Red Sea

Auto-generated from the audio — may contain errors.

0:00 We're moving through the story of Scripture and moving quickly. We're reading that book, The Story Together. We're on chapter 5. It's either 4 or 5. We've gotten the Israelites to Mount Sinai. So last week, God was reintroducing Himself to Israel. He starts first with Moses. And Moses asks God his name.

0:30 God says, I'm the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Moses says, great, but who are you? How are we to know the type of God you are? You get the sense that in the ancient near east, where Moses is moving around with the Midianites and the Egyptians and the different people groups, that by now, they're so far removed from the garden. They are so far descended from Noah that there is a general agnosticism or ignorance

1:05 that's perpetuated about the God of creation and life. Who that God is? Such that they know that they're now, they have a memory hundreds of years after Jacob has died. They have a memory that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had a God. But they don't know who the God is anymore. And so Moses says, give me your name. And God gives Moses at the burning bush that incredible name that we call.

1:36 I think I told you last week, the Tetra Grammaton, these four letters that make Yahweh, that mean I am who I am or I am who I was or I will be who I will be. He's completely self-referential and he says, I am defined by nobody but myself but my actions. So this is why I like to call God the God of creation and life. The God of who brought things into existence and holds them together.

2:08 How do we know who God is? We know who God is by what God does. Then he proceeds to demonstrate his authority over all the other gods of Egypt with those ten signs. And the crazy spiritual reality that he defeats the God of fertility that's represented by a frog, by manifesting all these frogs physically, more frogs than they can deal with. And then by wiping out all the frogs, physically, shoveling dead frogs out of the way.

2:38 And demonstrating that there is a spiritual and a physical reality that go together which the God Yahweh is in charge of, all the things. And so we start to see part of who we learn about who God is as he's reintroducing himself is that God is separate, other, holy, spiritual and rooted, physical, practical. He's not merely spiritual and esoteric. He's also practical and pragmatic. And so that the salvation that he offers Israel is not only land offering and blessing for

3:15 all eternity but also deliverance from your enslavers. Walk across the Red Sea and come with me into what's next. And so they do and they go to Mount Sinai where Moses had that encounter where he learned the name of God where he saw the burning bush. And they go there and the cloud of God's presence comes down, shakes the mountain. It's like a fiery cloud.

3:46 And God speaks to Moses. He's like, tell the Israelites. I'm going to take care of them. The Israelites see that situation and they're like afraid. They're like, how about this Moses? How about you talk to God on our behalf? We'll wait here. You go up into the fiery cloud that's shaking the mountain and just tell us what he said. Right? So, fair, Moses goes up. And then, of course, when he goes up, they get impatient. He's up there for 40 days and 40 nights, right?

4:19 And he gets impatient. One of the things that I like about the scriptures and going through it this way is like, this is now the second time Moses has been to Mount Sinai at least. And, you know, it's a mountain. So, it's still there. I love that. You can Google Mount Sinai and find pictures of it.

4:50 You can go to Wikipedia and give them your $2.75 and then read about the history of Mount Sinai. They're pretty sure it's still there, the same mountain. I was reading about Mount Sinai. What Wikipedia told me is pretty credible. I clicked on their resources just to see. I liked them. You know, these places are kind of dubious sometimes.

5:22 You don't know how reliable are they. But this one is interesting because Helena, Constantine's mother in the 330's ish, visited this place. And already there was a group of kind of Christian devotees who had like designated this as the mountain. And this is my favorite. You guys will smirk, but I love it. They also think they know the bush that God inhabited.

6:01 I mean in 300's, they already told Helena, this is the one. It's towards the bottom because he wasn't up high on the mountain. And so they, Helena was like, this is the spot man. So they built a little chapel at the base of Mount Sinai. Come on. Then they developed like a little monastic community. This is in the 300's. So this is like while they're deciding on the New Testament, while they're meeting in the Council of Nicaea in Rome,

6:34 they're building a chapel at the base of Mount Sinai and building a monastic community around it. Then they're building a library of books because there's a monastic community, so they're making copies of things. So actually the library at the chapel at Sinai, it's actually called St. Catherine because of a saint situation, which is miraculous if you read the story. But it's like arguably the second most important library in the world for a very long time until the English wanted

7:16 an English Bible, till King James wanted an English Bible. The Codex Sinaiticus was at the library at Mount Sinai. Anything? It's the oldest complete Greek New Testament in the world housed there at Mount Sinai. You could go in the 600's then Muhammad came by and saw the place, told all his looters and raiders, protect this place, so then there's a little mosque there as well at Mount Sinai.

