You might expect me to say what I'm about to say next because
of how long I've been involved in living and working on the African
continent.
But there's a wonderful creativity on that continent.
African people, whichever country they live in, seem to be
able to do some of the most amazing things with the most limited
of resources.
And even in the poorest of places in the world, humanity does
what it needs to do to survive.
And this creativity is seen in hygiene with a village hand washing
station used with a piece of string and an empty plastic bottle
suspended from a tree so that no one has to touch anything with
dirty hands but can have their hands cleaned.
And we're Talking about a 2 liter Coca Cola bottle, for example,
and that's used and that's improved health care in the village.
Who would have thought?
Or maybe the story of William Kamkwamba.
You've maybe never heard of him, but if you have Netflix, I would
encourage you to watch the movie the Boy who Harnessed the Wind
as it tells the story from the Midlands off Malawi, who gathered
old bits of scrap metal so that his family could have electricity
because he was sick and tired of not having light at night to be
able to read and learn what that windmill went on to do was to
provide irrigation so that while the rest of Malawi was starving
back in the early 2000s, this school lad developed an irrigation
system harnessing wind so that his family would have food.
So these have been inventions that have changed villages.
But perhaps on the lighter side, the most frequent way you see
the creativity of African communities is in the name of their
shops.
I have visited the Jesus loves you shoe and umbrella repair shop.
I've also gone in and perused in the Lord's Day furniture shop.
I couldn't make up my mind if that was only furniture for the good
room to sit on on a Sunday or not, I wasn't quite sure, but there
you have it.
But my favorite of all is a name that comes from our Bible passage
this morning, the Exodus 14:14 hairdressing salon.
Now, if you aren't familiar with what this verse is, this is
what it the Lord will fight for you.
You need only be still.
And in case you don't get it, there's no better thing to do when
you're in the barber or hairdresser's chair than to sit still,
as they are the ones guiding the sharp objects around your head.
I learned my lesson once.
I sneezed during a haircut.
Never again.
To be fair, it scared the life out of my hairdresser but that's
another story.
Well, I begin with this verse because the story of the children
of Israel's departure from Egypt should have been one of continued
trust in God.
But it wasn't.
This verse should have been what was on their hearts that the
Lord will fight for you.
You need only be still.
But it wasn't.
They weren't willing, as the psalmist will go on later, to write,
to be still and know that indeed the Lord God Almighty was
their God.
They saw the sea in front of them and they saw the Egyptians behind
them, and they lost faith in God in that moment.
And throughout this story, it's been the Lord God Almighty that
the people have had to trust in.
And we will see in this passage why there was a break in
chapter 12 to make sure that the people knew how and when to celebrate
their rescue from slavery and from the land of Egypt, because they
would easily forget the victory the Lord won on their behalf.
And we see it already, before they even leave the land of Pharaoh,
they would question if he really did care about them.
So this morning, is that a question that we've asked maybe,
maybe once, maybe twice, maybe more than that, does the Lord really
care?
Because as we've read the account before even looking at it,
you'll see it's a bit of a wayward account for the people.
We're back into the story, the almost minute by minute, day by day
movement of the people.
We've had the regulations for the Passover and the consecration
of the firstborn, and that was to galvanize the hearts of the people
so that they would remember what they were rescued from and who
did the rescuing.
But now they're really asking, did God really care for them?
And maybe it is a genuine question that you have asked in your
heart, Perhaps in the dark night of the soul, is God there?
Does he care?
And even before these people are confronted by the Egyptians,
who, by the way, come with the most advanced military technology
of its day, God proves to them on their journey that indeed he is
the God to be trusted.
And so the first thing, and it's in three ways, the first thing
is, God always knows which way is best for his people.
And as we begin this passage, we read this very truth in verse
17.
So how do we know God always knows which way is best for his people?
Well, verse 17 says, When Pharaoh let the people go, God did
not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though
that was shorter.
For God said, if they face war, they might change their minds.
And Return to Egypt.
And so as the children of Israel leave Egypt, the Lord is going
to take them on a route that would surprise many a map reader.
There was a much shorter route to the promised land.
And there it is on the map.
It would only have taken them two weeks if they'd headed from the
northern part of that green area into the gray area of Sinai,
the two weeks, and they would have been the land that was theirs.
But instead, the people would be taken through the wilderness for
40 years.
Well, 44 years.
And the main reason, of course, for this, as we'll discover,
is the punishment for people who questioned and doubted God, who
fashioned an idol so that they would worship the idol rather than
worship the true God.
