God Our Deliverer

It's one of the worst feelings in the world.

It starts deep in our gut.

It rises up.

We feel it.

Our pulse begins to speed up, beat faster.

Maybe perspiration will break out on our brow.

We begin to look side to side, up and down, both literally sometimes and metaphorically.

Is there any way of escape?

Is there any way out?

The feeling of being impossibly trapped is a terrible, terrible feeling.

Sometimes we feel this physically, but much more often in life.

We feel this in our life circumstances.

Maybe someone has come and confronted you and laid bare a lie that you have told.

Maybe you've been married for years and it's never gotten better.

And it rises up in you, this feeling of being trapped.

Maybe you know a deadline is looming, whether at work or at school.

And the number of hours that you have is insufficient to accomplish the work that you have to do.

Maybe your bank account continues to drop lower and lower.

And the bills continue to come in.

Impossible situations make us feel this kind of trapped.

And sometimes we feel trapped because we've been foolish.

Because we have sinned.

And it's left us in a bad place.

Sometimes we feel trapped by circumstances that are completely beyond our control.

Have no moral bearing.

They just are.

But they're hard.

Sometimes it's a mix of both.

In those moments of panic, in those moments of terror,

when you're facing a situation where it seems like there's no way out,

where do you turn?

Some of us will dig deep.

We'll find inner strength to go the extra mile.

We will find the indomitable human spirit and we will try to gut it out.

Some of us will look for an escape.

For some kind of compromise.

Some easy way out.

Even though it may cost us our soul and our character to follow that path.

Some of us will crawl up into a fetal position and give up in despair and hopelessness.

And some of us might actually turn to God.

This is church after all.

So that seems like a thought.

But you know what?

When we turn to God, what do we find?

It doesn't always get better.

Does it?

Because when we read the Bible carefully,

we see that God is not a God who has promised to simply make our lives easier.

To simply remove the challenges in our life.

To free us from every impossible circumstance.

To make our life better as quickly as possible.

He does not always get people.

He does not always get his people out of impossible situations.

And in fact, it even seems like he leads them into those situations at times.

So is there any hope for us?

How are we to think about these things?

Friends, this is what our passage this morning in Exodus is going to help us think through.

So if you want to turn with me, page 55 in your pew Bibles, Exodus chapter 13.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

And while you're turning there, just to remember what we've been looking at over the past eight or nine chapters,

is God's amazing work of freeing his people who were enslaved in Egypt.

Freeing them through his mighty acts of power.

The ten plagues, the famous ten plagues where God, with increasing intensity,

brought judgment upon Egypt to break the hold that they had.

And to let people of God go free from slavery.

And right before this passage, we've seen that God has finally done this.

That through the Passover, through the judgment on the firstborn,

God has finally broken the will of the Pharaoh and he has sent them out.

He said, go, you might be free.

And so as we come into this passage, Israel is on their way out the door of Egypt.

And that's where we are in the story this morning.

So let's read it together.

We're going to read a good chunk of scripture.

So hang in there with me.

If you feel like you want to stand, actually, why don't I do this?

If you can stand and you're able to, why don't you stand for the reading of God's word?

If you don't, if you need to sit, that's fine.

But we're going to read chapter 13, starting in verse 17, all the way to the end of chapter 14.

So hang in there.

Here we go.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines,

although that was near.

For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.

But God led the people round by the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea.

And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, equipped for battle.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear,

saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.

And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.

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 may travel by day and by night.

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

Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of

Pi-hahiroth between Migdal and the sea, in front of Baal, Zephon, and you shall encamp facing it by the sea.

For Pharaoh will save the people of Israel.

They are wandering in the land.

The wilderness has shut them in.

And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them.

And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

And they did so.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled,

the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed towards the people.

And they said, what is this that we've done?

That we've let Israel go from serving us?

So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

And he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army,

and overtook them encamped at the sea by Pi-ha-hiroth in front of Baal-zaphon.

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.

And 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?

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.

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.

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

And then the Lord said to Moses,

Why do you cry to me?

Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.

And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them.

And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gained glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.

Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them.

And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.

Coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel.

And there was the cloud and the darkness.

And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

And then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

And the Lord drove the sea back by the strong east wind all night.

And made the sea dry land and the waters were divided.

And the people of Israel went in the midst of the sea on dry ground.

The waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Then the Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea.

All Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen.

And in the morning watched the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces.

And threw the Egyptian forces into a panic.

Clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.

