Red Sea Rules – Part 10

Exodus 15:1-2 1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD :
"I will sing to the LORD,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father's God, and I will exalt him.

This was the first recorded song in Scripture. When it’s over, don’t forget to praise Him. I’ve heard grandparents say that eventually they stopped sending money gifts to their grandchildren who don’t say thank you. My mom has even said, “I’d like to at least know if they got the gift!”

How can we better thank God? How can we live more praise-oriented lives?

You can start by noticing things more. Slow down and be aware of the good stuff and offer up thanks to God. For small things and large. You can listen to Christian music, sing hymns of praise. You can start your prayer by thanking God. Be faithful in attending church and concentrate on the worship while you’re there. Practice thanksgiving. Practice praise and practice His presence!

Hebrews Chapters 11 Part 6

Hebrews 11:23-29 By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

Moses was incredible! I spent an entire year studying him in Bible Study Fellowship. What can I say in a couple paragraphs to sum him up?

Earlier in the book of Hebrews the author pointed out the superiority of Jesus to Moses and that the Jews could not imagine anyone closer to God. He led his people out of slavery to the Promised Land, he was the receiver of the laws; the most important thing to them and he talked to God “like a friend.” Moses had faith because he knew God the way he did. He spent time with God before he did anything else. He came straight from the presence of God before any task. Our failure and fear is often due to the fact we try to do things alone. The secret of victorious living is to face God before we face man.

Hebrews 11:30-31 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Joshua and Rahab were both after Israel entered the Promised Land. Jericho was a strong city; barred and fortified. How did God command Joshua to take over the city?

Joshua 6:1-20 1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."

6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." 7 And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD."

8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD's covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!" 11 So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there.

12 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury."
20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

The taking of Jericho was the result of an act of faith. The people were acting not on what they thought they could do, but on what God could do for them.

The story of Rehab is also in Joshua.

Joshua 2:1-21 1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

2 The king of Jericho was told, "Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land."

4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.] 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."

14 "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."
15 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. 16 Now she had said to them, "Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way."

17 The men said to her, "This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us 18 unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. 19 If anyone goes outside your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head; we will not be responsible. As for anyone who is in the house with you, his blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on him. 20 But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear."

21 "Agreed," she replied. "Let it be as you say." So she sent them away and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

It’s amazing that Rahab is even listed in the Bible – she was a prostitute and a Gentile. But because of her great act of faith, James in chapter 2 verse 25, quotes her as a great example of the good works which demonstrate faith. The Rabbis who could do so were proud to trace their descent to her, and her name is one in the genealogy of Jesus Himself.

When Rahab made her great faith statement, “I know that the Lord hath given you the land…for the Lord your God, He is the God in Heaven above and in the earth below” there didn’t seem a chance in a million that Israel would capture Jericho. But, she believed in God against the evidence of the facts. And that’s what Christians are to do.

Snake on a stick

I love the "ah-ha" moments in the Bible when something in the New Testament really explains something in the Old Testament. There is a story in Numbers 21:4-9 about how the Israelites were grumbling about God and Moses. God sent deadly snakes among the people of Israel because of their sin. The people asked Moses to pray to God for relief and God told Moses to make an image of a poisonous serpent out of bronze and set it high on a pole so that "everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live."

In the book of John 3:14-15 Jesus uses this story to prepare Nicodemus for the revelation He was about to give Him concerning His redemptive work on a cross. He said, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life."

The Israelites would never have thought of the bronze snake as their salvation from the biting serpents. Looking at the very thing that was killing them to save them.

What the Israelites were told to do in the desert we are told to do with the cross. Sin is the serpents biting us. Jesus became sin on a cross. He told Nicodemus that He would be so identified with sin, death and punishment that He would be lifted up like a snake."

2 Corinthians 5:21 says "For our sakes He made Him who knew no sin - sin, that in Him we might become the rightousness of God."

Like the Israelites with the snake, it's something we would never have thought of ourselves.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul wrote, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." God deliberately chose something people see as folly so we can know salvation is God's doing. Not ours! He has created a way for us to live with Him for eternity. Believe it.

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The Promised Land - Heaven

We can learn a lot from the Israelite’s journey to the Promised Land. Heaven is the Christian’s promised land. It is a wonderful place, promising rest, peace and fellowship with God. Canaan promised the same to the weary wanderers.

God separated the Israelites from the rest of the world. He wanted them to be Holy. They were given rules to live by. They learned how to worship and how to have relationships with others. Christians are called to be separate from the world. We also have rules to live by. The Ten Commandments and The Golden Rule are just as necessary today as they ever were. We are to worship, obey and trust God that someday we will get where we are going and our journey will be worth it.

What He told them in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy is in the Bible for us to know and study. Through Moses, God brought the Israelites out of the bondage of slavery. Through Jesus, God brings us out of the bondage of sin. God told them all along what to do to become free and saved. He does the same for us. Their journey was taken in faith. So is ours. When they camped, God told them to put the Tabernacle in the center: God should be the center of our lives also.

In Deuteronomy 1:2 we see that the Israelites spent forty years on a journey that should have lasted eleven days! Christ’s return is taking longer than the early Christians expected. God was preparing the Israelites to live in the Promised Land. He is preparing us to live in Heaven. Our Promised Land is Heaven, and we’re going in!

Show me your glory!

Moses had spent 40 years as a shepherd when God called him to lead His people out of Egypt. Shepherds have always held a special place in the Bible. David, “a man after God’s heart”, was once a shepherd. It was shepherds on the night the baby Jesus was born that a host of angels appeared to and Jesus is often referred to as the Good Shepherd. Shepherding is a quiet, lonely profession where there is plenty of time to listen for God’s voice.

It wasn’t easy getting the Israelites away from Egypt, but it was harder still living with them in the desert! Moses was in charge of at least 2 million people. People, who just like us, one day are good and one day disappoint God. Moses constantly intervened with God for the people. In fact in some conversations with God when both were disgusted with them, God would refer to them as “YOUR people” and Moses would come back with, “but, YOUR people….” Neither wanted to claim them!

For as much time as Moses spent talking with the Lord, and the Bible says in Exodus 33:11 that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a friend, Moses yearned to know God better. He wanted God’s total guidance in dealing with these people and in doing God’s will. At one point when God threatened to take His presence away from what He called “these stiff-necked people” Moses said, “If thy presence will not go with me; do not carry us up from here.” (Exodus 33:15) Moses wasn’t willing to make a move without God. Moses related God’s presence with His favor when he asked, if God didn’t go with them, how would they know they had found favor in His sight?

Today, Christians don’t go anywhere without God. We have His Holy Spirit inside each of us. The Holy Spirit is evidence of God’s favor with us, but we need to listen for His guidance and obey Him.

Moses also asked God to let him know Him better. At this point Moses probably knew God better then any other living man. But, it wasn’t enough for Moses. To know God, really know Him, means to be changed by that knowledge. And once a person is saved they will act differently. They will show God’s love, reflect His light, spend time with God and worship Him with great joy. And finally, Moses wanted God to show him His glory. God chose to do this by showing Moses His goodness and His character, revealed by His name. He told Moses He was “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7) God shows us these attributes of Himself because we are called to have them too. Christians are to have goodness, mercy, compassion, grace, love, faithfulness and be slow to anger.

God gives Christians His presence in the Holy Spirit and His knowledge in His Word, the Bible. These show us God’s glory; which we are called to reflect to the World.

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:3