Unstoppable

The Old Testament Book of Genesis ends with Jacob (also known as-Israel) joining his son Joseph in Egypt so their family might survive the famine that has come upon the whole land. The total number of Jacob’s family (children and grandchildren) was 70 when they entered Egypt. The Book of Exodus begins with a 400 year fast forward view of Jacob’s original 70-person family.

Exodus 1:6-7 (NLT)

In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation.

7 But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.

Something supernatural is happening in Egypt. God is multiplying the seed of this covenant family. God is fulfilling the unstoppable promise that He made to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham.

Genesis 15:5 (NLT)

Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

God told Abram (Abraham) about this supernatural multiplication of children before his son Isaac was even conceived. God also told Abraham that his future children would experience 400 years of slavery in a foreign land (Egypt) before they would return to the Promised Land of Canaan (Genesis 15:13).

Back to the future. Back to Exodus and 400 years have passed since Jacob’s family arrived in Egypt. The Hebrews (children of Jacob/Israel) have supernaturally multiplied from 70 to perhaps more than 2 million. The King of Egypt sees the supernatural multiplication of the Hebrews and makes a plan to stop the excessive population growth of the Israelites.

Exodus 1:11-12 (NLT)

So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became.

Slavery and hardship cannot stop the unstoppable plan of God. In fact, the Egyptian oppression only caused the Hebrews to become more numerous. Then Pharoah comes up with another plan to stop the multiplication of the stars in the sky.

Exodus 1:15-17 (NLT)

Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.

The Hebrew midwives feared God more than Pharoah. The midwives refused to commit infanticide. They refused to participate in the government’s order to abort the male babies at birth. The fear of God was greater than their fear of man. And how did that work out for Shiphrah and Puah (the Hebrew midwives)? And how did that work out for the Hebrews overall? Let’s begin with the Shiphrah and Puah.

Exodus 1:20-21 (NLT)

So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Were these two women unable to bear children before this test? God gives these two women families of their own. God blessed them greatly because they feared God more than the king.

This unstoppable population increase leads Pharoah to take this next step…murder by drowning. The king ordered that all male Hebrew children be thrown into the Nile River and drowned. Will this order of Pharoah thwart God’s unstoppable covenant promise to Abraham about the stars in the sky?

No, there is no human power that can stop the unstoppable plan of God. There was a Hebrew boy from the tribe of Levi that survived the Nile River drowning order of the king. Do you know his name? Moses…his name means I lifted him out of the water.

Moses would grow up to be the deliverer of Israel. The family of Jacob which entered Egypt as 70 will leave Egypt around 400 years later as 603,550 and that only counts adult males of fighting age.

Numbers 1:44-46 (NLT)

These were the men registered by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel, all listed according to their ancestral descent. 45 They were registered by families—all the men of Israel who were twenty years old or older and able to go to war. 46 The total number was 603,550.

Unstoppable! Oppression, slavery, beatings, abortion, drowning…nothing was able to stop God from fulfilling the covenant promise to Abraham. And what about us today? What about the church of our day? The unstoppable promises of God are still unstoppable for all who will believe in the name of our Deliverer…Jesus!

Galatians 3:6-7 (NLT)

In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.

So many children, like the stars in the sky…Unstoppable!

Maranatha, Hosanna, Hallelujah and Amen,

Terry Cooper