They say Egypt is the gift of the Nile. It's quite a gift, wouldn't you say? I don't know that I've ever seen more beautiful farmland anywhere, any country. It's stunning. So imagine those Hebrews when God, through Moses said, "It's time to leave this, all you've known for centuries, and I'd like to have you come into the desert."

"The desert? We don't know the desert." In the Egyptian world, the desert is chaos and the unknown. Dangers exist in the desert. "He wants us in the desert? What could this God that Moses talks about - that he symbolizes with the power of that stick he always carries - what could this God want with us in the desert?" But he did. There is something out there that he wanted his people to know and to understand. So come. Join us in that desert and see what it was God wanted his people to learn. Well, better, to see who God wanted his people to become. Come.

We've hiked just a bit east from the Red Sea, trying to imagine what it would have been like for those Egyptian-born Hebrews to head out into this desert. But now comes the hard part for God. And I realize that's probably not the best way to say it, because for God - especially the God of the Hebrews - he can do anything. The easy part is, for him, getting Israel out of Egypt. That took some pretty spectacular plagues, dividing of the Red Sea, things that you and I are stunned by because of his awesome power. 

But the harder part, if we dare say it that way, is how do you get Egypt out of the Hebrews? I don't mean Egypt Egypt. It's a beautiful, awesome place. We've loved it here. I mean those Egyptian gods and that Egyptian story. That's going to take, it seems, a whole lot more time and a whole lot more of God's work than it did to get them out of Egypt in the first place. So he brought them here. Now, where's here? I'm not sure exactly where they went. I have an opinion. You probably have an opinion, and that's an interesting thing to study. But God doesn't give us enough data to know exactly where they went, so we're going to do what we've been doing all along. We're going to go to places that are like where they went and maybe some very near where they went so we can understand the experience rather than try and say they were on this stone or on that hill. That way, we won't have to get into the controversy of exactly where it was. 

What we do know for sure, from the text, is that God wanted them here in the desert. He could have taken them by the Way of the Philistines. That goes up, remember, along the Mediterranean, called the [inaudible 00:06:24] sometimes. The Egyptians called it the Way of Horus. It would take about three weeks for a group as slow as the Israelites. But he didn't take them that way. He said, "They'll be afraid, because the Philistines are powerful, and they're going to turn back." In other words, God had decided that it was time for the partnership to start working.

Now, what partnership is that? Let's do a bit of review again. God has a story. He is going to defeat the chaos and evil in the world he created, and he's going to bring shalom. So he wants those people he's going to work through out here in the desert to turn them into the kind of community that will represent him the way he wants to be represented to the whole world, that will carry out the mission and not only bring the message but be the message. 

He says it this way, in the book of Deuteronomy, in Moses' words (Deuteronomy 8). "Remember how the Lord led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart whether or not you would obey his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger, then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known in order to teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Your feet did not swell. Your clothes did not wear out. So you know as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you." That's God's way of saying it through Moses. In other words, God wants them here to test them. 

Now, why the desert? Well, should we look at desert, in this case, as good or bad? Is the desert a wasteland with scorpions and poisonous snakes and a vast and terrible wasteland, the book of Deuteronomy calls it, a place where they failed often and found God angry with them because they didn't act the way he wanted, and they didn't trust him the way that he expected, and they weren't appreciative and they complained of failure? Or should we look at it as a good place, where they experienced grace beyond anything they had imagined, a place where bread fell out of the sky, where water ran out of the rock, a place where-- it's Jeremiah (2) I think-- it says was your honeymoon - you and God. It was that sweet. 

Well, honestly, the Bible treats it both ways. Sometimes, the Bible treats the desert as if Israel was a failure and never learned and only made God angry. That seems to be used in the Scriptures when God wants to remind them, "Don't be like that." Learn from their mistakes. Paul does that in Corinthians, for example. 

In other places-- and I quoted you a bit from Jeremiah. Hosea's another example. "Treat the desert as this idealic, unbelievably wonderful time when you and God fell in love." So I think the desert functions both ways. Sometimes, it's amazingly wonderful, and they were experiencing God beyond anyone else ever before. Sometimes, they struggled. It was painful, and God was angry. So we're going to find both. 

What about this testing that God mentions in the book of Deuteronomy (8)? "Remember how I led you all the way in the desert to humble you and to test you." I think that's a hard idea to communicate really - at least from a Jewish point of view. Because on the one hand, it does imply that there's a certain point at which God expects his people to be willing to give absolutely everything. It's a time of determining, "Is my heart in this 100% or not?" 

