Well, now we have had our two readings this morning, this afternoon, and I refer you particularly to Exodus and chapter 13, but we shall also look at Psalm 107. Christians often find that there is a difference between their situation on the ground and what God's Word says. Between the dismaying things that happen in life and God's way, which is perfect, we know of course that they do match up, but it does not always look as if it does match up. And here in Exodus chapter 13, we have an illustration of this. Because by this chapter, the people of Israel are free from slavery in Egypt and have begun their journey to the promised land. Their first stopping place was Sukkoth in chapter 12, verse 37. But moving on to chapter 13 and verse 18, we read, but God led the people about. And it is that but that introduces something unexpected, because this was a route that God led them, which was not the obvious one. if you read in verse 18 again, he led them through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. What that means is that God did not lead the people toward the promised land the obvious route. That would have been to go east, northeast, along the trade route through the Philistines' territory about 200 miles and up into the land of Canaan. Instead of that, God, through Moses, tells them to make a big dog-leg diversion and they must go southeast down into the wilderness of Sinai into the mount and then from there they must go northeast up to the land of Canaan. It's a very strange route when the nearer route was the obvious one but God led the people about and that might have been perplexing to Moses and the people of Israel. And more perplexing because God did not tell them why. why they should not go the obvious route, why they must go a dog-leg diversion and eventually go toward the land of Canaan that way. And you see, it illustrates the fact that God does not always do what is obvious to us, what is predictable, what we might think is possibly the best thing to do. And it helps us to make sense of the way the Lord does lead us in life. Does it seem to you that you are going round in circles, in an impossible situation, getting nowhere, or in a rut, or at a dead end? It might be something in the family, It might be that job. It might be your pastorate. It might be your own church situation. It's not as you thought it would be. It's so different from how you imagined. It comes as a big but. God led the people about. But we can add to that text in Exodus 13 verse 18, the other one in Psalm 107 and verse 7, where it says, He led them forth by the right way. These people lost, crying to God in their distress, the Lord delivering them, and He led them forth by the right way. And I suggest always, dear friends, Exodus 13 and verse 18, God led the people about, must be seen through the lens of Psalm 107 verse 7, he led them forth by the right way. And if we look at this place in Exodus 13 and Exodus 14, we'll see that that is always the case. He led them about, but he led them by the right way. you're being led about, God is doing strange things, unexpected things, dismaying things, but he's leading you forth by the right way. Let's see two things from this. First of all, that God has his reasons for doing it this way. And secondly, we have our comfort. First of all, God has his reasons. He led the people about. He led them forth by the right way. Trace the reasons here in Exodus 13 and 14. One reason why God took them that different route was to fulfill a promise. You remember back in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 12. He promised Moses, certainly I will be with thee. Moses was fearful of going into Pharaoh, demanding that he let the people of Israel go, and God promises his presence, and you can be sure if God says, certainly I will be with thee, that you'll be safe. And so Moses is told this, and God gives him a token, that I have sent thee, when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." And so when he does bring the people out of Egypt, it can't be that obvious route up through the land of the Philistines, the trade route northeast it must be down into the desert of Sinai and it must be down to Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai just like God said here and that token must be fulfilled and it was fulfilled and we know from Exodus Exodus chapter 19 and verse 1, in the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. And there they were. And so God had in faithfulness a promise to keep. The token he gave to Moses will be that which is fulfilled. He'll be down there at Mount Sinai serving God." And of course the people of Israel were there for around a year, weren't they? And there they received the law, the moral law from the Mount, spoken by God's own voice, the ceremonial judicial laws for Israel given to Moses and there he drew them to himself and made them his covenant people and that year was to be a preparation, a year when they would know God and have access to him through all the laws whereby they could worship at the tabernacle and serve God. And that year was not wasted. And dear friends, if God brings us to a strange place, if he's brought you to a strange place, nothing seems to be happening. You can't make out why it is that you're there. What is God doing? The Lord knows what he is doing. and he keeps you there in that place and it's not a wasted time any more than Moses' 40 years in the wilderness as a shepherd was wasted, John the Baptist's time in the deserts were wasted, our Lord's 30 years preparation were wasted. Nothing is wasted with God. Even nothing seeming to be happening is never