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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brody-thibodeau/lessons-for-us-from-israels-journey-from-egypt-to-canaan/
Let's read together in Exodus, please. Exodus, we'll read beginning at chapter 5. Exodus in chapter 5, let's read at verse number 1. And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And they said, the God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray, the three days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.
Now, turn over a couple of pages to chapter 8, please. Chapter 8, verse number 25. Chapter 8 in verse 25, and Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.
And Moses said, it is not meet so to do, for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?
We will go three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he shall command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, only he shall not go very far away in treat for me.
Now, the next reading is a couple of pages over to chapter 10. Chapter 10 in verse number 11. This is Pharaoh's response again. Not so. Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord. For that ye did desire, and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
Now, verse number 24. And Pharaoh called onto Moses and said, go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God.
Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not an hoof be left behind. For therefore, or thereof, must we take to serve the Lord our God. And we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither.
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now we're going to go over to chapter 14, please. Chapter 14. You give a preacher from Canada some time up here with no clock on the wall, you're taking a big chance.
Chapter 14 in verse number 8. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he pursued after the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with an high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them.
All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army. And overtook them in camping by the sea beside Pihairoth before Baal Ziphon. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians marched after them.
And they were sore afraid. And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.
And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you this day or today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.
The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace. I think that's all we'll read. What I have on my mind for a little while this afternoon is to consider some of the experiences that the children of Israel went through as they journeyed from Egypt to Canaan.
Now it's been on my mind for the past few weeks, the lessons that we as the Lord's people today learn as we see the Lord's people in the Old Testament go through these circumstances and trials. Very simply for younger believers today, I think it's important that we understand in the Old Testament, we watch as the Lord's people go through things physically.
And as they are going through these things physically, we learn a spiritual lesson. So in other words, what they went through physically can be applied to our lives spiritually. And you'll see what I mean as we go through a few of these different thoughts and ideas.
There are three different locations that this nation was found in on the journey. Very simple, isn't it? The first location is in Egypt. We were talking about that yesterday morning in Dunkerton. The first location is Egypt.
Then it is the one that I have trouble saying. It's almost like a tongue twister for me. The wilderness. Wilderness. So Egypt and the wilderness and then the land of Canaan. And while some may think that we as believers are out of Egypt, we're in the wilderness and we're heading toward the land of Canaan being heaven, I would ask you to reconsider because the land of Canaan is not a picture of heaven.
Now, I don't know what you think about heaven, but I'm pretty sure we're not going to fight battles in heaven. But when you consider it, the land of Canaan really is a picture of all of the blessings and the promises that God has given to us to live in the good of here and now.
In fact, if you wanted to link it with a New Testament epistle, the land of Canaan connects with Ephesians. For it is in Ephesians where we find that high water mark of Christian doctrine that tells us about our position in Christ.
Having been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, connected with a risen Christ, we have come into the good of the promises that God has given. Now, keep that in mind as you read through the wilderness.
The wilderness is the Christian's experience as it relates perhaps mostly to trial and testing. The wilderness is barren. There's no comfort in the wilderness. And as we walked, as they walked through the wilderness, they came across different circumstances that would try them.
They came across things that brought them bitterness. They came across things that brought them sorrow. They came up against things that gave them fear and doubts. Now, I want everyone to consider this together.
And as they were going through the wilderness with all of this against them, I believe they were learning many things. The two most important things that they learned, I believe, in the wilderness is that no matter what was happening to them and no matter what enemies and what circumstances surrounded them, God was always with them in the wilderness.
It works out very practically for us today, doesn't it? Because I look over an audience like this, and I see some younger ones, and I see some who are not as young as they used to be, and I don't know where I fit in.
But I do know this. Every one of us of the Lord's people are going through the wilderness. And for some, the trial involves their family. For others, the trial involves the loss of a loved one. Perhaps the trial involves your finances or your health.
But let's not forget, as we go through the trial, the Lord is with us. It may not feel that way, but he is. The other thing they learned while they were in the wilderness is not only that the Lord was with them, but that the Lord wanted to lead them.
The Lord wanted to give them the direction. In fact, that pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night was to lead them in the ways that the Lord would have them go. Now, they figured out not too long after they were in the wilderness that sometimes the Lord led them to places where there would be trial.
Sometimes the Lord led them to places to test their faith and to draw them closer to him, but he always wanted to lead them. So very simply, in our wilderness experience, let us remember that the Lord is with us and he wants to lead us to the next place all the time.
But then there's Egypt, right? If you go to the night of the Passover, where we skipped over that chapter, chapter 12, you will find that the lamb had been slain, the death had been accomplished, and the blood had been sprinkled.
