Our True Story

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0:00Today, what we're going to, what I want us to talk about, we're going to talk a little bit about stories. Stories. This past summer, we called it the summer of stories at our house. So my wife is a voracious reader, so as is typical, she was just plowing through books this summer. But our third grader, it had taken him a little bit, it took him a little bit to get into reading. He struggled with it at first, but this summer was where it really clicked. And it clicked so much, he read 18 books this summer, which made this nerdy father's heart just grow in size.

0:42So we've been talking a lot with him about story and thinking a lot about story. And as I have been thinking about that, one of the things that I realized over the summer is one of the reasons why we can get sucked into a good book or a good movie or a good TV show is because we love story. And I think we love story because we all want a story that makes sense of our story. A story that gives our life meaning and purpose and direction. A story that tells us something of who we are and who we might become. When I was around 11 years old, my dad gave me a story. Or maybe better put, more precisely put, he gave me a half-filled-out family tree. You see, around this time, I had started asking him questions about our family history. Where were we from? What did our people do? When did they come into America? Those types of questions. And he looked at me and said, you know, if you want to like really get into this, I'd love to work with you. And we can really do some genealogy, fill out our family tree. And so that started a summer-long journey of he and I going around to local libraries to look at their microfiche collections. I'm from rural northeast Mississippi, so we were also going to these rural graveyards that hadn't been weeded in about 100 years. As you can tell, I was a very cool child. Wanted to hang out in graveyards. I'll let Miriam tell me what that says about me. But you know, in hindsight, I have a better sense of what was going on. Why I was really into this. You see, I wasn't just

2:37interested in history per se. Though, again, I'm a nerd, so I was somewhat. But I was more interested in having a story. You see, you may not know this. I don't know why you would know this. It would be weird if you knew this because you don't know me, but I'm adopted. So I'm adopted. And around that time, I started to kind of emotionally and maybe kind of existentially wrestling with that. And I started to feel like I didn't have a story that went beyond my own birth. I didn't have a story that made sense of my own story. And I don't think that you have to be adopted to feel that. I would imagine that most of us, to some degree or another, feel this way. I mean, it's one of the things that makes humans unique. And among all of God's creation, we are the creation that is hardwired for narrative, for story. Again, it's why my son could read 18 books this summer. It's why you and I can just sit and binge. I mean, sometimes we do it coping, but sometimes it's why we sit and we just, we get sucked into a movie or a TV series and we can't let go. We're hardwired for narrative. But the problem is that it is all too easy for us to get sucked into a false narrative, an untrue story that becomes an unreliable guide to our own story. This is precisely where we find Israel at the start of the book of Exodus. You see, for 400 years, they had lived under the influence of Egypt, a rival kingdom that told a rival story about the world. And I would suggest that this actually describes us as well. You see, every day, the rival kingdom of the world seeks to colonize

4:46the kingdom of God by way of story, by telling us an alternative, untrue story. And if you don't believe me, consider what you do when you flip through your phone all day long. Consider what you do when you drive along the highway and you see sign after sign of advertisements. These are rival stories telling us who you are and what the world is about. But what we're going to find is that God gave Israel in the Red Sea, which is the account of the rescue of the Red Sea, which is what we're going to consider today. God gives Israel another story, a true story. He, through redeeming them, he restories them. And what we're going to see is that this story actually points beyond itself to the truer story, the greater story of the redemption in Jesus Christ. And as it does that, this story restories you and I, too. So, if you would, please open your Bibles to Exodus 14.

6:01I'm going to talk about the entire chapter, but I'm going to just read for us kind of a representative passage. We're going to look at verses 21 through 25. So, if you would, please give your attention to this, the reading of God's Word. Exodus 14, beginning in verse 21. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on the right hand and on their left.

6:43The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw them into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Would you please pray with me?

