Scripture: Exodus 13:17-22
I want to make three points: Number One: God’s detours are for our good. Number Two: God’s promises sustain us on the journey. Number Three: God’s presence is our greatest joy.
But first, Number One… God’s detours are for our good.
It seems like every time I go on vacation, as I did last month, the trip there—which is usually to the beach—is traffic-free. It’s the journey home that’s the problem. Seems like there’s always a traffic jam on the interstate somewhere… on the way home. So don’t we love it when the GPS app on our phones anticipates the traffic—long before we get stuck in it—and says, “Would you like to save 22 minutes by taking this detour around the traffic by exiting here?” And I’m like, “Yes, I would like that, thank you very much.” Tap.
The point of these detours, of course, is to save time.
How would we feel about detours that add time to our journey?
Because that is what God does in verses 17 and 18. He gives Israel a detour that adds time. He has just liberated Israel from slavery in Egypt, and they are on their way to the Promised Land. But instead of sending them the most direct route—along the Mediterranean Sea—he sends them “the long way around.”
We the readers are given some inside information: we’re told why God chooses not to send his people the easier, shorter route: Verse 17, so the people won’t “change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.”
Oh… the ever-present temptation to want to go back to Egypt… They’re going face that temptation again and again, as we’ll see later in this sermon series…
But God doesn’t want them to face that temptation just yet. He knows his people aren’t ready: they would lose heart, become discouraged, give up… before they’d even started.
So by sending them the “long way around,” and thereby avoiding the Philistine army—among other hardships—God is saving his people from future trouble that they wouldn’t be able to handle or even survive!
Which means… the long way around is the best way around!
Should the Israelites therefore be disappointed with God that they’re taking the long way instead of the short way?
No. They should instead praise God! Because the “long way around” means that God is taking care of them!
In Luke chapter 11, Jesus says something about prayer that relates to feeling “disappointed” with God. He says, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”[1]
In other words, our Father is never giving his children something worse than what they ask for… Never ever ever! What he gives us may be harder… more painful… or less pleasant than what we asked for—but it will never be worse for us in light of God’s good purposes for our lives! Even sinful human fathers know how to give their children good gifts. How much more can we trust our infinitely loving heavenly Father!
Think of how this relates to our church right now…
I prayed as early as last September, when I first got here, that our church would somehow not have to spend any time in between the end of our lease on Holland Road and the opening of our permanent church home on Godfrey. In other words, I prayed that the church would be built really quickly! God works miracles!
When that didn’t happen, I prayed that the owner of the Holland Road building would extend our lease month-to-month until we were ready to move in to our new home. When that didn’t happen, I prayed that we would at least rent a place to call our own and be able to worship on Sunday morning, on our own schedule, in a space that we controlled…
Well… that didn’t happen, either… which is why we’re here.
Maybe you prayed the same thing…
If so, should we feel disappointed with God?
Did our Father give us a serpent instead of a fish? Or a scorpion instead of an egg?
Is he giving us something worse than what we were all praying for?
By no means!
There are two places in Paul’s letters that shed light on what I’m saying…
2 Corinthians chapter 1: Paul tells the church that “the afflictions [he and his fellow missionaries] experienced in Asia” felt like a death sentence, and they “despaired of life itself.” Sounds really bad… I’m sure Paul prayed for a differentoutcome. So why did it happen? He tells us: “It was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”[2]
Through this painful experience, in other words, God strengthened their faith.
2 Corinthians 12: Paul has a painful “thorn” in his flesh—whatever that represents, no one knows for sure. He prayed repeatedly that the Lord would remove it. The Lord said no. Why? “To keep me from becoming conceited,” Paul said—to keep him humble.
So in these two cases Paul found out God’s reasons for giving Paul an unwelcome detour…
But even when we don’t know God’s reasons, our job is to trust that God knows what he’s doing… and not doubt…
Because think about it: every time we feel disappointment in our lives when our Father doesn’t give us the outcome we pray for—and I’m preaching to myself here—it’s often because we’re doubting that God really loves us, or has our best interests in mind, or knows how to run the universe properly.
And in those moments we’re supposed to trust that our Father is not giving us a serpent instead of a fish, or a scorpion instead of an egg.
Indeed, as with Paul’s experience, there are gracious gifts that our Father can only give his children through life’s unwelcome detours… when life doesn’t go according to our plan… when we receive something other than what we pray for… even when circumstances of life hurt us!
By the way, I’m not comparing this “detour through the wilderness” that our church is experiencing with Paul’s experience of intense suffering—I promise. I’m only saying that what’s true for Paul is true for us. While there are surely easier ways to do church than what Five Forks is having to do right now, we can trust that God has got some good and necessary things for us to learn and experience here in our particular wilderness! We can trust that God is using it to help us grow in faith and love. We can trust that God is using this time to prepare us!
