0:00 Exodus 13 verse 17. Here's the word of the living God. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the sea, and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.
0:29 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, 'God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones with you from here.' And they moved on from Succoth and a camp at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. Let's pray quickly. Father, this is your word.
1:09 Lord, this is the truth, and we acknowledge that, That from cover to cover, you have something to say to us, and you have something to reveal to us concerning you. And we pray that we would receive revelation of who you are in a way that would change us. So, Lord, we yield to the Holy Spirit. We put away our presuppositions, our pre understandings. We humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and we ask, Lord, that you, in the power and through the power of this word, would once again conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.
1:47 We wait on you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. We had, as you know, we have men's prayer meeting right before the service, and, one thing we were just reflecting on was the the truth of how God just saves.
2:09 And when he saves, he saves. And the things that we used to do on a Friday night before we came to Christ and how God translated that and how just look around you for a moment and see the faces that have chosen to be here. And, and see the faces that have chosen to be here. And before Christ, depending on your background or your testimony, you can probably testify, I was nowhere near a church on a Friday night. I was on the polar opposite.
2:38 But that's what happens when God saves. He gives you a new appetite. He gives you a hunger. He gives you a desire to be amongst the people of God. And I could just testify that I am so grateful to be here with you.
2:49 What an interesting text. We pause here for a reason because there's so much wealth of truth. And I think just for the sake of reminder, it is always important to read the Bible with many lenses. And as we read it with the immediate lens concerning who the people of Israel are and who they were and the situation that we're in and why the author is writing this and who the audience is. That's important, but we cannot divorce that from who we are as Christians concerning this text.
3:14 And so yes, we read it and we say, well this is what it would have been like for the Israelites and that's why the day was connecting to this and that, and this is why he wrote this to the immediate audience. But if we leave it at that, that won't necessarily change us unless we say, okay, now what does it have to do with me? Because all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuke, And for all these benefits, for what purpose? That the man of God may be complete. May be complete.
3:41 So those that like to emphasize on certain scriptures and like to not touch on any scriptures, and I say, well, if you're doing that, you're probably not gonna be complete, because all scripture is necessary for you to be complete. So that's why we're doing this in Genesis and Exodus. We're trying to get as much as we can out of the word of God. Rarely do we ever title a Bible study, but I think with these verses, there is an appropriate title because there's this continuous theme. If I were to title it, I think I would title it this, Principles for God's Guidance in Our Lives.
4:18 Principles for God's guidance in our lives. Amen. I think it's important to understand once again that up to this point, we've seen a lot of truths concerning the Christian faith, the Passover lamb, the feast of unleavened bread, and how that relates to us in our walk with the Lord, and it is no different with these verses here. So before we move forward, I would like to open it up. What can we say about what we just read in these scriptures?
4:46 Any observations? Yes. Isaac and then Evan?
4:58 He didn't take him through the shortcut. He took him
5:03 didn't take him through the shortcut.
5:05 him through the long way. Yes. That's a great and a very important observation. Evan?
5:10 Another interesting thing was that they were ready for battle. It's a very small detail, but they you know, this wasn't like Cecil's conflict. They were like, they were just
5:19 They were ready to fight, you know, what are the consequences, you know, that are all laid ahead
5:24 So you're looking at the second part of verse 18 where it says they're equipped for battle. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. So they are equipped for battle, which is interesting because he doesn't lead them necessarily directly into battle. So what is God doing?
5:36 He equips them. Why isn't he sending them?
5:43 He was concerned that they never turned back.
5:46 Yes. We get a divine commentary in the heart of God. He goes, you know, if I lead them this way, they might just turn back to Egypt. So God knows something that the Israelites don't know.
6:11 He took the bones of Joseph with them out of Egypt, which is quite straight for the Egyptians were really treasured after the death. So that's a big statement to extract that out of Egypt.
6:25 Yes. When you think of how the Egyptians embalm and they bury somebody, there's this understanding you know, even when you study this, who who who has anybody in here studied I'm sure you've studied some level how they did things with what the Egyptians thought of their afterlife and all these different things. Has anybody studied that? They really believed that there was an afterlife, and they would put maps and jewels and different things with that body that was being buried because they thought that they were gonna bring that with them to the afterlife. And so, as Tim mentioned, the fact that Joseph was brought out, that's a statement.
6:57 When we get to that verse, there's actually a very fascinating archaeological find concerning the tomb of Joseph, and it is mind boggling. Any other truths or observations at least? Think of it in light of how God leads and how God guides us through life. Principles of God's guidance in our lives. Now these principles, they are only given to a certain type of people.
7:29 Who would you think they're given to? These benefits, these truths are not given to all men. Who are they given to? Think of the wider context of who the people are being led. God's people.
7:44 Right? Yes. God's people. Specifically, those who have eaten the Passover lamb and who have applied the blood of the lamb over their lives and who have exited out of Egypt. See, these principles won't apply to you if you're still in Egypt.
7:58 If you're still in the world, if you still love the world and you still love the things of the world, you can expect God to lead you in what he has called you to do or be. It is for Christians. It is for those who take their faith seriously. It is for those that want to do what God's called them to do. And so these are not automatic truths.
8:17 I'm sorry. If you wanna live your way, which is obviously the root heart of a person that says, I don't want Jesus Christ to be Lord because I wanna be Lord of my life, then you can just tune yourself out for the rest of the Bible study. You can go home early. I don't mean that to be mean, but I'm just saying these truths are only available to those who say Jesus is my Lord and I want to live the way he wants me to live. So what principles can we take out of this?
