The Inheritance for the Sons of Joseph - Joshua 16-17

Well good morning beloved. I welcome you. It is an honor and a privilege and a wonder that we serve a living savior.

One who was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, buried, descended, and on the third day he rose again from the dead.

Our God is not distant from us. Our God is not removed. Our God reigns.

He reigns now. We are continuing this morning in the book of Joshua.

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 16. Last week we concluded

Joshua 15 as we looked at the cities allotted to the tribe of Judah. We were reminded again, as we have been really every week through this study of the book of Joshua, of God's covenantal faithfulness to his promises, as we will see again this morning.

More specifically, last week we saw themes of the responsibility of stewardship that comes with God's blessing.

We saw this reminder of the necessity of living in community with God's people.

And we saw the physicality of the promises of God and how this most clearly points forward to the hope of the resurrection.

Because our Lord has risen from the dead, we have hope in the resurrection to come.

All who have faith, who are united to Christ, we have that hope of the resurrection.

Now my wife pointed out to me that with the emphases we had last week on the physical resurrection and the hope that we have because of Christ's work on the cross and his resurrection, that probably would have thematically been a more fitting message for this week.

But the truth is we are to remember Christ's death and resurrection every

Lord's Day. That is why we gather on the first day of the week, because our

Lord died and rose on that glorious morning. He arose a victor from the dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign.

He arose, he arose, hallelujah, he arose. Now we will touch on some of those themes again this morning, but our text before us takes a slightly different emphasis this morning and we will go where the text leads us.

This morning we will be looking at all of chapters 16 and 17 of the book of Joshua, which detail for us the land allotted to the two sons of Joseph.

That's Ephraim and Manasseh. We'll be looking at what is given to them as their inheritance.

And as we discussed last week, these texts here in the second half of the book of Joshua are a little difficult.

One of the reasons for that is that these are places that are unfamiliar to us.

We're very far removed from these places. Not only do we live so far away and we've never seen these places, but honestly some of even the specific locations in this particular section are disputed by scholars today.

We may not even know precisely where some of these things are, but nevertheless

God's word is always profitable. God's word is always beneficial and serves us by showing us

Christ, by pointing us forward to the gospel. The benefit here is not diminished because you and I are unfamiliar with the specifics of some of these things, but we are to be reminded that our

God is faithful. He is utterly and absolutely and always faithful.

We are to be reminded this morning of the blessing of the obedience of faith and of our absolute and utter dependence upon Christ's provision for us.

For we, like the people of Israel, often fail. That will be our focus this morning.

So let us read our text now. Bear with me. We're going to read Joshua 16 and 17 in their entirety.

So let us hear the word of the Lord. The lot fell to the children of Joseph from the

Jordan by Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the mountains to Bethel and went out from Bethel to Luz, passed along the border of the

Archites to Adaroth and went down westward to the boundary of the

Jephthahites as far as the boundary of lower

Beth -haran to Gezer and it ended at the sea. So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim took their inheritance.

The border of the children of Ephraim, according to their families, was thus.

The border of their inheritance on the east side was Adaroth, Adar, as far as Beth, upper

Beth -haran, and the border went out toward the sea on the north side of Mikmathah.

Then the border went around eastward to Tanath Shiloh and passed by it on the east of Genoa.

Then it went down from Genoa to Adaroth and Nerah, reached to Jericho and came out at the

Jordan. The border went out from Tepuah westward to the brook

Cana and it ended at the sea. This was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, according to their families.

The separate cities of the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.

And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwell in Gezer. But the

Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced laborers.

There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph, namely for Machir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war.

Therefore he was given Gilead and Bashan. And there was a lot for the rest of the children of Manasseh, according to their families.

For the children of Abizar, the children of Hillek, the children of Azrael, and the children of Sechum, the children of Hefer, and the children of Shemitah.

These were the male children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, according to their families.

But Salophahad, the son of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters.

