YouTube video sermon

Exodus 15:22-27

Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Exodus 15. Back in 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven gave the commencement speech at the University of Texas at Austin. Many of you have heard that speech or seen that speech, and the reason I know is because several of you have sent it to me. Apparently, it resonated with you, or you felt (for some reason) that I needed to hear it. Either way, it’s kind of popular and you can find it on YouTube. (In fact, I’ll link it to my sermon – for those of you that go to our website and read my transcript.)

Admiral McRaven spent more than 36 years in the U.S. Navy; beginning as an Ensign serving as a Navy SEAL and retiring as a 4-star Admiral and the Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command. He would go on to become the Chancellor of the University of Texas System, which is a government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions.

In May 2014, just before his selection as the next chancellor, he was invited to give his now famous University of Texas commencement speech. Three years later, he would go on to expand upon that speech and write a little book titled Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World. And one of the things that he shared with those graduating seniors was this (and I quote):

Every day, during training, you were challenged with multiple physical events: long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics – something designed to test your mettle. Every event had standards – times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those times and standards, then your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to a circus.

A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics, designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit. No one wanted a circus. A circus meant that for that day you didn’t measure up. A circus meant more fatigue, and more fatigue meant the following day would be more difficult and more circuses were likely. But, at some time during SEAL training, everyone made the circus list.

But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time, those students who did two hours of extra calisthenics got stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength and physical resiliency. Life is filled with circuses. You will fail, and you will likely fail often. It will be painful and it will be discouraging. At times, it will test you to your very core.

Now, if you didn’t catch what Admiral McRaven was saying, he’s saying this: there is no quick way to becoming a Navy SEAL. It takes hours and hours and hours of dedicated training and mental and physical fortitude. There’s no silver bullet. There’s no way of becoming a Navy SEAL painlessly or instantly.

And the same thing is true with the Christian life. There is no way to painlessly or instantly gain spiritual maturity. There’s no spiritual gift that makes you spiritually mature overnight. If you’ve trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then you’re in a process that the biblical authors, and theologians, and pastors call sanctification. Your justification – that is the moment of you salvation, the moment you were forgiven of your sin and given the gift of grace – that was instantaneous. Sanctification is the process of making the redeemed person, the “saved” person, the “born again” person more like Jesus. That process will continue (yes, with ebbs and flows) from this day until the day that Jesus calls you home.

There’s no quick way to spiritual maturity and that’s exactly what we’re going to see this morning in Exodus 15. Follow along with me beginning with verse 22:

22 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. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. That is why the place is called Marah. 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.

There the LORD issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. 26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in His eyes, if you pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

“O God, once again, we thank You for Your Holy Word – a Word that is truth and leads us to know, love and serve You more faithfully. As we turn to Your Word, O Lord, do not let our desire for information dominate our need for transformation. Rather, by the power of the Holy Spirit, allow us hear the word and be moved to greater faith and obedience. For we offer this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

Now, two weeks ago, we left the Israelites standing on the banks of the Red Sea in a worship service. They’re there in a celebration service. They’re singing contemporary praise songs. And you say, “Now, pastor, how do you know it was a contemporary worship service?” Because it was a brand-new song. You know, at some point, Bach was contemporary.

So, they’re there and they’re giving God worship and praise and glory for delivering them from the hands of the Egyptians. They had just witnessed and participated in this monumental miracle of the Red Sea crossing. God had parted the waters of the Red Sea so they could walk through on dry ground. They witnessed the cloud of darkness coming between them and the Egyptians. There was confusion and disorientation on the Egyptian side of the cloud, and yet, on the Hebrew side it was all light. And God brought them through the Red Sea and when the Egyptians followed, God brought the waters back in upon the Egyptians so that they all perished. We saw how God even showed them the dead bodies, so as to convince them that their enemy was totally destroyed.

But what they don’t realize is that God is going to lead them into the wilderness before He ever leads them into the Promised Land. God is going to take them through a process in order to show them what’s in their hearts, so that He can prepare them to go into the Promised Land. And He’s doing the same thing with you and me. God is preparing us – those of us that have trusted Him – He’s preparing us for heaven. That’s one of the reasons why we go through the trials and tribulations of life – to prepare us for our eternal dwelling. And what I want us to ask ourselves this morning is this: Do we only sing in the days of triumph, or do we also sing in the days of trouble?

