God is Not “Early”

Sermon Summary

Exodus 1 ends worse than it began. What started as oppression becomes state-sanctioned violence, and God still appears silent. This passage forces us to sit inside the waiting—when suffering deepens, injustice escalates, and God does not intervene on our timetable. By focusing on the Hebrew midwives, Scripture shows us what faithful obedience looks like when God feels late and the situation feels beyond repair.

Big Idea

God is not absent when He seems slow; He is working in ways we cannot yet see, and His people are called to wait in faith while holding tightly to what is true.

Scripture Texts

Primary: Exodus 1:15–22

Supporting: Psalm 13:1–2; Psalm 22:1–2; Habakkuk 1:3–4

Sermon Outline

I. When Oppression Deepens (Exodus 1:15–16)

The Pharaoh moves from forced labor to covert genocide. The term “Hebrew” reflects an outsider’s view, reducing God’s people to something less than human. Violence is justified through fear and control.

II. Fear of God in a Godless System (Exodus 1:17)

The Hebrew midwives fear God rather than Pharaoh. Their quiet obedience becomes the first explicit mention of God in Exodus, showing that faithfulness often begins in small, unseen acts.</p>

III. God’s Blessing Raises Hard Questions (Exodus 1:18–21)

God blesses the midwives while others continue to suffer. This creates tension we recognize immediately: Why does obedience seem rewarded unevenly? Why does God act here and not everywhere?

IV. Scripture Gives Language for Waiting

The Bible does not silence the question “How long?” God’s people have always prayed honestly when deliverance feels delayed. Waiting on God is not passive—it is endured while life is unraveling.

V. When Things Get Worse, Not Better (Exodus 1:22)

Pharaoh abandons secrecy and commands open violence. Exodus ends this chapter with loss and fear, reminding us that some seasons of faith remain unresolved for a long time.

VI. Learning to Wait with Hope

If we could see what God sees, we would wait too. God often works after things have gone “too far,” forming His people through endurance, truth, and community.

Why This Matters

Many people live in what feels like Exodus 1—waiting, losing, and wondering if God remembers His promises. This passage teaches us that delayed rescue does not mean abandoned faith. God is shaping His people to trust Him, speak truth, and remain faithful even when answers do not come quickly.

Discussion & Reflection Questions

• Where do you feel like God is slow or silent right now?
• How do the Hebrew midwives model faithful obedience in a broken system?
• What makes waiting on God especially difficult in our culture?
• How can community help sustain faith during long seasons of uncertainty?

</p> <h2>URL Slug</h2> <p><code>/sermons/how-long-o-lord-exodus-1</code></p> <h2>Tags</h2> <ul> <li>Exodus 1:15–22</li> <li>Waiting on God</li> <li>Suffering and Faith</li> <li>Bible teaching</li> <li>Christian sermon</li> <li>Burleson TX</li> <li>Old Testament</li> <li>Faith under pressure</li> </ul>

Next Steps

Visit Chisenhall Fellowship this Sunday.

Find a Home Group and walk with others who will speak truth and hope while you wait on God.

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning. This is probably a pretty strange morning for most of us. We are inside warm We've got some weird weather going on especially for Texans And so it's probably a safer bet to stay inside stay off the roads and we thought hey Let's pre-record our service just in case we need it for Sunday, and it looks like we did so we're gonna be Jumping into the book of Exodus again this morning And so if you want you can go and get your Bible and we're gonna be in Exodus chapter 1 and we're gonna start in verse 15 and move all the way through the end of the chapter So we've been looking at Exodus. It is a strange wonderful book We started it last week. We're gonna be continuing it all the way through 2026. It is steeped in ancient near-eastern culture It's about 6,000 years ancient and It is part of the Old Testament. And so that way We can understand Exodus as like a Wikipedia page with one author. In other words

