LDUB: Lessons from that Seventh Day

You know, as you—and as we look at Egypt—and I've spent some time this Holy Day season talking about the analogies and how we should compare what went on with Egypt in some of the ancient times to what we do today, because the walk in our path is very similar in what God had Egypt, or Israel experience in Egypt. They were coming out of Egypt. You know, it has a lot of lessons for us today. And as Israel left Egypt, you know, back after that Passover, when God watched over them, and as they obeyed God, they spared them from death. And then on the 15th, they left Egypt. They were joyous, and they were solemn as they recognized on that night to be much observed what God had done for them.

And they began marching through the wilderness. And then back in Exodus 13, there's some heartening things that we heard, because as—or that we read about. As Israel was marching, they should have felt much comfort with God. And then at the end of chapter 13, it says this, in Exodus 13 and verse 17, it says, So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, God will surely visit you, and will carry up my bones from here with you. So they took their journey from Succath and camped in Ethem at the edge of the wilderness. And the eternal went before them by day, in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night. He didn't take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. You know, for Israel, as they had been through everything they had gone through in the weeks and months leading up to the time that they left Egypt, as they were there and they were free for the first time and they were under or away from the slavery and the bondage of Egypt, it had to be awfully comforting for them to look up in the sky and see that God was there in a cloud by day, shielding them from the intense heat that was there in that wilderness. And at night they would see the pillar of fire. And no, whenever they maybe felt a little scared or a little uncertain about the steps they were taking along the way, you know, they could look right up in the sky and they would know God is there. There's the cloud that's leading us. There's the pillar of fire by night that warms us and that lets us know God is always there, always watching. No matter where we go and what we do, they should have understood and they should have come to understand because that cloud and that pillar of fire was there right until the time they reached the promised land. God never left them. They always had that presence that they could look up to. I hope you understand the analogy for us is exactly the same. God called us out of Egypt. He called us out of a world that's going nowhere, that is full of sin. And He put us on a road to the Kingdom and His eternal life and what He has planned for us. And we should never forget and we should be comforted that no matter what twist and turn that road may take, because Israel, you know, some of them may have asked, well, how come we're not going up this way? That's closer to where you're leading us than this. And we may ask, why not this and why not that? But we feel a little scared when we have a question, when we might feel a little bit of doubt or we might not know the direction we should remember, God is always there. You know, he says that in Deuteronomy 31. We won't turn there. He says, God will never leave you or forsake you.

In Hebrews 13, verse 5, you don't have to turn there because we've heard that verse many times. In Hebrews 13, 5, he repeats the same thing. He says, it says in the last part of the verse, well, let me read the whole verse. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For God Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. When things look a little scary, well, we're not sure exactly where things are going. I hope we remember, and I hope Israel remembered, all we have to do is look up to the sky, get down on our knees, and pray to God and know He is always there. He will never leave or forsake us. And as long as we follow Him, just like as long as the Israelites followed that cloud by day and that pillar of fire by night, He would surely lead them to what they had left Egypt for. And as long as we follow God, as long as we follow His principles, as long as we follow His ways and are committed to them, it may take twists and turns our life, but we know that He is there. Now, we can call on Him night and day, and He will answer, and He will lead us to exactly where He wanted us to be. Now, the Israelites didn't know it there in chapter 13 when we read that, but they were about to face a huge trial, because none of our lives, when we're called out of Egypt and the world, are just a merry path without any kind of problems along the way. Israel was going to try to find many things along the way that was going to cause them some problems. But they should have remembered God was there and not to worry about those things, and I'm not going to recount all those things they encountered on their way. In chapter 14 of Exodus, we find one of those things, but that's not all the things that I want to talk about today. Let me read one more scripture here, because what Israel may not have understood back at the time of Exodus 13, but we should realize today, is that God has only our best interests at heart.

You know, Romans 8, 28, when we look at what God did for Israel, when we look at what He's doing for us and where He's taking us, it says, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called, the called according to His purpose. It may take twists and turns. We may have things happen to us along the way that we don't understand or don't want to happen, but it's for a reason, and we know what those reasons are.

We know we're here on the last day of Unleavened Bread, and the last day of Unleavened Bread saw some major things happen in the Bible. It's mentioned on a couple of occasions, and one other as well that I want to go back to, Genesis 19, and talk about some lessons that we can learn from three different places that something happened of note during these days of Unleavened Bread, and in a couple cases, at least, and maybe three, on this last day of Unleavened Bread. In Genesis 19, we find the story, the well-known story, the world over, of Sodom and Gomorrah. We know Sodom and Gomorrah, they are synonymous with totally wicked, totally depraved, totally sin-filled.

It's notable that maybe, perhaps, this happened, or that Sodom and Gomorrah, God, purged the land of that sinful city, or sinful cities, during the days of Unleavened Bread. Some speculate that, because in Genesis 19, verse 3, you know, when the angels came and Lot took them in, it says, he insisted strongly that they would come with him. So they turned into him, and they entered his house. Then he made him a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Now, on a normal occasion, you would bake Unleavened Bread, so some speculate, and for other reasons I'll get into in a minute, that this Sodom and Gomorrah event happened during the days of Unleavened Bread, during the time that we are in, now.

But Sodom and Gomorrah didn't become the way it was overnight. It just wasn't a city that was, you know, one day was okay, and then the next day it was this thoroughly wicked city that God thought and decided, they are so thoroughly corrupt, they need to be eliminated from earth, and he would send fire down to them.

