Lessons from that Seventh Day

Well, here on this seventh day of Unleavened Bread, we're exactly where God wants us to be.

Gathered before Him, keeping this day holy. And I hope remembering and recalling some of the things that we have learned during this time, some of the things that we've heard. And as we exit the days of Unleavened Bread, when the sun sets tonight, that the lessons we've learned won't escape us, but they'll stay with us for the rest of our lives. Because God has us go through these holy days every year as reminders of what we are, who we are, what we should be doing. Reminders that we need to be looking at ourselves, and that He has us on a path to His Kingdom that is also a path to purification.

And throughout our lives, we need to become more and more like Jesus Christ. More and more when we see the sin and God brings our attention to the sin, the weaknesses, the faults that are in us, to bring those who put those out of our lives, all the while being eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

That leads to the joy and the peace and everything that Jesus Christ wanted us to have as He prayed that last night at Passover for His people around the world.

You know, as I look over the sermons that I gave leading up to the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread this year, one of the things I noted was that I did a lot of explaining the analogies between the Old Testament and the New Testament of what Israel and Egypt went through and how that applies to us. The Old Testament has much to do with the physical and what God wanted was them to keep the physical laws, but the New Testament and the New Covenant has to do with the spiritual in us.

And so as we look toward the end or come to the end of these days of Unleavened Bread, I want to continue that thing. You know, the seventh day of Unleavened Bread is notable in Scripture.

There are things that happened on it that we can learn lessons from. And we may assume some of them are the last day of Unleavened Bread, but nevertheless they occurred during the days of Unleavened Bread. And God put all those things in the Old Testament to teach us lessons for those of us upon whom the end of the ages has come, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10. And there's three places, three lands, three cities I want to talk about today that have to do with the things that are going on that we can learn some Unleavened Bread lessons from.

But I want to start back with Egypt, probably the place that you knew I was going to go to. I want to look at Exodus 13, because you know, as Israel left Egypt and they came out of Egypt on the 15th of Abib with a high hand, they had God had delivered them. God had been watching over them all that time.

As they sat and they realized what God had done and they celebrated before him, they began their wanderings to the desert. God had promised them. He would take them to the promised land. And they began on that they began on that journey. Let's pick it up in Exodus 13, verse 18 here. Because you see that God did some things with them and led them. And He gave him his comfort. As he brought them out, he'd been watching over them all the time, but he wanted to let them know, I'm always, I'm always with you. Verse 18, it says, So God led the people around by the wilderness of the Red Sea.

The prior verse said that he didn't take them the short route. He didn't take them the most direct route to the promised land. He led them by the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. 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 you will carry out my bones from here with you.

And they took their journey from Succoth, Captain Ethan 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. I would imagine and I would hope that that was a tremendous comfort for the people of Israel.

As they came out of Egypt and they knew, they knew that it wasn't by their might and by their power that they had exited that land, it was God, totally God, who had brought them out of a life of bondage and slavery and going absolutely nowhere. And as they left there, they began their wanderings through the day, God gave them that cloud that would cover them, that would shield them from the sunlight, yes, and the pillar of fire that would warm them at night.

But as they looked up at the sky, they would always know that God was there. And if they ever had any misgivings along the way, if they ever had any doubts, if they were ever scared about anything, all they had to do was look up at the sky and know God is there. He hasn't left us, and He never did leave them. The pillar of the cloud was there all through their wanderings, the pillar of fire at night was all through their wanderings, and that had to give them comfort.

And I hope it stayed with them and God was giving them a message, I will always be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. In fact, in Deuteronomy 31, He says those exact words. And for those of us who are there today, you know, we don't have the pillar of fire by night. But in Hebrews 13.5, you know the verse Jesus Christ says, I will never leave you or forsake you.

So as God has brought us out of spiritual Egypt, as He has brought us out of this world to lead us to the kingdom that He wants us to be in, as He perfects us and tries us and develops us in every way that He wants to, just as He was trying with Israel to get them to become the people He wanted them to become.

We can never leave, or along our wanderings we may be afraid here and there. We may, someone may, put some doubts in us here and there. We may wonder how long the journey is here and there. We may feel a little tired along the way. We may wonder where God is when things don't happen, exactly when we think they should happen or should have happened or how they should happen. But you know, we should always be comforted just like the Israelites. God is always there. Jesus Christ is always there. As the people walk through that wilderness, you know, as long as they follow God, as long as they follow that cloud, as long as they follow that pillar of fire by night, they were going to get exactly where God wanted them to be. But if any of them lagged behind, if they decided, he's going too fast or he's going too slow, you know what? They lost him.

