Exodus

at church, over the past 2 months or so, Bob has been preaching on each decade, starting back in the 20's and moving up to the 2000's. tonight was the last weekend of the series, and he preached about the 2000's. the whole series has been really interesting, and quite a history lesson as well. he has unpacked the themes and events of each decade and talking about the themes, relating them to biblical events and outcomes. its been really interesting, and its been neat to see the generations come together. and i've learned a lot. because they have had to set up quite a history lesson before Bob starts preaching, to set up the mood of his sermon. i've enjoyed it.

for the 2000's, tonight's sermon was the most recent in our minds. i had never really thought about it this way, but the past 10 years have been so dominated by fear, based on the historical events. i've lived through these events, but it never crossed my mind how much fear has been instilled in us in this decade. i think our world has changed so much in the past decade, and not really in a good way.

anyway, to the message of Bob's sermon. after setting the stage with all the history, fear, and anxiety of the last 10 years, he broke down a bible story that i've heard so many times but never really connected to present times. exodus 14 is the story when Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and crosses the red sea. when he brought the group of people down to the ocean, they get trapped between the water in front of them and the Egyptian army encroaching behind them. they get angry at Moses for leading them into this seemingly fatal situation, saying they would have rather stayed in Egypt as slaves than die in the desert at the hands of their enemy.

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Moses trusted that God would intervene and save His chosen people, but the hundreds of people following Moses were catastrophizing, or thinking the very worst outcome. worrying, essentially. how many times in life are we in that situation? when we have a huge daunting unknown ocean in front of us and evil forces coming up behind us, getting closer and closer by the minute. we automatically start thinking the worst is going to happen, that we are going to die right there between the ocean and the pharaoh's grand army. what we have to remember about this old testament story is that the Israelites don't die in the desert at the hand of the Pharaoh. God intervenes and saves them, just as He promised. we forget His promise at the first sign of danger. the past 10 years have been riddled with new enemies, foreign and domestic, new dangers, new conflicts, those which have made up our culture of fear. we live in a world where there are a lot of people do not like Americans and are willing to fly airplanes into buildings to make their point. there have been a lot of Egyptian armies in our recent history, and we have been trained to view the future as that big unknown ocean. the whole scenario is just like the one in Exodus.

as i look back through history, through my life and before, there are so many times when i have been stuck between the great unknown and something overwhelming or scary. and looking back, everything always turned out alright...maybe not the way i had pictured it, but it turned out fine, the way God had planned it to. God holds us and promises that He is always in control and promises that when we are stuck between those two things, that He will deliver us according to His plans. i forget that. i forget that God promises to always be there and promises that as His child, i shall never be lost and i don't need to fear. our lives are for Him, we are His children, and He promises never to leave us, even if the ocean is in front of us and our biggest fears are on our back. He will always take care of us, as He promised from the beginning.