7:14Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be found pleasing and acceptable this morning in your sight. O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. So, if you remember anything about the Exodus story, you might know that right prior to this is when God sends the ten plagues upon Israel. And as he's doing this, what theologians call the ten plagues, they say that they were an act of de-creation. De-creation. In other words, God was undoing symbolically everything that he had done in Genesis 1 and 2. And he's trying to do that to show the Israelites, but especially the Egyptians, that he's the one true king. He's the one Lord of life, not Pharaoh. Well, in this text that we just read, this is an act, not of de-creation, but of re-creation.

8:16Or, maybe better put, new creation. So, in Genesis, the Spirit of God, which is in Hebrew, the ruach kadim, so you can hear the similarity there. This strong east wind divides the waters, exposing the ground as well. It's an intentional callback to this creation account to show that this Red Sea event is the origin story, or kind of the new controlling meta-narrative that God is giving the Israelites. It's the story that he's giving them to understand who they are, who they are in relation to God, and what he's brought them into the world to do. And so, what I want to suggest is that, again, as this story points us to the gospel story, it shows us the very same things that it showed the Israelites. So, I want us to consider three movements of this story, and how it helps us understand our own story. I want us to consider fear, fighting, and faith. Fear, fighting, and faith.

9:37So, first, fear. In this passage, Israel is caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side of them, you have Pharaoh's chariots, and then on the other side of them, you have the Red Sea. So, on one side, you have the enemy, who is hell-bent on getting back their, the people that they had enslaved. They're hell-bent on getting revenge for the loss of their firstborns. And then, on the other side, you have the Red Sea. This place that the Israelites would have considered as a place of chaos and destruction.

10:18And so, because of this, it says in verse 10 that they feared greatly, which I think is an understatement. I would have been doing a little more than fearing greatly if that was in that situation. But what we see at the beginning of chapter 14 is that they don't end up in this place just by happenstance or bad circumstance. God has brought them to this place. He has orchestrated them being caught between this rock and a hard place. In chapter 13, Pharaoh lets Israel go. And it appears that they're home free, like they have a clear shot to the promised land. But in the beginning of chapter 14, today's text, God reroutes them. And he tells them to go over by the Red Sea.

11:07And in verses 3 and 4, we see exactly why God is doing this. He's using the Israelites as bait. He is luring the Egyptians into one final climactic battle in which God can give an act of judgment to show that he is definitively the one true Lord, the Lord who wins. And now, we know how the story turns out, right? We just read part of it. But for a moment, I want you to put yourself, put yourself in the Israelites' sandals in this moment. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. You know, I'm sure that most of us don't have to work hard to understand what the Israelites might have been feeling. I think that many of our stories have chapters in which we have felt caught between a rock and a hard place. Many of our stories are full of times of great fear and hopelessness.

12:10And when that comes, I think the question that we have to ask is, what are we to do with those circumstances? Do they mean that God was asleep at the wheel? Or even worse, does it mean that God was being punishing or vindictive towards us? I think the Red Sea Rescue offers us a different interpretation. It tells us that God often brings us into fearful, dire circumstances in order that we might feel our neediness and then know that there's no hope outside of him. I might, but I gotta keep going. I don't get this at City Church. So, let me tell you what, see, that's dangerous. You don't want to get me rolling. Yeah. So, what I want to suggest is that in this, we see that we are hopeless in the face of the evil in the world, right? That's what the, that's what Pharaoh and the chariots represent in this story. Evil in the world. If the Israelites had tried to face them on their own strength, they would have been crushed immediately. They had no chance. And the same is true for us.

13:27If you and I were to try and stand up on our own two feet and say, you know what, I'm going to face down all the evil in the world, we wouldn't stand a chance. But it's not just the evil outside of us that we can't withstand. It's the evil inside of us as well. The sin that manifests as disbelief and suspicion towards God. This is actually what we see in verses 10 to 12. So, Israel had seen God do incredible acts of deliverance and wonders in the 10 plagues. And yet, they get to this point and oh, how easily they and we forget. They look up, they see the Egyptian chariots and they cry out, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have brought us into the wilderness to die?

