Tonight! – https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

There are moments in the Bible story when split-second decisions change the course of history. Here is one of those moments between a Hebrew baby and an Egyptian Royal daughter.

“Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶ She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.” (Exodus 2:5-6)

You may be the daughter of the Pharaoh. You, above everyone, may know the rules. What should have happened was that you would call the guards and arrange for your father’s evil law to be enforced. It wasn’t that she didn’t know. Everyone knew the command.

Look what happened. She opens the basket. She sees the baby. She identifies it as a Hebrew baby. But something happened. “… she felt sorry for him.” Compassion wins in that moment. The cry of the helpless child stirred her heart in a way that all the prejudice and the politics and maybe even fear could not

God didn’t need to topple the empire from the outside. He was already on the inside. God is everywhere. He planted His purpose in the heart of the house of the enemy of His people. The purpose was for mercy to become more important than indifference.  Now, if God can turn the heart of Pharaoh’s own daughter, no heart is beyond His reach. No system is too hostile for His purposes to break through.

This wasn’t just the rescue of one child; it was the start of God intervening, and He did so through the pity of an unlikely person.

God doesn’t wait outside of a terrible circumstance; He is right there in the middle of it, turning hearts, planting purpose and pouring mercy into the situation.

If He could do that in Pharaoh’s house, He can do it in yours.

2 days to go – https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

The opening verses of Exodus 2 tell a story of courage, love, and faith under impossible circumstances. After the courage of Shiphrah and Puah (the midwives), who defied Pharaoh’s command at great personal risk, we now meet a family who must live with the consequences of that same edict.

“Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, ² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.” (Exodus 2 v 1-4)

A Levite woman gives birth to a son at a time when Hebrew baby boys are under threat. For three months, she has hidden him; can you imagine this?

Eventually, she can no longer keep him hidden.

There are times when we have to release what we treasure the most and trust God with the outcome. This was one of those times for Moses’ mother.

Maybe you have done all you can, and it was never going to be enough to control the outcome. Like this mother, you now find yourself placing your hope into an uncertain future. You might not know what tomorrow brings, but you serve one who does.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for ‘basket’ here is the same as the one used for Noah’s ark. Jochebed (his mother) did all she could to prepare the basket for him, just as Noah had done in preparing the ark. She coated it with tar and pitch. That’s what she could do. What she couldn’t do was in the hands of God.

The sister of Moses (Miriam) was too young to do anything to help, but she is positioned for what lies ahead.

Where are you in this story?

You might be Jochebed, doing everything within your power, but you know you are now in God’s hands.

You might be Miriam, feeling too powerless to do anything meaningful, yet positioned by God for a role you can’t yet see.

You might be the baby, carried along by currents you can’t control, unaware of what is going to play out in the story God is writing for your life.

One thing is true: God is already downstream, writing the next part of your story.

3 days to go – https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

We are reading of a terrible evil. It’s not 2026 but it might have been. Evil is seen on our streets and terror all aacross the world.

But evil will be undone.

The enemy always fears what the oppressed might become.

“Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Exodus‬ ‭1‬:‭22‬

“… to all his people …”

An entire nation not only heard this but was conscripted into the Pharaoh’s cruelty.

The river became a grave as midwives became executioners and neighbours became informants.

The world was a mess.

Yet the edict reveals something. You don’t mobilise a nation to drown infants unless you believe those infants carry a future you cannot control.

Satan always fears what the oppressed might become.

Satan cannot u-turn the plans of God.

Moses would be born and we will read how he survives these waters. In fact he would do more than survive: he would one day part them.

Pharaoh intended the Nile to be a burial place but it became the place for Israel’s salvation.

A friend, now with the Lord, once preached, ‘ never overestimate the power of your enemy nor underestimate the power of God.’

The story will reveal this and more.

An appeal to get me up a hill in the middle of the night for a powerful cause.

4 days to go – https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

When you have a simple job description, will you do it, no matter what?

I wonder how many are going to work today and silently refuse to comply with their manager or leader? In the same way, I wonder how many comply because they have to but feel terrible in doing so. Wherever leadership exists, there is the possibility of coercive control intended to eliminate any autonomous choice.

This is the essence of Exodus 1.

“Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, ‘Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?’ The midwives answered Pharaoh, ‘Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.’ So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.” (Exodus 1:18-21)

Shiphrah and Puah had a simple job description: do what Pharaoh says. This wasn’t compliance at its best. This was survival. Every midwife in Egypt understood the arrangement. You served at the pleasure of the Pharaoh; defy him at your cost.

But in essence, Pharaoh was asking them to stop being midwives. Their job was to bring children into the world, not kill them. This was their vocation and their identity. Being obedient to Pharaoh meant no longer being the same people. The enemy of our lives still wants to do that: to take what is good in you, what you were made for, and turn it against itself.

But these two women refused.