So part of that longevity of that journey was their unfaithfulness
to God.
But there's a reason why God is taking them.
In these first few days of rescue, the Lord takes them up by
the way of the sea.
Now, if you look at that map, you will see that they're currently
at Succoth, which is just between sort of the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean, the green area.
And what they're to do is to head along the way by the sea, which
would be to go to the right hand side, the Red Sea.
And so he takes them on this known route.
And he does this because the Lord knows two things.
This is why the people can trust him, that he knows the ways
that are best for them.
First, he knows who is along the way.
Not only would the children of Israel have to push through some
of the most militarized area of Egypt, through northern Sinai.
Sinai, because that's where the Egyptians had fortified their
northeastern border.
But once they would pass those fortified cities of the Egyptians,
they would then come face to face with the Philistines.
And as we know from later texts in scripture, the Philistines
are not a people to go up against unless you are prepared to
fight.
And even, even if they did defeat the Philistines, they would
then face the Canaanites, the dwellers of the promised land, and
they would have to fight them as they would do 40 years later.
Well, verse 18 tells us that they went up out of Egypt armed for
battle.
But this doesn't necessarily mean that they were ready to fight.
These are people who have been enslaved.
They've never been trained for warfare and fighting.
And so here you would have this, yes, sizeable amount of people,
maybe with weapons, but not knowing how to use them, going up
against fighters who were doing it almost day and daily.
The Egyptians, the Philistines, and the Canaanites.
So the Lord knows who they'd be going up against.
And rather than going the two week journey, the Lord takes them
on the longer way, so they would not have to face these opponents.
But the second thing that God knows about his people and how he
can guide them well is how the people will think.
If they have to face the Egyptians, the Philistines and the
Canaanites, then they may lose heart.
We see that towards the end and they're not even facing anyone
to fight.
And so losing heart, then they would want to go back.
And why would they want to go back?
Because it was familiar.
They would want to go back because of the familiarity of life
in Egypt.
It may have been a hard life, but at least it was known.
But we have to remember this was not why God demonstrated His
awesome power to rescue them.
He was saving them as his people, and so he would keep them.
And so already, even though the children of Israel may not fully
understand how he's doing it, the Lord God is knowing which way
is best for his people and he is leading them in that way.
And as the Israelites traveled that long and winding road, then
they doubted whether God's way was really the best way.
But God knew what he was doing, as he always does.
Whatever God happens to be doing right now in your life, do
you believe that it is all for the best?
Sometimes it's hard, and I know that because I've experienced
it, that when you're in the midst of the storm, when you're in
the midst of the trouble, you can wonder, why is this happening?
Well, we must know with firm assurance that this is not God's
punishment on us, but rather God is doing something better through
may not seem that way, but it is.
Because Paul writes in Romans 8:28 and we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love him, who have been
called according to his purpose.
Now it's key that Paul writes about the purposes of God, because
his purposes are true and they're right.
We may not understand them.
And Scripture tells us that that our ways are not his ways.
Our thoughts are not his thoughts, because his ways and thoughts
are much higher than ours.
He knows the end from the beginning.
He knows everything that's going to happen in between.
And so he knows exactly what's going on in your life right now.
And you can trust him to lead you through it.
Even when you're tempted to doubt whether God knows what he's
doing, we're called to believe that his way is the Best way.
And it may not be over in a week, it may not even be over in
a year, but he will remain faithful as he was to his disobedient
people and he leads them to the promised land, just as he will
lead us through whatever valley we are in.
You see, when we trust him, then we will discover that he is
a God truly worthy of the trust and faith we place in him.
So just as the people of old had to learn that God always knows
which way is best for his people, so we must trust that today.
The second thing we learn about God's care for his people is
that God is always faithful to help his people.
So not only does he know the way, but he's going to help us along
the way.
And it may or may not have been a surprise to you of what we
read in verse 19, this is what we're told.
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made
the sons of Israel swear an oath.
He had said, God will surely come to your aid, and then you must
carry my bones up with you from this place.
That's probably the last thing in anyone's mind 400 years later,
but yet Moses does it.
And it tells us something of God and his faithfulness to his people.
Because what we're being told in this verse is the fulfillment
of what the Israelites had promised to do centuries earlier
in Genesis 50, Joseph had gathered his brothers to himself
as he lay dying, and he made them promise to take his body with
them when they left Egypt, because Joseph believed that God
was faithful.
And this is what the writer of Hebrews, looking back on the story
of God's people and looking particularly at Joseph, said in Hebrews
11:22, by faith, Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the
exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and and gave instructions about
his bones.
