Light by Night

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 14:1-20

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Well, this morning we begin chapter 14 in the book of Exodus as we're making our way to the
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Exodus proper, the actual deliverance and bringing out of God's people from the clutch of Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.
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Last week we considered God's leading presence, the way that God led his people in a roundabout way outside of the normal path that would have brought them in the shadow of Egyptian fortresses.
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Because God knew their stature, knew their weakness, and so he led them almost backwards for a time and then upward, northward toward the sea.
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We considered the theophanic presence of God, the fiery pillar and the pillar of cloud.
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We read this in chapter 13, verse 21, the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.
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Now this event, this leading by both cloud and fire was rehearsed throughout the
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Old Testament. It's embedded within many different parts of scripture. We have it in the conquest narrative, in the sort of rehearsal of the leading of God's people.
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We have it constantly attended as God's fiery presence, as God's cloudy presence,
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God's leading presence, and God's protecting presence. So we considered the leading presence last week, this morning we'll consider the protecting presence.
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Let me give you an example, Psalm 78, 14, we're counting this very thing, in the daytime he led them with the cloud and all night with the light of fire, so that's
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God's leading presence. Psalm 105, 39, he spread a cloud for a covering and fire to illumine by night, so that's
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God's protecting presence. We'll see that very clearly as we get to verses 19 and 20 in our text this morning.
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Remember last week we also considered John's vision from Revelation chapter 7, where the many -tongued, many -chimed people of God, a multitude beyond number, begin to sing, they shall neither hunger anymore, nor thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat, for the
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Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them. So again, notice the leading presence is the protecting presence and vice versa.
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The sun shall not strike them, why? Because God spreads a covering over them, a pillar of cloud by the day, a fire by night.
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So this morning we see really three movements to verses 1 through 20. I probably had too much time on my hands this week to come up with section titles, but I'm just going to roll with it.
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We see a movement in three parts from verses 1 through 20. In verses 1 through 9 we have plight by might, so we have the plight of God's people against the might of Pharaoh's army.
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Secondly, in verses 10 through 14, we have fright by sight, the fear of the
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Israelites as they see the army closing in upon them. And then lastly, in verses 15 through 20, we have light by night, again, trophy for alliteration perhaps.
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Plight by might, fright by sight, light by night, that's a tongue twister if you can do it five times fast.
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So let's begin with verses 1 through 9. Plight by might, in other words, Pharaoh pursuing Israel.
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We read beginning in verse 1. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pihah, he wrote, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon, and you shall camp before it by the sea.
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For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they're bewildered by the land, the wilderness has closed them in.
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Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them. And I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army so that the
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Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. The Lord speaks to his people through Moses again, and through Moses the word is received for the people to turn.
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It could be rendered as it is in the Greek, turn around. They had been making good headway, going out in their ranks, the rather bedraggled looking army of God, and then
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God tells them when they're just about to advance out of the reach of Egypt, he says, turn around. And then he guides them to the most vulnerable position possible.
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He pins them against the sea. A general under Napoleon would be shot for no less.
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This is a tactical blunder. This is a place of absolute vulnerability. Why would God lead them here?
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Well speaking of here, we don't know exactly where these cities are. Their geographical location has been lost to us, but it's clear enough that God has turned them back in a way that the
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Israelites could not possibly believe that they would have an advantage. They're going backward and they're becoming increasingly vulnerable as they do so.
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Rather than looking strong and resolute, rather than making their way to safety, they now appear to stumble backward and they camp in a place of utter vulnerability, pinched between a hostile land and the sea.
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This is not the way any captain would lead his forces, not the way any general would strategically advance out of a land.
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This is not the way the Israelites expected to travel, but it is the way that God directed them.
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Turn back, camp facing the sea. And we read why, Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are bewildered by the land.
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God is setting an ambush. I love what Calvin says on this, God, for the sake of magnifying
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His glory, set a bait to catch the tyrant, just like fish are hooked. I had some opportunity over the past few days to cast,
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I don't say fish, but to cast, and I was very eager waiting, you know, and Elsie was next to me on the shore for one time, and I thought
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I landed something monstrous, you know. I was reeling in as fast as I could, my wrist was ready to give out, the drag was just buzzing, and I realized
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I had caught on to some anchor rope, you know. It seemed like it was fighting, and then about five minutes go by, and I'm like sweating, my arms cramping, and I'm like, oh, it's not pulling anymore.
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That was all me. Well, anyway, I don't know why I brought that up,
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I guess. To catch the tyrant, just as fish are hooked, so that's what God is doing. He's dangling the people as bait for Pharaoh.
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He's putting them in a place of vulnerability, not so that they would get slaughtered, but that so by being delivered, he would be glorified, and notice what is said, so that the
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Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. Ten times over, God has shown them who he is in the form of the plagues, but still they do not know, still they do not fear, by this act, by the utter destruction of the armies of Egypt, God will be known, and as the conquest advances into Canaan, the word has gone out among all the nations about the
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God of Israel, and so we see that indeed God is magnified through chapter 14. Now, to accomplish this,
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God not only allows his people to seem stumbling and bewildered, trapped by the land, and camped in the worst possible position, but he also hardens
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Pharaoh's heart, and once again, we see God's sovereignty right alongside man's accountability, man's responsibility.
