Scripture: Exodus 14:10–31
Today’s sermon is all about faith. And I want to make three points about it. Number One: Our Faith Is Meant to Be Exercised. Number Two: God Strengthens Our Faith by Testing It. And Number Three: Our Faith Rests on What Christ Has Done for Us.
But first, Point Number One: Our Faith Is Meant to Be Exercised…
Remember quicksand? Whatever happened to quicksand—and the clear and present danger that it used to represent? Does it not exist anymore?
I grew up watching Gilligan’s Island. So my classmates and I knew all about quicksand! I remember either Gilligan or the Skipper getting stuck in it—and almost dying. Don’t you? Of course, if you’re under 50, you’re like, “What is Gilligan’s Island”?
Still… if you ever worried—as I did—about the dangers of quicksand, you need to hear the following paragraph, which comes from an article on the Encyclopaedia Britannica website:
It used to be a standard trope in action movies, although you don’t see it much these days: a patch of apparently solid ground in the jungle that, when stepped on, turns out to have the consistency of cold oatmeal. The unlucky victim starts sinking down into the muck; struggling only makes it worse. Unless there’s a vine to grab a hold of, he or she disappears without a trace (except maybe a hat floating sadly on the surface). It was a bad way to go. Quicksand was probably the number-one hazard faced by silver-screen adventurers…[1]
It goes on to say that while quicksand is real, it isn’t very dangerous, you won’t sink down in it and drown.
I only became aware of the relative harmlessness of quicksand when I stumbled across a book called The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook.
Maybe quicksand isn’t what most of us would consider a “worst-case scenario,” but his book also deals with things like, “how to land a plane if the pilot passes out.” Terrifying! “How to wrestle an alligator.” No, thank you! “What to do if a python is attempting to squeeze the life out of you.” Now that’s a worst-case scenario!
Well… To say the least, in today’s scripture, the people of Israel are facing a worst case scenario if ever there was one!
Once Israel is set free from bondage in Egypt, God leads them the roundabout way—which we talked about last week—to the Red Sea. But almost as soon as Pharaoh lets the people go, he changes his mind. After all, he’s losing billions of dollars in free labor for his building projects! So he sends his army to bring them back.
And because God has led Israel to camp beside the sea, they’re sitting ducks—trapped between the “devil and the deep blue sea.” Or perhaps I should say, “the Egyptian army and the deep Red Sea.”
And the Israelites know they’re in trouble. Verse 10: “When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly…”
And right away, I want to pass judgment on these Israelites! I want to say, “People of Israel! Why are you afraid? I understand you’ve ‘lifted up your eyes’ and seen the Egyptian army approaching. But how about turning 180 degrees and looking in the other direction? You’ll see a pillar of cloud and fire reminding you that God is with you! Who’s more powerful? The Egyptian army? Or Almighty God—who created the men driving those chariots and these soldiers marching toward you?
“Besides, remember the Ten Plagues? Remember the tenth plague, when God struck down Egypt’s firstborn but spared your own? You saw all that!
“Did God do all that just to let you come to harm now? Does that make sense?”
And it’s not just these Israelites in the wilderness who struggle to remember what God has done for them already…
Think of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. I preached on this prophet last fall… He has just had his dramatic showdown with 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Remember? Elijah prays, and God sends fire from heaven to consume the altar. The prophets of Baal are executed. Then Elijah prays again, and God sends rain, ending a terrible drought.
In that one chapter alone, God has given Elijah overwhelming proof that he is God; he is real; he is powerful; he is fighting for Elijah!
Yet in the very next chapter, wicked Queen Jezebel threatens Elijah’s life: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you, just as you killed the prophets of Baal.”
Did Elijah think, “The God who just rained fire down from heaven can surely protect me from this wicked woman”?
Nope! Instead, he ran far, far away—and became so discouraged that he asked God to kill him!
I’m tempted to point a finger at these Israelites in the wilderness, or Elijah as he runs away from Jezebel… and say, “Shame! Shame!”
But what do they say when you point fingers? There are three fingers pointing back at you.
Indeed… How many times in my own life have I known for sure that God was with me…? I mean, I’ve had encounters with Jesus—often at pivotal moments in my life—encounters that were so real it was as if I could reach out and touch him! And there have been many times when I have known for sure that God was speaking to me—for instance, when I was called into pastoral ministry. And I’ve seen unmistakable signs of God’s presence and power in my life, over and over… wild coincidences that have happened as direct answers to my prayers…
I bet many of you have had similar experiences, right?
Yet, too often, in my own experience, at the first sign of trouble, I fall apart… because of fear… Because like these Israelites, and like Elijah, I trust what I can see with my eyes or hear with my ears more than I trust God…
This is why faith is so hard. It isn’t something we merely possess… like, either we have it or we don’t… And once we have it, we’re fine…
No… It’s something we have to practice.
