Light by Night

Well, this morning we begin chapter 14 in the book of Exodus as we're making our way to the Exodus proper, the actual deliverance and bringing out of God's people from the clutch of Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.

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. 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.

We considered the theophanic presence of God, the fiery pillar and the pillar of cloud. 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.

Now this event, this leading by both cloud and fire was rehearsed throughout the 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.

We have it constantly attended as God's fiery presence, as God's cloudy presence, 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.

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 God's leading presence. Psalm 105, 39, He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to illumine by night.

So that's God's protecting presence. We'll see that very clearly as we get to verses 19 and 20 in our text this morning. 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 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. 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.

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. 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. Secondly, in verses 10 through 14, we have fright by sight, the fear of the 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. Plight by might, fright by sight, light by night, that's a tongue twister if you can do it five times fast.

So let's begin with verses 1 through 9. Plight by might, in other words, Pharaoh pursuing Israel. 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 Migdal in the sea, opposite Baal Zephon, and you shall camp before it by the sea.

For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they're bewildered by the land, the wilderness has closed them in. 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 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, 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 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, he pins them against the.

Sea.

A general under Napoleon would be shot for no less. This is a tactical blunder. This is a place of absolute vulnerability. Why would God lead them here? 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 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. 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.

This is not the way any captain would lead his forces, not the way any general would strategically advance out of a land. This is not the way the Israelites expected to travel, but it is the way that God directed them, turn back, camp facing the sea.

And we read why, Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are bewildered by the land. God is setting an ambush. I love what Calvin says on this, God for the sake of magnifying 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, 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 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 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.

That was all me. Well, anyway, I don't know why I brought that up, 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. 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 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 God of Israel, and so we see that indeed God is magnified through chapter 14.

Now, to accomplish this, 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 Pharaoh's heart, and once again, we see God's sovereignty right alongside man's accountability, man's responsibility.

God doesn't manufacture some spite or some hatred in the heart of Pharaoh, that is already.

There.

What God does is he hardens that hatred, he allows that hatred to drive 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.

He who puts Israel in a dire situation is the same one who hardens Pharaoh's heart. In other words, God is sovereignly orchestrating all things in such a way that his people will be rescued and he will be honored and glorified.

What a wonderful, by the way, what a wonderful way to think about enduring trials as the people of God. To remember that God's purpose in camping us in a trying position, so to speak, is so that his name will be magnified.

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 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.

If I can look at my dire situation with that priority, then surely I will find his peace, his joy, his sheltering presence in my life. Verse 5, now we leave the encampment of Israel and we sort of go behind the scenes to Pharaoh and his court.

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. And they said, why have we done this? We have let Israel go from serving us.

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.

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. In other words, now they're sort of running for the hills. So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh. Don't miss that. All of the horses, all of the chariots of Pharaoh, the most massive military at this point in ancient history.

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. The rhetorical question that begins in verse 5 is stunning.

Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? Why have you done this? I can think of ten reasons why you have done this. Ten very fateful reasons why you let God's people go. Do you notice how quickly the judgment of God is utterly forgotten?

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. Wait a minute. Where'd our slave labor go? Why did we ever let them go in the first place?

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. But we can't be too hard on Egypt because we're a lot like the Egyptians in this respect.

We have very short memories. We have spiritual amnesia. We soon forget the discipline and instruction of the 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.

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. That pride, that arrogance, that like a worm resides in every human heart. This condition that God has hardened 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. Spurgeon says it so well. The Egyptians had been crushed by terrible plagues, but they were soon as proud as ever before.

Nothing but the grace of God can truly subdue a proud heart. Nothing but the grace of God. 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.

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. It would have been like entrenched warfare in World War I, when the tank was first developed, began to roll out toward the enemy lines.

How terrifying it was for these young men who had never witnessed anything quite like that, to be encountering a tank. And a chariot was the ancient equivalent. So we see, again, plight by might. Pharaoh is now pursuing Israel.

And secondly, that leads us to Israel's crying and complaining. They're frightened by this sight. When Pharaoh drew near, verse 10, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians march after them.

So they were very afraid. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. There's a practical wall of water ahead of them, and the whole army of Egypt is behind them. 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. 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.

And so as they see the army of Pharaoh closing in, the encampment being surrounded, their eyes cause them to be filled with terror. They're frightened by the sight. And this expression, lifted their eyes, it's more than just look.