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God doesn't manufacture some spite or some hatred in the heart of Pharaoh, that is already there.
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What God does is he hardens that hatred, he allows that hatred to drive
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Pharaoh beyond his sensibility, beyond all rationality, he becomes foolish in his rage, it's a judicial hardening of God, as we've said all along.
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He who puts Israel in a dire situation is the same one who hardens Pharaoh's heart. In other words,
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God is sovereignly orchestrating all things in such a way that his people will be rescued and he will be honored and glorified.
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What a wonderful, by the way, what a wonderful way to think about enduring trials as the people of God.
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To remember that God's purpose in camping us in a trying position, so to speak, is so that his name will be magnified.
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Well that means that when I face difficulties or trials in my life, my first desire ought to be to magnify the name of the
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Lord. And if I endure a trial, if I face difficulty, with that as my primary motivation, that God's name would be lifted up, that God would be known through this, that I would bear witness in a testimony unto him.
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If I can look at my dire situation with that priority, then surely
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I will find his peace, his joy, his sheltering presence in my life.
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Verse 5, now we leave the encampment of Israel and we sort of go behind the scenes to Pharaoh and his court.
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It was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled. And the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people.
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And they said, why have we done this? We have let Israel go from serving us.
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And so he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. He took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them.
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And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with boldness.
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In other words, now they're sort of running for the hills. So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh.
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Don't miss that. All of the horses, all of the chariots of Pharaoh, the most massive military at this point in ancient history.
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Consider the sight. So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea.
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The rhetorical question that begins in verse 5 is stunning. Why have we done this, that we have let
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Israel go from serving us? Why have you done this? I can think of ten reasons why you have done this.
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Ten very fateful reasons why you let God's people go. Do you notice how quickly the judgment of God is utterly forgotten?
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They've just come away from their grave clothes and their mourning period for their firstborn, and they've already forgot the judgment of God.
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Wait a minute. Where'd our slave labor go? Why did we ever let them go in the first place?
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Do you not remember the heavy hand of Yahweh against you? Egypt, like a petulant child, forgets the discipline as soon as it has passed.
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But we can't be too hard on Egypt because we're a lot like the Egyptians in this respect.
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We have very short memories. We have spiritual amnesia. We soon forget the discipline and instruction of the
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Lord. Perhaps Pharaoh thought the plagues were the limit of God's power. Now the people are out of God's reach, out of God's protection.
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But he wants all that labor back. He wants to be served. And you see the arrogance, the pride in the heart of this man.
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That pride, that arrogance, that like a worm resides in every human heart. This condition that God has hardened
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Pharaoh in is a condition common to all men. There's only one cure for this condition of utter madness and pride and arrogance, and that's the grace of God.
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Spurgeon says it so well. The Egyptians had been crushed by terrible plagues, but they were soon as proud as ever before.
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Nothing but the grace of God can truly subdue a proud heart. Nothing but the grace of God.
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Pharaoh gathers his troops, takes the very best of his chariots. These must have been the most well -built, the most ominous chariots at his disposal.
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Six hundred of his choice chariots, along with all of the rest. The chariot, as far as ancient warfare goes, there wasn't anything quite like it.
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It would have been like entrenched warfare in World War I, when the tank was first developed. It began to roll out toward the enemy lines.
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How terrifying it was for these young men who had never witnessed anything quite like that, to be encountering a tank.
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And a chariot was the ancient equivalent. So we see again, plight by might.
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Pharaoh is now pursuing Israel. And secondly, that leads us to Israel's crying and complaining.
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They're frightened by this sight. When Pharaoh drew near, verse 10, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the
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Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid. And the children of Israel cried out to the
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Lord. There's a practical wall of water ahead of them, and the whole army of Egypt is behind them.
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These poor people are caught between the devil and the deep. And as Pharaoh draws close, we read, they lifted their eyes, and as they lifted their eyes, through their eyes, their whole soul was being filled with terror.
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They know what's coming, when the arrows make their way, when the chariots run through, when limbs start falling by the left and by the right, when there are none left, when it's a complete massacre.
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And so as they see the army of Pharaoh closing in, the encampment being surrounded, their eyes cause them to be filled with terror.
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They're frightened by the sight. And this expression, lifted their eyes, it's more than just look.
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It means a very intentional looking after. A careful looking after.
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And here we see an intentional contrast. Remember what the Israelites had lifted their eyes to up until this point.
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The Israelites had lifted their eyes up to a pillar of cloud by the day, and a pillar of fire by the night.
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They lifted their eyes up and beheld, and what their eyes saw filled them with peace and confidence, with resolution, with perseverance.
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They saw the presence of God leading them. And then in this moment of trial, they look down, and when they lift their eyes up again, they don't see the presence of God.
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They see the presence of the serpent. They see the presence of Pharaoh. They see the presence of the enemy of their soul, closing in on them fast to destroy them.
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Rather than being filled with peace and perseverance, they're filled with terror. Do you notice a lesson in this?