Their identity as midwives was greater than bowing down to man’s authority. In fact, verse 21 reveals where their identity was rooted. They feared God. That settled loyalty to a higher authority meant Pharaoh’s command had a ceiling it could not break through.

God was kind to them. The women who had spent their lives delivering other people’s children were given children of their own. The blessing fit the obedience.

Shiphrah and Puah show us that faithfulness sometimes looks like simply refusing to be disloyal to your purpose.

There is always a path of least resistance. But it leads you where you cannot go if you want to hold on to your purpose.

An appeal to get me up a hill in the middle of the night for a powerful cause.

5 days to go – https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

The Bible contains many powerful names who think they will be remembered long after they have died. However, the stories may be remembered, but as with this account, we still don’t know the name of this Pharaoh. But two midwives, on the other hand, we do know their names, etched into the Bible for millennia later.

Pharaoh’s command was clear and cruel, much like King Herod’s during Jesus’s lifetime. Kill the boys. It was to eliminate the threat before it grew. But two midwives had to make a choice, and they became heroines of the Bible.

“The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah” ¹⁶ “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.” (Exodus 1 v 15-17)

At a time when the Israelites were growing in number, Pharaoh sought to control them through fear and oppression. He ordered the midwives to kill every Hebrew baby boy at birth. But two of them, Shiphrah (whose name means beautiful) and Puah (whose name could mean brilliant), chose not to. They faced the decision of whether to obey an unjust command or honour what was simply the right thing to do.

God can use ordinary people who choose courage and righteousness, even when facing powerful opposition.

Have you noticed the Pharaoh, the most powerful man in Egypt, is not named, but the two midwives are.

These women may have seemed insignificant in the eyes of their world. Yet God always honours those who act with courage and faithfulness, even if those people are insignificant compared to others.

Shiphrah and Puah never led an army. But when the moment came, they chose God over Pharaoh. These two ladies simply did what was right, and three thousand years later, we are still saying their names.

You may feel like these two: small, overlooked, with nothing but your conscience and your God. But Scripture is clear that God sees those who fear him and act with courage. Go and do what’s right today.

An appeal to get me up a hill in the middle of the night for a powerful cause!

6 days to go – https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

“Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” ¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with harsh labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labour, the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.”  (Exodus 1 v 8-14)

Be careful of those who rise and want nothing to do with the past. I know of someone who used to be a Pastor, and when they commenced their new appointment, they deleted every sermon and every indication on the church website that there had actually been previous Pastors before they arrived on the scene. Like verse 8, they come to power, but they come with fear.

Pharaoh looked at Israel and saw a problem to be managed. There were too many of them, and from pure hate, he ordered their oppression.

It didn’t work.

The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.

This is the covenant promise, a refusal to be buried. Here is the example we need when the pressure becomes too much for us. Pharaoh thought he was the author, but it is God who writes the story.

You don’t have to look far to see the same logic at work today.

In northern Nigeria, Christians face violence and death. Their villages are burned down and communities scattered, all because they are Christian. In parts of South Asia, conversion means rejection or worse. In country after country, the powerful look at the church and see a problem to be managed. They reach for the same tools Pharaoh reached for.

Yet the same thing keeps happening.

Parts of Nigeria and Iran are perhaps the most difficult places to live as a Christian right now. Yet the Christian Church continues to grow. Many missionary organisations say that the Iranian church is growing faster than almost anywhere in the world. Persecution has not buried these communities; it has multiplied them.

I am not romanticising their suffering, for the cost is real and we grieve for them.

But Exodus 1 reminds us that when human power sets itself against divine purpose, it tends to produce the opposite of its intent. Pharaoh’s logic was completely wrong. The persecutors are still wrong. Hell and all that this word entails, Jesus said, will not prevail against the Church.

7 days to go:- An appeal to get me up a hill in the middle of the night for a powerful cause.

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Joseph, his brothers, and an entire generation are gone. For the next two hundred years, the Bible records no leader, no judge, no prophet, no name worth mentioning. Just silence. Just ordinary people living ordinary lives in a foreign land. However, it was the best moment for the Israelites.

“These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; ³ Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. ⁵ The descendants of Jacob numbered seventyin all; Joseph was already in Egypt.⁶ Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷ but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.” (Exodus 1 v 1-7)

Between the death of Joseph and the rise of a new king (who did not know him) stretches roughly two hundred years of silence. In that time frame, the Bible records no named leader and no dramatic event; in fact, nothing noteworthy except one thing. Throughout Genesis, we have been used to a named person doing extraordinary things, acknowledging God as they did. But now there is no named leader, and yet something is still happening. The Israelites were fruitful, they multiplied, they increased, and they filled the land. For those of us who firmly believe in leadership, here is another example that shows that there are times when God can work in a community, even a nation, without one. I often see churches (that are waiting for a minister to join them), actually not decreasing but increasing in many ways in that interim period. The members suddenly start to get involved in the life of the church as never before. It becomes a time of mobilisation and growth.

