Well, let's pray together. Father, we're so grateful after these weeks apart to be gathered together and to have our hearts brought together in song, in worship, in praise. And Lord, I do pray that our times together would be precious to us, that we would grow in our appreciation of the body of Christ, the unity, the union that we have in you by your Spirit. Father, we have even rehearsed in our own mind the struggle of faithfulness that we all face every day. In the things that we have sung, in the words that we have considered, we recognize the struggle of faith and faithfulness. And as we consider Israel's journey from the Red Sea to Sinai and the test that you put in front of them, I pray that we would be profited from their experience as we consider their struggle and their failure in the light of your abiding faithfulness. Though Israel would and did fail to fulfill its calling, its vocation on behalf of the world, Israel's God proved steadfast. He proved faithful. And Father, by your own power, by your own sovereign goodness and love for your creation, You did in the fullness of the times cause Israel to become Israel indeed. And through that one, the faithful Israelite, to see to it that the promise to Abraham would be fulfilled, that through him and through his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. And we come to you, Father, as that God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the sons of Israel, the God who led the people through the wilderness, the God who led them all the centuries in Canaan, who drove them from the land into exile, the God who remained faithful through those long centuries when all things were shattered, when all things were undone, when the people in many ways were hopeless of how their God could indeed fulfill his covenant, but you called on them to wait and to believe, to trust, and to know that somehow you would arise because you are the faithful God. the one who is unchanging in will, purpose, goodness, loving kindness. And Father, we upon whom the ends of the ages have come can look back on that history with an insight and an understanding, a privilege that those who went before could not enjoy. They only saw dimly with the hope of a God who would prove true. But we have seen that faithfulness fulfilled in the power wielded in the cross of Christ and the power of His resurrection. And as people who claim His name, as people who stand in His life, I pray that the faithfulness, the joy, the peace, the conviction that was to govern your people in the time of promise would be all the more the case with us. who have seen that faithfulness fulfilled. May we prove to be a faithful people in our time, in our struggles, in our generation. So we ask that you administer to us now, as you led Israel in the wilderness, so lead us by your spirit and build us up in this most holy faith. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as we continue our journey through the Old Testament, perhaps you found yourself asking yourself, why do we care about Israel's history? Why do we care about these things? Aren't we Christians? Aren't Christians supposed to be about Jesus? Why do we need to worry about all of this Old Testament stuff? And I hope that even as I pray that we can recognize that it's in understanding Israel's history that we understand the one who embodied Israel in himself. We can't know the Jesus that we claim to know, that we profess, that we speak of, that we testify of to the world in which we live unless we know him in the way that God has revealed him. And that means that we have to know him according to the scriptures. We have to know him according to the way in which God told the story and prepared for, built the case for the coming of the Messiah. And so I hope as we, week after week, are kind of diving into this Old Testament story of Israel, that we're doing so with that mindset. not just that this is a bunch of historical stuff that's very remote, very abstract, it doesn't really pertain to us, or if it does, only in some kind of remote, ethical way, Israel was to be faithful, we're to be faithful, end of story, but that we really see this as the unveiling to our hearts and our minds of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one whose very existence in life defines us, we as his people are collectively the fullness of him who fills all in all. And so I pray that we consider these things with in the way that the Spirit would have us to which is in a way that unveils to us and enriches for us a true sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the last time that we were together then we considered Israel's exodus which had its apex at the Red Sea and God rising up to destroy this great opposing power that was Pharaoh and the Egyptian army. And Israel's Song of Moses, which was their their praise of jubilation, this kind of climactic celebration of the God who proved faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, liberated his people, brought them through, destroyed the powers that were risen up against them. But we find then from that time of the Red Sea episode, a passing of three months before Israel arrived at Sinai. And their journey to Sinai or to Mount Horeb was according to God's own appointment. Remember when he had met Moses there at Horeb with the event of the burning bush, he said, when you go back and you bring the people out, then bring them to meet me on this mountain. And