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Between looking carefully at the presence of God, and looking carefully at the presence of our enemy. What we see is this.
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So long as the Israelites were keeping their eyes on the Lord, they were walking by faith and in peace.
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So long as they were keeping their eyes on the Lord, they were walking by faith and in peace. No enemy could touch them.
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No weapon formed against them could prosper. But as soon as they took their eyes off of the presence of God, and looked at their enemy, closing in, they began to cry out and murmur and complain.
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Verse 11. Because there were no graves in Egypt, is this why you've taken us away to die?
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Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Isn't this the word we told you in Egypt, referencing chapter 5?
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Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. It would have been far better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.
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So we thought, you know, they looked up, they saw their enemy, and they cried to the Lord. We said, oh good, good. They're learning how to cry out to the
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Lord and depend upon Him. No, they're actually learning how to cry out with complaints and accusations.
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This is what they're crying out to the Lord and to His servant Moses. You've left us to die.
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Look at us, we're ruined. We were better off in bondage, in misery. Why did you ever bring us out of that in the first place?
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This is not the last time the people of God will conjure up a fear -filled doubting, I told you so.
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It previews not only chapter 15, but chapter 16, and chapter 17, and pretty much the whole book of Numbers.
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In their fear and in their despair, they say, it was better for us to serve the Egyptians than die in the wilderness.
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So just as Pharaoh had forgotten the judgment of God, even God's own people had forgotten the misery of their bondage.
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Their accusation here assumes that they knew better, that they once had it better. They completely forgot what that bondage was like.
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They forgot the cries that brought God to their rescue in the first place. And so their complaint is filled with doubt and it's fueled by fear.
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All the things that are antithetical to faith. As long as the
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Israelites kept their eyes on the Lord, they were walking by faith and in peace. And as believers, we walk by faith, not by sight.
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One of the questions we ask in a text like this is, what are your eyes lifted up to behold? What do you look at?
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What are you looking at? What are you trusting in? What's the fruit of what you behold?
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Are you filled with fear, with panic, with worry? Are you filled with peace, with resolution and perseverance?
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The pathway is determined very much by who you are beholding, by what you're putting before you.
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Are you walking by faith or are you walking by sight? Moses says this to the people, do not be afraid.
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Think of how often the Lord tells his people not to fear. Think of Jesus coming amidst his 12 who are so often consumed by worry or filled with disappointment and discouragement, and he says, do not be afraid.
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Stand still and see the salvation of the
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Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians that you see today, you'll never see again.
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The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.
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So if we're having a preview of the complaining Israelites, the complaining people of God, we also have a preview of God's vindicating deliverance.
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Do not be afraid, he says, be still. The very thing that we saw all along in Genesis, do not be afraid.
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Genesis 15, Genesis 26, do not be afraid. And as Israel possessed the land they recognized in the beginning of Joshua, God is fighting for them.
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Same thing we read in Nehemiah 4. God is fighting for us. He will fight for us.
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Stand still, behold the salvation of God. Isn't that an amazing instruction to stand still?
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An army is rushing towards you, stand still. This is the ultimate game of chicken. The ultimate game of chicken.
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Here comes the chariots at a faster and faster pace. The horses being whipped and driven in a fury.
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The swords outstretched, the boastings drawn back. And God's answer isn't run, isn't duck, isn't hide, isn't dig holes in the dirt.
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No, it's stand still and behold the salvation of the
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Lord. The Master's word, Spurgeon says, is stand still. It would be well if God's servants always listened to the
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Master's word, because evil advisors come with other suggestions. Despair whispers, lie down, give it all up.
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Cowardice says, retreat, go back. It's the worldling's way of action. But however much
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Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it if you are a child of God. Presumption says, if the sea is before you, march into it, expect a miracle.
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But faith listens not to presumption, not to despair, and not to cowardice. Genuine faith submits to God's mighty hand.
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It stands still to behold his salvation. And that's what we see in verse 15 and following.
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Not the full deliverance, but God's protecting presence. Light by night.
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The Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Moses was apparently praying as well, whether he was praying because of the people or maybe even with the people.
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We don't have that prayer recorded, but the Lord responds to Moses and through Moses to the people.
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Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward, but lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.
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And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I indeed will harden the hearts of the
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Egyptians and they shall follow them. And in this way, I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, his horsemen.
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And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gained honor for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.
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Well, this marvelous revelation is what will occupy our focus next week as we come to the fulfillment of it with the remainder of chapter 14.
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So we're not looking at the deliverance quite yet and we'll bypass verses 15 through 18. Beginning in verse 19, we have this marvelous protecting presence of God.
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Beginning in verse 19, and the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel.
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Do you remember last week I was saying commentators, and I believe they're right, point out this is more properly classified as a
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Christophany rather than a Theophany, rather than a symbolic manifestation of the presence of God.
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It is a revelation of Christ pre -incarnate, the angel of God, the messenger of the covenant, the one who was guiding the people of Israel in cloud and in fire.
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Now he moves and goes behind, and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.
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Most likely that's held together. We have the same thing repeated for us, the pillar of cloud, the pillar of fire, the presence of the angel of God.