God's inactivity. He has his way leading you about, but it's the right way, dear friends. Be patient. Some of us have to labor in pastorates week after week, month after month, year after year. Little happening, little signs of God's blessing. Not much that we can see with our eyes, but we believe if God has called us, we stay there. And God, by his grace, gives us grace to be faithful. And we know, and sometimes it's a fact that we ministers, need to have a work done in us as much as God doing a work in our people through our ministry. I remember Al Martin once saying that he believed that one of the reasons why God put him into the ministry was to sanctify him because you see the disciplines The dependence on God, driven to prayer, seeking God's face, looking to Him continually for wisdom, all that is such a sanctifying thing. I never despise a day of small things, a day of quiet things, a day when nothing seems to be happening. It's to fulfill His will. and to Moses it was Mount Sinai and it may be like that for us, but it's the right way. There are no ruts with God, dear friends. There are no stagnant pools. There are no situations where there is waste and you wish you could do something else more exciting or something elsewhere where things are really happening. The great test of our faith and our confidence in God and our acknowledgement of His sovereignty and His perfect will is to humble ourselves before Him, wait upon Him and ask Him to bless the experience to us, that we might profit from it. Moses was profited, Israel was profited from their time at Sinai. God had that reason. for that great diversion and that great, great deviation from what could have been and what maybe should have been, humanly speaking. So that's one thing. Another thing is this. God did that with his people to spare his people. In verse 17 of Exodus 13, you see, We read, and it came to pass, God led the people not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt, but God led the people about. He knew that if they were to go that obvious route through the land of the Philistines, They were weary slaves, newly emancipated. They were without any experience of fighting. The Philistines were ever the enemy of Israel. They would be frightened, terrified at a war situation. They would want to go back to Egypt later on in their history. They did want to go back to Egypt. They were prone to that. And so God in his great thoughtfulness spares them that, and he leads them down to Sinai, up again, and so on. And it's a different way, led about, but the right way. And you see, God is so considerate, dear friends. You notice the way it's put here in verse 17 of Exodus 13? God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt. It's almost as if God is thinking and considering what would be harmful and what would be best. And that's always the case. And if God does something different for you, It's because God has thought about you. And like in Psalm 31, verse seven, David can say, thou hast considered my trouble. And there are troubles to be avoided sometimes. And so he takes you in a way to spare you from worse. And isn't that so very wonderful? As Matthew Henry put it, God proportions his people's trials to their strength. And not yet must they face battle. That will be when they face the Amalekites in chapter 17. But not yet. They will have an easier time. Ah, he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. It's like that with ministers, you know. When we're newly in the ministry, we do face sometimes struggles and church troubles and so on, but usually they are a lot lighter than what come to us later in life. When God has dealt with us, God has exercised us, strengthens us, We've learned lessons and we're more able to cope with those trials. I often thought to myself, if the troubles that came to us at Holywell had come to us when we were in the early years at Devizes, they would have finished us, humanly speaking. God in his mercy spared us until later. He's like that. He spares us and it's the way that is about different from how it might be and he saves us from what is worse. How good it is to know, dear friends, that the Lord is ever considerate and he knows what we can face and what we could not face to spare the people. The third reason not only to fulfill this promise and bring them to Sinai, and not only to foresee what would be too much for them, but to deal with a great thing that had to be dealt with, otherwise they would never have really moved on in their journeys. And that was the Egyptians and the Red Sea. And extraordinarily, this route that he led them about, it not only went down to Sinai, but before that, in Exodus 14, we read that they were to turn and encamp before Pi-Ha-Heroth, between Migdol and the sea over against Beelzefon, before it shall encamp by the sea. They were to go right down to the part of the Red Sea which would stand in front of them, so that they would be effectively trapped. And they would have wilderness on one side, mountains on the other, the deep Red Sea in front, and the Egyptians bearing down on them from behind. And so this is part of that being led about, which was the hardest part to cope with, because now you see they're effectively boxed in, and they're at a cul-de-sac, and there's no way to turn. not in front of them, not either side, certainly not behind, and time is running out. The Egyptians are bearing down upon them. Pharaoh has commissioned his chariots and his horsemen and captains, and they're going to pursue Israel to recapture them and take them back to Egypt, or maybe even kill them all at that place, and they are