so their destiny was to return back to Horeb where Moses had encountered God, and there have the covenant relationship that God had established with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob confirmed to them. As I said before, what happens at Sinai, what we call the Mosaic Covenant or the Sinai Covenant, was just the ratifying, the confirming of that covenant relationship with the sons of Israel that God had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. So they're headed for Sinai, but in that three-month interval they undergo a series of tests in which God tests them and in which the text says they also tested God. There's a kind of trying of this relationship. Israel is the only begotten of God, the man of Ganesh, the elect son of God, right? Go and tell Pharaoh, Israel is my son, my only begotten son. Let my son go that he might worship me in the wilderness. And this is a kind of of initial trying of that relationship between covenant father and covenant son. And it unfolds in a series of five distinct tests. And that's what I'd like for us to consider today. This takes us from the last part of chapter 15 through the 18th chapter. So as I said, God's elect son needed to be formally joined to him in covenant union. That's what Sinai is all about. but there's a process of getting to Sinai and approving a testing of God that actually becomes Israel's own test of itself, a way in which it comes to understand itself better in the light of its relationship with God and understand God better as well. So these tests, as we'll see, openly demonstrated Israel's heart towards God, which wasn't good, which wasn't sound. as these tests also showed God's unwavering commitment to his covenant and its promises and its purposes. As Paul said, may every man prove a liar, God is true. And we see that even in the unfolding of these tests as they kind of characterize the initiating of this relationship between Israel as son of God and God as covenant father. So only three days out from the Red Sea, the Israelites arrive at a place that comes to be called Marah, bitterness, or a place of bitterness, a bitter place. And if you look in chapter 15 of Exodus, we'll just read this section. It's only a few verses through the end of the chapter, beginning at verse 22. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, what shall we drink? Then Moses cried out to Yahweh, to the Lord, and he showed him a tree, and he threw it in the waters, and the waters became sweet, purified to where they could be drunk. And there he made for them a statute and a regulation. There he tested them. This doesn't mean like writing a law in a book. It means God establishing a point of instruction for them to be able to look at and say, yes, here is something that we understand, a truth that God has made known to us. and here is that truth by which God tested them. He said, if you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, this becomes important through this whole series of tests. If you will listen to my voice, the voice of Yahweh who is your God, if you will do what is right in his sight, if you will give ear to his direction, and keep his directives, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians. For I, Yahweh, am your healer." He had healed the waters and that becomes a sign to them and a point of instruction to them that if they will walk with him, if they will heed him, then he will be their healer as he healed the waters at Marah. Verse 27, then they came to a limb. So now they leave, and what does God do as their healer, certifying his word to them? If you will follow me, if you will be faithful, if you will keep my word, then I will be your healer. He brings them to an oasis, a place of water, right? A place of rest and a place of provision in the wilderness. and oasis. There were 12 springs of water and 70 date palms and they camped there beside the waters." So this is the first test then. And again, the charge that God put in front of them, this very first test, was to be a point of instruction. When he says a statute and a commandment, he means something that you're to hold in your minds, that you're to remember. This is not just an episode for you to move past. This is a kind of touchstone a point of revelation and disclosure to you that you are to carry with you going forward. And here was again the point. Faithfulness, in other words, heeding their faithful God, constituted their obedience. their faithfulness constituted their obedience. Meeting that obligation would see their well-being preserved, even as God had healed the waters of Marah. So in this father-son relationship, the first thing that God shows them, and it becomes foundational for all of Israel's history, is that their obligation of obedience as sons was to heed his word, to believe him, to trust him. From there then, the text goes on in chapter 16, they proceed into the wilderness of Sin, 16.1, then they set out from Elam and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the sons of Israel said to them, would that we had died by Yahweh's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. So the second test kind of parallels the first. The first involved them not having water to drink, a necessity of life. The second involves their lack of food, their concern for food. But there's also an escalation in Israel's unfaithfulness towards God. As I say, in really three respects you see that escalation. First, with