It's not just stream of consciousness like we're used to reading today It's an editor who is also an author Stitching together all these stories arranging them in order adding context helping us understand Both the history and the particular story of Moses and the people of Israel and kind of how they got there We covered this a lot last week. And so if you're interested, you can listen to last week's sermon on Exodus chapter 1 verses 1 through 14 But this morning we're gonna be kind of moving into that a little bit more of what particular Predicament God's people are in in the book of Exodus that in the book of Exodus It's like a warning, but it's also an invitation into this really gritty faith and at the end of verse 14 It left them oppressed and enslaved by a Pharaoh who rose to power and did not know God's faithfulness through Joseph and More particularly verses 1 through 14 are written completely from the oppressors

perspective what what the author of Exodus is intending is that we kind of understand this dread of of generational oppression Asking questions like is this how my children will grow up is this fair doesn't God remember? Joseph doesn't he remember what what he owes us. Isn't this part of his covenant? Where is God and that is our sermon series for these first two chapters of the book of Exodus. Where is God?

We know as we read the book of Exodus that salvation is coming but the people that are in the middle God's people do not know that yet and the waiting for God to redeem them is Literally killing them and believe it or not we picked it up in verse 15 believe it or not things are about to get Worse and as always we're gonna grab some context and we're gonna kind of move in from there So look at me look with me at verse 15 Exodus 1:15 Says then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah Now we're gonna pause right there Hebrew We haven't encountered that word before in in the book of Exodus yet and Hebrew was kind of it's kind of like the ethnicity of Israel it Carries an outsider feel to it. Okay, so Egyptians would often call the people of Israel Hebrew And it's not always derogatory. But sometimes it is we saw in Genesis for example that

Egyptians thought that it was an abomination to eat with Hebrews at the same table Okay, and because this is how Egyptians refer to Israelites as we read verse 15 We're carrying that perspective the perspective of Egypt So let's read verses 15 and 16 together now It says then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool if it is a son You shall kill him But if it is a daughter She shall live so Pharaoh is now implementing this kind of covert genocide by late term abortion He's aborting the boys To thin out the Israelite population like animals This covert genocide But this is how the midwives respond look at verse 17 It says but the midwives feared God and did not do was the king of Egypt commanded them But let the male children live

so these Hebrew midwives they fear God instead of Pharaoh and Because of them because they're kind of the linchpin in the middle of this whole thing Pharaoh's plan is foiled The the midwives are not killing the boys on the birthstool there. Maybe there's other midwives under them We're not really sure kind of what the apparatus was. We don't know How many midwives were in the employ of these two if they were running the whole thing? We're not sure but we do know that when Pharaoh gave that order He expected it to be obeyed and he expected every boy to be killed on the birthstool right after being born but They don't do that. His plan is foiled additionally This verse 17 is the first mention of God in the entire text

That God this is Elohim so there's a couple of different names for God and The more generic name is just Elohim. It's it's kind of how we use the word God Sometimes we're talking about God the the father and sometimes we're talking about the God of Islam or the God of whatever right And so in scripture, it's kind of the same thing the word Elohim is a generic word, but it's referring to God Father God as we know him in in the Bible and it is ironic here that

That it's right here in verse 17 amid the Hebrew wit midwives That we hear God's name first or that we see God in action for the first time more on that in just a second Look at verses 18 and 19 of Exodus 1 it says so the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them Why have you done this and let the male children live so Pharaoh has figured it out The midwives though straight up lie They say the midwife said to Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women They're vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them Okay, so they're saying Hebrew women. They just push the babies out super fast and By the time the Hebrew my Hebrew midwives get there All the all the babies already in the mom's arms. They can't just kill the kid right there. So they're moving too fast Okay Interesting here that the the Hebrew midwives lie

And There's a there's actually when you take any kind of ethics class Especially a Christian ethics class this example is going to come up Because the Hebrew midwives lied straight up never confessed it never never never are judged for it actually and so we see these instances today if you are traveling for example, if you're traveling to another country as A missionary or on a mission trip and you know that country doesn't allow missionaries and they say are you a missionary? listen I'm gonna lie if that's me. I'm straight up lying. I don't feel bad about it. I sleep just fine

