Sermon Tone Analysis

We’ll be continuing our series through the book of Exodus this morning.

We’ll be starting out in Exodus 13, so if you have your Bible, and i hope that you do, turn with me there.

And for those of you who have been here throughout the Exodus series… guess what…

It’s over!!!! Finally it’s over!

After that tenth plague, Pharaoh has had enough and told us to get out!

Honey, make sure Zachariah and Esther go to the bathroom one more time before we leave… and I’m going to go Google Maps the promise land to get directions.

Finally… Finally we get to the point in Exodus when the Israelites leave Egypt.

Can you imagine the joy that they had on the morning after the Passover when Pharaoh finally said GO… be gone… leave… get out of here… and they left.

Numbers 33 says that they left boldly and in plain view of Pharaoh and the Egyptians while the Egyptians buried their firstborn sons.

What an amazing moment… they were leaving… they were bound for the Promised Land.

And as this mass of Israelites, we know that there were at least a million of them, as they leave, they turn right instead of turning left.

They go the long way instead of the short way.

You can just hear the backseat drivers now… right?

Hey Moses!

My GPS says we should have turned left.

Moses… We missed our exit!

Little did they know, that God was still at work in their lives to deliver them… but this time, He’s working to deliver their heart.

They didn’t realize that God was leading them the long and hard way so that He could not only deliver their bodies, but He could deliver their hearts.

Exodus 13… We’ll see that God takes them the long way… God takes them the wrong way, at least that’s their opinion… Look at verse 17... (...sea)

He takes them the long way.

Instead of taking them down Highway 67… Four lanes of direct speed, He takes them down a one lane dirt road.

Not only does God take them the wrong way… but He wanders them around in strange ways to entice Pharaoh to chase them.

Look at Exodus 14 starting in verse 1…

So they turn around, backtrack, and setup camp at a dead end… by the sea.

Verse 3 and 4 tells us the reason…

So there they were… trapped… stuck… no way out… backed into a corner… What in the world was God doing?

Didn’t He tell the people that when they eat the Passover meal to use unleavened bread… there’s no time to let the bread rise… we’ll be leaving too quickly.

Didn’t He tell them to eat with the sandals on and their cloaks tucked into to their belts so that they would be ready to go at the drop of a hat.

And now, after all those hurried preparations, God has them wandering around… and has led them to a trap.

And so we ask, God Why?

Why say, we’re leaving in a hurry for the Promised Land, and then lead them into a trap in the desert… He takes them the back way and puts them in between the sea and the desert, with seemingly no escape.

He knows they need deliverance in their hearts.

Listen, all along, God was working with the Israelites to help them to see who He was… so that they would obey and follow Him.

And so, He knows that they need deliverance in their hearts.

Isn’t’ that how God works?

He knows where we’re at… He knows the condition of our hearts… And He takes us to places where it feels like there’s no way out so that He can reveal the character of our heart… deliver us… and glorify Himself.

And all at the same time, taking us, and our hearts, from point A to point B to point C and so on.

He does this to move our hearts closer to Him.

Listen… Everything God does is to point us to His deliverance and glory… and to make us more like Himself.

As we look at the rest of our text today, it’s very clear that the Israelites did not know God very well… they did not trust Him… they did not believe Him… Even after everything that He had done… After everything He had showed them… they still wanted to do their own thing… And God is going to work to bring them a deliverance of the heart.

We won’t read verses 5 through 9 for the sake of time… But it basically tells us that Pharaoh has been enticed… and he decides that letting the people go was a stupid mistake.

He’s probably a little ticked off… wants revenge… and so now, he coming after them.

He’s gathered together his army and his best officers… his best chariots… and now he’s in pursuit of the Israelites.

He’s coming hard after them, and he’s going to devour them.

Look at verse 10… and as we read it, I want you to catch the imagery here… catch this moment in your mind…

What they’re really saying is, God… Are you so ignorant that you would bring us out here to die in the desert?

God… don’t you know what you’re doing?

Read on… Verse 12…

God… We don’t want you… We want Egypt!

We would rather be in slavery.

God… Your ways are not good… we would have been better off where we were.

We would have been better off to die as slaves.

God, you know what, I was better off before you got involved in my life.

So we see Israel’s heart.

And just think about it… Think about what the Israelites had seen.

I mean, they had the 10 plagues… the 10 signs and wonders that showed that God is in control… and that He is all powerful.

They had their firstborn sons with them… They had put the blood over the door, and the next morning, their sons were still alive while the firstborn of Egypt perished.

God was faithful to them.

In so many ways, God was faithful.

For crying out loud, they were being led by a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night so that they could see.

We haven’t even talked about this… but this enormous cloud was leading them right out of Egypt, symbolizing… no, not symbolizing… this was the literal presence of God before them… leading them… They had it all!

And there they are… with their backs against the wall and they say, God, you don’t know what you’re doing.

We would have been better off if we would have never listened to you.

And I have to say, as we think about this text together… Isn’t that what we do?

Can’t you see yourself in the faces of these Israelites?

I can.

Because the moment life gets hard… and we are led down a path that really doesn’t seem to lead anywhere… we think, God, don’t you know what you’re doing?

Why are you doing this God?

And we begin to see that, just like Israel, we need a deliverance of the heart.

Video - Trust Fall

Now, Moses was angry… not only Moses, but God was angry… let’s keep reading and we’ll see that through Moses, God says the words that are not allowed to be said in my house… He says… Shut Up!

We don’t use that word in our house, but it’s in the Hebrew, so I’m going to use it this morning, right?

Let’s read it.

Verse 13…

This is not a… there, there Israelites… everything will be Ok… I’m going to take care of you… Daddy’s not going to let the boogeyman get you.

No! That last phrase, you need only to be still, comes from 2 Hebrew words that are literally translated as a very strong... Be Quiet.

This is God saying, Israel… Pipe down… Shut up and watch me work!

Stand at attention and pay attention… because I’m going to work.

I love how Eugene Peterson Paraphrases this verse in the Message Paraphrase…

Another commentator says, “this is not a word of comfort, but an angry denouncement of Israel’s paper thin faith.”

So Moses is angry… and God is angry… because He had been so faithful… and He had revealed Himself to them and yet, they still had no trust… no faith… no confidence in the God of the universe.

I want to propose to you today… that, isn’t that how we are?

We have so much revelation… we have so much from God… but still yet, when He leads us down a path, so that He can deliver us… we question Him… and we say, God, you apparently don’t know what you’re doing.

But praise God, aren’t you glad that He’s faithful?

He’s faithful and He works.

Now, verses 15-28 is a long chunk of Scripture… and this is a homiletic no-no to read so many verses together at one time, but I want to read it anyway because we need to Basque in the deliverance of God for His people.

We just need to read this deliberately and straightforwardly and see that hand of God at work.

Follow along with me in your Bibles or on the screen and let’s just soak it in… let’s soak in the hand of the Lord at work.

Don’t you imagine that Moses might have been a little confused at that point?

Ok God… we’ll move on… Um… but exactly where are we supposed to go?

Now, If we stop there… we would miss the whole point of the text.

So let’s see what happens in verse 29…

Verse 31… Star it, underline it… make sure that you remember this verse…

Did you see it?

Did you catch it?

They went from terrified… and angry with God… and questioning Him… to a people who trusted in Him… who believed Him.

That is the purpose of this text… To show us an exodus of the heart… to show us the deliverance of the heart.

And isn’t that how God works in us?

Hmm… We need this.

Life is hard, isn’t it?