When the children of Israel got to Rephidim in the wilderness, there was no water. They complained, just as they had at Marah where the water was undrinkable. God had healed the water there, but their memories were short, as ours often are. So they threatened Moses to the point that he thought they would stone him. He cried out to God and the Lord had him pass before the people with a few elders and take his staff with him. The staff that he struck the Nile with and God turned it to blood. Take your staff, Moses, and I will meet you at the rock at Horeb. Remember Horeb? It is where Moses first met God at the burning bush. It is where God commissioned him to go deliver the people from slavery. It is where Moses will meet with God later and receive the 10 Commandments.
Moses is back at Horeb and God says, “I will stand before you there on the rock…and you shall strike the rock.” Notice this is the only time Moses was told to strike the rock. Years later, Moses finds himself in the same place again, back at Meribah with the people of Israel, and again there is no water. Again the people grumble and accuse Moses of trying to kill them. God tells Moses to take his staff and a few elders and speak to the rock. “Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water,” God says. Instead, in his anger at the people, Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock. Twice! The water flowed. Because of his disobedience, Moses was not able to enter the Promised Land. Why would this one sin disqualify Moses from going into Canaan? He was allowed to see it before he died but would never step one foot there. Why? I believe the reason is two-fold, first because of Moses’ disobedience, but second because of the significance of the rock.
Remember, Scripture interprets Scripture! Paul wrote, “For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” There has been much written about this, and we cannot say for sure what Paul meant. We know that God was with them in the wilderness. Does this mean that it was the pre-incarnate Christ who was there? We know about the cloud and the fire, but was there a rock that also followed the people in the wilderness? One thing we know for sure. This rock was a type. A shadow in the Old Testament that found its fulfillment in the New.
God would send His Son to be born of a virgin some 1500 years after Moses. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came to Israel and said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger.” He said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” All that the people in the wilderness had grumbled about would be provided by Christ, their spiritual food and drink. Jesus also said, “This is my body, broken for you.” And He said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.” The people had wanted to stone Moses in the wilderness, but God did not allow it. But God did send His Son so that they would crucify Him. It was not the Jews or the Romans who put Jesus on the cross. It was God. For your sake and for mine, the Father struck the Rock and gave His Son as a sacrifice for sin.
The Rock of Ages was cleft for you and for me.
Every day except Saturday, the people of God went out in the morning and gathered manna. On Saturday they rested. But every day but Saturday they went out and got their food for the day. Fresh bread. Fresh provision from God. Fresh opportunity to trust that morning by morning when they opened their tent flaps and stepped out, it would be there. Manna from heaven. Which gave them a fresh occasion to praise and thank God! Every day was the same. They started each morning receiving something from the Lord, but they did not receive it passively. They had to go out and pick it up, gather their “omer,” their half gallon of manna. And some people might say, so what’s the big deal? Well, on the physical level, they had to wake up and get out of bed every day. They had to get blanket victory and go out to work! We all have to do that. And there are consequences if we don’t. Paul said, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” The idea is that everyone in the wilderness who was physically able to gather manna would be expected to do that. Every day except one.
But there is another application we need to make, and Moses helps us with it in his fifth book. He wrote, “And (God) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” There’s the greater truth of this manna miracle. The Lord was teaching His people through daily provision that we do not live by bread alone. That the sustenance of our soul is not found in bread but in the very words of God. Every word that comes from the mouth of God is for our sustenance, our spiritual health, and that is why we need to feed on it every day. Anyone who eats and drinks enough to sustain the body can live. But only in Jesus can we have life.
Did you know that Jesus quoted from Moses when He was hungry? Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days and had not eaten. That is about the time that your physical body starts to consume itself. He needed bread. The tempter, Satan, was there to offer Jesus a way to get food. He said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The temptations of Jesus were real. Jesus was hungry. Nearly starving. But His answer was that He would trust God, He would look to His Father, He would not take even one day off, not even one moment off, from being nourished in His very soul from His Father’s love and care for Him.