8:49 I think, in terms of, like, going into the wilderness, this it's this no alternative. It's this you're going somewhere that you don't know that's dangerous. You're know, you don't have really any alternatives. It's his way
9:02 or something else. So you're going into the wilderness. You're going into unknown territory. You're going to something in which, guess what, you don't have Siri to guide you through.
9:12 I might be reading a little too much into this, but I love how not only is he guiding them, but I feel like in a way, he's providing comfort to them through the cloud and through the pillar of fire. Because during the day, the cloud is there. It's almost like shade for them. So they they they, like, protects them because they're going to the wilderness, a desert like area. And at night, it's a pillar of fire.
9:30 Like, maybe they're, like, it's almost warming them and also a light for them as they're
9:33 That's not reading too much into it at all. This is God leading us in a certain way. He chooses these elements for a reason, and that is a great observation that he chose to come by cloud in the day and fire by night. For what reason? We'll find out.
9:50 I was thinking about when it said the Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. And I was thinking if that was a human leader and he was leading a people and he looked at them and they looked ready and there's a shorter way then obviously, like, you just expect them to go that route. But then when God would say to his people, and he's like, no. I know them. And just, like, how his ways are high, if we think we're ready for something and versus what he sees in the outcome.
10:17 Absolutely. So in the natural, they looked ready for battle. In the natural, this is the shorter way. Doesn't it make sense us for us to just go this way? And God goes, no.
10:29 Doesn't, because this is the first truth in verse 17, that we must yield to the leading of the Lord concerning our lives, even when it doesn't make sense. That's the first truth. God did not lead them into a specific location through a specific way. Why? Because he knew the outcome of it.
10:48 He knew that if he were to take him through that shorter way, which would have taken much fewer days to do so, they would have experienced something in which they were not ready for, which we're gonna come into in a moment. But we have to understand that the shorter way is not necessarily the best way. We have to understand that what makes sense in the natural now, God loves logic. He's given us that. He's given us reason.
11:09 He's given us common sense. But guess what? Sometimes in life, those things do not line up with what God wants to do. And so here we have a people ready for battle, and here we have a shorter way. Don't we wanna see what God wants to do in our lives as quick as possible?
11:26 I mean, we only have seventy, eighty years, one hundred and twenty max. Come on. Let's get into this. And God says, no. I I have something else in mind, actually, because I know something that you don't know.
11:35 And as we desire, listen, for your own life and my own life, as we desire to know God's will and as we desire to see him reveal his will for us in our lives, we can't implement our own plan when he has one. Meaning, we kinda have our lives figured out, don't we? We have a, b, c, d, e, f, g. It's just automatic. And and our society and Western society has kinda given us that plan.
12:01 You know, you finish school, and you you do this and this, and then you find a wife, and you find a husband, and then you get married. And we have this all there just kinda automatically. And sometimes even when we know what God's called us to do in life specifically, we kinda have it all figured out as well. We say, oh, God. You've given me this passion, and thank you.
12:18 You've given me this confirmation. And and here I'm just gonna help you out. Here's my plan on how to do it because I think this is the best way. And so the a to z is there, but God has a different b, c, d, e, f, g, h, I, j, k, l, m, n, o, p than we do. In the heart of man does he plan his way, but the Lord, what, determines his steps.
12:45 And so even in our hearts' desires and even what we can come up with, God says, I see that, and I will bless that if it's according to my will. But how it happens is not up to you. It's, in fact, up to me. And so I just need you to think in your life right now because the shorter way makes sense sometimes. And sometimes you and I have a passion and a desire to serve God, and we wanna get there really quickly.
13:09 We really wanna see the fulfillment of it. It. We really wanna see the fullness of it unveiled, and we wanna walk in the absolute death of the glory for the testimonies that he has in line for us, and then he gives us a detour. He gives us a detour. And hear me, there's a sense of delay.
13:31 There's a sense of a delay in the destination in which God wants to bring us, but hear me again. That delay is God's desire. So there are two reasons why we have this desire to see God fulfill something in our lives, or we have this certain destination in mind, and we're not there right away, or we're not there where we want to be. One, it's because of our own disobedience. So we know the same Israelites down the road because they disobeyed God and they would not listen to him.
14:02 They added more years to their journey that did not need to be added, and that was due to their disobedience. See, God might have a call for your life, and you might be running away from that call. You might be playing around with sin, and all you're doing is just delaying what God wants to do through you. Happened so many times. And the extreme case of that is that you literally just booted the call of God out of your life because you just wanted to be like Saul or Esau.
14:27 There's some people here that say not here, but there's some people that would say, Well, no. If God's called you to something, and he has something planned out for you, you can't give it up. You can't forfeit it. Absolutely, you can. Think of Esau.
14:37 Think of think of Saul. Think of all these different characters. Think of Demas. Think of all these guys that have forfeited their call. And so one reason for delay or one reason for not seeing the fulfillment of what God's called you to do is because of your own disobedience and because of your own sinful ways and your rebellion and your hardheartedness.
14:56 And a second reason is the reason that we find here, and it's for those that want to see God's call and those that are praying and seeking for his will in their lives, and that delay is due to his sovereignty. It is due to his providence and his foreknowledge of who you are and what is before you, which leads to the second truth. What seems to be a delay is actually God's desire. Why? Because truth number two, God knows what we can and what we can't handle in this life.