So God put them in a position, for example, where he walked them until they were literally ready to die of thirst to see, "How far will you go, trusting that I won't take you beyond what you can bear?" 

And he put them in a position where they were so hungry that they struggled to keep going to find out, "How long will you go just to learn what I want to teach you, trusting that when we get far enough, I'll give you what you need to live?" How far will you go to follow God, who leads his people like a shepherd? 

On the other hand, biblically I think, the whole purpose of testing is to teach obedience. So in and of itself, it isn't so much simply, "Did I pass or fail the test?" But the idea is, "Did the test teach me, show me where I am at this point and, through it, learn how to increase my commitment and increase my obedience to what God expects me to be?"

So should we pray for testing? Should we pray not to be tested? I'm of the opinion that wisdom would say we should pray neither of those things. What we should pray instead is for obedience, because that's what testing teaches. 

The desert is a place of testing for the simple reason that one cannot make it here without complete dependence on God. So it's not going to take very long before God is going to know how committed, how obedient his people are. In fact, two days in, the water's running low. And their commitment, huge there on the shore of the Red Sea, is going to be tested. Come. Let's go see.

Wow! That's deep. That's right into the bedrock. Look at it. Amazing, huh? Let's talk this morning about God's leading Israel from the Red Sea to Sinai, training of course, all the way. Now, the Bible refers to three experiences on the way that are called tests. That's exactly the word that's used. The background to it is this. First, the Bible says, "Remember how I led you all the way in the desert." Actually, it says (Deuteronomy 8), "Remember how the Lord led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you and to test you in order to know what's in your heart." To a Westerner like me, that's kind of a difficult thought. I believe it. But God already knows what's in their hearts and mine too and yours too. He doesn't have to test me to find that out. But if we remember that the word test in the East means more than just intellectual knowing, it's rather experiential knowing, which has a rational element. But it means, "I want to experience what's in your heart. I want to see it in action." So God brought them here. They walked three days and their water had run out, and they are extremely thirsty. 

As they got closer, they discovered a well - one well - for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Israelites. One well. Now, feel it. We've walked a little in the sun this morning and you're not carrying your water at this moment at least. And here's the well. But when they got there and the first person, whoever it was, looked in and drew some out, it was bitter. And they couldn't drink it. 

Notice, God led them there. That wasn't Moses' mistake. In fact, I wonder if Moses thought, "This wall always was good when I herded my sheep in this area. God, I thought you had me trained. Now, it isn't good." 

I don't know that. But it seems God led them there and they expected the water to be good. And so they did the thing that all God's people are tempted to do. Instead of living by every Word and saying, "Okay, as thirsty as I am, I'm going to hike another mile or two or ten, and when the Word is spoken, there will be water," they stopped and began to complain. 

"What in the world did you take us out here for? We're going to die of thirst. Where's the water?"

In a sense, their opportunity to experientially show God what was in their heart went by the wayside. Now, I think there's a clue in the passage as to what was going on. The name of the place in your Bible in Exodus 15 is marah. Say marah.

To us, that's just the name of the well. We look down at our footnote, and it says bitter. That's a good translation. But if you look at the root, the root is much stronger than that. Because the root is a word that can mean deliberate, defiant, disobedience. Marah - no way. In fact, believe it or not, in the Torah, if you have a son who is marah, you have to stone him (Deuteronomy 21). 

That's how severely God dealt with marah. Esau's wives, who were pagan, were marah to Isaac and Rebecca, the Bible says (Genesis 26). Deliberately, defiantly disobedient. 

Now, I don't know if the well was called marah before they got here or named marah after they got there. But from an Eastern point of view, a name like that helps to flavor the story. And I think the clue is Hebrews at this point are more than just grumbling -  [inaudible 00:19:50] you'd say. I think these Hebrews are pretty obstinate, and I won't use the word defiant, because the Bible doesn't. But I think it moves in that direction. So we see. Again, I say, when God puts them and you and me in the position of testing, it's always an opportunity to say, "This is painful. I don't like it. But I'm going to show you, in action, what's in my heart. And you will know." But to my delight, God gives them water anyway. They sinned, and in that sense, you can say they failed a test. And yet, the test is a learning experience. 