terrified. It's a route, dear friends, that's led them to encamp by the Red Sea and really to potential disaster. And sometimes, dear friends, it's like that. God led them about. He's led me about. And He has brought me to such a situation. And it's dismaying. It's more than dismaying. It's frightening. Because I can't see any solution to this problem. and what's hardest to cope with is that God himself has brought me here and it reminds us that you can be in the center of God's will and you can be walking in obedience to him and you can be in a terrifying nightmare of a situation. God's perfect will does not mean everything goes smoothly and perfectly all the time. What are they going to do? This is a dreadful thing. He led them about and he brought them to this place. You can be in God's way and you can seemingly be in the worst possible place. And there are many Christian people who are like this. And they are tempted to say, if it be so, why am I thus? If I'm obeying God, if I'm walking uprightly with Him, why is it that everything around is as bad as it could possibly be? Isn't it a comfort to know that God Himself brings us here? Because these Israelites were not here because they've mistaken the way. They're not here because of the Egyptians. They're not here even because of the devil. They're here because of God. And God is the author of their impossible situation. But by that same token, He is the source of their deliverance. Be encouraged, dear friends. in impossible situations, the God of the impossible is there with you. And opposition, because opposition comes, it doesn't mean to say that you're out of the right way. Very often the things that are so much of God are opposed. The devil has a hand in it, sure. He takes advantage of it. But it's all under the providence of God. And therefore don't reason that if things are difficult, if all is against me, that I somehow must be doing wrong, and that I've made a mistake after all. It's much more likely that you are doing right. and that the smile of God is upon you. Don't let opposition and impossible situations turn you back from what is the right course. It's like that in church life, isn't it? You can do the will of God. You can go forward in God's will and things can get worse. It doesn't mean to say that you've done wrong. It's an evidence that God is dealing in strange ways, but yet God is dealing. And he's leading you. And there is the solution. And there is the deliverance. Notice the reaction of the people here in verse 10. Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. Well, that was good, wasn't it? To pray when things are desperate. As someone has said, my enemies can surround me, but they cannot roof me in. And there is one ear that will hear our prayers. And they cried out unto the Lord. And whatever causes us to pray like that is good for us. But notice next, verse 11. And they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? One breath they're praying, the next breath they're complaining and blaming their leader. And how like our perverse hearts that is, isn't it? We seek to pray, and we think we've prayed, but then the next minute, panicking and blaming others. And that is so typical of us. But isn't it a mercy that it's still under the dealings and the leadings of God and nothing can change what God is doing? And there is one solution. And it's the solution, dear friends, that is always true for us. In verse 15, says God to Moses, speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. And that is the great thing. There might be trouble on every hand, and there might be a growing urgency that something needs to be done, but the word of God is, go forward. And as they went forward... They found it was the provision of God, and the waters of the Red Sea opened up miraculously, and they went over on dry ground, and that was the deliverance, and the Egyptians were finished, and they were out of Egypt, and going forward on their pilgrimage. And dear friends, I commend the word to you. And you say, but you don't understand my situation. You say, if something doesn't happen quite soon, I don't know where we shall be as a family, what will happen to us as a church, I say to you, God's word is, go forward. In other words, keep going, keep trusting, keep venturing on the will of God and trust Him for the future day by day. Tomorrow get up and His compassions will fail not, they'll be new for you. Go forward Monday, do the same. Tuesday, next day. Day after day, keep going, keep going, and somehow or other a way will be made for you. He leads us about, but He will lead you by the right way. And we have found and we have proved, dear friends, keeping our head down, hoping in God, doing what is right, honoring and pleasing Him, though the heavens fall, God has led us through and God has made a way for us. And we've marveled and we've wondered at how God has come in for us. Don't sit down with your head in your hands in despair. and say, I'm finished. There's no hope anymore. There's nothing now but to give up. That's the counsel of unbelief. That's to forget God and leave him out of the picture. Go forward. I remember your minister telling us once concerning a certain church that he had some involvement with. There was some sad losses and trouble in the church and at a church meeting they were saying, the members were saying, what shall we do? What shall we do? And one of the elders got up and in a moment of inspiration he said, what shall we do? What shall we do? I'll tell you what we shall do, in the name of God we shall go forward That's it. And you'll find that God will be there. And you'll find