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Listen Carefully to the LORD Your God
Listen Carefully to the LORD Your God Exodus 15:1-27 Key Verse 15:26 “He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.’” Thus far in the book of Exodus we have seen how God revealed himself to the Egyptians and the Israelites. Over and over God told Moses that he was going to harden pharaoh’s heart so that He could perform mighty acts of judgments so that the Egyptians would know that he is the LORD and they would drive the Israelites out. Not only did the Egyptians need to know who the LORD was, but the Israelites needed to know this as well. When Moses first approached the Israelite elders and told them that God had heard their cries for help and that He was now going to rescue them from their bondage, they were over-joyed. They remembered the promises they had heard about from their parents – God had visited their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and promised to be their God and give them the land of Canaan as their own. However, The Israelites didn’t really know anything at all about God, so when Pharaoh didn’t immediately give into Moses demand, but responded by not giving them straw to make bricks, they began to complain. They complained because they didn’t believe God could do what Moses had said. They didn’t know who God was or what he was capable of doing. Therefore, I think the 10 plagues that God inflicted on the Egyptians were performed not only to teach the Egyptians who God was, but to show the Israelites who the God they were to worship really was. As we mentioned before, the ten plagues showed that God was absolutely superior to the Egyptian God’s in every way. Pharaoh and his magicians could do nothing to stop what God was doing. Eventually they just had to admit that God was superior and after the tenth plague they drove the Israelites out completely not just for the three day festival to the LORD that Moses had been requesting. However as soon as they were gone, pharaoh and his court realized what they had given up, a huge, free work force that was the main reason for Egypt’s great wealth and beautiful cities. The Egyptians want the Israelites back, but instead of relying on the magicians to outperform God they decided to use their army. This was the most powerful army on the earth at that time. There was nothing that could stop them. Nothing, but God, that is. When the Israelites saw the army approaching them and they realized that they were stuck between that army and the sea, the all panicked. They thought for sure that they were all going to die, but God had other plans. Through Moses he told the people not to fear, to be still and to watch as the LORD brought salvation to them that day. God completely defeated that army in a way that no human being could have. God had made it so the Israelites could walk through the sea on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried to follow, God brought the sea back over them. This final miracle was enough to convince the people that they should worship God. In this passage, the whole Israelite community joins together in two songs praising the almighty God of heaven. For me this was a very difficult message to write. When I think of God, I do think of a God who brings salvation with him. I think of a God who is all powerful, all knowing and all loving. I think of the God who loved me enough to die for me – He gave up His life so that I could have eternal life. H forgave my sins even though He didn’t have to. To me, God is the God of love, but here the Israelites are singing a song of praise and thanksgiving to a warrior God who destroyed and entire army. The refrain of these two songs is that God caste army into the sea and they all drowned. When I first thought about this to me this was horrible. I couldn’t reconcile this God with the God of love I know so well. Over the week, I prayed about it more and more and I gradually realized that I had over looked some very important aspect of God. God is also a God of absolute justice. He is a God who always keeps His promise and He is a God that intervenes in human affairs so that we can all come to know Him better. I also realized that God’s way working in human history does not have to follow my rules. What difference does it make if I agree with the way God decides to do something? It doesn’t make any difference at all. God is the all-powerful, all-sovereign creator, I am just his creature, created for His glory. Today I want to think about how God intervened in human history and why He did it in the way that he did. If we look carefully at the Israelites songs we can see what God was trying to accomplish by doing what He did. First, the peoples song (1-18) Verse one tells us that all the Israelites, led by Moses sang this long song to the LORD. The song consists of four stanzas or verses – verses 1-5, 6-10, 11-13, and 14-17 – followed by a very short, but powerful conclusion. Look at verse 1b. “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted.” The song Israelites begin by telling everyone why they are singing the song. They are singing it to their God because He was, He is and He always will be highly exalted. As I have mentioned over and over the Israelites watch as God displayed his absolute superiority over the Egyptian God’s through the ten plagues, but at the sea, God had done something quite different. God had demonstrated his almighty power over the most powerful force on earth. There was nothing that could stop the Egyptian army, but God stopped it completely. Again, I had a really difficult time trying to figure out why it was only after seeing the army destroyed did the Israelites sing praises to God. They had seen 10 unbelievable miracles and yet there is no mention of them singing praises to God after any of these. It was only when they saw the Egyptian army destroyed that they sang. Now I think this is quite natural. As long as that army was standing there was always the chance that the Israelites would once again be forced into slavery under the Egyptians. Although, the Israelites weren’t initially conquered by the Egyptians and then forced into slavery, that is normally how it works. Furthermore, once the Israelites were slaves, they remained slaves because of the power of Egypt’s military. Without that military strength Israel would have simply walked away a long time ago. The point is that it was really the power of the Egyptian military that kept the Israelites slaves in Egypt. This way of all human beings – we are held captive only if someone has the power to hold us captive, otherwise, we could simply walk away. So as long as that Egyptian army was still standing the Israelites could never really have a true sense of freedom because they would only be one war away from returning to slavery. God changed all that. Look at verse 1c. “Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.” This is a recurring theme throughout the song. In fact, I think we can call this theme the refrain of this song. I think it is very interesting to note the way that God defeated this army. He didn’t do it by aiding the Israelites in battle. In other words, he didn’t throw the Egyptian army into confusion and use the Israelite soldiers to wipe them out. If God had done this, perhaps the Israelites wouldn’t be singing a song to their highly exalted God, but instead they might have sung to their highly exalted military strength. It was God and God alone who defeated that army and He did it in a way that had never been done before and has never been done since. He did it in such a way that no one could mistake what had happened. Everyone who heard about this would know that it was an act of an all-powerful God that had done this. Look at verse 2. “The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” When the Israelites saw how God had