7:50 I'm just trying to say like, this thing happened, we have to reckon with it. It's old and it occurred, so we've got to just kind of figure out what does that mean for us? People have been trying to figure out God came down in a cloud that had fire and that shook a mountain. He came down and inhabited a bush that burned and wasn't consumed and revealed his name to a group of people.

8:25 And then in keeping with that name, he demonstrated his authority and power over the strongest military power of the day and dramatically removed enslaved people who had been enslaved for hundreds of years in an oppressive regime, took them out and took them to the mountain and people have been reckoning with that for 1500, 1600, 1700 years. What does it mean that there is a thing that exists that says he is the God of what is and preserved a group of people?

8:59 And so I do think one day it would be cool to go to the library at the monastery at St. Catherine's. And look at, they don't have the whole Codex Soniticus anymore, but they have some of it. Most of it has made its way. It's what King James based the King James Bible off of was the Codex Soniticus. They translated it from Greek into English in the King James language. But before all that happened, Moses goes up on the mountain and while he's there for the 40 days and 40 nights,

9:34 the Israelites get impatient and they're like, we had this really amazing victory and we just want to worship God. Let's just make a God and get the worshipping part started. And so that's what they do. Well, Moses is up talking to God on the mountain Sinai where hundreds of years later Helena would visit. Before that, Moses is up there talking to God and the Israelites are making the golden calf and worshipping. And it's just if you think about like, you know, if you leave your house and you leave the dog out,

10:20 and you're somewhere doing something very appropriate and timely and important, and your dog is terrorizing your house and you don't even know. Imagine Moses in conversation with Yahweh getting an outline of what life as his people would look like, and behind his back the folks are making a golden calf and worshipping as they worship other people.

10:50 I don't know what that would feel like. It would be pretty awkward. So, I'm going to get the story in Exodus 32 if you want to look there with me. Wait, yes, 32. Starting at verse 7. So God's talking to Moses. And the Lord said to Moses, go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt. He calls them your people. Did you catch it?

11:22 Hey Moses, go back down there. You know those jokers she brought with you, right? They're not God's people. My people, the Israelites, when he's mad at them, they're Moses's people. And the Lord said to Moses, go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it.

11:56 And said, there are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I've seen these people and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation out of you. Did you catch it? God has just brought them through the Red Sea.

12:27 He's about to give them the ten words that describe what their life will look like and then march them into the land that he promised Abraham hundreds of years before. Now it's all settled with walled cities and working vineyards. Now, if someone else has prepared it, there's herds and flocks, and they can just walk into the houses that are already built. They don't have to do it themselves and take over them. And God's about to give it to them. And while he's outlining this, they're creating a different God and worshiping in a different way.

13:00 And so God to Moses is like, dude, these jokers that you brought with you are never going to get it. I'm going to keep giving them stuff, and they're going to persist in their willful fatal notion that they can do better than I can give them, that they shouldn't wait on me, that I don't have their best interests at heart, that somehow I'm holding out on them, that their life would be better if they just do it their way rather than wait for mine.

13:34 I'm just going to start over with you, Moses. I'll kill them all. Just wait here. I'll be back. And we'll start over with you, which of course he's done before, right? He did with Noah. And it's like, I'll do this with you, Moses. Interesting offer, actually. It's where you got to remember Moses' personality. Moses has a lot of responsibility. He speaks to God as a man speaks to another man face to face, but it doesn't seem like he ever really wants it.

14:06 Remember, at the burning bush, we haven't heard the voice of God for hundreds of years, and God comes physically, observably to Moses, a shepherd, an exile, and it's like, why don't you go back and lead my people? And Moses is like, I'd really rather not. I'd rather stay out here with Zapura in Midian and shepherd the flocks. And God's like, what? No, man, you're the guy. And Moses is like, I really don't think I am.

14:37 I'm having trouble talking. I'd rather not. He's like, dude, I'm giving you Aaron. Go, man. And so now Moses gets this offer. I'll wipe them all out and start over with you. Interesting offer, really? If you're that kind of person, look at what Moses is response to the offer. But this is verse 14, I think.

15:12 What's that? 11. Sure. But Moses implored the Lord, his God, and said, Oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people? Moses puts them back, right? God says, why are your people that are stiff and act? God says, or Moses says, remember they're your people, not mine. Right? Oh Lord, why does your wrath burn against your people,

15:45 whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent, he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? So he's like, did you catch it? He's like, hey, if you wipe them out, all the Egyptians will be like, their God just took them out there to kill them. Some God, he is. Never mind. We don't want him.