15:31 God knows what you and I can handle in this season and what you and I can handle in the next season that he wants to bring us in. Does that make sense? For God said, Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So there's the reason right there for the delay. So let's talk about that.
15:55 What does that have to do with you and me as Christians as we desire to serve God in light of this? Listen.
16:04 Could we say if we know and understand God's full plan
16:09 Probably. Probably. It'd probably freak you out. So God takes you step by step.
16:16 Oh, there's those delays out there to perfect you.
16:19 Great observation. So those delays have a greater purpose concerning who you are as a person, as a Christian, and your character, and your wisdom. Yes. Both are true. If you were young in the faith and God showed you everything concerning your calling, just let's just be honest with ourselves.
16:43 Thank you, but no thank you, maybe. Because you in that moment do not have the capacity nor the understanding of how you would even walk in those realities yet. So God says, I'm just gonna veil this, and I'm gonna take you step by step, which is what we're gonna learn in a moment. Secondly, as our brother said, he wants to do something in you. So what do we know about the nation of Israel up to this point?
17:07 Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So what does that say of the people of God? Yeah, Gil?
17:13 He already knows that their hearts aren't fully set on obeying God and leaving the wilderness, that they're already missing Egypt.
17:21 They're already in a sense, they're fresh out of Egypt. They're fresh out of that comfort zone. They're fresh out of that place in which they've known as home for so long. And if they are faced with these circumstances immediately, their reflex might be, I think it's better off just being a slave than having to deal with these Philistines. Sure.
17:47 What does it say about them? Think about just the context. Think about who they are and what they just came out of. Are they freshly, quote, unquote, saved? Yes.
18:09 They just came out of Egypt. So what does that say about them in their spiritual state? What does it say about them in their experience? They're young. They're babes.
18:23 They're not fully experienced yet. They don't have the abilities necessary yet to be able to walk in such confrontations. And so what happens if they were to go into a place of meeting with the Philistines? Put yourself in in their shoes. I'll tell you, I'll be honest, I think I would be overwhelmed.
18:46 And because I would be overwhelmed, I would be discouraged because I'm just I'm just not ready for such a thing at this moment in my life. And so I I have to trust God's leading because if we know the history of Israel, do they ever fight the Philistines again? Do they ever meet with the Philistines again? Plenty of times, but just not right now. So God had it in mind that they would fight the Philistines, but in this season right now, it was not ready.
19:15 It was not time. They were not primed yet. And so he says, we're gonna pull back on this, though this is what I have in mind for you in the future. But if you were to, receive this right now or walk in this right now or step on that platform right now, it's gonna do more damage than good. And we see for the Christian, now this is not very heartfelt if you don't desire to know what God wants to do for your life, nor does it really relate to you if you're not eager to know what God wants to do for your life.
19:46 But this is for those that want to see God fulfill their calling. And we have to understand that maybe you right now, you are very eager. You are very eager to see what God has for you in its fullness. Maybe your prayer life has been, God, why are you making me wait so long? Lord, you've been seeing my heart and my prayer life for this certain thing.
20:08 I wanna be used for your glory, and I just don't understand why you're keeping me in the same place. Lord, I want to broaden the influence that you've given me, not for my glory, but for your praise because I wanna reach as many people as possible. Lord, I want to go into that certain workplace so that I can you if you're praying that, if that's the desire in your heart, if it's burning in the depths of your soul and you're not wondering why it's happening, it's probably because there's something he has to do in you first. And it's most likely because you and I are just not ready yet. You and I are just not ready yet.
20:45 And if we were to step into that, the immediate feeling we would get is that we would be unqualified. And because we would feel unqualified, we would be overwhelmed. And because we would be overwhelmed, we would probably wish we never asked for that thing in the first place. And you might be saying, no. No.
21:04 No. I'm ready, man. I've been praying for this thing for two years. I know my Bible. I know what I want, thank you very much.
21:16 But notice it wasn't the Israelites that said this, it was God who said it about the Israelites. Why? Because God knows you better than you. And God knows me better than me. And God sees the passion, but he sees something beyond the passion.
21:29 He sees the need for you to fulfill that passion, and he sees what needs to be worked on, what needs to be developed for you to have longevity in the calling of God for your life. And so he brings a delay. He says, I'm gonna take you into a different path. What else can we say about that? Lest they return to Egypt I remember my first day of seminary.
21:58 The first class, first day, and to this day, it's been almost three years, and I remember one of the statements that the teacher made that was so impactful to me. Because me, naturally, I'm just this go go go guy. Lord, my life is only getting older, and I don't wanna wait any longer. I I wanna see things happen. Lord, don't you see my strength?
22:24 Don't you see my availability? Don't you see the season I'm in? Hello, Lord. I remember when I was first saved, I was so convinced. I want to drop out of everything and just go to Africa.
22:35 I didn't know where I was going. I just wanted to go, just show up. And I had that conversation with my parents. You can imagine how that went. I said, that's great.
22:46 And there was plans to go to Africa. I can get into the details, but I won't. But this is what that teacher said. He says, God values the preparation of his servants. God values the preparation of his servants.
23:03 He values it. And we're the ones that have trouble trying to value that process. We're the ones that wanna skip over the process and skip over the preparation. God says, No, I treasure these moments. I take this season in which I prepare you very seriously.
23:19 So you know what it's not like? It's not like you have this desire to serve God, and you have this dream and this vision, and you have this ministry in mind, and God puts you in spiritual time out for a few years until you can do it because you're a big boy now. He works on you. He chisels the things that need to be removed. He adds what needs to be added.