respect to the subjects. Secondly, the objects. And third, the complaint. With respect to the subjects, the text says the whole congregation of Israel grumbled. In the first instance, at Marah, the text doesn't say everyone, but it says Israel, the people of Israel. Here it's explicit twice that this is the whole congregation. It's escalated also in the fact that they're not just grumbling to Moses, but they're grumbling against Aaron as well. And then the third thing is their complaint. What they had lamented and cried out in Egypt to be delivered from, they're now wishing they could go back. As they look back on that time in Egypt, their understanding, their remembrance of it has changed. their misery, they cried out to be delivered, not even specifically to the God of Israel, but just for someone to arise and deliver them. Well, the God who was faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remembered and he delivered them. Now they're lamenting and saying, oh, if we could only go back. And the point was that when they lived in Egypt, they had forgotten Yahweh and they were serving the gods of Egypt. And so the implication here is that The gods of Egypt provided for us abundantly when we were there. This God of our fathers, where is his provision? He has proven himself unfaithful. The gods of Egypt met our needs. Oh, that we could go back and be back underneath their care. That's the implication here. Well, once again, God responded with supernatural provision supplying manna as bread from heaven and meat in the form of quail that flew in and covered the camp. And I won't read this whole context for the sake of time. I hope that you have and that you will, but you have the manna arriving in the morning when the Israelites woke up, and then you have the quail, this massive flock of quail flying in and covering the camp in the evening. And so morning and evening, God is providing for his people. They miss the meat pots of Egypt. God gives them meat, but he also gives them this manna, the introduction of the manna. So again, Yahweh says this is to be instruction for you. This is not just an episode, it's something you're to learn from. If you look in verse four, The Lord said to Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether or not they will walk in my instruction. This becomes its own point of instructing. God is in a sense acting as a pedagogue to his people before they even arrive at Sinai. So the manna is then to continue on as we'll see if you read through the passage. It seems, it's not entirely clear, but it seems that at this point the quail, the provision of the quail, was a one-time occurrence. But quail will, God providing quail, will arise again later in numbers when the people are again complaining. The second time God provides quail, it's as a judgment, a punishment of them. They're saying, we have nothing to eat. All we have is this manna. We're sick of it. We need something substantial to eat. And God says, I'll give you something to eat. And he sends quail, and he says, you'll eat it not for a day, not for two days, not for a week, for a month, till it's coming out of your noses and you're choking on it, because you did not believe me. So quail will emerge later. Here, God provides it as a way of feeding his people. Later on, it becomes a sign of judgment. But what I wanted to focus on for this part of it is the manna and then the Sabbath that comes from that. Manna is introduced as God's heavenly food. It's something that is otherworldly, both in its form and its appearing. The name manna comes from the Hebrew expression manhu, what is it? And they ask that question. When it appears, they say, what is it? which obviously means they've never seen it before. They don't know what it is. It's not a natural earthly food that they're familiar with. And it appears in the morning as the dew evaporates, it's left on the ground. Manhu, what is it? Supernaturally provided by God. It couldn't be cultivated, it couldn't be preserved. And God says, this will be your daily bread. You will rise in the morning, it will be there. You will gather what you need, and the one who gathers much won't have too much. God will see to it that what that one gathers is enough for him and his household. The one who gathers little won't have too little. Each one will have enough for a full portion for the day. God will provide what is needed for their daily bread. But it will come every day. They can't store it. They can't preserve it. they have to trust God every day. And I'm glad that you had Dylan read that passage from Deuteronomy 8, because that idea of God providing daily and the bread that he ultimately gives is the living upon his word, that trusting moment by moment by moment, that becomes a huge issue. You know, even in Jesus testing, as I hinted even in my prayer, and I know I've said it before, Jesus comes as the embodiment of Israel and he is tested in his own testing as the nation was tested. Them for 40 years, him for 40 days. If you look at the 40 day testing in the Synoptic Gospels, the way in which Jesus is tested and the way in which he answers Satan is according to the ways in which Israel failed. He responds from Deuteronomy. He responds from God's response to Israel. So where I'm going specifically here is that Satan says to him, Jesus, it's been 40 days and he's hungry. You know, a great understatement, right? And Satan says, if you're the Son of God, command