Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Christ in the Old Testament #20*
*Exodus 14:13-31*
* *
READ Exodus 14:10-31
There are brackets around this text that indicate the theme for us.
If you mark in your Bible with pen or highlighter, you should clearly mark the words “very frightened” in verse 10; the phrase “do not fear” in verse 13; and the words “the people feared the Lord” in verse 31.
God has chosen to bring very uncertain times to our country.
This is a good thing: James 4:14 /You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow/.
But in our decades of prosperity, we started to pick up the allusion of certainty.
The stock market will average gains of 7% a year; my job is secure; my insurance will come through; housing prices will go up; my health is good.
In a remarkable way, God has chosen to remind many of us that we do not know what our life will be like tomorrow.
This story is from a columnist at marketwatch.com,
about two weeks ago.
/Last Thursday evening I am with two other gentlemen -- a professor and money manager -- at a holiday party.
The money manager asks whether we read the news about Madoff.
No, I say, thinking the name Madoff rings a bell but I can't place it.
The money manager relates the story.
"Madoff," the professor asks.
"I think my sister has her life savings with that guy." /
/He borrows the money manager's phone to call his sister and returns ashen-faced.
His sister has lost her life savings.
We offer the professor our condolences.
I tell him about SIPC and the possibility of his sister getting some of her money back.
But really there are no words of comfort.
/
/I return home from the party and tell my wife about the "Madoff story," about the professor, about how sad he looked, about how terrible it all is on top of everything else.
/
/Bob, she says, Madoff is the guy who runs our 401(k).
We begin to read the stories on every media outlet possible.
Does this mean what I think it means, my wife asks.
Yes, I say.
You've lost everything in your 401(k).
And then my wife asks the question about the elephant in the room.
What if her employer, a non-profit foundation, had its money with Madoff?
My wife emails her boss to no avail.
/
/After a sleepless night, Friday morning arrives.
There's an email from my wife's boss with a timestamp of 5 a.m.
My wife rushes to work.
By 10 a.m., I get a tearful call.
The entire staff has been laid off and all the foundation's programs have been terminated.
Their money and a lot of other people's money is gone.
/
/You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow/.
But when we come face to face with that reality, we are tempted to fear.
And fear is obviously the theme of this passage in Exodus 14.
Maybe you don’t think of yourself as a fearful person: but if you worry, manipulate, feel depressed, or get angry, those things are very closely related to fear.
And when we allow fear to grip our hearts, unbiblical thinking and acting starts to snowball in our lives.
The Israelites preferred to go back and be slaves in Egypt, where they had an allusion of security, rather than having to depend completely on God and face an uncertain future with Him.
That sounds crazy – but if we allow fear to reign in our hearts, that kind of unbiblical thinking and acting will follow.
So if God’s fame will be spread through in 2009, we need to hear the words of verse 13: “Do not fear.”
Exodus 14 shows us the wrong kind of fear, the remedy for it, and the right kind of fear.
Let’s begin by remembering the setting: Israel has just experienced the fulfillment of the promises they have awaited for centuries.
God has redeemed them from the oppression of Egypt, and now God’s very presence is leading them away.
But God chooses to take them on a wandering route that ends in a trap.
Pharaoh sees the wandering, summons his army, and takes off in pursuit.
The people are gripped by fear; and in their fear they lash out in anger at Moses, and ask to return to Egypt.
That brings us to verse 13.
*/Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today/*
* This word translated “stand by” can mean several things, including standing firm or standing in opposition.
But here it is followed by the word “see.”
So I think the best meaning here is the same one found in Exodus 2:4, when baby Moses is placed in the river, and we are told that Moses’ sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.
* So these Hebrew words “stand by and see” are the equivalent of our English phrase: watch this.
Stop what you are doing and give this your attention.
* Get your focus off of yourself and get your focus on God and what God is doing.
Notice that in verses 11-12 they said: “us us us we us us.”
And now in verse 13 God says: stand still and watch what I will do.
As you think forward to 2009, are your thoughts primarily about yourself and your circumstances?
* God calls for your attention: stop focusing on yourself, and focus on what God may do in and through you for His honor.
*/Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today/*
* Watch what God will accomplish.
* At this time of year there are plenty of self-help gurus, life coaches, and success motivators to tell you to face your fears.
You’re good enough; dig deep within you; face your fears head on.
You can do it!
* God doesn’t direct your attention to yourself; He directs your attention to Himself.
Face your fears by turning your attention to God and His sufficiency.
*/14 The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent./*
* This does not mean that you are supposed to spend your life as a couch potato doing nothing.
But in this particular situation God was going to clearly demonstrate His complete sufficiency.
God is more than enough for any challenge, for any situation.
If God wants to, he can just have you stand there and be silent and watch as He fights for you.
* Fear is so dishonoring to God because it questions God’s sufficiency.
Fear says “God I’m not sure if you’re up to this task.
God I’m not sure you’ve ever had to deal with a situation as messy as mine.”
God tells them to watch and be silent, while He demonstrates his complete sufficiency.
*/15-16 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.
As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land./*
* Here’s a surprise: God tells Moses to stop praying.
How could you possibly cry out to the Lord too much?
They needed to go forward; obey; get moving.
* Crying out to the Lord is a wonderful thing, but not if it replaces obedience.
* One of the dangers of fear is that it paralyzes us spiritually.
We stop moving forward, we stop running the race set before us, you just want to stay in bed all day, literally or figuratively, and whine; you shy away from the fellowship of God’s people; and you stop obeying.
* And so God says: “Enough crying out to me: start obeying.
The children of Israel need to go forward; Moses, you need to lift your staff over this sea.”
* Maybe this morning you know that your fears and worries and concerns have really worn you down spiritually.
Fear has been like a big wrench in the gears of your walk with God.
You’ve spent a lot of time crying out to God because it seems so hard, but you need to move forward in obedience to Him.
*/17 “As for Me, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.
18 "Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen."/*
* Their job was to get their focus on God, and move forward in simple obedience to Him.
Now God says “As for me.”
God’s going to do the real work.
* Why will He work?
In both verses 17 and 18 He says it will be for His honor.
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