23:38 He makes you ready for what he has in mind for you. I thank God that I wasn't in Africa. Gosh. What would happen? I have no idea.
23:48 He knows. And he shut that door real quick. And so you and I have to trust in what seems to be a delay. It's preparation. He's working on you, and he's gonna work on the Israelites.
24:04 What do you think he did in that process of delay for the Israelites? Think about the journey, the wilderness journey for them. Yeah, Tim?
24:16 In verse 18, you let them around the towards the Red Sea.
24:21 Yeah. So they're gonna witness something incredible. So he leads him towards the Red Sea. So what's that purpose then? He leads him to a specific way, and he tells him he's gonna take him to the Red Sea.
24:31 So what's that mean? Why the delay? Is it because, once again, he just wants to put him on a spiritual time out? Why is he taking him this way? Way?
24:39 What is he as our brother said, what is he trying to produce within the Israelites?
24:46 Now that just the Adventist and bringing the Red Sea and targeting it, that would be the thing that that would all they would look back on for years and generations as the reminder that God led them out and God defied them and God destroyed their enemy enemies for them so they should trust in him.
25:03 God wants to produce some journal entries, and he wants to create some memorials for the nation of Israel. And guess what? That doesn't happen when everything goes so smooth and according to your way. Doesn't? You guys good?
25:21 Good. Anything else? What else can we say? Is this how God works in an isolated event, or do we see God working like this again? Do we see God working this specific way again in the Bible, not just with the nation of Israel, but in the Bible?
25:48 I thought of, right after Jesus' sentence, telling the disciples not to leave yet, wait till the Holy Spirit comes to be equipped before they go out and to spread the gospel.
26:01 He knew the very thing they need. Now let's think about the disciples. Come on. All the things that they've experienced. What have the disciples experienced walking with Jesus for three years?
26:14 Think about the gospel accounts. What have they witnessed? Demons being cast out, the sick being healed, revivals, Jesus being transfigured, Jesus walking on water, food being multiplied. What else? All these glorious things.
26:35 His teachings on top of it. I mean, if you go through all of that, I think you're worth 10 missionaries. And he goes, you know, there's one more thing, though. You need the Holy Spirit. And so you're gonna wait for a few days for him.
26:52 Because all of those things did not not that they didn't matter, is that outside of the power of the Holy Spirit, we saw how Peter was before the Holy Spirit. And so the disciples, absolutely. Where else do we see in the Bible this sense of delay for the sake of preparation? Paul, David killing lions and bears before he killed Goliath? Yes.
27:15 Sorry? Job? Can you explain more about Job?
27:18 Well, Job went after he lost everything. It was years before he got it back. Mhmm. So there was that delay,
27:27 there's a suffering and all these things that he had to experience before he experienced blessing of God? Jacob. Jacob. Yes. Absolutely.
27:40 Joseph in the pit. Jacob. Now when we think remember, just for the sake of recap, remember when Jacob was wrestling with God? Did Jacob wrestle with God or did God wrestle with Jacob? God wrestled with Jacob.
27:55 Jacob didn't go looking for God. God was looking for Jacob, and God wanted to get something out of Jacob. Because you know what Jacob was? He was stubborn. How do you know he was stubborn?
28:04 He wrestled with God all night. Now you two of you guys wrestle for five minutes and see how exhausted you'll be. But Jacob and God wrestle, and he's so stubborn, So God has to make him broken and make him dependent where he's clinging to God in a new way, and he walks differently. What else can we say about people or even Israel? If you can turn with me to Exodus 23.
28:41 Exodus twenty three twenty nine. This is how God is unveiling the plan for them when they would get into the promised land. And what does he say? I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out before you until you have increased and possessed the land.
29:14 So does he work like this throughout? Yes. Even with the same people. He's saying, listen, this is you leaving Egypt in Exodus 13. But once you get into the land, I'm gonna implement the same principles.
29:29 Why? If I do it in less than a year, what will happen to them? The same thing that would happen to them if they faced the Philistines, they would be overwhelmed. The land, they did not have enough people to take care of the land, so to speak. They did not have enough resources to take care of the wild beast.
29:45 They would be overcome by the things that they were to face. And so God says, I'm gonna do this little by little. Very rarely does God bring a man to a certain place or a woman to a certain place at an accelerated rate. He does so bit by bit, piece by piece, because there's something to learn, there's strength to gain, there's wisdom to acquire in the process. And every time there's a new level of glory for example, in this case, they were leaving Egypt.
30:20 That's one level. They're graduating in God. They're coming into the Promised Land. They're graduating in God. And to us, when we ask God to bring us to the next place of influence or ministry or or service to him, we only think about the amazing things.
30:34 Oh, God, we're gonna touch more people. Oh, God, we're gonna see the gospel go further. Oh, God, we're gonna be able to shed the light of Christ. But what we have to understand is that with the new level of glory, pay attention, it is coupled with a new level of opposition and challenges, and we don't think about that part. And so they have to face the Philistines at first.
30:57 He says, You're not ready yet. Now they come into the Promised Land. They have to face wild beasts, different challenges. So God knows what he's doing, and he trains your spiritual muscles, and he develops your discernment. Because you and I, we think about the exciting things about growing in God and being used by God, but we don't think about the things that are coupled with it, and that is greater spiritual warfare, opposition, challenges, and circumstances that if we were to just absorb with our own wisdom from the level one, once again, we'll be overwhelmed.
31:32 We'll be discouraged. We'll feel unqualified. We'll feel, oh, man. I signed up for this way too early, and God says, I know this before you do. So let's take this step by step.
