"Danger in the World, Salvation in the Lord"

Scripture: Exodus 14:1-31

Sermons for the next 4 weeks will be a series based on comparisons between how Christians will experience the world and how we must experience God. All 4 weeks will be Old Testament readings for several reasons: first, I haven’t done much with the OT, and feel that we need to be in the Hebrew texts as much as we are in the New Testament; and second, the world’s influence in the lives of Israel is extremely graphic, and the OT holds many lessons for Christians of today. They are not out of date!
And so we begin with the “danger” that comes at us from the world.

Israel and his family were invited to relocate to Egypt for one reason – the entire region was suffering from a famine, but Egypt had been preparing for this time for seven years. One of his own sons – Joseph – had been instrumental in these preparations, and while they were never intended to be salvation for others, the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would owe their lives to the Godly mercy that placed Joseph in a position to serve many, including his family.
But salvation from the famine would erode, and soon the dangers would return. Slavery and oppression would replace starvation for many years, but even that couldn’t stand for long against the might of the great Yahweh. After 10 plagues had come against Egypt through the faith of Moses - a stammering murder, an outcast of the royal family and a descendant of Levi (who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?) - the people are allowed to leave their bondage and begin their long trek to the land promised to them hundreds of years before.
But, as we all know, evil has never quite been defeated – not in the lives of Israel, and not in our lives today. Just when we think that a “danger” has been eliminated, a new threat crops up – and usually turns out to be one that is even more deceitful, more destructive, than the last.

Read Exodus 14:1-9

The problem with danger is that it has so many different faces! If it all had a common appearance, if it had one brand, one manifestation, we could see it coming and take action to avoid it, or at least prepare to take it on. But it always comes at the worst possible time, promising the worst possible consequences. And there never seems to be a single thing that we can to do stop it! But God can never be deterred from helping us, even though we have trouble seeing Him at the time!

This past Friday, I had a similar situation. My son, Nathan, and I spent the day chipping up a number of piles of brush. We quit at about 3:30, intending to have the rented chipper back in Binghamton by 5:00. We were preparing to unload the last of 4 truck loads of chips when the front wheel on my truck fell off! Yes, fell off! Not the tire, the entire wheel. It seemed to be just about the worst thing that could have happened.
And then, I started to consider how it could have been worse. If it had happened 30 minutes earlier, we would have been up in the woods, making it nearly impossible to get the loaded truck out. If it had happened 30 minutes later, we would have been on Route 17, traveling 60 miles and hour, pulling the rented chipper behind us. Either way, it would not have had happy consequences. And as I considered where the wheel had actually broken, I realized that we were right next to the storage area for the chips, which we were able to unloaded manually in about 20-30 minutes, and very near to the drive way which will make it easier for the tow truck to drag my “3 wheeled vehicle” to safety.
All I need now is someone with a 2” ball on their truck to help return the chipper to Binghamton on Monday, and I expect that God is in the process of preparing that, too.
It won’t be resolved with an inexpensive solution, but it is resolvable, thanks be to the Lord!
(Subsequent Note: my sister in law had a 2" ball on her truck, AAA will pay for the entire towing effort, and the mechanic found a used front end, and installed, will be under $1,000!)

And Israel, if they only had known the plan that God was working, would have been amazed and far more faithful in their attitudes!

Read Exodus 14:10-14

We know that God will fight for us, but we always seem to have trouble seeing it. And because we don’t understand, and because we have such limited vision, we tend to believe that God just may not be on the job in our particular circumstance! Israel was scared stiff at the sight of the Egyptian army, and rightly so! When they left their homes of 400 hundred years, they had some gold and silver, and a very large number of people, but practically nothing that could be considered as weapons! How could they possible be victorious over 600 of the best fighting machines and 1,200 to 1,500 of the best fighting men, not to mention all of the other men and equipment, that the world had ever seen?
The answer is that they couldn’t! They were facing an insurmountable danger unlike any that they had ever seen. Right now, the bonds of slavery that they had left in Egypt were beginning to look pretty good to them. “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Have you been there? Traveling closely with the Lord, when suddenly, (if you’ll pardon the expression) all hell breaks loose! “I’ve been serving you Lord, just as you asked me too, but now in my darkest time, You seem to be nowhere in sight! I would have been better off to just do things my own way!”
But God is there, working, resolving, caring, blessing.