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So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud of darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that one did not come near the other all that night.
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The Lord was going to protect and preserve those that he had delivered from bondage. They're concerned that he wouldn't.
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Wouldn't it be better for us to have been in bondage and live than to be brought in the wilderness to die?
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And God says, no, neither. If I take you out of bondage, I won't let you die in the wilderness. Did I rescue you from bondage just to let you perish in the way?
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No. His presence would protect and preserve the ones that he had delivered from bondage.
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And the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them.
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So now we have this defensive positioning. The angel of God no longer guides, now he guards.
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He goes from a leading presence to a protecting presence. And notice that this presence is intimately near, but in a way that perhaps the
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Israelites were dull to see. They're still in this mode of complaining and crying out.
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They're still reacting out of fear. Perhaps many of them, if not most of them, were ignorant to the fact that God was protecting them.
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Spurgeon opens this up a bit in his sermon from the passage. He says, the angel of the
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Lord had removed, but it's added here, he removed and went behind them. And just as he was close to them when he was in the front, so he is close to them in behind.
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He might not seem to be their guide, but he had all the more evidently become their guard. He might not for the moment be the sun ahead of them, but he is now the shield behind them.
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The glory of the Lord was their rearward. The Lord may be very close to you, dear child, when you cannot see him, perhaps closer than he ever was when you could see him.
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The Lord in front of us seems so intimately close, and then he removes himself, and it's like a deer panting after streams of water.
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Where was that presence I once enjoyed? Lord, where have you gone? And we think, now he is so far from me.
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But in that time of weakness, in that time of vulnerability, it may be that though we cannot see him, he's guarding us, and he's closer than he ever was before, if we belong to him.
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I will lie down in peace, the psalmist says. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
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I don't know that any Israelite could have slept that night, but if they wanted to, they could have slept that night. I hope that some of the faithful, some that had a memory long enough to remember the 10 plagues, said, yeah, it's going to be a long day, so I'm going to get some shut -in.
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You know, I brought my sleeping bag, and I have some nice provisions with me, and I'm going to turn in for the night.
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We'll see what the Lord does the next day when he brings us through the sea. God's people are able to lie down in peace and sleep because God makes them to dwell in safety.
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It's just like Jesus on the boat. He's the only one asleep. The disciples are so afraid of drowning that they're drowning in their fear.
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That's what fear is like. But Christ is peacefully asleep in the storm.
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He knows His Father's in control. And He's also very tired. The angel of the
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Lord encamps around all those who fear Him, because He delivers them. So they are encamped in complete vulnerability, and yet, they could never be more secure.
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Why? Because the Lord Himself encamps around them. The Lord's presence is protecting them.
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God Himself guards them. He cannot be moved, therefore they cannot be moved. He cannot be thwarted, therefore they will not be thwarted.
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He's not indifferent, He's not abstracted, He's not distracted from their need. Though they may still be crying out in fear, the
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Lord is giving them light by night. His presence is protecting them. Notice that His presence is light to the people of God and darkness to those who would destroy them.
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Isn't that amazing? The Egyptians are quite literally clothed in darkness, just as they were in the ninth plague.
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Deja vu, God's about to destroy the son of Egypt again, going from darkness to destruction.
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As they had been clothed in darkness, so surrounded in their homes, the people of God in the land of Goshen, under the blood of the
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Lamb, were secure. God even then had given them modest light, but now His own presence is their light.
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And so in this way, God's people are the children of light. In this way, the enemies of God are children of darkness.
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It's a vivid picture of how the glory of God in the Gospel will be a light to the people of God and darkness to those who despise
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Him. The brightness of the Gospel, Calvin says, should blind the unbelieving.
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The brightness, the glory of the Gospel should blind those who hate God. And therefore, we ought to ask
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God, enable us to behold Your glory. Don't let me be like the
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Egyptians and have dim sight and wander in darkness. Let me behold Your light as You are the one who is enclosed in light.
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You who are light itself. We see the Lord protecting
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His people, giving them light, causing them to put their hope and trust in Him.
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People in every age want to find something to trust. Something that will give them stability. Something that will give them security.
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For many, that's in their riches or in their own strength or the comfort they have in pursuing their ambitions.
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False gods of every type and of every sort. That's how false gods worked always.
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Something that gave you a sense of security, stability, fulfillment. In the
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West, Mammon looks a little different than he used to look. Baal looks a little different. Ashtoreth looks a little different.
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But the same mechanics are unchanged. We're consumed by insecurity, by despair.
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We try to cope and find peace through escape by drunkenness or drugs or sex or suicide.
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Whatever the world would have to offer. These idolatrous trinkets that so keep us from the presence of God.
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In the eyes of the world, everything is up for grabs. There's no real security. The economy is always on the brink of disaster.
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There's always a threat of violence and terrorism. We have it in the headlines even this week. Cities, whether on the
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East or on the West or in the middle of the country, cities are... If you look at the headlines that are coming out of them, it's horrific to see.
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What is just taken as normal nowadays. And law enforcement caving in on itself in some of these cities where laws are no longer enforced.
