Order from Disorder
Notes
Transcript
Trust grows in the dark
Trust grows in the dark
I was in college when I read Ernest Hemingway's short story, “A Clean Well-Lighted Place.”
It’s kind of funny how certain things stick with you.
Long after I had written my papers and taken my tests, the truth of that phrase stuck with me.
“A Clean Well-lighted Place.”
You are driving home from someplace far away with your family.
It’s very late and it’s very dark.
You need gas and a stretch break - what are you looking for?
“A Clean Well-lighted place,” right?
I’ve pulled off at an exit before in the middle of nowhere only to drive right past the gas pumps and keep going.
Because the place looked sketch.
A bit dingy.
Not very well lit.
There are a number of you who are new to First Baptist.
If you have small children, I can almost guarantee that you sized our nursery and children’s area up using that basic criteria.
Is it clean?
Is it well-lighted?
Is it safe?
Is everything in order?
That’s why Hemingway’s title stuck with me - that’s what “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” represents - order.
We feel safe when our surroundings are in order.
And there is a good reason for that feeling.
1 Corinthians 14:33 (CSB) “[for] God is not a God of disorder but of peace...”
In the 15th chapter of Exodus, we see the Lord starting to teach His people how to order their lives.
Turn with me to Exodus 15.
It’s a great day.
For 20 weeks, we’ve been working to get the Israelites out from under the thumb of Pharoah.
Last week, Israel stood on the banks of the Red Sea and watched as Yahweh literally drowned all of the mighty Pharaoh’s army.
Moses, the women and all Israel sang a song of victory.
Yahweh proved His might.
He delivered them from their oppressors.
And today, the first phrase says it all, “Exodus 15:22 “Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea...”
Everything is behind them now - it’s time to move on.
Kids - when I was little, there was nothing scarier to me than the dark.
The darker it is, the harder it is to see.
And my mind would invent all kinds of incredible dangers lurking in the dark to hurt me.
It took a long time for me to realize that the dark was teaching me a lesson.
It was teaching me to trust.
In today’s story, we are going to hear how God begins to teach Israel how to trust Him.
Just like He is teaching you right now how to trust Him.
Our three words to help you follow along with the message are Lord, right and listen.
Our text is Exodus 15:22-27.
Hear now the word of the Lord. Exodus 15:22-27
Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.
And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,
saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
When I saw the wilderness of Israel for the first time, that’s when I understood the faith of the Bible.
Andy Cook said, “This was a land, I once heard, where people learned total faith. If God didn't take care of them, there would be no life.”
(Roll Video) - We don’t know the exact location of Marah from back then.
What you are seeing is the traditional site.
When they left the Red Sea, they didn’t set out on a sight-seeing tour.
They had a destination: Moses was taking them to Mt. Sinai.
That’s where He met God in the burning bush.
It’s where God said, “You’ll know you’ve done the right thing when you get back to this place with the people of Israel.”
But can you imagine?
The coast would have some greenery.
But the further they went inland, well, it looked more and more like the video.
Sand and hills as far as the eye can see.
For three days they walked - which is a curious thing we’ll talk about in a bit.
But for three days they walked and used up their water and then they saw the oasis.
Can you imagine how happy they would have been?
In the middle of this desolation, trees.
And where there are trees, there is water.
Only when the first group to get to it tasted it, it was bitter.
Not poison but bitter.
I think it’s kind of like Sarasota, Florida.
My best friend and I were staying at his brothers house for a few days.
His brother had to go to work and of course, we were on vacation, we slept in every day.
But that first morning, his brother got up to shower and it wasn’t the noise that woke me up.
It was the smell.
That was the foulest smelling water in the history of the planet.
I’m serious, it was gag-worthy.
That’s Marah - only Marah was worse.
So the text tells us, the people grumbled.
That’s a past imperfect tense which means they started grumbling and kept on grumbling.
This wasn’t a one and done thing.
But something they didn’t think about.
How did they get to Marah?
Exodus 13:22 “The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”
Who does the pillar of cloud and of fire represent?
The Lord.
Moses didn’t bring them to Marah - God did.
They were grumbling at God.
We are all pretty good at grumbling, aren’t we?
In fact, our culture encourages it.
Everyone is a victim.
With critical theory and intersectionality, it’s really a race to see who is the most oppressed.
Who, really, has the right to grumble the most.
But here is the deal - if God establishes our path, then are we victims?
If God is sovereign, if God is the ruler over all, then the darkness we go through, the trials we face, the wilderness
They are all planned by God
And if God is a God of order, which He claims He is, then there is a method to what we think is madness
He’s taking us somewhere
He’s teaching us to trust.
Now, there are a number of folks who believe that life is circumstantial, that things just happen to us
Randomly, by change, capricious and arbitrary.
“God would never cause or allow that to happen - it has to be the devil,”
“or, it just happened.”
That kind of world terrifies me.
