Sermon Notes: Exodus 15:22-27 – The Wilderness – The Pattern for the Sanctifying Work of the Christian Life

Let’s read it: Exodus 15:22-27!

Remember, Moses is not leading them blindly. The Lord is leading Moses in the cloud and fire; the people see this also. It’s not like they don’t all know which way the Lord is leading. 

So, it’s evident to them, and it should be to us, that it is the Lord who leads Israel into the largest span of desert in the Sinai peninsula where all resources will be sparse. 

The Lord leads them to a place called Marah, meaning bitter, because the water is so loaded with minerals that it’s not drinkable. 

Of course, the people grumble against Moses, which is their sin. It was not Moses’ failure of leadership that got them to Marah. 

It’s no sin to expect that resources will be needed, and it will need to be the Lord that supplies them. But to grumble against Moses is just wrong. 

The Lord performs another miracle for them by having Moses throw a log into the water at Marah, and the water is made drinkable. 

What in the world is happening here?

The Exodus is the Lord’s pattern that prepares folks to understand the work of the good news of the kingdom in the saving work of the cross. 

We were enslaved to the Egypt of our sin, and Jesus, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed to set us free. Jesus then passes through the deep waters of death for us and before us. By his resurrection, Jesus has safely arrived on the other side, making the way for us.  

Therefore, through faith in Jesus, we receive pardon for sin. 

In baptism, we proclaim to the world we are no longer on Team Egypt. Passing through the water like Jesus we proclaim that we are on Team Jesus. The drama of baptism proclaims our dying to sin and the world and being raised to new life as a follower of Jesus Christ. 

Just like Jesus was led after his baptism by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by Satan (Matthew 4:1), our new life in Christ follows Jesus’ way through the wilderness of sanctification in all manner of testing so that we can learn to live by faith. 

Israel’s historical Exodus from Egypt predicted, prepared for, reflected, and resulted from the greater Exodus of Jesus’ saving work. 

Just like the Exodus provides the pattern for God’s saving work in Jesus for sinners, entering the wilderness after the Red Sea sets the pattern for the sanctifying work of the Christian life. 

Listen to how Paul said it for the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 10:1-11 (ESV) 1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

“…it is God’s normal way of working that entering into glory does not immediately follow salvation. Rather there is a time of preparation to make his people ready for the inheritance he will bestow on them. That was the method he followed in the case of the Israelites. Free they indeed were from the hand of Egyptian control, but they had still much to learn. For one thing their faith was still very weak, and it would take time for their trust in the Lord to develop so that they would be able to face every set of circumstances without hesitation. They were therefore led into times of difficulty and testing so that their spiritual faculties might be developed through use. It was one thing to sing the praises of their Deliverer, and quite another to live out that faith when confronted with the problems of ordinary living. Overcoming the latter challenge would bring them to a clearer understanding of themselves and of what it meant to have faith in the Lord.” – John L. Mackay, Exodus (Fearn, Ross-Shire, England: Mentor, 2001), p. 278 CITED BY Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 414–415.

What can we learn from our Scripture passage today to help us live out the faith when confronted with the problems of ordinary living while on mission?

1. Expect: In the work of building our faith, the Lord gives instructions and tests our obedience. V. 25b-26
   1. Verses 25 and 26 use a literary device called a hendiadys, which ensures clarity by making the same point twice with different wording.
      1. The first hendiadys is “statute and rule”.
         1. “Statute” and “rule” are not two things. They are the same thing. 
      2. The second hendiadys is “listen to his voice and do that which is right and give ear to his commandments and keep his statutes”.
         1. “Listen to his voice” and “give ear to his commandments” are not two things, but one thing. 
         2. “Do that which is right” and “keep his statutes” are not two things, but one thing. 
      3. “Statute and rule” are what the Lord spoke (his voice), and are his commandments.
         1. The Lord made his way of growing their faith known to them.
            1. “Doing right and keeping his statutes” is the responsibility of his people in the growth of their trust in the Lord.
         2. The people’s response to the Lord’s way of growing their faith is to hear and obey. 
   2. Therefore, we can accurately say that the Lord grows our faith by his word to us and our engagement with his word by hearing and obeying.
      1. It is no understatement to say that the instruction of the Lord, our hearing, and our obedience to the Lord are how he grows our faith.
         1. The TEST is whether we will hear him and do what he asks of us.  

2. The instructions they were to hear and obey were to trust him and display that trust by not grumbling in fear. V. 22-24
   1. The text never explicitly points out what the instructions were that the Lord used to test his people.
      1. However, it should be clear, even though not preceded with the explicit words “here are the instructions.”
      2. His instructions had to do with continuing to follow the cloud and fire Jesus was displaying his presence with, and when the going got hard, they should wait on him like they had to at the Red Sea and look for his saving work for them RATHER THAN grumbling.
         1. The Lord told them he would fight for them and they just needed to be silent.
            1. Exodus 14:14 (ESV) 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
               1. Not silent in the sense of not making a peep. But silent in not calling out in unbelief or fearful dread rooted in not trusting the Lord. 
      3. They had practice in the Exodus and at the Red Sea.
         1. Verse 22 tells us that Moses made them set out from the sea and head into Shur, and three days in they found no water.
            1. We must not assume Moses had struck out on his own. 
            2. Rather, we must remember that they are following the cloud by day and fire by night, and it is the Lord who guided them into this expansive desert where they would run out of water and find undrinkable water. 
   2. Israel’s problem was not expecting the Lord to supply water, and for Moses to be a means of the Lord supplying that water. That’s a reasonable expectation.
      1. Israel’s problem was in “grumbling against Moses” as if Moses was the problem and they had not been following the Lord.
         1. Circumstances and fear got Israel discombobulated. 
         2. Israel took their eyes off the Lord Jesus who led them to Marah through Moses, and now they are blaming Moses. 
         3. Israel saw the challenge, forgot the Red Sea, looked at the closest object of blame (Moses), abandoned trust in Jesus, and grumbled at Moses for what Jesus was doing.  
   3. Often our problem is not a failure of the Lord to give us instructions.
      1. Our problem is when circumstances combat the clear instructions, we panic and act foolishly or respond the way unbelievers respond.
         1. We forget that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against unseen forces that move flesh and blood often unawares. 
         2. We forget that not every teaching comes from the Lord, and we may integrate bad teaching into our theology, and that teaching leads us to work against the Lord’s way rather than with him.  
         3. The Lord’s clarity is not a problem.
            1. In “The Silver Chair” the problem was not Aslan’s signs. 
            2. The problem was the children getting distracted by the adverse circumstances and forgetting the signs. 
         4. Our problem is not knowing the Lord’s word, hearing him, and following up with obedience despite what things look like. 