And these are the names of his daughters, Mala, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

And they came near before Eleazar the priest, before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the rulers, saying,

The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.

Therefore, according to the commandment of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among their father's brothers.

Ten shares fell to Manasseh besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side of the

Jordan, because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons, and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead.

And the territory of Manasseh was from Asher to Mikmatheth, that lies east of Sechem.

And the border went along south to the inhabitants of En -Tepuah. Manasseh had the land of Tepuah, but Tepuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim.

And the border descended to the brook Cana, southward to the brook.

These cities of Ephraim are among the cities of Manasseh. The border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook, and it ended at the sea.

Southward it was Ephraim's, northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea was its border.

Manasseh's territory was adjoining Asher on the north and Issachar on the east. And in Issachar and in Asher, Manasseh had

Bethsheen and its towns, Iblim and its towns, the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, the inhabitants of Endor and its towns, the inhabitants of Tanak and its towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns, three hilly regions.

Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities. But the

Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. And it happened when the children of Israel grew strong that they put the

Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.

Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit, since we are a great people, inasmuch as the

Lord has blessed us until now? So Joshua answered them,

If you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourselves there in the land of the

Perizzites and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you.

But the children of Joseph said, The mountain country is not enough for us, and all the

Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are of Beth Sheen and its towns, and those who are of the valley of Beth Jezreel.

Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, You are a great people and have great power.

You shall not have only one lot, but the mountain country shall be yours.

Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be yours.

For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong.

Our Father in heaven, we ask that you would add your blessing to the reading of your word. Would you help us now to rightly divide your word and to understand it?

Give us eyes to see the truths before us, your infinite wisdom, your faithfulness, your mercy, and your provision.

Father, would we learn from this the great blessing of contentment and obedience that comes by faith?

Help me now, Father, to proclaim Christ faithfully, that he, our

King, our risen and living Savior, would be glorified this morning, and we, your people, your sheep, would be fed.

In his name, we pray. Amen. There's much going on in these two chapters, and frankly, it was difficult this week to determine what should be the focal point of our study.

It is all too easy to bend a text to fit a particular narrative of our choosing, when our aim should always be to understand a passage in its biblical context and let scripture be our guide itself.

In the text, we have to consider, like, what are the repetitions and contrasts that we see the author drawing our attention to?

What connections are there here between this and other passages? How does the preceding scripture anticipate this and look forward to it?

And how does the rest of scripture look back on a passage like this and apply it, most particularly for us?

How is this in the New Testament? How do Christ and his apostles look back and interpret and apply what is happening here in the new covenant?

These are always questions that we should be asking when we approach scripture, rather than imposing upon it.

I believe this is the only right and proper and safe way to do biblical theology, lest we risk bending scripture to serve our own ends.

With that in mind, there are three aspects of this passage that I believe are significant and would best serve our attention this morning, and each comes with distinct applications for us.

So just to kind of give you the outline in the beginning, first we'll be considering the identity of these tribes and the way of blessing that we see play out in God's sovereign faithfulness.

We'll see that as we consider these two tribes and their background. Second, we must consider this request from the daughters of Zelophehad and how it shows us how we are to approach the

Lord in prayer, how we are to make our petitions known to him.

And thirdly and finally, we have to consider this discontentment that we see among God's people and the failures of these tribes.

This shows us our need to rest in God's grace.

So first at the we understand who Ephraim and Manasseh are.

Generally when we think of the 12 sons of Israel and the promised land being divided up among these 12 tribes of Israel, we're thinking of the direct descendants of Israel, of Jacob.

If you were to flip back to Genesis 29 and 30, you'd find the account of the birth of Reuben, of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, and Joseph.

And then the birth of Benjamin is recorded later in Genesis 35, where the 12 sons are are listed again in order, grouped with their mothers.

