Episode Transcript
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You know, right here in the
very beginning of redeptive history, we see
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clearly that the theology of the exodus, in a nutshell, is this.
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Look there at verse thirty. The
Lord Saves his people. It's his divine
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initiatives and he often uses improbable means
to accomplish that salvation. That's our main
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point here this morning. From this
text. The Lord Saves his people.
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That's a familiar text to most of
us. I'm sure it has to do
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with the Israel lights crossing the Red
Sea. After four hundred and thirty years
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as slaves to the Egyptians, the
Israelites exodus out of Egypt. It began
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with great expectation. There's great joy
involved, excitement. The people were now
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on their way to the Promised Land
and God was leading him. It's interesting
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he was leading them not by the
shortest way of the Mediterranean Sea, along
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the coast road toward Canaan. That
was a rude which would have led them
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into direct conflict with mighty armies and
enemies. Instead, God took them a
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different way. It was a longer
way into the desert, but that way
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had its own challenges because, if
you'll know it, in the first fourteen
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verses of Chapter Fourteen, we find
that the Lord, he actually moves them
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in the southeastward direction and he plants
them precisely in a situation where, from
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a military perspective, they're utterly himmed
in. You know, if you've had
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been one of Moses lieutenants, you
might have questioned his, I think,
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leadership abilities at this point and said, you know, excuse me, sir,
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in case you haven't noticed, we're
sitting ducks here. There's a body
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of water to our back. The
watch tires of Egypt are in front of
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us. You know, if the
Egyptian army follows US and overtakes us,
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as they most assuredly will, we
have absolutely no place to go. And
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suddenly, in that dangerous setting,
all of the joy and all of the
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expectancy starts to unravel. And what
are these people do? Well, they
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resort to form, much like we
do when things go south. They once
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again they began to grumble, to
cry out to the Lord and they begin
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to come plane against Moses. Now
that tight squeeze, I think that the
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Israelites find themselves in here. It
reminds me of a similar situation at the
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British and the French armies found themselves
in at the beginning of World War Two.
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On the twenty seven of May,
one thousand nine hundred and forty over
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four hundred thousand troops of the British
Expeditionary Force and the French army. They
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were trapped with their backs to the
English Channel, surrounded on three sides by
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German Panzer divisions lots of other infantry
ground troops. Winston Churchill, the King's
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first minister, speaking to the House
of Commons, he called the situation a
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colossal military disaster, saying that the
whole root and corps and brain of the
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British army had been stranded at Dunkirk
the day before. On the twenty sixth
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of May, a national day of
prayer was declared for the deliverance of the
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British and French French troops. Throughout
the United Kingdom. King George the six
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attended a special service at Westminster Abbey, and churches across the United Kingdom cried
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out the God on behalf of these
trap soldiers. Then, on the twenty
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seventh of May, Churchill ordered Operation
Dynamo into effect. Several warships made the
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crossing of the Channel Multiple Times under
enemy fire, rescuing troops from Dunkirk harbor
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to safety in England. Nevertheless,
many thousands of troops, they were still
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stranded on the longest beach in Europe, on the beaches of Dunkirk, and
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they were unable to be reached by
these deep draft warships of the British Navy,
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and so a search was made all
around the United Kingdom. You know
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the story. Seven hundred civilian vessels
with shallow draft were enlisted, small fishing
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boats, lifeboats, river boats,
pleasure boats, paddle steamers, private sail
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of boats and yachts. Seven hundred
of them with civilian crews, made the
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crossing back and forth under strafing fire
from the Lufwa overhead. These little ships
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of Dunkirk, as they came to
be called, maze, helped to rescue
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in the end, three hundred and
thirty one thousand two hundred and twenty six
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allied soldiers from the German advance which, for reasons that are unknown even to
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this day, Hitler in expected,
inexplicably halted just short of Dune Kirk,
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even in the face of almost no
allied resistance, and Churchill, speaking to
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parliament on the last day of the
evacuation, June the fourth, gave his
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now famous we will fight on the
beaches speech, in the course of which
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he declared the Dun Kirk operation a
miracle of deliverance, a miracle of deliverance.