these stones to turn into bread. God would not want you to be hungry. I mean, make these stones into bread. It is written, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He answers in exactly the same way that Moses convicted the people of Israel, because they did not answer their need in that sort of way. They cried out and they complained to God, and they said, we're starving, we're going to die, he doesn't care, where is he? So you have Jesus himself undergoing the same test of the need of bread, the need of provision, but trusting and waiting for God to provide in his time. And that becomes even central in the Sermon on the Mount and what we call the Lord's Prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. And we tend to think of it in terms of, okay, God's gonna give me what I need to eat today. And it's not that it doesn't include that, but it goes beyond that. It's that God's provision is sufficient for each day according to his word. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And the sufficiency for each day is the trusting, moment by moment, in every circumstance, that the God who has spoken is faithful. It's not about food per se. And that comes out again in this idea, teach us how to pray Teach us what this kingdom prayer would be like. What does it mean for us to pray as sons of God? Well, that's what it looks like. Give us this day our daily bread. And obviously, that gets bound up in Jesus himself when you look at John 6, right? The people follow him. You gave us bread, give us more bread. Don't work for food that perishes. Work for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. I am the true bread that came down out of heaven. your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and they died, but whoever eats this bread will not die." So all of these themes that are being introduced this early in Israel's life become fundamental to Israel's self-understanding and their sense of how they should perceive their relationship with God and how they should even see all of that come to its apex of embodiment and realization in Jesus himself, and then what flows through that in terms of what it means for us to live with God as his children in the Messiah. God provides the Manitoum, and it wasn't their only food. They left Egypt with vast amounts of flocks and herds. They had animals to sacrifice in the wilderness, Once they leave Sinai and they have the tabernacle, they're offering sacrifices in the wilderness. They have animals, so this isn't the only thing they eat, but it's the sign of God giving them in each day what they need. They can just rest in his provision. That's the idea of the manna. But the other thing I wanted to point out about this without going into a great amount of detail, and that's something we can obviously talk about more later, but this becomes the occasion for the introduction of the Sabbath principle. And the reason I say that is it's very commonly understood, certainly in Reformed circles, that the weekly Sabbath was a creation ordinance. God instituted the Sabbath commandment in Eden. And the text does not say that. Number one, in the creation account, as we saw, Sabbath is what characterizes God in the completion of his work. There's no commandment there. There's no obligation imposed on Adam or Eve. But secondly, when God provides the manna, he tells them each day you gather what you need. You can't store it, you can't keep it. And they try, they don't trust him, right? We better store some up tomorrow in case there isn't any food tomorrow. And it gets filled with worms and it goes bad. But then the sixth day, they gather twice as much and they say, what does this mean? And through Moses, God says, this is because the seventh day is a Sabbath. So the sixth day, I'll allow you to gather twice as much so that you will have it for the seventh day. This is a Sabbath. So he introduces this principle to them. I wanted to just point out a couple of things again by way of reminder of this idea of Sabbath. It is a creation principle. It wasn't given as a creation commandment to Adam and Eve, but it is a creation principle as we saw in that Sabbath speaks of completed order and God's administration of that order. the seventh day, which is this unending day when God has completed his work, he rests. The idea of rest is not taking a nap or not doing anything. It's, in the ancient world, the idea of a king taking his throne to begin to administer his reign over the kingdom that he has established by his labor. A king would go out and fight a war. The sweat of his army, the conflict of his army would establish for him a kingdom, and then he would take his throne and begin to preside over it. That's the idea of rest. God has completed his ordering of the creation, and now he is administering it. from his sanctuary place, from Eden. As a human principle, Sabbath showed that God intended his divine rest, his rule, and his administration of his creational kingdom to be carried out through his image son. Adam was created what? Be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, rule over it, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field. God would administer his lordship through man, his image, son. So that's the sense in which the principle of rest extends to men. It wasn't a weekly Sabbath commandment. It was the obligation of man to be the instrumentality of God's rest. Israel possessed that status as image son through