Being Confident God Knows What He's Doing - Life of Moses Part 27

You know, maybe you heard the story about the little Jewish boy who came running in from Sunday school one morning and he said, dad, dad, you'll never believe the story the rabbi told us today. Well, his dad had never seen his son so excited about Sunday school. So he said, well, tell me about it.

He said, dad, it was awesome. He said, the rabbi told us about how the Israelites were escaping from Egypt. And then all of a sudden they looked behind them and there was Pharaoh's tanks following them through the desert. And so Moses called in the Air Force and was strafing the tanks. And while they were strafing the tanks, Moses built a pontoon bridge across the Red Sea. And all the Israelites walked across the pontoon bridge. And then after they got over, he sent frogmen back into dynamite, the pontoon bridge. And Moses waited until all the Egyptian tanks filled the pontoon bridge.

Then he hit the lever and boom, up went the bridge and down went the tanks. And the Israelites went on in safety. And his father said, son, he said, you mean to tell me the rabbi told you that?

He said, no, dad. He said, but if I told you what the rabbi said, you'd never believe it. Well, we agreed last time, didn't we, that the opening of the Red Sea was probably the single greatest act of God in the entire Old Testament. And we also agreed that God had built some spiritual lessons into the events here at the Red Sea for you and me as followers of Christ today. Now, in our last message, we talked about one of these spiritual lessons, namely being cast upon God.

And if you missed that, I urge you to get the tape or the CD. Today, we want to talk about a second spiritual lesson that God has built into the events of the Red Sea, and that is being confident that God knows what he's doing. So if you brought a Bible today, I'd like you to open it to Exodus chapter 14 with me. And if you did not bring a Bible, reach under the armrest right next to you, you'll find a copy of the Bible.

We're going to be on page 50. Page 50 in our copy, Exodus 14 in your copy. And while you're turning a little bit of background, remember that God sent 10 horrific plagues onto Egypt. And as a result, Pharaoh decided to let the Israelites go. God led the Israelites down to the shore of the Red Sea, and then Pharaoh decided to chase after them with over 1000 chariots. And so the Israelites were there trapped with the Red Sea at their back and the chariots of Pharaoh at their front. And as a result, they rose up in unbelief. They held the charter meeting of the back to Egypt club, and they turned on God and they turned on Moses.

And that's where we pick up the story. Exodus 14, verse 11. Then the people said to Moses, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Verse 12.

Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert? Verse 13. Then Moses answered and said, Do not fear, stand still and see the deliverance of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptians you see today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you. You need to only be still verse 15. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your staff over the sea and divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

Verse 17. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after the Israelites. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all of his army. Indeed, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. And now at this point, it's a God performs three miracles on behalf of the Israelites.

Let me remind you what they are. Number one, God moved the pillar of cloud and blocked the Egyptians way while the Israelites were crossing. Verse 19. Then the angel of God who had been traveling in front of Israel's army withdrew and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud also move from in front and stood behind them coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Now I know in the movie it was a pillar of fire, but it's Hollywood.

I mean, what are you going to do with those people? Verse 21. Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to the side facing the Egyptians and light to the side facing the Israelites with the result that neither group went near the other all night long. When the Israelites were vulnerable and crossing through the sea, miraculously, God kept the Egyptian army back so they couldn't get close to them. Number two, second miracle is God parted the Red Sea. Verse 21. 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. Verse 22. So the waters were divided and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left. And finally, miracle number three is that subsequently God drowned all the Egyptian chariots in the Red Sea.

Verse 23. The Egyptians pursued them and all pharaohs, horses and chariots followed them into the sea. Then during the last watch of the night, verse 26, 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 verse 27. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and at daybreak the sea went back into its place. The water covered the chariots and horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea and none of them survived. And so folks, when it was all over, God had pulverized the most powerful army on the face of the earth. All that was left of the once mighty Egyptian chariotry were dead soldiers and dead horses all over the seashore. Now you might say, Lon, whoa, whoa.

So okay, time out friend, time out. Do you really believe all this happened the way that the way that's written right here down here, Lon? I mean, is it you really believe the 10 plagues and the opening of the Red Sea happened exactly like this?

