Exodus: The Glory Cloud

So uh a few months ago, my sister called maybe two months ago.

My sister called uh my older sister, and she called and she said, Hey, uh, well, I knew she was turning 40, and she said, We're having a we're having a big party.

She lives in Virginia, she said, We're gonna have a big party.

Um, they have this really nice, beautiful home on the James River.

She said, We're gonna have a big party out on the lawn on the river and have a river day, and y'all are invited.

And we looked at our schedule, and it just it it was not looking good for us to be able to get up there and back, the five of us, to drive up and back and be back here on Sunday.

And so, you know, I had to kind of break the news and say, you know, I can't, I'm not gonna be able to make it, and we can't make it.

And then Christian and I kept talking about it, looking at it a little bit, and she goes, Okay, well, what if like now that I've told her no and crushed her completely of any brotherly love coming from me, uh, why don't I fly up there and surprise her?

And so uh so you know, my mom and I we work together and and we got on the same flight to go up there.

And so Thursday evening, uh I drive to the airport, I park, uh, get into the airport, um, get in there, uh, you know, waiting, don't like to wait, and then the waiting thing at the gate, we get on the plane, and so my mom and I start to, while we're on the plane, we figure out like, okay, how are we gonna do this?

My sister's gonna pick up my mom, she's gonna be there, but how what's the surprise moment gonna be?

And I'm feeling really confident at this point.

Like I'm feeling like she has no clue.

I'm I'm good.

Like I feel like I'm I'm gonna nail this.

And so uh so I'm feeling so confident.

I'm going, she's not looking for me.

I, you know, I'm in as far as she and I give her a few texts during the day, you know, like really misleading, like I'm at home, like yeah, just hanging out in the kitchen, you know, like really misleading texts.

And so I'm like, she has no clue.

So so we get out to the pickup area, and I'm like, well, mom, you know, she's not gonna be looking for me.

So I can literally be anywhere, and she's not looking for me.

So so we figured like this one bench, and there's some people around, this one bench, and I say, okay, well, why don't you stand?

You wouldn't sit next to a strange man, so why don't you kind of stand up on the far side of the bench with your bags over there?

I'll sit on the other end with my back to that area, kind of looking in at the doors, people coming out.

I'll put my hat on, my glasses on, and I got my phone out like I was looking at my phone.

And I'm thinking, you know, I make sure my face so she can't see me.

And so, and then the plan was was uh the plan was is my mom and my sister was in get out, she was, you know, hey, good to see you.

And then my mom was gonna start walking with her her bag, but leave one bag behind and then say, hey, you know, Sherry, can you grab my bag?

And then so that was kind of to my right, and then when she, when my sister came to pick up the bag, I was trying to be like, happy birthday, you know, and so that was the plan.

Instead, what we get is uh, I get is my sister walks right by my mom and looks around at my face and then goes, ah, gotcha! And it's like you ruined it, sister.

You you ruined everything we've been working for.

And she had been tipped off a little bit, but then she was kind of suspicious because of that, and then she saw a strange man sitting next near her mom and knew that her mom probably wouldn't do that.

And so she was tipped off, but it was still lots of jumping and lots of hugging, and we went on and we had a great, great uh weekend.

Um, and we had party and we set up for the party and like lots of good logistics, and I got to wake up yesterday morning and kayak across the James River, good Saturday morning activity, more setting up for the party.

Came back last night, knees shoved against the front, you know, the chair in front of you working on this sermon.

Um, and so a trip, right?

A trip full of highs and lows, right?

Any journeys full of a trip, highs and lows.

I mean, some of you have been a lot further than Virginia, you maybe been like to the Amazon River, like a like a real adventure, and like full of some sometimes just going to Walmart to get three things.

You're like, that was a journey.

That was more of a journey than going to the Amazon.

Um, I've I've been there and tried to pick up three things.

I know that journey is full of highs and lows.

And that's what a journey is.

And maybe we even roll our eyes at that word, like at this point, like journey, like we're all on a journey.

How's your journey?