And they also had a sister, Dinah. Now if you're paying attention, you won't find

Manasseh or Ephraim listed here. So why are they among the 12 tribes receiving an inheritance in the promised land?

We mentioned briefly last week that the custom of giving special honor and privilege and blessing was ordinarily bestowed upon the firstborn.

And while each son would receive a share of their father's inheritance, the firstborn would typically receive, the firstborn male would typically receive a double share of his father's inheritance.

But as we saw last week, in this particular family, in God's particular provision, because of their great sin, the first three sons of Jacob would not receive this additional blessing of being the firstborn.

Because of their sin, it would pass over them. Instead, as we made much of last week, the right to rule, that kingly line would come from not

Reuben, the firstborn, but Judah. It would come to the fourth son.

But in God's sovereign purpose, the double share of inheritance would also not go to Reuben or even to Judah, but it would be received by Joseph.

Joseph, namely in the fact that Joseph's two eldest sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, would be counted as sons of their grandfather,

Jacob, in the sense that they would receive a share of the land.

When we look at what Jacob says at the end of his life, and we'll look there in just a moment in Genesis 48, it sounds as if Jacob is actually like adopting

Ephraim and Manasseh as his own to receive an inheritance. And so in Genesis 48, at the end of Jacob's life, after coming down to Egypt because of the famine in the land,

Jacob, now named Israel, is very old. He's blind. He's about to die. And yet God's providence is at work.

And so I'm going to read a portion here of Genesis 48 because this gives us the helpful and necessary background that we need for understanding this promise being received, this inheritance being received by Ephraim and Manasseh.

So Genesis 48, I'm going to read the first five verses here first. Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, indeed your father is sick.

And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And Jacob was told, look, your son

Joseph is coming to you. And Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed.

Then Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, behold,

I will make you fruitful and multiply. And I will make of you a multitude of people and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.

And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine.

As Reuben and Sibion, they shall be mine. So Joseph, the son of Jacob, is bringing

Manasseh and Ephraim before Israel, his father, to receive a blessing, this blessing as sons.

Manasseh, the firstborn, he places him on Israel's right hand and Ephraim on the left, since he was the younger.

But Israel, knowing this, intentionally crosses his hands to bless them, blessing

Ephraim, the secondborn, first. This is what we see here in Genesis 48. I'm going to start in verse 15 here.

And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the

God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.

Let my name be named upon them and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

Now when Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him.

So he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, not so my father, for this one is the firstborn.

Put your right hand on his head. But the father refused and said,

I know my son, I know. He also shall become a people and he also shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he.

And his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day saying, by you

Israel will bless, saying, may God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.

And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And so that is the reason why in our text

Ephraim comes first. Ephraim receives the greater blessing than Manasseh.

We see the implication for our text this morning as Ephraim is listed first in the allotment, though he is the younger, which brings us to one of the applications that we see so often in scripture.

God's ways so often subvert our expectations. One commentator puts it this way.

God is never the prisoner of what fallen man regards as normal. Again and again, he turns human standards on their heads, causing us to wonder and cheer.

Without this God who ignores our proprieties, we would have no hope.

Consider this, beloved. We would have no hope if it were not for a

God who sovereignly acts as he pleases, not in accordance with our expectations, not in accordance with our proprieties or what we deserve.

This is the grace and mercy of our great God. Listen to what

James says in the New Testament. James says, listen my beloved brethren, has

God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

Paul puts it like this in 1 Corinthians 1. For you see your calling brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty.

And the base things of the world, the things which are despised, God has chosen.

And the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence.

This is yet again a blessing that comes with a command. We are blessed not in accordance with our works and our deeds.

We're blessed according to his sovereign mercy and so therefore we must not glory in ourselves but in Christ.

There's encouragement here in knowing that God is not bound by human convention but also

God's decrees are never arbitrary. They're never accidental.

Even Joseph when he was there before his father at the end of his father's life to receive this blessing, he thought it was a mere accident that his father crossed his arms in blessing these sons but it was not an accident for God's workings are never accidental.