covenant election. So Sabbath was to be at the very heart of Israel's life with God. We'll see that it will be ratified as fundamental to the Sinai covenant, but the relationship that Sinai governed is more important. And because that covenant relationship involved cohabitation, God dwelling with his people in that land, That's what the covenant was all about. Sabbath was to be the defining principle of Israel's life in God's sanctuary land, just as Sabbath had been the principle in Eden. Israel being with God in Canaan was a kind of prototypical return to Eden. We talked about how even the language of Canaan is the language of Eden, right? So Israel was to be a Sabbath people, and we think about a one day and seven Sabbath, but that was just one tiny piece of Israel's Sabbath obligation. You had festal Sabbaths. You had the seventh year Sabbath. You had the Jubilee Sabbath, which was the Sabbath of Sabbaths. Israel was to be a Sabbath people because they were God's image son administering his kingdom in his name and his authority. That's what Sabbath was all about. And the significance of the manna, even in relation to Sabbath, but manna's significance in Israel's redemption and its new life as God's imaged son was attested by its commemoration. And you see this at the end of chapter 16, and I say this is an anachronistic parenthesis. I don't mean to be overly technical, but anachronism means something out of order, something stated that isn't in the chronological order, and it's a parenthesis here because it's a looking back and saying, here's what was done in view of commemorating the manna. Verse 31, the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white. Its taste was like wafers with honey. Then Moses said, this is what Yahweh has commanded. Let an omer full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, take a jar and put an omer full of manna in it and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. Well, there is no tabernacle, there is no ark of the testimony, none of that exists yet. So this is looking forward to how this would be. And traditionally, Israel held that that omer full, that jar of manna was kept in the Ark of the Covenant, along with the tablets, right? And Aaron's rod that budded, which we'll get to. And the sons of Israel ate the manna 40 years until they came to an inhabited land, until they came into the land of Canaan. They ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah. So there's the second test. The third test also involved the lack of drinking water, but once again we see an escalation. An escalation. Not only had the people not learned from what God did at Marah, they now are overtly questioning God's presence with them, and they're so angry and frustrated that Moses is afraid they're going to kill him. Chapter 17, verse one, all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin according to the command of the Lord and camped at Rephidim and there was no water for the people to drink. They quarreled with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh? But the people thirsted for water and they grumbled against Moses said, why now have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, what shall I do with this people? A little more, they will stone me. And Yahweh said, pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock of Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, and the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he named the place Massah, despair or despairing, and Meribah, contending or quarreling, striving because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel and because they tested the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord among us or not? So they questioned God's presence with them as well as his concern for them. And God answered in a way that affirmed his presence as well as his care. The text says that Moses struck the rock that God was standing on. Now we don't know how he appeared. God is standing on a rock. God is spirit. How does that work? The text doesn't tell us. But the sons of Israel obviously recognize the fact that the person of Yahweh was present in association with that rock that Moses struck and the water came forth from it. And that also became a hugely significant thing in Israel's tradition and its sense of itself, its sense of God's nearness and provision. Edmund Clowney says this in his book, Preaching Christ in All the Scripture, God who is the shepherd of his people not only leads them through the wilderness, he stands in their place that justice might be done. The penalty is discharged. Moses strikes the rock. The Lord redeems by bearing the judgment. From the smitten rock there flows the water of life into the deadly wilderness. When Paul says the rock was Christ, he perceives the symbolism of this passage. The rock that followed them throughout their wilderness wanderings was Christ. He's not saying literally, but he understands the symbolism of this and how these things came to be embodied and fulfilled in Jesus himself. So that's the third test. The last two involve Israel's faith in God's commitment to their protection and preservation. Why is that important? Because they're the Abrahamic people. God made a covenant with Abraham that through him and his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. And he promised not only that he would do that work through them, but that he would dwell with them. He would be their