1 DISAPPOINTMENT WITH LIFE! Dealing with Disappointment - Part 2! Message #1296 Pastor Keith Stewart October 3-4, 2015 the promise of a stress free life and a God who always does what He is told. - Dr. James Dobson We don t want a heavenly Father so much as a we want a heavenly grandfather who lets us do as we like and wants to say at the end of the day that a good time was had by all. C.S. Lewis In the world you will have trouble. John 16.33 Life is difficult. - Dr. M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled 1. THE EXODUS AS A METAPHOR OF SALVATION! > We are trapped in slavery Victim Triangle
2 learned helplessness In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? Exodus 14.10-12 > Our God image must be liberated Who is the Lord that I should obey Him? Exodus 5.2 The most important thing about you is what comes to your mind when you think of God. - A.W. Tozer Put aside the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt and worship the Lord. Joshua 24.24 against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. Exodus 12.12 Each plague corresponded to a different Egyptian god 1. Nile Hapi, god of the Nile 2. Frogs Heket, goddess of Fertility 3. Lice Geb, god of the earth 4. Flies Khepri, god of creation, rebirth 5. Livestock Hathor, goddess of love, protection 6. Boils Isis, goddess of medicine and peace 7. Hailstone Nut, goddess of the sky 9. Darkness Ra, the sun god 10. Firstborn Pharaoh, Ultimate power in Egypt 8. Locust Seth, god of the storm and disorder
3 > We stand in need of supernatural deliverance Sunrise over Sea When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses. Exodus 14.31 (New American Standard Bible) our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea 1 Corinthians 10.1b-2a
4 2. WHEN LIFE DROPS YOU OFF IN MARAH! > Marah (Exodus 15) Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What are we to drink? Exodus 15.22-24 The Hebrew word for murmur is lun. Its synonyms are: grumbling, griping, groaning, whining, whispering, complaining, carping, self-pitying, or playing the role of a victim. This word appears in Exodus 15, 16, 17, in Numbers, 14, 16, 17, and in Joshua 9. > Rephidim (Exodus 17) and this is something entirely different. The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink. Moses replied, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. Exodus 17.1-4 Moses named the place Massah (test) and Meribah (quarrel). Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. Psalm 95.7b-9 3. PUTTING GOD ON TRIAL! The Lord answered Moses, Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink. So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Exodus 17.5-7
5 > The Lawsuit (vv.1-3) > The Trial (vv.4-5) > Execution (vv.6-7) They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10.2-4 The natural inclination of the human heart is to put God on trial. We demand that God explain why we have suffered and we threaten God if he cannot explain His actions to our satisfaction. In a passage from the Exodus, the Israelites enact such a trial. Though God was innocent, we found Him guilty. And when God made Himself vulnerable by becoming human, we killed him. - Dr. Timothy Keller, God in the Dock I could never love a God who was distanced, disinterested, detached and just watched the suffering from afar. I could never love a God like that. But I can't help love a God who offers to enter in our pain and suffering. Jesus is the answer to the question of suffering. - Dorothy Sayers