Exodus: God Guides

God Is Faithful In The Alternate Routes

So Israel has been released from their captivity to begin their very adventurous journey as a freed people.

What we find over and over again in this story of deliverance is God requiring his people to trust him beyond what they can see and understand. Take this example in chapter 13:17-18

The route through the land of the Philistines was actually the quickest route to get to their promised destination and yet it wasn’t the route ordained by God.

God gives Moses the reason...”Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt”.

Simply put, they weren’t ready to fight. They left EQUIPPED for BATTLE (meaning they had the necessary tools for battle) but they weren’t READY for battle. They were physically prepared but not spiritually prepared. Had they went on that route they would have swiftly returned to Egypt. And so, God gives them an alternate route. Not because it was the quickest route, but because it was the best route.

This example applies to the LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN.

God’s route is not always the quickest route because God’s goal is His glory and our sanctification.

You know many of us complain about the time that God often takes to put us somewhere. The time that he takes to promote us to a position on a job, the time that he takes to change a relationship in our life, the time that he takes to open up a door on a ministry that we believe that he’s called us to...

But oftentimes, God uses the distance between where we are and where he desires us to be to actually ready us for when we arrive to that place.

How many times have you been upset that you didn’t get somewhere sooner only to realize when you finally got there that you would have messed it up if you got there any sooner than God allowed you to.

God’s alternate route prepares us, God’s alternate route protects us, God’s alternate route provides for us. It’s not always an easier route but it doesn’t need to be…The one who travels with us knows every obstacle on the road and not only knows how to help us navigate it but also has the power to move it out of the way.

Don’t forget His promise to us:

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

God is working in those alternate routes in our lives to receive glory and to confirm us more and more into the image of His son.

Even in the alternate routes, God remains faithful...

In fact, not only is faithful, but

God Leads Us Through The Alternate Routes

We see His faithfulness on display here through His presence. Check out verses 21-22

English Standard Version Chapter 13

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. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

God provided Israel HIS CONSTANT presence to lead them on this alternate route. A literal cloud in the day that became a pillar of fire at night Whether in the night or in the day, God provided guidance to His people. IT DID NOT DEPART FROM THE PEOPLE

APPLICATION: For the Christians here today, have you ever read this passage and said to yourself...

“Man, I wish the Lord worked liked that in my life! I wish he provided that constant guiding and presence in my life”

Can I encourage you today? God has provided that to you. He’s provided that to you…to us in the person of the Holy Spirit!

John 14:25–26 ESV

25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 16:13–15 ESV

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Spirit of the living God is not a cloud outside of us…but a person dwelling in us, to lead us and guide us in accordance to the Will of God.

How often do you make that appeal to the Lord. Lord guide me by your Spirit. Lead me by your Spirit. Direct me by your Spirit. Order my steps by your Spirit!

One of the chief evidences of God’s faithfulness to us in the alternate routes of life. The routes that appear off course. The routes that feel to hard to travel. Is the SPIRIT OF GOD.

When we travel the hard roads, we can trust that we are not traveling them the alone.

In the words of King David...

Psalm 23:4 ESV

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Speaking of the shadow of the death…Here is another insight into alternate routes that God sends us on.

God Is Glorified On The Alternate Routes

Exodus 14:1–3 ESV

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’

Notice that God not only sends them down an alternate route…he literally turns them around and sends them backwards. The move is so precarious, so suspect to the human eye, that God says…Pharaoh is going to see you coming back and he’s going to think you had no other choice..

Let me share something with you: If you’ve ever tried to discern God’s will for your life by asking yourself what’s the easiest path, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.

Over and over again, we see God’s will leading us to the banks of troubled waters. Is it always hard? Of course not. However, if it is always easy, then you can rest assured that it is sometimes your will and not God’s.

Abraham and Sarah were given the hard path when the Lord established a covenant with Abraham at 75 telling them he was going to father many nations and then gave them Issac at 100 years of age.

Joseph was given the hard path when He was sold into slavery as a young man because of the jealousy of His brothers and falsely incarcerated because of the bitter rejection felt by a powerful woman, but yet trusted God through it all

Daniel was given the hard path when ceased for his refusal to join the masses in making an idol out of a political figure but yet trusted God all the way through the Lions’ Den

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were given the hard path when they refused to bow their knee to the King in worship but yet trusted God all the way through the fiery furnace.

The Prophets

The Apostles

All of these saints had to take a hard road of obedience enroute to seeing God work in powerful and marvelous ways for them. Why should we consider ourselves exempt?

Sometimes, God sends us to the hard place on purpose: The hard decision, the hard action, the hard work

Why would He send us down the alternate route?

Exodus 14:4 ESV

4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

God will sometimes send us down the alternate route in order to receive glory for leading us through the route. God will send us down a road that we can travel through. The obstacles too plenty, the road too narrow, our strength too feeble, in order to receive the glory for getting us to our destination.

Oftentimes, we want the easy path but sometimes, the easy path also makes it easier for us or for those watching us to believe that we got to the other side on our own.

So, God sends us along the alternate route, the route that leads us right through the opposition in order that we may not lose sight of who it is that is ultimately bringing us to the other side.

EXAMPLE: Even in your story of salvation, the requirements of our salvation are orchestrated in such a way where little doubt is left that we can save ourselves. The more we understand it, the more we know that apart from Christ it would never happen. The more we understand the work of salvation, the more we realize just how much grace is required to save wretches like us.

God is Holy; We are not

God requires perfection; We are unable to give it

God is deserving of the Highest allegiance; We fail Him daily

It’s a hard road but instead of leaving us to wander it alone destined for certain failure, He sends His son! He sends Christ Jesus to come and die for us, taking our place and carrying us across the path of salvation that we were unable to walk in order that we might be delivered from an eternal hell and that in doing so, He might receive ALL THE GLORY!