Do not presume to know God's plan and purposes beyond what he has revealed to us in scripture.

Do not presume to know his plans and purposes beyond his promises. And when he does in your life what you expect to be different than what you anticipated or what you had hoped in, remember

Romans 8. We know that all things work together for good to those who love

God, to those who are called according to his purpose, not our own.

So to conclude this first point, just to briefly sum up the confusing bits here around Ephraim and Manasseh, they weren't the immediate sons of Jacob but they were his grandsons.

But through Joseph each received one full share of the inheritance of Israel in the land.

Therefore Joseph, their father, the the the 11th son of Jacob, received a double inheritance.

And that is a separate matter from the fact that Manasseh is commonly in our in many translations referred to as the half tribe.

Again that's another confusing point that just to untangle for a moment. It's not because the share was split between Ephraim and Manasseh.

Each of them received a full share. They each received two distinct territories.

The reason Manasseh is referred to as a half tribe or half the tribe of Manasseh is going back to Numbers 32 where Moses had given the land of Gilead and Bashan which were on the east side of the

Jordan River to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

They had a lot of cattle and this land was good for their cattle to graze in and so they had asked

Moses if they could have that land on the east side of the Jordan River.

And if you recall back we saw this in Joshua 1 that came back up before Joshua led them across the river.

These two and a half tribes went to Joshua and said, remember Moses said we could have this land on the east side of the river outside of Canaan.

And Joshua reaffirmed this but said they must still come with the rest of the tribes during the conquest and then would settle back on the other side of the

Jordan. And so what we have here this morning is Ephraim and the other half of the tribe of Manasseh.

West Manasseh as it's sometimes called which is being assigned here in chapter 17.

So with that background and clarity before us we've seen

God's covenant faithfulness to fulfill his promises in accordance with his sovereign purposes not according to our understandings but according to his sovereign will, his decree.

And that may subvert our conventions and expectations and even often working through circumstances that we do not expect.

But beloved reflect on your own life and know this to be true. Know this to be true.

God so often works in ways we do not expect and he is faithful and good.

Trust in his purposes. Secondly I want to briefly take a closer look at this scene here that we see in chapter 17 with the daughters of Zelophehad.

This was written, this was within the tribe of Manasseh and it has prior context as well that we have to briefly consider.

I'm going to turn now to Numbers 27 and read a section of this chapter to give us the background on here what is happening with these daughters of Zelophehad.

Numbers 27 starting in verse 1 says, Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Manasseh from the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph.

And these were the names of his daughters Mala, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

And they stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying,

Our father died in the wilderness, but he was not in the company of those who gathered together against the

Lord in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons.

Why should the name of our father be removed from among the people because he had no sons?

Give us a possession among our father's brothers. So Moses brought their case before the

Lord. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right.

You shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father's brothers and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them.

And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.

If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.

So what is the purpose of this? We see this here in our text this morning. They're going to Joshua and they're saying to him,

Remember what God said to Moses concerning us, and fulfill the

Lord's command that we may have possession of inheritance in the land.

There's a couple aspects here that we see of God's character on display for us that we must consider.

First of all, perhaps most obviously, we see his compassion. We see that God cares for the condition of these women and he hears their request.

But also we see the the completeness of his faithfulness. None of those whom the

Lord has chosen are going to be left out or forgotten or excluded on the day of salvation.

God promised an inheritance and those who are chosen to receive it will receive it.

These women knew this about God when they went to Moses in the first place. They believed and so they went to the

Lord's appointed servant and made their petition known with full faith that God would do right on their behalf.

Here also we see that Moses as well as Joshua is fulfilling this role, this office of mediator for the people of God.

In this way they serve as a type of Christ for us, serving the office of mediator, though imperfectly, to show us that we too are in need of the

Lord Jesus Christ to be our mediator, to be our mediator.

