The calm, quiet beauty of the Red Sea this morning belies the intense drama and emotion of that night centuries ago when God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt. Imagine it. Moses standing with his stick extended over the sea, mobs of people hurrying down the beach and into the cut he had made in the water the milling of the chariots, the cloud glowing with power, the sounds, horses, officers yelling, people talking, Moses calling out instructions. Unbelievable drama. No wonder the Bible mentions it so often as the seminal event in God's shaping his people. 

And yet, in some ways, what God did that night in the hearts and lives of that group of slaves is just as dramatic and just as powerful, and it's first seen as those people emerge on the other side a changed people in as dramatic a way as God changed history that night. Come. Let's meet them as they come out of the water.

Now, that's power. That is amazing. We're now on the east side of the Red Sea, and we picked a place that nobody thinks is where they crossed. That way, the issue is not where was it, but what was it. So let's pick up where we left off last night. The Hebrews and us with them, in heart, are halfway across. There's a wall of water on each side. You're walking, they're walking, carrying babies, helping old folks, comforting crying kids. Imagine, you put your life on this thing, and God's been amazing. But you don't know the ending. We do. And this is the sound above you. "All night," it says (Exodus 14), "an east wind blew out of the desert and cut the sea." 

Often, east wind is judgment in the Bible. Unfortunately, Pharaoh didn't know this. And that wind kept that cut dry. So where our feet are wet, theirs were dry. Then the first ones came out. Imagine. And then more and more, and somewhere in a place like this, they're gathering. And I'll guarantee you they're not gathering over there. They're helping others. They're standing, watching. They're cheering each other on. "Come on. Come on. Come on."

Finally, the last of the thousands make their way up out of that sea, wherever it was. And then, we discover something. Pharaoh hasn't given up. I don't know what he's thinking. We tried to understand that his worldview was strong to him. Maybe he thought, one more God - Horus, the God of war. "There's one more. He won't let me down. He never has." I don't know. But those chariots ride down into that cut - 600 of them and then more and more and more. Now from this bank, we can see them. All of a sudden, this doesn't look so much like a haven as a dead end. 

What's he thinking? And then, Yahweh, the God Moses met in the desert said, "Moses, your arm. Stretch your arm." And I don't know if the wind changed direction or it kept blowing as it did, but suddenly, that cut was gone. And in an instant, just as it was getting light, it vanished. And in that much, in that amount of time, the war of the gods was finished. And they stood maybe like I feel in my soul right now, maybe initially in stunned silence. "Who is this? What kind of power is this?" 

And the text says, "It worked. What God wanted, happened." 

Listen (Exodus 14). "When the Hebrews saw the great power, they feared Yahweh and put their trust in him and in Moses too." And that people who, according to the book of Ezekiel, had bought into the gods of Egypt, who when they went into slavery didn't even know who to cry out to, who were slowly trained - first, by kill a year-old lamb (the sacred animal) and then, again, go into the water even though you don't know for sure - came out and said, "We get it! He's God." And in classic eastern fashion, what appears to be on the spur of the moment, somebody wrote a song, and they sang it like a Bedouin in a tent at night. 

Listen to a bit of the content of this song (Exodus 15). "I will sing to Yahweh." Notice it doesn't say to God, but it says his name. "I know him now. Yahweh is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. He is my God." I love the Hebrew, "Zeh Eli." It means, "This is my God. He just did this." In other words, "I leave all the rest behind, all of them - Osiris and Hathor and Min and Horus and the whole bunch. They can all stay. This is my God."

And brothers and sisters, fellow Hebrews with a small h, listen to me. When God brings you out of your bondage, whatever form that bondage took, you've got to leave all the gods behind, all of them. I don't care if they're great big statues or if they're your career or your hobby or your obsession. There's only one God. This God. How many of us today have Egypt with us in our souls because we wouldn't leave him when we left bondage?

Then it says, "And I will praise him." That's clear. What's fascinating and powerful, the writer chooses a word in Hebrew ve'anveh'hu-- the writer chooses a Hebrew word which means praise, give credit. It also means oasis or pleasant place to live. And literally, that verse could be translated, "This is my God. I will be the place he lives. I will be his oasis." They got it. They caught it. 

God said, "Moses, go be the message. Bring a message, but be the message. Be like God to Pharaoh. Israel is going to hear. You are a Kingdom of priests. You are God's presence in your world." 

And somehow, very deep in a song that they were dancing their hearts out to, they were singing, "God, we left magnificent temples. We can't offer you much, but if you want it, we're it." You see the seeds of a group of people standing on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem and the Shekinah glory of God appears and separates into tongues and goes on to each one of them (Acts 2). And Paul will triumphantly write (1 Corinthians 3), "You are God's temple." And it's already here. 

Listen (Exodus 15). "Your right hand, oh Lord, is majestic in power." All those hands, all those arms. Listen. I love this one. "Who among the gods is like you?" You've been to Egypt. You've seen them all. Who?" Hear them singing that. "Who? Who compares with this God? You will lead your people. You will guide them. The Lord will reign forever and ever." 