It happened over the course of time. You remember, back in Genesis 14, when Abraham went out, and he actually fought for Sodom and Gomorrah, and it was still a wicked place at that time, but at that time, God allowed Abraham to bring back the things to Sodom. And Sodom and Gomorrah can teach us a lesson about what can happen to us if we don't pay attention to what's going on. Let's go back to James, James 1, because people don't become thoroughly sinful, thoroughly evil, thoroughly depraved overnight.

It's a process that happens to us if we allow it to happen, and if we're not paying attention along the way and correcting our course of action. Let's pick it up in in verse 12, James 1 verse 12. It says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation. And we're all tempted. We all have our weaknesses. We all have the things that we can fall prey to, that can lure us away, and that titillate our senses in some way.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he's been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. We will endure temptation, and our job through this process is to begin to resist it.

Resist self, deny self, and to come to the point where those things that used to tempt us do not anymore. And some of the things are going to be there with us until the day we die, but for as long as we live, we're going to be tempted in some way. Let no one say, verse 13, when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt himself to anyone. He does try people. He does allow things to happen because his purpose is to perfect us and get us ready for his kingdom, but he himself does attempt. If he allows something to happen, trials and tests, it's to perfect us, to perfect our faith, to perfect our loyalty and commitment to him.

Verse 14, it says, but each one is tempted when he's drawn by his own desires and enticed. You have this thought come into your mind. You read something on the internet. You see something on the internet. You see something on TV. Something someone at work says something. Someone at school says something, and it kind of appeals to you, and you think, you know what? That's very interesting.

That sounds, that sounds, that entices me. My ears perk up when I hear that. Everyone is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. It happens to all of us. It happened inside him in Gomorrah. They just didn't arise one day, and they became the thoroughly corrupt city and perverse city they were. It happened over time, and they didn't resist that temptation. They didn't resist what they should have, and maybe some of us don't.

Then, it says in verse 15, when desire has conceived, when we allow it to stick around our mind, when we think about what if and what it really hurt if just this one time, because it's just so tempting and it's so, it looks so appealing, kind of like that fruit that Eve looked at and said, man, that looks really good. If I just took a bite, would it really hurt?

Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and we sin against God. And somewhere along the line of the history of Sadhgamora, people began to yield to that. They were enticed, and then they followed through on that desire, and they sinned. And sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. It just continues to grow. In Sadam and Gomorrah, in other nations that we read about in history, in America today, the desire is there. People are enticed. It sounds like it's good. It sounds like, oh, what is the problem with that? And then it becomes sin, and then sin continues to grow. It continues to grow until it's full grown, and God says, enough!

It's beyond people coming back and turning back to me. And in the case of Sadam Gomorrah, it was, they're gone. They're gone. You know, you look at the history of Sadam Gomorrah back in Ezekiel 16 in verse 48, it tells us what the sins are. The sins aren't what we see in Genesis 19, but we see what happened along the way to Sadam and Gomorrah. And we could read in Romans 1 too and see the same thing in Romans 1 that we read here about Sadam in Ezekiel 16.

And when we read Ezekiel 16, we see, you know, well, that could be any of us. We'll begin here in verse 49. Look, God says, this was the iniquity, this was the sin of your sister Sadam. She and her daughter had pride. Right there at the beginning of it, they had pride. They thought they were above it all.

Satan. Remember Satan. The first thing that was found in him, he was a prideful being, and he all of a sudden thought, I'm as good as God, I can do these things. And it didn't happen overnight. It wasn't like one day he was a perfectly submissive being to God, and the next day he was wanting to take God's throne and challenge him.

It happened over the course of time. She and her daughter had pride. They had fullness of food. Nothing wrong with fullness of food, but what it led them to was certainly a bad thing. They had abundance and zileness. It was a comfortable society. It was a beautiful country, a beautiful city. In Genesis 13, Abraham, when he was, or Lot, when they were looking to split up their flocks to water them, Lot looked at Sodom and said, you know, it's a beautiful place to live. I'll go ahead and I'll live inside them.

They had fullness of food, abundance of idleness, and she didn't strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. It became all about her, became all about what people wanted. And then that desire, that enticement when it came about, it's what we want. That's what we want, that's what we desire. And sin conceived, and over and over and over, it happened inside them in Gomorrah that they became the city that we think of when we hear of Sodom and Gomorrah. A depraved place that you wonder, how did they get that bad? What was going on in Sodom that they became that bad?

And how did God say, as it was in the days of Lot, so will it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man? It'll be that bad again! A society that we live in. Started off good. You know, I was watching this week, it wasn't a documentary, but a miniseries on the revolution and whatever, and as they had the depictions of what went on with people back then, I was struck by how many times the Bible was quoted.

You know, it was like a situation came up and someone would say, you know, duh duh duh, and it was the Bible verse, and I thought, people used to read the Bible. People used to know what was going on in there. You never hear anyone say that today. You never, people don't know what the Bible is, and little by little we got away from those roots. And America, too, fits this description of what Sodom and Gomorrah was. We have abundance of food, we have abundance of vitals, we live in a comfortable society, we live in a beautiful society.