Well, folks, let me just tell you there's a lot of people who don't and they've come up with every kind of harebrained theory you can think of to try to explain away what the Bible says in natural terms, in rational terms. Let me just share a couple of these harebrained theories with you. Theory number one, some folks have postulated that there was a violent volcano that erupted in Greece and that this is what caused all 10 of the plagues that the Bible talks about.

In fact, there's been a program running on the History Channel the last few months that has this exact same basis. Well, there's a problem with this and the problem is that natural disasters are inclusive. They hit believers and non-believers with equal ferocity. The tsunami in Indonesia killed Christians and non-Christians alike. It didn't distinguish, but the Bible is clear in Exodus Chapter 8 that after plague number three, none of the last seven plagues fell on the Israelites, only on the Egyptians. The 10 plagues were targeted.

The 10 plagues were exclusive, not inclusive. No natural disaster acts like that. Well, theory number two, some folks have postulated that there was an earthquake that caused the wind to be 350 times as powerful as that caused by an atom bomb and it was this wind that swept the Red Sea water back for the Israelites to cross over. Now, do you see the problem with this? Folks, the problem is that a wind like this would have swept the Israelites back too, would have carried them somewhere off the coast of Australia the way I figure it. Theory number three, and the most common theory, is that there was a super low tide that night and the Israelites actually crossed the Red Sea on a sandbar. It reminds me of the story of the little girl in fourth grade class whose unbelieving teacher was trying to convince the class that this is exactly what happened, that there was no miracle here, but that the Red Sea actually, the crossing was on a sandbar. And the little girl spoke up and said, well, teacher, then this really is a great miracle.

And the teacher said, how so? The little girl said that God could drown all those chariots on a sandbar. Listen, this is all plain foolishness here. The Bible declares that what happens at the Red Sea was a miracle from God, pure and simple, that there is no human explanation for it, that there is no rational explanation for it. And you know, for those of us who know God personally, for those of us who've been redeemed by His blood, for those of us who have experienced His mighty supernatural power in our lives, the Bible's account of what happened at the Red Sea should present no problem to us at all to believe it exactly the way it's written. And that's exactly what I believe. Any of you believe that too?

Huh? Say Amen. All right, there you go. Now, let's stop and ask our most important question at this point. And you know that question, so are you ready? All right, here we go, nice and loud.

One, two, three. So what? Yeah, you say, Lon, so what? Say all right.

So maybe it did happen exactly the way the Bible says. But when I walk out of my house on Monday morning to go to work, to go to school, so what difference does this make to me? Well, let's talk about that. You know, my wife loves to ask me how I feel about things. And often the conversation will end up with my saying to her, you know what, I don't really think I feel anything about this. And she'll say, Oh, yes, you do. And I'll say, No, I don't think I do. Oh, yes, you do. Well, that's another subject.

I mean, that's for marriage counseling. But, but let's ask the question, how do you think the Israelites felt at the Red Sea? How do you think they felt standing there with the sea behind them and the chariots coming at them? Well, I think they felt trapped. I think they felt helpless.

I think they felt surrounded. And I think they felt like God had failed them, forgotten about them and forsaken them. And the truth is, my friends that as followers of Jesus Christ, as we follow God's leading in our life, we often find ourselves right at the shore of our own Red Sea, feeling trapped and helpless and surrounded just like the Israelites felt.

Maybe it's a financial Red Sea that you end up at the shore of or a medical Red Sea or job related Red Sea or a marriage related Red Sea or children related Red Sea. And when we get here as followers of Christ, it's been my experience that we often tend to do what the Israelites did. We tend to accuse God of failing us. We tend to accuse God of forgetting about us and forsaking us. We may be a little more polite about it than the Israelites were, but just like the Israelites, we accuse God of making a mistake in our case, when in reality, nothing could be farther from the truth.

And my goal in the little bit of time I've got left this morning is to do two things. Number one, to show you that God did not make a mistake when he led the Israelites to the shore of the Red Sea. And then number two, to reassure each one of us as followers of Christ that when God leads us to the shore of the Red Sea, he hasn't made a mistake in our case either. So let's ask the question, why did God lead the Israelites to the Red Sea and trap them like this for a time? Well, there were three reasons. Reason number one is to provide for their future blessing.