that whatever is the unfolding of his purposes, they will unfold for you. You might be at your Red Sea. The enemy might be bearing down on you. You see no way to the right hand or to the left. The only way is forward. And God had His reasons. He would show Himself a gracious God, a wise God, an all-sufficient God, and come in for them. As the rod of Moses was lifted over the Red Sea, and by the power of God the waters were parted and became a wall either side of them, and they went across as dry ground. The thing was taken out of their hands, dear friends. stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Sometimes it's like that. We just don't know how we're gonna make out, how we will last another day, but yet we come to the point where God becomes so evident and He just seems to come down and take the situation out of our hands almost at the last minute, in the nick of time. to show that it's God who has appeared. Nothing of us, nothing of people. The Lord has done it. Hope thou in Him and you will yet praise Him. Go forward. God has His reasons. And that's why, of course, Good things are opposed by the devil, even as part of God's will and pleasure. The devil doesn't want his word to prosper. The devil doesn't want his ministers to be encouraged. The devil doesn't want souls to be saved. The devil doesn't want churches to be revived. and built up. The devil doesn't want that seminary founded at Grove House. Go forward in spite of the difficulties that have been. God will bless you and God will be with you and see what he will do. The waters will open up and the Lord will lead you through triumphantly. He led us about but he led them forth by the right way all the way to the land of Canaan after that. It says in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 10, again in similar language, he found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness he led him about. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. See the tenderness there again. It's all learning, isn't it? It's all proving the faithfulness of God and his tender mercies. Led about, but led by the right way. God has his reasons. You might not know them at the time. It's enough they're in his great mind. It's enough that they are the counsel of his own loving heart. It's enough that his hands are mighty and his arm is almighty and he can do all his pleasure, but all those blessed reasons. Thank God that the Christian life and the Christian ministry and church life and service is not one straight road going off into the distance whereby you see a smooth, straight course ahead of you. If that were the case, we would be forgetful of the Lord, we'd be sufficient of ourselves, everything would be predictable from one day to another, one month, one year to another, sailing happily onto the horizon into the sunset. Where would be the glory to God in all that? The fact of the matter is we can't see even one day ahead of us, can we? We can't see one moment ahead of us. We boast not tomorrow, we know not what a day may bring forth, and that's why we say, God willing. I like that. It's not something that's often said these days, is it? But you'll find that those who really are exercised in the Reformed faith, and those who have real heart religion, for whom the sovereignty of God and divine providence, not just doctrines, but felt conviction. You will often hear them say, God willing, if the Lord permit. Not hackneyed phrases, but sincerely meant. Because you see, he leads us about. And what we think might happen tomorrow may not happen tomorrow. It might be something amazingly different. You never know, but God knows. And we're acknowledging His good and acceptable and perfect will, the will of the Lord be done, always subject to that. And we'll learn from that. We'll be humbled by that under His mighty hand. and blessed, prospered spiritually, we're the better, aren't we? For that, it keeps us dependent step by step. Every day, every week, walking softly, rejoicing with trembling, the Lord over all. It lends a weightiness and a seriousness to life. And that's real religion. Not gloomy, lugubrious, miserable, real joy, but a sense that all things are of God. And of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever. God has his reasons. Let me conclude with this other point. that we have our comfort because, you see, we learn from this, dear friends, that it's not for us to direct our own way in life. In Jeremiah 10 and verse 23, the prophet says, O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. As Matthew Henry says, man proposes, but God disposes. And in his disposal, we must acquiesce and set ourselves to follow providence. We don't forget providence. We don't force providence. We follow providence, even if it's a long way about. Even if it seems to be a massive setback. Even if the latest news is even more discouraging. He's leading. He's leading. It might be about, but he's leading. And he's leading us forth by the right way. Oh dear friend, don't ever complain. Don't ever let one word escape from your lips. that seems to reflect upon the perfections of God. Elihu in Job 33 verse 13 was right, wasn't he, when he said this? Why dost thou strive against him? For he giveth not account of any of his matters. It's his prerogative, isn't it? To have that great plan and purpose and sometime sometimes kept secret and all we have revealed to us is that we follow His leading and that we seek to do His will and we leave the rest with Him. Believe that His ways are past finding out, dear friends, because they're above our finite understanding and even if God condescended to share with