Again, that seems odd, but yet what have we been told about God?
Well, Joseph has been told that his descendants would become
slaves in Egypt, but he also knew that God would rescue them.
Joseph knew this because God had promised it to Abraham by covenant.
And when God finally brought Israel out of Egypt, Joseph wanted
to go with them to the land God had promised his great grandfather,
his grandfather and his father.
And the Israelites kept their promise, carrying Joseph's bones
all the way through the wilderness until finally they were
led to rest in the family burial plot at Shechem in Joshua
chapter 24 and verse 32.
And what that burial proved was that Joseph trusted in the right
God, even though he was surrounded by the so called Gods
of Egypt.
He kept faith in the one true God, the God who kept his promise
to rescue Israel.
And anyone who needs any kind of help should trust in the God of
Abraham, of Joseph and of Moses, because He is always faithful
to help his people.
And that's what you're called to today.
You are to put your trust in the Lord God, because when you do,
it is a trust well placed.
Not only has he provided a way for salvation through Jesus Christ,
but He has promised to keep you to the end.
Through all the ups and downs of life.
He's promised or he's not promised to give us all that we want,
but he does promise to give us what we need.
And today you can trust him with whatever you're facing.
So as much as he is the God who is, who knows the ways of his
people that are best for his people, he's also the God who is
faithful in those ways to his people.
That even though the paths may be difficult, he calls us and invites
us to trust in him, that indeed he will see us through.
And all you have to do is read the rest of Exodus to understand
that Joseph is pointing us to what God will continue to do.
He will continue, as it were, to deliver.
He'll continue to keep his promise.
He'll continue to keep a rebellious people close to Himself,
even though at times that rebellious people want nothing to
do with Him.
God will remain faithful to you because God is the one.
He is the One who is faithful, and he's the One who will never let
you go.
Well, the third thing this passage tells us about God is that
God is always present.
So as he knows the ways, as he's faithful in those ways, so he
is present with us.
He doesn't do it from an abstract distance.
And this is seen in verse 21 as the people leave Succoth.
And so we're told by day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar
of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar
of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day.
I had this section written a few days ago, so of course didn't
know anything of what was going to happen.
But how many of us looked out of our windows, if we are able to,
and looked across, looked north and saw that hue of orange.
There's no way you could miss it.
And even this morning as the smoke is drifting and mixed with
the cloud, you can't ignore what's been happening and what's
been going on.
And that's the image we're given.
The people could not ignore the presence of God in their midst.
Now, I'm not suggesting the fire and the smoke of God's presence
to us today, but it's to remind us that he's true of what
he says in His Word.
You see, God never left the people.
He never left them because he guided them in the way that they
should go.
And so what the cloud represented was the very presence
of God.
He was in the cloud and the fire to light the way.
And this showed that he was with his people all the time, day
and night.
The pillar was a visible manifestation of his personal presence.
And theologians called this physical presence of God before His
people a theophany, a God appearance.
And when God appears up this way, when he shows up this way, he
appears in a fiery cloud of glory, sometimes called the Shekinah
glory, as spoken of later in Exodus 16 and Exodus 40.
And what it is is an outward display of God's inward glory.
And maybe sometimes we wish we actually did have a cloud.
Maybe sometimes we wish we had a pillar of fire in front of us.
Maybe we wish we had bread crumbs.
And maybe we're even tempted to put out a fleece like Gideon did,
just to try and determine.
Maybe you've gone even further into ways that you shouldn't have.
Maybe you've dabbled in the occult by rolling dice and Ouija
boards.
Maybe you've read horoscopes trying to determine what you think
the way is you should go.
Please, please don't.
Please don't read horoscopes.
Please don't dabble in anything of the occult by way of
rolling dice or by Ouija boards or consulting anything that
is evil, because it will only rot your soul.
Have no image before you.
Have nothing that you think you will look to that will guide
you.
Because the only one who will is the Lord God Almighty.
And yes, he may not be a theophany in front of us by way of
cloud or by way of fire, but he is before us.
And he is present in his word as we read it and as we learn it,
so that we will truly know his ways for us.
You see, we want to know.
We want to be guided and directed young people, in what college
or university or whatever you want to do after school.
Or maybe then there's the workforce.
What job should you take?
Should you stay or should you go?
Or maybe even the person you should marry.
These major life moments.
We wish God would simply just float down a piece of paper and tell
us yet the truth.
Is that God gives us all the divine guidance we need.
And it's in a much better form.
He has given us the fire of His Spirit, and now we have his glorious
presence with us all day and all night.