“The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
He fights for us, He heals us, He restores us, He saves us – He is always there when we need Him, and He is still there when we no longer see any possibility of gaining our own salvation. We just need to be still, and patient, and let our God work His plan!

Read Exodus 14:15-20

God had hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that he would chase the Israelites. For some unknown reason, God, apparently and intentionally, placed the people at risk of being captured and returned to slavery! And now the hearts of the pursuing army were hardened so that they, too, would never give up the pursuit. Why in the world does God do things like that? Well, the truth is that God’s Ways aren’t “in the world”, and that’s why they always seem so strange to us! His intention in this instance, if I may be so bold as to try to offer an explanation of God’s ways, appears focused on destroying the military capability of Egypt, showing Israel that there is no limit to what their Lord can, and will, do for them!
And in time, His salvation is laid out that all of the people might see.

Read Exodus 14:21-31

And now that Israel has received the entire perspective of what God is doing for them, they rejoice, and, finally, place their entire trust in Him and in God’s servant Moses. Of course, we know that this trust would only be temporary, that it would only last until the next terrible danger confronts them, and they see no way that it could possibly have a good outcome, and once again, they decide that God is not with them.

The truth is that God is always with us! Not only when we feel His presence, not only when we see Him at work, not only when we have complete trust in His ways, but even in those times when we have no idea as to what God is up to and can’t even imagine how this is all going to play out. Those are the times that the dangers that confront us haven’t got a chance of succeeding.

Those are the times that our salvation is closer than ever before. Those are the times when our praises should be ringing out the loudest! Jeremiah 29:11 gives us the eternal promise that we need to be reminded of every day. “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
This part of the passage is fairly well known, but it continues “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.“
Christ’s Salvation is always the plan, and the world’s dangers haven’t got a chance! But we need to keep our eyes focused properly – not on the things of earth, but the things of God. We need to constantly be reminded that dangers are of the world, not of God, and that the fullness of Salvation is only in Christ Jesus and is no where to be seen in the world. In no thing, and in no one, else. Only in Christ.

So, what have we learned from Israel’s dramatic rescue from Pharaoh? Let’s continue in our understanding that Pharaoh represents the world and it’s ways:
1. The world is selfish, God is generous. Pharaoh was only interested in preserving his power over those who he had enslaved. God wanted something better for those same people. Pharaoh is about “me”, God is about “you”.
2. The world wants us to doubt both ourselves and our Lord and to be filled with fear. God wants us to put our trust in Him and to receive overwhelming joy. The strength and reputation of Pharaoh’s army caused Israel to forget just who God is, and fear of the world replaced trust in Yahweh. People will always be better off if they fear God and distrust the world.
3. The world’s plan will have to change on a continuing basis, and at times will seem incomprehensible. God’s plan, on the other hand, never changes, but at times will also seem incomprehensible! Pharaoh’s plan of oppression needed revision time and time again – when “Plan A” failed, he had to turn to “Plan B”, and when that didn’t work out, to “Plan C”, and so on. God’s plan of salvation, though, is a constant - it will never fail us, and it will never be changed! The only thing that must happen is that we have to accept it.
4. Our trust in God will waiver, and at times, will fall far short. But God’s love for us is unyielding and unchanging. Israel, God’s own chosen, would prefer the pain of slavery and domination and cruelty in Egypt over the uncertainty of their Lord, but when the great plan of rescue from Pharaoh’s clutches was revealed, their praises were once again raised to the heavens.

And the “Pharaoh” of today is no different than the one of 1,200 BC. Pharaoh wants us to shun the love and glorious plan that our God has set in motion, in favor of the dangerous worldly path that is our alternate route. Pharaoh’s way leads no where – it’s a dead end. God’s way is eternal and will never end. Pharaoh is unforgiving – punishment is our only certainty in him, while God’s way is forgiveness – over and over again.
When our back is up against the sea, and the warriors of the world are in our face, and destruction seems to be the only possible outcome, will we, too, prefer Pharaoh’s slavery? Or will we praise our Lord for the salvation that we still don’t understand, but continue to place our hope in?

Which will it be?