From the River to the Sea

The Lord is our best protector and provider

I know that I’m much more interested in our society and cultural changes than many of you are.

And that’s understandable to an extent - it’s who God’s created me to be.

He called me to be a shepherd and as I’ve stated, “It is a poor shepherd indeed who doesn’t tell his sheep where the wolves are hiding.”

I’m not encouraging you to become a news junkie and live on Fox or CNN.

I am encouraging you to pay attention to the news and the world around you.

You need to vote and if you aren’t registered you need to get registered before time runs out.

We may have been led to believe that we in the church should not be tainted by the fray, but that’s an illusion of the devil.

John Stuart Mill said in 1867:

“Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.” John Stuart Mill (www.openculture.com/2016/03/edmund-burkeon-in-action.html)

I implore you, trouble yourself to think about what you see happening around you.

Compare what you see to what you know from the scripture - then do what needs to be done.

Let me tell you what brought this on.

Our scripture today is Exodus 23:20-33.

If you can, very quickly look at verse 31.

While you look it up, let me catch you up.

On many of the most elite, name brand campuses in the United States, students protested in support of Hamas.

They call themselves pro-Palestinian - but what they are doing is they are supporting the terrorist organization Hamas.

If you don’t know, Hamas resides in the Gaza Strip in Israel and Hamas’ stated goal is to eradicate Israel.

On October 7 of last year, Hamas attacked Israel and killed over 1,000 innocent people and took hundreds hostage.

Shot 6 in cold blood just a week ago just before they were about to be rescued - one of which was American.

On the campuses of such schools as Yale University, Georgetown University, George Washington University,

Georgia Tech, UGA, Kennesaw State, Emory University and Mercer

Students walked out of classes, they marched and they chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Some of our political leaders said that means that, from the Jordan river, Israel’s current border to the east

To the Mediterranean sea, Israel’s border to the west, Palestinians and Israelis will be able to peacefully co-exist.

They are lying to us when they way that - Hamas has no qualms about their stated goal of the eradication of the Jews and the elimination of the Jewish state.

From the river to the sea - look at Exodus 23:31 “And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.”

When I read our text for today, I heard in my spirit, “from the river to the sea.”

The Lord told Israel, I am giving the land from the Euphrates river all the way down to the tip of the Sinai Peninsula

And from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

Had Israel obeyed the Lord, the land of Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon would be Israel.

And while Israel is lush and green and beautiful and a wonderland of Jesus history

It is not the nation they could have been if they had obeyed the Lord.

None of the protests, none of the attacks, none of the hostage taking would have occurred if they had followed the Lord.

They’ve had success, but not their best success.

Our best success happens when we rely on the Lord.

Kids, let me give you our three words to help you follow along on your worship guide today, Jesus, Israel and Land.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from Exodus 23:20-33

Exodus 23:20–33 ESV

“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. I will not drive them out from 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 from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God

Let us ask for the Lord’s help as we approach His word.

Holy Father,

Your Word surprises us all of the time.

Just like today - Dear Holy Spirit, illuminate this text so our feeble minds can comprehend some of the love you have for us.

Remember we are but dust and are often stiff-necked - soften our hearts that we may hear.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

The mistake we do not want to make here is to make this scripture completely about us as individuals.

First, it was written to the nation of Israel.

That means we are more interested in the principles it teaches rather than specific actions.

Second, it was written to the NATION of Israel

And not to individuals.

While the principles might apply individually, they are written to a people.

The principles that we see apply to the Church, and more specifically for us, they apply to the First Baptist Church of Gray.

These are principles that we should apply as we seek to follow the Lord’s direction right here in this place.

So what are they?

The Lord is our protector and provider

Look at Exodus 23:20 ““Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.”

Behold - watch me.

Check me out - pay attention and see what I’m going to do.

That’s what Yahweh tells them.

I send an angel.

I’m not going into the reasons I believe this, but I believe the angel is the pre-incarnate Jesus.

I’ll give you a big word - Christophany - it is vision or appearance of Jesus.

Not everyone agrees with me, but a lot of commentators do and it just make sense.

But I will give you this:

This angel will “bring you to the place I have prepared.”

Does that ring a bell?

John 14:2–3 (ESV)

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

It seems Jesus has been preparing for His people for a long time.

He will guard us until we get there.

And He will provide for us, not only on the trip, he will provide the place for us to go.

The Lord is our success

Exodus 23:22 ““But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”

There is a do here - a requirement and this is crazy important.

Listen - if you will carefully, intently, hungrily

If you will listen with desire to know and understand

And then when you hear it, you do it and you do it all… then, he says.

Now, let’s say this about that.

Israel doesn’t listen carefully and do all.

We have history to prove it to us.

Israel’s problem today in Gaza is because they did not do what the Lord told them to do 3,400 years ago.

Israel is a successful nation, but what would their success have looked like had they followed Jesus as He said?

Listen to me,

You and I have heard, and maybe said it to ourselves - why do these things happen to me?

Do you really need an answer?

Jesus tells us as a Church and as individuals: Matthew 6:33

Matthew 6:33 ESV

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The next time you find yourself in a mess - and you will find yourself in another one

Let me give you a diagnostic question to ask yourself:

As I did what I did, what was the first thing on my mind?

Chances are great it wasn’t the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And since it wasn’t, what did you expect was going to happen?

Look at Exodus 23:21 “...do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.”

When we rebel against Jesus, exactly what good thing are we expecting to happen to us?

