Marching To Zion Series

Marching to Zion

Exodus 23:20-

-God has now given them the commandments and all the needed instruction in observing those commandments from chapters 20-23

-last week we looked at the three feast they were commanded to keep the feast of unleavened bread, firstfuits, and ingatherings

-we showed how the message of those three feast is Christ-, Christ was crucified during the time of passover, the holy spirit came during the feast of first fruits and one day during the rapture the harvest will be over and we will rest from our labor like they did during the feast of ingatherings or tabernacles

In this passage today God was giving them some promises about their conquering of the promise land that he had prepared for them

In verse 20 we find that it wasn't just a land that they were going to but it was a land and a place that God had prepared for them.

He was going to send an angel to lead them and they were to pay careful attention to his instructions and obey his voice

God promised them that he would conquer their enemies and take all sickness away from them and bless their bread and water.

And in return they were to worship him and not make a covenant with any other gods

This passage is really broken down into

what God will do 20-23

What the people will do vs 24-26

what God will do 27-31

what the people will do 32-33

Gods Plan

When God called the children of Israel out of Egypt he had a plan

When Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery God had a plan

God always has a plan

Jer 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord , plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

God's plan was to bring them out of slavery march right through the wilderness and arrive a the Phl 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.promise land. It was their unbelief that left them in the wilderness for 40 years. God has a plan for us today to be saved and not so that we can just wonder around but so that we can tell everyone else about Christ and take as many people with us when we go to heaven

the ultimate plan is that we run this race that is set before us here with endurance and at the end step over the finish line completing the course as the Apostle Paul did keeping the faith.

It wasn't Gods will that they wonder in the wilderness. It was their lack of trust and obedience that kept them at that place for 40 years

Notice that God told them in verse 21, Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice

The pslamist says this is where the failed

Psa 106:25 They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the Lord .

2Ki 18:12 because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

We sing that song in church today trust and obey for theres no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey

Phl 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

God wants us to hear his voice today calling all men to salvation but in order to be saved we must harken to his voice, we must trust and obey

Act 4:4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

God give us the word its up to us to respond in obedience to His word. James said that if all we do is hear the word we deceive ourselves we must be doers of the word. The children of Israel heard the word of the Lord that he was going to conqueror their enemies and that he would go before them as the marched into the promise land actually according to verse 27, I will send my terror before you and thrown them into confusion

Then the spies went to look into the promise land and they came back and said it wasn't possible

Phl 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.