If you were here last week, you may have seen my precious
niece Kennedy here with my parents. She
is 6 and lives in north Ft. Worth and gets to visit here every now and then
with them. The 4 of us went out to eat
after church last Sunday and while we were eating, Kennedy, who is terribly
interested in this bump on my head, says to me, “Uncle Todd, when we were
driving the other day…” and then she goes on to describe some trip the whole
family was on months ago going someplace I don’t recall.
She said, “When we were driving there, you told me that you
got this bump on your head from when you were mining for gold in Alaska and
somebody shot you. Is that true?” Well, I don’t remember telling her that but
it sounds like something I would say.
But before I could answer, she looked at her Grannie and Grannie shook
her head “no” and ratted me out. And
that’s disappointing because I thought my story sounded a whole lot more
interesting than the truth.
I mean, what was a cool uncle supposed to tell a 6 year old;
that I was born without a soft spot and had surgery as a baby and this is how
it grew? Or…that I was mining for gold
in Alaska up in the Yukon during the gold rush and had to shoot my way out of
the camp? Which would you rather
hear? I love a good story! And sometimes my stories are true… if they
are good enough. But when talking to a 6
year old, I reserve the right to embellish things, or even tell a “windy” as
Grannie calls them.
I have a scar from that surgery as well and evidently when I
was a little boy, I told my SS teacher that I got the scar from wrecking my
go-kart. So, I am no stranger to telling
windys or to embellishing the truth to make a story better. Well, today we are going to look at a story
that sure sounds like a windy. The story
of how God parted the Red Sea is probably the most incredible, most miraculous
Old Testament story there is. And we
will continue our series entitled “Story Time” with this classic.
You remember last week how we looked at the story of Noah
and the Ark and I said that “scientists” had proven that it couldn’t be
true? Well, this week, I have learned
just the opposite for this story.
“Scientists” have proven just how this phenomenon happened. They studied the landscape and the tides and
the effects of wind on water and have come to the conclusion that there are one
or two areas of the Red Sea that could be parted at low tide and with 67-72 mph
winds. And if those winds kept up for
the 6 hours of low tide, people could get across.
So, aren’t you glad that now you know how it happened? Aren’t you glad that all you have to do is
have faith in science and scientists?
Now you know that Moses wasn’t lying when he wrote this story. I feel so much better. Now, when the scientist was asked about how
could 2-3 million men, women and children get across on dry land with all of
their possessions in carts and with all of their livestock as near-hurricane
force winds blew on them and do it all in 6 hours…I think his answer was
something like, “Uh…hey, look over there!” And then he ran off.
Well, thankfully we don’t have to have faith in science or
in scientists. Our faith is not in
something that is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Our faith is in the Word of God that has
proven itself to be true from the very beginning to the very end as well as in
our own lives. Continuing our focus on
faith and obedience, we look at the great biblical story of how the children of
Israel left Egypt and went back to their home country of Israel.
This is another of those stories that you might not have
read or really studied in years and so I want to give you a little background
before we read the text. In Exodus 12:37 it says that about 600,000
men left Egypt. This doesn’t count the
women and children. It also says that
there were a mixed multitude of people that were not Israelites who went with
them. So we don’t know how many people
all total there was but I think between 2-3 million would be conservative. It may have been twice that. We also know from Exodus 12 that the Israelites plundered the Egyptians when they
left. So all these people had all this
stuff and all of it had to go across the Red Sea to get to Israel.
Now, studying the Red Sea, I found out that it is not like
the Jordan River that you can walk across in two minutes and might be 10 feet
deep in some places. The Red Sea is
called a sea for a reason. It is 1400
miles long and in some places, it is 220 miles wide. You can’t see the other side of most of it
from shore. It is also over 7000 feet
deep in some places. Think ocean and you
will get a better visual. Now, I assume
that Moses led them to a place that was not necessarily the deepest but it had
to be pretty deep to cover over all the army of Pharaoh.
So, as we read the story in Exodus 14, I want you to imagine the populations of Wise, Parker
and Tarrant counties crossing a 4-6 mile span with a wall of water on each side
and doing all of this in the middle of the night with all of their
possessions. Don’t you know there was at
least one woman going, “Well, we can’t go now.
I just started dinner. My clothes
are a mess and you know what this water does to my hair. Besides, Wheel of Fortune will be on in a few
minutes.”