But I want to look at the song from another point of view.

Because we're Western, we feel a fire in our soul when we hear words like that and a story like that of the power of God. And here, we stand. They're Easterners. They came with timbrels. Picture thousands of barefooted people dancing on this beach. Listen to me. Tell me if you had that four-month-old in your arms, and Pharaoh's army was 200 meters away and God acted, you wouldn't dance. And I maintain few of us appreciate the awesome power of our God. 

Now, try this with me. You just say it back to me (Exodus 15). "I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and his rider, he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength. The Lord is my song. He has become my salvation. This is my God. I will praise him. My father's God, I will exalt him. Your right hand, oh Lord, is majestic in power. Who among the gods is like you, oh Lord? Who is like you? Majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders. In your unfailing love, you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. The Lord will reign forever and ever. The Lord will reign forever and ever."

"Adonai imloch l'olam vaed." "Yahweh is reigning forever and ever."

Have you ever been at the point in your life where the power and the kingship of the God of the universe is so overwhelming that all you can do is stand and chant and dance and sing, "The Lord is reigning. The Lord is reigning. The Lord is reigning." May I make a suggestion. I think you feel it in your soul, but I'd like to suggest we've forgotten how to dance. Your children need to see the dance in your heart, the dance in your eyes, the dance on your face, and maybe sometimes the dance in your feet as you celebrate the greatness of God. 

God doesn't compete with the gods over there anymore, but he competes. Because in the culture we live in, there are all kinds of things that are huge and big and attractive and beautiful and awesome. Let your kids see you dance, because God is the king of the universe. Teach them how to dance. And if you think, "That's Hebrew Bible. Those Jews were amazing, and they knew how to dance," try sometime a quick read through of the book of Revelation, and you will discover to your amazement that in the book of Revelation, the saints gather around God's throne and together forever, they sing the song of Moses. So practice, practice, practice. 

I teach high school kids. Honestly, most of them rarely see adults wildly excited about their God. If you aren't, most of them are not going to be either.  Or maybe we haven't been here yet. Maybe we're still in bondage.

Go back with me in your mind. God created this magnificent creation - order out of chaos. Sin put it back into chaos. Then sin became a kingdom too and God stepped in and said, "My Kingdom will be restored." 

But if you ask, "Where exactly did the Kingdom begin in the Bible," that is the moment when God's people said, "Adonai imloch l'olam vaed." "Yahweh is reigning forever and ever." 

Imloch, which means reigning, comes from the Hebrew Melech, which means king. So you could say, "The Lord is king forever and ever." And if the Lord is king, we have a kingdom. 

Now, the Jews believed - then, all the way to Jesus' day and until today - that the Kingdom started when God's finger acted. Remember, we stood in front of the statue of Pharaoh and heard his magicians say, "This is the finger of God." The Kingdom starts not by what I do. You can't bring the Kingdom. We are nothing. The Kingdom starts when God acts. Israel wasn't saved because of their efforts. Israel was delivered by grace. And grace with unbelievable power. The finger of God comes first. And when people see the finger of God, the result is a dance on the shore of the sea, saying, "He is king."

But it's as if God looked down and said, "Fine. I'm blessed you would call me king. But I want to know, am I your king? Do I rule in your life? So you called me king. Is it my reign? Am I in charge in your life? I want my kingdom to be active in your life because you obey me as your king. So I'm not finished with you yet. Yes, it was my finger, and you called me Lord. I bless you. Now, come. There's a mountain about 40 days from here. I'm going to show you what it means to take me as your king."

Jesus said it like this (Matthew 6). "Your Kingdom come, your will be done." And if you want to be part of that Kingdom that is changing the world-- no, if you want to be part of that Kingdom with which God is changing the world, you cannot leave the last piece out. I'm not talking here about being saved. They were saved by grace. They didn't do anything to divide that sea. I promise you. And I don't think they stood and tried to hold it up.

Listen to Jesus (Luke 11). "If I drive out demons with the finger of God, then the Kingdom is among you." That sounds like Exodus. That sounds like God is still doing the same thing. And people saw the finger of God in Jesus, and they were amazed, and they called him Lord. Then, he said (Matthew 21), "Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom. But only those who do the will of my Father." You didn't have to do the will of the Father to get across the sea. You just had to make a commitment. But once he delivered you, he now expects you to join the story. And that means doing his will.

We do not want to lose saved by grace, but in our desire to bless God for grace, we had better be really careful not to shut ourselves out of the story. My point is, God says, "I'm at work in your world. I'm defeating evil and I'm bringing shalom, and I want you guys to be me to Pharaoh, like me." 

And at this spot, Israel stood and said, "We're in." 

God said, "Fantastic. Now, let me train you." Shall we join them?

May his Kingdom come as we learn by the grace of God to do his will. Now, let's go let him shape us into the community he wants us to be. Come.





Остання зміна: четвер 27 серпня 2020 12:11 PM