After losing his job, a man was sure he would find a new one within a week. He sent out dozens of résumés and heard “we’ll be in touch,” while the months went by. In the end he said the worst part wasn’t being unemployed, but that he had stopped believing anything would ever change. This sermon begins a series on the Book of Exodus and looks at the story of the Israelites in Egyptian slavery and of Moses, rescued from the Nile (Exod 2:1-10). It shows a God who is not the author of evil, but who does not give it the last word and who works right where we see only failure. Listen if something in your life has come to a standstill and you find yourself asking: where is God?
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- Why do you think Pharaoh kept issuing ever more cruel orders, when the oppression did not stop Israel but only made it grow?
- What in the story of Moses being rescued from the Nile (Exod 2:1-10) shows that God is at work, even though he doesn't speak a single word?
- How do you see the difference between saying that God is the author of evil and saying that he can turn evil into a path to blessing?
- Which of the stories from the sermon (the man who lost his job, the person who has been sick since childhood, the family after the snakebite, Bonhoeffer) feels closest to your own experience, and why?
- In what area of your life do you feel today that you are standing still and that nothing will change? How can what God did in Moses' life help you with that?
- Who can you remind this week that evil does not have the last word, and how can you do it?