God was training His people in the wilderness, sanctifying them, teaching them to look for His provision every morning, first thing. He was teaching them to look forward to it! It will always be there for you. They didn’t have the Bible like we do. Moses hadn’t started writing the first five books yet. But we now have the Word of God scattered all over our houses and on our phones and tablets and laptops.
I look forward every morning to three things. A cup of coffee. Time in the Word and prayer by myself and then with my wife. And breakfast.
We talk about spiritual “disciplines” as believers, and we should. But here’s something to think about: anything that becomes a habit does not require discipline. I don’t have to discipline myself in the morning to fix a cup of coffee. It is not a discipline to read the Bible and pray.
It is a habit. And a delight!
You may have heard the story about the monk who joined a monastery and took a vow of silence. After the first 10 years his superior called him in and asked, “Do you have anything to say?” The monk replied, “Food bad.” After another 10 years the monk again had opportunity to voice his thoughts. He said, “Bed hard.” Another 10 years went by and again he was called in before his superior. When asked if he had anything to say, he responded, “I quit.” The supervisor said, “It doesn’t surprise me. You’ve done nothing but complain ever since you got here.”
The people of Israel were only 6 weeks into their journey of freedom and they were already grumbling. First about water. Then about food. Let’s be honest. Grumbling is a favorite pastime. Or at least something we tend to do a lot and hardly ever consider, perhaps, that it is not right. Children grumble about having to go to bed, eat their vegetables, or do their chores. Teenage boys grumble because they can’t go to the parties other teens go to, or they can’t sleep until noon on Saturday. We had something we called Saturday chores when our kids were growing up. They started right after breakfast. Teen girls might grumble they can’t date or even court unless you’ve done a background check on the boy first. And probably an ‘in your face’ check on top of that. We adults grumble about our kids because they won’t do what we tell them to. We complain about our boss because he or she is telling us what to do. We complain when we are hungry or thirsty or tired or sick or feel unloved or under-appreciated. We even grumble sometimes about our church. What?!
Let’s be honest. Grumbling is easy to do and hard to die to, but we can, with God’s help.
Maybe we can at least cut way down on grumbling if we learn to acknowledge three things. First, grumbling romanticizes the past. We often talk about the good old days and usually we see them through rose-colored glasses. The Israelites were thinking about the “good old days” in Egypt. They don’t remember when they “groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.” No, a little hunger makes them wish they could go back. People my age may look back to the 70’s and remember the “good old days.” You know… the Vietnam War, race riots, the sexual revolution. The good old days when teens were turning on to drugs and dropping out of school. Cool beans, man, those days were groovy. Even far out. No, I like the front doormat at one of my sons’ house that says, “These are the good old days.”
Grumbling also distorts the present. The people of God had just been delivered through the Red Sea by God’s mighty hand. They had just witnessed a miracle where God turned poisonous water into sweet. That same God, the only God, was with them and had demonstrated time and again that He knows how to take care of His people. God told them He would rain down manna on them from heaven. He would feed them for 40 years. They were not starving, not even close. We should all ask ourselves and our children, “Are we really starving when we say we are at 3pm in the afternoon?”
Finally, grumbling discredits God. This is one of the biggest problems. A complaining spirit points to a soul problem, a lack of gratitude, a self-centered heart that believes you are true north all the time. Everyone else is doing it wrong, even God. You alone know what and how to do what is right, and you grumble against God and everyone else. Moses told the people, “For the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against Him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.” Three times Moses told them that their grumbling was an offense to God. Why? Because grumbling says to God, “I cannot trust you. You are not a good provider. You are not a good protector. You are not paying attention.”
One of the most amazing parts of this story in Exodus 16 is how God responded to two million grumblers. He met their grumbling with grace. He showed them His glory and He gave them the meat and bread they were asking for, in spite of their grumbles. That doesn’t give us license to grumble more that grace may abound! But it is a reminder that God knows our frame, that we are dust. And that He loves us.
“Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea.” The word there is forceful, meaning Moses had to pull them up or to pluck them out. I love that because I would imagine the pillar of cloud started to move and the people did not budge. They had been on a mountaintop like we cannot begin to imagine. It was on this seashore that they had seen the hand of the Lord move in a powerful way and they responded with singing and dancing and worship like they had never done before. Then…Wait, we’re moving?! Why is the cloud moving? Moses! Where are you going and…why would we want to leave this place? We may have experienced something similar when we have a time with the Lord that is powerful and exciting. It happens sometimes on a Sunday morning. We hear His voice through the songs and the Word and we feel His presence and we do not want that moment to end. But it does and it always will until that which is faith becomes sight.
Besides that, God did not bring His people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea to leave them there. The promise He gave to Abraham was for a people and a covenant and a place. The Promised Land. They were not there yet. Neither geographically nor spiritually. Have the people learned to fully trust the Lord, no matter what? No. Have we? But the good news is what the Bible says: “He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Our position is forever in Christ. Our practical and daily reality is also that we are being sanctified. How does God do that with us? The same way He did it with them.
“And they went into the wilderness of Shur.” A wilderness in the Bible could be open plains that provided some grass for flocks but was mostly uninhabited. Or a wilderness could be a desert place, a sterile, sandy area that provided little sustenance for men or beasts. The wilderness of Shur was part of what is now Saudi Arabia. God led them from a mountaintop of sorts to a wilderness. He will lead them to several as they go from the wilderness of Shur to the wilderness of Sin to the wilderness of Sinai. They will face one challenge after another, from thirst and hunger, from enemies in the land, and from disputes with one another that will require Moses or others to settle them. They are being sanctified! God is raising up His children and that happens mostly through trials and tests. In fact, that is why the Lord led them to Marah in the wilderness, for “there he tested them.” They traveled for three days in the wilderness and found no water at all. That is a long time for families and children and livestock to be searching for water.
When they got to where the Lord wanted them to be, Marah, there was water! Two million people went to get a drink and to water their flocks, only to discover why this place was called Marah, which means “bitter.” The water was not drinkable. It was bitter, acrid, brackish. They could not drink it. Not because it was offensive to their palates, like city water is to any of us who have a well! Many people find city water undrinkable. My grandfather used to drive to my house when I was growing up and every week, he would fill up 4 or 5 gallon milk jugs with water, because he lived in the city. City water has helped a whole industry develop with bottled water in the stores and Brita filters in homes. But in Marah, this was not a palate problem or a preference. Otherwise all of those who could stomach the water would have shamed all the rest: “Suck it up, buttercup. There’s no sweet tea here. Just hold your nose and drink.” No. This was deadly water. Why would God lead His people through three days of no water to bring them to a place of poisonous water? To test them. And the irony cannot be missed. This is the Lord of all creation, the one who parted the Red Sea, a sea of water, and His people walked through it on dry ground. The Lord fought for them; they had only to be silent. Now they faced another test.
Will they who experienced God’s mighty power over the Red Sea and over their enemies now trust Him to give them a drink of water?
Will we who have been led from darkness to light, from death to life, from rebellion to adoption trust Him when we go through trials and tests?
He stood only five feet tall in his socks, and his huge head looked too large for his body. His nose was crooked, his eyes small and piercing, his body frail. Physically there was nothing appealing about him. He fell in love with a young woman and proposed to her, but her insensitive response was, “I like the jewel but not the setting.” He never married. But may I just offer a rhyme for those who would elevate beauty or looks over character, which is never a good idea? “She chose the setting and soon was regretting, for instead of a jewel, she married a fool.”
This jewel’s name was Isaac Watts, considered the father of the modern hymn. If so, then Watts had over six hundred children, including “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” and “Joy to the World.” I am so thankful for people like Isaac Watts, Fanny Crosby, Phil Wickham, Shane & Shane, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Chris Tomlin, and many others who have written songs of praise to our God that we can sing with great joy. James Boice wrote that music “is a gift from God that allows us to express our deepest heart responses to God and His truth…(with) our hearts joining with our minds to say, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ to the truth we are embracing.” Yes! The people of God sang a song of salvation that Moses wrote after God’s mighty deliverance of His people through the Red Sea. As the Psalmist said, “The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praise.” We who believe, sing.