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And it's too, a situation,
not all unlike this one, that
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we turn our attention this morning.
I mean, look at the action in
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the second half of exodus fourteen.
So just look there with me. Here
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we have the Israelites, he israelites
to were trapped and their backs to the
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seat, with the equivalent of Panzer
divisions, these elite chariot troops of Fayroh
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bearing down on them. And I
would say, from the vantage point of
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these fleeing Israelites, this whole situation, it must have seemed like a terrible,
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terrible tactical blunder on God's part for
putting him there. Remember, it
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was God. If you go back
in Chapter Fourteen and verses one and two,
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God had told him to turn around
and head back to camp between mid
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doll in the sea. Then the
Lord said to Moses, tell the people
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of Israel to turn back and in
camp in front of pie ha ha Heer
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Roth between mid doll in the sea, in front of Bows Fun you shall
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encamp facing it by the sea in
now. Other words, it was God
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who did this. He was the
one who put his people in this situation.
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To them it was a class of
colossal military disaster, to use Churchill's
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phrase. But, as God made
clear to Moses here, however strange it
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may have seemed at the time,
however terrifying, to watch the Egyptians take
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up their positions before the terrified Israelites, even in this impossible situation, God's
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strategy was being worked out. This
was God's strategy, this was God's operation,
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Operation Dynamo. And so exodus fourteen, verse fifteen, to the end
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of the chapter, I think teaches
us about the nature of God's salvation,
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the way in which the Lord fights
for his people, the way he delivers
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and saves and and rescues them and
triumphs on their behalf. He gives them
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victory, and this exodus of God's
people from Egypt, it becomes the singular
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type, the model, the paradigm
in the rest of Scripture for salvation,
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for God's saving works. So that's
a supreme deliverance that God provides. The
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deliverers from our sin by the cross
of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ
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is itself littlely called Jesus Exodus by
Dr Luke over in the Luke nine.
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Moses and Elijah, if you recall, were with Jesus on the mountain and
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they were talking about Jesus departure,
his exodus back to heaven, which he
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was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
So when we look at this passage today,
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when we study this passage, we're
not simply considering a remarkable historical account
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of escape from danger against all odds, much like the account of the deliverance
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of these armies at Dunkirk. No
word being confronted in this passage with the
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wonders of the Gospel of God's saving
grace itself. Dear ones, here's the
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good news that God loves the fight
for his people, to save them even
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in an improbable circumstances. I think
that's what we have here. God loves
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to fight for Covenant, old PC
and to save you in improbable circumstances,
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and he's going to continue to fight
for you in two thousand and two.
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You can count on it. And
so I want to highlight four things about
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God's salvation from this passage and the
first learning we see there in verses fifteen
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through eighteen. I've entitled it the
Glory God pursues. Verses Fifteen through eighteen.
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Looked there now. Moses had been
speaking to the terrified people on behalf
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of God. He's already told them
in verses thirteen and fourteen that the Lord
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was going to save them. Fear
not, stand firm and see the salvation
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of the Lord, which he will
work for you today, for the Egyptians
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whom you see today you shall never
see again. The Lord will fight for
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you, and you only have to
be silent. But then look at Verse
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Fifteen. Not only has Moses been
speaking to the people on God's behalf,
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it seems he's also been prayed to
God on the people's behalf. And of
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course that was his job. Remember, Moses was the mediator, he was
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the go between, God's appointed savior
of his people. He innercedes on their
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behalf, alf he gives him press
expression to their cries for deliverance. That's
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what he's supposed to do, or
so it seems. But I this is
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interesting. Apparently God has had enough
of Moses prayers. He's and he says,
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why do you cry to me?
Tell the people of Israel to go
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forward. Now. If I would
have been Moses, I would have been
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sorely tempted to say, at this
point, okay, God, is there
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something here I'm missing? I think
it's evident why we're crying out. You
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know, if you haven't noticed,
for pretty much boxed in here, surrounded
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by the greatest army in the world
and the one side and on the sea
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on the other, things aren't looking
too good. But apparently God has had
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enough of Moses prayer and he says
enough already, Moses, stop praying.