And the Egyptians said,

Let us flee from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.

And then the Lord said to Moses,

Stretch out your hand over the sea.

That the waters may come back upon the Egyptians.

Upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

And the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared.

And as the Egyptians fled into it,

the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea.

Not one of them remained.

But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea.

The waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians.

And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians.

So the people feared the Lord.

And they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

And this is God's word.

Amen.

Please take a seat.

Let's pray together as we continue to look at this.

Lord, thank you for this word.

Lord, thank you for the way that you display yourself.

And reveal yourself to us in your word.

Lord, I pray this morning that as we consider the questions before us,

Lord, that we would see you more clearly.

That we would love you.

That we would worship you.

That we would trust you.

Because of the kind of God that you are.

A God who saves.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So as we look at this familiar story about God's power and God's deliverance of his people,

what I want to do is explore his work for his people when they were trapped in an impossible situation.

I want to look at three aspects of God's work.

I want to look at God's plan, God's presence, and God's power.

So we're going to look at those in turn as some of the dynamics of what we see from God and in God in this passage.

So first, let's look at God's plan.

The good news is that God has one.

God has a plan for his people.

And it's very clear.

You look back at the end of chapter 13.

And God led them out.

And he led them carefully.

And by that I mean full of care.

The easiest way, if you had a map, I'm going to try to do this for you.

Here's Egypt.

Here's the promised land where they're going.

Okay?

And the easiest way for them to get from here to here is to go along the south, eastern, western, which one is it?

The edge of the sea, the Mediterranean Sea, along the coastline right up into,

it would be across the top of the Sinai Peninsula and through what is now Gaza into Palestine, into the promised land.

Right?

But the Philistines lived there along the coast.

And the Philistines were well known as a powerful nation with a strong army.

And God said, I'm concerned that facing that.

Just as a note, when it says that they went out armed, where does it say that?

They went out, verse 18, they went out equipped for battle.

Well, that's probably not a great translation of that phrase.

It probably means they went out arrayed like an army.

But they didn't have any, there's no reason to believe they actually had any weapons.

So arrayed for battle might mean to you they had armor and swords and that sort of thing.

That's not the picture.

It just meant that they were set apart in companies so that when they traveled, they had an orderly march.

March, I believe, is what that means.

So as they went out, they were facing this.

And God said, I love you.

I'm not going to put you in that position.

I'm going to take you a different way.

So he leads them.

Rather than going this way, he leads them this way.

South, probably, out of Egypt, into the Sinai Peninsula.

The geographic markers in this passage are notoriously obscure to the 21st century readers.

So we don't actually know exactly where they went.

Most of these places are not on ancient maps, let alone modern ones.

So it is not exactly clear.

There's much ink spilled in the commentaries about what this path looked like.

But we're going to go with this.

They went south.

Seems like the best thing to do.

So God was leading them carefully.

But not only did he lead them carefully, but then he led them in, in some ways, in a strange way.

Because he led them down.

And then he said, oh, now I want you to turn back.

Go back a little bit the way you came.

And put yourself in a terribly indefensible position militarily.

Camp against an ocean or against some body of water where when the Egyptians come and get you,

which I'm telling you they're about to do, you'll be trapped.

It's a very odd thing, isn't it?

And yet the text is very clear in verses 1 through 4 of chapter 14.

Do this exactly the way I tell you.

Camp with your back to the sea.

Because I am moving to do something.

I have a plan which is to display my glory by defeating Pharaoh one last time.

And he is basically baiting the Egyptians with the Israelites in this indefensible position.

God has a plan for his own glory that led his people into a very difficult situation.

This is what we see in the text.

God is leading them into it.

And he's leading them with a purpose.

But he's leading them into a situation where they will be trapped

between the most powerful army in the world at that time

and a sea that they're unable to cross.

Friends, I wonder if you have felt God leading you into impossible situations.

Maybe at your school you're the only Christian that you know.

And you wonder, how could this be God?

How can I do this all by myself?

Maybe you're a parent and God has given you a special needs child.

Maybe your boss has called you and said,

I'm sorry, we have to let you go.

Right after you put the down payment on the house

and the baby's on the way.

Maybe you've chosen to be faithful to the Lord

by remaining pure in your relationships.

But it's led you to a place where you think,

I'm never going to get married if I keep doing this.

There are all sorts of ways in which following the Lord

or the Lord's leading and sovereign control over our lives

puts us in these situations

that feel impossible and we feel trapped.