My mother collected Lladró porcelain figurines—beautiful, delicate ceramic knickknacks that she displayed behind glass in the so-called “living room” of the house I grew up in. I say “so-called” because no one actually lived in the living room! We lived in the den, where the TV was. We lived in the kitchen and our bedrooms. We only ventured into the living room once or twice a year!
Basically, no one was allowed in there unless we were entertaining Queen Elizabeth II or something! Which was not very often. Mom kept that room looking like a museum!
But my point is, those Lladró figurines were for decoration, not for playing with. They were not action figures—even if, to a four- or five-year-old, they looked deceptively like them! And if I took one off the shelf and actually put it to use, I got into big trouble! They were meant to sit on a shelf, looking pretty and collecting dust.
And I confess that, at my sinful worst, I want my Christian faith to be like those figurines: something I possess, something I value, but something I don’t actually have to put into practice!
I don’t want to actually have to need faith… I want to be able to trust in what I can see and touch!
So the Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”? No thanks! I loveleaning on my own understanding, thank you very much! I’d rather depend on things I can see and touch than on God, whom I can’t see. Because that’s so much easier!
But here’s the problem with treating faith like one of Mom’s Lladró figurines: Those figurines were fragile. And no matter how many years they sat on that shelf, they weren’t getting any stronger!
But our faith is supposed to get stronger! It’s not supposed to remain as fragile as when we first believed in Jesus! And one way God strengthens our faith is by putting it to the test…
And this brings us to Point Number Two: God Strengthens Our Faith by Testing It…
Before I go further, allow me to tell you about falling in love…
I met Lisa, my wife, in 1989, when her mother came on staff as children’s minister at my home church, Briarcliff Baptist in northeast Atlanta. Lisa was in college at Auburn; I was at Georgia Tech. But she came home on holidays and breaks, and she even hung out with me and my weird friends in the church’s college ministry.
And, um… gosh… I kind of liked her! And I don’t know… It kinda seemed like maybe she liked me, too.
There was just one small problem: She had a steady boyfriend. And their relationship was quickly heading toward engagement.
Uh-oh!
Well, one weekend Lisa was home from college, recovering from having her tonsils removed. Her boyfriend, Lee wasn’t there—surprise, surprise. So I bought her a get-well card and a flower in a vase. And I wanted to drop them off at her parents’ house, no big deal. You know, just to say, “Thinking of you… Hope you feel better soon.”
“And by the way, I love you…”
But before I went, I called my friend Keith, who also knew Lisa from church.
“Hey, Keith, you want to go with me to drop off this present for Lisa?”
“Sure!”
So we went. Lisa really appreciated it. Invited us in. It was fun!
But on the drive home, I told Keith, “You know, my mom was mad at me for asking you to come along. She said the only reason I brought you was because I was afraid to go alone.”
And Keith said, “I think your mom’s right!”
And she was right! I was terrified to go to Lisa’s house by myself!
Because if I went by myself, Lisa might figure out that I liked her! And if she figured out that I liked her like that, she might tell me she didn’t like me… not in that way…
And then what?
I might get rejected!
And I didn’t want to take that chance!
Of course, you know how the story ends. Lisa married me anyway! But my point is, fear of rejection is a powerful thing. It can make us do all kinds of things to protect ourselves—even when those things don’t make much sense.
And I wonder if Moses knew something about that fear.
Remember, forty years earlier, Moses had tried to intervene on behalf of his fellow Israelites, back in Exodus chapter 2. And how did they respond? “Who made you a prince and a judge over us?”[2]
They rejected him!
And now, forty years later, God is calling Moses to go back to those same people and lead them out of Egypt.
And what’s one of Moses’s objections? Exodus 4:1: “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice.”
Do you hear that?
I wonder if Moses was remembering what happened forty years earlier. I wonder if he was thinking, “Lord, I’ve already tried to help these people once. And they rejected me! What makes you think they’ll listen to me this time?”
Moses even tells God about his speech impediment… Maybe he stutters. And God says, “I’m the one who made your mouth! Don’t you think I can make you into a good speaker?”
But out of pity, God gives him Aaron to go with him and be his spokesman… Aaron is like a security blanket… In which case, Aaron becomes Moses’ equivalent of my friend Keith.
But look what happens in today’s scripture: God puts Moses’ fear of rejection to the test! They start to turn on him. With heavy sarcasm, they ask in verse 11, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” That’s funny, in a morbid sort of way.
They blame Moses!
And what does he do? He answers, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.”
Who is this man and what has he done with that fearful person we met in Exodus chapters 2 and 3?
What’s happened is, God has been changing Moses—teaching him, through one test after another, to trust God more than he trusts himself or his circumstances.
But notice that Moses isn’t the only one whose faith God is strengthening through this experience. Look at the very last verse of this chapter, verse 31: “Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”
Did you catch that? At the beginning of this chapter, the Israelites are fearing Pharaoh. By the end, they’re fearing the Lord! At the beginning, they’re questioning Moses’ leadership. By the end, they’re believing in Moses as God’s appointed servant!