Ok, maybe not. Let’s
read what really happened starting in Exodus
14, verses 21-31. “Then Moses
stretched out his hand over
the sea, and
all that night the Lord drove the sea back
with a strong east wind and
turned it into dry land. The
waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites
went through the sea on
dry ground, with
a wall of water on their
right and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and
chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked
down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian
army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed[a] the wheels of their
chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s
get away from the Israelites! The Lord is
fighting for
them against Egypt.” 26 Then the Lord said
to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back
over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak
the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were
fleeing toward[b] it, and the Lord swept
them into the sea. 28 The water flowed
back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had
followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them
survived. 29 But the Israelites
went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their
right and on their left. 30 That day the Lord saved Israel from the
hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed
against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and
put their trust in
him and in Moses his servant.”
Now, speaking of
being able to tell good stories, have you ever known anybody that seemed to
have all the cool stories of real things that had happened to them? They had been places and seen things and met
people and had things happen to them like nobody else. Well, that is kind of how Israel is. Since the very beginning, Israel has had
things happen to her that no other country has.
Even today it is still in the news.
I was looking at
the map the other day wondering what all the fuss is about when it comes to
tiny old Israel. It has the whole world
in a huge fuss and the whole country is not 1/30th the size of
Texas. But for whatever reason, Israel
is God’s chosen people and God has protected and provided for Israel from the
very beginning and He will until the very end.
I have said before that God’s overall will is always going to be done
and nowhere is that better proven that the nation of Israel.
More than one
Pharaoh tried to kill them. Haman
couldn’t kill them in the book of Esther.
Almost every Middle Eastern country has tried at one time or another to
wipe them out, not to mention that Russia, China and North Korea want to. But God’s ultimate will is always going to be
done. So when you pray for the peace of
Jerusalem and you support Israel as a country, you are supporting God’s will
and there are blessings for doing that and consequences for not doing that.
And in this
passage in Exodus, we see that it was God’s will to save the Israelites but I
want us to see 3 things as we look at it closer. The first thing we will see is that God’s will involves man. Secondly, God’s will is not dependant on man.
And lastly, God’s will is a
miracle to man. Let’s look at verse 21 to see that God’s will
involves man. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night
the Lord drove the sea back.
We didn’t read it
but verse 16 tells why Moses stretched
his hand out over the waters. He did it
because God told him to. God most
certainly was not trying to tap into the power that Moses had. And I was going to say that God gave Moses
the power to do it but it wasn’t that Moses ever had the power to part the
waters. So why did God want Moses to
play a part in this miracle at all?
God’s will involves man because God wants man to be obedient.
And when man is
obedient to God, God blesses man. Moses
was obedient to God by raising his hand but God is the one who performed the
miracle. And I firmly believe that if
Moses had not been obedient, then God would have found someone else to do it
and been a blessing to him while Moses would have suffered the consequences. But either way, God’s ultimate will was going
to be done.
Roger Staubach of
the Dallas Cowboys admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn't call
his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play.
He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could
he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered
coach Landry to have a "genius mind" when it came to football
strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team. Roger later said, "I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was
harmony, fulfillment, and victory."
(sermonillustrations.com)
God has given us free will and He will let you make your own
decisions. But you won’t be on His
team. And His team will have
victory. You can have faith in
that. But if you choose not to be a part
of His team, God will get somebody who will and bless that person while you
suffer the consequences. You can see
that in other biblical stories like when the Israelites were wandering in the
desert and God wanted them to take back the Promised Land. What happened? They sent spies who came back and most of
them said it couldn’t be done and so God didn’t allow that generation to go in. Only Joshua and Caleb were allowed in because
they were obedient in faith.
C.S. Lewis wrote
in his book Studies In Theology, “God seems to do nothing of Himself which
He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and
blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. “
And I believe He chooses to use us because it gives us an opportunity to
be obedient, which gives Him an opportunity to bless us.
So, we see that God’s ultimate will is going to be done and God’s will involves man. But we also see in our passage that God’s will is not dependant on man. Look back at verses 24 and 25. During
the last watch of the night the Lord looked
down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian
army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that
they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the
Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against
Egypt.”
God jammed the
wheels of their chariots. Now, let’s
look at this through the eyes of an Egyptian charioteer for a minute. The last few months of your life have been
horrible. You have endured 10 different
plagues and it is becoming more and more obvious that the Israelites had
something to do with it. You were never
so glad as when they finally left and now your leader is commanding you to go
back after them.
