If you have a Bible, if you'll turn to Exodus chapter 13, we'll be looking at the last little section of Exodus 13. We'll be looking at verses 17 through 22. Before we read God's word, let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we turn to your word, we would ask that once again, your spirit would guide and direct and lead us, that he would be the spirit of understanding, provide the enlightenment that we need, that he would also provide the application to our hearts and lives. Father, as we study your word, help us to do so in a way that magnifies you. May what I preach be true to what Your Word states, and may those that hear, hear well, all for the glory of Your Son. And we ask and pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. So Exodus 13, starting in verse 17. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea, and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you will carry up my bones with you from here. And they moved on from Sechoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. So our text for this evening details the nation of Israel leaving Egypt, a text in which we learn of God's care, His ongoing care for His people. Now I think sometimes as we enter into an Old Testament text, the temptation is to be that, well, this is great, this is a great story, we believe it to be true, we understand how God led and protected and went before the people of Israel. But in some ways it's difficult to know exactly how to engage with the text. That in a little ways it feels like we're reading somebody else's mail. that yes, this was their experience, but what am I supposed to do with it? Well, what I find so helpful is that in the New Testament, Paul, in the book of Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 10, he talks about these moments in the history of Israel and how God was leading and directing them in the wilderness, and then comes to the place where he says, and these happened as examples for you. See, we're not reading somebody else's mail. We're reading the material that is for the Church of God throughout all ages. When I used to teach, I was a history teacher, and I would tell my students in the room that wisdom is acquired by our own experiences or by learning from the experiences of other people. And part of the reason why I encourage young people to study history was so that they might acquire wisdom. That they themselves did not have to go through all of these experiences, some negative. They could look at and reflect upon and study the events that had happened in the past so that they might learn from the experiences of others. And so as we enter into this Old Testament text, we do so hoping to gain what Paul tells us, that from their example, we also learn not just how to live, but we learn something about the God that we know and serve. And so tonight, as we approach this text, we will do so using three points. The first is providence, or you could title this point, God is wise. Second, promise, God is faithful. And third, presence, God's omnipresence. So providence, promise, or presence, or if you want, God is wise, God is faithful, God is omnipresent. So first, providence. Verse 17 says, when Pharaoh let the people go, The let the people go is a little bit anemic, given the verb that's actually in the text. The text is really saying that Pharaoh sent or drove out the people. It's helpful sometimes to read other passages that reflect on what's happening. In Numbers 33, what we have is the account of what takes place. And what we know is that Reading in Exodus, or Numbers 33 verse 3, on the day after the Passover, the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians. While the Egyptians were burying all of their firstborn whom the Lord had struck down among them, on their gods also the Lord executed judgments. This is why I say that the verb, will Pharaoh just let the people go, doesn't quite capture the moment. If you remember, God has just devastated the nation of Egypt. He has executed judgment on the gods of Egypt, and as the people of Israel are leaving the land of Egypt, they are passing by all of these Egyptians that are out burying their dead. The fact is that they want the people out with haste. They're driving them out. Because God has put himself on display before the nation of Egypt. And these are his people. But even though they are being driven out by Pharaoh, it's God that is leading them. God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines. Oh, that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war in return. God led the people around by the way of the wilderness. God is the one that leads and directs and guides his people, not just now, but all throughout time. Isn't this what we confess from Psalm 23? That he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. The whole sense of Psalm 23 is that God is the one leading and directing everything that happens to us. He leads us beside still waters. He restores our souls. He's the same God that leads us in the valley of the shadow of death. That no matter where we go, God is the one that leads. That God is the one that directs. But God doesn't lead them by the way of the Philistines, although that was near. See, there is a way that you would typically leave Egypt in order to go to Canaan. It would be the main route out of Egypt. It would be the direct route. And the text says God didn't lead them that way. And He doesn't do so because the route would have been lined with forts and fortresses of the Egyptians. There would have been military stations all along the way. And God says if they see war, they're going to turn back. And if you wonder about it, all you have to do is fast forward the history of the nation of Israel to when they get to the promised land. And you remember the story they sent in the spies? And when they see the warring nations that are in there, what do they say? I'll give you a hint. They don't say, let's go get them, boys. That's not what they say. What they say is, who can lead us back to Egypt? God knows His people. He knows His people better than the people know themselves. And He's saying, I can't lead them this way. I can't take them the easier way because if they see war, if they see these military fortresses, if they see the presence of the military of Egypt, they will be afraid and they'll turn around and they'll go back to Egypt. I have to lead them another way. So often in life, we want God to lead us the easy way, the direct way, the shortest route from here to the next place. You can even phrase it that we want God to take us down the path of happiness. But just like with his people here, God often protects us from ourselves. God often takes us on the long road, the hard road. God takes us on the path where we learn about Him and learn to trust in Him. See, the reality is that God is always working in the circumstances of our life. And the other fact is that whatever route that