It means a very intentional looking after, a careful looking after. And here we see an intentional contrast. Remember what the Israelites had lifted their eyes to up until this point. The Israelites had lifted their eyes up to a pillar of cloud by the day and a pillar of fire by the night.

They lifted their eyes up and beheld. And what their eyes saw filled them with peace and confidence, with resolution, with.

Perseverance.

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. They see the presence of the serpents.

They see the presence of Pharaoh. They see the presence of the enemy of their soul closing in on them fast to destroy them. Rather than being filled with peace and perseverance, they're filled with terror.

Do you notice a lesson in this? Between looking carefully at the presence of God and looking carefully at the presence of our enemy.

What we see is this.

So long as the Israelites were keeping their eyes on the Lord, they were walking by faith and in peace. So long as they were keeping their eyes on the Lord, they were walking by faith and in.

Peace.

No enemy could touch them. 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.

Verse 11, because there were no graves in Egypt, is this why you've taken us away to.

Die?

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? 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.

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 Lord and depend upon him. No, they're actually learning how to cry out with complaints and accusations. This is what they're crying out to the Lord and to his servant Moses.

You have left us to die.

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? This is not the last time the people of God will conjure up a fear filled doubting. I told you so. It previews not only chapter 15, but chapter 16 and chapter 17 and pretty much the whole book of Numbers.

In their fear and in their despair, they say it was better for us to serve the Egyptians than die in the wilderness. So just as Pharaoh had forgotten the judgment of God, even God's own people had forgotten the misery of their bondage.

Their accusation here assumes that they knew better, that they once had it better. They completely forgot what that bondage was like. 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. All the things that are antithetical to faith. As long as the 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. 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?

What are you looking at? What are you trusting in? What's the fruit of what you behold? Are you filled with fear, with panic, with worry? Are you filled with peace, with resolution and perseverance? The pathway is determined very much by who you are beholding, by what you're putting before you.

Are you walking by faith or are you walking by sight? Moses says this to the people, do not be afraid. 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.

Stand still. And see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today, for the Egyptians that you see today, you'll never see again, the Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.

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. Do not be afraid. He says, be still. The very thing that we saw all along in Genesis, do not be afraid.

Genesis 15, Genesis 26, do not be afraid. And as Israel possessed the land, they recognized the beginning of Joshua. God is fighting for them. The same thing we read in Nehemiah 4. God is fighting for us.

He will fight for us. Stand still, behold the salvation of God. Isn't that an amazing instruction to stand still, an army is rushing towards you, stand still, this is the ultimate game of chicken. The ultimate game of chicken, here comes the chariots at a faster and faster pace, the horses being whipped and driven in a fury, the swords outstretched, the boasting is drawn back.

And God's answer isn't run, isn't duck, isn't hide, isn't dig holes in the dirt. No, it's stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord. The master's words, Spurgeon says, is stand still. It would be well if God's servants always listened to the master's word, because evil advisors come with other suggestions.

Despair whispers, lie down, give it all up. Cowardice says, retreat, go back. It's the worldlings way of action. But however much 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. But faith listens not to presumption, not to despair and not to cowardice. Genuine faith submits to God's mighty hand. It stands still to behold his salvation.

And that's what we see in verse 15 and following, not the full deliverance, but God's protecting presence, light by night. 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.

We don't have that prayer recorded, but the Lord responds to Moses and through Moses to the people. 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.

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 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.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gained honor for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. 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.

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. Beginning in verse 19, and the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel.

Do you remember last week I was saying commentators, and I believe they're right, point out this is more properly classified as a Christophany rather than a Theophany, rather than a symbolic manifestation of the presence of God.

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. Now he moves and goes behind and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.

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. 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. The Lord was going to protect and preserve those that he had delivered from bondage.

They're concerned that he wouldn't, wouldn't it be better for us to have been in bondage and live than to be brought in the wilderness to die? 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? No. His presence would protect and preserve the ones that he had delivered from bondage. And the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them.

So now we have this defensive positioning. The angel of God does no longer guides, now he guards. 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 Israelites were dulled to see.

They're still in this mode of complaining and crying out. 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. Spurgeon opens this up a bit in his sermon from the passage.

He says, the angel of the 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. 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. 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.

Isn't that amazing? 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. Where was that presence I once enjoyed? Lord, where have you gone?

And we think now he is so far from me. 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, I will lie down in peace, the psalmist says, for you alone, oh, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

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.

