IT’S ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN
The English Theologian Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) is credited with having said, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
Taken literally this is simply not true. Someone on the internet went to great lengths to prove scientifically that night is darkest at 12:00 midnight. To be more precise, it is the midpoint between dusk and dawn. Or, if you prefer, it is darkest when you are exactly opposite on the earth from where the sun is shining.
I distinctly remember getting up before sunrise to go and stand in line at the driver testing office (twice) and watching the sun come up. If anything made those days dark it was the examiners who checked off the mistakes you made while driving.
What Fuller intended to say was meant to be taken poetically and not scientifically. “It is always darkest before the dawn” was a pithy saying spoken to bring hope. Just when things seem their worst is when help will come. Hang on! Deliverance is on the way; rescue is imminent.
Dawn did not come for the children of Israel for 400 years. If someone had quoted Fuller to a Hebrew in the midst of his toil, blood, sweat and tears, he would have been stoned. The days, years, and centuries were quite dark for Israel living in slavery to Egypt, and they only seemed to get darker.
Where was God in the midst of their misery? How and in what way was God in their midst? If you were a Hebrew living in that time you would, from your perspective, say that God is silent.
Job and many a Psalmist have cried out, “Where are you God?” I am sure you have experienced some sort of adversity, or you will, when God seems conspicuously absent. Those are dark days. And while you may not be rescued in the way you expect, I want to assure that God is at work. As we will see, perhaps Fuller was right, darkness resists the light of dawn, but no power of darkness can stop the dawn.
1. When God is silent
a) The Link: Genesis to Exodus - Exodus 1 deliberately links all the conclusion of the book of Genesis with what happens next. The writer (we assume Moses) begins this narrative (or story) with a rehearsal of the names of Jacob’s sons as mentioned in Genesis. These two books were intended to be understood in relationship to each other.
Genesis tells us how the sons of Jacob ended up in Egypt. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, sent to Egypt, rose to power and became second only to Pharaoh. When a famine hit the whole world, Joseph was able to save his family from annihilation. This is important for two reasons: One is that Joseph showed incredible grace to the brothers who essentially wanted him dead. Two is that it is through this family that the Messiah, Jesus, was prophesied to come into the world for the salvation of sinners.
The link between Genesis and Exodus is plain to see. Even more amazing is the link between Exodus and the gospel of Matthew. There are four parallels that emerge from the themes of the two books: 1) Israel is called God’s firstborn son (Ex 4:22); God declares Jesus to be his Son (Mt. 3:17). 2) Israel left Egypt through the Red Sea (Ex 14); Jesus returns from Egypt and is later baptized in the Jordan (Mt 2:19-23). 3) Israel emerges from the Red Sea and enters the wilderness (Ex 15:22); Jesus emerges from baptism and goes into the wilderness (Mt 4:1). 4) Exodus is the story of God’s sons who stand in need of salvation, failing at every point; Matthew is the story of the Son of God who brings salvation and is perfect and righteous at every point, circumstance and test.
So the story of Exodus is significant in so many ways and foundational to the ministry of Jesus.
In the life of Israel, Exodus is foundational in describing how a clan of 70 enters Egypt and emerges 400 years later as a nation.
b) 400 years of Silence – Joseph and all his brothers, everyone of his generation, succumbed to the passing of time: they died. Next we read, “…but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them” (1:7).
Curiously this verse covers a 400 year period where nothing is written and we know little about it. Even more curious is the seeming absence of God in this time. Was God silent?
There have been other periods of silence in the history of the world. Between the last OT prophet (Malachi) and the coming of Jesus there was 400 years of silence. God did not speak through prophet or seer or priest over that whole time. We might also observe that God has not spoken since the close of the NT (Revelation) till our time either.
What are we to understand from such periods of silence? Was God truly silent? Did he remove himself from the activities of the world as if to go on holiday? Did he not care about those periods of time? Does God’s silence suggest he is uninvolved with his creation, with his people?
I think we can agree that there are times when God is silent. That does not mean that he is not here. I believe God is at work, but that he is not, at that moment in time, telling us what he is doing. It may not be public and his purposes and power may not be easily seen, but he is at work bringing his purposes to pass.
God does not leave us without clues as to what is happening. He specifically told Abraham about this 400 year period of darkness. “Then the LORD said to him, ‘Know for certain that your descendents will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions’” (Gen. 15:13-14).