God Moves Us from Triumph to Trouble

Verse 22 says that “Moses led the Israelites from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur,” and while Moses was the human agent that God used, he was also the representative of God. We saw that a few weeks ago. Moses is the one lifting his arms and speaking and doing the acting, but it’s God through Moses that’s actually doing the work. So, too, here. God, through Moses, moves the people from the Red Sea into the Desert. And just in case you’re doubting whether God would move us from triumph to trouble, just remember who led Jesus into the wilderness after His baptism in the Jordan (the Holy Spirit, Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4). And what happened in the Wilderness (Jesus was tempted).

Notice that it only took the Israelites three (3) days to go from singing songs of praise and worship and celebration, to grumbling and panic and worry. And this same pattern is true in our lives. Oh, sure, we can see it so clearly in the text and the lives of the Israelites, but we’re not as quick to recognize it in our own lives. But it’s true. No, it doesn’t happen every Sunday. I understand that. But frequently we come to church, and we fellowship and sing and worship and have a great time of refreshment in the presence of the Lord, only to go to lunch or go back home and just a few hours later find ourselves grumbling and complaining and worrying about something.

Perhaps, like the Israelites, we’re complaining about having to go to a family member’s house for lunch. Or maybe we don’t like our options for lunch. Or maybe you’re worried (because you’re the host) that people aren’t going to like lunch. Sometimes we have meetings on Sunday afternoons or evenings, for various things, and we complain about having to go back to church. I know. I do it too. Maybe we get through an entire Sunday and have nothing but praise and celebration and a sweet time of fellowship with the Lord, but I could guarantee if you went back and watched the days that followed, then we’d find some point in those days where we were prone to grumble, and complain, and worry about something.

And it almost always follows victory. It happens in my life. It happens in your life. It happens in the corporate life of the church. Listen to me. You and I will never experience a spiritual victory that goes uncontested by Satan. We will go through times and periods in our lives where God gives us spiritual victory – and it doesn’t need to be anything big either; like I said, it could be something as simple as a great morning of worship – but Satan is always looking for opportunities to contest those moments.

You would think that seeing the waters of the Red Sea separate and pile up on either side and the ground dry up and being able to walk through without nary a drop of water on your feet would be enough to trust God in any and every circumstance, but not so. And, oh, how many times have we said to ourselves in the quiet moments, “God, if You would just do this or that…then I’d always trust You, I’d always follow You, I’d never question You again.” But you know what? Miracles seldom have that impact on us. Shoot! Even the disciples missed it from time to time.

Back over in Mark 6 – you don’t have to turn there, but you can if you wish – Jesus has just finished feeding the 5,000 and He tells His disciples to get in the boat and meet Him on the other side. Jesus dismisses the crowd and then goes up to the mountaintop to pray. When the evening comes, He sees the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee struggling against the wind and He walks out to them on the water. This isn’t the occasion where Jesus is asleep in the boat, and He wakes up to rebuke the wind and the waves. That’s a separate event.

No, this time, Jesus comes to them walking on the water and they believe He’s a ghost and they become frightened. Now listen to Mark 6:50-52, “Immediately He spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.” Folks, it hadn’t been more than a few hours (at the most) since they had witnessed this miraculous feeding of 5,000 with so little food, and yet they couldn’t imagine that Jesus could come to them walking on the water.

The same is true for me and you. The same was true for the Hebrews. They had failed to learn that they could utterly trust God. They get here to Marah, and they grumble. Lord, once again, we ask that You help us to trust You. Help us to remember. Help us to recall. Help us to be reminded of the many times and the various ways that You’ve been there in the past, so that we don’t grumble and complain against You.  Help us to sing in the day of trouble just as we sing in the day of triumph.

God Moves Us from Trouble to Testing

Notice verse 25, “There the LORD issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test.” And you say, “Pastor, why would God want to test us?” Well, I don’t know that I can speak for every situation, but I know that in my life it’s often not for God’s knowledge, but for my own. God already knows what’s in my heart. I’ve discovered that most of the time, when God tests me – and God does test us, that’s exactly what the passage says – it’s to get me to recognize my own heart.

Some of you may be thinking, “Wait a second, Pastor, I thought I remember the Bible saying that God doesn’t tempt anyone.” And you’re right. God doesn’t tempt anyone (James 1:13), but we aren’t talking about temptation. We’re talking about testing. There’s a difference. Temptation is always toward sin and God is incapable of evil and sin, thus He tempts no one. But testing is often associated with the genuineness of our hearts. Hebrews 11:17 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son.” And 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Does God tempt us? No. Does God test us? Absolutely. And most of the time that testing is associated with our hearts and our faith. God asks us, “Do you really trust Me?” Are we genuine in our faith toward God, or are we just deceiving ourselves. That’s the purpose of God’s testing.