I just, I'm just on a this is my journey, it's not your journey, it's my journey.

Um but it doesn't mean it's not true, and it doesn't mean that the word doesn't really uh help us put a word on what life is like.

Because life is, even though maybe the words are a little cliche at this point, life is is a journey.

I mean, it is just filled with these highs and lows, and then we come to this Exodus story, this huge story of these people who were in slavery.

They get pulled out of slavery, and the army chases them, and God provides for them, and then they're in a desert, and then they get all these kind of rules for life, and then they fail miserably at the rules, and God comes back and loves them again and says, I'm still with you.

And just a huge, epic story.

And so, point number one is so I'm I'm looking at this this week, this this Exodus 40, and I'm looking at this very final passage of this book, but I'm also thinking about the entire story.

So this is sort of like a sermon on this text, but also sort of a summation sermon.

Point number one is this this story wants you to see that it's all a journey.

I mean, this is what it wants you to see.

He even says that in verse 36, throughout all their journeys.

Let me reread the text just so we get refamiliarized with it again.

Uh jumping in at verse 34 of chapter 40, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting.

So Moses had built the tabernacle, and all that was finished up.

So then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.

But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up.

For the cloud of the Lord, and if you've noticed, it's the cloud is mentioned in every single verse.

Verse 38, for the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

So several things jumped out to me, and that is first this idea of journey that they've been through a lot.

And they're gonna go through a lot if you know more of their story.

I mean, that they keep going through a lot.

It is filled with highs and lows.

And if you remember where they came from, right?

That Egypt, when they were in slavery, and if you remember what they were doing at the beginning of this, 40 chapters ago, what they were doing is they're making bricks.

Right?

And we talked about this for so many weeks.

So they were making bricks all day, every day, in the hot sun, they had a certain quota and they made brick after brick after brick.

They've been doing it for generations, and the conditions were getting harsher and harsher and harsher, and every day they woke up and they had a quota, and they had to meet that quota, and the quota was always a little more than they could perform to.

And so they were exhausted, and then when they didn't perform up to it, they were beaten.

And they did this every day over and over and over again.

The text says that they had so difficult.

They had bitter cries.

You have to live up to the quota, and the demand never ends.

And then you actually get these Ten Commandments later in the story.

I mean, they're such great, I mean, good moral guidelines.

And even that proves to be impossible for them.

I mean, it's not long after that.

They go and build this golden calf and break three of the commandments.

I mean, even if even that, while while it was a good thing for them, they can't live up to it.

See, the demand was always greater than they could perform.

Anyone know that feeling?

You know that feeling from being in church or in your workplace or from being in the gym or being in school?

Do you know that feeling of being in friendships or relationships or social status?

And the demand is always greater than you can perform unto, and then you get exhausted underneath it?

It's that feeling that I'll never be able to live up to that list or that ideal, to that measure of influence, or that measure of the ideal body or the ideal, whatever.

It can be that feeling that I will never get better, this will never get better, this condition, this situation, that my journey will never change.

That is all demand.

Without relief.

And so, what we said 32 sermons ago, I went back and I looked at the very first sermon of this book.

32 sermons ago, this is what we said, that this book becomes the great picture in the scriptures of what life is like when you're owned by something, or you're trying to escape from something, or you're trying to self-deliver from something.

You're not looking for a savior.

You're not you're not looking for grace, you're looking for your own saving, your own effort to get yourself out of this brickmaking.

And that this story reveals that we need an outside, an outside source of saving.

So back to the text.

Two ideas have jumped out to me this week as I've been learning about these two different words: Israel and Egypt.

So in 36a, that phrase throughout all their journeys, and then the name of these people is written Israel.

So here's here's in Hebrew, uh, well, in throughout the Old Testament, we have we have Israel, the land of Israel.

We have uh the people of Israel, and then you have this guy, Jacob, who's, if you remember, you know some Bible, his name is changed to Israel.