Likewise in our times of suffering we are not without a “heads-up.” Jesus told us the world would hate us because it hated him first (John 15:18-19). And Peter told his readers not to be surprised at the suffering they were experiencing (1 Pet 4:12ff). Suffering for Christ is normal; suffering in this world is part of the Fall of humankind through sin.
But just because God is silent doesn’t mean he is not at work on our behalf.
2. Reading between the lines of suffering
a) A new king rises up – Now the story really begins. “Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt” (1:8). What follows is a reaction of fear to the growing number of Israelites within the nation.
Why didn’t the new king know Joseph? Have you ever wondered that?
He is a new king and the suggestion is that this was a new dynasty. It is said that an Asiatic people of Semitic origin (related to Hebrews) migrated into Egypt and gained control of the government during a time of unrest and vulnerability. These people were known as the Hyksos, and they ruled for 150 years, specifically during Israel’s time in Egypt. The Hyksos king was not Egyptian, was quite literally “new” to rulership, and had a reason to be hostile.[i]
John J. Davis suggests verse 10 be read as, “Come on, let us (Hyksos) deal wisely with them (Israelites), lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when war occurs, they join also unto our enemies (the Egyptians), and fight against us (Hyksos), and so get them up out of the land.”[ii]
Now we know why the new king of Egypt did not know Joseph and why he thought they were such a threat. Israel was growing too numerous to handle and would make a formidable army if they joined with the nationals to take their country back.
b) The principle of persecution and multiplication – Out of fear, the king invokes a program of persecution and oppression. To weaken the numbers and exert dominance, the king enslaves the Israelites and forces them to build cities with brick and mortar. Brickwork is an exacting occupation – ask Rob Wiebe. It was brutal labor.
When the Itaipu Dam in Paraguay was designed, an estimate was calculated as to how many deaths would occur. This was not an “if” but a “when” scenario. When a laborer fell from his position into the cement being poured, orders were to keep pouring.
The labor enforced on the Israelites was meant to cause such death, to cull the herd to extinction. Though there are very human reasons for this brutality there were also supernatural forces at work. Satan does everything he can to interfere with God’s plans. This was a deliberate attempt to eliminate God’s people.
But here is a principle that God has embedded in the life of the believer: The more God’s people are persecuted, the stronger his church grows. It is not explainable except from a divine perspective. When we suffer and endure in faith, God is glorified and people flock to the Lord.
Hitler tried to eliminate the Jews too. Three years after the annihilation of six million Jews, followed by Hitler’s own suicide, the modern nation of Israel was born (1948). So too with Christians, as churches are attacked, the faith grows.
c) The Promise – Again, it is no surprise that despite the attempted genocide of the Jews, they multiplied. This was what God promised Jacob at Beersheba in a vision. God told Jacob, “I am God, the God of your father…Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you and I will surely bring you back again” (Gen 46:3-4).
God told Jacob not to be afraid. He must have thought of what God said to his grandfather Abraham about the 400 years. Of course he would have some fear and apprehension. But he also had the promise of God that it would be alright. Within that promise was the very great assurance that God would go with them. Their struggle would not last forever, there was an end to it, and God would bring them back.
In a very real sense this was like a gestation period. God had sent the seed of Jacob into Egypt (the womb) to grow and become a great nation. Then when the time was right there would be deliverance.
Often our troubles and trials are like pregnancy. We go through times of weariness wondering when this will end, when we will be delivered. Suffering and groaning become so commonplace that we think this is normal. But God is using this time to refine us and grow our faith. When the time is right he will show us what this was all about.
3. God’s help from unexpected sources
a) Selective Abortion – When it appeared that slavery and forced labor did not decrease the Hebrew population, in fact it multiplied it, the king turned to a dastardly solution: Kill the Israelite boys as they are born. In a stroke of cowardice or convenience the king orders the midwives to do this deed.
The NIV translates the order, “…if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live” (1:16). Older translations put it into a more poignant light: “…if it is a son, kill him; if it is a daughter, let her live.” These are not just animals to be slaughtered; they are sons and daughters.