14:17So, they just seen God rescue them through these incredible acts of the 10 plagues. Then they see the enemy and they say, God, have you brought us out here to die? Again, I think we can put ourselves in that place as well. How many times have we encountered a hard circumstance in our life and said, God, have you left me out here to die? Have you left me alone? But again, what we see in the story is that God sovereignly has brought the Israelites in this place of fear and hopelessness to expose their neediness, to show that they can't make it apart from him. And friends, that's why he has brought us into places of fear and dire straits in our life, to show us that we can't stand on our own two feet apart from God. So, when those times come into our life, the key question that we have to ask is this, do I trust that God is at work even in this? Do I trust that God is writing this chapter of my story? Do I trust that God has sovereignly brought me into these dire straits? That brings us, though, to our second point. You see, if we're going to trust that God is at work in the hard times of life, we have to look and see him fighting for us. We have to see God as the Lord who fights and wins on our behalf. You see, the main point of the Red Sea story isn't about the Israelites' helplessness. The main point of this story is about God's power.

16:04And friend, that's true of the Bible as well. The Bible talks a lot about your sin and your helplessness. And thank goodness it exposes, because otherwise we wouldn't want to think about it. The Bible exposes that with its pure light. But you guys see, the Bible's main point isn't about you. It isn't about your sin and your helplessness. It's about God's power to redeem you from that sin and your helplessness. And so what we see in this story is that God has brought them to this fearful circumstance in order to set up the main point of the story, which is this, God fights for his people. Look at verse 13, if you have your Bible open in front of you.

16:47In response to the Israelites grumbling, remember they said, God, did you bring us out here to kill us? Moses says, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians who you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. The Lord will fight for you. The Lord will fight for you. Isn't that an incredible truth? That is the heart of the Red Sea story. The story that God is giving the Israelites to understand their story. The story that God is giving you and I today to understand ours as well.

17:28The Lord will fight for you. And what I want you to notice from this text is two things about how God fights. First, when God fights, God does the fighting. God does the fighting. I remember talking with a friend that long ago who was going through some dire straits. He's in, he is greatly fearing for various things in his life. And I remember he told me, he said, I'm just so tired because every day feels like a fight. And I fear if I stop to catch a breath, everything in my life is going to come crashing down. It all depends upon me.

18:12I'm so tired because every day feels like a fight. Have you ever felt like that? I would imagine so. Part of this is just because life is hard, and it often does feel like a fight. I would also suggest that I think part of it too is the dark side of our culture's rampant individualism. It leaves us with this gnawing sense that at the end of the day, I have to look out for number one. I have to be responsible for everyone, for everything, because no one else is going to be. I'm all I've got. But what does Moses say to that? The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. In this passage, and in our life, God is the active agent. He is the one that does the saving. And because of this, the Red Sea Rescue is an incredible picture of God's grace. He doesn't fight for us and then say, well, okay, I put you back on your two feet. Now you do the fighting. Now you keep it all yourself.

19:20No, salvation isn't a tag team effort. God alone does the saving. Right? We all know the passage from Ephesians, for by grace, you've been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. So friends, I want to ask you this. Where in your life do you feel like you're fighting today? Where do you feel like you've been left alone on the battlefield? And I want you to bring that to mind. And then I want you to ask this question. What would it look like to drop the sword and entrust that battle to God? What would it look like on that place where you feel like you are fighting to drop the sword and entrust the battle to God? Because the Lord fights for you.

20:14So we see that when God fights, he does the fighting. But then what we also see in this passage is that when God fights, he wins. Listen to what Moses says again. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. Now remember, these are the Egyptians who tormented and enslaved the Israelites for over 400 years. These are the Egyptians which drowned the Israelites' baby boys in the Nile. These are the Egyptians who were bearing down upon them with 600 chariots. Those Egyptians, Moses says, you will never see again. And God makes good on that. Look at verse 28. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen. Of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. When God fights, he wins. It was true for the Israelites and it's true for us as well. So again, I want you to, I want you to bring to mind that place where you feel like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I want you to bring to mind that place in your life where you feel like you are fighting. And then I want you to hear God saying that whatever that is, there will come a day in which you will never see that again. Never. Why? Because the Lord fights for you. And when he fights, he wins. Now having said that, I also don't want to buy, I also don't want to come off as naive.