And what happened with him was he stole his brother's birthright and he goes off and he's like he's off like running around, and then he has this interesting thing that happens in Genesis where he's he's out in the wilderness and he wrestles with like some sort of angelic being is a bit mysterious, he's a little bit of a crazy story, and he's wrestling with this angelic being, and after this, his name is changed from Jacob to Israel because that's what the text says, because he has struggled and wrestled with the divine.

So this name Israel is is is wrapped up in the understanding of struggle.

And I'm learning this this week, and then I'm thinking about the Exodus story, and I'm thinking about these people, Israel, and thinking about them in slavery, and I'm thinking about them coming out of slavery, and even once they're out, even once they get the Ten Commandments, you think, oh, smooth sailing.

Like things are gonna be good, and it's still struggle.

And this is good news.

This is actually good news.

That being a child of God embraces struggle, this is actually really good because it's not really pessimism and it's not cityism, it's just reality.

That you are imperfect.

That we live in an imperfect world.

We don't have to ignore that.

We don't have to pretend like it's not that way, we don't have to try to escape from it.

We can actually finally be free to not pretend like it's anything except what it is.

That it's a struggle.

That we struggle with ourselves, we struggle with what's going on inside of us, we struggle sometimes with our behavior, we struggle with other people, we struggle with our families, we struggle with our kids, with our parents, we struggle with friendships, we struggle with what we're gonna do with our lives, that it's that it's it's a struggle.

Right?

I mean, we walk through fire and we acknowledge it.

Even if we don't understand it, we can acknowledge it.

We face tough questions, we may not get the answers to.

We acknowledge hurt and shame and doubt and all of our brokenness and imperfections.

We feel, we can feel our sin, we can actually uh face it, we can actually feel our shame and face it and not ignore it or escape from it or just pretend like it's not there.

See, this is what it means to say I'm a child of God and struggle is a part of it.

And that's not shamed and pushed away, it doesn't mean you're less mature.

Yes, Israel.

Yes, struggle.

Struggle.

This story tells us that we will always be struggling.

But listen, your your problem is not when you're struggling.

Your problem is actually when you're not struggling.

See, if you're not struggling, now you got a problem.

Because that means you're you're ignoring something, you're escaping from something, you're numb to something.

I mean, if you're alive, you're struggling with something.

Some measure.

It doesn't have to be huge, it doesn't have to be paralyzing, it doesn't have to be like, you know, just you know, totally smothering joy, but there will be some wrestling.

It means you're in recognition that what's going on in you and around you, and then, then, then, then, then we see our need.

Then we see our need.

That we actually need God's grace to us.

We need his grace and we need his care.

So all week I've been driving around, walking around, I've been thinking about the journeys we are on.

And some of you, maybe some of you are in a bad job.

I mean, the kind of job that you start to dread at about 3 p.m.

Sunday afternoon, thinking about Monday morning.

Maybe you're wondering about some sense of purpose for your life as you just feel like you have none, or when will we ever get any measure of peace or a bad relationship, or maybe you're wondering about when marriage will finally get easy, or when marriage will finally happen.

Maybe somebody's broken your heart.

To the degree that you just wonder if you can, can you keep going?

Maybe you're on a journey of doubt.

And you've never done that before, and you're deconstructing past beliefs, and you're not even sure if you're allowed to do that, and that that's a current journey for you.

Maybe you're on a journey of personal worth because somebody told you something at some point about who you are and what you aren't.

Maybe that tape is replaying of that thing.

That thing you did, and is that shame, and is that guilt?

We're all on a journey.

And the story is saying he hasn't left you.

He isn't finished with you.

See, this is what the glory cloud is about.

I say all that to get to this, to say, this is what the glory cloud in this text is about.

It's in every verse.

Present by day, and it's about God's presence and guidance.

So when I left for the airport to go up to Virginia, I was in Decatur at a hospital in Decatur.

We had a church family, a little baby who had open heart surgery.

You want to talk about people who desperately want guidance and care, right?

Not from me, but from God.

Like their baby is going, you know, having open heart surgery.

And I leave there and I'm in Decatur.