And these people were a redeemed people, but they were still in Egypt, right? According to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus says that they are in the world, but they are not of the world. So the Lord's people today, believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, are a redeemed people.
We are people who have not only been redeemed, but we are sure, based on the word of God, that the end of all of this is going to be heaven at home with the Savior. We know that, but while we are a redeemed people and while positionally we have been taken out of Egypt, we are still here physically and we deal with Egypt on every hand.
And for some here today who perhaps are younger, I don't divide the people of God up. We all need this ministry, I'm assuming. But there's a temptation there to not only be in Egypt, but to be a part of Egypt.
And the Lord expected them to remain practically what he had made them positionally. Now I know you're going to say, that's a preacher and he has a big imagination and he gets all of that out of Exodus chapter 12.
Well, perhaps. But it sounds good, doesn't it? We need to be careful. But you'll notice, I'm just going to go over these things as they come to me and I've been enjoying them, you will notice at each one of those locations they ate something, right?
They were eating in the land of Canaan when the manna ceased, they began to eat the old corn of the land. Now the old corn of the land was there, God had given them it and as they were taking possession of what God had promised them, they found their strength and their energy by eating the old corn of the land.
Now the old corn of the land in picture shows us the Lord Jesus in his resurrection. So a resurrected Christ, the old corn of the land, where the Lord Jesus himself said, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.
The idea there is the planting in death, but then the growth in resurrection, right? And we find in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the resurrection is really Christ the first fruits and then they which are his are Christ's at his coming.
So for these people to have strength to go and take the land, they were eating the food that God had given them. And when it comes to the Lord's people today and our ability to grow and have strength to live in the good of the promises of God, let's remember we need to be feeding on Christ.
In particular, and I say again connected perhaps with Ephesians, in particular, we're feeding on Christ, his resurrection, and all of the implications of the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Now we'll go through the other two and then I'll make a point that I think is valid.
Move backwards, you come to the wilderness and while they were going through the trial, God gave them something to eat, didn't he? He gave them the manna. And the manna was that which gave them strength and that which gave them nourishment so that they could be strong in the trial.
And the manna speaks to us of the Lord Jesus perhaps on different levels and our brethren here who know more about it perhaps can share with us, but the idea is that the manna speaks of the Lord Jesus in his humanity, came down from heaven, perfectly round, that which is eternal without beginning and without end, that which came to the low place on top, on the ground, on the dew of the ground, that which was pure and white, that which speaks of the perfect person of the Lord Jesus.
And if they wanted to get through the wilderness, they needed to eat the manna. But in Egypt, they're eating something, aren't they? They're eating the lamb. They're eating the lamb as it had been roast with fire, not sodden or boiled because that would have tempered the heat, but the lamb was roast with fire speaking to us very clearly of the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings.
So you see it, don't you? Strength to live in the good of the promises of God. We are to feed on the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrection. Strength for the trial. We are to feed on the Lord Jesus Christ in his perfect deity, in his humanity, in his character.
For strength to remain separated from the world, we are to feed on the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings. Now here's my point. For a believer to feed on the Lord Jesus, we need to read our Bible and we need to look for him in the scriptures and meditate upon him in the scriptures and meditate upon all that flows out from his character and all that flows out from his sufferings and all that marks the world now for us because of his resurrection.
We need to be reading the Bible. I was praying for the younger people that they would be able to fulfill their potential for God. Here's something that sounds awfully easy, but it's harder than it sounds.
Read your Bible. Read your Bible every day. Well, you say, I'm not good at reading my Bible and I find life hard and life is busy and when things get hard, I just start to work harder and you can have a million excuses.
You know what? But if you don't read your Bible and feed on Christ, you will not fulfill your potential for God. If you don't read your Bible, dear older Christian, we cannot have strength for the trial.
If we don't read our Bible and look for Christ, we'll not have strength for the separation practically. So remember the three positions and each one of us is in all three places at the same time. Now those are things if you haven't heard them before, they could sound a little bit different, but think about it.
Read your Bible and think about it. What I read today was about the three days journey, the three days journey and the crossing of the Red Sea. And while we're not going to get to spend too much time on them, what I want to focus on first of all is that God required the three days journey.
God required that his people be removed from Egypt so that they could serve him. Now think about this with me, please. God required it so that they could serve him acceptably. Service and worship required separation.
Now we were hearing about obedience today and I believe obedience and worship go hand in hand, but it cannot be done without separation from the world. And we're going to look at Pharaoh and his attitude toward these people.
