Morning Musing: Exodus 14:5-9

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“When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said, ‘What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.’ So he got his chariot ready and took his troops with him; he took six hundred of the best chariots and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in each one. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out defiantly. The Egyptians – all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen, and his army – chased after them and caught up with them as they camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had buyer’s remorse? I remember once getting a nearly free tablet with a phone upgrade. We agreed to get it because the salesman told us it came loaded with a movie app that gave us access to all kinds of movies for free. What he didn’t say was that they were all pirated Chinese versions with subtitles that gave you access to streamable versions of some films before they had even left the theaters. I promptly took the tablet back. I was watching when he had to check the box to give a reason for the return. He checked “buyer’s remorse.” They didn’t have a box for “salesman dishonesty.” In this next part of our story, we encounter Pharaoh experiencing a bit of buyer’s remorse. Let’s talk about what was going on here and why his hard heart was still a problem.

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Policing the Ranks

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This is a tough sermon. I knew it would be when I planned out this series several weeks ago. I knew it would be when I wrote over the course of the last week. I knew it would be when I preached it yesterday morning. This is one of those hard truths from the Scriptures that we would rather ignore than heed, all things considered. But if we want to get being the church right, we can’t. This is not something many churches practice, and when they do, they often don’t practice it well. But if we will commit ourselves to getting it right with all humility and love, it will make the church a much, much stronger people than we will be without it. Let’s talk today about church discipline.

Policing the Ranks

Do you remember your parents’ punishing you for various things when you were a kid? What was that? You were being held accountable for the house rules. You may not have liked or agreed with those rules, but as a kid, you probably didn’t get much of a vote. As I told one of my boys the other day: “You are living in a totalitarian dictatorship and I’m the dictator.” That kind of accountability likely didn’t feel very good either. But if they got it right—and not all parents get it right—you are probably grateful now for the boundaries you hated then. Discipline is often like that. In fact, it’s almost always like that. And this is not something new. Almost 2,000 years ago, one of Jesus’ followers who wrote a letter that today we simply call “Hebrews” made this observation that is just as true today as it was back then: “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” 

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Morning Musing: 1 Thessalonians 4:13

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“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Something a little different this morning. I’ve recently been reminded about how hard loss can be. Saying goodbye to loved ones when they close their eyes on this life is one of the hardest things we will face in this life. It leaves us disoriented and struggling to make sense out of…everything. Tomorrow starts to feel pointless, and hope seems nowhere to be found. And yet, if you are follower of Jesus, there’s this thing Paul said about not grieving like those who have no hope. Why? Let’s talk about it for a bit, and then I’d like to share a song with you that puts the hope Paul is talking about in a way that helps us to grasp it a little better.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 14:1-4

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“Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ‘Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you must camp in front of Baal-zephon, facing it by the sea. Pharaoh will say of the Israelites: They are wandering around the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in. I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.’ So the Israelites did this.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As I shared with you a few weeks ago, in the last few months I have rewatched or watched for the first time the first six Mission Impossible movies. One of the regularly used tools in Ethan Hunt’s toolkit is to impersonate another character in such a way that he is able to get a third character to reveal vital information to accomplish a mission. I think that happens at least once in all six films including the very first scene of the first one. He’ll create situations that are designed to set up targeted characters to give him the information or perform some action that he wants them to do, but to do so entirely of their own free will. That feels a little like what God is doing to Pharaoh here…which isn’t nearly so entertaining of a thought as when Hunt does it. Let’s talk about what’s going on here, what God’s plans are, and what this all reveals about Him.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 13:19

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“Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelites swear a solemn oath, saying, ‘God will certainly come to your aid; then you must take my bones with you from this place.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

This morning we are going to wrap up Exodus 13. Tomorrow, Lord willing, we will jump into one of the most exciting, but also most challenging, parts of the story we have yet encountered. Verse 19 here isn’t the last verse in the chapter, but it is essentially an editorial note, so I saved it for the end. This one of those notes we find in the Scriptures that seem a bit random and really don’t help to advance the story at all. In spite of that, though, I think there are two quick things worth noting here. Let’s talk about each of them briefly today and that’ll be that.

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