You have driven a
chariot for years and you have never seen anything like what is happening here
tonight. First, you’re driving across
the Red Sea on dry ground with a mountain of water on both sides. That’s not normal. And now your chariot wheels are jamming up
for no apparent reason. And you don’t
have to be a “rocket surgeon” to figure out that God is not on your side.
Have you ever
felt like that charioteer? Have you ever
felt like your wheels were jammed; that you just can’t make any progress? Have you ever felt like God was against
you? Could it be that God isn’t on your
team? How could God be so mean? On the other hand, could it be that you
aren’t on God’s team?
God’s ultimate
will is going to be done. And while it
is not His good and perfect will that we sin, God gives us free will and He can
even use that sin to bring about His ultimate will. But sometimes He just chooses to frustrate
our efforts. Sometimes He does not allow
things to happen that we wish, with our myopic vision, to happen. Is that God being mean when that
happens? Is He just being some kind of
divine bully?
No. That is God being sovereign. He has every right to do anything He pleases
but the good news is that He is not only sovereign but He can be trusted to
have your best interests at heart as He is sovereign. That is what Romans 8:28 is talking about when it says, “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, of course,
just because you are going through a rough time doesn’t mean that God is
against you. Job is a witness to
that. God’s will was going to be done
through Job and Job’s comfort was not going to trump God’s sovereignty. Job is best known for his patience but it was
actually his faith that allowed him to be God’s servant. And it is the same with us. Because we know that God is love and that God
is sovereign, we can have faith that He is working for our good when we are
obedient.
So, God’s will involves man but it is not dependent on man. I want to close with a look at how God’s will
is a miracle to man. Look at verses
30 and 31. “That day the Lord saved Israel from the
hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed
against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and
put their trust in
him and in Moses his servant.”
I’m sure it was
pretty easy to stand on the other shore of the Red Sea with all your family and
friends around you with dry clothes and dead Egyptians floating to see that
God’s will was quite the miracle. Do you
know what the Israelites did after this?
They worshiped God! They
sang. They prayed. There was music and poetry and laughter and dancing
and praise. It had to be an incredible
time of worship.
And do you know
how long that attitude of grateful worship lasted? It lasted about 15 minutes until one of them
got a little bit thirsty again. Actually
it tells in the next chapter all about how they worshiped and before the
chapter even ends, the people are grumbling again. And after God solves that problem, it’s the
very next chapter that they say they wish that God would have just killed them
in Egypt rather than to be out in the desert.
And they had that
attitude because they refused to see that God’s will is a miracle to man. What is a miracle, anyway? A miracle is simply something that only God
can do. God allowed Moses to be part of
the miracle but God did the miracle. And
it’s easy to see that God’s will is a miracle when He parts the Red Sea. It’s easy to be grateful then. It’s easy to see God’s will is a miracle when
He provides a church to pay the lease in Runaway Bay. And we were very grateful.
But what about
when God takes something away from us?
What about when God allows us to suffer through something? Paul said God’s grace was sufficient for him. Grace is a huge miracle! God’s love for us is a huge miracle. That He allows us to live and breathe is a
miracle especially since 1 Peter 5:8
says Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking to kill us dead. Our protection against Satan is a miracle
because it is only something that God can do.
And when we have that attitude, God can’t wait to bless us.
He blessed the
Israelites in spite of their grumbling.
Imagine what He can do with a church that considers it all pure joy when
we face trials of many kinds. Imagine
what He can do with an obedient group of followers who have the consistent
attitude that we know it is a miracle of God’s will that we are here and we
have this ministry and we are going to do everything He asks us to do no matter
how hard it is or what anybody else says.
And we will do it because God has proven Himself to be faithful and true
from the days of Moses to the days of Christ Fellowship.
Do you know how
else God’s will is a miracle to man? Do
you know what the biggest miracle of all is?
The biggest miracle is not that God parted a huge body of water. It’s not that He brought the Israelites into
the Promised Land or made it rain manna or even that He has provided another
church to make the lease payment in Runaway Bay (and I’ll tell you more about
that tonight).
God’s greatest,
most fantastic, outrageous miracle was allowing His Son to come to earth to be
crucified and die for our sins. And to
allow us grace through faith that we can have eternal life with Him in Heaven. That was something that only God could
do. And all we have to do is believe and
follow Him. Have you done that? Have you accepted God’s miraculous grace and
asked Him to be Lord of your life?
Our miracle of
breath is only going to last a short time longer. Do it today.
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