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Injustice is pitiful. Absent altogether. And the whole world is seen on the verge of ecological catastrophe.
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Nothing is secure. The future is entirely uncertain. And this is not how a Christian views the world.
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This is not how Christians view the world. We can get sucked into the endless cycle of shocking and despairing news.
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We can see decline. We can see depravity. We see evil deeds by evil men and women all around us.
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But we must return to the truth of God's world as it is revealed in the truth of God's Word.
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God is sovereign. And therefore His people are ever safe even when He plants them in the most vulnerable trying positions imaginable.
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Notice that it's the same sun and the same night. The threat is the same for all humanity.
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God doesn't say, well, when you become a Christian and you follow me, you never have to face the sun and you never have to endure the night.
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I give you your own little path through life and you keep going from blessing to blessing and strength to strength. You never have to face the difficulties and trials that ordinary people have to face.
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Isn't it wonderful to be a Christian? No. Being a human being in this fallen world means you have to endure nights and you have to be struck by the sun.
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The difference that God's presence makes is He Himself will protect you. He Himself will guide you.
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He Himself will ensure that nothing will utterly take you from His hand and your soul will be safely guided to Him at the last.
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So we face the same sun. We endure the same night. Whether you're a Christian or a non -Christian, we know just from friends, families, and co -workers, we have many things that are common to man that we all endure.
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Many trials that we all suffer of every stripe, whether Christian or no. Does that mean there is no difference?
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Does that mean that God is a mere projection? A desire of men to have wish fulfillment in the sky?
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No. Such a claim would be ignorance. Being blind, unable to see.
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Having ears unable to hear. Legs unable to walk. A heart of stone unable to believe. Those who have known the presence of God have known the difference that presence makes.
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Things that would consume. Things that would destroy an ordinary person. Though they may cry out, though they may complain, though they may be in agony, they have found the protecting presence of God bearing them up and bearing them through.
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God's protecting presence here in Exodus 14 is given us in a two -fold form.
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As we've said, it's a cloud and it's fire. In other words, it's a covering and it's light.
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And I love this phrase, light by night, because it brings out the best of those two images.
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Cloud and fire covering in light. I remember rushing home from school as a boy.
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This is dating me for some of you, perhaps, but I used to make sure that I timed my walk home from middle school to turn on Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the
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Dark? Which is a really cheesy show. I don't know why I bring this up. Well, anyway, there's some fascination that children have, a kind of puerile fascination with being scared.
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It's interesting to me. I'd love to spend more time thinking about why that is, why we enjoy fear at a relatively safe level.
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But, of course, children grow up and they are naturally afraid of the dark. This isn't something that is taught to them by their parents.
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It's not like a child's in the bedroom, you know, can you go downstairs to the kitchen, get me a glass of water? Oh, you should have asked her in the day, honey.
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It's nighttime, I'm not going down there. They don't learn it from us, but somehow all children have this universal phenomenon, this experience of being afraid of the dark.
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And when a child is afraid of the dark, they look for two things to give them comfort and a sense of safety.
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Covering and light. Light and covering. Men, generally speaking, love light.
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I bet some of you have some pretty fancy flashlights. I don't know why. My neighbor, two units down, he does
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YouTube reviews for camping gear. And so usually at least once a week, I'll look out the front window and I'll see, you know, 3 ,000 lumens being shown around the trees.
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And if I'm ever outside and he happens to be, you know, testing out his thing, he'll say, hey Ross, check this out.
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You know, and then, you know, 30 -foot radius, it's his brightest day, and he's, you know, he's so proud of it.
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He's like, isn't that awesome? You know, and it's like burning his hand, you know, third -degree burns. We have this love for light.
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Why? Because for all that is unknown, as soon as you shine a light on it, you know what you're facing.
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It sizes things down. What your imagination would lead to fear and concern, a little bit of light, all of a sudden that fear is dissipating.
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And so a child in a dark room, they often want a nightlight or a lamp, or can you leave the hallway light on?
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Just some presence of light, and that presence of light takes away the fear.
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And so we have, from the Lord, light in darkness. Darkness being emblematic of the difficulties, the confusion, the fears that begin to tread our imagination.
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Christians in this way, like sheep, are afraid of the dark. And they're constantly being asked in Scripture, well, from where does your help come from?
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The Lord knows you're fickle and fearful. From where does your help come from? And the answer Exodus shows us is our help comes from the presence of God.
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Our help comes from the protection of God, which is light in the darkness of life. I trust
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Him because I know He'll lead me, though often on a surprising path, He'll lead me through the wilderness of this fallen world and bring my soul safe to Him at last.
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In this way, He becomes a rock. My fortress, the psalmist says, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, the one in whom
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I take refuge. Psalm 46. I can't wait for Luther Palooza. By the way, there's an ad on top of the piano.
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If you want to invite friends or family, get that sheet to them. It will give them all the info. I can't wait for Luther Palooza.
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In part, why? Because we're going to sing, a mighty fortress is our God. And we're going to remember the past 500 years how those words have been used to instill a holy confidence in the people of God.