God hasn’t merely brought his people through the deep Red Sea. He’s brought them to a deeper place of faith!
Of course, as we’ll see in the weeks ahead, their faith still has a long way to go. And so does Moses’ faith!
And so does ours.
And there’s a lesson here for us as Five Forks Methodist Church…
See, I am well aware that God has tested us over these first two years of our existence. Even moving into this temporary space, at a time that we didn’t choose and a space we don’t control, is a test.
I’ve been tempted to think, “When do we reach a point where the testing is over? When do we turn a corner as a church—after which everything will be smooth sailing?”
“I know… Maybe next year… when we finish building our new church home! In the meantime, we’ve just got to white-knuckle it and make the best of it until then. But after that, it will get a lot easier!”
Don’t bet on it! That’s not what God’s Word tells us! Not if we’re being faithful in fulfilling our mission! Not if we actually care that thousands of men and women and boys and girls are living and dying apart from a saving relationship with God through Christ!
But we do care, right?
And because we care, you better believe we have an Enemy, the devil, who wants to help create and use our trials to ruin our plans, thwart our efforts to be faithful, destroy our church and make shipwreck of our faith…
If we let him…
But the good news is that God wants to use those very same trials to strengthen our church and our faith!
And that’s why Laura Story had it exactly right in that song that Carol sang a few moments ago: “The trials of this life are God’s blessings in disguise.”
Jesus’ half-brother James thought so. He wrote, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”[3]
Notice James doesn’t say, “White-knuckle it until the trial is over”; he says, “Consider it pure joy.”
I’m not good at that yet… But I certainly hope I’ll be able to do that… because I don’t find that the trials of my life go away for any length of time. So if I can learn to respond to these trials the way Moses does in today’s scripture, well… good news! That means the devil won’t be able to rob me of my joy, the way he so often does today… because my joy will be unaffected by those things that I see or hear or touch or feel.
Instead, I’ll be able to lift up my eyes, see that fast-approaching “Egyptian army” of troubles and trials, and say, “Lord, I don’t know how you’re going to bring me through this. I don’t know what you’re going to do. But I know you’re going to be faithful to me. I know you’re going to use even this for my good. Because you love me too much to give me anything less than what’s best for me. And what I need most isn’t for all my troubles to disappear. What I need most is more of you.”
And if that’s what God is giving me through these trials, then I have every reason to rejoice!
The author of Hebrews is writing to a church that is enduring trials and persecution, the likes of which we can hardly imagine. Listen to what he says in chapter 10: The church’s members have been “publicly exposed to reproach and affliction…”[4] They’ve been imprisoned. The government itself, he says, has been robbing them of their possessions. But listen to how they respond in verse 34: they “joyfully accepted the plundering of [their] property.” There’s that word again: joy.
Give me the joy that’s found in Christ alone and just watch what I can put up with and endure and prevail against!
This joy comes only through God’s testing!
Dear Lord, let Five Forks Methodist become famous in this community for its unconquerable joy!
That’s Point Number Two… God Strengthens Our Faith by Testing It.
Point Number Three: Our Faith Rests on What Christ Has Done for Us.
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul makes the connection between Israel passing through the Red Sea and our baptism. And it’s a great connection because the waters of the Red Sea represent God’s judgment against sin and evil. And we who have become God’s people through faith in his Son Jesus can now safely pass through that judgment…
It’s not because we don’t deserve judgment, death, and hell… We do deserve those things… And it’s certainly not because of our great faith… or the quality of our faith.
I mean, how much faith did it take for these Israelites pass through the Red Sea? I mean, yes… they had to take those steps of faith on that suddenly dry pathway… on the seabed… in the middle of the Red Sea. But their faith was nothing to brag about when the Egyptian army is hot on your trail. There’s nowhere else to go!
And don’t you imagine that many Israelites who walked on that seabed saw the walls of water gathered up on both sides and were terrified?
It didn’t matter! All they did was to take those steps—however bravely or cowardly. God did the rest!
Moses uses the word “salvation” in verse 13: just as these Israelites are saved from death and destruction, so are we Christians… except, even better… we’re saved eternally.
It’s not because our faith is strong… It’s not because we’re courageous… And it’s not because we’re righteous…
It’s because of Jesus… and what he did on the cross… out of love for you and me…
It’s as if he took our place in those flooding waters of God’s judgment, so that we could pass safely through… and be safe, protected, and free… for eternity.
But make no mistake: for Jesus those waters of judgment didn’t have the last word! On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead! He conquered sin! He conquered death! He conquered hell!
And because he lives, we will live, too!
So whatever you’re facing… whatever you’re afraid of… however uncertain the road ahead may seem… keep trusting Jesus!
Because the God who made a way through the Red Sea has made a way for you! And he’s made a way for Five Forks Methodist…
Amen.
[1] “How Deadly Is Quicksand?” britannica.com. Accessed 10 March 2022.
[2] Exodus 2:14 ESV
[3] James 1:2 NIV
[4] Hebrews 10:33 ESV