us Some of the things he is doing and why, it would be too great for us to take in. We must leave it all with him. Sometimes we get tested with this, don't we? Back in January, well, only last month, isn't it? January, the third weekend of January, is always our weekend to minister at Wattisham. And we were there again for the weekend Friday night preaching service, twice on the Lord's Day. And of course, the nice thing about going there now is that we have Beth and family living in Colchester, which is about 40 minutes drive from Wattisham, and we stay with them over that time. Well, we were there for the Friday evening preaching service, which concluded about nine o'clock. Nice cup of tea and a biscuit and some fellowship with the friends there. And then Beth, who was able to be present, she said, I'll lead you back to the house at Colchester. It's helpful to have her to follow. So we left about quarter past nine, and we were looking forward to being at her place by then, by about 40 minutes, because we'd had a long drive down from Holywell earlier that day. We tried to get onto the A12, coned off. So she led us another way to get on the A12, another opening down a slip road, coned off. And so backwards we went, following her, a stream of traffic. No way of getting onto the A12. Another possibility. go up this road, and then sign A12 Colchester. That was coned off as well. Every entrance to the A12 that we needed for Colchester, coned off. So back and forth, back and forth, you finally got out of the car, oh I'm sorry Dad and Mum, I just don't know the way. And so by this time it was getting late. And after many miles covered backwards and forwards, roundabout, discovering all the little villages and places in rural Suffolk and nearing Essex. Finally, we found a police car, a lady police constable there. Can you tell us what's happening? And she said, the highways people, they've done a rubbish job with the diversion signs. No one knows where to go. The lorries are coming back through the villages. It's hopeless. But she said, if you take this road, and then turn right, make for another place, and turn right for another place. That will get you on the Colchester Road. You'll see a sign for it then. Oh, wonderful. So we did it, and eventually we got home nearly midnight. And of course Peter was worried and so on, all tired. Now you see, there are two ways of looking at a thing like that. The one way is to see it in terms of the ineptness and incompetence of the highways agency and their planning for such a big closure of the A12 and to blame them. That's one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is the providence of God. that it was his appointed will and way. And which way do you take? Which way do you see it? He led them about, but he led them the right way. And it's not being sentimental or silly and spiritual to see it in terms of the sovereign providence of God, because all things are of God. And who knows, dear friend, the reasons why we had to get home that way, that night. Maybe if we'd have got on the A12, maybe we'd have met with an accident. God knew what he was doing. And so, I trust it was a lesson to our daughter, who was fuming a bit, but when we got home finally, We agreed that, yes, the Lord has his way, and we acknowledge the Lord in all our ways. I say to the younger people here, it's really good to see younger people. And when we're young, and especially perhaps young in the Christian life, We tend to see things really in terms of just people and situations and that kind of thing, and we're very quick to criticise. I was the same when I was younger, very quick to jump to conclusions, criticise, blame people and so on, and be negative and moaning and groaning and so on. But let me tell you this, there is absolutely nothing that happens in life, nothing at all, that is not of the providence of God. And it's not even that God permits or allows things, it's that God appoints and sends things. Otherwise, if it is not God who does everything, who is doing these things? The devil? people and if that's the case who's in charge of the universe and of the world and of your life and mine the scripture makes it quite clear doesn't it all things of God all things come of thee in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths and real godliness real godliness is to see the Lord in all things and to bow patiently to his sovereign will. Because his ways are all righteous, he does all things well. Trust him where you cannot trace him. Learn these lessons well. He may lead you about, but he leads you forth by the right way. And what he wants us to do is to trust him, to bow patiently before him lovingly receive what he does, ask him to bless it and sanctify it to you, teach you the lessons, graciously change you through it, so that you're profited by his dealings. And one day, maybe soon, maybe in years to come, you'll see that it was the right way. It might not be until heaven itself that you'll bless the hand that guided and bless the heart that planned when thrown where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. But as it says, as you know in Psalm 107 as well, so he bringeth them to their desired haven. And we get to glory at the last. And we have gone a circuitous route but we've got there. It was his wonderful leading. Can you trust him for these things? Believe them. In your personal situation, in that family problem, in your church, as pastors, even in the world situation outside, everything's subject to this. Let us see our being led about through the lens of He leads us forth by the right, the right way. Give Him the glory.