And isn't God gracious

to show us the heart of the Israelite people

so we don't feel alone?

Because look at them in verses 15 through 19.

Right?

What are they...

I'm sorry.

In verses 11 through 14.

In verses 11 through 14.

Do you see what the Israelites say?

They say what we say in our hearts

in those circumstances, don't they?

They say,

God, what are you doing?

Why did you lead us out here to die?

Why did you...

Why didn't you leave us where we were?

Even though that was terrible,

at least it wasn't as bad as this.

God, how could you do this?

We doubt,

God, are you really in control?

Is your plan really good?

We question,

why have you done this to this?

This seems evil, not good.

The fundamental question,

God, have you really led me

only that I would suffer and be destroyed?

When we feel trapped,

those are questions that rise up in our hearts,

aren't they?

And Moses speaks to them and to us

these words in verses 13 and 14.

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.

The Lord will fight for you,

and you have only to be silent.

Which might mean stop complaining and griping,

but I actually don't think so.

I think actually what that means is

you have only to be still.

You don't have to do a single thing.

Just stand firm

and watch God do his work.

As we face these impossible circumstances,

this word comes.

Stand firm.

How can we do that?

Well, the wonderful thing is that

not only does God have a plan for us,

but God promises that his presence

will go with us.

As you read this story,

God makes it so clear to his people,

I didn't just free you from Egypt

and then let you loose in the Sinai Peninsula

and said,

good luck,

hope that works well for you.

He didn't just sort of push him out of the house

and say,

okay,

you're on your own.

No.

In fact,

it's the very opposite.

God chose to give this incredible manifestation

of his presence with his people.

A pillar of cloud and a fire.

And we don't know what it looks like.

You probably have images,

whether it's from Charlton Heston

or from Steven Spielberg

and the Prince of Egypt.

You probably have some vision of it.

But the fact is,

nobody knows what this really looked like.

But it was very clear that it was big

and it was obvious

and it was clear

that God was going before his people.

And by doing that,

this manifestation was reminding them,

I am with you.

I am with you,

the one who did all these things

to free you from Egypt.

I am with you.

If you remember,

I am with you

and I will provide for you.

This pillar of cloud

not only gave them direction,

but it wasn't just like a little will-o-wisp

saying,

oh,

go this way,

not that way.

Right?

It was also a pillar of fire by night

so that they had light.

If you've ever traveled in the desert,

you might want to travel during the night,

not during the day some of the time.

Because it's really hot.

So,

God gave them light

so that they could travel by night

if they wanted to.

God gave them shade,

potentially,

during the day.

It's not clear

whether the pillar of cloud

gave them shade,

but it's possible.

Not only that,

but that pillar of cloud

became a shield as well.

When the Egyptians came

thundering over the horizon

and the people were afraid,

it says,

God moved that pillar

to land between

the armies of Egypt

and the people of God.

My kids are Star Wars fans.

I'm a Star Wars fan.

Put up a ray shield,

an impenetrable shield.

No bullets could get through.

No chariots could get through.

No people could get through.

God protected his people

with an impenetrable shield

with his presence.

And not only that,

but it also comes,

his presence comes with his promise.

Did you notice back in chapter 13

the odd little verse

about Joseph's bones?

Now, if you don't know Joseph's story,

go back to our sermon archives.

There's a great bunch of sermons

on those from about

a year and a half ago.

Joseph, who God led

in a very circuitous

and very difficult path

where he suffered deeply

and unjustly many times,

and yet God used him

in the end

to deliver his people

from famine

and to provide for his people

by bringing them to Egypt.

Joseph was a reminder

of the kind of God

that the people of Israel knew.

And not only that,

but that this God

was a God

who would fulfill his promises.

Because 400 years earlier,

Joseph had said,

you're going to be enslaved,

but the Lord will come

and he will deliver you.

And when that happens,

take my bones with me,

with you.

That's exactly what he said.

Which is sort of crazy.

But now these people

are experiencing it

and they can say,

oh, God is with us.

The God of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob and Joseph

is the same God

who is with us now,

fulfilling his promises

to make us his people

and to take us

into his promised land.

So God's presence

is a sweet and powerful

help

as they face

these impossible circumstances.

I don't know

if any of you are hikers.

I like to hike.

I don't get to hike

as much as I like to.

I was never

a very adventuresome hiker.

I stayed on the clear paths

with the clear blazes

and the maps

and, you know,

but I have friends

who like to be

more adventuresome

and they'll try

to find the trail

that used to be there

but isn't very well marked.