But you are definitely going to share the gospel and they're definitely going to ask you hey What are you gonna be doing there? Even if you just leave that part out? It's still deceptive you're lying and In this case I would say in this case It is acceptable to lie the midwives completely lie to Pharaoh and look at the nest next two Verses 20 and 21 So God dealt well with the midwives and the people were multiplied and grew very strong and because the midwives feared God He gave them families. Okay, so now midwives straight up lying and They're crafty. In other words if they would have just protested Then the Pharaoh may have gotten some more midwives in there who would have killed the children But they lied and because they lied they were able to keep their jobs and keep the Israelites Multiplying and growing very strong. So God is orchestrating all of this. In fact God rewards

the lies of the midwives He rewards them with families of their own Which is kind of shocking and pretty cool But the biggest kind of emotion I think that we should feel whenever we are reading right here what God is doing to the Hebrew Midwives is irony. I think we should understand this is this is very ironic and strange To read that God is rewarding these midwives right here That there's so much that's happened in the first 16 verses which is covered several hundred years In the history of God's people But he's not stopping the oppression. He's not delivering them from slavery or anything like that. He's just keeping them To where they can make more children and he's rewarding the midwives who are making that happen So God's people are systematically oppressed and dying under that oppression There is a covert genocidal Operation to thin out the Israelite herd like animals

And God is not stopping all that But he's stopping the Hebrew or he's rewarding the Hebrew midwives He's not stopping all of that crazy stuff, but the Hebrew midwives he's totally he's totally rewarding. Why here? Did the midwives deserve it more? in real life When it's you and I whenever we see something like that, I believe that is most of our default reactions

That is the snap judgment that we come to that we must fight against When you go through something difficult and you see another person that you know Is not following the Lord or if they say they're following the Lord, they're a complete knucklehead and they're not They're just tripping over themselves. They're not making great decisions But everything they touch kind of turns to gold and as you're going through something difficult and you look at that person that knucklehead Tripping over themselves, but still enjoying a ton of success It's an easy question It's an easy thing to ask. Why am I going through what I'm going through instead of that guy Instead of that person instead of that co-worker instead of that sibling

Why am I going through that instead of him? Why is my life so much more difficult and other people seem to have it so easy? Throughout the scriptures there is this question this phrase that gets used over and over again When something like this happens and the phrase is how long Oh Lord? How long Oh Lord the Bible does not shy away from this question In fact, it means how long how long will you let this oppression happen? It seems like you don't care Look at Psalm 13 1 & 2 it says how long Oh Lord will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart? All the day how long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

This is actually all over the Psalms. There's there's tons of songs like this Psalm 22 first one with Psalm 17 This is Psalm 22. It says my God my God. Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day But you do not answer and By night, but I find no rest You find a similar vibe through the prophets Habakkuk chapter 1 verses 3 & 4 says why do you make me see iniquity? This is Habakkuk the prophet talking to God. Why do you say why do you make me see iniquity? And why do you I leave look at wrong? All this bathtub is happening and you are just chilling. You're not doing anything God. What is happening? It says destruction and violence over for me strife and contention arise verse 4 So the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth For the wicked surround the righteous so justice goes forth

perverted These kinds of prayers are all over the Old Testament There are there's some even it like this in the New Testament Jesus praise these kinds of praises God take this cup from me and these prayers are so prevalent Not just in Scripture, but also in history also personally with you and I that phrase how long old Lord is so prevalent Because God usually in our perspective God usually shows up after Things have gone too far After things have taken too long We kind of have this timer in our head We have this ground that that whatever is happening can it has to stop by then it has to stop at this juncture It has to not go this far. It can't go this. I can't lose this much I'm risking only this much but no more and God you have to Come through in that particular moment and he doesn't and we look at that situation and we think man God didn't come through