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He is a mighty fortress. God is our refuge, our strength, a very present help.
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Not an absent help. But a present help in trouble. His presence protects us.
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That's why He's a refuge. The Lord, the psalmist says, Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
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Whom shall I fear? Do you see how these things go together? The Lord is my light.
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That's why I won't fear. When it's dark, and my imagination is running wild about what horrors await,
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I know that the Lord is my light. Therefore, I won't be afraid. The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall
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I be afraid? I was in the pool this week, and I have one girl that very much wants to be off on her own in her floaty vest, and she's very proud of herself.
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And another daughter that will hang out on the stairs. And, you know, by the end of the week is getting a little more confident.
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And we got her a little float that she could lay on to practice swimming. She wasn't brave enough to do that on her own.
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But she said, you know, Daddy, will you hold me? I said, of course, honey. So I put my arms on her shoulders as she holds on to the floaty, and I tell her to kick, kick, kick.
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And just this feeling of delight and awe is all over her face. I'm swimming,
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I'm swimming. Yeah, okay, something like that. And I take her further and further, three feet, four feet, five feet, and she's beginning to feel the kind of, you know, breadth of the pool.
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And then I just slowly remove one hand, just about an inch away, and all of a sudden that delight is washed over with absolute panic.
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Her eyes dilate, they become pitch black. Don't let go! Right? In that moment, all that confidence that my upholding hands had given her, as soon as I just flinched an inch, all of that was taken away, and she was filled with fear.
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While my hands were holding her, she had absolute confidence, even joy, in the midst of the deep.
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But as soon as my hands seemed to be withdrawn, she began to be fearful. Don't let me go, she said.
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And I hope you can relate to that as a Christian, that you can be in the deep, in the dark, but if you are being supported by the hands of your
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Heavenly Father, you can do so even with joy, even with delight. A table set before me, in the presence of my enemies.
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Your light is my salvation. Whom shall I fear? But when that hand is removed, how we're flooded with terror.
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Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your spirit from me. We cry out. I can't tread water on my own,
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Lord. I will drown. And so God is constantly assuring us, I won't let you go.
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I won't let you go. I may move my hand for a season, but I'm not letting you go.
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God assures us of this in His Word. Psalm 139, 11, and 12. If I say, surely the darkness will fall on me, even the night will be light around me.
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Indeed, the darkness doesn't hide from you. Night shines like the day. Darkness and the light are both alike to you.
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Why could that be the case? Because He is the light. And so in this way, in this pillar of fire,
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He's showing that His protecting presence is light and salvation to those who are afraid of the dark.
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I am the light of the world, Jesus says. Whoever follows me doesn't walk in darkness, but in the light of life.
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So we have light in the darkness. And then secondly, we have a covering in the night. This presence was a covering.
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The other thing about children, they don't just want a nightlight or a lamp, they want a blanket. Were you this way?
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I was this way growing up. For some reason you thought, the monsters under my bed can't get me as long as I'm under a blanket, right?
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If your ankle sneaks out, that's fair game. You might wake up missing that. But whatever's under the blanket is secure.
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If you could get a snorkel under the sheet, you were invincible. But any fingers, any digits hanging over the edge of the bed, that was open season.
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There's something about a blanket that gives comfort, isn't there? A covering. People have weighted blankets nowadays.
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I don't know what the appeal is. I think I would have a panic attack if I slept with a weighted blanket. Maybe that's for you.
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But people like that idea of being sort of smushed while they sleep. Right?
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Being pushed and embraced by this thick covering. And this covering gives us a sense of security.
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Psalm 5. Let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy as you spread your protection over them.
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The same verb that is used of spreading a garment or spreading a covering. God spreads his protection.
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He covers his people. The greatest passage I'm convinced in all of Scripture to get across this image of God's protecting presence being like a covering for his people is
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Psalm 91. Psalm 91. It's an amazing psalm. Because of the way that God's presence is depicted.
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Psalm 91. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
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Almighty. So notice we have someone dwelling in the secret place of the Most High which has become for them a safe dwelling under the shadow of the
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Almighty. Here's this image of God. His presence over them.
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So that they're under the shadow of it. And that's the secret place of the Most High. I will say of the
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Lord. So this is a general truth for all of God's people. And now the psalmist is exhorting himself.
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I will say of the Lord. He is my refuge. My fortress. My God. In Him I will trust.
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Surely, He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
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So now we're being brought out of the sort of temple shadow. The shadow of His dwelling place.
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To another image. That of of prey being pursued by a fowler.
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So a fowler sets a snare. He wants to catch a bird. There's many different ways in the ancient world they would do this.
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A simple snare or something far more elaborate that would catch more at once. And also from the perilous pestilence.
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This picture of disease. Of something that all of a sudden comes and strikes down people. This trial of health.
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He shall cover you. This is how God protects. Notice the imagery. He shall cover you with His feathers.
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And under His wings you shall take refuge. His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
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You shall not be afraid of terror by night. Verse 4 is of course the greatest image of God's protecting presence.
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He shall cover you with His feathers. Under His wings you shall take refuge.
