The Long Road out of Egypt

It's good to see each and every one of you. The message you have opened up in your Bibles, hopefully you already have it there too. Exodus chapter 13, verses 17 and 18 this morning, just two verses. Verse 17, "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the Philistines, although that way was near. For God said, 'lest this people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.' But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea, and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, quipped for battle." If I can, let me say a prayer and ask the Lord to be with us.

Father, this text is one that we might read past. We are reading about your deliverance. We may read right past this verse. But in this verse, these two verses, we see so much about how you make decisions for the course of your people. We ask you to give us insight into your great directing mercy for your people. For we love you, we thank you again. Amen. So we have a curious journey south. If you're reading scripture, the Israelites have been 400 years in captivity, and the Lord is beginning this exodus. So in the second book of the Bible here, we see, right out of the gate, God steers his children on something of a scenic route.

It's only 100 miles to the Promised Land, yet his people would take over 40 years to travel only 100 miles. If you look at their desert wandering, they were constantly moving. Wherever the pillar of fire, at night, the cloud by day, wherever God led them, they went. And what I want you to see this morning is three great truths, four great truths about how God and his great providence led his people out. Now, can we know and understand why God chooses what he chooses for his people? That's the question that I'll begin with. Can we understand the mind of God? Can we understand why he makes decisions?

Now, we can never fully comprehend the mind of an eternal, omniscient God, an all-knowing, all-powerful God. But right here in Exodus 13 and 17, when the Lord tells us why he makes decisions, then we are obligated to study it. We are obligated to understand the mind of God as he is making decisions. And I think we as a church, we as individuals, can gain a great deal by understanding why God makes decisions, or at least why did he make this decision. So the first great truth that I want you to see is God's great providence.

If you go back to your scripture, the first half of verse 17 says, "When Pharaoh let the people go." Now, we would have to rewind and read these 13 chapters to understand the full context of when, where, and why, and how did Pharaoh come to let all of God's people go. But we have to see that in God's providence, God was the one who moved on Pharaoh's heart. The reason why Pharaoh let them go was because God was behind it. Now, this word "providence" is one that I have been studying a great deal this week. If we look at the word "providence," we come to understand that God controls all things. And he was in control the whole time.

Because God is great, he can effectively govern the affairs of the universe. And you can't really believe in providence unless you understand God's greatness. It was a great God who could move on the part, through circumstances, through ten plagues, of the greatest military leader of the world. Quite simply, we don't always see God as great, for honest. We may see our slavery, we may see whatever Pharaoh is in our life, whatever seems to be oppressing us. But we do not always see the mighty hand of an almighty God underneath these circumstances. And the Hebrew people did not see this, as we will see. Can we identify with the slavery of Egypt?

Dear friend, it is not an accident. Your circumstances right now in your life are not an accident. Sometimes it takes the Lord even intervening, doing a work in our heart for us to see his greatness in spite. So God's great providence, the first main truth under this first point, Romans number one, is that we see God's great providence allow captivity. God's great providence allow captivity. Genesis 15 and verse 13, the Abrahamic covenant, God's covenant with Abraham, then Abram.

If you go back and read this, the everlasting God, the great God who is outside of time, told Abraham that his people, that his descendants, would be in prison for 400 years. If you go back and read Genesis 15 and 13, we actually studied this with the youth. This was a really fantastic story of God's covenant. God commanded Abraham to trust him. He took a bull and he cut the bull in half. He separated. This was a common custom. When two people, two, maybe perhaps two kings, two leaders, made a covenant, they took a bull and they cut the bull in half and they separated it and they walked in between it.

The covenant oath was basically saying, "If I break or violate this covenant, let this be done to me. May I be cut down?" God is literally saying, is making a blood oath with Abraham. He makes a covenant that he will make him to a great people. He goes further and says, "After you are numerous people, I'm going to allow your descendants to be in captivity for 400 years." Why is that important? Because this great God told Abraham ahead of time, our great God is outside of time. He is controlling everything and he understands everything that we go through. It's important for us to see that he was in control.