Where are we headed? Because when you compare where we are today, where we were 50, 25, 50, 100, 200 years ago, far different society, the same pattern that Sodom and Gomorrah took. And so we find in Genesis 19 this thoroughly corrupt city that followed the pattern that James talks about that can happen to any of us if we let sin in, if we let temptation hang around, if we become enticed, if we think, oh, just this little bit, oh, I can take this little luxury, oh, I know when the luxury, and I don't mean that in a good sense of the word, but, you know, I can detice my list, my lust a little bit, and go to where I want to go. If we allow those things to happen, it just conceives and continues to grow. So we find ourselves back here in Genesis 19 in this very unsightly situation. Here they are in Sodom. Two angels come down, and you notice in chapter 18 before that, God did what Jesus Christ did when he was talking to his disciples. He let Abraham know what was going to happen. He talked to him about, you know, I've heard the wickedness of Sodom. I'm going to destroy it. And you remember Abraham pleaded. Well, if there's 50 righteous, and he said no, not for 50, not for 40, not for 30, not for 20, not for 10.

There were less than 10 living righteously in that city. It was thoroughly corrupt. And so in chapter 19, the angels come down, and they walk into Sodom, and they face a situation that any of us, if we walked into that situation, we would be so uncomfortable, and we would think, this needs to be done away with. I mean, here they are. They meet a lot in the city square. He asks them to come home. He's the model of hospitality. He brings them home. He cooks some dinner. He invites them in. And then the men of Sodom in verse 4, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house, and they called a lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them. And they've added the word carnally because they know what it was that they were asking for.

And you look at those scriptures, and you think, how did that society ever become that way? Was that the norm of what went on there? I mean, how did people even exist in a situation like that?

I was reading through some Jewish commentaries on Sodom, and a few of them had some interesting concepts. And I don't know if they're actually true. I tried to document some of them, but I thought, well, some of them make some sense as to what was going on in Sodom during that time. They suggest that there were some springtime pagan festivals that were happening during the time of this event in Sodom and Gomorrah. One of them they talked about was Ishtar. And Ishtar, if you remember, was the fertility god. And I'm just going to read a little bit to you to kind of let you see what the scene was in Sodom during this pagan festival that happened around the spring equinox. You know, today we have a holiday called Easter named after Ishtar. And this comes from Wikibooks, Hebrew roots, slash idolatry, slash Easter. And let me just read a couple things here so you can kind of see just how depraved the society was. It says, the original pagan festival of Easter, Ishtar, was a sex orgy that celebrated the return of life by the fertility of Ishtar's conception of temus. Worshippers celebrated the conception of temus on the first Sunday after the full moon that followed the spring equinox. They celebrated it by baking cakes to Ishtar, getting drunk, engaging in sex orgies, and prostitution in the temple of Ishtar. Women were required to celebrate the conception of temus by lying down to the temple and having sex with whoever entered. The man was required to leave her money, and then it goes on and talks about the babies that resulted from that and everything. Can you even imagine that society? Can you even imagine a festival where that's what was happening, and that was just part of what was going on? And so some of those older commentaries will say, this is what happened during that time.

These men entered Sodom during this time of the festival where everything went. There was just this tremendous focus on sex and sex orgies, and there's another god that I had never heard of that had to do with homosexuality, because certainly if the heterosexual community was able to do anything they wanted, the homosexual community was able to do whatever they wanted to. It was just part of their pagan rituals, and what the men entered into was this depraved society where it was, anything goes, we can do whatever we want with anyone who enters the city. And I thought, well, maybe that is what was happening. The men entered in during that time of a spring equinox, a spring festival. A lot was baking unleavened bread, and here we had men saying, where are those guys who entered in? We want them. And they weren't about to let go because they thought, we've got the right. This is our festival time. We can do whatever we want with whoever we want. The angels who were there were appalled by what had happened, just like you and I would be. And I think most of the world today would be appalled if that type thing happened.

But you know, Sodom wasn't always that way. Sodom wasn't always that way. It got to that point. It got to that point where it was so depraved that God looked down and said, no more. No more. The sin of this land is so grievous it can't be tolerated. They need. They need to be eliminated from earth. And it may well be that it was during the days of unleavened bread, maybe even on the last day of unleavened bread, that God rained fire down on God of Magmura. And it may be during the days of unleavened bread that God told to his people, get out of this land. Get out of here a lot. Take your family. Get out of here. You're not going to live in this place. I'm going to deliver you from the bondage and the constant infusion of the wrong and evil that is in this place. Let's look down in verse 15 here in Genesis 19. We see something that we can also think about today. It says, when the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry. They told him, we're going to destroy this place. You need to get out of here, saying, arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.