God's late It's already gone too far. It's already taken too long Here's what I want you to just have in your mind right here. God is not early like We think of it God is not early to things we actually would like God to Kind of give us the agenda ahead of time to help us understand kind of what's happening to then I don't know if you've ever prayed that I've prayed that before where God just tell me what's going to happen Like let me in on the plan so that it will make it easier to wait Let me know exactly what I need to do and I'll perform that exactly and then everything will turn out right But that's not how it works. Here's how it works it works whenever we Don't know what's going on and we have to wait in the middle of it

waiting In our society has almost become a relic of a bygone era Okay, waiting is difficult to do as soon as we figure out that we are waiting on something what happens? reach into that pocket bust out that phone going for it right like that's That's what we do instead of waiting we get on our phone Instead of sitting sitting idly and looking around or noticing anything or anything like that phones come out almost immediately We are not used to waiting. In fact The waiting epidemic and the short-term attention span epidemic has reached such proportions that there are actually youtubers now people now that are trending that are taking a long period of time To sit and do nothing and it's for the specific purpose of lengthening their attention span So I've seen it they are their time-lapse videos But it's somebody who sits in the same chair for eight hours and you can even see the Sun kind of come through the window and set and change and do all that behind them and

They are lengthening their attention span by sitting in the same place and they are doing nothing now They move around they might I don't know they might sing something They might do something and I applaud this trend. I'm 100% for it if you want to lengthen your attention span and then and then post that that's good Yes, I'm sure it actually works. I'm sure it works to lengthen your attention span to see kind of what is happening

But if you want to apply That trend to waiting on God It only works a little bit because waiting on God is like sitting in a chair and maybe feeling like you have something to do But if you if you want to really make it like waiting on God, then you sit in the chair But in the next room, you know, you light a fire So can you sit in the chair while your kitchen is on fire? While half of your house is burning down. Can you sit in the chair and just watch that thing happen? It is difficult to wait on God

Because it's not simply that we are just waiting on God to do something it's that We're waiting while something else is unraveling We're waiting while that thing that we thought should have come by now or that thing that we thought should have happened by now Hasn't happened. It hasn't come in fact, we've experienced more Barriers to that thing happening or that thing coming and we are still having to wait. I Know plenty of you who are waiting on something I know one of you you're waiting on a job to come and it's been forever you really want that job to come That's actually a few of you that are waiting for that job to come And it's not just that we're waiting and we're kind of frozen in time other things are happening in our lives other things are unraveling in our lives whenever we are just waiting for something to happen and Nothing's happening and and we're losing things forever. We're losing opportunities that we won't get again. We are losing

Chances that we won't have we are losing and losing and losing and losing and and I Want to just take that emotion and I want to help you understand. This is where Exodus chapter 1 ends Here's the here's the last verse Exodus chapter 1 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people every son that is born to the Hebrews You shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live

It is a painful truth then that when we feel like God is late It's painful, but this is true That if we could see it all if we could see all of history like God sees it if we could see all of it Happening all at once then we would wait to If we had God's perspective on what is happening in our lives on the tapestry that is being woven together And not just our lives But even in the in the greater redemptive history of the world of what God is doing if we would see that If we would understand our part in that if we would see what what our very small crisis in comparative In comparison to world history our very small crisis If we could see it the way God sees that we would wait to We would understand it now That's not as simple as God just letting us in on the plan God is God is infinite and we're finite We can't really understand the fact that that God exists outside of time. For example, it's like blows our minds

We experience time like a parade, right? If there's a parade going by we're standing in one place and we see that parade going by right? That's how we experience time We experience in first person We don't get to go back in time or forward in time No matter what the sci-fi movies tell you we only can experience it in first person in real time as it goes by we are experiencing one Parade float at a time. Okay, but God sees the entire parade from the top And the inside and the outside is kind of everywhere, but he sees it all at once For you and I to begin imagine to what God can see all at once it breaks our brain We don't get it We can't see it and so when we are dealing with our suffering The only thing usually that we can see or maybe our first response on what we can see is that we see pain Going by one float at a time

We can't see the whole picture we can't step back on our own lives. It's very difficult for us to do But the painful truth is if we did then we would understand what God is doing and we'd probably make the exact same decision and Pharaoh here at the end of Exodus 1 is giving up his covert genocide for an overt genocide They are taking Hebrew boys and they are throwing them in the river things are continuing To get worse for the Hebrews. The kitchen is on fire. The house is burning down Things are getting More dire if that's even possible. It's not just generational oppression now. It's now that they're also being thinned out like animals

gone sometimes waits until you and I have lost a lot before he moves and Some of you listening this morning. Some of you are in the middle of an extremely painful season Some of you are right here at the end of Exodus 1 you are still there and you might see glimpses of God working in Hebrew midwives or in your siblings or in your co-workers or in your family or in maybe in your spouse or your children or something and there's some part of You that's like man. I wish I had that going on. I wish I could grow that way I wish I could read the Bible that way. I wish that God would come through that way for me I wish I was experiencing some kind of breakthrough some kind of miracle some kind of Supernatural healing but I'm stuck here. I'm in the middle