22:03Um, I recognize that in a room with this many people, um, some of you are really going through hard things. Uh, some of you feel like Pharaoh's chariots are closing in on you. And because of that, you're listening to me and you might be thinking, Harrison, I hear what you're saying, but is this what winning feels like? Because it feels like I'm about to die out here. Now that brings me to my third point. We've talked about fear. We've talked about fighting and now I want to talk about faith. When everything feels hopeless, we have to look to Jesus in faith. You see, there is an unfinished aspect to this Red Sea rescue. Yes, God delivered the Israelites on that day, but there would be plenty of days ahead in their future in which they would feel once again stuck between a rock and a hard place. There would be days of invasion, days of war, days of exile. And you can imagine that in those times, they were also thinking, is this what winning looks like? Where is the Lord who wins?

23:14Where is our Red Sea rescuer? But you see, the Red Sea rescue was never meant to be the full measure of their hope. It was a kind of proof of concept. It was a signpost pointing forward to a truer and greater rescue. It was the appetizer course of the redemptive feasts that God had set for his people. Of course, we know what this is pointing forward to. This is pointing forward to Jesus. His life, death, resurrection, and second coming. And there are hints of this fulfillment all throughout the Gospels.

23:54And I think one of the most poignant is that familiar story, is found in that familiar story of Jesus walking on the water in John 6. There's lots of callbacks to this Exodus story in John 6. You see, in Exodus, it says that God sent the plagues as signs of miracles and of judgment. But then at John 6, it says that people were following Jesus because he was performing signs and miracles, not of judgment, but of healing. After the plagues and Exodus comes the institution in the Passover. In John 6, it says that the Passover is at hand. Later in the passage, we get to the story of Jesus walking on the water. And John is eager to emphasize that this isn't just any body of water, but it's a sea. He says that about four times in almost as many verses. He wants to draw people's attention that it's a sea. So why is John emphasizing all this? Why is he making all this intentional callbacks to the Exodus story?

25:02Well, I think it's because John wants his listeners to see Jesus walking above the stormy sea to see that this is the same Lord who fought for them at the Red Sea. The Lord who fought for them at the Red Sea is the same Lord who fights for his people now. And he fights. How does he fight? He fights through his death and resurrection. Through those he crushes the head of the serpent. He breaks the shackles of sin over our hearts. In the grave, he goes through the deep waters of death and he bursts forth into new life.

25:39A new life that he offers to us if we will follow him through those deep waters in faith. And just like he did with the disciples on the stormy sea, Jesus bids us to look up at him and to hear him saying that phrase that I think is the fulfillment of Moses's command to fear not. That phrase that has the power to drown out the fury of death itself. That phrase being, it is I. Do not be afraid. Throughout today's text in Exodus 14, there's emphasis put upon what the Israelites are looking at.

26:25When they're afraid, they're looking at the Egyptians. And then Moses has commanded them to see the salvation that Moses is going to bring. Again, looking. And then in the last paragraph, it says that they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore and they saw the mighty hand of God. You see, in the Old Testament, seeing is rarely just about what your eyes are looking at. But it's about what your heart is apprehending. What your heart is latching onto.

26:59Put simply, it's about faith. So God brought about the Red Sea Rescue to root Israel's story in faith. To give them reason to trust that what he did then, he can do again. And that's precisely what he does in the life, death, resurrection, and second coming of Jesus Christ. And friends, that is the one true story that makes sense of our story. That is the one that tells us that whenever we feel like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place, whenever life feels hopeless, we can look up to Jesus.

27:42And in setting our hearts upon him, we can remember that not only has God fought for us, but in Jesus, he has won for us. It's just like how the old hymn puts it. The strife is o'er, the battle done, the victory of life is won. The song of triumph has begun.

28:08Friends, that story is your story to live in today. And every day of your life. Until you're brought into the final chapter of your story. A chapter in which you'll be with your God and Savior forever. A chapter that, in fact, begins a new story. One that never ends.