You say, what do you mean by that? Friends, listen, God knew that sooner or later, old Pharaoh would regret letting the Israelites go. God knew sooner or later that he was going to go after them in the desert. And he knew that out in the open desert against Pharaoh's chariots, they would have been massacred. And so by luring Pharaoh's chariots into the Red Sea and destroying them all right here, what was God doing? He was ensuring the future safety, protection and blessing of the Israelite people. Number two, reason number two that God led them here was to teach the Israelites that they could count on God. Did you pick up one interesting detail in the passage that we read?

Let me repeat it. Watch verse 27. Then at daybreak, the Bible says, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea went back in its place. Did you ever wonder why God waited for daybreak before he killed all these Egyptians in the sea? I mean, why didn't he do it in the middle of the night? God doesn't make accident.

The accidents don't happen with God. There was a reason for this. And the reason is, my friends, that God wanted the Israelites to see him do this to the Egyptians.

Why? Because God had led them into a totally hopeless situation. God wanted them to see him step in. He wanted to see they were he wanted them to see him intervene dramatically into their world so that they would learn that they could count on God even in the most difficult of circumstances.

You know, Charles Stanley once said that we never know. We never realize that God is all we need until God is all we got. And he's right. And so the second reason God led the Israelites to the Red Sea and put them in one of these God is all we got situations, folks, is so that they would learn that God was all they ever really needed anyway. And they learned it at least temporarily. Verse 30 says that day Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power that the Lord had displayed against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord, watch, and they put their trust in him. In other words, God's actions at the Red Sea were designed to teach the Israelites they could trust him and count on him. Reason number three, why did God lead them here? Reason number three, so that God could use the situation at the Red Sea to bring glory to himself. In fact, here in Exodus 14, God specifically says that this was one of his main purposes in trapping the Israelites at the Red Sea. Verse four, he says, I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and his army and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. God led the Israelites into a totally impossible looking situation so that he could create a perfect opportunity for himself to step in and to miraculously deliver these people, reveal his power and make his name known in our world.

And it worked. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who wasn't here at the Red Sea, he was hundreds of miles away. Listen to what he said, Exodus 18 one. Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and the father-in-law of Moses heard about everything God had done for his people Israel. And he said, now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods. You remember Rahab the prostitute, Joshua chapter two, she lived all the way up in Jericho. She came to Joshua and said, the fear of you has fallen on all of us for we have heard, look at this, how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. And in Joshua nine, the Gibeonite tribe came to Joshua and said, we have heard reports of your God, all that he did in Egypt. My gosh, friends, 3500 years later, every time somebody watches the movie, the Ten Commandments, God gets glory. People sit there and go, wow, awesome, awesome.

And you know what? This same principle applies to you and me as followers of Christ today. Satan loves to surround us and entrap us as God's children. And when he's positive that he's finally got us, and he's finally going to destroy us, then God loves to step in at that point. And he loves to take everything the enemy has intended for evil, and to convert it into blessing for us and glory for himself. He did this for Joseph. He did it for Esther and Mordecai. He did it for Ruth, he did it for Daniel in the lion's den. He did it for Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace. He did it for the Israelites at the Red Sea. He did it for the Lord Jesus Christ at the resurrection. He did it for the Apostle Paul in the jail in Philippi. And he does it for followers of Christ today, which means, listen, which means that as followers of Jesus Christ, we should expect God sometimes to lead us down to the shore of the Red Sea where we feel trapped, where we are in impossible looking situations.

Why? Because friends, the whole purpose of our being alive is to bring glory to God, and God gets maximum glory when he delivers his people from impossible looking situations like the Red Sea. So what's the point of all this? The point of all this, friends, is that I'd like to say in leading the Israelites to the Red Sea, God knew exactly what he was doing the whole time. He was out number one, to provide for their future blessing. He was out number two, to teach them they could count on God.

And he was out number three, to use their situation to bring glory to himself. And what I want you to understand is that when God leads you and me to the Red Sea, he's out to accomplish the very same three things in our lives. He's out to create future blessing for us. He's out to teach us that we can count on him, and he's out to bring glory for himself. God knows what he's doing, my friends.

He knew what he was doing with the Israelites, and he knows what he's doing with you and me. And what this means is that when God takes us into these situations, our goal, the real issue for us, is not whether we understand every Red Sea situation in life that God takes us into. God doesn't promise to explain these things to us.