This short phrase says it all, "When Pharaoh let the people go." If you're taking notes, as a trust you are, you have a pen, it might be a good thing to circle this phrase in your Bible. "When Pharaoh let the people go," you might want to write right over that. Sovereign providence. Christian, can I ask you if anything is holding you captive today? Are you held captive by any persistent personality sin or hang up? Is there any lingering attitude in your life that has not fallen away?

I was reading Charles Spurgeon recently and he said, "At creation God divided darkness and light, and in the life of a believer at conversion he separates darkness and light." See, before you're converted, there is no light, there is no spirit within you. But when you're converted, we see light in your heart. You are quite literally taking out of your Egypt. Spurgeon goes on to say, "How then can there remain so much darkness?" As a Christian, we've been saved, but we see lingering Egyptian attitudes. We see Egyptian sentiments and personalities.

I had a friend, I liked music and liked listening to music, and one of our friends played at a church service, this was probably the better part, 20 years ago. And the song that she sang said, "Lord, you've taken me out of Egypt, so please take Egypt out of me." I think we can relate to that because we are no longer held captive. Scripture says, "Sin will no longer have dominion over you." As a believer, you can see the victory over sin in your life. But for whatever reason, sometimes there are attitudes and thoughts that we have got to repent of.

Just this last week after our fellowship meal, some of us were sitting and talking in the sanctuary, and we were making mention of books. I made mention, we were talking about this very subject, that Elizabeth Elliot wrote a book, and she says in this book how often she had to repent of thoughts and the feelings. And even though we have been converted, we sometimes see these Egyptian ways. But because we are saved, and because we are redeemed, and because we are delivered, we cannot stay in bondage to them. And we see, under Roman numeral I, not only God's great providence to allow captivity, but we see God's great power to deliver.

The title of this book, Exodus, means a going out or a departure. So we have just talked about, you can think of your conversion as a departure. But in this book Yahweh remembers his covenant promise to Abraham, and he leads his people out of captivity. He leads them to Mount Sinai, gives them the Ten Commandments, and he shows them how to live a life that is pleasing to him. And if you read Exodus, God's greatness is on display throughout the entire book. Now I'd like to just skip forward a few verses to Exodus 13, 21, 22. And I would just like to read this.

"The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night 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 the people or from before the people." I was reading that, and it just occurred to me, there were no headlights. There was no artificial lighting of any sort. In an ancient world, no one traveled at night, perhaps bandits. But here you have God's people who are not limited. Jesus, the light of the world, is giving them light, and they can go anywhere.

This is nothing more or nothing less than God's great power. And he was displaying this power as he delivered them in captivity. If you go through in the book of Exodus, we see the loft, we see him descend in the cloud on Mount Sinai. And the Lord almost seems to, at every turn, allow things to happen to his people so that he may display his great glory. I'd like to ask you a question about your testimony and about your deliverance. Have you seen opportunities and have you taken opportunities to give your testimony to others? I've been learning something this summer.

I've been learning that when God gives us trials, he does not give them to us simply for our own benefit. Now for years, when I would preach, I would talk about how God uses trials to reform our character. But this summer, the Lord has added another layer to this. God not only gives you trials for your own character. In fact, I would say that might be further down the list. He gives you trials first and foremost so that you might see his glory. In doing so, you're changed. Secondly, he gives you a trial for the church. Any time he gives you a trial, it's because he wants to give you victory in it.

And the victory that he wants to give you is not for you, but it is for your church. Dear Christian, have you given your testimony away recently? When God brings his people out of bondage, they were known. You can read the Old Testament. They were known for the people that were delivered out of Egypt. They were known. These are the people of Yahweh. Yahweh delivered them through the Red Sea. And your testimony ought to be something that you can give away to others. I'm thankful for my testimony of conversion, and I'm also thankful for the many testimonies the Lord's given me down the road.