But now, I think, God teaches Moses too. Picture Moses. This guy has been the instrument of God for some pretty profound things. A lot of them came in connection to that stick. It became a snake. It stretched over the Nile River and it turned to blood. It stretched over the Red Sea and the [inaudible 00:21:11] of God cut right through it, and it stretched again and the sea collapsed. The text says, "God showed Moses a stick (Exodus 15). 

Now, in your Bible, it will say a piece of wood or a tree, because those are all possible meanings.  So I'm not sure, in English, exactly which is the best - stick-- sometimes the word is translated that way-- piece of wood or tree. I like to think stick or piece of wood is closer. Most versions have that, and you'll see that in yours, I think. 

But picture Moses. God says, "Moses. That stick over there."

"I know what you.."

"No, not that."

"Not this one? The rod of God?"

"No. That stick."

"Are you sure? This one? You mean this one, right?"

Now, I'm dramatizing clearly. But it's interesting that Moses has a stick, and God shows him a different piece of wood or stick and says, "Throw it in." And the next bucket of water is delicious. 

Now, the obvious meaning, "We'll try to live by every word. Sorry! Sorry that we didn't keep walking in thirst until you spoke the Word. We want to live by every word. Teach us. Test us. Train us, painful though it is."

And God fed those deliberately, defiantly, disobedient people sweet water. Praise God, because the test you and I will all face, there will be moments where we will shake our fist and complain if we have to go a little bit longer in that pain before he speaks the Word. 

But I wonder if there wasn't also a lesson for Moses. "That rod, that stick is indeed a symbol of my power. But don't get carried away with the stick, Moses. And don't get carried away that you've got that stick. This isn't about you, and it isn't about that stick. It's about me. And as long as this represents me and it's clear to you that it's me, you've passed the test. So I can do the same thing with that stick, because I'm the one that makes the stick the stick."

And my friends, the Bible is the story of a whole bunch of sticks. A stick is Moses who lisps or stutters and has to speak to the most powerful man in the world. A stick is ruse who is a Moabite woman can't enter the Assembly of the Lord until the tenth generation and becomes the grandmother of the Messiah. A stick is a shepherd boy who throws a stone. A stick is a young woman who isn't married, who was chosen to conceive the Messiah by the power of the Holy Spirit. A stick is a fisherman who stands in front of kings and beggars as a representative of Jesus himself. 

And a stick is you, you, you. In many ways, wonderful but ordinary. But in the hands of God, any stick is an amazing instrument of power. But don't forget we're just a stick.

So you can look at that first test and say, "Miserable failure." Well, there's clearly sin. Have your tests been any different? 

We're Israel. They're us. But the test also was an amazing learning experience not only for them but for us as we walk with them. Come.

If you look in Exodus 15, you'll notice that there's another paragraph that's really attached to the story. So the question an Easterner would ask is, "Why is that piece attached to the story? What does that have to do with marah."

The story went like this - at marah, after God had sweetened the water, it says he made alaw and a statute. Then, they left and came to Elam where there were 12 wells and 70 palms. What was the law and the statute? Well, it doesn't say. It could be he gave them a commandment and a law that we don't have anymore. Either it wasn't something he wanted in the Bible. Or it's in the Bible somewhere else and it doesn't tell. But we don't know. So of course, the Hebrews looked at it and said, "Well, maybe the law and the statute is the connection to the 70 palms and 12 wells." 

They said, "Think of it this way. You've got one well and hundreds of thousands of people." There must have been an issue of who comes first. "How do we make sure everybody gets enough?"

Maybe the law and the statute was about sharing and making sure the weak and the tired and those who couldn't get to the front of the line easily get enough too. And then, when they showed they could keep that law, God said, "Come. Now, I'll give you 12 wells and 70 palms and there will be plenty for everyone."

Now, I don't know that honestly. But what makes me think that's a real possibility is you're going to see, as we move onto the second and third test, the whole emphasis on, "Be a community, care for each other, help one another, don't leave the poor and the weak out," becomes increasingly emphasized. So maybe it's hinted at already here too. Maybe they're right. It's at least a way of helping to understand it. 

So first test. Did they pass? Well, in some way, no. Did they learn? I think they did. That you do not live by water alone but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4). So we'll walk no matter how thirsty and how tired until his Word tells us, "It's time for water. And here it is."

If you can face life's tests like that, tough as they may be, and no one is suggesting they aren't. That was painful. You will come away increasingly the person and the community God wants you to be. That's what testing's about. 

But there's another test. He's not finished yet. Not nearly, in fact. Come. Let's go see. 



Последнее изменение: четверг, 27 августа 2020, 12:16