That we may approach him, that we may approach him because of what he has done, because of his grace and mercy to us.

Consider how they approach boldly with their petition. This should remind us of course of that beautiful passage in Hebrews 4.

We reference this so often. Hebrews 4 says this, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Don't we see that in the action of these sisters? How much more should we be able to bring our requests to the

Lord, praying in Jesus' name for him to fulfill his promises for us.

Beloved, the Heavenly Father delights, delights when his children come to him in faith, seeking his blessing.

Honor him in this way. Do not shrink back from this, but follow the example of these faithful sisters here in seeking the

Lord's blessings with boldness. Beloved, we need to pray more.

We need to pray with confidence and faith. Pray for his kingdom to come and for his will to be done.

Pray in accordance with his character and with his promises. And when we do, we can trust that the good father hears our prayers and delights to answer them.

Lastly and finally, in this passage, we have to address this growing thread of failure that we see in God's people here.

It has grown throughout the study of Joshua in many ways.

We see a lack of contentment in these chapters. We touched on this last week in the concluding verse of chapter 15.

Chapter 15 ended by saying, as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out, but the

Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. And then we see with Ephraim in chapter 16 in verse 10.

They did not drive out the Canaanites who dwell in Gezer, but the

Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced laborers.

And then worse yet of Manasseh in chapter 17 verses 12 and 13, it says, yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the

Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. And it happened when the children of Israel grew strong that they put the

Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out. Let us be clear in our thinking.

Incomplete obedience is disobedience. And this is the way of sin.

It starts out small, but when not exposed and repented of and dealt with swiftly, when we don't mortify the flesh and repent and turn to Christ as we ought, our sin festers and it grows.

These small notes of incomplete obedience are but the tip of the iceberg of what is to come for these people.

For one, there's a picture for us here of a very clear need of holiness.

What does holiness mean? It means being separated from wickedness. Second Corinthians 6 instructs us, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness, and what accord has

Christ with Belial or Satan, or what part has a believer with an unbeliever, and what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said,

I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their

God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the

Lord. We are to be a people separated.

To continue to dwell in this land among these people that God had commanded them to drive out was sinful disobedience.

As we've said before, there are reasons why God commanded them so strictly to utterly drive out the

Canaanites out of the land. And one of those reasons, one part of it, is because of our own inclination toward idolatry.

God knew that if they continued to allow these Canaanite pagans to dwell in the land among them, to live beside them in the land, that they too in time would turn aside to other gods to practice idolatry and to defile themselves just as we see play out in the story of the

Old Testament. God's commands are for our good, and they're not meant for us to be a burden for us to suffer under, but to hold us back from falling headlong into destruction of our own devising.

God's commands are merciful and good for us, not burdensome.

And so, do not think that you can go on harboring what you consider to be secret little sins in your life.

Do not go on practicing incomplete obedience without repentance, for the seedling of sin always grows.

This would be like hiding a lit match in your bedsheets at night. Beloved, your sin will consume you.

Turn from it and turn in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and find mercy and forgiveness and the power to overcome sin.

This is the only way we can overcome sin. This is the only tool that we have at our disposal is faith in Christ to mortify the flesh, to remember his promises.

Remember God's warning to Cain in Genesis 4, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.

And as we see in the rest of this section, the root of sin so often manifests itself in the sin of discontentment.

I think if we would examine our own hearts, we would all find this to be true in experience.

Discontentment is so easy to slip into. I want to read again the verses from chapter 17 briefly, starting in 14.

Children of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying, why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit, since we are a great people inasmuch as the

Lord has blessed us until now? So Joshua answered them, if you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the

Perizzites and the Giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you.

But the children of Joseph said, the mountain country is not enough for us. And all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley of chariots of iron, both those who are of Bethshean and its towns and those who are of the valley of Jezreel, they are discontent.

