When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, God's people started the journey strong.
But as soon as they hit the first obstacle, their confidence began to falter. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg teaches us about God's patience and Moses' faithful response toward those who became frightened or dismayed. Alistair opens today with prayer. We thank you that we live our lives in the last days, in between the arrival of your son as a baby in Bethlehem and the return of your son as the great King of glory and Lord of all the earth. And we pray that we might walk the path of faith, and that as we open our Bibles and consider the truth that's contained in it this morning, may the Spirit of God be our teacher, and that in hearing his voice we might obey his Word. And to this end we pledge ourselves in Jesus' name. Amen. We've been going through this great chapter.
There is one recurring question that we have faced. It's a personal question, a vital question, and it is simply this. Am I a man or a woman of faith? Am I a man or a woman of faith as faith is unfolded for us here in the pages of Scripture? For whatever else the book of Hebrews records for us, it describes the battle between faith and unbelief. All the way through the letter, the writer has been reminding his readers of those who, on account of their unbelief, fail to enter into God's promises.
And for example, in chapter 3, and in verse 12, he encourages them, see to it that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. And indeed, the eleventh chapter has opened in the first few verses with the striking truth that if we're going to please God, faith is a necessity, it is not an optional extra. And as we've gone through the chapter, we've been discovering faith in action—that faith is not something passive, it is not something private, it is not an esoteric interest kept in a corner, brought down, as it were, to be put on display every so often, but that biblical faith is a decisive decision, and it is a sustained attitude. And it begins as a man or a woman gives up all dependence upon himself or herself to make themselves acceptable before God, depends entirely on the provision of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then, having begun the life of faith, exercises faith on a daily basis in order that, like a muscle, it may grow to maturity rather than atrophy and be a sad and sorry display. And so we have been going through the Portrait Gallery of Faith, and last time paying particular attention to a number of these individuals who find their pictures hanging in the gallery.
And we noted last time that every picture tells a story. We have been looking at individual portraits, and when we come now to the twenty-ninth verse, we actually find that the scene described for us involves people—large numbers of people—rather than simply an individual. And what I'd like to do is to suggest to you, like the Bayu tapestry, what we have here is a tapestry which chronicles a particular moment in the history of God's people. And if you would like to understand what it is that is woven into this unfolding tapestry, you can do so by turning to Exodus chapter 14. And in Exodus chapter 14, you will discover the historical record of Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt and of God speaking to him concerning this peculiar hurdle that they found themselves confronting—namely, the Red Sea. And when you read in Exodus 13 and 14, you discover this dramatic scene which unfolds. The people of God have left Egypt, they have begun their trek, the Egyptian armies, some of the crack troops, are in pursuit, and they find themselves being guided by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And at one particular point in the proceedings—you can imagine it in your mind's eye—we're told that the angel of the Lord moves around behind the people of God. And this great cloud forms in between God's people and the Egyptians who are pursuing. And when you read Exodus 14 at your leisure, you will discover that the cloud brought deep darkness to the Egyptian armies, and yet on the other side of the cloud there was a beautiful lightness and splendor. In much the same way as when you're flying, you come on certain occasions where there is a bank of cloud into which we may fly or over which we may fly, and on the one side of it is just gloom and darkness, but as soon as you penetrate it or go beyond it, you're amazed because it has been shielding the light of the sun on the one side, but it's a lovely day on the other side. Actually, this happens in between Glasgow and Edinburgh if you've ever visited Scotland. There can be a pillar of cloud which has Glasgow under some of the worst gloom you've ever seen in your life, but if you drive for forty miles, you'll drive into the east coast of Scotland, and it may be as beautiful a day as you could imagine. It's just one big bank of cloud separating darkness from light.
That's the picture here. And the Egyptians are under darkness, and the people of God are in the light. And God is moving them on, and he is doing so as a result of asking Moses to stand up and to stretch his staff out over the sea. And as he does so, we're told that the sea formed up in two walls. So I have this dramatic picture of the Egyptians pursuing, the people confronted by the hurdle of the sea, the leader of God's people standing with his arms outstretched over the sea, and then the sea forming up in two walls. And then the people of God being able to walk through the sea on dry land.