And one of the things

that I learned from them

is that when you're hiking,

a map is good,

but a guide is far better.

Right?

Because when you're out

in the trail

and you've lost the blaze

and you're not sure

where you are,

a guide who has been

through those woods

many times

will know how

to address it.

Will know

where the path

should go

and how to get you

back on it.

A guide

will know

what to do

when,

like I had one

hiking adventure

where we ran into

a beehive

on the trail

and we,

the group of us

literally scattered

into the woods

and then

our guides

brought us back together

and said,

okay,

this is what we're going to do,

this is how we're going to do it

and he led us through

because he knew

better than we

how to do this.

Maybe in another example,

maybe some of you

have experienced this

as you followed your GPS

through New Haven

and you realize,

wait a minute,

I would rather have someone

who knows this neighborhood

tell me how to get

from point A to point B

because the way that

Google Maps gets me there

or Waze gets me there,

it might be the most direct

but this is not the best way

for me to go.

It may feel unsafe,

the potholes may be terrible,

there are all sorts of things

that Google doesn't know

but someone who lives

in a neighborhood

will say,

oh yeah,

the best way to go there

is you go here

and here and here.

God has said,

I will be your guide,

I will go with you

and with my presence,

I will provide both direction

and leadership.

it's like in the Lord of the Rings

when Aragorn shows up

at the Prancing Pony in Bree,

meets with Frodo and his friends

in a time of dire threat

and says,

I will go with you

and I will lead you

through the wilderness

in the face of great enemies,

I will take you.

God,

even more than that,

says,

I will go with you.

And friends,

isn't this a comfort

because when we face

those impossible situations,

when we feel trapped,

the first thing that we feel

is,

I'm alone in this.

I'm alone in whatever the thing is.

No one can help me,

nobody knows.

And God comes and says,

it's just not true.

I am with you.

He does not abandon us,

but he walks through it with us

and he makes a way for us.

So we've seen God's plan

to lead us for his glory.

We've seen God's presence

to remind us

that he will carry us through.

But then finally,

we see God's power.

God's power to make a way.

And this is obviously

at the center of this passage

that God's power

to save and deliver his people

is what this passage is all about.

It's what you see in verses

13 and 14 of chapter 14

where it says,

stand and watch the Lord's salvation.

And you see it at the end

of the chapter again.

So the Lord delivered

and saved Israel from Egypt.

How did he do this?

He did it by a great display

of his power.

Now, you might wonder

why the Red Sea?

Why water?

We don't get it.

Maybe if you're from New Orleans

or from Houston,

you might get it a little more

than we do.

But in the ancient world,

water was a very fearsome thing.

Partly because most people

didn't know how to swim.

And so water was the place of death.

But even more so,

water had a mythological power

in the worldview

of the ancient Near East.

I remember my freshman year in college,

I read the Epic of Gilgamesh

and the place of the sea

as a power of chaos

and of destruction

and of uncontrolled anger.

Maybe not anger.

Uncontrolled power.

And one of the amazing things

is when the scriptures come along,

when God begins to,

when God tells the story

of how he created the earth,

what's the first thing he did?

He took water

and he put boundaries on it, right?

It's not the first thing.

But it's one of the major things

that he did

in the creation story

is to put water into its place.

He controlled the seas

and he put boundaries on it.

This far and no farther.

And he brought dry land out of it.

To an ancient Near East person,

that story is telling us

God is a greater power

than the thing you most fear.

And God wanted to show that again.

Just like we saw

with all of the plagues

and how they were a decreation

of some sorts,

a reversal of the creation order

where Egypt was feeling

the impact of that.

Here God is going to do that

one more time

by using water.

Now, what water was it?

All right, so

if you wanted to spend

a lot of time,

you could read about

which body of water

do we think was really

in view here.

There are translation questions.

Is it the Red Sea

or is it the Sea of Reeds?

There are questions

about how this happened.

There are questions

about where this,

again, the geographic markers

aren't clear.

So there's lots of ink

spilled over these questions.

And I'm not going to

solve all of them.

Let me give you

a couple of things.

First of all,

whatever the body of water is,

we need to see

that God used

both natural

and supernatural means.

This is what the text

actually says.

Look with me in verse 21.

Right?

As his people

with their backs

to the sea

and no way

to get through it,

God says,

I'm going to make

a way through it.

Right?

It says in verse 21

that he used

a strong east wind

that blew all night

and made the sea dry land

and the waters were divided.