You ever been to Decatur?

Decatur's cool, but man, I mean, you can't, you don't know where to, where do I get to go expressway from Decatur?

Like, you're like, Do I do I get to the airport?

I go through Atlanta, do I go to 85?

Do I go to 285?

You're like, how do I get out of this?

I have I need some guidance.

And so, of course, you know what I you know, I waze it, right, David?

Me and David love Waze.

Anybody else waising?

Waysing.

I call her Wanda.

I don't know what your name is for Wanda Waze, is what Krista and I call her.

So I pull Wanda up and she takes me here and there, and then I'm at 285, and it's like, that was brilliant.

I would have never gone 285.

I get a little pumped about how Wanda helps me out.

So she guides me, right?

I mean, so she handles it.

And I get there, and my friend Matt had told me, he had given me guidance about parking.

And I mean, I'll take guidance for anything, like any little tip to make something a little bit better.

And he had given me, he's he told me exactly where to park in the economy.

He's like, I'm telling you, man, like I'm telling you this row every time, guaranteed.

As he flies on, I'm like, I'm not quite sure if I believe you.

And I pull in, I head straight to this row, perfect.

I'm not telling you the row.

I'll be honest, I'm not telling anybody where this row is.

It was fantastic.

It pulled right in, wonderful, right?

Just to have the guidance.

Go into the airport, get on the train, the plane train, right?

We know the plane train.

So I get on the plane train and I look around.

Same thing that happened a few weeks ago.

If you remember, I was at the playground, everybody's on their phones, I look around on the train, everybody's on their phones.

And I'm self-righteous as you get.

So I'm like, I am not getting on my phone.

I'm gonna prove to all these people who do not care about me or what I do that I can be on this train and not be on my phone, and I'm gonna prove it to them, although they don't care.

They're not looking at me, but I'm self-righteous enough, I'm gonna put it on them.

I'm really gonna show them this can be done.

Although I want to check my phone.

I'll be honest.

I really wanted to.

I'm standing there and they're on their phones.

I'm like, oh man, I'd really like to be on my phone, but I'm so self-righteous.

I'm gonna put it on them that this can be done.

And so I don't.

I don't check my phone until I get to the gate and then I check everything at the gate.

Right?

And I get there, I get to the gate, and I, you know, I check some different stuff and check some weather, what the weather's gonna be like.

I feel all settled, right?

I mean, like with with with ways and with weather.

It makes you feel very settled.

Like you've been you've been guided, right?

This is feeling we do we all do it, right?

You go to Amazon to buy a new hairdryer and you read 80 reviews, right?

Just because you want guidance, right?

I mean, if we walk into a store to buy a hairdryer, we're stressed out because we need some guidance about the best one, right?

We all want some guidance.

We're constantly looking for some guidance because we're all more fragile than we want to admit.

And I can tell you something, I've had enough lunches and counseling sessions, some for me and some with other for other people.

Um coffees to know none of us really have our acts together.

None of us.

Some of us are better at dressing up.

That's the real difference.

We're all wanting guidance.

We are dying for some guidance because we so badly want to control the future.

It's mentioned in every verse.

It's a poetic emphasis, is what this is.

I'm with you.

I'm with you.

You will struggle.

Life will have struggle.

And I'm with you.

And so point number two is this, and this is sort of a point for this.

It's also a summation point.

This story wants you to see.

He is good.

And you are imperfect.

And he is still with you.

And I think I've said close to that in every sermon that I do this book.

But it's about the most freeing thing you can know.

So here's a second word is Egypt, right?

We talked about Israel being struggled, and then there's a second word, Egypt.

This is where they came from.

And it's the idea of a narrow place.

They have come out of a narrow place to a wider place.

See, leaving is about moving from the narrow place to the wider place.

I think the imagery for me, at least, the imagery for me, for my heart, is uh a lot of a lot of you might go to the beach this summer, um, you'll get there, you'll unpack your bags in the house, um, you'll walk down the little path.