Now, as you go further along the canvas, you discover that the scene then changes. Through the hours of the darkness and into the dawn of the new day come the Egyptians in pursuit. They come flying up to the sea. They recognize what has happened with the Israelites going through. They look at one another and say to themselves, If they can do it, we can do it. And into the dry seabed they go, only to discover that they're thrown in to total confusion. The wheels begin to come off their chariots. And as they find themselves in the middle of it all, the water begins to engulf them, and they are lost sight off as the sea, no longer walled in safety, pours over them and brings them to a dreadful end. Now, that's the picture which is recorded here.
Time forbids me doing a great deal with it except to highlight a couple of things. If your Bible is opened in Exodus 14, please notice, in verse 8, that while the Egyptians were pursuing the Israelites, the Israelites were marching out boldly. That's what we're told at the end of verse 8. They were marching out boldly. Terrific start! And a good start is a good thing.
If you don't make a good start, you make a poor start. So it isn't that we want to call in question the beginning that they made. They made a good beginning and marched out boldly. But if you look at verse 10, as Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord and then began to criticize Moses.
"'Oh, God, how did we get here?' they say. And then, Moses, what do you think you're doing? Don't you realize that we were in great shape in Egypt?"
Not true. Was it because there weren't enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out so that we could die in the wilderness? You say to yourself, how can this possibly be? Only a matter of moments ago, as it were, they were marching out boldly, "'We're going to the promised land.' As soon as they hit the first little obstacle, what happens?" They cry out to God, and they criticize the leadership.
Nothing much has changed. You can go from church to church to church when people take bold initiatives in faith under God and say, Let us go under God's command. Let us do this. The people may march out boldly. As soon as it gets a little difficult, as soon as there's a little terror on the air, as soon as the possibility for failure breeds itself over the horizon, the people look around and say, Whose bright idea was this? So what does leadership do? Takes a survey. No, it doesn't. Checks to see how everybody's feeling.
No, it doesn't. Runs around and says, Well, do you really want to go back to Egypt? Maybe we can do that. I can give you your reservations back. We don't have to get on the plane. I can give you your thing back. We can just shut it down.
No, it doesn't do that. Look at what Moses says. Verse 13. Moses answered the people, Don't be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you.
You need only to be still. Now, what a dramatic expression of faith on the part of Moses! What has Moses got going for him? He's got Egyptians up his rear. He's got complaining, criticizing, argumentative rascals all around him. He's got the Red Sea in front of him. He's got a stick. And he's got the command and promise of God.
He's unhiding to nothing. Anybody looking in this situation says, Woo-hoo! I wouldn't like to be in Moses' shoes.
How would you get yourself in that position? You've got the Egyptians, they're gonna get you. You've got the people who can't stand you.
You've got a big sea in front of you, and you've got a stick, and you're standing up there saying, Don't worry, it's all gonna be okay. Where did you get that from, Moses? Are you nuts? Well, it would appear so. What are you going on?
What are you basing this on? I am basing this on the fact that God said we would never see the faces of these Egyptians again. And if God said it, I believe it, and therefore if he told me to put the thing out here over the sea, out over the sea it goes, and he'll take care of it from that point on. You see, we don't have to worry about how he's gonna part the sea.
We just have to worry about whether we're prepared to stand with the staff stretched out over the water. And some of us never have the joy of standing, as it were, and seeing the deliverance of God, because we're so worried about how God is gonna manage to take care of it. God says, Don't worry about that.
I'll take care of it. You just do what I told you. By faith! By faith! Nothing but persevering faith could enable Moses to do what he did, and then in turn the people to follow him as they did.
Interestingly enough, when the Egyptians try it, it doesn't work. Can you imagine how staggered they must have been? Pharaoh and the army said, Okay, those boys made it through, we'll do it as well. And off they go. And what happened to them? They were engulfed, they drowned, they were never seen again.
Why? Because faith and presumption are two different things. Faith and presumption are two different things. They were not operating on the Word of God. They were not going on account of the fact that God had made a promise and he would fulfill it. They were just presuming that they could know what the people of God knew if they just essentially went along with the program, and it'll never happen. That's why some of you are here in church, and you don't know what the people of God know, even though you're going along with the program. You come, you sing the same songs, you engage in the same sort of materials, but there's a missing link.
