So hey there, good to see you and to have you with us as we continue on in this series that we doing called Route 66, a series that we are doing because we believe that just like a journey to the west on the actual road Route 66 led many to a better life, a journey through the larger story told in the 66 books of the Bible is the path to a much better life for all of us too. You don’t have to believe that to belong here with us. It is one of my favorite things about this place. Regardless of what you believe or don’t believe, how your story past or present reads, you are safe and welcome with us here every single week. We are people just like you who want to give a special shout and welcome to you if you are brand new (to all of our online friends out there too) and let you know that we hope that you have a great experience today and want to come back and do this all over again with us real soon. So, because of all that we have to talk about today I want to jump back in fairly quickly but before we do that let’s talk a little bit about where have been so that we are all on the same page heading into this.
ILLUST> In week 1 as we walked through the creation story together we discovered this. We are not at war with science. We ought to love science because it is a study of God’s creation and God’s creation is good. We have to remind ourselves that Genesis 1 was not written to answer our 21st century scientific questions but basic life questions for readers in that day and for us too like who are we, why are we here, who do we worship, and who do we trust. God is trying to communicate what he did and that it was him who did it not how he did it or how long it took him to do it. In the end creation demonstrates how important we are to God. We weren’t an afterthought in the story. He created it all with us in mind. Then last week we talked about the rebellion that happens early in the story. We talked at length about the enemy that we are up against and everything that was unleashed on earth in that moment in the Garden of Eden that we still see in each of our lives today...passivity, men looking to women for validation, the assault on beauty, man finding identity in work, shame, hiding, and blame. We need to understand all that this moment in the story did to us. See, God having a deep loving relationship with us has always been what the story is really about. Our story has always been a rescue story. If we aren’t convinced of that already, we should be by the time we wrap up today.
So, as we jump back in let’s remember this. There are 39 books in the Old Testament but we really only find the narrative or story in 17 which can be confusing because they are not the first 17 books. 5 of the remaining books are books of wisdom and poetry. The remaining 17 are the prophets. The prophets are books that contain specific things, life lessons, instructions that God sent his prophets to say to his chosen people Israel during different parts of the story. We will flush that out more next week. So, all of that to say this. We have about 2000 of years of story to talk through before we ever get to Jesus. We are going to hit 1,000 of it today. Now, my experience has been that things start to get confusing after the Garden of Eden really up until we get to Jesus. So, let’s jump back into this and see if we can clear up the confusion, not for the sake of knowing more information but for transformation, the life change that we come in here chasing after every single week. What does what we are reading say about God? What does it say about us?
If you brought a Bible today we are going to start in Genesis chapter 12 today. If you don’t have a Bible they are back on the back tables that you can grab right now if you would like if you close or on you can always grab one on your way out. As always you can hit our app or the YouVersion app too. Or you can ignore all of that and read along with me on the screens. So here we go, Genesis chapter 12 verse 1…
The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 ‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’
So, Genesis 12:1-3 is the launch of God’s redemption plan, the launch of the rescue story. Let’s break down what God says to Abram here. Go, I’m not going to tell you where you are going, I’ll show you as you go. So, from the outset this relationship is going to require trust. I will make you into a great nation (Israel), I will bless you, you will be a blessing, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. The Hebrew word for blessing is translated to mean something that brings prosperity and life to others. So God tells Abram I will bless you so that you can be a blessing to others. I know we are not Abraham, and we are not Israel, but before we move on in the story I think we need to pause and think about this…
WE HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN THIS STORY. It’s interesting that the word curse is used 5 times in Genesis 3-11. The word blessing will be used 5 times in just two verses here. So what’s the point? Here’s a thought. Blessing is going to undo the hell that was unleashed on earth in the Garden last week. These few verses offer a theological blueprint for God’s rescue plan for the world. It will be clear throughout the story that the people of Israel are God’s chosen people, chosen to be a light and showcase to other nations. From this moment on the story is going to be about God redeeming his creation first through Israel and then through us.