They lost him. It's the same with us. As long as we follow God, as long as we follow His Word, as long as we study, as long as we know the Bible and we live by every word of God, He will lead us. And as long as we let the Holy Spirit lead us and not mess it up with our own ideas and our own thoughts, He'll lead us to where He wants us to be and where He promised to be.

For there is no lights that took much longer than they ever expected. They never thought they would be wandering in that wilderness for 40 years. But God brought them there exactly as He said.

For some of us, maybe we never expected, back whenever we were baptized 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago, that it would be this long. But God hasn't left. God still knows where He's leading us. And just like with Israel, as it took their lives to twist and turns, they never counted on.

They got there. And our lives may take twists and turns we never counted on when we were baptized and when we said, yes, God, we give our lives to you. Yes, we will be baptized. Yes, we will follow you no matter what comes our way. We will follow you and we will continue to follow you.

But some things we never counted on. But we still follow Him, just like the Israelites had to. And here in Chapter 14, we find that God had led them to a place that they never counted on being. They never saw it coming. But we'll come back to that later, because Egypt is just one of the three places that we want to talk about today, because there's another couple of notable places, and probably some others besides these, that we could talk about that have some unleavened bread lessons for us. One of them we find back in Genesis 19. Genesis 19, long before there was a nation of Israel. In a city that is renowned, I'm sure the world over, everyone has heard this city, Sodom and Gomorrah. And here in Genesis 19, we find this city, and you know well the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, so I don't have to go through every detail of it. But we find two men entering the city, and they meet with something that was so distasteful to them, and so onerous and disgusting to us, that God had decided this city needed to be destroyed. This city needed to be destroyed. In verse 3, you know some of the commentaries, especially when you look at some of the Jewish writings, they will say that this Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed during the days of unleavened bread, or certainly around the springtime. I don't know that we can document that exactly, but there is this verse in Genesis 19 where the two men come into the camp, into the city. Lot is there. Lot invites him in with his display of hospitality. And the verse 3 invites him to his house, and it says, he insisted strongly that they would come with him. So they turned into him, and they entered his house, and he made them a feast, and he baked unleavened bread, and they ate. So, could it be that it was during the days of unleavened bread? Many people think it was. Can I say that for absolute sure? No. But we could ask, why would Lot be baking unleavened bread?

If he was entertaining guests, why wouldn't he have just baked unleavened bread? So, we'll go ahead with that for a while. But you know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we certainly know the end result of it. But it has a lesson for us, because Sodom and Gomorrah weren't Sodom and Gomorrah, as we think of them, from the very beginning. It didn't start off as this evil and corrupt city that God said, I'm going to destroy it, and I'm going to wipe it off the face of the earth. It became that way. You remember back in Genesis 14, I think it was, that Abraham actually went to war to get things back for Sodom. And at that time, God said, the men of the city are wicked, but He didn't destroy it at that time. It was later that He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, let's go back to James. I named James because what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah could happen to any of us individually, and we may see it happening among us, even in the land we live or in the world we live in. Back in James 1, verse 12, says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation. And all of us are tempted in our lives. We all have things that kind of pique our attention, things that kind of appeal to our lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life. It's something, not the same for everyone, but blessed is the man who endures temptation, who doesn't fall prey to it, but who learns how to resist it. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Well, God will try us. God will test us. Satan will certainly tempt us, okay, because Satan's interested in seeing us fall. God is interested in seeing us become stronger and stronger. Verse 13 says, let no one say when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. Satan tempts us because what his mission is, I want these people to fall. I want these people to sin. I want them to turn away from God. God tries us. God allows us to have tests in our life, not because he wants to see us fall away, but because he knows we need the practice to become perfect. We need the practice to become more faithful. We need the opportunities to build our faith, build our commitment to him, build our loyalty to him, build the ability to say no to self and yes to him, deny self and choose him.

Verse 14, but each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

You know, back at Sodom at some point in time, there were some people there in Sodom who had this desire, and they were tempted with it, and they were enticed by it. Just like you and I can be enticed by something. Something tempts us. Something comes to those of our eyes on TV, on the internet, something we're watching, something that someone says to us, something we hear, and we can be enticed by it. That really appeals to me. Well, I'd like to see what that's about. Yeah, I'd like to go there for a second or whatever it is that it is that it is. But each one is attempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

The men of Sodom and the people of Sodom, they were led by their own desires, and they were enticed, and they followed those things. Then, verse 15, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. We have this happen to us. We give in to desire. We go that place a little bit. We let our minds wander. We let ourselves do something. We might think, God's okay with it, just this one time. I just want it. It'll be okay, whatever we tell ourselves. Or we just simply give in because we don't enlist God in resisting. When desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. We actually follow through, and we sin against God. And sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. That's what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. It started off a little, but then it became more and more what that city is known for as time went on. And it got to be more and more because the senses got dulled and the conscience got dulled, and it became known forever as the city that was depraved, perverted, and the city that God said, enough is enough. I need to purge this city from the face of the earth. I need it gone. The same thing that happened to Sodom can happen to any one of us if we let temptation entice us, if we allow it to be there, and if we sin. And if we allow that sin not to be checked, if we don't learn the lesson of the Days of Unleavened Bread and put it out of our lives and beg God and ask God for the strength to put it out of our lives, if we just let it multiply, it will kill us. And not just physically, spiritually, spiritually as well.