I'll tell you what the missing link is. Personal, believing faith! For example, Romans chapter 5 verse 1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. How do we have peace with God? Being justified by faith. The pagan says, Hey, I can have peace. I don't need that justification stuff. I have my own way to peace.
I'll find it here, I'll make it happen there, and so on. And so we have these people who hold out the notion of peace, but they don't know peace. By faith, these trusting, faltering, stumbling, argumentative people pass through the Red Sea as on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. How gracious of God, wouldn't you say? If God was the kind of God who the first time that we shook in our boots, the first time we became terrified before the advance of the enemy, the first time we became faltering and dispirited and discouraged with leadership, the first time we found ourselves critical of these things—if God was the kind of God who said, Okay, one strike and you're out, none of us would be able to continue. Because many a day we've started out marching boldly, we got up at six, five forty-five, we said, This is the day the Lord has made.
Great start. We had a little bit of our Bible, we had a little bit of cereal, a little bit of orange juice, and on our way. This would be the day when we would share our faith. This would be the day when we made a dent in the office. We've been building up to this day. And within an hour, within half an hour, within fifteen minutes, we're hardly in the door, we're shaking in our shoes. We say, No, I don't think I'll tell anybody I'm a Christian today. I don't think I'll get too dramatic today. Why?
Because we're just like these folks. And God understands, and he loves his children with an everlasting love, and he looked down on them and he saw them, and nevertheless, he led them out. Now, we must move on.
Let's go to the next picture. Equally dramatic in verse 30. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. How many of you know the story of the falling of the walls of Jericho? Just put up your hands. Okay, most of you.
How many of you have never heard the story of the walls of Jericho? You put up your hands. Now, put them up, but don't be embarrassed. It's great.
I'm glad. Actually, I want to tell these stories to people who don't know them, because they're far better if you never heard them. They're not as good if you know them off by heart. And you must always come to the stories like you don't know them.
Okay? Always listen like you don't know it. Because if you always listen to the stories like you know the end, the way you read children's books, the stories are no fun.
So you have to read it and listen and say, Maybe I never noticed that before, and so on. Anyway, the story of the walls of Jericho, really good Joshua chapter 6. I can't read it all, but if you turn there at your leisure later in the day—the three of you who were honest enough to admit that you don't know the story, and a significant number of others of you, cowardly rascals who weren't prepared to admit you'd never heard of it in your life, that you thought the walls of Jericho was an ice-cream factory or something—you can also read this story when you get home. And what we read is that Jericho verse 1 was tightly shut up because of the Israelites.
No one went out, and no one came in. So Jericho is an impregnable city. Verse 2, The LORD said to Joshua, See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.
Okay? Now, you put yourself in Joshua's position for just a moment. Here we have an impregnable city.
No one's coming in, no one's going in, and no one's coming out. And God comes to Joshua and says, I've delivered this city into your hands. Now, he's speaking prophetically. It's a done deal as far as God's concerned. It isn't the present experience of Joshua and the people, but it's about to become so. So Joshua would be saying, Well, I wonder how God is going to accomplish this.
And so he says, Let me tell you what we're going to do. You may want to take this down, Joshua, and make sure you do it correctly. Verse 3, March around the city once with all the armed men. Okay? Do this for six days.
Okay, got it. Make seven priests carry trumpets of ram's horns in front of the ark. Seven priests, front of the ark, trumpets. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times with the priests blowing the trumpets. Seventh day, seven times, blowing the trumpets. Okay?
When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, make all the people give a loud shout. Then the wall of the city will collapse, the people will go up, and every man straight in. Okay. Now, let's be honest here.
No smart stuff, because you've known this Sunday-school story since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. Let's imagine that you're Joshua, and this is the word from God to you. I have given the city into your hand. Here's how we're going to do it. Walk around the city in total silence with the armed men. Then do it again and again and again and again and again and again.
And on the seventh day, do it seven times. I don't want anyone shouting. I don't want any blowing of the trumpets. No aggravation at all.