He does a similar thing here with Moses and Israel as He turns them back towards Pharoah and Egypt.

Don’t miss what is actually happening here in the regret that they have for Israel’s departure.

“We can’t let Israel leave because if they leave we lose all of that free labor. “

INJUSTICE is often fueled by a crave for comfort.

When we think about the negatives of comfort, we sometimes think of comfort as an thief of growth and while that is true. Comfort doesn’t just impact us, but it can impact those around us. Our comfort can not only be an obstacle impeding our growth, it can be a obstacle impeding our compassion

The biggest tests we sometimes face in showing compassion comes when our comfort is threatened.

Many historical examples of slavery were not just sheer cruelty but it was cruelty that gave the oppressor economic advantages...

If we’re not careful, we can let that sort of cruelty creep into our understanding of how we care for the homeless, the refugee, the unborn…maybe it shows up when you’re silent around your friends about the injustice of babies being taken from the wombs of mothers because you don’t want to offend those who vote one way…maybe it shows up when you’re silent about the thousands of immigrant children who were taken from their parents without an effective plan to return them and the hundreds who still haven’t been reunited because you don’t want to offend those who vote another way. See our comfort will silence us from speaking to “our” groups and we’ll just convince ourselves instead that it is best to keep silent because at least our group isn’t as bad as the other group.

If we’re not careful, that crave for comfort we’ll cause us to pass by the wounded man providentially lying on the side of the roads the Lord leads us down.

And by the way, if you haven’t noticed, part of the reason, not the only reason, but part of the reason that America struggles so mightily with conversations about justice is because, generally speaking, we love our comfort like few other places in the world.

Don’t let your comfort rob you of compassion...

So Pharoah gathers His army, with their mighty horses and chariots, with all their military training and artillery and they head off to go and get their servants back.

If this were a Hollywood blockbuster, this would be the moment where the director would break into a montage of rapid fire clips where the bad guys would be training and the good guys would training, and the bad guys would be loading their guns and the good guys would be loading their guns and they would have some hype music playing in the background with some hard knocking bass and some crazy guitar riffs; maybe Eminem’s One Shot. All leading up to the confrontation but that is not quite how this story goes…which leads to my final point...

God Saves On The Alternate Route

Again, Israel took the longer route and now they are starting to regret that Moses led them this way...

English Standard Version Chapter 14

10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.

With Egypt bearing down on them, what does Israel do? They start to doubt and they start to turn on Moses.

Exodus 14:11–12 ESV

11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

One of the most interesting observations one could make when reading through the Exodus account over and over again is how physical freedom doesn’t necessarily always mean actual freedom. Their bodies were with Moses, unchained and enroute to the crossing of the Red Sea, but their minds and hearts were still back in Egypt.

God recently had turned Nile into blood, brought hordes of frogs, locust, and gnats and flies. He had brought pestilence and sickness to their enemies even striking dead their first born children and they still suffered from illness of bondage. They had eaten from the table of bondage for so long that they despised the delicacy of freedom.

The chains are gone but bondage is still present.

All of us at some point or another in our lives are Israel. God is offering us eternal freedom. Deliverance. Miraculous salvation. New birth and yet as life gets harder, the doubts creep in and we say “Nah God, I’m good. The taste of bondage is disgusting but it is all I know.” Some of you are still turning back to Egypt even though God is calling you to come and follow Him. Even through the hardship, he is calling you to stop taking your path and to turn to Freedom. Turn To Christ.

Thank God He pursues Us. Praise God He comes after Us. Praise God He doesn’t leave us in our miserable state but He leaves the 99 sheep in order to pursue the 1 who wanders away.

Listen to Moses as he encourages Israel and may he also encourage you!

Exodus 14:13–14 ESV

13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Here is what Moses knows in this moment…that Israel has failed to fully understand and that Pharoah and Egypt has failed to understand...

Pharoah and Egypt HAVE EVERY ADVANTAGE but God.

Moses and Israel HAS NO ADVANTAGE but God

Moses gives Israel something even more spectacular than they could have ever imagined.

14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Israel’s battle with Egypt isn’t one in which they have to fight. The salvation of the Lord has arrived but it is not a salvation that they have to earn...

What is their responsibility? FEAR NOT, STAND FIRM, SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD, BE SILENT...

IN OTHER WORDS, TRUST GOD!!!!

This is a beautiful picture of our salvation! Over and over again, we try to earn our way across the waters of eternity...

Exalting Jesus in Exodus Who Is Like You, O Lord?

Consider Moses’ role. On the one hand he was identified with the Israelites, and on the other he was identified with God. You have one man so identified with the Israelites that their guilt was on him. He got rebuked for the Israelites’ sin in verse 15. God said, “Why are you crying out to Me?” There is no indication that Moses himself was crying, but he got rebuked anyway. He was also so identified with God that God’s power was working through him (vv. 21,26). That is a mediator. He is the man in the middle. But there is another mediator, a better one, Jesus Christ. He was not just rebuked for one sin in one verse, but this mediator took God’s wrath for all our sin. And this mediator was God ( John 1:1). Jesus is the only way we cross over. He is our mediator.

After the Lord delivers Egypt with a mighty hand…They sing a song of praise to Him

English Standard Version Chapter 15

2  The LORD is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him,

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3  The LORD is a man of war;

the LORD is his name.

Exodus 15:11–13 ESV

11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. 13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

They realized that without Christ no salvation is possible!!!!

To What END IS THE LORD BRINGING SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST? TO THE END OF GLORY AND PRAISE!

This is why he brings us through the trials, takes us down the alternate paths, carves out a plan of salvation that we in no way can obtain on our own…so that he might be