God in His infinite wisdom created us in His image and put a song of praise in our hearts. We simply cannot help but sing about God and His Son Jesus. God created singing, and He “rejoices over you with singing,” Zephaniah writes. The Bible says that when God created the earth, “The morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Adam wrote a poem, the first one, and who knows but that he didn’t sing it to Eve when he said to her, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”? The psalm writers wrote a whole book of songs for the people of God to sing, 150 of them. Why? As the greatest psalmist of all, David, wrote, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.”
And we know our songs of praise will be sweetest when we are in His presence, as John witnessed when God allowed him to see heaven: “And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” We glorify God in many ways, but certainly through songs of praise.
Moses broke into song because God had triumphed over His enemies. It is considered an antiphonal song where Moses would have sung a line and the 2 million Israelites would have responded with the next phrase or section. Their praise thundered as they stood on the shore with their arms raised to God. I am sure there were some in that number who couldn’t carry a tune if their life depended on it. But it didn’t…and it doesn’t! We make a joyful noise when we sing to God and He hears it as a sweet melody.
So, why stand there mute while all the congregation around you sings with all their might to our Mighty God?
Go ahead. Sing!
Moses and the people of God were backed up against the Red Sea as Pharaoh and his army charged across the plains toward them. God said, “Tell the people to go forward.” God was about to divide the sea! This was not a natural event any more than the birth of Jesus was a natural event. God did this. God then told Moses that He would harden the hearts of the Egyptians to go in after them. There is no fear of God in their hearts, and God hardened their hearts even more, as He had done with Pharaoh. Why, Lord? “I will get glory over Pharaoh, and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” Remember Moses had said to the people of Israel, “The Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.” God’s judgment fell on Egypt on the same day God’s deliverance came for His people. I believe this points us also to the final judgment, as our Lord will right all wrongs, settle all accounts, and execute perfect and complete judgment on His enemies. All while God welcomes His people into the new heavens and earth.
When Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, God brought a strong east wind that blew all night, dividing the water into two halves and drying out the ground so that 2 million people and all their belongings and animals could walk across. Just imagine this mighty wonder of God. Think of what that looked like. It was the largest and most magnificent aquarium the world has ever seen. Amazing sea creatures on the right and left, but not behind glass!
The people of God started walking to the other side on dry ground, but they still had a problem. The Egyptians pursued them into the sea, also on dry ground. As they raced toward Israel, I would imagine moms and dads were having to calm their children and themselves as they heard the chariots rumbling. It will be ok. Moses told us God would fight for us. And he will! If he opened this sea for us to walk through, He is not going to let Pharaoh and his army hurt us! They walked on dry ground even as they stood in faith on the solid rock of almighty God. Isaiah wrote of God’s miracle at the Red Sea, “Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?” He did. And God says to us, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Will we throw our whole weight onto that bedrock of God’s promise? We can! Faith is ours, even in the midst of the sea.
David would write later, “Some trust in chariots.” And boy did Pharaoh and his men trust in chariots. And in horses. This was perhaps the most powerful army in the world, and they knew it. They were feeling good as they raced across the floor of the Red Sea toward the people of Israel. And then God reached down and messed with their chariots. Some say the wheels fell off, others say they got so clogged up they wouldn’t roll but had to be dragged like sleds by the horses. David may have been inspired to think about that when he wrote, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They (chariots and horses) collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.”
I believe when the wheels came off was when the soldiers under Pharaoh’s command started to read the handwriting on the walls of water on either side of them, so to speak. It said something like, “You have been tried and found wanting.” Ok, maybe not. But they were thrown into a panic. They said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them.” The enemies of God gave testimony to His power in their final moments, but without repentance. They believed in God, but it was not saving faith, any more than the devil’s belief in God will save him.
