
Speaker 1: and never become the man destined for greatness. You may
39:53
Speaker 1: have a record that is black as midnight, but I've
39:56
Speaker 1: got great hope for you. Joy comes in the morning,
40:02
Speaker 1: as we're going to see from the life of Moses.
40:07
Speaker 1: Maybe bow together, let's just rest before the Lord for
40:10
Speaker 1: a moment. I really believe that God had something tonight
40:14
Speaker 1: for some of you. Maybe he had something for some
40:18
Speaker 1: mothers of young children who really don't have to work
40:23
Speaker 1: and you need to face tonight. Perhaps that that's what
40:25
Speaker 1: God's saying to you when you look at the priorities.
40:31
Speaker 1: That job isn't nearly as important as that little one
40:35
Speaker 1: or those two or three that are in some one
40:38
Speaker 1: else's care. Maybe God has spoken to a business man
40:45
Speaker 1: who's really come up against it, or a career woman
40:53
Speaker 1: or some student been fighting with God's will. You were
41:00
Speaker 1: all ready for a life of a certain kind, and
41:04
Speaker 1: God's turned it around, and it's not like you planned.
41:08
Speaker 1: You're discouraged, and you're depressed, maybe even confused. If you
41:13
Speaker 1: don't watch it, it could lead to bitterness. Some of
41:17
Speaker 1: you perhaps feel called to some work of the ministry
41:20
Speaker 1: and God hasn't pulled it off yet, and it's easy
41:23
Speaker 1: to be frustrated or some of you just or swamped
41:29
Speaker 1: with guilt in the way you are failing in the
41:32
Speaker 1: raising of your children. Oh, I don't want that. Guilt
41:37
Speaker 1: really serves no good purpose unless that guilt is quickly
41:41
Speaker 1: turned over to the Lord for forgiveness and a plan
41:44
Speaker 1: for correction. Maybe I speak to parents whose children are
41:52
Speaker 1: not walking with God. Your heart is heavy, and God
42:00
Speaker 1: is saying to you, release that child to me, just
42:03
Speaker 1: like jacobed released Moses and walked back to that hut,
42:08
Speaker 1: swallowing the tears and absorbing all the pain, giving it
42:14
Speaker 1: to me. Parents like that tonight, you cannot live victoriously
42:23
Speaker 1: if you try to live vicariously in the lives of
42:26
Speaker 1: your children. Give those children to God. If you've never
42:36
Speaker 1: met the Lord Jesus Christ, God's loving provision for eternal life,
42:44
Speaker 1: I'll tell you the Father understands what it is to
42:49
Speaker 1: give a son. He gave his perfect, beloved companion of
42:56
Speaker 1: Heaven to this earth, and Jesus died that you might
43:02
Speaker 1: have everlasting life, a real purpose, a real solid rock
43:09
Speaker 1: upon which to stand. And he says to you, I
43:13
Speaker 1: offer him to you if you'll give him your life.
43:19
Speaker 1: I give him as a gift, if you'll receive him.
43:22
Speaker 1: For some of you, that's a decision you must make
43:26
Speaker 1: before tomorrow dawns. Think about it for a few moments. Father,
43:35
Speaker 1: from the hurt and the pain of a past in
43:40
Speaker 1: many lives, here there is no difficulty identifying with a
43:43
Speaker 1: man who, young in life experience something that many of
43:50
Speaker 1: us never face, though we are adults, separation from his security,
43:57
Speaker 1: his loving home, his faithful parents, his brother, and his sister.
44:04
Speaker 1: For a period of perhaps thirty five thirty four years,
44:12
Speaker 1: our father, we identified with those feelings of uneasiness and fear,
44:19
Speaker 1: some more than others. But I pray, Lord, we will
44:23
Speaker 1: leave with that quiet assurance that you have made no
44:27
Speaker 1: mistake in our lives, that the pain and the heartache
44:31
Speaker 1: have all been designed by you to create in us
44:36
Speaker 1: vessels fit for the Saviour's use. We ask that as
44:44
Speaker 1: we leave, we leave not discouraged, but encouraged, not confused
44:50
Speaker 1: but corrected in our thinking, not embittered, but perhaps for
44:58
Speaker 1: the very first time, or the first time in a
45:00
Speaker 1: long time, sensing that your hand is in fact still
45:05
Speaker 1: on our lives. What an encouragement that is. We commit
45:10
Speaker 1: to you, Father tomorrow, in this full week, asking that
45:16
Speaker 1: we might walk in victory because of some of the
45:20
Speaker 1: things we have learned today about worship and about this
45:24
Speaker 1: young baby who changed the world even though he was
45:31
Speaker 1: born after midnight in the name of Christ Amen.
45:40
Speaker 2: The preceding message, Born After Midnight was copyrighted in nineteen
45:45
Speaker 2: seventy five, nineteen seventy eight, nineteen eighty one, nineteen eighty five,
45:50
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, in twenty twenty four, and the sound
45:54
Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
45:59
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
46:04
Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.