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I've told you what I'm going to
do. I'm going to fight for you.
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I've given you that promise. So
what are you waiting for? Getting
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mood? Saddle up now. That's
maybe not what we expected God to say,
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but I think what's happening here,
dare I say it, God clearly
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isn't pleased with prayer when prayer becomes
an excuse for inact tivity. And isn't
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that what's happening here? Here's Moses. The people had the promises, God
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had told them what to do,
versus thirteen and fourteen. Nevertheless, Moses
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delays, he drags his feet,
giving voice instead to the fearful cries of
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the poop people. Now I have
found that sometimes it's easy to let ourselves
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off the hook from doing our daily
duty as Christians, so long as we
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tell ourselves we're still praying about it. Now, I want to be careful
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here. Prayer is good, praying
about it, you know. In fact,
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prayers is vital. We need to
pray, but I don't think God
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is pleased with prayers when they're used
as an excuse for disobedience in activity,
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particularly when he's already told us what
he's going to do. You know,
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God says here there's to be no
waiting here. I've told you I'm going
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to fight for you. Moses,
tell the people to pack up and move
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out, go forward. You know, I can't help but think what see
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us. Lewis Warns Christians about in
his book the screw tape letters. Lewis
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warns us to be aware that one
of the main s strategies of the devil
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is to have us live in the
future and not simply do our duty in
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the present moment. So God says
enough, already, be silent, Moses,
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get the people on their feet,
your people. Your Business Right now
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is faith and your duty is to
go forward. And of course that command
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is itself somewhat problematic. Moses is
OK Lord which weighs forward? Is it
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toward the Egyptians, or is it
forward into the sea? The problem is
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there's nowhere to go. God's command
requires them to do the impossible here,
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which, by the way, I
think is always the case with the Commands
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of the Gospel. Think about that. The Gospel says to US repent,
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believe. We can't do that.
These commands are just as impossible as God's
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commands given here to Moses. They're
spoken to deaf ears, spoken to hearts
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of stone. Those whom God calls
to faith and repentance are dead in trespasses
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and sins. The command of God
requires the very thing that we have no
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power to perform. Now that's interesting. Why would God do that? Why
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tell the Israelites to shut up,
to pack up and move out, when
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there's nowhere to go? Why called
dead, lifeless centers to turn from sin
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when it's sin that enslaves them in
the first place? Why require faith when
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faith is unattainable? Well, let's
read on and next couple of verses tell
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us why God does that. Look
at verses sixteen through eighteen. Lift up
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your staff, stretch out your hand
over the sea and divided, that the
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people of Israel may go through the
sea on dry land, dry ground,
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and I will harden the hearts of
the Egyptians so that they shall go in
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after them, and I will get
glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts,
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his chariots and his horsemen, and
the Egyptians shall know that I am the
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Lord when I have gotten glory over
Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.
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What's God's agenda and calling Israel to
impossible action? I think these verses tell
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us it's to get glory for himself. What he makes a way out for
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them and triumphs over their enemies.
That's why he does it, to get
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glory me. Now I think we
can think of many other biblical examples of
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that. I think of familiar one
that perhaps comes to mind is you might
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be thinking of a Zekiel preaching to
the dry bones over in Ezekiel thirty seven.
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You know the story. You learned
it in Vacation Bible School. Israel
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is in exile in Babylon God commands
Ezekiel to preach to this pile of dry
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bones in this valley. It's a
ridiculous command, seem crazy, but as
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Ezekiel obeys, he preaches and low
and behold, the bones get connected,
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they get flesh on the bones and
breath, they rise up and they live.
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And at the very end of the
chapter, God says to Ezekiel that
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these bones, they're a metaphor for
the whole house of Israel, whose bones
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are all dried up and their hope
is lost in Babylon. And God says
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to Ezekiel, and Chapter Thirty Seven, verses twelve through fourteen, therefore prophesy
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and say to them, say to
Israel, thus says the Lord God.
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Behold, I will open your graves
and raise you from your graves, oh
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my people, and I will bring
you into the land of Israel, and
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you shall know that I am the
Lord, and I will put my spirit
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within you and you shall live and
I will place you in your own land.