In the silent years when there was no reporting, God was at work.

Look at the language Moses used in this. Fruitful. Multiplying. Increasing. Filling the land. Moses deliberately used language that echoed Genesis 1. This was the creation mandate being fulfilled, not through the vision of a great leader, but simply by God.

We have become deeply dependent on leaders. Being a leader, I’m a firm believer in them! God does raise them and appoints them for a reason. But Israel’s two centuries of silent growth remind us that the people of God do not need a leader to be faithful. They need to know who they are and whose they are.

God had made promises to Abraham. Those promises did not require a human leader to keep them moving. They required a faithful God and a people who kept living for Him. A lesson for us all.

I am sure you will agree, Joseph had lived a remarkable life. Then, in his dying moments, with three generations of grandchildren around him, he looked to the life after he had died and made his family swear an oath about his bones.

“Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years ²³ and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees. ²⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” ²⁵ And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” ²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.” (Genesis 50 v 22-26)

Joseph died in Egypt. He wasn’t taken to the family tomb in Machpelah beside Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He dies with the belief that at some point he will be carried out of Egypt. Moses would eventually do this hundreds of years later (see Exodus 13:19). Joseph died believing that God would finish what He started. It might be much later, but it will come.

Have you noticed he didn’t ask to be buried but to be carried? Egypt was not his home. His bones declared that the story was not over when he died.

Joseph teaches us how to die. That is to lean forward with trust. Joseph died believing he would make it home. He may have believed this to be much sooner than it was, 400 years later. But Moses eventually came, and Joseph’s bones made the journey home.

We live, like Joseph, between promise and fulfilment. There are things God has spoken over our lives that we may not see completed in our lifetime. Joseph shows us how to hold those promises intact and to die with faith.

The same God who kept every promise to Joseph keeps His promises to you. You may be waiting on a promise that feels long delayed. Four hundred years was a major delay, but God finishes what He starts.

For years, the brothers had sheltered behind their father. Perhaps Joseph’s kindness had only been for Jacob’s sake. Now he was gone: What if? These two words come from a conscience that hasn’t quite accepted the grace given.

“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” ¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ¹⁷ ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. ¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” (Genesis 50 v 15-21)

What if?

I am sure we have all said those two words that set off a panic moment, imagining the worst possible things that could happen.

In this scenario, what if Joseph had only been holding it together for father’s sake? What if the kindness was a performance, and now, he will deal with our sinfulness?

When Joseph heard another made-up story, he wept. After all that had happened, his brothers still didn’t know him and his love for them. They hadn’t understood the forgiveness he had already given them.

Joseph then gives the theological statement that has rang throughout the generations since: “You intended to harm me. God intended it for good.”

Joseph had come to understand something that we must also. Whatever has happened, God is bigger than whatever has sought to harm us.

He was ahead of his time.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8 v 28-30)

Everything of our life, what happens to us, what we have done, the hurts and difficulties are not outside of the gaze of God. Neither is it outside of His control. We may not realise this side of heaven, exactly how this works for the good. But the promise is that God is filtering everything and using it for His purposes.

More than this, He is also in control of our future. Predestined, called, justified and glorified. It shows us that God controls our eternity. He knows. Therefore, no one can say they have worked enough to get the qualification to get there. He has sorted it all.

So, whether in the present or in the future, God is in control of your life. Nothing happens outside of His control. He holds you.

That is the comfort we need today.

We can live as though God’s goodness is conditional, as though one more crisis might finally exhaust His patience or expose the limits of His care.

But Joseph’s words point us beyond himself to the God he trusted. You intended harm. God intended good. It is the ground on which we stand today.

Jacob had made his sons promise. They would not leave him in Egypt. He wanted to go home to Canaan, to a precise place.

Promises are easy; keeping them is another thing entirely.

“So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt— ⁸ besides all the members of Joseph’s household and his brothers and those belonging to his father’s household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen. ⁹ Chariots and horsemenalso went up with him. It was a very large company. ¹⁰ When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father. ¹¹ When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning.” That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim. ¹² So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them: ¹³ They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. ¹⁴ After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.” (Genesis 50 v 7-14)

It was a big funeral, probably the largest in the ancient world. That’s the first thing we notice. All for an old shepherd. But this old man had touched more people than he ever knew. His son was the second-most powerful man in Egypt, so when he died, the nation mourned him.

My eyes this morning hovered over not so much the enormity of the funeral, but a very small word, in verses 7 and 12.

So.

“So Joseph went up.”

“So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them.”

All that went before, the deathbed blessing, the charge to bury him in Canaan, the oath Joseph swore with his hand under his father’s thigh, he dies and then a very small word, so.

How many things do we know we should do, maybe even plan to do, but we never arrive at the ‘so’? We intended to do it. We may have even promised we would. There can be a huge gap between what we said and what we actually did.

His sons said they would do it. Jacob died with that promise. And when the moment came, it can be said, ‘So, they did it.’