fought for them, how they didn’t have to do anything at all, they sang, “The LORD is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.” This is the attitude that we all must have. If we rely on our own strength and our own ability to defend ourselves, we will always find that there is someone out there who is more powerful than us and defeat us. I don’t necessarily mean a person. Our greatest enemy is Satan and there is no human who can stand up on their own power and with their own defenses and beat. We simply can’t do it. We need to rely on God for our strength and our defense. Only God is strong enough to defeat Satan and in fact He has already done this for those who accept it. When we acknowledge that only God is our strength and our defense against our greatest enemy then God immediately becomes our salvation. Then we can sing like the Israelites. Look at verse 2b. “He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” Up until this point, I don’t think the common Israelite had a clear idea that God was their God. They knew of God. They knew that He had appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and made some pretty great promises to them concerning their descendants. They also knew that God had appeared to Moses and enabled him to perform some pretty impressive miracles. However, I don’t think that they had a deep sense that God was a personal God who cared about each one of them individually. They had just seen God wipe out the entire army that had held them captive for so many years. Suddenly each of them had an absolute feeling of freedom. They had each been set free of their oppression and God had done this for each of them individually. Now God was each of their personal God. He had given them individual salvation. This is also something that we all must know as Christians. It is not enough to know that God is all-powerful and that his plans will always succeed. We must know that God is a personal God who has a plan for each one of us and He will make that plan succeed. God has a plan for you and God has a plan for me. He is ready and able to make that plan succeed, but we must acknowledge him as our personal God. He must be our strength, our defense and then we can experience his personal salvation and sing his praises among the nations. The rest of the song goes on to recall how God defeated the enemy in spite of the enemies arrogance and power. They were simply powerless against the almighty God. If you look at verses 14-17 you will see that the Israelites were looking ahead to what God still was going to do. God had not finished His work. He had promised to bring the Israelites into the land of Canaan – a land that was already full of people. However, when those people would hear about what God had done the Israelites were sure that they would be overcome with fear and simply watch as a stone would watch as God gave the Israelites their land. They even look forward to the place God would choose to build his sanctuary. When they accepted God as their own personal God the people had a great vision. They realized that they had a great a powerful God and that He could and would do great and wonderful things for them. They realized that God was going to all the promises he had made. This is what happens when we accept God as our own personal God. I was once told that God never made small plans. If we look at God’s creation around us we can see that this is the case. Our God all-powerful and He wants to do great work in and through us. We must believe this and always look to the future with God’s hope and greatness in our hearts and minds. The Israelites ended their song with a very brief but powerful conclusion Look at verse 18. “The LORD reigns for ever and ever.” It is a simple statement, but it is something that we must always know and acknowledge.” Second, Miriam’s song (19-21) In verse 19 Moses simply restates what God had done, but then in verse twenty we are reintroduced to someone who hasn’t seemed to play a big part in this story except at the very beginning when she helped to save Moses. Look at verse 20a “Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister.” Miriam is called a prophetess here. She is the first female prophet mentioned in the Bible and are only a few others throughout the whole book. Actually there are only 8 others mentioned in the whole Bible – Deborah (Judges 4:4), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14), Isaiah’s wife (Isaiah 8:3), Anna (Luke 2:36) and Philip’s four daughters (Acts 21:9). It is a little bit unclear what Miriam’s role was in this whole redemption story, but it is very clear that she held a very high place of honor among the Israelites. Look at verse 21. “Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.” Miriam’s song is very simple and to the point and it is basically just restating the opening words of the people’s song. As I thought about Miriam’s simple song I began to reflect on why we should exalt God and sing his praises. We need a very clear testimony about what God has done in our life. It doesn’t have to a long testimony, but it should be very clear and to the point. It should be something that we can point to and that others will know is clearly the work of God. Nobody else could have thrown that Egyptian army into the sea. Only God could have done that and for Miriam and the Israelites this was the reason for them to sing to their highly exalted God. What has God done in your life that no one else could do? That is your testimony and it your reason to sign the praises of God. Third, God tests the Israelites and tells them to listen carefully (22-27) As I have said over and over throughout these lectures, the Israelites and people in general are very forgetful. After just three days, the Israelites seem to have forgotten what God had done for them back at the Red Sea. He had demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that He was their God, He was fighting for them and He was surely going to do everything that he had promised for them. Yet after three days of traveling in the desert without finding any water they began to grumble against Moses. They seem to have forgotten that they had a God their side that could do anything. Finding water doesn’t seem like a big thing after he single-handedly destroyed the most powerful army on earth. But instead of crying out to their all-powerful God, the people just grumble against Moses. Moses, however did the right thing and cried out to God. God answered him in a pretty unique way. “The LORD showed him a piece of wood.” What was Moses going to do with a piece of wood? Obviously he was going to throw it into the bitter water to make it sweet. What!? God obviously told Moses that this is what he was supposed to do and instead of asking why, Moses simply did it and a miracle happened. Moses listened carefully to what the LORD told him and when he did so, God could work a great miracle. In verse 25b and 26 God gives a command to the Israelites which is a test for them. Look at 25b and 26. “There the LORD issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. 26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.” It is not always easy to listen carefully to the LORD, because sometimes what He says just doesn’t seem to make sense to us, just like this passage didn’t seem to make sense to me last week. However, if we listen carefully to the LORD, He has promises for us that no one can take away. Let’s listen carefully to the LORD. Look at verse 27. “Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” This passage ends with God showing the Israelites that He can take care of them even in the wilderness where there isn’t much water. He brought them to a beautiful campground for a good rest just before bringing them to the mountain of the LORD to give them His law. |
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