But if we do obey and do - Jesus promises:

In verse 22 - He will be an enemy to our enemies and an adversary to our adversaries.

Look at verse 23 - “When my angel goes before you and brings you to the - and then He lists all of the enemies that live in the land

What does He say He will do - “I will blot them out.”

Another way of saying blot is to say, He will make them disappear.

But that comes with another requirement.

Look at verse 24 Exodus 23:24 “you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.”

Where have you heard that before?

That’s the first and second commandment right?

Now listen carefully, the Lord tells them, when you come in and I make these people disappear you are to utterly… see that word

Utterly - completely - turn them to dust

Grind their idols into powder and break every temple, altar, memorial stone - smash them all to smithereens

Listen - do not keep them as art.

Do not keep something in order to remember their culture.

Why?

Jump all the way down to verse 33: Exodus 23:33 “They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.””

They will be a snare to you.

Let me tell you how.

See, we always wonder how these folks could follow someone else’s idols when they saw what God did like it came from the movie, “The Ten Commandments.”

How could they be so stupid - they saw the fire on the mountain

They heard the voice of God for crying out loud.

How could they be so dense.

Let me tell you how - and I can do it in four words - “It worked for them.”

Remember what you know.

When the Israelites sent the spies into the promised land, do you remember what they found?

The story is in Numbers 13.

They found a cluster of grapes so large that they had to carry it on a pole between two men.

Have you ever?

They found pomegranates and figs.

Joshua called it “a land that flows with milk and honey.”

They didn’t enter the promised land that time but eventually they did.

Remember where they’ve been and what they’ve done.

They made bricks in Egypt.

They ate manna in the wilderness.

They aren’t big time farmers.

They know they aren’t big time farmers.

Up until now they’ve trusted the Lord to take care of their enemies but now that He’s given us this land

We’ll need to be big time farmers, we’ll need to raise a crop.

And obviously the folks that live here do a really good job of it, and we could learn from them.

“It worked for them, it will work for me.”

They were doing something right - seems like what they were doing worked.

And before you know, without meaning to or even thinking about, they find themselves enemies of God.

3,400 years ago and we say the same thing.

In debt up to our eyeballs - living paycheck to paycheck - driving ourselves to exhaustion.

Driving our kids to exhaustion in academics and sports so they can get a scholarship to go to a college where many of their professors hate the very things you believe.

And we do it because we want our kids to have materially successful lives

And our road map to success is found in the world around us, “It worked for them,” I bet it will work for my kid too.

Back to the diagnostic question: As I did what I did, what was the first thing on my mind?

Bet it wasn’t the Kingdom.

Don’t feel bad - we’ve all done it.

What’s important is, will we repent from it and follow Jesus, because

He is our victory

Now remember this is written to a people, not a person.

So as you read through verses 25 - 28, don’t say, “I did my best to follow Jesus and this still happened to me.”

I’m thinking in particular to verse 26 - Exodus 23:26 “None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”

I know many of you have had miscarriages and some of you would love to have a baby but a baby never came.

I have heard the hurt in your hearts and know the tears.

This is not a broken promise to you - this is written to a nation and a church.

The Lord is telling them, I will give you everything you need to carry on as my people.

It may seem like everything is going wrong, but it is not.

You will have enough food and water.

You will have enough healthy folk to get all of the work done and to defend this place.

There will be enough children being born that the nation will not only maintain it’s population

It will grow.

You want an indicator that the Lord has removed His hand of blessing from the United States?

The current birth rate in the United States is 1.66 children per woman.

In case math is your weak spot, 1.66 is less than two - it’s not even a replacement birth rate.

You want to know the killer stat here?

In 1960, the birth rate was 3.65 per woman.

And someone will argue and say, so look at the blessing contraception and abortion have been for women

Look at the opportunities women have now.

And we should say, yes indeed, but let me ask you this, what good is an opportunity if there is no one left to enjoy them?

This text has a lot more treasure to give up, but our time is about up so let’s tie a bow on this.

We said that some of the principles in this text will apply to individuals but that the text is really written to the people of the church.

So what does it say to us as a body?

It tells us that we can count on Jesus to protect and provide for the First Baptist Church of Gray.

This text tells us that we can and should expect ministerial success

We should expect our community to be changed because they hear Jesus from us

And we should expect some of those folks to come to this church.

This text tells us not to hope this will happen, it says, “Behold” - expect it to happen - watch for it to happen - because the Lord is our victory.

He will make it happen.

However, he won’t do it unless we keep our end of the covenant.

Matthew 6:33 ESV

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Our first thought before our every decision

From the simplest of am I going to get up and go to Sunday groups and Worship today

To harder decisions like am I going to give my time to teach about the Lord and my money to continue the ministry of Jesus here

To the even harder decisions how do we exist in unity as a diverse group of Christians

Our first thought that will guarantee our success is that

We must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

When we do that, Jesus will make every thing else fall right into place.

I’m counting on it - He told me to watch for it - I’m going to.

Are you?

Brothers and sisters, there are some in our midst today who have never trusted Jesus as their savior.

We need to pray for them.

Some of them don’t care - we need to pray they do.

Some of them don’t know Jesus can help them - we need to pray that Jesus shows them.

And some of them are wrestling with the Lord - we need to pray they surrender their lives to Him.

In a moment we’ll pray and then we’ll sing.

If you’ve never trusted Jesus as your savior, I invite you to walk this aisle and tell me you want to follow him.

This place will go crazy if you do.

And brothers and sisters, pray that Jesus will add to His kingdom.

Let us pray.