Unfortunately we live in an age when determining the sex of an unborn child is technologically possible. In China and India it is preferable to have boys; in North America it is a matter of choice whether you want a boy or a girl. How were the midwives to determine if the unborn child was a son or a daughter? The midwives actually had to wait until they were born and then…what? Make it look like an accident? Who would call on a midwife to help birth a child when all the babies die at the hands of this woman? We see here a poorly conceived plan. It is in fact, inconceivable.
Sound familiar? The slaughter of Israelite boys? When Herod the Great felt his rule and authority threatened by another Israelite child he ordered the massacre of all boys under two in the town of Bethlehem. Matthew 2:18 declares this a fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Rachel’s boys are dead. Who’s Rachel? Jacob’s wife.
b) The Scheme backfires – The two midwives who are told to abort these children refuse because they fear God more than Pharaoh. When asked why they let these children live, they reply that the Hebrew women are not soft and pampered like Egyptian women; they give birth before the midwife arrives. This suggests that somehow a pre-birth abortion was ordered.
Did the midwives lie? Did they bend the truth? Or did the Hebrew women actually give birth before they could get there? Whatever the facts are, God used it and foiled Pharaoh’s plans.
The schemes of Pharaoh/Satan backfired three times in this story: First, the king of Egypt used forced labor to make life for the Israelites bitter. But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied. Second, in the order to kill the sons and let the daughters live, it was the daughters who saved the day. Women are used repeatedly in Exodus to do God’s work: The midwives, Moses’ mother and sister, and even the daughter of Pharaoh. It turns out that women are just as dangerous and equally capable of foiling Pharaoh/Satan as any boy.
And when the king of Egypt realized that the first plan failed, he called on the public to rid Egypt of this Israelite vermin. How? By cold-blooded murder throwing baby boys into the Nile River. Egyptians believed that the Nile River was god and thus the babies would be a sacrifice to their god. When Moses’ mother puts him in a basket and slipped him into the river, he was rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter. The significance of this is that Moses was delivered from the Nile River god by the Almighty God of Israel, Yahweh.
c) You know their names – By the way, what’s the name of the king of Egypt? Tutankhamen? Ramses? Rudy?
What are the names of the midwives who feared God and refused to obey Pharaoh? Shiphrah and Puah. What does that say about two common ordinary midwives? That because they feared God and saved the sons and daughters of Israel God honored them above some nameless king who is forever forgotten. God remembers those who fear him and trust in his name.
The second blessing they received was that God gave them families of their own. Midwives normally were barren women who could not have children and so assisted others in their birthing. Here we find that Shiphrah and Puah were able to have children of their own, another evidence of God’s working in the midst of suffering.
Application
What I find so utterly soul-stirring in this narrative are the parallels to Matthew’s gospel of Jesus. We have mentioned a few but there are more than I have shown you. Jesus is all over this book we call Exodus. Moses was born to deliver his people out of the bondage of slavery to Egypt and bring them to a new and Promised Land. Jesus was born to deliver his people out of the bondage of slavery to sin and death and deliver us into the New Kingdom of God.
Behind the scenes of this familiar story in Exodus 1, however, we see two opponents battling on the human stage. On the one side is Satan seeking to upset the purposes of God by using the rulers of this world to do his bidding. He is the old crafty Serpent of Genesis 3 using his bag of tricks to foil the seed of God, but being foiled himself.
On the other side, Yahweh goes about quietly accomplishing his purposes and promises through seemingly insignificant actors in the drama. He uses Shiphrah and Puah in this case; he will use Jochebed, his mother, and Miriam, his sister in the next episode. We can see that God uses ordinary people to fulfill his promises. Our prayers are often for a visible manifestation of God’s hand so that we know for sure this is of God. In more dramatic and inclusive fashion God uses the person next to you to answer your prayers.
We may ask, “Is this common gift from my neighbor a blessing from God?” How about a simple word of encouragement from an acquaintance? After reading Exodus 1 and 2 how can we ignore that God acts quietly through those around us? He is at work. He may be silent in your darkness but he is working. And even when we are not aware of it, God’s purposes are being fulfilled. In those times we live by faith and the promises of his Word which are obviously true. It is equally true that God works in the darkness or suffering more than in times of comfort.
With this in mind, we can say with Thomas Fuller, it is always darkest before the dawn, and believe that Jesus is near with his rescue and deliverance.
AMEN
