Peter Barnes: Exodus 1:15-22 : NO AUDIO
(October 14 2018)
SERMON NOTES : FAITHFUL DISOBEDIENCE (Exodus 1:15-22)
In most forms of infanticide or sex-selection abortions, it is the female who is most at risk. There are millions of girls missing in China and India today for that reason. But here it is male infanticide.
1. Obey God, not the state.
– 1:15-17; see Matt.2:16-18. Justice Harry Blackmun in 1973 ‘the cancer of poverty will continue to grow if abortion can’t be applied as a cure for the social problems of the poor.’ By killing them!
– the midwives no doubt feared Pharaoh, but they feared God more – Matt.10:28. When there is a clash between God and the civil state, God wins – Acts 5:28-29.
2. The need to deceive the wicked.
– 1:18-19. Some have said this was no lie, but it seems like Josh.2:1-7. Augustine said that one ‘ought to be willing to conceal the truth, but not to tell a lie.’ However, he added that if he could not do this, ‘he should tell only those lies which are unavoidable.’
– If someone comes in here with a gun and asks for one of us by name, our task is to protect the potential victim. See 1 Sam.16:1-2; James 2:25.
3. God blesses His people.
– 1:20-22. ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Rom.8:31)