And that’s Point Number One… God’s Detours Are For Our Good…
Number Two… God’s Promises Sustain Us on Our Journey…
Let’s look at verse 19… “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.’”
Why is Moses carrying Joseph’s bones?
Back in Genesis 50, Joseph is nearing the end of his life. You’ll recall that, as Pharaoh’s prime minister, Joseph had saved countless lives during a devastating seven-year famine. And in verse 25, he says, “You shall carry up my bones from here.”
In other words, Joseph wants his remains buried in the Promised Land—but not immediately after he dies.
I wonder why? Joseph, after all, was Pharaoh’s most trusted advisor. If he’d simply asked to be buried in the Promised Land, Pharaoh almost certainly would have agreed. He probably would have sent an elaborate funeral procession to accompany Joseph’s body!
After all, that’s exactly what Pharaoh had done for Joseph’s father Jacob died in Egypt.
So if Joseph merely wanted to be buried in the Promised Land, he could have arranged that himself.
But, see… Joseph was speaking as a prophet… And he wanted to communicate something to the Israelites about their God and his faithfulness. Despite how bleak Israel’s experience in Egypt would one day become, Joseph was saying… God will surely lead his people home.
And Joseph’s bones would be a sign that God was going to keep that promise!
And here in today’s scripture—centuries later—we see God keeping that promise by having Moses carry those bones.
Notice, as always… like it or not… God is never in a hurry!
So what about us?
We don’t have Joseph’s bones to carry through the wilderness. We have something much, much better: we have a book—the very book whose words were breathed out by the Spirit of Jesus Christ himself—filled with the promises of Almighty God! Promises that are every bit as trustworthy today as they were when God made them!
And in that book we read the story of Joseph himself.
Including what Joseph told his brothers near the end of his life—the very brothers who had plotted to kill him, sold him into slavery, and caused him thirteen years of suffering and hardship!
Joseph told them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
Joseph’s brothers did their worst; they did genuine evil against Joseph. But that did not prevent God from taking even their evil and transforming it into something really good—which, in Joseph’s case, meant saving countless lives.
Yet the good that God accomplished through Joseph pales in comparison to what he’s done through Jesus… on the cross… God took the worst evil ever perpetrated—the murder of his Son Jesus—and transformed it into the greatest good the world has known…
And because of that cross, brothers and sisters, listen to what God now promises you—if you belong to Christ through faith!
He promises there is now no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ Jesus.[3] Your sins—past, present, and future—have now been completely forgiven.[4]
He promises that you’ve been adopted into his family. You are God’s precious and highly favored sons and daughters.[5]
He promises that he is now for you—and if God is for you, who can be against you?[6]
He promises that nothing—neither death, nor life, not angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation—will ever separate you from his love in Christ Jesus![7]
And he promises that he’s working all things together for your good![8]
All things!
Even the things you didn’t want to happen. Even the disappointments… even the unwelcome detours… even the suffering… even the things that make absolutely no sense to you right now…
And God promises that the good work he began in you, he will bring to completion at the day of Jesus Christ![9]
Brothers and sisters, these are the promises of God! And they’re true whether we’re worshiping in a beautiful new building we call our own, or in a borrowed sanctuary in the middle of the afternoon, or even in a tent in the middle of the wilderness.
So we have something better than bones; we have a book… whose promises will sustain us on our journey!
And that’s Point Number Two… God’s Promises Sustain Us on Our Journey…
Point Number Three… God’s Presence Is Our Greatest Joy…
Notice verse 21: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” And verse 22 tells us that this visual manifestation of God’s presence never departed from Israel as long as they were in the wilderness.
Of course we Christians don’t have a pillar of cloud and fire leading us and reminding us that God is with us. We have something better: we have God himself—Jesus Christ himself—living within us and working through us—as individuals and as the church.
And because of the Spirit’s presence in us and among us, we don’t simply know about God the Father, and his Son Jesus… We actually know God the Father and his Son… God created us to have a personal relationship with him through faith in Christ.
And I’ve told you before how, on Saturday, February 18, 1984—my 14th birthday—Jesus Christ got hold of me… on my birthday… and gave me new birth. He came into my life in a powerful way, I was filled with his Spirit, and I knew that I met Jesus. Your mileage as a Christian may vary. Most people don’t have these kinds of dramatic conversion experiences. But I did!
And I lived happily ever after… Right?
No…
Some time during my college years, my faith got off track.
I was still a believer… But other things in my life began competing for the loyalty and allegiance that I owed to Christ alone. Including my career ambitions…
For instance, when I graduated from college my first time around, in the early-’90s, I went to work in large system sales for AT&T. This was back when working at AT&T meant lifetime employment… or so we all thought… retirement at 65 with a gold watch… a generous pension. I know those days are long gone, but that was still the hope and expectation back then! Some of you remember!