Everything is on fire. Nothing is getting put out and I'm stuck on the chair just watching it happen powerless I Feel like I'm just playing my part in this and Some of you you're go you're right in the middle of that you're going all the way through that Our encouragement here is that God is coming that God is going to do something that you do not expect It's just going to take longer than you thought it would

God is in control of everything. He's orchestrating all things in their time He calls us to make sacrifices and to suffer in the midst of those things without knowing the end Without knowing the whole plan without knowing what part we play without having any kind of perspective But we can trust that one day we will be able to stop turn around look at our lives and see God working something out and See God orchestrating something all the way through my encouragement to you this morning as your home Somewhat helpless because you can't get out on the roads Hopefully you have enough groceries If you don't totally you can hit me up. You can call a deacon you can you need some help. Let us know But for the most part we're just stuck in our homes just waiting for something for someone To do something for a decision to be made and we're just waiting Here's my encouragement to you

Wait in the hope that God will come through because mark my words and then it's not even my words mark scripture God will come through even if you're at the end of Exodus 1 in your life Even if the kitchen is on fire Even if all you see are just these little spots of Revivals happening in these other places besides where you are You can hang your hat on the fact that God in heaven sees you knows your plight Understands and listen cry out to him put your hope in him Right pray for God to remember his promises Right if you are in Christ God has promised some things to you. He promised never to leave you or forsake you he promised that he would give you help He promised that he'd be close to the broken-hearted You can pray and you can ask God to remember his promises So my encouragement pray get get that out. Don't hold that in sometimes We we just stay silently mad at God for something or or we think kind of God owes us or something

We're kind of misled because we're just so Tired of what we're waiting on and it feels like it's never going to come. Here's my encouragement Don't don't lose hope in fact speak up Say something say something to the Lord Cry out to him. He knows what's going on in your heart. Anyway, it's not like you're gonna reveal something that he doesn't already know But he wants you to call out to him in the middle of what you're going through even if it's at the end of Exodus 1 And really life is starting to unravel for you Cry out to God. The second thing you need to do is to focus on what is true You don't need to get all worked up over what could be or what you know what somebody thinks or focus on What is true? Even if those facts are somewhat frustrating The Promise that God is going to come through that is true That's something that you can hang your hat on you can focus on that if you need to get

Some scripture out if you need to if you need to look at Exodus right and there's some great scripture in Exodus But also Philippians 1 6 comes to mind He who began a good work and you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ Philippians 1 6 if you need to write that on a post it and put it on your mirror in your bathroom do it God is going to come through but you've got to focus on what is true Lastly you need to get in a community who will tell you the truth

Sometimes just getting a community is great, but You're surrounded by people who aren't telling you the truth who are telling you that that really you deserve to be happy You deserve whatever you want to be given to you whenever you want it That's not the truth The truth is that God is doing a work in you and it's something a lot better than lengthening your attention span Although that's still good. God's got something way better in store for you He is bringing you through a moment so that you can grow into his likeness and Minister to people and serve and love and experience the joy of the Holy Spirit That is what God is bringing you through So I want to end today with just a prayer a simple prayer and and maybe you can bow your heads and pray with me Lord we know that you are in charge of all things Help us To listen to you help us to cry out to you

Help us to tell you what's going on what we're frustrated about what we want to end or what we want to finally Break through or give way or whatever we need Lord help us to just speak it to you Say what's on our hearts? Help us to trust you for what is true help us to focus on the fact that you will come through that we can depend on you and Lastly Lord help us to be in a community of people that love you and will tell us the truth That's our name that we pray. Amen Be blessed this morning