3. Expect: The Lord will make a way where there seems to be no way. V. 25
   1. Right from the start, lack and panic were Israel’s introduction to the wilderness. The Lord plunged them in head first.
      1. When Moses cries to the Lord for help, the Lord performs another miracle.
         1. The Lord, again, displays his power and heals the water for them. 
   2. An interesting note is that the Lord uses means to do the miraculous, and in this instance, he chose a log.
      1. I’m not sure why the Lord does that except that he selects some object that they can relate to as human beings and uses it to do his miraculous work so they have a token to remember what he did to rescue them.
         1. The Lord gave them some relatable objects to remember what he did. 
   3. Either way, the Lord took them into a place with no potable water, and he showed them his glory when there was no other way so they would learn to trust him.
      1. You can expect the Lord to make a way if we will refuse to make our own way. 

4. Expect: When the Lord leads us to lack, we must be careful about our grumbling and focus on obeying what we know. V. 26
   1. Let me be clear.
      1. I’m not saying there is no place to share our fears, doubts, and questions with the Lord. We can do that.
         1. There is, however, a difference between sharing our stuff with the Lord and accusing him and/or others of things we should not accuse him of. 
         2. Just like we need to be careful with our words in human relationships, we must be careful with our words with the Lord. 
   2. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 (ESV) 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
      1. Know this: If there is a lack while you have done your best to hear, understand, and obey the Lord, that lack is not accidental and not for your destruction.
         1. That lack is divine and intended to teach us to lean back on the word of the Lord and his faithfulness to train us to trust the Lord with a peaceful rest because we know him to be faithful.
            1. It’s this training that makes James 1:2-4 palatable.
               1. James 1:2-4 (ESV) 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 
   3. The Lord promised that if they would hear and obey, they would not receive the diseases he put on Egypt.
      1. The end of verse 26 is loaded with implications.
         1. Egypt did not believe and they received just judgment. 
         2. If Israel does not hear and obey, the Lord said what happened to Egypt will happen to them.
            1. If this is the case, then a failure to hear and obey is to act like the unbelieving Egyptians which means they don’t believe. 
            2. We know the tree by its fruit, the Lord Jesus told us.
               1. To say it another way: Faith strives to hear and obey, and it learns to hear and obey in trust, not a grumbling fear that begins to lay false blame and create chaos.  
   4. Now, the really good news of verse 26 is that the Lord tells them he is their “healer”.
      1. A better translation is “doctor” or “physician”.
         1. What the Lord is telling them is that as long as they hear and obey, he will be the doctor who heals their tendency to distrust, and in his good time will cause them to be healed of fearful distrust.
            1. This is not a blanket promise to heal all sickness. 
            2. It is a promise to heal fearful unbelief as they hear and obey. 
   5. The wilderness and lack is where the Lord sanctifies us, teaching us who we are and who he is, and it is where he heals us from the curse of sin so we can be whole.
      1. If we will patiently walk in faith with the Lord in his process of sanctification, the Good Healer will take us from strength to strength in a growth that is glorious.
         1. Psalms 84:5-7 (ESV) 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6 As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

5. Expect: When the Lord supplies, drink it in and enjoy it. v. 27
   1. We glorify God when we enjoy our salvation by drinking deeply from the never-ending spring of the justifying work of Jesus through ready, joyful, and ongoing repentance.
      1. This is why we can’t, and never should attempt to pay for our sin by good works.
         1. A spring of water is not made famous by drinking sparingly from it.
            1. The spring is made famous when thirsty people drink to their satisfaction from its deep-flowing goodness with no question of its depth. 
         2. The justifying work of Jesus is not glorified when we drink sparingly from the Spirit who is the guarantee of our salvation.
            1. Jesus is glorified when we come thirsty, and we bring nothing in our hands that we think will heal or cleanse, but we come empty and quench our thirst in the never-ending water of Jesus’ work for us.
               1. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. 
   2. Therefore, on the backside of testing when the Lord does more than heal bitter water and he supplies the sweet stuff, we indulge in the enjoyment of the good he supplies for us.
      1. When it comes to the Lord’s supply, I tend to want to hold back for fear that somehow the Lord is not pleased with my indulgence in joy over what he gave.
         1. I’m not sure where that comes from in me.
            1. Perhaps it comes from the lie of the dragon that somehow the Lord is holding back, and if I enjoy it too much he’ll take it away. 
      2. When Israel came to Elim, they camped and enjoyed the supply.
         1. The Lord is most glorified when we are most satisfied with him, and when he supplies and we enjoy his supply, we enjoy him to his glory.
            1. Drink deeply from his goodness, and just enjoy it. å