The Israelites didn't understand why they were there and what God was up to. Friends, the point, the issue, is whether or not we will trust God in every Red Sea situation in our life. So let me say in closing, maybe you're here today and you feel like God's led you right down to the shores of the Red Sea. Well, maybe you're there, number one, because God wants to work out some future blessing for you that you can't see or even imagine yet. Maybe God wants to eliminate some future enemy or set up some future situation for your benefit.

Or maybe he wants to burn out of you some self-destructive passion or some self-destructive habit that's going to hurt your life. Maybe you're there, number two, because God wants to teach you on an even deeper level than you understand right now that he is all you need and that you can count on him implicitly and utterly in every situation of life. Or finally, maybe you're there just so God can get the glory from miraculously delivering you.

Whatever the reason you're there, the solution to being there is exactly the same as it was for the Israelites and that is whether we understand or not, my friends, we just got to trust God. Now you might say, well, Lon, you know, I understand that. I appreciate what you're saying. But you know, it's easy for you to say that. I mean, no offense, Lon, but you're kind of an older guy. You know what I'm saying?

And you've already raised your kids and you've already maximized your career and your health is good. I mean, your past, all the Red Seas that normal people face, you know, so it's easy for you to stand up there and say that. Listen folks, listen to me. God never lets you get so old that he doesn't require you to trust him for something. May I repeat that?

God never lets a person get so old that he doesn't require us to trust him for something. And I want you to know in my life, I got a big Red Sea in my life right now. It's called Jill's House. It's the center for children with special needs that we're planning to build on the five acres to the west of us. Everything is done. Everything is approved.

Everything is ready to go. We just need $20 million. And I can't figure out why God is not providing us with the money. I mean, our motive is right.

I've examined my motive. It's for the glory of God, not for me. I know that the Lord Jesus loves these children and I know the Lord Jesus loves their families and that he wants us to minister to them. I am baffled, frankly, why the Red Sea hasn't opened and God hadn't provided this money. And I want you to know I struggle every single day in prayer with this.

Don't tell me I'm too old to have a Red Sea. But you know, as I struggle in prayer with this, I understand that I have to land on this Red Sea of mine exactly where you have to land on the Red Seas in your life. And that is, number one, we have to land by admitting, number one, that God knows what he's doing. Number two, we have to affirm that God's leading is perfect, whether we understand it or not.

Number three, we have to make a decision that we are not going to doubt God. We are not going to grumble. We are not going to mumble. We are not going to complain.

And we are not going to accuse God. And so friends, I'm here to urge you to refuse every invitation that comes along to being a card-carrying member of the Back to Egypt Club. Turn those things away and say, no, I'm not going there. I'm sorry. I'm not going there.

I am going to stand strong as a child of the living God and I'm going to trust him. I don't know what he's up to. I don't understand it. I can't explain it. I'm baffled by it.

And frankly, I wish it were different. But I am going to trust God because he knows what he's doing. He knew what he was doing with the Israelites, didn't he?

And he knows what he's doing with you. And I promise you, my friend, you do this and when the dust all settles, even if it's in heaven and you look back over your life, you're going to shake your head in the affirmative and you're going to say, yes, Lord, if I'd have known what you knew, I'd have done exactly what you did for me. You were absolutely right, God, absolutely right. And I want to confess, Lord Jesus, you knew what you were doing the whole time. I love what Fanny Crosby said in her great hymn. She said, Jesus led me, not part of the way, but all the way.

Friends, that's the truth. And believe me, if you'll rise up and trust God, God will prove it to you. So I hope you'll do that. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for reminding us today that it was no accident the Israelites ended up at the Red Sea, that indeed, Lord Jesus, they were there on purpose and by divine planning and scheduling for specific purposes that you had already laid out from eternity past to be accomplished there. Father, remind us that's true in our lives, that we never go anywhere by accident, but that you take us to the Red Sea in our life sometime where we feel like we're trapped, so that you can accomplish things in our life, Lord, and you never make a mistake. So help us to rise up and trust you.

Lord, may we reject, may we reject the temptation to join the Back to Egypt Club. And Lord, may we walk as children of the living God, trusting you whether we understand or not, because you are worthy of that trust. Lord, change our lives in the very way we react to our situations in life. Because we were here today and we learned from the Word of God. And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

What did God's people say? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.