It's not atypical for me to hear my wife sharing our testimony of our adoption. It seems like we share that weekly with people that we meet. And that's a testimony of those, you know, three children, three testimonies. For the purpose of building God's kingdom in his church, and for encouraging others. Well, second main point that I want you to see is not only God's great providence, but God's good providence. Roman numeral number two is God's good providence. Now, this is not a play on words, and it may sound redundant, but those two words are important.

They are an important distinction, because we have to realize that when we look at God's greatness, we are not talking necessarily about his goodness. He's got good. Yes, he is good. But God is also great. I'd like to tell you about my college philosophy class. It was probably a sophomore, so this was over 20 years, and I remember sitting down, and there was probably 20 different philosophical problems written on the board. Questions? Philosophical problem, you know the one. The tree falls in the wilderness, does it make a sound? That kind of stuff, right? So, there was one on the chalkboard that I really have not forgotten.

I'll read it to you. Is God good because God is good? Or is God good because he is God? Now, it's not meaning to be overtly technical and complicated, but let me read it again. Is God good because he is good, or is God good because he is God? Essentially, this question is asking, is God good, or is he great? Now, if you think about it, is God good because he is working for our benefit, or is God good because he is great, and he determines what good is?

So, we as parents, for instance, understand this question when we tell our children, "You obey me because I said so." Essentially, what we're saying is, "I have the right to demand obedience of you. I'm in control. You are appealing to your position of power and of greatness." You also understand the other side of this question. You understand goodness because you understand that your children need something. You want to give them, perhaps you want to make them happy. Perhaps you want to see the sheer pleasure on their face when they are granted something. So, this question, I've really been thinking about it for 20 years, I guess.

You know I have the answer? The answer is yes. Now, that would have been real clever of me if I just wrote the paper and put yes and submitted it. I don't know what I would have, what kind of grade I would have gotten on that. But here's the question, do we trust His greatness when we may not see His goodness? When we are in the middle of a trial, when we are in the middle between Pharaoh and the Red Sea, we don't see God's greatness. So, therefore, we trust His goodness. We doubt His goodness. If you feel as though God is not in control of your situation, you're doubting His greatness.

If you are concerned that perhaps He doesn't care about you, you're doubting His goodness. If you are understanding that, yes, my circumstances have not changed, but I know that God is good. He's working this for His glory and for the church and for my glory. He is good. I don't even trust that. And I may not see these situations change, but I know He's great. He can change them. You know those Egyptians asked year after year for 400 years, "Where is God?" And in the fullness of time when it was God's perfect timing, go back and read it 17.

It says, "When Pharaoh let them go." We cannot control God's sovereign will, but we trust His sovereign will. Back to our question. If we could balance out, would God be more good or would He be more great? Here's the thing about God's moral attributes. I learned this from my friend Luke Johnson. God's moral attributes are always equally balanced. He is as loving as He is just. He is as merciful as He is omnipotent. On the cross, we see God's greatness and God's goodness. We see God's hatred and wrath of sin, which He has to punish, poured out on Jesus. Just God's mercy and His kindness toward sinners.

The third main truth that I want us to see is the Hebrew weakness. You know, we can identify with these Hebrews. We can see great trial and we can doubt God as well. The Hebrews had two weaknesses as I see it. They had a physical weakness. Obviously, they were physically weak. They had been oppressed for 400 years. They went out in military formation, but they had no military experience. In fact, they had been beaten. They had been mistreated. They had been given basically the land that the Egyptians did not want. At one point, they were told that they had to make their normal quota of bricks with no straw. They were also spiritually weak.

They were spiritually weak in two ways. They lacked faith and they lacked vision. In lacking faith, what we mean is God saw that they did not have the faith that they needed to go through and conquer the Philistines. If you go back to our verse, if you look in verse 17, it says, "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not need them by the way of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, 'Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.'" They had a lack of faith.