Um, there's always maybe some dunes where you're at, and it's it's real narrow, like when you're walking, and you can hear like some really fantastic stuff up there, but you're in this real narrow place, and then you get out, and then it opens up.

And this is just the imagery that I've been thinking about this week is is is the idea of leaving a narrow, confined place to a broader, more freeing place.

Verse 35, I think, is an interesting place for us to finish.

Here's what it says and Moses.

Was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the clouds settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

So Moses is unable to enter.

So if you remember, he was able to enter God's presence on Sinai.

So he was able to enter God's presence on Sinai, but now he's unable to enter, and here's the point, and it has everything to do with us, and it's actually really, really great for us.

God makes the conditions by which he chooses for someone to be connected to him.

So Moses never entered God's presence by his own means, but by the invitation, the provision of God.

This is fantastic.

Because what it means is it means it's not based upon your performance, but upon God's performance for you.

That's what Jesus is about.

That we shift faith from our performance to his performance for us.

This is fantastic news that Moses was invited in, not based on his means, but based on God's choosing of how somebody would come in.

Because how God chose was for him to come and go, yeah, yeah, those Ten Commandments, they're great moral guidelines for us.

And you know what?

You also go build a golden calf like just right after I give them to you.

And you keep, you get some stuff right and you get some stuff wrong.

And because of that, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna do it all right.

I will be the person that you never were.

I will show you, this will be the great sign of humility and love for you.

And I'll go to a cross, I will be the sacrificial lamb, I'll go to the cross, and my sin and your sin, my sin, your sin, it will be put upon Jesus, and Jesus' righteousness is put upon us.

So these people started under a cloud.

Remember, the very beginning of Egypt started under a cloud, right?

Bitter, dark, narrow.

It's days of darkness and days of shadows.

No hope.

I mean, the idea of a good journey is so far away from their thinking.

And now they're under another cloud.

But it is so relieving that they still have God's presence.

You know this feeling, also, right?

It's the middle of August.

Your friend invites you over to a backyard barbecue at 4 p.m.

in the middle of August, and you know his backyard.

And you're going, this is gonna be miserable.

There's no trees.

He doesn't have a screened porch, there's nothing.

Like we are going to be standing around sweating.

It's going to be awful.

And you know it before you go, and you go and you're standing there and it's partly cloudy out, and you're just sweating, but he's just sipping sweet tea and heaven nice, and you're all talking like it's not miserable, but we're all miserable because it's so hot.

This is Georgia in the middle of August at 4 p.m., but we're there and we're gonna have fun and we're gonna pretend like we like it, but we're all hot, dripping sweat, and it's partly cloudy, and every once in a while, right?

A cloud comes by, blocks the sun, it's like, oh, relief.

It's that great feeling of relief.

The grace of God is that cloud.

Jesus is that cloud.

Our relief in a world of demand.

Your effort is not your relief.

His effort for you is your relief.

He is the one that takes us from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to Israel, from the narrow place to the wide.

So, my brothers and sisters, I have a question.

Where is the place in your heart that you need God to deliver you from the narrow place to the wide?

May you always see you need an Exodus and a Savior.

May you live peacefully under the sufficient cloud of Jesus even in the struggle.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that while we are imperfect sinners, self-bent, loving to save ourselves by secular means, by religious means, by our own pride, by comparison, you still love us.

You never give up.

That you are our redeemer.

Help us to see in greater ways that we cannot redeem ourselves, we cannot live up to the law.

But it breaks us.

And we need you.

There's so many of us.

There's so many of us who are trying to self-deliver.

Stuck in narrow places, but unsure how to ever get out of them.

And God, we need you.

And God, I pray that in great ways you would continue to move us to places of freedom where we are not depending upon our effort to feel secure with you, to feel righteous today.

But would we rest greater in Jesus' sacrifice?

Would we rest greater in Jesus' righteousness?

Would we rest greater in the covenant that you have forever sealed in the work of Jesus on our behalf?

That we would be at rest and our lives would give great, great glory to this work.

We pray all things in Christ's name.

Amen.