Get out of here a lot. God has made the determination. You don't need to be part of this. God is looking to save you. Well, you know, we can turn back if you keep your fingers there in Genesis 19 and come back to Revelation 18. We see God saying a similar thing to people at the end time. Revelation 18. Those would be the people for those of us who may live until the return of Jesus Christ, until we see the things the prophecy is fulfilled in Revelation that Christ spoke about in the Olivet prophecy and the Old Testament speaks of as well. But in Revelation 18, there's this society, this civilization called Babylon, a thoroughly evil society, a society that is anti-God, has nothing to do with what he stands for. Revelation 18 verse 4, it says, I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people. Get out of her, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. The same thing he said to Lot, get out of her. You don't want to participate. You don't want to have this happen to you, and that you are consumed in the punishment of this city. And God would say that to you and me, come out of her. Get out of that society. Don't let it dominate you. Don't let it control you. Don't let it destroy you. Come out of her. Don't participate in the sins, and don't have a part in her punishment. Well, if we're back in Genesis 19, we can look at that and say, wow, that'll be one thing. What are we going to do when the time comes that God says, get out of her? This comfortable life that you've been in, in whatever society we live in. Leave your nice home. Leave your car. Leave your good job. Are we going to be like Lot and hesitate and have to literally be dragged out? Because God was very interested that Lot was going to be extracated from that city, that he literally had them drag him out of there. I don't know that God will drag us out. I think he'll give us warnings, but it's going to be the faith that we have to believe what he said. In verse 17 of Genesis 19, he told them, you know, in verse 16, it says, God was being merciful to them, and he was going to take them outside of the city. In verse 17, it says, it came to pass when they had brought them outside that he said, escape for your life. Don't look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed. And as he was bringing them, Lot, out of Sodom, he said, don't look back. Don't look back. Separate yourself from that city.

Leave it behind. God is going to destroy it. He didn't call you to be part of that. Don't look back.

Lot's wife couldn't stand it. She had to turn around, and she had to see what was going on. In verse 26, it says, she looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

She lost her life, her physical life, because she looked back. She couldn't just believe God and keep her eyes forward on where he is leading them, where he was leading them, and the same message would be to us, where God is leading us. Do we look back? She lost her life. For those of us in this day and age, if we look back, we would be in danger of losing our spiritual lives.

The Old Testament is a lot about the physical. The New Testament is a lot about the spiritual, because God is interested in eternal life. Now, we are paying attention to what He is working with us here today. Let's go over to Luke 9.

Jesus Christ Himself picks up on this very same thing, these very same words that are told there in Sodom and Gomorrah as He's speaking to His disciples.

And at the end of chapter 9, He's telling them, boy, when you're called, just follow. Just follow. Don't put it off. Don't say, oh, next year, next year, let me finish this, let me finish this. Just follow. Just believe. In Luke 9, verse 62, the very last verse, Jesus summarized what He has been saying in this chapter. And He said to them, no one, no one, having put His hand to the plow, no one who has come out and no one who has come out of the world, no one who has heeded my call, and begins following the way that I have, no one who has put His hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. No one looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Now, as we contemplate the Days of Unleavened Bread, what we've learned, how many of us look back? Ah, back, that was fine. I wanted to keep my foot in the world for this reason. I have this that needs to happen, and this needs to happen, and I'm willing to make a compromise here and there and whatever for my children, for me, for my family. Christ said, don't. Don't do that. Anyone who has put His hand to the plow, anyone who has told God, I give up my life, I follow you, and looking back.

Looking back, because it just was so appealing. You know, I won't turn to the verses in Exodus 14, but you remember how the Israelites continued to look back. When a little trial would come back, they'd say, oh, if I could just go back to Egypt, if we could just have the onions and the leeks and the things that were there in Egypt, if we could just have the comforts of Egypt, it's better to be a slave than out here in the wilderness. They continually look back. God tells us, don't look back. You were supposed to commit to Him. You're supposed to have your eyes forward.

Realize He's always there. And don't look back. Over in Luke 17.

Luke 17. Christ uses an unleavened day word when He recalls this event. Again, as He's talking to His people, a three-word verse. Luke 17, verse 32. Remember, we talked about remember and how important a part of the Days of Unleavened Bread remember is and Passover. And Christ says, remember. Remember Lot's wife. Remember what happened to her.

She couldn't deny self. She couldn't leave that society. She lost her life. What He's telling us is, if you look back, if you consistently are looking back and wishing you were back there, you are in danger of losing your spiritual life.

So when God calls us out, when we understand the Bible, when we begin following, there's a lesson that we can learn here from Sodom. And the whole situation that God had happened at that time. That we would not look back. That when it's time to leave, we will leave and not be like Lot. And that we will look forward always. Remember that God is there and develop through this lifetime, through the time that we're in now, the faith in Him that even though it may seem to us, not the time, no reason to leave, nothing, no reason, because I'm sure Lot, who had become so accustomed to that society, thought, what's different between now and then? I saw this happen last year, or maybe it was an ongoing type thing. We have to discipline ourselves with God's Holy Spirit and build the faith through the things that we go through now that we look to God. That we look to God because, as ancient Israel learned, it's only God who's going to deliver us totally. It won't be us. It won't be any government.

It is only God. Well, let's go back to Exodus 14. So, when we look at the Unleavened Bread, there's a lot we can learn about leaving sin and what God would have us do, leaving sin behind, and how He destroyed that civilization, eliminated that civilization from earth, perhaps, during the days of Unleavened Bread. The things that we need to keep in our mind as we prepare ourselves and as we let God prepare ourselves for whatever lies ahead in the future, and even today, that we don't look back. In Exodus 14, we have another land here, an unleavened land, I'll call them, of the three Unleavened Breads, Unleavened Bread lands that we'll look at today.

We have Israel coming out of Egypt. They had the pillar of cloud by day. They had the light by night. And it was a comfort, I'm sure, to them, as I said, that God was there, just like it should be a comfort to us that we know that whenever we seek God, we'll find Him. He isn't hiding Himself from us. We hide ourselves from Him, we often say, because it's not Him who leaves, it's us.