Anyway, my mentor at AT&T was an experienced account executive named Alec, who achieved financial success at a level I only dreamed about.
But Alec told me on more than one occasion, “I’m not in this for the money,” he said. “I really, really want recognition. That’s my ‘love language,’” he said.
I was tempted to say, “Then how about signing your commission checks over to me, Alec? Because I’m in it for the money! That’s my ‘love language’! But if you want recognition while you do it, I’ll happily give you a round of applause.”
But who was I kidding? Now that I’m only a few years older today than Alec was back then… I completely understand his point: At my sinful worst, I, too, crave “recognition.” I crave glory—not God’s glory but my own!
I always wanted so badly to “make a name for myself.”
Imagine how I felt years later, when I announced that I was quitting my engineering career and going into pastoral ministry. My nemesis at the office—Wayne was his name… Wayne came over to my cubicle and laughed and laughed. Like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard!
“Who does that?” he said. “I’ve never known anyone who’s done that!”
Truthfully, I felt a little ashamed… Like maybe Wayne is right!
Not anymore!
Because for the last 15 years or so, I re-learned something that I knew back when I was 14, but I forgot somewhere along the way… and re-learning this lesson has made all the difference in my life.
And if y’all don’t know this yet, please, please believe me when I say this… because I know this from the bottom of my heart:
Lasting happiness isn’t found in recognition or popularity or fame. It isn’t found in wealth and worldly success… It isn’t found in physical fitness and beauty… It isn’t found in romantic relationships…. It isn’t found in our spouses or in our children—or even, God willing, future grandchildren—however amazing these gifts may be. It isn’t found in Death Valley on Saturday afternoons in the fall… It isn’t found in the Willy B in Columbia… It certainly isn’t found these days in Bobby Dodd!
And with all his hundreds of billions even Elon Musk can’t buy it… because it’s free.
True and lasting happiness is found only in a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ!
Think about it: when we believe in Jesus Christ, the very presence of God that went before Israel in that pillar of cloud and fire now dwells within us through the Holy Spirit! And the Bible says that as we trust in Jesus, the Spirit is producing within us “fruit of the Spirit”—like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[10]
But notice number two on that list: joy.
Give me joy… and I can endure anything else… including otherwise unwelcome detours through the wilderness! How about you?
I believe literally everyone in the Five Forks community we’re moving into soon wants joy and is looking for joy. They may not yet know that they want Jesus. But they want joy. And I’ll be happy to look any of them in the eye and say, “I’ve found joy. And here’s where I found it. Here’s the Source! In Jesus!”
How about you?
I am happier than I’ve ever been in 56 years—and it’s because of Jesus… and the joy I find in him alone!
Of course, the Bible also teaches us that as we grow in faith—as we learn to trust and obey Christ more fully—we can experience more and more of the joy that comes from knowing him. And I still have a long way to go… I am still a work in progress. We all are… And that’s why we, the church, need each other… To love and forgive and build one another up… to encourage one another…
But no… I’m not where I want to be yet… And neither was the apostle Paul. But here’s what Paul is saying in Philippians 3:
I haven’t arrived yet. I’m not yet the person Christ wants me to be. But I press on, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. And one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.[11]
I press on toward the goal… I press on to win the prize… I press on for the glory of God… I press on for the upward call… I press on for the kingdom… I press on for the treasure… I press on for the sake of the lost… I press on that by all means I might save some[12]… I press on to fight the good fight… I press on to finish the race[13]… I press on to win an imperishable crown… I press on so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified[14]… I press on for the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge[15]…
I press on to know Jesus… I press on to know more of Jesus… I press on to know the joy that’s found only in Jesus!
I press on…
What about you, Five Forks Church?
Are you going to press on even on this detour? [Wait for response.]
Are you going to press on even in this in-between time?
Are you going to press on even when it’s hard?
Are you going to press on even when you’re tired?
Are you going to press on even when the devil attacks—and he will?
Are you going to press on even when you can’t see what lies ahead?
Are you going to press on because you know that Christ Jesus has made you his own?
Are you going to press on because you believe that God will finish what he started?
If so, then let’s press on together!
Because with Jesus Christ, as we keep trusting in him, the best is yet to come!
[1] Luke 11:11-12 ESV
[2] 2 Corinthians 1:8-9
[3] Romans 8:1
[4] Colossians 2:14
[5] Romans 8:15
[6] Romand 8:31
[7] Romans 8:38-39
[8] Romans 8:28
[9] Philippians 1:6
[10] Galatians 5:22-23
[11] Paraphrase of Philippians 3:12-14
[12] 1 Corinthians 9:22
[13] 2 Timothy 4:7
[14] 1 Corinthians 9:27
[15] Ephesians 3:18-19