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Some of you raised chickens. I don't know if you've seen this. I've seen videos of it. But in a time of danger or in the midst of a storm, a mother hen will gather her brood under her wings.
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It's what Jesus references in Matthew 23. He said, I was willing to do that for you Jerusalem. Every time
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I sent a prophet to you, you killed them. You stoned them. You wouldn't receive me. Though I wanted to receive you under my wings.
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Perhaps referencing Psalm 91 in addition to other things. You have here this image.
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This image of a mother bird. A maternal analogy that God uses to depict
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His protecting presence. Like a mother bird gathering her young under her wings.
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And to be under the wings is to be brought right to the core. Right to the breast.
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Right to the place of warmth. And nurture. And comfort. So God doesn't say, I kind of keep away and I'm like an umbrella.
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He doesn't say, I kind of let one feather lean on your shoulder. At least you know
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I'm nearby. He says, this is my presence of you. I encompass you with my wings.
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Bring you into the very center of my being. Spurgeon reacting to this.
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He says, what condescending words. I cannot express the sense I feel of the loving kindness of the
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Lord. Had any poet suggested the metaphor, we might recoil from it. Reject it as profane.
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It really is so familiar and homely that unless God Himself had spoken it, we might have accounted it impertinent for any human being to have used.
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The Lord compares Himself to a hen covering her brood. And He speaks not only of the wing which gives shelter, but He enters into detail the feathers which give warmth and comfort and repose.
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He will cover thee with His feathers under His wings thou shalt trust. Using this maternal instinct as an emblem of His own tenderness,
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God compares Himself to a mother bird which fosters, cherishes, protects her little one.
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It was in Matthew 23 that Jesus did the same. There was a
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New Testament scholar that pointed out he lived in the countryside of England and he never considered the fullness of what
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Matthew 23 was presenting. Because it wasn't just that in an arbitrary fashion
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God gathered His people. It was in the midst of Pharaoh pursuing them unto death.
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And in Matthew 23, it wasn't an arbitrary gathering that Jesus sought after. It was a sacrificial offering.
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I would give my life for yours. And this scholar said, I came out and there had been a fox attack and there were feathers and blood and the mother had been sort of torn by the fox.
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And the farmer went to move the carcass thinking that it would just be the remnants of that hen and underneath that carcass with the outspread wings and the mess of feathers were the brood all safe and sound.
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And so he said, you know, that's what Jesus is doing in Matthew 23. He's saying,
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I would have gathered you in this way, but you were not willing. But even still,
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I outstretched my body as a covering for you. Remember he had called
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Herod that fox not that long ago. So that he would be torn asunder.
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His life would be taken, but the people's life preserved. This is the protection of God.
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It's a covering protection. We ask the question, what difference does this protection make? What difference does the covering of God make for your life?
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What makes this difference? Your afflictions become your mercies. Right?
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Same sun, same night, same darkness, same fear. But your affliction becomes your mercy because of the presence of God.
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Your trial becomes your comfort because of the presence of God. Your glory is your tribulation because of the presence of God.
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You find light in the midst of abject darkness. Joy unspeakable. And that's why the other people who don't know
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God's presence can't understand the language you're speaking. They're disturbed by the peace you have.
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They think you've gone off your rocker. You've been brainwashed. You've drunk Christian Kool -Aid. They know nothing of this protecting presence of God.
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If all the saints are so sheltered, then why does the psalmist say, he who dwells in the secret place shall abide under the shadow of the
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Almighty? If all the saints are covered in this way, why does the psalmist say it's the secret place?
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It's the secret place of the Almighty. In other words, there seems to be something more than most
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Christians, more than most believers experience. This isn't just the commonplace, this is the secret place. Calvin, off of Psalm 8, is reflecting on this, and he says,
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Not all have such a close abiding with God. Therefore, not all have such confidence in His promise.
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Such faith is not given to all. It is special, because there are diversities in the measure of faith.
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It is not of all believers that the psalmist sings at Psalm 8, but only those who dwell in the secret place of the
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Most High. So you notice that this light, this covering, this protecting presence of God is something that's freely offered to all.
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Something that Christians have, and can experience in deeper ways. Something they ought to know that they have.
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And be given every confidence, every assurance to run the race that's set before them. And yet, even still, this covering and this hidden presence of God only belongs to those who know the secret place of the
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Lord. Have you ever encountered a believer, and without knowing why or how, you just feel that they have some deeper intimacy with God that you lack?
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They don't say anything, or necessarily do anything out of the ordinary to make you feel this way, but you're given a deep impression that they've breathed air you have not breathed.
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And they've seen things you have not beheld. And they've walked in a closeness that you have not even imagined.
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One application as I close, one application that I would give to this very point is this.
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The special place of the Almighty, the place where He is a light and a covering to His people in darkness, is a place that can only be found through prayer.
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It can only be found through prayer. I'm convinced that if you were to encounter believers that had this aura, this sense of being intimately acquainted with the
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Lord in ways that you are not, if I had to boil it all down, I would say it comes down to their manner of prayer.
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Prayer is the means by which we abide with the Lord in intimacy. Prayer is the means by which we access the throne of grace where He resides.