The army of Pharaoh, and certainly Pharaoh himself, did not repent. They fled in fear from God’s power and protection of His people, but they did not humble themselves before Him. They were all swallowed up by the sea and their bodies ended up on the shore. The Bible says, “not one of them remained.” The people of God continued their journey to the other side of the sea and the greatest miracle of deliverance in the Old Testament was complete.
God delivers His people. Then and now and forever.
Sometimes the Lord opens a door so wide that it shocks you as you stumble through it into a place that is clearly His will. Especially when the door opens in a place where you know there is opposition to you or to your message. Paul said the same of his time in Ephesus, a godless city of affluence, worldly lusts, and idolatry. He wrote to the church in Corinth, “I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” (1 Cor. 16:8-9)
On Thursday, May 9, I finished my college classes for the spring. On the occasion when we have time to do it, I love to have the students do an impromptu speech on the last day. They draw two topics out of an envelope, choose one, and then they have two minutes in the hallway outside the class to prepare a 1-minute speech. And I sweeten the pot for them a little by telling them at the end of the round, I will go to the hallway and they can decide as a class what my topic will be. “Anything you want,” I say to them, “but keep it clean.” They are to write it on the board and call me in to speak for at least a minute without notes and without any preparation. I love these days. Especially when they choose a topic like my 8am class this spring. I walked in and saw they had written, “Roe v. Wade” on the board. They were grinning at me like, “Hey, Prof, we know you are a Christian and a pastor, so what are you going to do with this one?” I felt like Brer Rabbit in the briar patch. I smiled and started with this, “The most famous quote from the Declaration of Independence, one of our founding documents, is this: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Then I said that there are two dark and ugly stains on America’s history, the first being slavery. The Three-Fifths Compromise in the US Constitution stated that only three out of five slaves could be counted for the purpose of taxation and representation. That fostered among many a belief that slaves were not fully human and were therefore disposable. In fact, slave owners could kill their slaves and were very rarely punished for doing so. They could sell a husband to another slave owner and keep the man’s wife. They could sell all of the children that belonged to a slave couple or split them up and sell them. I asked the class, “How could we have ever believed such an atrocity, that it is ok, even good, to own another human being? How could we commit such a heinous crime against humanity? That is the way we think about slavery now, isn’t it? In the same way, I pray for the day that America’s second dark stain will be looked at the same way. I pray the day will come, and it may not be in my lifetime, when we look back at the practice of abortion and say, “How could we have ever believed that it is perfectly acceptable to kill an unborn child? How could we have ever said, “It is a woman’s right to choose?” God alone has the choice to give or to take away.
When I finished, I saw a student in the class who comes to Antioch grinning at me. He told me later that he now uses that same argument with his friends who believe in abortion.
I give all glory to God that He gave me the opportunity He did and that He had prepared me to speak to the topic. He did it. Not me.
There is a wide open door for effective ministry given to us as followers of Christ. Every one of us. Not just to speak on the subject of the sanctity of life, which God surely cares about. But to speak to the issue of eternal life, which is offered only because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
We cannot be silent, saints!
John heard a loud voice from heaven, the place that cannot be shaken, and the voice said, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” The kingdom of God has come, the authority of Christ is preeminent, Satan is defeated! But not only that, we are partakers in that victory. How? We have conquered him by three things. First, by the blood of the lamb. The devil is constantly accusing us. Jesus ever lives to intercede for his own, the devil lives to accuse us. He accuses us before God. He accuses us before our own conscience, and he accuses us in every way he can. But listen to me, beloved. We are covered by the blood of the lamb. If the death angel had no authority to touch the people of Israel whose doorposts were marked by the blood of a lamb, how much more are we covered, protected, and made conquerors by the precious blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God! Imagine two families in the same house on the evening of the first Passover. These families are sharing a lamb, and one of the fathers is really nervous and tells his friend of his fear. The other says, “We put the blood of the lamb on the door, right?” He responds, “Right, but I am still worried, with everything that’s been going on from the river of blood to the flies and boils. Now God is going to kill the firstborn. What if we didn’t do something we were supposed to do?” The other says, “What are you talking about? We did everything. We are packed and ready to go. The blood is on the doorposts and the lintel. I am telling you we are going to be fine. God will take care of us.” He responds, “Well, I hope so. But I have only one son, and you have two. I don’t know what I would do if I lost my son.” That night the death angel came through. Which one of those men lost their firstborn? Neither. Because the promise was not only that the one whose faith was the most settled and the one who had the greatest peace would be spared. No. The blood on the doorpost settled the matter. In the same way, the blood of the Lamb of God silenced the accuser of the brethren. We have conquered by the blood of the Lamb. Eliza Jane Hewitt’s wonderful hymn, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place” said it beautifully: “I have no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.”