31:43 Does that make sense tonight? It's important for us because we need to be encouraged that God works at a different pace than we do, but in his wisdom, he knows what he's doing. Do you think they were eager to go to the promised land filled with milk and honey? I bet they were. And probably felt the felt the pull to go through the shorter way.
32:04 But Gus says, there's something that I have for you though. So in another sense, can we say that God protected them? Did God protect them? See, when a glow a door closes in your life and you have no idea why, though it makes sense, God, this is just a natural way of things working. This is how things happen in a person's life, and God shuts that door.
32:26 Guess what? There's some Philistines on the other side that you don't know about. So let me give you the detour. So you wanna know why that business deal didn't work out? Perhaps because there was something he was protecting you from.
32:37 From. Maybe that school wasn't for you. Maybe that relationship wasn't for you. God gives you a detour because he loves us, and he knows our hearts, and we wanna please him, and he goes, thank you for trusting in my wisdom, and thank you for trusting in my guidance. Let's go this way.
33:00 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea, towards the Red Sea. And Tim mentioned this, but let's talk about it more. That's a very specific location. So we talked about the first two truths. One, we must yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, God's guidance, even though it doesn't make sense to the natural.
33:21 Two, he does so because he knows what we can and can't handle in this season and the season to come. And three, I would say it this way. God will lead you in a way where he gets maximum glory through your journey. God will lead you in a way where he receives maximum glory through your journey. And so we think about the Philistines.
33:47 God didn't lead them to the way to the Philistines because he protected them, but it doesn't mean that he led them into an easier situation. He tells them, Go before the ocean. Go before the sea. Stand before this. And so, yes, he does protect us, but it doesn't necessarily mean he makes things easier.
34:06 But God had something in mind when he led them to the sea, and we know the story. What does the Red Sea represent in a person's life?
34:20 Barrier. Yes. Great word. What else can we say?
34:28 Like a seemingly impossible A
34:30 seemingly impossible situation. Yes. Absolutely. The Red Sea are the roadblocks in life that forcefully halt us in our advancement, what seems to be halting us, in our advancement in God's call for our lives. It literally puts the brake, and we are faced with, as Gil said, a situation or lack of opportunity that makes us feel, I don't know where I'm gonna go from here.
35:07 That's literally what the Red Sea represents. And that's where he wants to bring them. It made sense to go through the shorter way. He could have dealt with it. Concern do you think God couldn't handle the Philistines?
35:20 He could've. But he brings them into a place in which he's gonna receive maximum glory for generations to come. And so he parks them there. So what can we say the purpose of leading to the Red Sea is if you were to give any purpose?
35:40 Display God's glory. Yes. Gil?
35:43 Not only that, but in a way to help rid them of something that he knows because He knows that the Egyptians are coming for them. He's gonna use that situation to eliminate the Egyptians as well. So, like, in a sense, to eliminate something that he knows is gonna harm them or hurt them.
36:00 He's gonna he's gonna use this situation to kill two birds with one stone. I'm gonna deal with the Egyptians at the same time. Yes. So we know that he puts him in a place in which there is no way so that he can make a way. And by making a way, he would receive all the glory.
36:22 And secondly, as Gil mentioned earlier, it would be a memorial for generations to come in which they would be able to look back and say, If God has done it before, he can do it again. That's why God brings us to those places in life, so that when you go through it, you would have a memorial to look back at, so that when you're faced with another Red Sea, Joshua, when he's faced with the Jordan River, when they were faced with different other circumstances, they would say, Well, God did it before. He can do it again. Let me read this psalm real quickly. Psalms 100 and six:eight-nine.
36:59 Psalms 106, eight to nine. Yet he saved them for his name's sake. So why does God do it? For his glory. He leads us.
37:10 He presents these situations to us for his name's sake that he might make known his mighty power. And we've said this before, sometimes we ask God for miracles. We ask God for intervention. But how can he do that unless the circumstance requires it? Oh, God, I wanna see your hand move.
37:30 Really? Okay. Let's let's put you here in front of the Red Sea. Well, I'm very uncomfortable. Good.
37:35 I don't understand. This doesn't make sense. Everything was fine. Do you know there was a shorter way, Lord? Yeah, but you asked to see my glory.
37:42 Oh, yeah. Right. Okay. So we see here, he rebuked the Red Sea in verse nine, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. Now look at verse 13.
37:54 But they soon forgot his works. So wait. What was the purpose of doing all of that? So that they would what? Remember for the future.
38:05 But the Bible tells us they forgot. And because they forgot, what did it say? They did not wait for his counsel. And so they lost this sense of God's faithfulness because of their current circumstance. They eliminated the fact that he actually brought them up to this point, and because of that, they did not seek his counsel and wait for his counsel, and because of that, they did it their own way.
38:32 And when you do it your own way, it doesn't end very well, does it? But it all comes back to forgetting when God intended it to be remembered. So God had something in mind for the future generations of Israel with what he was about to do at the Red Sea, to make a way where there seems to be no way so that when he does it, he gets all the glory, and two, that it would be a memorial for them for generations to come. And at this point, when I was reading this earlier today, I pushed my chair back from my desk. I went into a certain drawer.
39:07 I pulled out my journal, I went to one of the pages, 08/06/2014, and it was the day after I graduated college. And I looked over, I had tears in my eyes, I laughed at myself. I wrote, yesterday was the last day of school forever. And I go, no, that's wrong. And I began to read about how in that moment, I was so confident that God was gonna do something so obvious that he was gonna reveal his his plan.