If you go through the Old Testament, you see everywhere God says, "I will fight for them." God won every single battle that the Hebrews fought, but yet they were weak and they had not come to trust His greatness. God fights all of your battles as well. If you are trying to fight any battle in your own strength, not only are you lacking faith to trust His greatness and His goodness, but you are lacking the ability or the faith to see that He will help you. Hebrews would eventually learn that God would fight every single battle for them. The giants of the Old Testament were simply those who had great faith.

If we see this, that David was a great warrior, not because of any military ability. He was a great warrior because he had faith. Even Samson. You know, Samson, if you look at a cartoon picture of Samson with a long hair, usually he's got these huge muscles. I remember hearing a preacher who said, "He thought Samson was probably just an ordinary God." Because Samson did all that he did by faith. God told him, "Grow your hair. I will give you strength." He obeyed. His strength came from God. It did not come from looking like... Let's think of these T-shirts, these religious T-shirts that I grew up with.

He wasn't from any other source but his faith. They also lacked vision. You might say that vision is faith applied. When we see God's allowing certain circumstances, faith teaches us and tells us who God is. But vision is an assurance that God will accomplish these things. Vision enables us to discern the times. Can you look around your circumstances and see them the way God sees them? Vision also enables us to claim God's promises in Scripture. I want to read a verse for you. I'd like you to write this down. 1 Corinthians 10.13 Now this is a promise. Either this is not true and God has lied. Or this is true and we have got to believe it.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. But God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure. God saw that his people were not strong enough spiritually for war. And so he leads them down in between Pharaoh on one side and the Red Sea on the other. And yes, temptation overtook them. The temptation to doubt God's greatness, the temptation to doubt God's goodness was right on them. Except this temptation did not overtake them because, did not conquer them because the Lord provided a way.

Now the last truth that I have this morning is God's puzzling providence. I'll read verse 18. Exodus 13. But God led the people around the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Now think about this for a second. You realize what the scripture just told us. The scripture just told us that God is protecting his people from war by giving them Pharaoh. Now think about this. God saw that they did not have the strength to handle the Philistines. So he literally sandwiches them between the sea and the greatest military force on the planet.

And sometimes God is protecting you from something by giving you something that seems much greater. And behind all of this is God's protection. When the Hebrews were encamped in between Pharaoh and the sea, if you would have asked them, "Is God great?" they would say, "It doesn't seem like it." If you would have asked them, "Is God good?" they would have said, "It does not seem it." But if you would have taken Moses and Joshua and Men of Fe, they would say, "Yes, God is great and God is good." And in the focus of time, he will make this evident. And God's providence may be puzzling to us.

This omnipotent, all-powerful God may allow things that seemingly overwhelm us. And God may take you the scenic route. Perhaps victory looks like it's just right down the corner, and I'm being diverted into the wilderness for decades. But God in his good providence knows right. I want to conclude, and I'd like to give you a gem. And I've just discovered this. In 1676, Samuel Roddegast is a German professor. He was also a hymn writer, and he was the son of a Lutheran minister. But Roddegast wrestled and accepted the great providence of God, and he wrote to him, and I'd like to read this for you, "Whatever my God ordains is right.

His holy will abide it. I will be still whatever he doth, and follow where he Godeth. He is my God, so dark my robe he holds me that I shall not fall. Wherefore to him I leave it all." Whatever God does. And this is good. Whatever my Lord ordains is right. Christian, can you say that of your heart? Can you look back at your circumstances and say as well with my soul? Can you look back perhaps something you're going through now? And even more so, can you say, "Lord, let this work for your glory and for others in the church?" And lastly, that I will be the Christian you want me to be. I can guarantee you that I will be taking this hymn.

I may be singing it for you before too long. This is a good reminder. But in conclusion, let's ask the Lord as we pray to visit us with a blessed assurance that Jesus is ours, that this great God has not left us. This great God is very good. He is working all things to the good of those who love him and who are called. And we trust that this is so. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your faithfulness throughout all generations. Lord, this is a subtle verse that we...