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Then you shall know that I am
the Lord. I have spoken and
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I will do it, declares the
Lord. See, that's precisely the same
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thing God says here to Fayh and
his charioteers and his horsemen into Israel later
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on. You know, God has
Saint Augustine famously put it, commands what
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he wills and gives what he commands. He commands what he wills. It
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may be impossible for us to comply, but God gives grace, he gives
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what he commands. The Gospel requires
what we cannot provide. It calls for
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faith and for for repentance, but
gives what God requires. And God does
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that so that all the glory for
our salvation, from first to last,
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may rest on him. Maybe to
him and dear ones, I would say
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that's always God's agenda. He's always
pursuing his glory. God saves Israel from
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Bondage and Babylon. He says Israel
here for his own glory. He judges
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Egypt, here for his own glory. He saves you and me for his
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own glory. He does everything he
does for his own glory, for from
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him and through him and to him
are all things. To him be glory
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forever. Amen. You know we
have small groups that Rencon Mountain and our
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life group at at our church.
Some time ago we did his study of
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Jonathan Edwards. He's a great pastor
during the early seventeen hundreds of America.
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God mightily used this man and his
sermons during the great revival of the seventeen
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hundreds in America, it was called
the great awakening. When he was the
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pastor of the First Congregational Church of
Northampton, it was the it was the
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second largest congregation in the colonies and
during his time as pastor there he was
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invited in one thousand seven hundred and
twenty nine to give the commencement address at
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Harvard great honor and Edwards preached a
sermon, a famous sermon at Harvard and
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the second only at the probably his
most famous. Centers in the hand of
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an angry God, and this is
the title that sermon. God glorified in
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Man's dependence. The sermon stressed that, I think this same point here,
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salvation is, from start to finish, the work of God, and it
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is that so God do will receive
all the glory. So you and I
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cannot boast God. Our text is
reminding us as radically God centered, and
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that's a good thing, because the
radical God's centeredness of God is really the
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only way for us to avoid the
radical self centeredness to which our hearts and
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naturally incline. What is the chief
end of man? The sorder catechism says
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to glorify God and enjoy him forever. God saves us so that we might
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make much of him, not make
much of us. He saved Israel so
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that they might make much of him, not make much of themselves. So
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I think that's the first thing here
in this wonderful text, the glory God
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pursues. Then there's a second thing
that we see it, I think,
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in just two verses, versus Nineteen
and twenty, the division that God creates.
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The Angel of the Lord Joh Weigh
himself, appearing here in this pillar
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of cloud and fire, now moves
from leading the way ahead of the people
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of Israel to take up a position
behind them. He's between them and the
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Egyptians. Now Look at Verses Nineteen
and twenty. Complicated language in some regard.
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There's some translation difficulties here, but
I think here is the main idea.
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There's a division between the people of
God and the Egyptians and it's designed
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to preserve and protect the Israelites from
the Egyptians. In now, other words,
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no Egyptians could get near the Israelites
and I think on the other hand,
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no Israelites could accidentally stray into the
Egyptian encampment, and this provided the
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Israelites with all the time they needed
together the things to pack up to escape
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into the sea. The cloud of
God's presence keeps the Egyptians on one side
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and dreadful darkness, while on the
other side the pillar of fire gives the
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Israelites the security of light, supernatural
floodlights, so to speak, to brighten
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the darkness. And I think here's
the application of that. You know,
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the New Testament repeatedly uses that imagery
of light and darkness. I don't maybe
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even drawing from this very moment in
Israel's history as a way to describe the
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responsibilities and the implications of belonging to
the people whom God saves. Those whom
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he saves, he makes the dwells
securely in the light of his presence.
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First John One, versus five through
seven. This is the message we have
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heard from him, and proclaim to
you that God is light and in him
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is no darkness at all. If
we say we have fellowship with him while
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we walk in the darkness, we
lie and do not practice the truth.
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But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light.
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We have fellowship with one another.