And here in chapter 14, we find that Israel is about to enter quite a trial on the last day of Unleavened Bread, is what is commonly believed. Let's begin in verse 5. You know the story well, but let's read and look at some of the details here. It was told the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people.

They let them go, but they were having second thoughts and thought, you know, and we want that, we want that two million people back among us. We've lost a lot by letting them go. So the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and they said, why have we done this? Why have we let Israel go from serving us? So Pharaoh made ready his chariot and took his people with him. Also, he took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them. I made a mistake, I'm having second thoughts, I'm going to go back, I'm going to get these people back, I'm going to put them back into servitude, I'm going to do whatever it takes, I will bring them back, or I will kill them. He just didn't want them to have their way.

So he made verse 8, and the Lord, the Eternal, hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with boldness.

Well, they saw the power of God as they went out, and as they went out of Egypt, they went out with a high hand. They knew the power of God, they knew that he is the one who delivered them, it wasn't anything they had done. So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, the horsemen of his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pihahiroth before Beelzaphon, with their letbacks literally up against a wall. A guy didn't take them to direct route. He took them in a route that many who were there today, who were there then, would say, why would God bring us here? Why would we be camping by the Red Sea? They didn't know what God had planned for them. They were going to learn to have more faith in God. Didn't make sense to man what was going to happen, but it's made certain sense to God. Verse 10, when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, so they were very afraid. And the children of Israel cried out to the Eternal. They began to panic. Same thing any of us would do, right? We're sitting there, and we're this people that are with our backs against the wall, and we have this mighty, the mightiest nation on earth bearing down on us.

Yes, God had exacted his judgment on the gods of Egypt through the Ten Plagues, but it was still a powerful nation. They still had all the chariots. They still had all the horses, and Pharaoh was bringing them out in force with the intent, either I'm bringing you back, or I'm going to kill you.

Now Pharaoh is a type of Satan. He was inspired, or he had his spirit from Satan. I'll either bring you back, or I'll destroy you. Same thing he would want for us. I'll either have you back in the world, if you're willing to come back in the world, that's okay, because I know death exists, or I will destroy you, because there's only two options in Satan's mind. Bring them back.

Have them look back. Have them turn back, and use whatever problem, or I will kill them.

They were very afraid, and they said to Moses in verse 11, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Isn't this what we told you, saying, let us be? Let us serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than we should die in the wilderness?

There they are. If we could just go back, if we could just undo everything, they forgot everything that God had told them. They forgot everything that had happened. They forgot that he was watching over every move they made. They forgot he's the one who led them to that place. And they were afraid. And it was a monumental trial. Don't even think that it was a little trial. It was a trial that you and I would look at and say, wow, how do we get out of this one? We've probably all been in a situation in our lives when we think, man, there is just no way out. There's no answer. There's no doctor. There's no financier. There's no politician. There's nothing that can get us out of this situation. And it should be a comfort to us when we come to the realization only God can do it.

But it didn't cross Israel's mind. And you know, sometime in our lives, we're going to be up with our backs against the wall. We're going to find ourselves with our backs against the Red Sea and everything bearing down on us. It may be financial problems. And we look and we say, man, there's no other way. And we try to solve these things ourselves. And we think, well, okay, God is doing this. The only way I can do this is if I work on the Sabbath, if I forget it, if I go away for six months, work, build my things back up. Is that the answer? No. No. You know, Israel, the problem they had here is like, we don't have an army. We can't fight Pharaoh. They didn't know what to do, so they were panicking. Sometimes we can panic and think, what does God want us to do? You know what God wants us to do? The answer is here in chapter 14. Not to look to our own devices and our own ways to how to solve these problems and face these catastrophes that come our way.

Does that rely on him? Maybe it's a health crisis, and we have a diagnosis that comes our way, and we think, whoa, I didn't see that coming. That came out of the clear blue. What do we do? Do we sort of scurry around? Do we listen to everything the doctor says and says, this is what we do? And we think, yeah, that's what we're going to do. Every single thing the doctor says, we will do. Not saying we shouldn't. Not saying that we shouldn't go to a doctor. Not saying that we shouldn't follow what he says. But is that what we do? Panic and then do what the Israelites did. Oh, I'm afraid. I don't know what to do. So I'll just go back and I'll do that. No, that isn't the answer. When we have relationship problems and the whole world is falling down around us, do we say, oh, I'll do whatever it takes to get back together. I'll compromise. I'll do whatever it is. No, God takes us on these routes because he wants to build faith. He wants us to build our trust in him, to know he is always there. That he is going to deliver us. Maybe not the way we think, not maybe when we hope, but he will. Just like he did with Egypt. And in these verses we find these things that we need to discipline ourselves to think of when these trials come and they will come.

God hasn't promised any of us, you will go from the time I call you until the time you die with not a trial. Sometimes, some of them we bring on ourselves, right? I know in our recent home Bible studies, sometimes the sicknesses we have we bring on ourselves by the choices we make, because if we eat junk food, we're going to end up with junk bodies. It's just a matter of time.