16:16 We'll stay with Pharaoh and the Nile. Moses is like, why would you bring them out here to kill them? You're going to get the wrong reputation. You're not going to be understood as the God that you want to be. And then this is the most important part here. Let's see. Consume them and wipe them from the face of the earth. Moses says, turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self

16:52 and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and on all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring and they shall inherit forevermore forever. And then the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken, bringing on his people. That like phrase, turn. I remember I've talked about the Hebrew professor I had harping on certain words. This Hebrew word, I think it's said, nakam, is in the command form here from Moses.

17:29 So Moses, up in the fiery cloud, speaking to the observable presence of the God who is and the God who was and the God who will be, tells the God what to do. Hey God, change your mind. Turn around, relent. And perhaps the most amazing thing is it says that God did relent.

17:59 He did turn around. He did change his mind. And this I've thought about a lot. I've thought about this a lot. If Moses weren't there, if it were somebody else, if it were like Jacob who's always scheming to get the best for himself and Jacob were there and God says, I'm going to wipe them all out and start over with you. And Jacob is like, cool, I'll just stay over here, let me know when you're done.

18:29 Does God go and take care of it? What I'm saying is like, is God's actions in the world dependent on the command of Moses, the request of Moses, the motivations, the heart, the disposition of Moses? Does God do what he does or does God not do what he doesn't do, what he was going to do because Moses asked him not to do it.

19:02 God says, I'm going to wipe out these people. Moses says, how about you don't? And then the story says, God says, okay, I won't. This is where it's important. Remember, we don't know the mind of God. It doesn't tell us. God is what he does. The way the story goes, Moses asks God not to do it. Actually, Moses tells God not to do it and God says, okay, I won't.

19:37 So the thing I have taken from this, first of all, this story gets play. Anybody heard the story before God telling Moses what to do? Yeah, okay. So people talk about this because it's a big moment. It's like the only place in the story of Scripture where somebody tells God what to do. And I love it. It's compelling. What I take from it is that we're in real relationship with the God. But what I thought about this time is how unique this interchange with between Moses and God is in the story of Scripture.

20:11 It's the only time in the story of Scripture where somebody tells God what to do. Even Jesus doesn't tell God the Father what to do. Jesus says, I do only what God the Father tells me to do. And if you think about Moses' life, like go back and think about it, Moses' life. The mothers are supposed to kill all the boys that are born and she saves Moses. Why? God never told her to. Nobody heard from God. Pharaoh's daughter picks Moses up out of the Nile.

20:43 Why? Somebody told her to. She just did. Either God's acting in the backgrounds of the scenes or Moses is just lucky. And then Moses figures out he's an Israelite, kills the slave. We don't hear from God this whole time. 40 years he grows up in Egypt. We don't hear from him. 40 years he lives in Midian. Nobody hears from God. As a matter of fact, we go all the way back. 200 years of slavery. Nobody heard from God. From the time Joseph lived until they were enslaved 200 years, nobody heard from God.

21:17 Joseph's life. We talked about last time. Nobody heard from God in Joseph's life. The last we have to go is Jacob wrestling with Esau. So now the last we encountered God before the burning bush is hundreds of years. Older than our country. Right? Since the voice of God has been heard. And what's interesting to me is how the choices in ignorance, in misguided faith, people still

21:54 choose hope. That God might be out there and he might be good. Moses has seen, he knows by this point, God's reputation. And so he's not acting on ignorance, but he is risking his life telling the God who is what to do. And he does it based on what? Not judgment.

22:24 Not wrath. But mercy. Hey God, aren't you the merciful God? Aren't you developing a reputation as what? As a Savior. As a deliverer. As a promise keeper.

22:57 We have the benefit of hindsight and the story. So we get to see the conversation that Moses had with God. What I'm trying to remind you is this is a centuries building conversation that Moses has with God. Extremely specific, special and unique. It's no wonder. Hundreds of years later, the Empress of Rome comes and it's like, build a chapel here.

23:30 It's no wonder a community of people developed and said, we think this might be the bush. Build a chapel around it. Save it. Right? It's no wonder they built up all the books and lived there. Because it is not common if you have not had a man. Not had a mountain shaking moment with Yahweh.

24:01 You're in good company. It's cool. We learn from the story of Scripture, the character of God. It is a character, it is a God, a divinity, who saves, rescues, delivers. He will save, rescue and deliver you. Probably without shaking a mountain. It doesn't preclude your choices for hope.

24:35 Your capacity to bet on his mercy. Your ability to wait in patience for his deliverance. You can. Most of us have. The evidence of who he is is here. For us, that is enough. Some of us, maybe we'll go visit Sinai. I'll go with you. If you're booking a trip, let me know. Let's pray. Hey Lord, thank you for the story of Scripture that we can learn from your actions, who you are.

25:10 Remind us of the ways that you save us today. That we could act in hope. Bet on your mercy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.