39:46 Here's my heart burning for full time ministry. Surely God is gonna send a prophet or a blueprint or something because I'm done. I'm ready. The season's over. Said no to jobs.
40:00 Here's it's gonna happen. Then I flipped the page. 08/24/2014. God is really quiet, and I don't like when he's quiet. And my heart is troubled right now because I don't seem to know the next step, and everything I had in mind is not lining up.
40:24 So what is going to happen next? And I remember I wrote Psalms 32 verse eight, that he is eyes upon me and he will teach me in the way I should go. Flip the page, 09/12/2014. I just got back from an amazing conference in Michigan, and I began to read read and I said, I talked to the man who was in charge of the conference. I'm like, oh, that's Bisher.
40:51 And I began to read, and I was just stunned at God's faithfulness. That in one point in my life, I was faced with a Red Sea situation. If I could put you in my shoes for those few months, I literally did not know what the next it was a haze. It was like an ocean. Even if I tried to make a way, if I tried to push the water to the sides, it was just not going to happen.
41:19 But God was setting up something. He was setting up a testimony in which he would receive all the glory and a memorial from my own life so that I can look back three years later and open my journal and say, if he's done it before, he'll do it again. And so if there's a situation that you're gonna face later on and, like, let me tell you that I'm not I'm not sure. That was one of the hardest seasons of my life, but I thank God for every minute of it because with all the stress and anxiety and the and and the the extended time in prayer, a memorial was being built up. So in your life and in my life, we can look back at those seasons saying, it was really like God was not there, but in fact he was preparing something.
42:08 And you can face those situations if you Now, like the Israelites, we have to be careful because we can go through those things and forget. So it is our responsibility to steward God's interventions in our lives and to steward those testimonies for our own sake and for his glory. So what did they do? What did they do in this season of delay or this detour? Did they pout?
42:38 Did they whine? Did they say, I don't understand, God. Why are you letting us do? Why are you taking us the long way? It's hotter, and we're gonna get hungrier.
42:45 Did they complain? No. As Evan mentioned, look what they did in the second part of verse 18. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. So they weren't inactive.
43:02 They weren't getting involved with silly things. No. They were ready. They were ready for whenever God would use them, and they were ready to be used in the moment for whatever God would bring before them. So in the season in which you were waiting for the next step, guess what you and I have to do in the moment?
43:20 Train, be equipped, and do what we're called to do in the now, in the now. They weren't sitting and playing with the sand, figuring out, okay, if God's gonna do it, he'll just lift us up by our hair. No. Let's get ready for battle. God will lead us.
43:37 God will show us. And if there's anything, any battles that we have to fight now, he's given it to us because we're ready for it. And whenever he wants us to graduate, he'll promote us. That's what they did. Verse 19: Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, 'God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.' So we touch on this, but what else can we say about it?
44:12 If you have any time, this is outside of the Bible, study the Bible, but if you have any time to do any research, if you look up this archeological dig concerning Joseph's tomb in Egypt, it's amazing because what they have found in a very short amount of time I'm gonna share this in a very short period. They have found a tomb of an elected official in the land of Goshen, And when they went into the tomb, it seemed that though somebody had gone in and broken and removed the bones. And when they described the statue that was in there and all the different details, a lot of people are convinced that it was Joseph, which is just confirmation to what the Bible says here. That Moses carried up his bones. In verse 20, it says, and they moved from Succoth and a camp at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
45:05 And this is such a beautiful sight in verse 21. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. There's a phrase that's being repeated here. What is it?
45:30 Day and night, day and night, day and night. That's important. Repetition is a teaching mechanism in Hebrew literature. So what can we say about these verses here? I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
45:49 I'm with you day and night to guide you. One of the questions I have with this is why the element of fire and why the element of the cloud?
46:00 Could the cloud have been
46:01 like a relief from the eating sun? Yes. So we have the cloud that sheltered over them, right, to shade the sun. And the fire by night, obviously, to bring light, but I would argue also to bring warmth. And so it was this continuous understanding of comfort as they're being led.
46:22 Yes. Beautiful observation. Isaac and then Tim.
46:25 So in Egypt, it seems like they're in a designated world in this sense. It's like I've never been to, like, Egypt, but, like, in Arizona, it's so hot still fine where if you're out there and you're unable to sweat, you'll just pass out from the heat without even knowing. And then at night, they have this desert cold, which is, like,
46:54 That's beautiful. Yes. So he does lead us, but throughout the process, he comforts us. Arlene and Tim.
47:01 This is more of a question than anything else, but can this represent the trinity in any way or no?
47:08 It will be. I'm just throwing
47:10 it out there. Just up to the fire, the holy spirit, and then the mountain of transfiguration, God came in a cloud. So
47:17 Well, we'll get to a point you're onto something, not specifically with the fire and the cloud being the trinity, but the cloud representing something or someone. So there is some element of truth to that. Yeah. Tim?
47:29 I think that the cloud and the fire represent how God is there to protect us. In Egypt, the the hot sun will burn you and, you know, from going from one extreme temperature to the other, like, at night especially in the desert, it gets extremely cold. So I think it's like, you know, from one one heat to the other, I think I think that's a source of protection. And you can see that in Psalms when, you know, when Psalms talks about God and finding rest, it's finding rest in the shadows. Where do you find shadows?