Just like if we eat the junk food of the world in our minds, we're going to end up with minds that are depressed, despondent, with no energy, no zeal. If we eat the things of the world, we're not going to find energetic, we're not going to energy, we're not going to find joy, we're not going to find purpose, we're not going to find any of those things. One of the lessons of the days of unleavened bread is eat unleavened bread every day. Eat truth. Think on these things, Paul said in Philippians 4, verse 8. If you want the joy of the kingdom, if you want those things as part of your life, don't have your diet totally in the world. Don't ignore God. When things come our way, no matter what the situation is. You know, the lesson of the day of unleavened bread, the lesson here we find is turn to God. Don't scurry about and justify and say, well, God wants us to do something. Yeah, God does want us to do something, but He wants us to look to Him. In verse 13, Moses says, among all this scurry, among all this rush, among all this fervor and worry that the Israelites are having, and all this panic that they say, what do we do? We're just going to have to do this. Let's do back. Let's just go back to Egypt. Let's just find out what Egypt would say. Maybe we can surrender to them and everything will turn out okay. Moses said to the people, don't be afraid. You know, that takes discipline. When things come our way and we get the problem that serves our life, God would say, just check. Just stand still. The next thing He says, don't be afraid. How many times do we read in the Bible that says, don't be dismayed by these things.

Between now and the time of Jesus Christ's return, there will be things that are going to cause us dismay. Things that we look at and think, that is a scary prospect. That is a scary thing to think that the whole world might be against us because Jesus Christ said, if they hated Me, they're going to hate you. Not because of what you've done, but because of what you believe. They don't like the message. They don't like what you stand for, just like they didn't like what He stood for. That can be a scary thing. God says, don't be dismayed. Take a deep breath and remember, He is still watching over you. He is still there. He knows what's going on. It may be Him that led you to that place because He wanted to develop something in you, and it's an opportunity for us to build faith, an opportunity to grow into what He wanted us to become. If we never had opportunities to resist ourselves, if we never had an opportunity to not be afraid, certainly we would be afraid when those things happen. But little things happen in our lives. Just like sin can begin very small, and it can multiply and grow and grow, so faith can start small, but it grows and grows and grows as we follow the principles of the Bible. Don't be afraid, he says. Stand still. Stand still.

Just shut up, he might say. Don't be running around like a chicken with its head off, as they say. Stand still. Take some time to talk to God. Take some time to process these things through.

You know, I know in talking to people and some things that, boy, I'll speak of just a health diagnosis. You can get in front of a doctor, and I understand what they do. They will tell you, if you don't do this, this is what's going to happen. If you don't do this, this is what's going to happen. They can spell doom in every single way you can, you know? And so many people just follow everything they say. They don't take the time to stand still. Israel wasn't taking the time to stand still. When we have financial problems, it's like, do this, do that, mortgage the house, do this, break the Sabbath, go to work on the Sabbath, oh, we can do it for six months, no one will know, and whatever. Don't do that. Stand still. Stand still and take it to God. Ask Him. See what His will is. Not what the world's will is, not what the logic of mankind is. Not saying, oh, God wants us to do this when it's clearly against His will. And if we just stood still and thought about things and went back to the Bible, we would know that. The same thing in relationship problems. Look and see what is God's will. Is He teaching you something? Is He looking to see what it's about you? Is He bringing you out of sin? And is He bringing you into a path that will take you to His kingdom? Stand still, He said, and see the salvation of the Eternal.

You know, Israel couldn't see the salvation of the Eternal when they were running around, panicked, saying, take us back to Egypt. We don't want to be here. We'd rather be slaves than what God has for us. When they were panicked, they couldn't see any of that. They lost the total vision of what God was. They had to just stand still and pray and seek God for a little bit, anyway. And then see the salvation of the Eternal, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, He said, whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. And all our problems don't go away in just one day. They did for the Israelites. They don't all go away for us. But, you know, we do learn to follow the things that God says and to be patient with Him. Keep your finger there in Exodus 14. Let's go back to Luke 21. Luke 21. Luke 21 and verse 16.

Christ talking about how it will be at the end of time, kind of Luke's version of the Olivet prophecy here, at least part of it, and in Luke 21. In verse 16, He talks about some things that can cause us dismay down the road. He says, you'll be betrayed even by parents and brothers.

Well, you know, if the world is against us and all of a sudden parents are turning us in and saying, you know what, my son, my daughter, my son-in-law, my daughter-in-law, my grandchildren, they believe this stuff. They believe that you should follow the Bible. They believe in the Sabbath day. They believe in this, and the whole world is against it. That could cause some dismay, like, what? They turned me in? My children turned me in to the authorities? They are the ones who betrayed me? Jesus Christ had to go through that betrayal by one of His disciples. You'll be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. And if we hear down the road of some of us being put to death, we could scurry. We could panic and say, whoa, whoa, I didn't bargain on that. That wasn't in my mind when I signed up for this. What? Some of us were put to death because of what they believe? Some of us, if we don't take the opportunities that God gives us today to build faith, could find ourselves running around and saying, yeah, I'll go back to Egypt. Yeah, I'll go back to the world. Yeah, I'll cave into the beast. Yeah, I'll take of that mark.

You'll be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. What would God have us do during that time? Panic, give in, say, I don't want the kingdom. I'd rather live in this society that is doomed to death, that is doomed to destruction, rather than what the promise that God has said. Is that what we have us do? Run around like we have no idea what to do? No, no, no, no, no. He says in verse 19, By your patience, possess your souls.

You don't be afraid. You stand still. You see and you wait for the salvation of God.

