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Bromley
Baptist Church, |
1 Moving on
Moses 2nd job was spent traipsing around the wilderness
looking after, finding food and water for a bunch of sheep. He’d cared for them in dust-storms, drought,
floods, lambing time and death, staying awake at all hours to ensure his
father-in-law’s flocks were well cared for.
Tradition has it that he was in his 40s as a civil servant
in Egypt and 80 by the time he appeared before Pharaoh to tell him God’s
message.
God has a new role for us as we get older and the fact that
we’ve done something ordinary for years doesn’t mean we won’t be called to
something extra-ordinary later!
When we find him in chs. 15 /16 on his 3rd job, back in the wilderness, leading
the people around, finding food and water for them. Sometimes he’d have wondered
if he preferred sheep to humans.
But he, like them, had moved on. And the second job had
trained him for the 3rd.
They had moved out of their homeland of 400 years into a
very uncertain and fluid situation.
But they were FREE!
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Free
from orders, free from slavery,
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Free
from death at someone else’s whim,
·
Free
to move without someone’s permission,
·
Free
to raise a family,
·
Free
to follow God
·
Free
to look after themselves,
·
Free
to make their own decisions
·
Free
to find a home
·
Free
to fight enemies
·
Free
to find food and water on the way
·
Free
to die if they didn’t find food and water
There were good and bad sides to this freedom. But they’d moved on and no going back.
2. They were moving on into the unknown.
This had been their story since Abraham. People who stay put
live a predictable life, never moving on. Life might throw some googlies at you
occasionally but by and large life is predictable.
If you start moving - following God - you never know what
may happen!
Abraham went out at God’s command, not knowing here he was
going - much to Sarah’s horror!
It was dawning on the Israelites that the route to the land
of promise was through the god-forsaken - wilderness.
·
Freedom
gave them the unknown.
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Following
God into freedom gave them the unknown.
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Following
God into freedom meant they had to trust him as they never had before.
The Bible doesn’t talk about life with God as a settled
city, a predictable existence. We’re not there yet. We are a people looking for
the city - Hebrews 11 Why were they people of faith? - because
they were following in faith ever seeking God’s city which he has prepared, - a
mansion which Jesus has gone on to set up for them.
3. We’re moving on together.
The novelty was wearing off for
In the morning they
were up early and enthusiastically, they arrived at their evening resting place
12 miles or so further on - having used all their water and none in sight.
The following morning - not quite as enthusiastic they set
off again. 10 miles or so further on the camped for the night. This time they
hadn’t any water.
The next day they resolutely set out following Moses and the
cloud. And a few miles further on they camped - at
last - near a pool. They tried it and it was totally unfit to drink.
The Mediterranean temperament was wearing thin! You can
imagine the fights and rows with Moses. The whole vision was falling apart -
‘survival’ divided the people.
The same happened as the food ran out. There were more rows.
See how some saw their situation (Ex 16:3) They had
already forgotten they’d been slaves, with little more than the basics.
A vision is great, God gives the vision, but it needs
working through unitedly. I’ve seen again and again
the initial unity behind a vision break down as the stamina for the dull
routine hits home.
God’s people will always be a ‘moving on’ people - we have
no abiding city - there is always movement but it must move on together! Look
at Galatians 5 - acts of the sinful nature - hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of
rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy - 8 out of 15 are in this bracket. The fruit of
the spirit however are all to build fellowship.
4. Moving on - with God.
No wilderness is God-forsaken. Moses learnt it years
before in the middle of the desert a bush that burned but not reduced to ashes.
And God, having got his attention, spoke to him. This place was not
god-forsaken. Moses would never be god-forsaken.
And the people had to learn this same lesson for themselves. They may have been told what God had done, they may have seen what he did in Egypt - their home, Moses may have told them
that God is ‘I AM THAT I AM’ -
and that, as such, God wasn’t dependent on time and place. But they had to learn
for themselves that God was true to his promises and would be there for them!
So, in the wilderness God provided...
·
a Pillar of cloud / fire - gave direction - route ahead / protection from the
Egyptians
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Water -
undrinkable water made drinkable, springs provided, water
from the rock - all to those ready to walk with God - even in the desert.
·
Bread - when
nothing seems possible. It may be unusual, but it is God’s provision.
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The word of God - God provided the law - the order that held the people together while
they needed that law.
When Jesus spoke of himself as the way the truth and the
life he was claiming an incredible thing - as God provided in the desert
the way, the truth and the means of life- so he himself would be in the walk
through life’s desert, the way, the truth and the means of life in the real
world.
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Are
you finding God is taking you to different places in life? It’s uncomfortable -
it’s unsettling - but that’s what God called you to do when you became a child
of God
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Are
you unsure where God is taking you? It’s uncomfortable, unsettling and risky.
And you’re not sure you want it?
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Are
you tempted sometimes to cry – ‘enough - I’m not following any more - I’ve had
enough of the Moses leadership - I want a different way’?
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Are
you going through a ‘god-forsaken’ point in your life? Does the wilderness seem
to have been abandoned by God?
I want to tell you that wherever God is taking you, whatever
the unusual nature of the journey, whatever the needs - God is there and he’s
given us each other to share the journey.
Thanks be to God!