we're on is because God deemed it best. I mean, that's a question maybe we should just pause on. Whatever God happens to be doing in your life right now, do you believe it to be the best? See, that's the struggle of the faith. Because if we find ourselves on a path, on a route, that we don't want, and suddenly the thought comes into our mind, I wish God hadn't done it this way. I don't know how to say this other than we're in some scary, scary territory right there. I wish God you had done it differently? Uh-oh. Because what's being suggested is that God didn't do the best thing. That God erred. and that we can help him and suggest to him that God, we want you to do it differently. No, God is perfect. God is sovereign in all that he is, in all that he does, and the route that he brings us on, the path that he has us on, is exactly where we ought to be and need to be. And faith yields to God and say, you are a God that does all things well. Not, God, you are a God that has done everything according to my will, and my desires, and my purposes. No, we have to yield to God and say, God knows how to lead his people. And he leads us exactly where we need to be. Now before we leave point number one, I do want to make a quick comment on the last part of verse 18. Otherwise sometimes it can be confusing in this text. The last part of 18 says, and the people of Israel went out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. And if we read verse 18, it makes it sound like, well, why would they be afraid of anything? Why did God direct them the way he did? If they were equipped for battle, it makes it sound like this mighty army is leaving Egypt. I think it's because I'm not sure that's what verse 18 says. I think what verse 18 actually says is that they went out in formation. They went out in an orderly way. And this is why, if you keep your finger here and just turn over to Numbers 33, I think that text provides some help with understanding the phraseology here and that Kind of moderate correction from Numbers 33 helps us understand that they didn't leave equipped for battle ready to do war. They left just orderly. So Exodus, or Exodus, Numbers 33, starting in verse one, says, these are the stages of the people of Israel when they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, Moses wrote down their starting places stage by stage by command of the Lord. And these are the stages according to their starting places. They set out from Ramses in the first month on the 15th day of the month. On the day after the Passover, the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians. And I believe what is being captured in verse 18 of Exodus 13 is that they went out orderly. That's actually what the word can mean and I think does mean in this verse. That Moses was an organizational wizard and he had them in an orderly fashion leaving Egypt. That's what it's saying. They weren't equipped for battle. They just, if we were speaking in marching band terminology, they could march in a straight line. And Moses had them leaving orderly from Egypt. But God knew that they would be afraid. Our second point is promise, or God is faithful. Verse 19 of our text. almost verbatim from Genesis 50 verse 25, at the end of the life of Joseph. So if you look again at verse 19, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here. I had the opportunity to preach through the book of Genesis. And as you go through the book, what you find is that as far as the lives of the patriarchs, so much attention is given to Abraham, not very much is given to Isaac. And then you have this large section that is given to Jacob, but primarily given to Jacob through his son, Joseph. And Joseph, as you study the book of Genesis, you find Joseph is this great man of faith, over and over again, trusting in God, doing the right thing. And then when you get to the New Testament and you begin to look at Hebrews 11, that begins to chronicle these men and women of old that lived by faith and trusted in God, and it gives you this kind of litany of these incredible acts of faith by these saints. And then you get to the life of Joseph and you think, okay, there's so much to choose from. What will the author of Hebrews choose as this great moment of faith of Joseph? And you expect it to be like Abraham where there's all of these things listed. But then when you get to Hebrews 11, there's one line. And the one line in verse 22 is this, by faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, All of these moments where Joseph trusts God, and it says, no, the moment, the pinnacle of the faith of Joseph is at the end of his life, he made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. What makes Joseph a man of faith? He trusted the promise of God and gave directions about what to do with his bones when he was dead. Don't mention anything about him being in prison. Don't mention anything about how he believed God and trusted God and spoke truth to the powers that be within Egypt. Don't mention that. Just talk about the fact that he trusted the promises of God and he gave directions about how he wanted to be buried. That's faith. Why is that such a moment of faith? Well, Joseph knew that there was a day when his descendants would be enslaved in Egypt. Well, how did he know that? Well, God has told his great-grandfather that. Back in Genesis 15, God had told Abraham, and I believe Abraham told Isaac, Isaac told Jacob, Jacob told Joseph. And Joseph believed what God had said, but Joseph also knew the rest of the promise. In Genesis 15, God said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. Know for certain. That's what God says. What he actually says is, to know you know. In the Hebrew language, what happens is, to emphasize something, you take a verb and make it a noun, and you put them together. To know you know. Joseph says to his children, God will surely visit you. What's Joseph saying? Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I have an idea. I think Joseph is using the phraseology of God. God repeats a word, to know you know. Joseph says, our text will say, surely God will visit you. But he doesn't say that. He says, visiting he will visit. This is his act of faith. He's actually taking the words of God, that God is using this noun-verb emphasis to declare this promise to his people. And Joseph is saying, I believe it. How do I know? How do you know that Joseph believes it? Because he's going to use the framework of God and say, visiting, he will visit. I trust God so much that I will communicate it in the same way that God communicated it to my great-grandfather. I know this is true because God said, knowing you know, how do I know? Visit, he will visit. And when that day comes, take my bones with you. Now understand the storyline of Genesis. Jacob has already died. When Jacob died, he had his body taken back to Canaan and buried in the land that was owned by Abraham and Isaac. When Joseph died, he could have said, take my bones and bury them with my fathers right now. He doesn't. Instead what he says is, I want my bones to remain here and they are going to remain here for 400 years because I trust the fact that God will visit his people. And I want you to know that God for sure will keep his promise. And I want you to know that because every day I want you to walk past my coffin and see that someday that coffin's gonna go on the move. I want my coffin to be a daily reminder of the faithfulness of God, that God is a God of promise. And for 400 years, they enslaved in Egypt. They walked beside that coffin and looked at it and said, someday, God will keep his promise to visit his people. And those bones will move. And those bones will leave this place. Because God is a God that is true to his word. And sometimes in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of the difficulties of life, that's hard to remember, and it's hard to believe. That God will keep his word. That every promise in the word of God is yes and amen in Jesus Christ. That Romans 8 is true. That everything that happens, everything that happens in our life is for our good. It might not feel good. It might not seem good. But it is good. How do I know? Because God said it. God has promised. And I can trust Him. And I think embedded in this is the idea that we are to provide that same sense of confidence in God to the next generation and the next generation. Like Joseph did. Joseph wanted, even in his death, his dead bones to testify to the faithfulness of God. The question becomes, what are we giving the next generation for them to emphasize their need to trust in God and trust in God's faithfulness to us? The last point is presence, or God is omnipresent, God is everywhere. Verse 20 of our text is just simply a geographical reference. It adds reliability to the text, but it also is reinforced by, if you look in Egyptian papyruses and they write out some of their history, what you'll find is that the route that God takes his people on is the same route that a lot of people would flee into the wilderness. So it just helps us have confidence in the word of God that what it says is truly what occurred. But it's really the truths in verse 21 and 22 that we want to think about in this final point. Verses 21 and 22 we read, and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. The Lord went before the people and didn't depart from them. By day and by night, it's a pillar. It's a pillar of cloud. It's not two pillars, it's one pillar. In the day, it looks like a cloud. At night, it has a fiery core, and so you see it. In the day, you wouldn't see it, you'd just see the cloud. So by night, it looks like a pillar of fire. Both of these are visible manifestations of the presence of God with His people. I don't know if you ever stop and think about a story in scripture and say, did it have to be that way? I mean, think about this. God is leading his people by a pillar. But God could have just as easily led his people by Moses, right? Every morning, God could communicate with Moses, today we're gonna go here, and then we're gonna stop, and then we're gonna stay there for so long, and then we'll go whatever the next day, or next month, or whatever it is. God could have led his people by the directives of Moses, day in and day out, and God would still be leading and directing his people. But He doesn't do it that way. Instead, He gives them a visible manifestation of His presence, so that every day, think about this, they can look up and see the pillar of cloud and say, God is with us. And at night, The pillar of fire is before them, they can say, God is with us. How do I know? Because he's given me this visible manifestation of his presence. God is encouraging them to trust in him, to put their faith in him. And he daily wants to remind them that he is with them, no matter where they go, no matter how long they're in the wilderness, the pillar was with them. It's a condescension of His grace. It's a communication of God with sinful humanity where our tendency is to doubt. Our tendency is to live in fear. Our tendency is to say, I'm alone. And God says, no, I'm with you. I mean, think about this. Every day, the people could say, nope, God's here. God does this with us, right? What are the sacraments? These are reminders of promises that God saves sinners. Does God need to give us the sacraments? No. Are they necessary for the life of the church? No, but yes, because God has given them, they are, but they wouldn't need to be. God's Word is sufficient. We talk about the sufficiency of Scripture. We talk about the sufficiency of the Word of God. The sacraments are not necessary, but they are condescensions of the grace of God to remind us that God makes promises and God keeps promises. But how do we know that God is with us right now? Now, today, I wouldn't doubt that you could see a pillar of cloud with how windy it is. We don't get this type of wind. There are some things I miss in northwest Iowa. This is not one of them. I had forgotten what negative wind chills are like. I still want to repress that memory. But we don't have a pillar, right, of cloud or fire that tells us or reassures us of the presence of God. But that doesn't mean that we have less of the presence of God. We actually have more of the presence of God. Jesus declares right before he ascends up into heaven that, I will be with you till the end of the age. How is Jesus Christ with us? He's with us by his spirit. In John 14, he says that he will dwell in you and will be in you. 1 Peter 4 says, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Romans 8 14, for all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. God has graciously given us his spirit that is always with us, guiding and directing and leading us. We no longer need a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire because God himself has dwelt within. God still leads his people. God still perfectly provides for his people. God is with us every moment of every one of our days of our life. And what he's saying is, do you trust me? Do you trust where I'm leading? Do you trust my presence? Do you truly believe that where I'm taking you is what is best? And the fact of the matter is it can't be in the abstract. It has to be in the details of our life. It has to be in even the hard moments to say, God does all things well. And I trust him. And where he is bringing me and leading me is exactly where I need to be. We're entering a new year. In 2025, we have the opportunity to tell our kids and our grandkids that we believe in God. But we also have in 2025 the opportunity to tell our kids and grandkids that we trust in God by our actions. May it be that we truly believe that God is with us. May we live like God is with us. May we trust him with our tomorrows and by faith speak well of God and speak well of the promises of God. Let's pray together.