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Prayer is the entrance to the secret place of the Almighty. People can do many other things profitably, many other things to the refreshment of their soul, but it is prayer, almost exclusively, that brings that believer to the secret place of God.
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And it's in prayer where God covers them over like a mother bird, brings them to His very breast, gives them light and warmth and nurture and comfort and says, my child, you are safe here.
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It's through prayer. No wonder that trials, then, often result in this protecting presence of God because trials drive the people of God to prayer.
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So often, we're not in this secret place of the Almighty and we feel vulnerable and we begin to complain or we're filled with fear.
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Why? We have not been driven to prayer. But when something happens in our lives and it drives us to prayer, there we find the secret place of God.
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John Newton once wrote a letter to a woman in his congregation and her sister was dying and he was trying to give her some sense of comfort and encouragement as well as advice.
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And he used this imagery from Psalm 91 to comfort her. And he said this, Hide yourself under the shadow of His wings.
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Rely upon His care and His power. Look at Him as you would a physician who's undertaken to heal your soul of the worst sickness, which is sin.
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When you cannot see your way, be satisfied that He is your leader. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you, remember
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He is the one that knows your path. He won't leave you to sink. He's appointed a season for refreshment.
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And you will find that He does not forget you. But above all things, keep close to the throne of grace by prayer.
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If it seems no good by attempting to draw near to Him, be assured that you will never get near Him if you keep away.
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So here you have, as the Puritans would say, not just the exhortation to pray, but to pray through.
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In other words, the secret place of the Almighty is not clumsily presented to the believer.
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It's not something that has a barn door that you just waltz in unassuming. The secret place is not something you stumble into.
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Few find it because though they're already on the narrow path unto salvation, it's a especially narrow and thorny way to get to the secret place of God.
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So it's not just prayer. It's praying through. It's praying until you actually have found yourself abiding in the presence of God.
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It's praying through until you're no longer praying in what feels like darkness and emptiness, but you're praying in the warmth of light.
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It's out of season perhaps right now, but there's a certain time of year that I love coming up to the pulpit because the sun is coming through the windows just right, and as someone's praying before the preaching, if I stand just here, the light just floods me.
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And I have my eyes closed as we're praying, but even though I have my eyes closed and all seems dark,
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I can take a step back and I feel the warmth of that light. That's what praying through is like.
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Your eyes are closed. It seems empty. You're in darkness, but you pray through until you feel the warmth of His presence, and somehow you know without seeing, you know you have been seated at the throne of grace.
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His presence is near you. Now you know that you are at His very breast, that you are communing with Him.
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That is what it means, brothers and sisters, to draw near to the
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Holy One in the secret place and find His protecting presence.
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James MacDonald, who I only know about in reading about John MacDonald last year, of Ferintosh, who was a famous evangelist, and his father was a very faithful man, a catechist, who once, with many others in the times of the highland clearings, were trying to make it to America.
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So he was on this large boat with all these other immigrants, and they were bound for America off the coast of Kathniss, and then a huge storm with these mighty waves began to rock the boat, and they knew the ship was going to go under.
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They knew that they had to turn back, and they didn't know if they would be thrown up against the rocky cliffs. So all of the people on the boat began to cry out.
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They were dropping to their knees, crying out for mercy, and a few of the sailors noticed, and a few of the passengers noticed
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James MacDonald was sitting there at complete peace. This enraged them.
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And so a terror -stricken passenger shouted, You hardened, godless man, why won't you pray?
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And he said, I pity those who have never prayed until tonight. I pity those who have never prayed until tonight.
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He was a man who had known the secret place of God, and so when the storm came and threatened his life, he knew that he was under the shadow of the wings.
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He had prayed through his whole life. If the
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Lord be with us, we have no cause to fear. If his presence is covering us, we have no cause for alarm.
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His eye is upon us. His arm is over us. His feathers embrace us. His ear open to our prayer.
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His grace is sufficient. His promise is unchangeable. Amen? Let's pray.
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Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your presence. Thank You for Your precious promises.
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May we not take them for granted. May we not treat them as something cheap.
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May we not be discouraged or grow faint when we strive just for a moment in some new turn, in some new direction, and yet we're so easily despairing because we don't find that secret place.
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We don't pray through. Lord, give us a spirit of prayer and with it, a spirit of perseverance.
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Would that all the Lord's people would be gathered into Your secret place. That we would all know by the power of prayer how to be gathered under Your wing.
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How to find communion at the very center of Your presence. May we settle for no less.
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May nothing else satisfy us, Lord. May we be those who breathe air from Your very nostrils.
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Who find warmth from Your very presence. May we be those who have an aura about them of brighter light to children of light.
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And certainly, a beacon to children of darkness. And Lord, if there be children of darkness, children of wrath, sinners by nature in this room today who have not trusted in the blood of the
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Savior, who have not found the deliverance of their Maker, may this be the day of their salvation. May You do that effectual call in their life.
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Bringing them out of bondage and darkness. Carrying them into the presence of their
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Savior. Do this by Your Spirit, we pray. And refresh us anew, we pray, by the same