Second, we have conquered by the word of our testimony. How is the enemy defeated? By the word of our testimony, by the gospel. How does the kingdom of God advance until Jesus returns? By the word of our testimony, by the Gospel, by the power of His word. And we who have the word by grace and through faith are given the greatest privilege in all the world: to tell others about the good news of great joy. We are granted the privilege to testify as witnesses who have seen Jesus change our lives, forgive our sins, adopt us into His family and give us the assurance of eternal life. In some places is against the law to do that and sharing the gospel may lead to death. That’s the third way we are conquerors: our willingness to die for His sake. “For they loved not their lives even unto death.” We are more than conquerors through him who loved us, Paul wrote. Dying for Jesus is not the worst thing that can happen to a believer. To die is gain!
What do we know this Christmas, and every Christmas until Jesus returns? The greatest gift? We have peace because of the blood of the Lamb. We have an eternal home because of the blood of the Lamb. We have fellowship with one another because of the blood of the Lamb. We have “exceedingly great joy” because of the blood of the Lamb. We have nothing to fear because of the blood of the Lamb.
We have every reason to say, “Merry Christmas!” It is all because of the blood of the Lamb.
Thank you, Jesus, for your indescribable gift!
We used to sleep in the same bed together, my two brothers and me, on Christmas Eve. That alone was a Christmas miracle, given the fact that the other 364 days of the year would find us plotting ways to hurt one another. I remember BB gun fights, where we were running around the woods, shooting at each other. Or we would fight from room to room in the house with spit wads, using thick rubber bands to wing them on their way. To up the ante, we decided one day to shove straight pins through the spit wads. Yep, three little angels, that’s what we were. But on Christmas Eve, we crawled into bed together and tried to go to sleep, keeping one ear tuned for reindeer hooves on the roof, and one foot ready to launch any brother who got too close.
One of my favorite memories was the Christmas Eve we heard the front door open, and the distinct sound of something heavy being rolled across the threshold. Grandpa never used a wheelchair so we knew it wasn’t him coming for a midnight visit. And we had no idea why Santa would be bringing gifts through the front door, when we had a perfectly good fireplace in the den. So we just lay there in bed, whispering about what it could possibly be, and daring each other to sneak downstairs to steal a glance. Nobody wanted to risk being seen by Santa, or worse by Dad, so we eventually drifted off to sleep.
One of my favorite memories of Christmas Day was the next morning when three sleepy-eyed little Fox boys found a brand new yellow mini-bike parked under the tree. We lived on two acres and had a creek behind and beside us, and empty lots and woods all around, so we could not wait to jump on the bike and start blazing trails. But first, Dad needed to give us a lesson on how not to wreck a mini-bike. This is one of my favorite memories, too, as Dad straddled that kid-sized bike with his 6’3” frame, and proceeded to explain to us young boys how dangerous a mini-bike could be. He had barely gotten the words out of his mouth about how sensitive throttles are, when the bike shot off like a rocket and threw Dad into the air where gravity began to work immediately and brought him quite unceremoniously back to the earth. The bike and Dad were perfectly unharmed, but after a few minutes my sides were killing me. Even mom got a chuckle out of that one.