In the blood of Jesus, his son,
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cleanses us from all sin. Dear
ones, to belong to the Covenant
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Community, the Church, covenant O
pc, through faith in Jesus, the
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people whom God saves, means to
live in the light of the protective presence
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of God. There's no way to
live in darkness and belong to the Israel
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of God either. Were Egyptians,
so to speak, still in darkness,
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ultimately facing his wrath and displeasure.
Are were members of the community that God
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saves by grace, and we live
in that light. So God makes the
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separation between the Church and the world. Now I think the points clear.
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You can't live in both camps.
You know, we slip up, we
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sin, we slip up at times, but you can't belong to God's people
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and live like an Egyptian. You
can't serve two masters. It says.
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The division that God creates what other's
the third thing to notice, I think,
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moving along here, versus twenty one
through twenty nine, and that is
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the mediator God honors. Back in
Verse Sixteen, God had told Moses to
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lift up his lift up his staff
to stretch out his hand and divide the
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sea so that Israel might escape.
And now, in verses Twenty One,
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and following Moses, obeys that instruction. The Sea piles up versus twenty one
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and twenty two, creating this wall
of water on either side with a clear
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path through his middle, in order
for the Israelites to make their at their
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escape. And here's Fayoh. He
gives chase, his heart hardens, filled
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with malice, he won't let the
Israelites Go. He gives chase, it
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says, just as morning breaks,
and it's just then that the lord throws
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them into confusion. Verses Twenty three
through twenty five, the wheels of the
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chariots, it says. They're mired
down in the mud and sand. Now
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I want to just pause here,
maybe go down a rabbit trail and and
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just make an old soldiers observation.
You know, these divided waters of the
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sea should have given Fay roll and
his army commander's pause. They should have
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known better and to do what they
did. You know, being familiar with
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exodus, you know that it wasn't
as if this was the first time Yahwai
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had acted dramatically on Israel's behalf against
the Egyptians. You think of the ten
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plagues. These were experienced battle hardness
soldiers. These were Fayre's Panzer divisions,
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and I guarantee you that there were
many Egyptian charioteers, noncommission officers. They
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were muttering under their breath as they
entered the sea bed. The old man
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is losing it. This is all
wrong. I've a very bad feeling about
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this. This cannot end well.
But Pharaoh's army obeyed him. They gave
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chase into the sea, looking,
I'm sure, with concern at these two
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walls of water that were piling up
on each side of them, with their
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chariots sinking down deeper into the mud
and sand. Verse Twenty Five and the
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Egyptians said, let us flee from
before. Israel, for the Lord,
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fights for them against the Egyptians.
Another words, come on, boss,
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that's get out of here while we
still can. But they didn't get out.
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They stayed. Once more, Moses
is commanded to lift up his staff
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over the waters. Verses Twenty Six
through twenty eight, Pharaoh and his vaunted
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army are destroyed. No one,
it says, there remained. Moses was
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the obedient mediator by his actions,
but it was the Lord's doing. You
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See, the Lord had bound together
the salvation he would bring about to the
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obedience of his servant Moses, so
that as Moses obeyed, the people were
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saved. It's extraordinary, but it
is of course a picture, a very
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good picture, of how God the
Lis to save centers everywhere by means of
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the greater than Moses, his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
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Moses is often compared and contrasted in
the Bible to Christ. I think
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First Hebrews, three verses one through
six, that comes to mind. I
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think that's one good example. There
Christ is counted worthy of more glory than
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Moses, says. There he's the
mediator of a Better Covenant Than Moses.
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Christ's salvation is perfect and complete.
Jesus didn't lift up a staff. Instead,
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he was himself lifted up, nailed
to a cross, there to win,
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deliver it salvation for us. There
at the Cross, God's victory over
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death and judgment was secured. are
of people were ransom from every tribe and
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language and nation. Their God acted
and believing that we're saved, and so
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just as this passage focuses our eyes
on the obedience of Moses? I think
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so. Also, the Gospel to
which this passage points us, directs our
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gaze to the obedience of Jesus Christ, the mediator, whom God honors as
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he acts and gives us faith we
are saved so quickly. Now let's look
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at this fourth thing in this text
and versus, the last two verses,
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versus thirty and thirty, one,
the Salvation God provides. Look there,
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those are important verses. You know, a couple of things stand out here
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for me. Maybe you see something
else. First, did you catch the
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emphasis there in's Verse Thirty on the
Divine Initiative? Thus the Lord saved Israel
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that day I mentioned earlier. This
is the theology of the exodus in a
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nutshell. Here are the cliff notes
on the book of Exodus. The Lord
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saved Israel, and he saves her
completely, totally, to the uttermost.