They wish God had given them something different. They wish

God had given them an easier path. Beloved, many of us walk hard paths in life, hard paths.

But the God who put you on this path, the God who dealt you the hand you have, he knows you and he gave this path to you in his sovereign wisdom.

And as Joshua here instructs these people, they are to walk this hard path in faithfulness, trusting that the

Lord is able to equip them, to arm them to do the tasks set before them.

This should be a great comfort. Remember, God has already given them this instruction.

Deuteronomy 7 says, if you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can

I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the

Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the

Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

You shall not be terrified of them for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God is among you.

And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. And then again in Deuteronomy 20, more briefly, he says, when you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them for the

Lord your God is with you, who brought you out up out of the land of Egypt.

It's no coincidence that the Lord is reminding them of this great deliverance from Egypt, this miraculous

Passover event. This great deliverance from Egypt is the foundation of remembrance that God calls on them to remember what he did and that he is faithful and able to provide.

He's saying to them, remember the redemption out of Egypt. Trust that the Lord will be with you and go before you and be obedient to the tasks set before you for the

Lord will provide. In conclusion, the people of Israel had their deliverance from Egypt, that miraculous extraordinary

Passover event to look back to, to give them courage and strength as they walked the hard path, to act in faith.

Remember that the Passover lamb was slain, whose blood signified your salvation.

For when the angel of the Lord, the great destroyer, descended upon Egypt, he saw that blood, that sign, and he passed over you and you were delivered.

Beloved, the Passover is just a shadow of the cross, a picture of the deliverance that Christ purchased for us.

To you this morning, he says, look to the cross of Christ. Look to the one who has suffered and died and arose victorious as the first fruits of our salvation.

Look to the cross and remember that God's promises are sure and he is faithful to fulfill all his promises in accordance with his own decrees, even if it goes against our expectations.

Look to the cross and remember that we can boldly approach the throne of grace knowing that he is faithful and we can have full expectation that he will do all that he has said he will do and none of those who are his will be excluded on the day of salvation.

Look to the cross when you struggle with sins and are tempted to discouragement and fear and trust in him, for he is able, he is able to deliver

Israel out of Egypt and he is able to raise his own son from the dead on the third day, victorious over sin and Satan and death and every evil that stands opposed.

He is victorious and he is able to equip you to be his faithful servant by grace through faith in Christ alone.

All of our needs are met in him. This is the key to Christian contentment.

This is the key to the Christian's battle against sin and this is the key because it is the crux of the gospel.

The gospel agrees with the law that we are unrighteous and unworthy and unable to take hold of the glory set before.

We are unrighteous but the gospel of God gives us access to the throne of grace because of the

Lord Jesus Christ, because of his perfect obedience and his obedience even unto death and his victory over the dark domain, his resurrection in triumph.

We can stand with him clothed not in our own righteousness, not in the deeds of our flesh, but in his perfect righteousness.

We can stand as sons, as those receiving the inheritance.

There is no spiritual blessing that will be withheld from those who are his any more than the father would say no to his own beloved son

Jesus. And one glorious day, one great and glorious day, the

Lord Jesus Christ will descend from the heavens upon this earth.

Just as he rose from the grave glorified, so will we be if we are united to Christ by faith and by faith alone.

For the grave has been defeated. Love's redeeming work is done.

Fought the fight, the battle won. Death in vain forbids him rise. Christ hath opened paradise.

Lives again our glorious king. Where, O death, is now thy sting?

Once he died, our souls to save. Where thy victory, O grave?

Let us glory in the cross of our risen Savior. Our Father in heaven, we praise you for the triumph that Christ has secured over sin and death and the devil.

That we can hope in this great inheritance set before us because of what he has done, that our sins can be cleansed in his precious blood and we can be made righteous in your sight and glorified, body and soul, on that great day of resurrection.

Help us to walk in the obedience of faith as we trust in your promises, as we pray in your promises, and as your kingdom comes and your will is done.