Moses’ Ark

Exodus 2:1-3; Ps. 128:1-6

 

 

Let’s talk about Moses’ ark.  [don’t you mean Noah’s?]

It’s in Exodus.  [don’t you mean Genesis?]

Here’s an actual photo [slide]

 

[Read text]

 

Last Father’s Day we talked about Noah’s ark.  But today, we consider the ark of Moses.

 

There’s a man in v. 1, Amram.  We don’t talk about him.  We talk about his wife, Jochebed.  We talk about his son, Moses.  We talk about Pharaoh’s daughter.  But this man was the leader of the band.  He fathered a child in a foreign land.  It was a very difficult place to raise a kid.  His life would be endangered.  He had to protect him.  I believe he helped his wife to build an ark of safety, as we all should for our kids.

 

By the way, there were 3 different arks in the Bible:  Noah’s, Moses’, and the ark of the covenant, also in Exodus, and each one represented safety for God’s people.  The first 2 were made with pitch, which represents the blood, and the 3^rd has blood applied to it as well for our safety.  God had Moses build that ark.  That’s right, the Lord wanted the boy whose parents built him an ark of safety to build another ark for the next generation.  Our job isn’t done just when we raise our kids.  We must raise them right to raise their own kids right, etc.  [soulwinning/discipleship]

 

A young couple took their two-year-old daughter to the home-improvement store. She got tired of walking, so the husband let her ride on his shoulders. As he walked, she began pulling his hair. Although he asked her to stop several times, she kept on. Getting annoyed, he scolded, "Madison! What do you think you are doing?”

She replied, "I'm just trying to get my gum back!

 

Raising kids is an extreme undertaking.  Anything can and will happen.  And the devil has a plan for them.  Thank God He has a better plan, and it includes us building an ark!

 

"God has ordained 3 great institutions here on this earth:  The home, the government, the church.  The oldest, and greatest of these institutions is the home.  The church is a great institution, but is only as great as its homes.  Our nation is great, though it has been far greater, but it is only as great as its churches.

 

“As the home goes, so goes the church, as the church goes, so goes the nation.”

 

Through the years, much of the burden of having the right kind of home has been placed on “mother.”  But the Bible places most of the burden squarely in the lap of “Dad.” 

        It is Dad’s responsibility to set the moral and spiritual example for the home/to see to it that the Word of God is honored and revered/take lead in matters of discipline/make sure children are raised in nurture and admonition of the Lord/in church faithfully…greatly increasing their chances of being born again just as soon as they reach the age of accountability (for them).  Thank God for Christian mothers, some of which have many of these responsibilities fall to them…but remember, dad will answer to God for it! 

 

It was Joshua who said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  He was the leader of the band.

Eve may have taken that first bite…but God came looking for Adam!  He was the leader of the band.

 

We live in a day in which it is very difficult to be a good man.  Men used to pretend to be older in order to go to war.  Today’s men pretend to be women in order to win sports.  Men used to hunt mammoths.  Today’s men are recording podcasts and vaping blueberries!

Society has changed the definition of what a man is.  This week a man won the Miss America pageant for the state of Maryland! [Fairyland]

It is more difficult than ever to be a good man today.  It is even more difficult to be a good husband.  But it is most difficult to be a good dad.

 

The world has a warped concept of what it means to be a good dad.  Just turn on the TV and you’ll know it’s true.  Have you noticed that the dad of most TV households is made out to be a buffoon and an idiot?

 

So, men, who can we pattern ourselves after if not Archie Bunker, Homer Simpson, or Ray Romano?

 

Well, our standard should be the Word of God…and Ps. 128 gives us some tremendous concepts on how to be a good dad, and how a family can best support dad.

 

v. 1  “Blessed”…means to be congratulated.  If you do the things in the following verses, you should be commended, congratulated. In the original language it’s plural…it actually says it twice!  Blessed, blessed is the man!  That’s double joy!  But if you don’t do what this Psalm says, it will be double trouble!

 

So, if you want double joy, if you want to be the best dad you can be, if you want to be the leader of the band as you are called to be, then tune in to channel 128 this morning to see the ark that God built:

 

Dad’s character/companionship/childrearing

 

1. Character

v. 1  First and foremost, a good dad will fear God…walk in old-fashioned character and integrity.

 

What will your kids remember about you when you’ve left this life?  What do some of you remember about your dad?

 

I wonder what my kids will remember about me?  Will they remember the things I bought them?  What did your dad buy you on your 12^th birthday?  Don’t remember do you?

 

No, they’ll remember our character, whether good or bad.  I have so many memories of my dad, and they aren’t about gifts he gave or jokes he told, but rather they are about things he taught me and character he built into me.  He set me up for my first job when I was 13.  He taught me to be a man, and how to raise a man who works, helps, cares, and loves.  He also taught me how to raise a girl, by the way he raised my sister to be a great Christian woman.

 

Now, allow me to share a 2^nd story, also a true story, about a young boy, who grew up in a Jewish family in Germany.  He had profound admiration for his father, and their entire family life revolved around the synagogue…their faith.

        As a teenager, the family was forced to move to another town to find work.  The boy noticed that the family stopped attending the synagogue, but started attending a high-society, fashionable Lutheran church.  He asked his dad, why have we switched?  We’re not Lutheran, we’re Jewish!