We're going to look at Pharaoh and his strategy to keep these people. And then we're going to look at the Lord and his ability to deliver his people. So we look very carefully at chapter five and verse number two.
First of all, the attitude of Pharaoh is that he doesn't acknowledge the Lord. He doesn't acknowledge the Lord. You could look at this actually as a picture of Satan as he has kept sinners captive. If you want to look at it in a gospel light, how sinners are kept captive and in bondage by the God of this world, Satan himself.
And let us not forget, brethren and sisters, that as the gospel is proclaimed throughout the nation and throughout the nations, that there's a real spiritual battle that goes on beyond just the struggles that we face as the Lord's people and beyond just the fact that people are having trouble getting the meeting and that people are so busy.
It's a real spiritual battle that goes on for the souls of men and women. Please don't forget that because as we approach this as a picture of Satan keeping sinners in bondage, you can see it so clearly today where Satan has them in bondage.
But we were hearing in prayer this morning that they had the leeks and the honey and the garlic and the onions, right? While they were bound, while they were slaves, Pharaoh gave them just enough pleasure to make them content in their bondage.
You see it, don't you? We see it all around. And those of us who are saved as adults also see it in our own experience, how sin as a taskmaster, how Satan keeping us blinded and keeping us bound so that we could not be released, how he made that bondage seem like pleasure by the little things that we could do and the little pleasures we could find in the world.
Let us remember as we are reaching out to our families and reaching out to our neighbors and different people in our communities, let us remember it is a real spiritual battle where Satan is seeking to keep his goods at peace.
I hope we remember that. Pharaoh said, I will not let them go. Absolutely not. But the next line we read, he still doesn't want to let them go, but he's trying to get them to compromise. So now we're going to look at it as the Lord's people.
And Pharaoh called for Moses in chapter eight in verse 25 and said, go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. Sacrifice to your God in the land. So his idea, Pharaoh's idea was, if I can get them to compromise on their principles, then they'll be happy and I'll be happy and I will still have them.
You see it, don't you? God wanted them to go three days journey. And Pharaoh says, oh, wait a second. You can worship God right here. You can serve the Lord Jehovah right here in the land. In fact, we'll even make a few accommodations for you so that you can worship.
Egypt is a picture of the world. Generally, Egypt is a picture of the world in its pleasures. Egypt is a picture of the world in its sin and in its politics and its system. But in this case, I think Pharaoh is trying to get them to compromise with Egypt and their religion because Pharaoh was happy when people would worship the sun God.
Pharaoh was happy when people would worship the river. Pharaoh was happy when people would worship the frogs or the cattle or whatever it was. Pharaoh was happy and he would accommodate all of that. And Pharaoh is saying, basically, why don't you just come and bring your beliefs in with us and then you'll be happy and we'll be happy and everything will be fine.
You know who that wouldn't please? It wouldn't please Jehovah. And just to be absolutely clear with where I'm going on this, we live in a world that is full of religious confusion. I want you to know that.
I want you to notice it. A world that compromises when it comes to worship. A world that compromises when it comes to service. When it comes to truth, we live in a religious world that will compromise in order to maintain harmony.
And for the child of God who seeks to live out truth from the Bible, there's no place in this world. For the child of God who is convinced that the word of God must be adhered to, there is absolutely no place in Egypt for worship.
There is no room for compromise. Now, I say that hard. Everything I say sounds hard because I sound like a big giant sometimes. But anyway, I mean to be kind when I say this. Compromise is lethal when it comes to your Christian experience.
When it comes to actually functioning as a local assembly, the truth from the scriptures is vital. It's vital. And if they had compromised, they would have been right there where Pharaoh still would have had them.
And Satan uses ecunimism to ruin your testimony. But Moses says, three days journey. Don't go very far. And then we come to chapter 10. In chapter 10, we see here where Pharaoh says, not so. Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord.
Again, here is an offer to compromise. So now he is saying, you can go. That's fine. But leave behind your families. Because Pharaoh knew this. If these men were devoted to Jehovah, they would go into the and their families were still in Egypt, then they would come back.
You see it. They would come back because their family remained in Egypt. And I think that Satan is so subtle with us, brethren and sisters, that as we are raising young families, that Satan will seek to get their attention and to get them involved in the things of the world to a point where the parents are slowly but surely being drawn back to the place that God had taken them out of.
Please notice it. It would compromise their separation and almost guarantee that they would be drawn back into Egypt. We need to be careful and prayerful about our families, don't we? Now, I understand what it's like to raise children.