48:05 When do you find clouds? Mhmm. So,
48:08 Yeah. It's a continuous understanding of comfort, of not just taking us from one point to another, but hovering over us and leading us. Now you might disagree with this point, but something came to mind when I thought about the element of the cloud and the fire in Genesis 15 verse 17. When God met with Abraham and put him to sleep and made a covenant with him, it says in verse 17, when the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, two things showed up, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces. So two elements.
48:46 We see this pot that had smoke, and we have this torch of fire. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, to your offspring I give this land from the River Of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. And here we see in Exodus 13 that God shows up on a greater scale, this cloud, this smoke, so to speak, and this pillar of fire. And if the people of Israel were familiar with Abraham and how God instituted a covenant with them, I think it's a beautiful illustration of how they would have been continually reminded of God's covenant before them and how God was leading them to the very thing that God promised Abraham in Genesis 15. Hey, it's gonna happen.
49:33 I'm leading you. I'm showing you where to go. This is something that I've instituted, and I did not forget my promises. And they were faced with that because it was before them. So what does that have to do with you and me?
49:44 Because we're not that's not for us necessarily. What does it have to do with this understanding of being under the guidance of the Lord in our lives? The principle I think one principle is this, is that when we walk through this life, we must have God's promises before us. His promises must be there to lead us, to encourage us, to remind us, to fuel us. That's what he was doing with the Israelites.
50:09 Remember what I've spoken in the past. I did not forget my word. Don't you forget my word. And here they are walking with that in front of them and being reminded of it. But this speaks of something else too, and Eddie touched on it briefly.
50:27 It's a picture of something or someone else. And who's that person? He's divine.
50:40 You wanna read it? Do you have it? Yeah. Sure.
50:43 From verse two, it says I'm gonna read to verse six. It says, in that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be pride the pride in honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who was left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day and the smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night.
51:20 Over all the glory, there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat and for refuge and a a shelter from the storm and rain.
51:29 Yes. So that cloud is symbolic of something, and Paul gives us the parallel truth to the Christian walk in one Corinthians 10 when he's speaking to the Corinthians about their walk with God. He says, For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, one Corinthians ten:one, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all the drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. So the cloud is something that we are not divorced from concerning the Christian walk, and I believe it represents the presence of God. It represents the Holy Spirit.
52:10 If you think about the wider context even with the nation of Israel, the cloud was provided after they ate the Passover lamb. It was something that was given after the experience of applying the blood. The Holy Spirit was given after Jesus Christ died and was resurrected and ascended. And so we see here that there's this element of the presence of God that's leading them. Is that not true of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
52:36 Is he not the one that guides us into all truth? Is he not the one that convicts the world? Is he not the one that whispers in our ears? Is he not the one that reminds us and comforts us and empowers us and all these different glorious things? What else can we say about this cloud here?
52:55 The cloud was, as you mentioned, Christine, the cloud was where God spoke through. If you look at Numbers 30 three:nine excuse me, Exodus 30 three:nine, it says, When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. So the voice came through the cloud. It's the Holy Spirit in our lives that speaks to us, that warns us, that reminds us of the word, that illumines the Scriptures. It's him.
53:31 He's been given to us. When? Partially? No. Day and night.
53:36 We have this constant communion with the Holy Spirit that's available to us. We have this constant leading of the third person of the Trinity. He has been provided. You go to Exodus 14 verse 19. Look what else the presence of God does.
53:51 And the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them. For what purpose? And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. Oh, he protects us. He shelters us.
54:12 His hand is upon us. When Satan tries to come up behind us, the Holy Spirit doesn't take naps. He's fully aware, and he's fully available, and he's fully guiding. So he went from before to behind. I love that truth because he surrounds me.
54:33 And so he knows my blind spots, and he speaks he speaks yes to me directly, yes to his word, but he also speaks to other people who have the Holy Spirit that can speak to me about the things that I don't see in my life that are behind me. But But I think there's one very important element of the Holy Spirit represented in the cloud. Does anybody remember one very important truth about the cloud when it came to leading the people of Israel? Yeah, Gil?
55:10 Was it that it was before them?
55:12 It was before them, so yes. He is leading them. Don't get ahead of him. Stay behind him. Yes.
55:19 That's partly true. That's that is true, but this is it's one of the truths of a little it's not a little detail. It's later on. That's why we might not know it. But I'll try to illustrate it with my hand or with myself, I guess.
55:39 It stops, I stop. It goes, I go. Is that in the Bible? Here's Numbers nine twenty two. Whether it was two days or a month or a longer time that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in a camp and did not set out, but when it lifted, they set out.
56:04 So it's not even a matter of the cloud being provided. It's being sensitive to the cloud, being guided by him. When he says we go, we go. When he says we stay, we stay. When he doesn't give us instruction, guess what?
56:14 We stay put. And so there was a requirement of a sensitivity to the leading. And what did that require on their part? Being observant. When the cloud stayed, it stayed.
56:28 When it moved, they moved. That's no different for you and me. We have to tune into the Spirit of God in us. We have to wait on the Lord. We have to be sensitive to him and develop that sensitivity.
56:41 And so this cloud in the principles of God leading us in this life is very crucial. It was crucial for them, and it's crucial for you and me. I wonder how much of the Holy Spirit leads us in our decision making. I wonder how much of the inquiry concerning our day and our decisions do we bring before him. He's been given to us for that.