God, they would be his people. And he's promised also to Abraham a place where he will dwell with them. But that place is a foreign land to the Israelites, and it's an inhabited land, and a land that is not going to just yield itself up to them, right? So if they're to inherit what God has pledged to them, they're going to have to gain victory over the inhabitants of the land, as well as anyone else who would oppose them in that process. They're going to have to fight battles against human enemies. And these two tests are putting in front of them the need to trust God for that. So Rephidim becomes their very first conflict with a human opponent, adversary, after coming out of Egypt. And it was a battle with the Amalekites, here called Amalek. Now, it's not Amalek, but if you know who Amalek is, he was actually a descendant of Esau. and Amalek and the Amalekites descended from him become so crucial in the history of Israel as, in a sense, being the human embodiment of opposition to God and his covenant and its fulfillment, and so to God and his people. This battle and its outcome echoed and reaffirmed Jacob's triumph over Esau and was profoundly significant, as I say, in the development of the biblical storyline. What we saw with Jacob and Esau… Remember chapter 32, Mahanaim, the two camps? We saw that Jacob gains the triumph over Esau entirely by God's hand. Jacob doesn't do anything. God gives him that triumph over Esau. And so it would be at Rephidim with the Israelites, here with the Amalekites. The Amalekites, again, represent… here they're opposing God's people as they're seeking to make their way through the wilderness. But this happens over and over again throughout Israel's history. Amalek and the Amalekites come to embody this opposition, this human opposition, the serpent seed versus the seed of the woman. I will put enmity between your seed and his seed, the seed of the serpent." And you see that in… Remember when Saul is stripped of the kingdom, God tells him to do what? Go out and utterly destroy the Amalekites. See, part of this context here is The instruction to Israel is, I will set myself against Amalek everlastingly. As I have defeated them here at Rephidim, as we're going to see, this is a sign to you that you must be hostile to them permanently. I will set myself against them. They represent an adversarial orientation towards me and my covenant and my purposes. The seed of the serpent. And Saul, the king, is sent out to destroy the Amalekites, and he defeats them in battle, but he brings their king Amalek, again, the central figure, back. And God says, why have you done that? You've disobeyed the word of the Lord. That's what Samuel says, right? Oh, I brought him back. you know, to parade him and to do these sacrifices, brought all the animals back to sacrifice. Does the Lord delight in sacrifices as much as in heeding the voice of the Lord? You see Saul was obligated, as were the people of Israel, to fulfill this decreed hostility towards Amalek. And it's later that David finally is the one who defeats the Amalekites. but they're this constant thorn in the side, and they have this symbolic significance. So that's the point of this test. It establishes, again, this principle that God's people must oppose. They must set themselves against everything that rises up against His covenant and His purposes centered in His people themselves. So the way in which this plays out is that Joshua is instructed to lead a battle against the Amalekites, and Moses goes up on the hill over overlooking the battlefield, and he has his hands raised up to God. Not out over the battlefield, up to God. But his arms become weary, and so Aaron and Hur, another man, stand there and they hold up his arms as he's weary. And when his arms are up, then they're prevailing in battle. As his arms begin to sag, then the Amalekites begin to prevail. And so Aaron and Hur hold his arms up. And you say, that's kind of a weird thing. But again, it's speaking of a symbolic thing. Remember again, Jacob's victory over Esau was entirely God's doing. And it's the same thing here. Yes, they're down fighting the battle, but what causes them to prevail is the posture of weakness and dependence and petition of Moses with his hands reached up to God and even being strengthened by the provision that God has given to him. The victory is the Lord's. They have to stand against the enemies of God's kingdom and his covenant, but the Lord gives them the victory. And that episode too is memorialized as enduring testimony of Yahweh's faithfulness. If you look in Deuteronomy 25, and recall again, Deuteronomy, the Israelites have finished their 40 years in the wilderness. They're now on the plains of Moab. They're preparing to cross over into the land of Canaan. And what Deuteronomy is, is a book of remembrance. Moses is taking them back through their history with God. reminding them of the way he led them, the way he preserved them, all of that whole time of testing, that whole time of, you know, seeing the Lord's hand on their behalf. And in chapter 25 in verse 17, it says, remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary. He did not fear God. Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess. You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You must not forget and Saul will forget but David doesn't forget. But this is so significant that it's even a part of Moses remembrance reminding the people as they're preparing to enter the land. So it too is a point of instruction, something that's to become a part of their national consciousness, their sense of who they are as the people of God. And then the last event, this last test, involves God's provision of judicial resource for Israel. And again, they haven't even gotten to Sinai yet. They're not even three months out. They're getting close. Israel is in a crisis of internal strife and conflict that underscores again this principle of estrangement over the creation still pertains to them. Yes, they are son of God by covenant election, but Israel is still estranged from their God and estranged to one another. And that estrangement led the Israelites to doubt and grumble against their God, who is also their covenant father. But it also provoked them to dispute and contend with one another. And Moses was the mediator in both of those areas of estrangement and contention. But the task of leading Israel with all of this strife is pressing him to the breaking point. And Israel itself is coming to the breaking point, where their unity, their integrity as a people, even their continuance as a covenant nation is at risk. So if Moses would prove unable to mediate Israel's internal conflicts and disputes, the nation would collapse in chaos and fracture. Before they arrive at Sinai, where together they are constituted Yahweh's covenant son, they're in danger of ripping themselves apart. This is a unique test, and in a sense kind of a climactic test, because it's purely internal. It's not regarding external circumstances happening around them. It's what's going on within them. They're threatening their own well-being and are poised to disintegrate as a people before the unifying covenant was even ratified. And it's Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who is a Midianite priest, who proposes the solution. Moses says you need to identify other godly men who will take on portions of the people to oversee them and to handle the disputes that come. And things that they can't settle, things that are too momentous, those things can still come to you, but you need to have other men to assist you. And the one thing that I wanted to point out here that's kind of a subtext in this is that the Midianites were descendants of Midian. And if you recall, Midian was one of the sons of Keturah. Midian was an Abrahamite. He was a son of Abraham, but through Keturah when Sarah died. But Midian is set in contrast to Amalek. Amalek is also an Abrahamite, right? He's a descendant of Esau. But Amalek represents people in hostility, if you will, the non-Israelites who oppose God and his people and his purposes. Midian, here in Jethro himself, in many ways, and they will be hostile as well, but at least in Jethro we see a non-Israelite who actually himself embraces the living God. If you look in chapter 18, we'll pick this up in verse eight. Now Jethro comes, he brings Moses' wife, he brings Moses' sons and meets them. And Moses told his father-in-law, this is 18.8, all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh, to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had befallen them on the journey and how the Lord had delivered them, And Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness which Yahweh had done to Israel in delivering them from the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, blessed be Yahweh who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all the gods. Indeed, it was proven when they dealt proudly against the people. Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, he's a priest, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses, father-in-law before God." So you see, Jethro represents, in contrast, a non-Israelite who comes to believe in and is faithful to God. And in many ways, Jethro provides a stinging indictment of the covenant people. Just as later on, the Gentiles will be a stinging indictment of the people of Israel. The kingdom will be taken from you, the sons of the kingdom, and given to those who bear the fruit of it, Jesus said. So you see these themes again emerging throughout the text. Well, just a couple things by way of conclusion, then, in closing. Okay, this is all fine and good, but what do we take from this? Well, these episodes were all tests of Israel's sonship. They were set in the context of Israel's self-understanding as God's elect son, and they are on their way to Sinai to have that relationship ratified. And specifically, these these events, these episodes, tested the people in regard to their faith? Would they look to and trust their circumstances? Would they draw their sense of their well-being or their sense of their situation from the circumstances they were in or from the God who had spoken? And if you look in the notes, I give you these references tied to each of these five things in which the text specifically says, this is a test whether the people will listen to Yahweh's word, whether they will trust his word, his instruction, or whether they will look to their circumstances. Will they trust what he has said, or will they trust what they're experiencing in the moment? And as this kind of comes to its apex as they arrive at Sinai in chapter 19, and we'll look at this the next time, but as they arrive in Sinai, you see in verse four, it says, God speaking, and he tells Moses, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, the sons