The Long Walk Home

INTRODUCTION — A Song and a Hunger

There’s a singer named Neil Diamond who once said that every song he writes is really about one thing — the journey home.

He didn’t mean a street address; he meant that deep pull inside every human heart to return to where you truly belong.

Maybe that’s why so many of his songs sound like prayers with a melody — yearning, hopeful, full of dust and light.

That’s what tonight’s message is about — the long walk home.

It’s the journey that begins when we leave what we were and start walking toward what God created us to be.

Luke says that when Jesus stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared and “spoke with Him about His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

The Greek word Luke uses for decease is exodus. Jesus was preparing for His Exodus — the greatest journey home the universe has ever seen.

Everything Israel lived in symbol, He would live in substance.

And everything He lived in substance, we now live by faith.

So tonight we’ll take that walk — step by step — through seven parallels between Israel’s Exodus and Jesus’ own journey, and along the way you may find your own footsteps in theirs.

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1 – OUT OF EGYPT

Israel’s story began in slavery. Four hundred years under Pharaoh’s rule; the sound of chains was the rhythm of their days.

Then God raised up Moses and said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people … and I have come down to deliver them.”

Jesus also began His story with Egypt. As a child He fled there with Joseph and Mary, escaping Herod’s sword, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

In both stories, Egypt represents bondage — sin that promises safety but becomes a prison.

And the same God who said to Pharaoh, “Let My people go,” says to every heart tonight, “Let this soul go free.”

Your personal exodus starts when you finally believe that God’s “Let My people go” includes you.

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2 – THE RED SEA AND THE JORDAN

Freedom always meets water.

Israel faced the Red Sea before they could sing their first song of victory.

The Lord opened a path between walls of water, and they crossed on dry ground.

Paul later wrote that they were “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”

Jesus also began His ministry standing in water.

At the Jordan He waded in beside sinners and said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

As He rose from the river, the heavens opened, the Spirit descended, and the Father’s voice said, “This is My beloved Son.”

When you walk through the waters of baptism, you’re not just joining a church — you’re reenacting the Exodus.

The water behind you is Egypt closed. The path before you is freedom begun.

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3 – FORTY YEARS AND FORTY DAYS

After crossing the sea, Israel entered the wilderness — forty years of sand and schooling.

They learned that freedom without faith quickly becomes another form of slavery.

Every test — hunger, thirst, impatience — was a classroom for trust.

Jesus mirrored that journey with forty days in the desert.

He fasted, prayed, and faced the same temptations Israel had failed:

bread without obedience,

protection without trust,

glory without surrender.

Where they fell, He stood.

He rewrote their story in victory.

And every believer who faces temptation walks that same trail.

When you say no to sin because you’d rather have Jesus, you’re walking His forty days.

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4 – THE BREAD FROM HEAVEN

In the wilderness God fed His people with manna — bread that appeared with the dew, sweet as honey wafers.

They gathered just enough for the day; anything hoarded spoiled by morning.

Centuries later Jesus stood in Galilee and said, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.”

The manna was a symbol; Jesus was the substance.

And He still feeds His people every day — not with bakery bread, but with His Word, His presence, His Spirit.

If your soul is starving tonight, the table is already set.

You don’t have to earn the meal; you only have to gather it.

Sometimes the miracle isn’t that bread falls from heaven; it’s that God still feeds ungrateful people.

He fed Israel when they complained.

He fed the disciples when they argued.

He feeds us even when we forget to say thank You.

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5 – LAW ON THE MOUNTAIN

Israel received the Ten Commandments on Sinai — a mountain wrapped in fire and thunder.