"To Him be glory forever": Exodus

Monday, November 30, 2015

Salvation

In the book of Exodus, Moses is called to be the leader of God's people, and, very specifically, to lead them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. This is not an easy task, to say the least.

Pharaoh doesn’t want to let the people go, but he is compelled to. When the Hebrews have left Egypt, Pharaoh changes his mind and his army chases them down at the Red Sea. At a point of crisis, with the water, seemingly impassable in front, and the Pharaoh's army behind, the Hebrew people appear on the verge of defeat.

But these are God's people, called by Him for His purposes. And so throughout their entire journey He is with them and He provides for them. The crisis at the Red Sea is no exception. God separates the waters so that the Hebrews can pass through and then He allows the waters to close up and defeat the army of Pharaoh.

In response to this saving action by God, Exodus 15:1 tells us that Moses and the people sang a song to the Lord, which includes these words in verse 2:

"The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him."

"He has become my salvation." This seems to be the heart of this verse, and of the whole song of praise. The Hebrews were in grave danger. They needed to be saved, and they were in a position of complete vulnerability. They were unable to do a single thing to save themselves. They were God's people, and God saved them.

God is still in the business of saving His people today, something we remember as Advent begins and Christmas draws near. Without Jesus we would be in the kind of danger the Hebrews faced at the Red Sea, with no apparent reason to think that anything besides our end was near. They were confronted with the end of their earthly lives, and the fuller story of the Bible teaches us that without Jesus our death in this life will end in eternal separation from God.

But God is a God who saves, and true salvation comes through Jesus, and no one else. The salvation that came to the Hebrews at the Red Sea, and at every other crisis in their journey, points us to the better salvation that comes through Jesus.

As we journey through Advent and towards Christmas may you see that your salvation is in Jesus, and no one else.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Never alone

This morning I preached from Exodus 17:1-7. The gist of the story is this: The Hebrews are on the way from slavery in Egypt to the land that God had promised to them as the heirs to the covenant promises made to Abraham. They are on the way to the Promised Land.

They come to a place without water. They complain, loudly, and fear the worst. Their complaint has three parts to it and the crux of the issue is that they wonder if God has abandoned them. The closing words of the passage are these:

"Is the Lord among us or not?"

At the time those words appear in the text the question itself is rhetorical, because in verse 6 God has proved that, without any doubts, He is with them. The three parts of their complaint were that God didn't provide for them, that God didn’t protect them, and that God had abandoned them.

These people are God's chosen people, being led to their promised home. In the act of bringing water from a rock God answered their complaint, leaving no part of it standing. God did provide for them. God did protect them. And God most certainly was present with them. He was always present with them.

And He is always present today. We want to seem so much more enlightened than the Hebrews of the Exodus. We want to believe that our faith is so much more "advanced," for lack of a better term.

But we aren't. Things go awry and we worry. We panic. We despair. All too quickly we find ourselves asking the same basic question of the Hebrews. "Is the Lord among us or not?"

We ask the same question, and we receive the same answer. God is present. He is never absent from those He has called and gathered as His people. His ability to provide and protect us is greater than we can imagine. And He does all of these things most perfectly in Christ Jesus.

We closed worship this morning singing this hymn, O God Our Help In Ages Past.

God is our help, in ages past and in ages to come.

Is the Lord among us? The answer then, and now, is a resounding "Yes!"

Without question God is with us, now and forever. Amen.