INTRODUCTION
• The Israelites are free from the oppression of Egypt!
• God heard their cries and sent Moses to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt!
• All of a sudden, life seems great!
• Doesn’t it seem that way at times? God has done something great in your life; you are riding high, life is good.
• Then adversity hits.
• This is an important question for all of us to answer.
• Who provides for you?
• Does the provision for your life come from your boss?
• Your job?
• Your country?
• Are you your provider?
• Do you see God as your provider? When we view anything other than God as the source of our provision, we can make that thing or person god.
• Sometimes we even look to ourselves for provision, but it is hard to give God glory for the blessings we have if we think we earned them ourselves.
• When you forget who your provider is, it can cause problems for us in life.
• When prosperity comes, not knowing who provides for us can cause us to become entitled and arrogant, thinking we did it all on our own.
• If we do not know who provides for us, we tend to panic, blame God, whine, and complain when adversity hits.
• We will see this scenario play out in our text today.
• Big Idea of the Message: God provides for his people, even when they struggle to understand him.
• Let’s begin our trek by turning to Exodus 13:21 and Exodus 14:1-4.
Exodus 13:21 (CSB)
21 The LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day and in a pillar of fire to give them light at night, so that they could travel day or night.
Exodus 14:1–4 (CSB)
1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses:
2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth (PIA HYROTH), between Migdol (MIG DOLL) and the sea; you must camp in front of Baal-zephon (BAIL ZEEFON), facing it by the sea.
3 Pharaoh will say of the Israelites: They are wandering around the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in.
4 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So the Israelites did this.
SERMON
I. God provides the path.
• The Israelites are free, but they need a path to follow, and God provides the path.
• Verse 31 tells us that God went ahead of the people in a pillar of cloud to lead them during the day and a pillar of fire by night.
• That had to be an awe-inspiring sight!
• Through Moses, God delivered the His people!
• The people saw and experienced the miracles; there could be no doubt who provided deliverance for the people!
• I cannot imagine how the people must have felt as they experienced the joy of freedom; however, when I was baptized into Christ, I too was released from bondage, the bondage of sin.
• So in some ways, I think those who have been baptized into Christ can understand how freedom felt.
• Today, we would like to receive an Apple map or a google map for life from God.
• God provides a path for us to follow today; we have to be open and humble to look for the cloud and light in our life to follow!
• As a point of emphasis, we typically call the Israelites' time in the wilderness as WANDERING in the wilderness.
• Make no mistake; these folks were not WANDERING; God was leading them.
• There was a quicker route from Egypt to Canaan, but God led his people toward the desert of Sinai first to teach them some important lessons.
• One of the things we need to be aware of is that God’s path for us is not always easy or direct.
• Look at verse three again.
Exodus 14:3 (CSB)
3 Pharaoh will say of the Israelites: They are wandering around the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in.
• Sometimes the path God lights up for us will look crazy to us as well as others; however, God has a reason for the path He sets before us.
• For the Israelites, God had a plan for the path that He was leading them.
• God still wanted the Egyptians to know who the true God was!
• We see the phrase speaking God hardening the heart of Pharaoh in 14:4.
• The Hebrew word here is predictive in nature; God predicted that Pharaoh’s heart would be firm in his resolve to pursue the Israelites.
• This would give God yet another opportunity to show Egypt who was really in charge!
• The path God set before the Israelites made it appear to Pharaoh that the people would be easy pickings because they appeared to wander around lost.
• There were various trade routes that would have gone straight through to the land of Canaan.
• These routes would have stayed closer to the Mediterranean Sea (Lennox, God’s Story Revealed, 98).
• The Israelites went toward the southern part of the Sinai peninsula.
• God wanted to teach them to trust him before the promised land.
• Sometimes it might seem like we are going in the wrong direction when God is striving to teach us something for the future.
• What is God trying to teach you on the path He has set before you?
• How are you dealing with your path?
• If it is a difficult one, are you looking to see what God is trying to teach you, or are you just focused on the difficulty?
• If the path is easy, are you seeking to learn what God is trying to teach you, or are you just coasting through life?
• Let’s drop down to Exodus 14:5-9
Exodus 14:5–9 (CSB)
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said, “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”
6 So he got his chariot ready and took his troops with him;
7 he took six hundred of the best chariots and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in each one.
8 The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out defiantly.
9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen, and his army—chased after them and caught up with them as they camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth (PIA HYROTH), in front of Baal-zephon (BAIL ZEEFON).
II. God provides protection.
• In verses 5-9, we see Pharaoh and his officials, upon hearing that the Israelites made an Elvis exit out of the land, realized what they had done by letting the Israelites leave.
• I find this interesting; after all the plagues God reigned down on Egypt, this is a head-scratcher!
• God showed His power and sovereignty to the Israelites, Egypt, and the entire world.
• The ten plagues showed the people that the “gods” of Egypt were non-existent.