In Deuteronomy 8, Moses is speaking to the children of this generation of Israelites. You might recall that this generation of Israelites doesn’t get to enter the Promised Land because of their continued lack of faith, and their continued grumbling. And Moses is speaking to their children, and he says this, “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands” (Deuteronomy 8:1-2). There it is – to test us in order to know what was in our hearts, whether or not we would keep His commands.

Mary Graham used to be one of the ladies that was in charge of the Women of Faith Conferences that were held in various places all over the U.S. and everywhere they held the conferences they were sold out. She told the story of being sold out one night. They were having this great speaker and this wonderful dinner, and every chair was taken and there were women that were coming in that had purchased tickets and they were standing around the walls but there were no more seats. And so, these women who had purchased tickets were beginning to get hot and upset, and the entire venue was hot because there were so many people in the place.

Well, Mary got together with the manager of the venue, and they decided to swap some of the chairs out for more compact chairs. So, they did that, but now these women were all kind of bunched up next to one another and it wasn’t comfortable to eat and fellowship.

Now Mary is just beside herself. She can’t believe that they overbooked and there’s all this discontent and she’s in tears that things aren’t working out. She decides that the only thing left is to cancel the event. So, she goes back to talk to the guest speaker and relay the news. She says, “I’m terribly sorry, but the women are so upset about the seating situation and there’s nothing else we can do. And you probably don’t want to go out and speak to them.”

But the speaker says, “No, no, no, let me go out there and talk to the ladies.” So, Joni Eareckson Tada wheels herself out and says, “I understand you don’t like the chairs that you’re in.” And she continues, “I don’t like the chair that I’m in either, and I have 1,000 handicapped friends that would change seats with you in a second.”

Testing comes in the Christian life. How do we respond to the testing?  Do we only sing songs of praise to our God in our triumph, or do we also sing songs of praise in our troubles?

God Moves Us from Testing to Teaching

Look back at verse 26, “[Moses] said, ‘If you listen carefully…” Do you see those two words there: listen/carefully. In the Hebrew it’s the exact same word – shawmah. One is the indicative tense and the other is the imperative tense. The best way of explaining this is to show you what’s happening. When you have a child or even a teenager and they aren’t paying any attention, sometimes we say, “Listen. Listen!!!!” That’s the idea. God is speaking through Moses in order to teach the Israelites and He wants to get their attention and He says, “[Listen, listen] to the LORD your God and do what is right in His eyes, if you pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”

You may want to make another note there. That’s a new name for God. It’s the first time that it’s used in the Bible. In the Hebrew it’s the name Jehovah-Rapha – the God who heals you. Do you see what God is saying here? Do you see what He’s doing here? God comes to Moses and He says, “Pick up that log and throw it into the bitter water and watch it become sweet.” And that’s exactly what He says to you and me through Jesus Christ. Jesus came and threw Himself down on the tree, and God took that tree and threw it into the bitterness of our sin and out of the bitterness of our sin comes the sweetness of His salvation.

And what does God do in all of His goodness and mercy and grace? Does He yank them up and spank them? No, but that’s what we do. What does God do? He takes them seven (7) miles. That’s interesting. The number seven is considered to be a “perfect” number in the Bible, and so God takes them the perfect distance into the desert to a place called Elim where there are twelve (12) natural water pools with clear, fresh water, and seventy (70) date palm trees. One pool for each tribe and one tree for every elder, and the Israelites drink and rest in the shadow of God’s goodness and grace and mercy. And that’s what He does for us.

While the Israelites were grumbling and complaining, under their feet, God was sending their answer. You and I don’t know where it’s coming from or how it’s going to get there, but I’m telling you (child of God) He is Jehovah-Rapha – the God that will heal you. If you’ll just stop your grumbling and put your trust in Him, He’s got an unseen resource that’s making its way to you.

“O God, You are so good to us. In the midst of our grumbling and complaining, You have the answer on the way. What a good God You are. What a merciful God You are. What an infinitely patient God You are. And Lord, we are eternally grateful that You are that kind of God. In Christ Jesus, You have taken away the bitterness of our sin and hold out the free gift of Your sweet salvation, if we will just trust You. Father, there may be someone here this morning that needs to respond to Your sweet gift of salvation through Jesus. Would You move in their hearts. Father, for the rest of us, we’re just like these Israelites. We move from moments of sweet worship back into the bitterness of complaining and grumbling. Would you, by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, put a new song in our hearts – that we might sing of the mercies of the Lord even in the days of our trials and testing. We give You all the praise and glory for what You’re doing in these moments. And we offer this prayer in Jesus’ name, amen.”