Christmas is a season of giving, and the yellow mini-bike has to go down in the Fox history book as one of the best gifts we ever received. We also got exactly one of them, so we boys had to learn how to share. I have no idea how we worked that out without BB guns or bloodshed. I just remember many happy hours riding that mini-bike, and I suppose both my older and younger brother did as well.
There may not be a mini-bike under your tree this Christmas, or even a reindeer on your roof. But that’s OK, because the best gift cannot be bought in a catalog or brought down a chimney. The best gift, the only one that matters, was laid in a feeding trough in Bethlehem many years ago. Here’s what the angel who brought the news to Joseph said about the gift:
“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Pharaoh, with a heart hardened by God, called all his army and every chariot in Egypt together and took off after Israel. They caught up with God’s people, camped out and backed up against the Red Sea, just as God had led them!
The people of Israel heard horses and chariots and men’s footsteps behind them and you get the picture of 2 million people turning away from the Pillar of Cloud to watch the enemy coming from behind. They knew their weapons of warfare were no match for the army headed their way. That is why Moses tells us “they feared greatly.” They cried out to the Lord, but you get the idea that it was just a reflex, “Help us, God!” with no faith behind it. Because then they turned on Moses. I think this illustrates four stages we can go through when we take our eyes off the Lord and put them on men, even godly men like Moses. First, they attacked Moses with irony, even sarcasm: “Did you bring us out here to die because there weren’t places in Egypt we could be buried?” Hey, they were building graves as slaves. Pyramids were graves. There were graves everywhere; Egypt was “Graves ‘r US.” Want a grave? You are probably standing next to one.
Second, they accused Moses: “What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?” This is angry. Bitter. But wait: WHO brought them out? It wasn’t Moses. God brought them out to see His glory. He didn’t bring them out for their comfort or for an easy life or just to be ‘free.’ To see God’s glory and to live for it would require everything from them. Third they justified themselves: “Didn’t we tell you to leave us alone and let us just live and die as slaves?” Finally, they collapsed into self-pity: “We would have been better off serving as slaves than dying in the wilderness.” They are not even a week out of Egypt and have already flipped the script in their minds on the horrors of slavery.
Attack. Accuse. Justify. Wallow in pity. It’s an ugly pattern.
Moses showed great restraint here, didn’t he? And great faith. He was standing clearly on the promise God had given him in verse 4, that Pharaoh would pursue and that God would be victorious. I don’t think Moses had any idea how God would do what He promised. But when our only hope is God, it is easier to go to Him and to trust in Him. That is why Moses could say these powerful, hope-filled, soul-energizing words to Israel as God says them to His people today at Antioch. First Moses says, “Fear not.” How often does God tell His people, “Do not be afraid”? It was the first thing the angels said to the shepherds on that glorious night. The Puritans used to say, “Fear God and you have nothing else to fear.” Second, Moses says, “Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord.” Fear tells us to run and hide. Impatience tells us to do something, even if it’s wrong. Presumption tells us to jump into the sea and start swimming. God says just stand there and keep your eyes open. Watch for Me. Expect Me. There’s no need to run or fight or defend or anything else. Just watch. See the salvation of the Lord that He will work for you today. And the Egyptians you see today you will never see again. Third, Moses says, “The Lord will fight for you, and you only have to be silent.” God will do it all. You will contribute nothing to it because nothing is needed but God.
Do you see what God is teaching His people there beside the sea with the enemy approaching? He has taught them about redemption, but here He is teaching them about salvation. They were going to see what God looks like when He reaches down and saves His people from destruction. They were expecting nothing but death. God was showing them that in the darkest hour, He is and always will be triumphant. There is no greater demonstration of this collision of God and the forces of darkness in the Bible. Except one.
None of us were backed up against the Red Sea, so we can only imagine it as we read this account. But every single one of us was backed up against the pit of hell when Jesus took our sins upon Himself on the cross and conquered sin and death and hell and the grave on our behalf. Can we see that and hold on to that and put away our fears every time they start to whisper to us?
“The Lord will fight for you! You only have to be silent.”