Because during the course of your lifetime, you have learned to believe in Him more and more with each passing year. With each passing year and each passing days of Unleavened Bread, you see what He's working in your life. You see and you find yourself finding more and more things that God has to weed out as He brings us out of our own personal Egypt and the world that is spiritual Egypt to become what He wants us to be. By your patience, possess your souls. That's what Moses was saying. Don't be afraid. Stand still. God is still there. He's still watching. He knows exactly what is going on. He knows exactly what's happening.

And He says, not a hair of your head shall be lost. Believe in Him. If Israel, who could blame them for what they were doing that day back in Exodus 14?

They should have learned the lesson, though, that as they went on their way from the Exodus through the Red Sea on that seventh day of Unleavened Bread to trust in God. He had their backs.

He did things that they never could see coming. Not one of them there today could have thought, you know what, I think God is just going to open the Red Sea, and that's how we're going to get away from this pharaoh bearing down on us. Not one of them saw it. Sometimes in our lives, things happen. God can do anything, and we never see it coming. And He can deliver us through any of the problems that we have, any of the trials of life, but we have to take the opportunity to let through those trials to build the faith in Him, to follow the principles of what, you know, we learn in Sodom, what we learn in the land of Egypt. Don't look back. Don't say all the answers were back there. Oh, that was a much more beautiful place than what I'm dealing with right now. And stand still. Don't be afraid, and see the salvation, see the salvation of God. And let Him, let Him work His will in our lives, remembering that all things work together for good to those that love God, that follow Him, who are the called according to His purpose.

We'll come back to Exodus here in a little bit. Let's go look at the third unleavened bread land, if you will, back in Joshua.

Book of Joshua. Moses has died. Joshua is the leader of Israel. They are now going to cross over into the Promised Land after 40 years wandering in the wilderness. What they've been waiting for now has come to pass. And they are literally at the entrance to the land.

And as we look at the early chapters of Joshua, we see that God showed His power again. He part of the Jordan River so that they could pass through. And if we look at Joshua 5, and beginning in verse 1, they crossed over the river, built a memorial for that. And we find in Joshua 5 that they're on the banks, or in the premises of a great city called Jericho.

Maybe the most fortified city of that day, impenetrable, if you believe what—I mean, if you read what the Bible said. They thought no one could ever penetrate the walls of Jericho. Joshua 5, verse 1. I'll lead up to this a little bit because I want to see another unleavened bread lesson in here in chapter 5. It says, so it was when all the kings of the Amorites, who were on the west side of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard that the eternal had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we—Joshua writing here—had crossed over, that their heart melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. They knew they were no match for this God. They knew what had happened in Egypt. At that time the eternal said to Joshua, Make flint knives for yourself and circumcise the sons of Israel the second time.

So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hell of the four skins, and this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war who had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt, for all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed, because they didn't obey the voice of the eternal, to whom God swore that He would not show them the land which He had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So Joshua, verse 7, circumcised their sons, whom God raised up in their place, for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in the places of the camp till they were healed, and God said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore, the name of this place is called Gilgal to this day. Now, you remember, circumcision was a sign of the Old Covenant. While they wandered in the wilderness, they were not keeping the days of unleavened bread, they were not keeping the Passover, God was feeding them, and He said, back in Exodus 13 or 12, You know, when you come to the Promised Land, you will keep this Passover, and this day you will keep the days of unleavened bread. They hadn't kept the Passover yet. Now, they were crossing over the land, and God said, First, these young men need to be circumcised.

They need the sign of the covenant in them. So they did. So, in verse 11, they ate the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parsgrain on the very same day. Man has ceased. Then they kept the Passover. Now, today, you know, just as an aside, some will ask, why do we say that people need to have the New Testament sign of the covenant before they keep Passover? Because God says. He says it clearly in Exodus 12.48. He says what the New Testament sign is, the circumcision of heart. And here, as God is leading people into his people into the wilderness, they need to be circumcised first before they keep the Passover. Then they kept the Passover.

Okay. Joshua 6. Well, I'm not going to read through everything on this, but you will see, God then tells them, you know, Jericho. They probably looked at Jericho and thought, there's no way we can defeat Jericho. We don't have weapons. We don't have the things. We can't siege the city the way that people do that if they were looking to the world or if they're looking to their own devices on how they were going to conquer the city. And God gave them a very unlikely scenario. He said, you know what? These seven days, and the common thread here is that these were the seven days of unleavened bread. Just take the people and march around the city once without saying a word on the first day and do that for six successive days. And then on the seventh day, and if that's the seventh day of unleavened bread, that would be today, on the seventh day, march around the city seven times. Again, keep very quiet. Keep very quiet. And then shout.

And then shout, and he says the walls will come tumbling down.

God said, today, Egypt is behind you. Today you're entering the promised land. Today, these walls that were between you and there will come tumbling down. There wasn't a man in Israel who would say, who would have come up with a plan that God did. Just march around the city. Now, sometimes, guys can tell us to do things, and we think, is that that important? Is it that important that we put bread out of our house, our homes on unleavened bread, during the days of unleavened bread?

Is it that important that we do this or that or whatever physical thing we do?

