Exodus II Sermon Week 2

Intro/Welcome

When have you felt most alone in your life?

Maybe you are struggling with something that you think only you are struggling with?

Perhaps you are feeling that way now

Covid has isWe olated us in a way like no other time in recent history.

We were made for connection, to be in the physical presence of others.

But even being in the physical presence of others often isn’t enough

It is enough to sit alone in a crowded coffee shop

We need a deep connection with others.

But even that will not be enough, because we were made for a spiritual connection, for a spiritual presence.

Today as we begin the story of God’s people we will see that their most pressing question is ultimately:

Exod 17:7 “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Like the Israelites we may pine after our needs and wants, but what we most need, what we were indeed designed for, was to be in the Presence of God.

There was a time when we had that in the Garden, but sin has broken that reality and we have all been living ‘east of eden’

And so God has done something amazing,

We didn’t have to ascend to be in God’s presence, he descended to be in ours.

God’s Presence with His People

God’s Presence with his people is a major theme in the whole bible

and it is a major theme in the book of exodus.

And what is happening in the second half of Exodus is:

the formation of the people of God.

It answers the question:

Ok, I’ve been saved…now what?

What does this look like?

What did the Cross accomplish?

Reconciliation with God

What does reconciliation with God mean? Being in his presence, and Him being in our presence.

Exodus answers for God’s people then and now, what it means to be with God.

To realize that we are not alone

But that God is with us.

And he is with us in miraculous ways.

God demonstrates his presence through physical and spiritual means.

Bible

We are going to be in Exodus 15:22-17:7

Today we are going to see:

God’s presence is displayed in his plan and in his provision for his people.

150 Days of Prayer

Pray

God’s Plan

Exodus 15:22 Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur.

“Then Moses”

They have just witness God’s miraculous and magnificent intervention into human history.

Their response was to worship in Song to the Lord (Exod 15)

Here they are, they are free.

They are standing on the shore of the Red Sea and they turn around and what do they sea: The Wilderness

[Image of Wilderness] ?

But God has a plan.

he’s had a plan since the beginning.

He is bringing his people home.

Promise to Abraham

In their day, he is fulfilling a 500 year old promise that was made to Abraham.

Genesis 12:7 CSB

7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

Gen 12:13-21 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. ...16 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

God is not slow to fulfill his promises as some count slowness.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

God has a plan for his people.

In our text today there are three distinct movements over about a 3 month period.

Let me show you this, becuase these places still exist today.

3 Movements: [Image of Sinai Peninsula

Red Sea to Wilderness of Shur to Elim (Exod 15:22-27)

Elim to Wilderness of Sin (Exod 16:1-36)

Wilderness of Sin to Rephidim (Exod 17:1-7)

Rephidim is at the base of Mt Sinai / Mt Horeb

God has a plan for his people.

That is he has a destination for them

They are progressing towards something.

Ultimately it is the Promised Land the Land of Canaan

God is guiding his people all along the way.

They were led always by the Pillar of Cloud by Day and a Pillar of cloud by night.

Psalm 78:13–15 CSB

13 He split the sea and brought them across; the water stood firm like a wall. 14 He led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light throughout the night. 15 He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.

God manifested himself to them all along the way by guiding them with his presence to the place he had determined.

Exod 17:1 The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

God guides his people according to his plan

Application

God has a plan. He is guiding his people together.

He doesn’t not guide us now by a pillar of cloud and fire, but by something much more significant: His Very Spirit dwelling in those who believe.

God cares about the details of your life

He has a plan for your life.

He created you a particular way for a particular purpose.

When the people of God realize their purpose, the power of God can be released through them.

So God guides through his presence

But he also displays his presence through his provision.

Let’s take a look at each leg of this journey to Sinai.

Red Sea to Marah to Elim

Exodus 15:22-24 Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They journeyed for three days in the wilderness without finding water. 23 They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah. 24 The people grumbled to Moses, “What are we going to drink?”

The People Grumble

Three days with water is about the max.

It’s funny how when our needs for survival needs are threatened how we forget the power of God.

Notice that they do not turn to God and ask

rather they turn to Moses and grumble.

Moses’s Response: Prayer

Moses response in the right way

He cries out to the Lord, we call that Prayer

Exodus 15:25 So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he threw it into the water, the water became drinkable. The Lord made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah, and he tested them there.

And the Lord answered him

Very specifically, he showed him a tree

When this tree was thrown into the water a miracle happened.

What was not fit for consumption became not just drinkable, but sweet.

Matthew 6:33 CSB

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Then it says

Exod 15:25-27 ...The Lord made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah, and he tested them there. 26 He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, pay attention to his commands, and keep all his statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

The Lord is teaching his people he is instructing him.

This is the Hebrew word ‘Torah’

If they would obey the voice of the Lord, live rightly, pay attention to his words

Things will go well.

Jesus in the sermon on the Mount Clarifies this even more:

It’s not so much, do these things and you will live

But if you are alive to God this is the kind of person you are becoming.

This is why it says God ‘tested’ them.

God knows the condition of their heart and their need to grow in their trust of Him

But they do not realize that yet.

In fact, we don’t realize the strength or object of our faith until we are tested by life’s circumstances.

All of it is mean to drive us deeper into the presence of God, to depend on him for all of our needs.

Christ Connection - Bitter made Sweet

What is interesting here is the connections to Jesus all throughout the book of exodus.

Here we see water which is necessary for life, not fit for consumption, in fact bitter

Yet God identifies a tree which turns the water from bitter to sweet

Christ was hung on a tree, on the cross to pay for the sins of the world.

He took what was bitter and made it sweet

So now Following God’s Word which was once bitter to our hearts has now been made sweet by the Cross of Christ.

Sin has been removed and we have been reconciled to God.

Elim

Then God amazingly leads them to Elim which is a kind of oasis.

Exod 15:27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy date palms, and they camped there by the water.

a mini-paradise in the wilderness

It had 12 springs and seventy palms.

why is this significant?

Numbers in the Bible are often symbolic.

Why 12? — 12 tribes of Israel — they were mean to be like twelve watering holes that would nourish the world.

Why 70 palms? — 7 and 10 are numbers of completion and wholeness

So these twelve tribes of God’s people were meant to nourish the world with God’s truth

to be a light to the nations.

God is showing him his intention for them, his plan.

A Microcosm of their Journey

In many ways these first 7 verses are a microcosm of the whole journey from the wilderness to the promised land.

The people continue to grumble, complain and fail to trust God

God provides for them and eventually leads them to the Promise Land — an oasis of God’s presence.