I don't have all the answers. In fact, I don't even know if I have one answer for you. So don't ask me any questions. But we seek to do the best we can. And while we're presented with compromise on every hand, we need to be careful with our children.
But then verse number 24, Pharaoh called and said, go you serve the Lord, only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Now he's touching something else for compromise, isn't he? He is saying, if you go, you take your family, but I'm going to keep your things.
And he figured if they went and they left their substance and their material behind, that they would be back. And I think he would have been right. Because what was going to happen was that they would start to think of the things that they had in Egypt, and they would seek to go back.
Material is a big draw, isn't it? And if there's ever been a time in a place where materialism has affected the church and the churches, it is here in the North America, and now in 2017, where we as the Lord's people have been called out of Egypt.
But every day, we count the things that we've left in Egypt, don't we? We count our job, and we think about that. We think about our bank accounts, and we think about our land, and we think about our houses, and we think about, and you think that only rich people are covetous.
Well, I drive a 2004 old chev truck, and I also know what it's like to be covetous, driving an old truck and all the rest. Materialism can draw us back into the world. Moses had the right attitude. I want you to consider this with me.
He said, not an hoof shall be left behind, because it's going to be that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God, and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither. Now, I want you to think about that statement even after this meeting.
You know what he was saying? Everything we own and everything we are is available if the Lord wants it. He's saying we need to bring every single thing because we don't know what the Lord is going to ask of us.
What an attitude, isn't it? Something that rebukes us. It should rebuke us. Rebuke us that we keep so much for ourselves, and not everything is available for the Lord. But if they were going to worship and serve wholeheartedly, they must take everything.
And be completely separated. That three days journey into the wilderness. Three days journey could speak of the Christian living in the power and the good of the resurrection. But at least it speaks to us here of separation.
Now, let's go to the Red Sea. We find in chapter 14 that here they are in Pi-hei-hi-roth. Now, this is a circumstance where the Lord had led them. The Lord had made his arm known in power, in redemption, when the blood was put on the door and every one of the firstborn were saved from the destroyer.
And now he has called them out of Egypt and they're moving toward the Red Sea until eventually they're going to be out of Egypt altogether. But they come up against the Red Sea. They come up against an obstacle.
They come up obstacles on either side and behind them is Pharaoh and his armies. It is a time really of desperation, but they could look back and they could say, this is where the Lord has led us. The Lord has placed us here with all of these obstacles and we don't know why.
In fact, they were thinking, why didn't he just leave us back there in Egypt? They were blaming Moses, but it was the Lord who had brought them out, right? And they were in this place, this Pi-hei-hi-roth.
I have trouble saying it, but I won't say it again. You know what I mean. They were in this place that the Lord had led them to and they thought by obeying the Lord, they had been brought into a narrow little place where they had no freedom to move.
But you know what the meaning of this word is? Perhaps literally, it really is the opening up of liberty, the opening of liberty. And by following the directions of Jehovah, they were led to a place that looked to Pharaoh like they were hemmed in on every side.
It looked to Pharaoh like a place that was so narrow that they weren't going to be able to move. And yet God calls it the beginning or the opening up of liberty and freedom. And it is at this place that God is going to show them that obedience to his word is really the opening up of true Christian liberty.
Let's remember that, please. Obedience to the word of God never brings a person into bondage. It brings them into freedom. Obedience to the word of God never brings a person into a place where they have no freedom to move.
It brings them into perfect liberty. And here they were and eventually they look to the Lord and the Lord says, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. We have trouble being still, don't we? In fact, sometimes when we're still for 59 minutes in the afternoon, we fall asleep.
Some of us do. But we have trouble just depending on God. But he says, you stand still. The Lord will fight this battle. And in the place where it was the opening up of liberty, the Lord actually rolled back the waters till they were a wall on either side.
We remember that, don't we? And he delivered them when nobody else could. And he brought them out. Now this, I take it according to the New Testament, there was redemption by blood in the land of Egypt.
There was redemption by his mighty arm and power at the Red Sea. And by blood and by power, God redeemed and removed his people physically from Egypt so that they could serve and worship him according to his word.
You know, he desires the same thing of us today. He desires that we would serve and worship. He desires that we would depend on him. But in order for us to truly be serving him, we have to be obedient to his word.
We heard about obedience. And in order for us to serve the Lord in truth, in obedience, we must live practically every day a life that is separated from this world. We heard earlier today, not just from this world, but onto God.
It would have been a tragedy if God had left them on the other side of the Red Sea. But God didn't just want them out of Egypt. God wanted them separated onto himself. That's the beauty of it. So remember these little principles that we can learn from the children of Israel as they went through physically what we go through spiritually.