You know, I brought my sleeping bag and I have some some nice provisions with me and I'm going to turn in for the night. 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.

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. That's what fear is like. But Christ is peacefully asleep in the storm.

He knows his father's in control and he's also very tired. The angel of the 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.

Why? Because the Lord himself encamps around them. The Lord's presence is protecting them. God himself guards them. He cannot be moved. Therefore, they cannot be moved. He cannot be thwarted. Therefore, they will not be thwarted.

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 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.

Isn't that amazing?

The Egyptians are quite literally clothed in darkness, just as they were in the ninth plague. Deja vu. God's about to destroy the son of Egypt again, going from darkness to destruction. 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 lamb were secure.

God even then had given them modest light, but now his own presence is their light. And so in this way, God's people are the children of light. In this way, the enemies of God are children of darkness.

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 him. The brightness of the gospel, Calvin says, should blind the unbelieving.

The brightness, the glory of the gospel should blind those who hate God, and therefore we ought to ask God, enable us to behold your glory. Don't let me be like the Egyptians and have dim sight and wander in darkness.

Let me behold your light as you are the one who is enclosed in light, you who are light itself. We see the Lord protecting his people, giving them light. Causing them to put their hope and trust in him, people in every age want to find something to trust, something that will give them stability, something that will give them security.

For many, that's in their riches or in their own strength or the comfort they have in pursuing their ambitions. False gods of every type and of every sort. That's how false gods worked always. Something that gave you a sense of security, stability, fulfillment.

In the West, Mammon looks a little different than he used to look, or Baal looks a little different, Ashtoreth looks a little different. But the same mechanics are unchanged. We're consumed by insecurity, by despair.

We try to cope and find peace through escape, by drunkenness or drugs or sex or suicide, whatever the world would have to offer. These idolatrous trinkets that so keep us from the presence of God. 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. There's always a threat of violence and terrorism. We have it in the headlines even this week. Cities, whether on the 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.

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. Injustice is pitiful, absent altogether. And the whole world is seen on the verge of ecological catastrophe.

Nothing is secure. The future is entirely uncertain. And this is not how a Christian views the world. This is not how Christians view the world. We can get sucked into the endless cycle of shocking and despairing news.

We can see decline. We can see depravity. We see evil deeds by evil men and women all around us. But we will, we must return to the truth of God's world as it is revealed in the truth of God's word. God is sovereign and therefore his people are ever safe, even when he plants them in the most vulnerable trying positions imaginable.

Notice that it's the same sun and the same night, right? The threat is the same for all humanity. 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.

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.

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. The difference that God's presence makes is he himself will protect you.

He himself will guide you. He himself will ensure that nothing will utterly take you from his hand and your soul be safely guided to him at the last. 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 men that we all endure, many trials that we all suffer of every stripe, whether Christian or no. Does that mean there is no difference? Does that mean that God is a mere projection, a desire of men to have wish fulfillment in the sky?

No. Such a claim would be ignorant, being blind, unable to see, 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.

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.

God's protecting presence here in Exodus 14 is given us in a twofold form. As we've said, it's it's a cloud and it's fire. In other words, it's a covering. And it's light. And I love this phrase light by night because it brings out the best of those two images.

Cloud and fire covering in light. I remember rushing home from school as a boy. 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 Dark?

Which is a really cheesy show. I don't know why I bring this up. Well, anyway, there's some some fascination that children have, a kind of puerile fascination with being scared. 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. 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.

It's not like a child's in the bedroom, you know, can you go downstairs to the kitchen and get me a glass of water? You should ask during the day, honey. 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.

And when a child is afraid of the dark, they look for two things to give them comfort and a sense of safety. Covering and light. Light and covering. Men, generally speaking, love light. I bet some of you have some pretty fancy flashlights.

I don't know why. My neighbor, two units down, he does 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.

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, 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.

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. Why? Because for all that is unknown, as soon as you shine a light on it, you know what you're facing.

You know, 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. And so a child in a dark room, they often want a nightlight or a lamp or can you leave the hallway light on?

Just some presence of light. And that presence of light takes away the fear. 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.

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? 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. Our help comes from the protection of God, which is light in the darkness of life. I trust 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. In this way, he becomes a rock. My fortress, the psalmist says, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, the one in whom I take refuge.

Psalm 46, I can't wait for Luther Palooza. By the way, there's an ad on top of the piano. 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.

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. He is a mighty fortress.