Just walk around the city. Why would anybody do that? Why would anybody in their right mind do that? The answer is in the first two words of the verse. By faith. By faith.
You see, there is no plausible explanation for this kind of activity except that God has spoken, made his word clear, Joshua believes the word of God, and then he acts on the basis of the word that he professes to believe. Imagine the scene. Consider these priests with their trumpets. They're not even blowing them. They're just holding them. There's a group of armed men in front of them, then the priests holding the trumpets, then the ark of the covenant, then the rearguard bringing up the rear, which is what rearguards usually do. And this procession simply goes around the city. Can you imagine the people in the city looking over the walls? Hey, something's going on down there. Looks like they're putting together the armed men.
They are putting together the armed men. The priests are there, seven of them, trumpets. They've got that ark again. They take that ark with them everywhere, they're saying to one another. And there's a few guys coming up the rear. I wonder what they're going to do. And they come out, and they're watching, and they go once around, all the way around. They come back to the beginning again, and they get back to Joshua, and Joshua says, Okay, fellas, that's enough for today. See you tomorrow morning, same time.
Be here nice and sharp. The guys are going, That was it? I mean, that's it.
That's it. Tomorrow, they go home, they say to one another, Well, maybe we're just sort of practicing a reconnaissance mission. Tomorrow we'll hot it up. They come back the next morning, says, Okay, guys, same as yesterday. Once around the walls, off they go, all the way around.
The people are watching. Maybe today will be the day. These people are accomplishing nothing.
Okay, fellas, thanks a lot. It's been a great day. See you tomorrow, bright and early, same time, same place.
Third day. These people are accomplishing nothing. The people who are marching haven't a clue what's going on. The guys in the city haven't a clue what's going on. But God knows what's going on.
See? When the world looks at the people of God, it concludes all the time there's nothing going on. But there's stuff going on, because God is working his purpose out. Goodness gracious, as we prayed at our staff meeting a day this week, and we prayed that God would bring people to himself and bring unlikely people to himself, within an hour and a half there's a young man wandering in the hallway like a lost soul. They said, What do you want? He says, I want to see the pastor, the youth pastor.
Well, fine, I give him to Dave. He leads him to faith in Christ. He was wandering the halls. Didn't know what he was looking for. Didn't know that God was looking for him.
He met him. But the world looks on, says there's nothing happening in there. God is working out his purposes even when we can't see it. That's from part one of today's message titled Through Many Dangers.
You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Earlier in today's message, we learned that the Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt. And although we can't fully identify with that situation, I think it's safe to say their hardship left them feeling completely depleted. The subject of depletion is a subject that author and Bible teacher Nancy Guthrie understands well. She's written about it in her new book, which is called God Does His Best Work with Empty, and she's writing from her own experience. She knows that life can gradually wear us down, or sometimes it unexpectedly kicks the feet out from under us in a life-altering moment. Either way, we're left feeling drained.
We are unable to carry on. In the book God Does His Best Work with Empty, Nancy Guthrie points us to stories from Scripture that illustrate how time and again God provides for his people. These stories remind us that God will not abandon us in our weakened state.
In fact, quite the opposite. God uses our weakness as a means to fill us with his Spirit and to draw us into a deeper relationship with him. If you have been feeling depleted or empty, you will be greatly encouraged as you read Nancy Guthrie's new book, God Does His Best Work with Empty. Request your copy today when you make a generous one-time donation. Simply tap the image on the mobile app, or visit truthforlife.org slash donate, or call 888-588-7884. Now, you often hear me mention the Truth for Life mobile app, and if you're not listening on the app today, or if you're not familiar with all of the features on the app, I want to encourage you to check it out.
The app is free to download to your smartphone or your tablet. You can find it when you search for Truth for Life in your app store. It's an easy way for you to listen to Truth for Life whenever it's convenient for you. And if you enjoy listening to Truth for Life on the radio and find yourself away from home, it's easy to find Alistair on a station while you're traveling. Simply visit truthforlife.org slash stationfinder, enter the zip code of your location, and you can browse through a list of radio stations that carry Truth for Life and find the airtimes. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow, join us for part two of the message we've heard today. We'll learn how Joshua obeyed God and used an unconventional method to capture an entire city. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
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