Imagine saying, “I never saw that coming”
And God says, “Neither did I.”
I don’t live in that world.
God is a God of order.
He is in charge.
Seeing His order strengthens our ability to trust Him
He knows it’s coming and if He knows, then He will make us able to handle it.
Could it be that God’s entire M.O. in everything He does is to teach us that we can trust Him with our lives?
Let me show you some order.
Look at verse 22 - Exodus 15:22 “Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.”
How many days did they go out into the wilderness?
Three.
Flip real quick to Exodus 5:3 “Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.””
How many days did Moses and Aaron say their journey to worship the Lord needed to be?
Three days.
They are exactly where they said they needed to be to worship the Lord.
Now, flip back to 15:25-26.
“And he cried to the Lord,” the word cry there means to cry out for help.
It’s not a complaint - it’s a “I don’t know what to do Lord, I’ve go no answers. Please help.”
You and I have both cried out to the Lord, right?
What did the Lord do?
Exodus 15:25 “And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
The Lord somehow used a log to transform the water from bitter to sweet.
Not bitter to pure.
Not bitter to clean.
Not even bitter to odorless.
Bitter to sweet.
He didn’t just give them water when they were parched
He gave them Liquid IV.
So God answered Moses’ prayer for help.
The people saw Moses pray.
They saw God answer.
They had water they could drink and enjoy - it gave them another reason to worship - but there’s something more.
Remember Exodus 5:3 again - “Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.””
Pestilence and sword, that’s what the Lord did to Egypt, right?
Now listen to Exodus 15:26 “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.””
We’ve got to go three days into the wilderness - lest he fall upon us.
They’ve traveled three days and - what did the Lord show them once?
First, that He is for them and not against them.
The Lord is telling them
The Lord is telling us
I’m on your side
I know how things work
I see things you don’t see
I understand things you don’t understand
You can trust me with your life.
Listen, the Lord would not be giving them instruction if He was not on their side.
He knows we crave order - I mean, He did put it in our hearts.
We crave a clean, well lighted place.
We crave safety and knowing everything is going to be OK, right?
We crave to know that someone has our back
And knows what to do when we don’t.
That’s the Lord’s job - He assigned that to Himself.
He’s making that plain to them.
Second, He tells them this is how to have order in your life.
It sounds like four things, but it’s really only two.
Listen and do, listen and do.
Exodus 15:26 “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God
It means make yourself hear
It means to stop and pay attention.
In VBS week before last in each class I had some kids who wanted to talk while I was teaching.
They are kids - they’ve got to learn to listen
They’ve been the center of the world - they’ve got to learn that listening to their elders can save them a world of trouble.
We’ve got to learn to listen just like children do - just like the Israelites had to.
Listen attentively - to the Word of God - for the purpose of knowing it and understanding it
So you can then do Exodus 15:26 “.. and do that which is right in his eyes,...”
The last verse of the book of Judges says, “Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
If everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes
Everyone is pursuing their truth
Everyone has their own interpretation of the text
Everyone is their own king
Let me ask you this - how is that working out for us?
How many of us feel safe walking in any city by ourselves after dark?
How many of us feel the people in the government at any level have our best interest at heart?
Since COVID, how many of us trust science like we once did?
Doctors?
It was revealed a couple of weeks ago that Dr. Fauci made up the 6 foot social distancing thing and the mask thing.
It was not science based.
He made it up - He did what was right in his own eyes.
How did that work out for you?
And for your kids who were in school and your kids who missed their graduation
And for your relatives who died all by themselves because someone did what was right in their own eyes?
Everyone did what was right in their own eyes is a recipe for chaos.
For disorder
It’s at the very heart of the angst we feel.
Because God said, Exodus 15:26 “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.””
If you will actively, meaningfully listen to me
And if you will do what is right in MY eyes - what I know is right and good and just
I will be your healer.
That’s not talking about your physical healer.
It means your soul healer.
Every time you hear
Every time you do
Every time you see the Lord work in your life
The stress level drops just a notch
Because more and more you know, I can trust the Lord with my life.
Jesus says the same thing: Matthew 16:24-26
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Jesus is saying the same thing here.
If you will listen attentively - closely
Deny what you are telling yourself and listen - listen to the Lord.
Take up your cross - do that which is right is God’s eyes
And then watch to see what happens.
And I know, because I’ve been there, that you will find healing for your soul.
But listen, here is the punch line - none of that happens until you walk through the darkness
Until you walk through the wilderness until you think you are going to die
That’s when Jesus comes and says, listen and follow me
You don’t know where you are going.
Follow me, and I will give you rest.
From Marah they walked about seven miles to Elim.
There was lots of water there and date palms.
And they rested there for about 45 days
Until it was time for their next lesson.
We’re going to stand and sing in just a moment.
You’ve heard what the Lord said.
Now do what He knows is right for you.
Let us pray