Imagine if Israel had said, really? We're going to do that. We're going to march around the city seven times. We're going to blow the trumpets. We're not going to talk, and that's going to give us entry into this land of Jericho, the city of Jericho. But to the credit of Israel, they did exactly what God said. They followed it to the T. Even though it didn't make sense to them, they had learned, and Joshua had learned as their leader, do what God said. Don't reason among yourselves. Don't say that doesn't make sense. If the Bible says it, do it. Do it exactly the way God said to do it. Don't change it. Don't think that's not important. Don't think, oh, that was for an ancient time. Do it.

How in Israel did it? The walls came tumbling down. Joshua 6, verse 15. I don't need to read that. And the people saw God bring those walls tumbling down. During our lives, we're going to see those walls that are out there, and we're going to say, I can't climb over that wall.

That wall's too big. I don't know what to do. The wisdom of the world might say, do this, and do this, and do this. Israel had to do exactly what God said, and not look to their own devices, not look to their own hearts, not look to their own way of doing things. They had to do exactly what God said, and they had to put their trust in him and in his word. So when we see those walls, if we want those walls to come tumbling down, just like Israel needed this to go through the Red Sea, there was no way for them to get out of the situation that they were in. There was no way for Israel to conquer that land of Jericho. They had to put their faith totally in God, and they had to do exactly what he said. They had to seek him and find him and listen to him. And not the conventional wisdom of the world, not to look for outside help, not to listen to the people who say, do this, do this, do this, do this. And meanwhile, the walls don't come tumbling down, whatever those walls are. A lesson of the days of unleavened bread. If we're going to cross those walls, if those walls are going to come tumbling down and we enter into God's kingdom, into the millennium, if we're going to be there when Jesus Christ returns, there's no other way but to do exactly what he says. Let's turn back to Revelation 12. Revelation 12 verse 12.

Because of all the walls that we may face in our personal lives, and all the red seas, or the red sea that we may face in our personal lives, there is a time coming when the people of God will see and have to do exactly what God said and do the things that we've talked about. Revelation 12. Speaking of the end time, Satan has been cast down to the earth at the end time. It says in verse 12 of Revelation 12, it says, therefore rejoice, O heaven and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. And his will is, make you panic, make us panic, make us fret, make us want to go back and look back.

He has come down to you to eventually have us die and lose what God has promised us, because he knows he has a short time. When the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male. He persecuted the church. That's what his target was. That's who he has his sights on. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she's nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. Looks like God has saved them. They've been delivered from Egypt. God has taken them to a place where he will nourish them from the presence of the serpent, much like Israel was in those days after they left Egypt and as they were wandering, but then found themselves at the Red Sea. So the serpent, in verse 15, spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.

Words.

But I think at that time, what the people of God who are a part of this group, that God is taking to a place where he will nourish them for a time, times, and half a time, it's going to be a tremendous test.

We're going to see what's going on. What is he sending after us? We didn't count on this. We didn't expect that flood, that army, whatever flood means or whatever God allows Satan to do.

We didn't expect him to spew out at us. We didn't see that coming. We thought we were safe. We didn't think that was going to be part of it.

What will the people do at that time? What will we do if we're part of that group? Will we panic like the Israelites did and say, oh man, I didn't count on that. I wish I just stayed back there.

Or will we stand still? Will we calmly look at it? Remember that God is in charge. Remember that promises have the real lifetime of eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, a lifetime of putting sin out and coming out of a sinful world and not allowing it to be part of our lives anymore, little by little, perfecting our faith, perfecting our commitment to God in patience possessing our souls. Stand still and see the salvation of God. Verse 16.

The earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. God was there. The people were powerless. They couldn't make the earth open up, but God was there just like he was at the Red Sea, just like he was at Jericho, just like he was when he delivered Lot out of a sinful world. And then they would enter the kingdom of God, but it was a people who had faith in God, people who had learned through the course of their lives to have faith in God and to do it his way. Do it his way and seek him. And, of course, the dragon it says in verse 17, when he saw what happened, he was incensed and he went out to make war with the rest of the people who either stayed behind or for some reason God left behind to face what was going to happen during that time. Isaiah, Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55 verse 1.

Through Isaiah, God says, Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. You got problems, you need help, you need those things, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come. Buy wine and milk without money and without price. You weeds things, you got problems, you have things that need to be solved and things in your life, come to me. Come to me, God says. I'll provide. Why do you spend money for what's not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Why are you looking there? Look to me. I've got the answers, God says. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance, incline your ear. Listen to me, he says, and come to me. Hear, hear, listen, and then do, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. Indeed, I've given him, as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Verse 6, seek the eternal while he may be found. He's still there. We have to look for him if we've kind of lost him somewhere along the line. Seek him, seek his will while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to God, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Verse 8 and 9, I'll read that just because it's kind of what we've been talking about with Jericho and the Red Sea, he says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. He's got the answers.

We just have to believe, and we have to have faith, and we have to follow the lessons that we've learned during the days of Unleavened Bread. Don't panic. Stand still. Seek God.

Don't look back. Don't think the answers are back behind you, because the answers are never behind you. The answers are always forward. It's always a mistake to look back, God says.

And when we do those things and we commit to God, we follow what it says in Exodus 14.

Exodus 14, the last part of what we didn't read. Verse 14, it says, The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. Just let him do it. Don't fret. Don't talk, as the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

Keep moving forward. Keep your eyes on the goal, and don't let anything deter you from leaving Egypt and entering into the land that he promised us.

And don't let anything deter you from leaving Egypt and entering into the land that he promised