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Now just look around the scene.
There her enemies lay dead behind her,
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the promised land lay before her.
Egypt, the powerful nation that had sought
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to drown the baby boys of Israel, had seen her vaunted army drowned instead.
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Now the situation was impossible. Much
like Dunker, Israel had no hope
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of securing for herself and escape from
the attack of these powerful Egyptian Panzer troops.
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Israel was doomed. Yet God ordered
his own Operation Dynamo. He made
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a way, he saved Israel.
It was unlikely, improbable, unlooked for.
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Even God saved Israel through the flood
to safety. How unlikely is but
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you think about it, isn't that
how we might also describe the cross?
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Unlikely, improbable, unlooked for,
that God would use a cross, a
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Roman torture machine, and they're impale. His son, utterly rejected by everyone,
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this wretched, broken, unknown,
denied, hated, mocked figure,
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the savior of the world, that
he would use the wounds of Christ to
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be the deliverer of everyone who came
to him seeking mercy. Come on,
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not very likely. It's extraordinary,
but that is precisely what happened. It's
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the divine initiative God using improbable means
to accomplish mighty salvation. God has made
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away. He's made away by the
wounds of his son, the how improbable
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is that? Well, the divine
initiative makes it absolutely certain. So that's
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one thing. And then, secondly, in these concluding verses, I want
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you to notice the response here of
the people. You know as exodus fourteen
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announces God's commitment to his own glory, his commitment to separating out for himself
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a people to sink from the world, his commitment to doing so by means
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of a mediator. Notice how the
people respond there, in Verse Thirty One,
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Israel saw the great power that the
Lord used against the Egyptians. So
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the people feared the Lord and they
believed in the Lord and in the Servant
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Moses. And what that says to
me, I think what instance say to
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you this second morning of the New
Year is that seeing the salvation of the
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Lord should provoke a response. You
can't be the same, surely, when
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you see this, when you see
the this crucified man of Calvary, how
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can you be in change? It
calls for a response. And what should
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that response be? As we you
look ahead to I'm sure you know the
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many uncertainties as you're going to surely
continue to face this year, two thousand
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and twenty two and years to come. Well, respond like the Israelites.
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Fear in the Lord, believe in
the Lord and in his servant, the
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Greater Than Moses, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only one who can rescue
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you, the only one who can
be your deliverer, the only one who
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can save you. It's to tremble
before him, recognizing his majesty, his
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sovereignty, recognizing that if he does
not ask act to rescue you, you
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will not be rescued. It's the
tremble and reverend all, cast yourself completely,
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all your hopes, all your confidence, all your trust, all your
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faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the response, I think, to
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which Jesus is calling all of us
today as we sort of look into this
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murky future. So time to stop
to January, two thousand and twenty two.
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What are marching orders as we move
into the future? Two Thousand and
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twenty two, the glory God pursues. God is radically God's center and recognizing
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that, recognizing that can free us
from the endlessly repeating loop of narcissism and
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self obsession to which our hearts instinctively
incline. Get Out of the Savior Business,
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turn to Christ, the only one
who can finish the deal. The
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division God creates. We are God's
beloved people, to belong to the people
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of God is to live in the
light, not to walk in darkness.
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You can't serve two masters. So
in two thousand and twenty two walk in
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the light the mediator God honors.
God has appointed Jesus Christ, his own
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son, by whose obedience and blood
he has made a way, he's made
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a safe path for our deliverance.
Lean into that this coming year. Walk
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that path. You'll be eternally safe
if you do. And finally, the
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salvation that God provides. Salvation is
God's gift of sheer grace to us.
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receive it, move out in holy
fear and joyful faith, and I would
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pray that he would make a soul
in every heart. This morning let's pray