It is as if the column of cloud and pillar of fire have come
right inside us.
And this is what Jesus said in John 14, verses 16 and 17.
The context of the verses are there, but Jesus says that the Holy
Spirit dwells with you and will be.
This is God's promise to us that he will guide us by the leading
of the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, no more
or no less than the Father and the Son.
And since then, he is divine.
The Bible declares in First Peter, chapter 4, verse 14, that
the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you, echoing what Christ
has said.
And so part of the Spirit's glorious work is to give us direction
for life.
And Jesus promised that the Spirit would give us all truth in
John 16:13.
And now by the power of his holy presence, God is always with
us to guide us.
Now don't ignore or think little of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Be attentive to the Holy Spirit.
And you might ask, well, how do we do that?
Because again, it's come back.
If only it was a cloud, or if only it was a pillar of fire.
Well, as I've said already, we read God's revealed word to us so
that we know what his ways are and what his truth is.
And through His Word, leading by the Holy Spirit, we will discern
the truth of that leading.
And so today, if your cry is, where is God?
Does he even care?
Let me assure you, he is right here with you.
And he's not going to stay in this building.
He'll go with you out through those doors, and he will be with
you if you will only but turn and look to him.
And rather than accusing him, come to Him.
Know him to be the One who knows the ways that are right for
you.
Know him, the One who is faithful to help you.
But know him as the One who will guide you.
Because this is who he promises to be.
Even in the hardest moments that you face and that you endure,
you can trust God.
All because of Jesus Christ.
And that's where we move on to next.
Because as we finish this morning, there's still 14 verses
of chapter 14 to look at.
And they begin with another surprising request.
In verse two, you see, the people are ready to leave and to
get Egypt behind them.
But the Lord comes to Moses and says in verses two and three,
tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near PI Harioth between
Migdol and the sea.
They are to encamp by the sea directly opposite BAAL Sethon.
Pharaoh will think the Israelites are wandering around the
land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.
Now we don't know where any of these places are.
Now it's only guesswork.
But what's important is what God tells them to do.
He tells them to turn back.
They're heading to freedom along the road by the sea and he's
telling them to go back.
And rather than going away from Egypt, they're going back to
it.
Now, we haven't heard from pharaoh since chapter 12, but appears
that the Lord isn't finished with him yet.
And so as the people turn back, it's all to mislead Pharaoh
because he thinks that they're going to be returning to work.
Well, verse four tells us that the Lord will once again harden Pharaoh's
heart and this will be a decisive victory for God and his
people.
And we see this unfold in verses 5 to 9.
It seems not only to dawn on Pharaoh what has happened, but now
on his civil servants that they've lost about a million people
of a workforce quite literally overnight.
Who's going to undertake now the construction and the building
work that the Egyptians wanted done.
And so this has displeased and distressed all of his servants.
So Pharaoh sets out in his chariots.
And by the way, if you're thinking, well, that's a rudimentary
way, this was the fastest known vehicle of its time.
This was top notch equipment for warfare.
Pharaoh is quite literally emptying the armory to go after these
people.
This is how troubled he is.
And so as he approaches the people, Scripture says he overtakes
them.
They're now on a return journey and they're fearful and they
cry out to the lord in verse 10, just like they did in Exodus
3, by crying out to the Lord for salvation and for rescue.
But we're not told what they cry, but rather what we're told is
as soon as they do that, they stop looking upwards and they turn
to the man in front of them and they cry out to Moses.
And so they now attack their leader.
And this is what they said to Moses.
Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought
us to the desert to die?
What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone, let us serve the
Egyptians?
It Would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to
die in the desert.
Now this is quite the bit of sarcasm here from the children of
Israel.
This is perhaps where Jewish comedy begins.
They're asking the question, did you bring.
Were there no graves in Egypt?
Well, of course there were graves in Egypt.
They helped to build them.
They're called the pyramids.
They're all graves all around.
You couldn't miss them.
And so there's a sarcasm here.
They also ask Moses what he's done, what they've done to him in
bringing them up out of Egypt.
In other words, we told you so.
Now, maybe the Israelites did tell Moses to leave them alone, but
if they did, the Bible doesn't mention it any strong or forceful
way.
Probably they were just sulking because that's the way people
usually do or what they do whenever things don't go their way.
And what was most alarming of all was their willingness to go right
back into bondage.
They told Moses it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians
that than to die in the desert.
The whole point of the Exodus was for them to serve God.
But here they were wanting to go right back into servitude of Pharaoh.