of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings, brought you to myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, Then you will be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. You will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. Will you listen to my words? Will you keep my covenant? a covenant by which I am a father to you and you are my people, you are sons of God, or will you look to your circumstances?" So would Israel walk by faith as true sons, resting in their father's word to them, or by sight, as all people naturally do? And you see in these tests, tests of Israel's sonship, that they failed. They looked and assessed themselves based on their circumstances. And even in their victory over the Amalekites, they had a reinforced idea of the power of the sword, their victory in battle. That will become evident later on. As opposed to trusting Yahweh's hand, working through weakness and petition. See, the victory wasn't the army down on the field. The victory was God working through Moses' weakness with his hands up to the Lord. But Israel is trusting in circumstance and in natural resource. So this failure, which is already now manifesting itself before they even reach Sinai, is the failure of its sonship. Israel is failing as son. But its sonship reflected the covenant behind it. It was a covenant election that made them sons, right? So God's purpose for the world which is what is bound up in the covenant with Abraham, i.e., the fulfillment of his covenant depended on Israel fulfilling its own calling as elect son. Israel is failing as son, but Israel fulfilling its sonship is critical to God fulfilling his covenant with Abraham and his purposes for the world. should the Abrahamic people fail, God's purposes will fail. And that will become, again, a point of tension and a huge theme throughout the Old Testament scriptures. How will God keep his oath to Abraham with a people who cannot fulfill their covenant calling? So Israel is failing his covenant, son. We see already here this early on, but the Lord of the covenant remained faithful. In each of these instances, God provided for him while they grumbled against him. Even when they said, let's go back to Egypt where we had it so good, God didn't say, forget it. I'm done with these people. And even later, when he will say that, he still carries them forward. In each instance, God met his son's failure with his own provision, carrying them towards Sinai in their covenant destiny. He will prove faithful. over and over and over again, he says, you need to take me at my word, not what you see, not what you're experiencing. You need to take me at my word. I am faithful. Well, with that, let's, let's then close in prayer. Father, this is an important lesson for us. We're not Israelites walking in the wilderness. All those thousands of years ago, we We can abstract ourselves from these circumstances. We can say these things have nothing to do with us. But we too face circumstances every day that tend to make us say in our hearts, if not with our mouths, where is our God? Is the Lord among us or not? How could this be? I am in need. I am in want. I'm thirsty, I'm hungry. How can this adversity be the will of my God? And Father, we too are very much inclined, even as people who have your spirit and share in the life of Christ, even as true sons and daughters in him, we too have a propensity to walk by sight and not by faith. And even our prayers and our longings tend to be for temporal remedy, for you to put the Band-Aid on the cut rather than to teach us to trust you and to walk with you in loving dependence and devotion. Should we be tested in the way that Jesus was with, take to yourself bread. God wouldn't want you to be hungry. Do what's necessary to get something to eat. would we say, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Do we take you at your word that you are faithful, that you will carry us, that you will preserve us, that nothing will touch us in the sense that even if we lose our life, if we lose all things in the cause of our faithfulness, we have all things. As Paul said, having nothing and yet possessing all things, poor yet making many rich, having all sufficiency in all things, whether well-fed, whether hungry, whether in difficulty or in ease. Father, I pray that you would help us to be a faithful people, a people who know what you have pledged and who take you at your word. who are willing to walk out life knowing that our God is faithful and what you have begun, you will bring to completion. And even if it costs us our lives, we nonetheless triumph through the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. We are untouchable. Give us such faith, give us such courage of conviction and Father, help us to be ministers of such courage to one another. Even as we think about how we pray for one another, how we pray with one another, how we stand together as your people unified, what does it mean for us to labor together to see every man grow up in all things into Christ who is the head? So help us in these things. We are most privileged to see your triumph in the Messiah and to be shares in him. How much more ought we be a faithful people? How much more ought we be a people who take you at your word, having seen your word become yes and amen in Jesus our Lord. So help us in these things, strengthen us and build us up in this most holy faith. We ask all these things in the name of Christ our Lord, amen.