So there you see God

using a natural force

in his control

to do what he said

he was going to do.

But then you keep going

and send verse 22

and the people of Israel

went in the midst

of the sea

on dry ground

which in itself,

have you ever tried

to dry a piece of ground

after it's been underwater

like a riverbed

or a marsh?

You know,

you can pull out

the biggest fan you want.

It's not going to get hard

that quickly.

Typically.

Right?

So God did something

withdrawing it

that I think is

beyond what would be

normally expected

even if the wind

blew the water away.

But even more than that,

the waters being a wall

to them on their right hand

and on their left.

Friends,

this describes something

that is supernatural,

not merely natural.

And if we,

the week after Easter,

having celebrated

the belief

that Jesus Christ

rose from the dead,

if we believe

that God can raise

someone from the dead

violating the laws

of nature,

superseding the laws

of nature

for his purpose

and his glory,

we think that God

can do it here

by separating the water

in a supernatural way.

He may have used

natural means.

He clearly was also

using supernatural power.

power.

Both of these things

are true

and we don't need

to fight about it anymore.

We can just move on

and say God did this

because both the natural

and the supernatural

were in his hand

and in his control

and for his purpose

to show his power

in delivering people.

And in his deliverance,

it had two aspects

because he not only

parted the sea,

but then that sea

was both a place

of deliverance

for his people

and judgment

on his enemies.

Do you see,

did you hear

how the Lord

baited the Egyptians

to come in?

He held them back

with the pillar of cloud

for a while

and so they're

chomping at the bit

and maybe they can

see through

and watch the Israelites

begin to go through

and they're chomping

at the bit,

right?

And then he finally

releases it

and it says that

he hardened

the Egyptians' hearts

so they went after them

into the sea.

And then

their chariot wheels,

which had been

going along

on the dry ground

that the Egyptians

had been walking on,

it says that

he then confused them

and then after he,

as he confused them,

their chariot wheels

got stuck

and they realized

that God was against them

and that God was

bringing destruction

on them.

And interestingly,

when it talks about

the waters returning

to their places,

did you notice

that it said

the Egyptians

fled into it?

And did that seem

odd to you?

I think,

I may be wrong,

but I think the picture here

is that the Egyptians

are in the middle

of the sea.

They've been thrown

into chaos

by the Lord.

They've gotten stuck.

They're starting to think

about fleeing

and suddenly the water

is coming back,

not just from the side

but from the shore

as well.

And so as they're

fleeing into it,

they're actually trying

to flee out of the water

but they can't flee

out of the water

because the water

is coming at them

from all sides.

And God buried them

in a deluge

of his wrath

and of water.

And the nation

that stood itself

proudly up

in defiance of God,

the Pharaoh

who had said,

I am God himself

and I am the ultimate power.

The nation

that had drowned

the firstborn of Israel

in the Nile River.

Their power,

their greatest symbol

of might

was their chariots

and their army

and God buried them

in the bottom

of the ocean

or of the sea.

So God delivered

his people

by judging

their enemies.

but he also

delivered his people

by providing a way

through for his own.

They walked

on dry land.

They had the cloud

going before them

and they stood

and saw

the salvation

of God.

For what happened

here was final.

There is no more

Egypt after this

in the story

of Israel

for hundreds of years.

They are now

across a body

of water

that the Egyptians

cannot cross

and their power

has been broken.

Israel is now

truly and finally

free.

Free to go

and free to follow

the Lord

and free to go back

to the promised land.

The victory

was decisive

and the salvation

was clear

and now

as they looked ahead

there was only goodness

that they would anticipate.

They had been delivered

from the hand

of the Egyptians.

Look with me

at the end

of chapter 14

real quickly.

Thus the Lord

saved Israel

that day

from the hand

of the Egyptians

and Israel saw

the Egyptians

dead on the seashore.

In verse 31

I'm going to read it

a little differently

so watch with me.

Israel saw

the great hand

that the Lord

used against

the Egyptians.

It's actually

the same

it's the same root

it's the same idea.

God's hand

that brought judgment

on Egypt

was the same hand

that now

was plucking

Israel out

and delivering them

and leading them.

Now

they're in the hands

of God

not the Egyptians

anymore.

What a great salvation

this is.

God has shown

great power

over the forces

of chaos

and nature

over the greatest

army

in the ancient world

at the time

he has delivered

his people.

Friends

what good news

this is.