        His dad said, “Attending this church will be good for business.  We’ll make contacts, we’ll rub shoulders w/ the right kinds of people.”

        The boy later testified that that was the day he lost all respect for his dad.  Each day he started frequenting British Museums, and formulating new ideas, and began putting them down in the form of a book…a book which contained a whole new world view.  He conceived of a movement which he believed could change the world, to free the world from what he called the “problem of religion”.  The young man’s name was Karl Marx, the father of Communism.  And it all started the day he lost respect for his father!

 

How will you be remembered?  By your character.

v. 2  A working man/comes home and eats the fruit of his labor/he feels fulfilled by providing for his family/he gives an honest days’ work…for he knows what the Bible says:  If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.

(I’m glad our government is sensitive to help meets the needs of people who cannot work…but it’s wrong for feeding those who WILL not work)

And yet we need to be reminded to keep our family first.  Consider very carefully the cost of climbing the corporate ladder…your family is too high a price to pay.

No one ever said on their deathbed, I wish I spent more time working, I wish I made more money.

 

How will you be remembered?  By your character.

        Wanna build an ark?  God wants you to…but you’ll need to be a man of character.

 

2. Dad’s companionship

Joke--A woman went online to a computer dating service and said she didn't care about looks, income or background. All she wanted was a man of upright character. A man went on the site stating that the only thing he was seeking in a woman was intelligence. The service matched them together at once because they had one thing in common - they were both compulsive liars!

 

v. 3  A husband is to be to his wife, like a wall is to a vine.  For my Kimberly, I’m to be her support, her strength, something solid, and something she can cling to.  She, not the dog, is to be my best friend, and I hers.

Sir, you are to be a wall to your wife:  spiritually/emotionally/physically

 

Wanna be the ark?  God wants you to.  Dad is the leader of the band, but Ephesians clarifies that a good leader is a loving leader, who listens, who helps, and who enlists her help as his helpmeet…so he can be a better leader.

 

Just because we have too many weak, effeminate, pansy pants young guys doesn’t mean we should be the other extreme of knuckle dragging Neanderthals who drag their woman by the hair back to the cave to serve us.  A real man, a real husband, sees his leadership not as a privilege but as a great responsibility.  Some Christian men let the power go to their heads:  “I’m the final word around here.”  How about God being the final word?

 

3. Dad’s childrearing

Letter to parents:

 

Dear Mother and Dad,

 

It has now been three months since I left for college. I have been remiss in writing and I am very sorry for the thoughtlessness in not having written before. I will bring you up-to-date now, but before you read on, please sit down. Please do not read any further unless you are sitting down. Okay?

 

Well, then, I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it caught fire recently are pretty well healed now. I only spent two weeks in the hospital, and now I can see almost normally and only get those sick headaches every other day.

 

Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and my jump were witnessed by an attendant at the gas station near the dorm, and he was the one who called the Fire Department and the ambulance. He also visited me in the hospital and since I had nowhere to live because of the burnt-out dorm, he was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. It’s really a basement room, but it’s kind of cute. He is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married. We haven't set

the exact date yet, but I promise it will be before my pregnancy begins to show.

 

Yes, Mother and Dad, I am pregnant. I know how much you are looking forward to being grandparents and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same love and devotion and tender care you gave me when I was a child. The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection which prevents us from passing the pre-marital blood test and I carelessly caught it from him. This will clear up with the penicillin injections I am now taking daily.

 

I know you will welcome him into the family with open arms. He is kind and although not educated, he is ambitious. Although he is of a different culture and religion than ours, I know your tolerance will not permit you to be bothered by the language barrier. I am sure that you will love him as I do. His family background is good too, as he has learned ways from his parents to make money without actually working.

 

Now that I have brought you up-to-date, I want to tell you that there was no dormitory fire, I did not have a concussion or a skull fracture, I was not in the hospital, I am not pregnant, I am not engaged, I do not have syphilis, and there is no man in my life. However, I am getting a "D" in history and an "F" in science, ...and I wanted you to see those marks in the proper perspective.

 

Your loving daughter, Janice

 

v. 3  another beautiful picture.  Let me tell you something interesting about olive plants:  they grow very, very slowly, but if cultivated properly, they will yield fruit for up to 800 years!

        Guys, we’re not raising mushrooms, we’re raising olive trees, and that takes time.

 

We want our children to be strong/stable/well rooted/well grounded.

 

We need to water them, and shower our children w/ time, and cultivate a relationship w/ them…do some pruning at times…well, quite often!  And we need to introduce them to the light of the Son of God, and protect them from the pests that are around and would like to eat them alive! Most of all we need to add a lot of spiritual “miracle grow”—Prayer!

 

So, we’ve seen dad’s character, dad’s companion, dad’s childrearing…

 

…there’s bound to be some guys here today who are saying, “I’d like to be that kind of dad, but I can’t.  I can’t be that kind of a dad, because I didn’t have that kind of a dad.”

 

You can’t do one thing about your ancestors, but you can do something about your descendants.  Break the cycle!

 

Build an ark.  Head for open waters.  Save your sons and you daughters!