57:03 Well, how do I know if it's the Holy Spirit? We don't have to go too deep into this, but there's one major rule. If he says something that's not in the Bible, it's a different spirit. Or Or it's maybe just your thoughts or the burrito from the night before. But there is a truth that he is in us, and I think a lot of people are afraid of that truth, once again, because they pin the Holy Spirit on so many things, and it's not the Holy Spirit, and people want nothing to do with the third person of the Trinity, unfortunately.
57:35 But as Paul Washer said once before, I will not let individuals rob me from my inheritance. I'm not. It's in the Bible. It's for you and me. Let's just learn how to do it with the fear of God.
57:49 So many principles in these few verses about how God leads us in this life. When there's a delay and we're walking in obedience, it's because he's preparing you. He knows how to lead you little by little because if he doesn't, you'll be overwhelmed. There's a pillar of cloud and fire by night. I have a 24 access to the leading of God and to his goodness in my life concerning protection and warmth and comfort.
58:18 Doesn't it make life exciting? It should. It should. Why? Because God is doing all this for his name's sake, and he'll do the same for you and me.
58:29 God wants to do this for his glory, and we should be excited to know that as he leads us, he's doing it for him. And as he's doing it for him, we have to trust it. And there's another way to glorify God. And we won't go too deep into this, but in Exodus 14 verse three, For Pharaoh will save the people of Israel. They are wandering in the land.
58:51 The wilderness has shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, and they did so. So God's gonna get glory in two ways, and he does the same today. He gets glory when we walk in obedience and a sensitivity to his leading, and his plan being unveiled in our lives, and him producing testimonies and memorials, and and he gets glory even to the one that wants nothing to do with it.
59:25 Now is that God's intention or is it God's desire for all to be vessels of mercy? Go to quickly Romans nine, very quickly, and we're gonna end with these thoughts. I just wanna leave you a verse for you to chew on concerning this understanding of God choosing people for his glory, whether it's for mercy or for wrath. In Romans nine twenty one, Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? So when we read that immediately we say, so God has the choice to choose who he's gonna use for mercy and who he's gonna use to display his wrath.
1:00:27 I'm not gonna get too deep into this, but I wanna give you one little phrase. Verse 22. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, made vessels of wrath? No. Has endured with much patience.
1:00:45 Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. That phrase changes a lot. It would mean something very different. It says, what if God wants to just do it through vessels of wrath? But there's an insertion there, who has endured with much patience.
1:01:04 What does that say about these vessels of wrath? That God was patient with them. Now if they were destined to be vessels of wrath, why waste the time to be patient with them? Unless, of course, there's hope. And with Pharaoh, there was much patience as we read up to this point, but he has reached the point in which he said, I want nothing to do with you.
1:01:33 I want nothing to do with your will. I want nothing to do with your salvation. And God says, I had, as I do my desire to bring my glory through your life for my exaltation, but you don't want to. That does not rob me from my glory because I will display it in a different way. And it's unfortunate that he has to experience it this way, but this is what happens when a man refuses to serve God.
1:01:58 And so he's about to do that, and then we'll leave it for next week. But we can end with this note, that as we desire for God to be glorified and as we desire to be faithful to his calling, there are principles of his guidance in our lives. And if there's one main point that we can focus on, especially especially in the season of so many people's lives right now, is that what you might think is a delay is, in fact, a season of preparation. And usually, these moments, these senses of delay come in transitional moments in life, transitional moments in life. When they were leaving Egypt, that's a transitional moment.
1:02:42 When they're going into the promised land, that's a transitional moment. When we are stepping into a new arena, don't be surprised if God is going to work on you in order to prepare you for that step. And so I get excited when I find out that somebody's graduating from school, specifically a college student or a university student, because there's these nerves. There's this sense of I don't know what's gonna happen. And if they're faithfully walking with God and desire to serve God, you and I should rejoice in saying, you know, the Lord might be setting up something for you in a very special way so that you would never forget.
1:03:23 You would never forget how faithful he's been. You might not know how you're gonna get that internship. You might not know how you're gonna move on in life. You might not you might feel as though life is on pause right now. I can tell you from and when I'm talking about me, it's just because I could experience it, and I wanna put the spotlight on Jesus.
1:03:42 But when I graduated from school, I can tell you this, it felt like I not only paused, it felt like I put the car in reverse and went backwards. I went back to my parents' home. I went back to working with my dad. I went back to my room. I moved out of my room.
1:03:59 Now I'm back into it. And when we read there in Exodus 14, if you see that little word there, he says in Exodus fourteen one look what he says here. He says, then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp. So even when you feel like you're going in reverse, God still has a plan. Trust in every step.
1:04:38 Trust every day. Be faithful and equipped for battle. Train yourself. Soak yourself. Enjoy him for who he is, and watch what he has in store for you.
1:04:55 Watch how he is preparing you. And if you ever forget it, remember he did it with the Israelites. Now that's on an individual level, but we have to not forget that he was speaking to the nation of Israel on a corporate level. And so I wanna speak to this house corporately. Some of us know and have labored in prayer, And some of us have maybe even discussed very shortly, you know, maybe you've thought it.
1:05:24 Why aren't we seeing what God wants us to see or what we've been asking God to see? Rest assured that he knows what we can handle, what you can handle. And he knows not just the level of glory that we might experience, but he knows the challenges that might come with that, the responsibility that is coupled with it, and all those different things. So you know what we do? We just stay equipped for battle.
1:05:53 Keep showing up to prayer. Keep getting desperate. Keep reading your Bible. Keep desiring for souls to get saved. And in a moment, everything can change.
1:06:07 In a moment. Don't give up. And so tonight, as we're in the wilderness journey, let's stand up together and worship him.