What good news

it is

is that God

is a God

who by his plan

and with his presence

and by his power

deliver his people

and so now

here we are

and God's going

to give you

an A

on that exam

that you don't

have time

to study for

and God's going

to give you

that job back

that you just

got fired from

and God's going

to heal your cancer

and he's going

to make your marriage

new.

Wait a minute.

No that's not

actually

what it says.

Friends

he may do

those things

he can do

those things

we see in the gospel

that for his purposes

and for his glory

God will

sovereignly

intervene

in our lives

to show his power

and show his ability

to save

and deliver.

You see it

through the gospels

as Jesus does this

to say

this is what

the kingdom of God

looks like.

This is what

the reversal

of the curse

looks like

in the world.

This is how

I can deliver you.

But friends

we must see

that though we can

ask for these things

and God may graciously

give them to us

this is not

the main point

and application

of this passage

for that is not

what God

has promised us

most clearly.

In fact

what God

has promised us

instead

and what the story

of the exodus

looks forward to

is a greater

deliverance

from a greater

enemy

with a greater

display of power.

For the Bible

tells us

that the greatest

enemy

that we have

is our sin

and death

that is the result

of it.

1 Corinthians 15

26

says that

the last enemy

of humanity

is death

and that death

is a result

of sin

and that sin

is the greatest

enemy

because it is

the thing

that separates

us from God.

It is the thing

that keeps us

from being

God's people

and yet

God has not

left us

in the face

of that enemy

without hope

but in fact

he has intervened

in the world.

He has sent

his son Jesus

to come

and to be

the ultimate

deliverer

the greater

savior

and Jesus

has come

and you can

read through

the book

of John

and see

how much

John is

telling us

that Jesus

is the second

exodus

and the greater

exodus

for his people

and Jesus

has come

and by his

perfect life

and by his

death for us

and by his

resurrection

he has defeated

the power

of sin

and death.

He has died

a death

that he did

not deserve

so that we

who by faith

are joined

with him

will not

face.

He bore

a judgment

he went

through

the valley

of the shadow

of death

and the waters

of judgment

that God

poured out

on him

he went

through those

for us

so that we

would walk

on the dry

land of the

forgiveness

that he has

achieved for us

in Christ

and he has

brought us

through that

that we

may be

raised

to new

life

with him

who is

not a

dead

savior

but a

risen

savior

who has

passed

through

death

into now

eternal

life.

And friends

we know

from the

passage

that was

read earlier

this morning

that this

is not

done.

Just like

Israel

they are

now free

from Egypt

but are

not yet

at the

promised

land.

We are

not yet

at the

promised

land

either

but we

know

that the

victory

won at

the cross

and at

the

empty

tomb

will

one day

fully

be

ours

when God

will remake

the world

and the heavens

and the earth

will come

together

and God

will dwell

among his

people

and there

will be

no more

sickness

and no

more sorrow

and no

more sin

and no

more death

and no

more sea

because God

will be

there.

And that

friends

is the

greater

deliverance

that this

passage

points

us

to.

This

is what

he has

done

for us.

And friends

that's not

just hope

for the

future

but it's

help

now

because God

does still

have a

plan

to accomplish

his glory

in our

lives

and God

still promises

to be

with us

through every

circumstance

that we

face

as impossible

as it

feels

but we

can look

back on

the victory

of the

resurrected

Christ

and look

ahead to

the certain

hope

of the

victory

the final

consummation

of that

victory

and friends

we can

endure

and we

can look

for God's

glory

and we

can ask

him

God

show me

how are

you

bringing

glory to

yourself

in this

and there

are times

you'll see

it more

clearly

and there

are times

you won't

but that's

the question

that ought

to be

asked

as you

cling

to this

great

salvation

a God

who is

able

to deliver

you

let's

pray

Lord we

thank you

this morning

we thank you

for the

exodus

and for

your great

display

of your

power

and glory

Lord we

thank you

for the

greater

display

of your

power

and glory

at the

cross

how you

defeated

sin and

death

and for

all who

by faith

are gathered

with Christ

and joined

to Christ

Lord that

we have

this hope

this certain

hope that

we are

participants

in your

victory

over sin

and death

and Lord

that we

will be

raised to

new life

Lord that

we will be

with you

in eternity

in your

ultimate

victory

over all

things

Lord I

pray for

those today

who are in

impossible

situations

Lord that

you will

strengthen

them and

encourage

them

Lord we

pray these

things in

Jesus name

Amen

thank you

.

yarana