• Old Testament scholar John Lennox says it perfectly: “The Egyptians worshipped the Nile River as a god, Hopi.
• When Yahweh turned its waters to blood, he showed that he was greater than Hopi (Ex. 7:14-24).
• The frog goddess, Heqt, was mocked in the second plague when frogs overran the country (8:1-15), as were the bull gods (Apis and Mnevis), the cow god (Hathor), and the ram god (Khnum) with the plague of livestock (9:1-7) ….”
• (Stephen J. Lennox, God’s Story Revealed: Guide to Understanding the Old Testament [Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2009], 97).
• Each plague is mocking a specific god of Egypt.
• One would think after that beat down by God; Pharaoh would go find another nation of people to enslave!
• God showed who was the ruler of all things.
• Who else saw the miracles God performed in Egypt?
• The Israelites!
• Here is something to think about.
• God delivered His people out of Egypt under Moses and Aaron.
• God performed miracles in the process.
• There could be no doubt that Moses did not have some magic trick but that the Creator of all things was the source.
• Given those facts, I would think that the Israelites would be riding high, afraid of nothing.
• Remember we said that God did not take the nation on an immediate route to the Promised Land?
• The main reason was the people needed to learn to TRUST God!
• When the Israelites saw the Egyptians coming after them, what did they do?
• Shout with victory?
• Sing praises to the God that delivered them?
• When you know God has delivered you time and time again, what should knowing that do for you when the next problem of life arises?
• The people SHOULD have known that God did not bring them out of Egypt to die or to have Pharaoh cart them back to Egypt!
• So how did God’s delivered people respond to the looming threat?
Exodus 14:10–12 (CSB)
10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians coming after them! The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the LORD for help.
11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
12 Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
• Can you believe the response of the Israelites?
• At the first sign of trouble, these cry babies wanted to go back to be slaves in Egypt!
• Wow, I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!
• Oh, wait.
• What happened the last time something bad came my way when I faced a challenge?
• Maybe I better not be so incredulous as I read this text?
• This passage tells us why God led them all over the wilderness; they still did not trust Him.
• Maybe God is leading you through what seems to be the wilderness because you do not trust him yet?
• I love how Moses deals with this.
Exodus 14:13–14 (CSB)
13 But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the LORD’s salvation that he will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.
14 The LORD will fight for you, and you must be quiet.”
• Calm down and watch what God is going to do!
• When we face trials, we need to trust that God will protect us!
• Protection is part of provision!
• Let’s finish with our last observation and a look at chapter 16.
III. God provides for your needs.
• I love this chapter.
• In chapter 14, God wiped out the Egyptian army; God protected His people!
• Chapter 15 is a song of praise to God for what He did and who He is.
• Now we get to chapter 16!
• Here we go again!
Exodus 16:1–8 (CSB)
1 The entire Israelite community departed from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt.
2 The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.
5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”
6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “This evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
7 and in the morning you will see the LORD’s glory because he has heard your complaints about him. For who are we that you complain about us?”
8 Moses continued, “The LORD will give you meat to eat this evening and all the bread you want in the morning, for he has heard the complaints that you are raising against him. Who are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD.”
• Have you ever tried to appease a child?
• Let’s say a toddler asks his mom for a drink.
• The mom brings a glass of water only to have the child whine and cry because they didn’t want water.
• The mom then brings milk, only to have the child cry again.
• The mom tries apple juice, orange juice, flavored water, only to be met with opposition.
• Finally, the child points to the mom’s Dr. Pepper.
• A mother provides the very thing the child asked for (a drink) and tries to appease the child, only to be met with whining and a desire for something that the kid probably didn’t need.
• So we are into the second month since the Exodus from Egypt, and the Israelites are at it again!
• The people were crying again; now it is about their food.
• They would trade their freedom for pots of meat!
• God had taken care of these people, yet when they were not cared for the way they wanted, they grumble against Moses and Aaron.
• They were shooting the messenger.
• One tough thing to understand about all these examples of God’s provision is how quickly the Israelites would complain (Exodus 16:2; 17:3), become bitter, and ultimately forget how God had provided for them.
• How often do we forget about God’s blessings and even complain about what we do have?
• These people were so focused on what they did not have that they forget what they did have!
• What does God do?
• He takes care of their needs!
• When we remember what God has done for us, it keeps us from being ungrateful; it keeps us from complaining.
• We have to trust that God will take care of us!
• Jesus addressed this in Matthew 6:31-34
Matthew 6:31–34 (CSB)
31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
CONCLUSION
• Test
• Knowing and learning to trust God will make your life so much better; it will relieve so much of your stress.
• There are times that I forget this, and I allow myself to forget that it is God who takes care of us, not me!
› Our Application Point: We will be thankful for a God who provides for every need
• Who takes care of you?
• When you allow God to do so, it will change your life!