Here’s why I say that. What God says to Abram sounds a lot like what Jesus says to us. We are to love God and others as ourselves, go and make disciples, and be his witnesses all over the earth through his spirit at work in us. So no we are not Israel, different language, different people but in many ways the mission is the same. We call blessed to be a blessing rescued to rescue here at DCC. It’s a call to action with a sense of urgency. We have been rescued to rescue. The life that we are looking for requires us to do more than know it or quote it. Are we living it? Make it personal. Before we move on there’s an important question here. Am I playing the role that I was created to play in the story? Let’s keep going. So, Abraham is told in Genesis 15 that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. We are told that he believes God despite the fact that his wife Sarah is old and not able to have children. God makes a covenant with Abraham and promises land to his numerous descendants. So we move from promise to covenant or binding agreement. Then, just a little while later this happens. Genesis chapter 16…
So she (Sarai) said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
We talked about it last week. What is the primary message and assault of the enemy in this larger story? You can’t trust God. It’s still in play here. So Abraham and Sarai ultimately have a son named Isaac. When Isaac is later married God repeats the covenant that he had with Abraham to Isaac in Genesis 26. Guess what? Isaac’s wife Rebekkah is unable to have kids too. He too is going to have to trust. He prays that God will open her womb and he does. They have twin boys Jacob and Esau. Jacob later marries two sisters Leah and Rachel. He loved and wanted Rachel, dad tricked him into marrying Leah and only gives him Rachel if he promises to stay married to Leah too. Leah pops out babies like nobody’s business. Guess what? Rachel, just like Jacob’s mom, and his grandma is barren. She can’t have children. So after God repeats his covenant with grandpa Abraham to Jacob in Genesis chapter 28 this happens. Just two chapters later we read this…
Then she (Rachel) said, ‘Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.’ 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son.
Okay, so Jacob’s Grandfather and dad took two different approaches to the exact same problem. Dad prayed and Grandpa with the help of his wife found someone else to sleep with. Jacob decides to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. So the three Patriarchs of the Rescue story all face the exact same challenge...wives who are barren. 2 took one path the other took another. Here’s the question. Which do we take? I’m not prying into our personal lives, I’m asking because I think something else entered our stories here. When our circumstances require us to trust, here it is…
WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO TAKE MATTERS INTO OUR OWN HANDS. Now, the Bible tells us that faith without action is dead so I am not suggesting that we just always sit back and do nothing and wait on God. If you are sick pray but see a doctor, if you are unemployed pray but hit the streets and send out resume’s, if a relationship is in trouble pray but initiate a conversation. You get the point. The question is this. When we are honest, are we taking action in partnership with God, or are we actually just taking matters into our own hands? If you think about it, here we are thousands of years later, and the story is the same, not much has changed.
ILLUST> So Jacob ultimately has 12 sons who will become the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel. One of his sons Joseph is the favorite, is sort of a big mouth, brags a lot, and eventually ends up sold off by his brothers to a group of gypsies that lands him far from home in Egypt. Famine strikes the land and the book of Genesis ends with God’s people, a small clan of about 100 people heading for help in Egypt. Now, I want to pause and note something important that we see in Genesis before we leave it. It will continue throughout the story up to today. We see God’s heart for the underprivileged, the outcast, the unloved. We see his heart for rescue for all people in how he cares for Hagar Sarai’s maidservant and her son Ishmael when they are sent away, with Jacob’s wife Leah as she longs for his love and continues to give him kids. None of these people are in the bloodline of Jesus. God has a special heart for those who are looked down on. We are created in his image and should too. So, 400 or so years later God’s people Israel have grown to huge numbers in Egypt but are slaves to the Egyptians. They cry out to God, he hears their cry, and send Moses, a murderer, to tell Pharaoh to let them go. We see something else that here that will continue throughout the story. God uses imperfect, broken, jacked up people to do big things in the story he is telling. We have already said that we all have a huge role to play in the story. That’s true regardless of how our own stories read. That ought to give all of us hope today too. So Pharaoh keeps saying no and God sends a series of plagues. They are not random or arbitrary. Each plague, frogs, blood, is directed at a specific god in Egypt to mock them and their alleged power. God finally has the death angel pass over the homes of his people and take the life of Pharaoh’s son and all of the other first born sons in Egypt. This is where the Jewish celebration of Passover comes from. So, Pharaoh finally lets God’s people go and they head into the desert. I think we need to make another stop there in the story. Shortly, after these tens of thousands to millions of people leave (scholars debate about the real number) Pharaoh changes his mind and sends his army out after them. Let’s pick it up there in Exodus 14 verse 10…
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. 11 They 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? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians”? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’ 13 Moses answered the people, ‘Do not 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. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.’