And it wasn't even servitude, it was slavery.
This was more than a loss of nerve as they saw the Egyptians.
This was something that's going to plague the children of Israel
for the duration of their time.
It is a lack of faith.
By pledging their allegiance to Pharaoh, by wanting to go back
to him, they were denying the power of God.
And the psalmist put it bluntly when he writes in Psalm 106:7,
they rebelled.
That's a rebellion against God.
Even before they get to Sinai.
They rebelled by the sea at the Red Sea.
So here we see their first chink of rebellion, wanting to trust
Pharaoh, whom they'd cried for rescue from rather than God.
And aren't we often tempted to do the same thing?
You see, God wants to bring us all out of our sins.
Our problem is that we only come out part way.
We perhaps believe we make a decision to follow Christ.
But as soon as we start having problems, we get scared and we go
right back to our old ways of coping.
Anger, addiction, self righteousness, distraction.
No matter how much we used to hate it, how much we want to hate
it.
There was security in the way we used to live.
So we return to the same old harmful friendships, the same old
sinful attitudes, and the same old nasty habits.
But there is another way to respond.
And Moses gives it to us in verse 14.
This is the verse that many an African hairdresser is called.
But yet how much more truth is it for today that the Lord indeed
will fight for you.
You need only be still.
That stillness is a trust in Him.
So as the God who knows what's best for you, the God who will be
faithful to guide you, and the God who will never leave you is inviting
you to be still before him, to let him do the work that he has always
promised to do.
We take it to him in prayer.
We read his word to have these promises hidden in our hearts.
Just like with the girls and boys, we take this and we live it,
because this has not changed.
This is our truth today, that we need to trust in the Lord, that
He will fight for us.
There are Pharaohs all around us, bringing us fear and making us
question God.
And at times we are more focused on these than we are on God.
And so we do lose heart and but he is the God of rescue.
He is the God of salvation.
And as such he is the One who will lead us through the waters and
bring us to our promised home in heaven.
Isn't that what he's about to do?
Isn't he about to take this people through the waters of the
Red Sea?
Isn't he about to rescue them and close the path behind so that
they will never return to Egypt?
And that's what he still does.
He leads us through and he will bring us to our promised home
in heaven.
What we need to do is trust in Christ.
We need to trust in his sacrifice for sin, to say that we're
sorry for our hardened hearts and our disobedience and our sin
against God, and to live for him by staying close to Him.
And that's what Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:31.
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.
And if we know the chorus that comes from this, what do we sing?
Allelu.
Alleluia.
And where did we begin with our call to worship?
Hallelujah.
Declare the people of God in His presence.
You see what everything is drawing us to.
Everything is drawing us to the complete fulfillment of all God's
covenant promises to his people that as he leads us through
the waters, so indeed he will bring us home.
He is truly the God who knows the ways that are best for you, even
though you may feel they are hard and difficult and don't understand
now.
He is the God who will be faithful in his leading Indeed, he
will guide you because his presence is physically with you by
the power of His Holy Spirit, that spirit of fire within us as
we seek after the things of God.
So don't get scared.
What we have to do is know and be still that the Lord will fight
for us.
Don't go back into your anger, your addiction, your self righteousness
or your distraction.
Nor make the promises.
If only God will do this, then I will do that.
If only God would show this or answer this prayer, then I'll believe
in Him.
No, don't play God for the fool.
Because this morning he has presented to you who he is.
And without doubt he is the one to whom we believe in.
Because we must seek first his kingdom and we must seek first his
righteousness.
That's all of his good.
And everything else will be given to us as well.
But our primary focus, to see us through the waters and to know
those waters close behind us so that we will forever be with the
Lord.
Well, everything will come with us as we place our trust in
him, as he gives us his good.
So this day, don't look at the Pharaohs, don't trust in them.
Don't trust in the habits of the past.
But look to the Savior who will lead you and guide you and indeed
bring you home.
Let's pray.
Our Father God, we thank you that you were saving a people, your
own people, for your glory.
And even though they doubted, even though at times they questioned.
Father, we ask that as we learn from your word, so we'll not
become as guilty as they.
That we will look to the Savior and only Christ.
That we will trust you and take you at your word.
So that we will know this truth even in the darkest moments
of life that some may be enduring right now.
We pray that by your holy Spirit, you will bring a comfort
of heart to know that you are the one who will lead them through
for themselves or their loved ones, the challenges and the hardships
of life.
Thank you that this too will pass as we look to you and await
ever the day when Christ is coming soon.
So Father, hear us as we pray in Jesus name, Amen.