Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

This morning, I am going to take us back to a super familiar narrative of the Old Testament.

One that I hope will have a new and refreshing take upon our lives.

For me as I was studying this passage in my devotional life this past week, I couldn’t help but be encouraged, excited, and exhorted at the reminder and directive that God laid on my heart.

This passage really drew me in as I see how it so relates so well with all that is happening to us these days.

With so many people hurting and with the world in the state it is in, it is very easy to identify with the people in this passage.

So with that being said I do hope that we will all be deeply encouraged and walk more vibrantly with the Lord because of what is heard today.

As we begin our time diving into the scriptures, I know for many of you this is not the first time you have heard of this account or the first time you have read it, nor do I believe that it will be your last.

But what I hope that will happen today is that you will take this title “The Exodus of Unbelief” and that title will forever stick in your mind of what took place in this passage.

The Israelites departure from the land of Egypt was a grand event.

One in which God worked incredible power and made himself vastly known here on this earth.

Yet, in all the glorious power revealed, I don’t want us to miss the incredible amounts of unbelief that happened during this event as well.

This title has a bit of a double meaning to it as well.

Not only are we looking at the exodus which was characterized by much unbelief, but I also want us to leave here seeing this as a passage of how we can “exit” or literally leave behind unbelief.

The Exodus of Unbelief in our own lives.

With that being said, let’s pray to begin our time together.

Before we read our passage, let’s first get a little context.

Nation of Israel, long ago was but a small nation.

Abraham the father of the Nation begot a son named Isaac who gave birth to a son Jacob who himself had 12 sons.

One of those sons, Joseph, was the youngest and most favored.

Because of that his brothers sold him to slavers who brought him to Egypt, there through many things and through many difficulties, God raised him up to become the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.

God used this event to bring Joseph’s family to Egypt where there were kept fame from a severe famine that lasted seven years.

During that time in Egypt, Jacobs sons flourished and multiplied and became a large people.

Many years past and Joseph eventually died but the people stayed in Egypt.

A new Pharoah arose and feared the great numbers of the Israelites.

It was in his fear that he made the Israelites to serve him as slaves and endure hard laboring so that a revolt wouldn’t take place.

It was during this time that God raised up a man, Moses, to be his vessel in freeing the people from slavery.

God had shown incredible acts called the plagues to not only free the people from Pharoah but also to show to Israel and the nations that He alone was God, He alone was supreme, all these others gods that the Egyptians created couldn’t do a thing against Him.

God’s final plague was the taking of all the first born sons.

He would send His death angel to kill all of them but would spare them that killed a spotless lamb and put the blood on their doorposts.

This the angel of God would “passover” that house and that would be freed from that fate as well.

Upon this final plague, pharaoh finally agreed to let the people go.

No more battering, no more, trying to control the terms of their exit.

There were commanded to leave and commanded to take the lifestock as well.

All could leave.

It is about there that we pick up the events in our passage.

The first thing we see in this passage is…

I. Preparation of God’s People (v.1-4)

Those that are familiar with this passage what is about to happen in the next events.

The great crossing of the Red Sea.

But it is very intriguing as we look at this account to see all the little details we may have missed before.

We know that Israel was about to face some extremely difficult trials.

The very immediate trial was one that there very lives were at stake.

Yet, just as it is with God, He never leaves his people unprepared.

We see God prepared the people in two ways.

I(A).

He prepared them for their direction

Reading again in verses 1-4 it says that “the Lord said to Moses, tell Israel that we are going to instead of going a straight line towards Canaan, (what they might call the “way of the sea” -Mediterranean sea) We are going to head more of a south easterly course.

Then as this passage clarifies, when they reached the Red sea to the southeast of Egypt, instead of taking the journey east they went more southwest which put the Red Sea between them and Canaan the land of their new home.

Now this next part in verse 3, I am not certain but feel fairly confident that God not only told the Israelites what direction they would take but also the trials that would await them.

I(B.)

He prepared them for their trials

In verse 3, God literally shared with the people that Pharoah would be coming after them but that He would deliver them again.

Whether or not their certainly did know that detail, Moses definitely knew and He was well prepared for the trial that would come.

What is absolutely wonderful about these verses is the wonderful care that God exhibits on His people.

Never have we ever seen in history past and present nor we will see it different in the future, that God sends trials to people who are unprepared.

Think of all the people that God sent hard trials to in the Bible, yet with each one of them, God had equipped them with all the tools to prevail within His power.

Think of David in facing Goliath.

A huge trial but God had been equipping him while he was yet a shepherd in the fields.

Think of Paul, even while he was yet Saul and a persecutor of God’s people was not God preparing him to be one of the greatest evangelist the world had ever known.

How we was able to speak before Herod and the Sanhedrin and even his Jewish audiences because God used his past for that very reason.

Think of Jesus in John 15.

He told His disciples on multiple occasions that they would face hard trials and diverse persecutions because of their following of Him.

He told them this so that they would be prepared.

Think of even Moses in this passage.

Leader of billions of people.

Did he think himself qualified for such a task?

Did he think he could accomplish this thing?

We find that he had plenty of objections to God’s assignment, but God knew he was ready!

God had been preparing him for this very thing.

Just in case you weren’t already aware, Moses would have been over 80 years old at this time.

He spent 40 years in Egypt as a prince.

God was preparing him there.

God certainly groomed in him a desire to help his people.

He did it in the wrong way by striking down an Egyptian soldier.

He was proud at that time and thought he was the answer.

He couldn’t understand why the people rejected him at that time.

It’s fascinating.

You’ll have to look at Acts 7 in your spare time to see more of those special details that Steven reveals in his sermon.

From a once proud prince in Egypt, he runs for his life to a land far away and spends another 40 years in the wilderness learning humility, tending sheep, and perhaps working on his faith.

God was preparing him even then so he could be ready to lead the people and He would by the power of God.

And God is the same God now as He was and is then.

We read in 1 Corinthians 10:13

The key word again is “beyond your ability.”

He knows you far better than you know yourself.

Who enabled or who strengthened me.

That’s what He does.

And has He given us everything we need today in order to live for Him.

Absolutely.

His word, His spirit, His church… we have it all and He is equipping us with it.

We may doubt his decision, but He is faithful to prepare us for the trial ahead of us!

That is the God we serve.

He will not throw us into something that we cannot handle without His strength but can be more than conquerors through Him.

The reason we fail in those trials isn’t because we have been i’ll prepared but because we have been unfaithful.

The problem we have with failures can never be the fault of a holy God but the fault of imperfect man.

Just know that God is not insensitive and callously throws us to the wolves.

No He adequately prepares us.

II.

Opposition Allowed by God (v.5-9)

In these next verses, we read that God not only allowed this evil man to do his deeds but actually ordained it to be so.