So, all of a sudden we get to a moment in the story where taking matters into their own hands is totally and completely out of play. They have the Red Sea on one side and Pharaoh’s Army bearing down hard and closing in on the other. They say really Moses. Why didn’t just leave us in Egypt. I love Moses’s response here. The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still. In the midst of their circumstances it is difficult for them to believe and embrace that. In the midst of our circumstances it often is too. Watch what happens...verse 21…
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. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
So God spreads and holds back the sea, then after all of his people are through He has Moses stretch out his hand again, the sea collapses and destroys Pharaoh’s entire army. There it is...rescue. Moses leads the people into the desert and it is not long, just a few days, before they are whining again about wanting to be back in Egypt because they are thirsty and need water. God has just done an unbelievable miracle right in front of their eyes and yet watch this now...the question remains. Can you really trust God? Sound familiar? Yeah, me too.
ILLUST> As the story continues and they continue on their journey through the desert they complain about the lack of food, God provides quail and manna, they complain about the lack of water again, God provides water from a rock. They are attacked by the Amalekites. Ultimately, they defeat them but there is something else to note here. The Amalekites will remain on God’s bad side throughout the rest of the story. God shows his heart for rescue for people who are worn out and exhausted here. He shows how he responds to people who take advantage of other people...less fortunate people...more disadvantaged people. We are made in his image. We ought to have that same heart too. This is why we do all we do for homeless people in our city, why we are hosting our Backpack Bash, why we help rescue victims of human trafficking, why we help families in need. It’s why we do everything that we do through our mission partners in this place.
The people finally reach Mount Sinai where Moses receives the 10 Commandments. Now unfortunately, the people decide to make a Golden Calf to worship while Moses is up there with God. I want to say something about that. People in the ancient near eastern world believed that the gods rode cows. I would have guessed horse, they believed cows. So Israel could have just wanted to make their God something to ride on. It’s a great theory that breaks down when they worship it. God wants to wipe out his people and Moses reminds him of his promise to Abraham. The people are punished and repent. God renews his covenant with his people and shows them who He is...not just a holy God, but a God of love, forgiveness, patience, and grace too. Now the building of the tabernacle can begin a place where God can live amongst his people. They build it and God moves in.
Then we get to Leviticus, the place where our attempts to read through the Bible often come to a screeching halt. Here is what you need to know. Leviticus is about God giving his people instructions for three sacrifices, ways to maintain the covenant and how it can be repaired when it’s broken. Israel has already proven that it’s going to be broken. So, we actually pick the story back up in the book of Numbers as Israel moves through the desert to the edge of the land that God has promised them. They send spies out, the majority of spies think it’s a bad idea and the people decide not to trust God and try and take the land. Bad mistake. God allows them to wander in the desert for 40 more years which means the current generation will not enter the land. There it is again. You can’t trust God. In their time in the wilderness God gives them a series of tests to prepare them for one day taking the land. He needs them to trust the leadership he puts in place, his provision, and his protection. Then we get to Deuteronomy which means second law. Moses wants to make sure that this younger generation is ready to take the land so he preaches three sermons reminding this younger crowd of God’s grace and provision in the past, his law, and urges them to choose to trust him moving forward.
As we enter the book of Joshua, Joshua takes over for Moses as the leader of Israel and God’s people fight the first battle of Jericho. Actually, as we ready through the battles it is pretty clear that God is giving the land to Israel, God does most of the fighting for them. Having said that, the blood and guts of the book of Joshua brings some hard questions about God to the surface. How can a loving God of rescue ask his people to kill and destroy every man, woman, child, and animal in some of these cities? There really isn’t a clear cut answer but we have to keep in mind that this ancient near easter world is a world where rule is established by violence. God is responding to a violent world in a violent way. God did not have his people destroy all of the nations but integrated and incorporated some of them into Israel. Only the most powerful or those that were too far gone for God to deal with were completely destroyed. We also have to remember that Israel has already demonstrated a propensity to worship other gods. If God allows some of these people to survive and live close, who will really influence who? In the end, after all the battles, God distributes the land among the 12 tribes, and has a covenant renewal ceremony with his people as the book ends.
We see in the book of Judges that God’s concern was a legitimate concern. God’s people fall under the influence of the very people that they are to be a light for over and over again. Instead of allowing them to be totally absorbed into a pagan culture, God raises up deliverers called Judges to rescue them over and over again. There is a cycle throughout the book. Sin - Slavery to Nations -Suffering - Cry Out to God - God raises up Deliverer - Deliverance - Rest - Sin. Once again, most of the Judges are deeply flawed people themselves, but God uses them to deliver Israel over and over again. When we reach chapter 17 we begin to read some of the most horrible stories in the entire Bible and God allows us to see that his people have sunken to a level that’s lower than the people that they are called to be light to. The darkness of the culture has overtaken them just as it is trying hard today to overtake us too. The book finally ends with this...in those days Israel had no king, everyone did as they saw fit. If you think about it, it’s not far off the world we find ourselves living in today. We will pick it up there next week. So, as we reflect on the story leaving here today I think that a part of our takeaway is this…
WE MUST LEAN INTO PROMISE AND PRESENCE NOT PERFORMANCE. One of my favorite seminary professors Scott Booth says it this way. We read the story and think that we need God at the end of our own limits when really we just need God. Yes, our rescue story starts with Abraham’s need to trust God but God doesn’t demand or command that we trust Him. He simply proves throughout the story time and time again that we can trust him. We will see it again next week in the story when God’s people are taken into exile in a foreign land and culture will once again presses in hard. Three young men are willing to be thrown into a fire alive rather than concede or compromise. God doesn’t put out the fire. He joins them in the fire. The King sees 4 men not 3 dancing in the fire. There’s another in the fire who cares for them, protects them, and sees them through. There it is again. Just like we saw today at the Red Sea when Pharaoh’s army is closing in and God holds back the water and allows his people to pass through. There he is right there with them, seeing them through just as he promised that he will do.
Before we leave here today let’s spend a few minutes on what Moses said to God’s people as they stood at the edge of that sea. The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still. We want to take a few minutes to just do that, a few minutes to simply be still and remember the ultimate rescue moment in our rescue story...what God did for us in sending his son Jesus. As Joseph sings a verse and chorus some trays will be passed with a little cracker and cup of juice representing Jesus sacrifice for us. Take it whenever you are ready as or after Joseph sings. If you’re confused or not in good space pass it to the person next to you. We are glad that you are here. When you hear those little cups crack around the room we do it to celebrate what Jesus said on the cross...it is finished. All of our sin gone because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Wherever life has us right now, as impossible as it may seem, let’s remind ourselves that there was another in the fire, another in the sea, and there’s a cross where another died for us so that we could be free. Let me pray for us.