That's what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. It was a place that was, you know, when Lot and Abraham were ready to split up so that their flocks would have adequate pasture, Lot looked at the city and he said, it's a beautiful city. That's a great place to live. I'll take Sodom. You guys take this other plant, this other pasture out here away from the city. It was a gorgeous city. It was a gorgeous city. It had a lot of things to offer in it. But you know, the sin of Sodom, to start off with what we read in Genesis 19, we go back to Ezekiel 16.

We see that certain things happened in that city. That was probably a jewel of its time, probably a leading area, a nice place to live with a lot of the comforts of life.

In Ezekiel 16, verse 49, God, through the prophet Ezekiel, says this. He says, look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. You might think of one thing when you think of Sodom, certainly that was iniquity and certainly that was sin, but that was sin in full bloom. That was sin that was fully grown. This is where they are. She and her daughter had pride. Pride. Right there at the beginning of it, they had pride. And all of us have some pride in us, right? The days of Unleavened Bread teach us, you know, look for pride. If someone tells you something, don't automatically think that's not me. Think, could that be me? And ask God to search our minds and hearts. She and her daughter had pride. They had fullness of food. Nothing wrong with fullness of food. We live in a land that has fullness of food. They had abundance of idleness. They had a lot of comforts of life. We live in a place that has abundance of idleness. That's why we can spend so much time on the internet, so much time in front of the TV, so much time doing whatever we do, because we have abundance of idleness. We have all the comforts and all the luxuries of life.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. It was all about self. It was all about what we want, all about what makes my life easier, without concern about the other person. Now, when we read that description of Sodom and compare it to Genesis 19, when sin had fully grown and manifested itself to such an extent that God said, it's time for this city to end. I need to purge the earth of this sinful city at this time. We can look and see that this could be any of us, right? This could be the country we live in. This could be the world we live in, because we know where the world we live in is. If we were able to just take ourselves today and transport ourselves back 25 years ago and see the progression of sin, see the progression of attitudes in our life, we would be astounded at where we are today versus where we were back then. I was watching a mini-series on something to do with the Revolutionary War. I was pleased, but one of the things that struck me during it is the way the people talked and the way the people operated back then. The writers did a good job. They built Bible Scripture right into it. When people were talking and they were faced with something, the person would just say a Bible verse. They would be like, yeah, that's what we need to do. I thought it was very refreshing. You don't hear that so much today. I hope we hear about it. I hope we do it in our homes, and we hear about it from people in the church anyway. That's not at all the country we live in today, but it was more commonplace back then. They knew the Bible. They weren't living by every word of it, but they were doing what God had opened their minds to do, and that was it. But when you see where we were as a country back in the 1770s and where we are today, boy, things are far different. Far different. Somewhere along the line, James 1, 12, to 15 came into America. Somewhere along the line, it came into Sodom and Gomorrah, and what resulted in the pride and the idleness and the fullness of the food resulted in what we read back here in Genesis 19. Let's just look at a few of the verses here in Genesis 19. You know the story. In the men of Sodom, when the two strangers came in and Lot took him into his house, something just so strange that it's still kind of just, I think, boggles our imagination that this could even happen, but it certainly did happen. In verse 4 of Genesis 19, verse 4 of Genesis 19 says, Before they lay down the guests, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, 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. In other words, carnally is there, because that's certainly what they were looking to do.

Now, that's the society that I find hard to even imagine living in that society, as I'm sure all you do. And I've often wondered, is that the way Sodom was all the time? Is that what the common place thing in there was? Because, you know, God looked down on that city, and he remember in chapter 18, he told Abraham, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And you remember Abraham kind of reasoned with him, well, if there's 50, will you save the city? 40, 30, 20, 10. And God said, for 10, I won't. There weren't even 10 righteous people living in that city.

Well, Sodom that way all the time? Maybe they were. Maybe it was that corrupt that it was a 365-day year thing that this would happen in. But in looking at some of the Jewish writings and whatever, explaining this verse, it was interesting to see that, as they talked about, this was probably, in their minds, okay, an unleavened bread event or certainly a spring equinox event. They talked about pagan festivals that would have happened during that time. And one of them was the Festival of Ishtar. And there was another festival. Let me just read a little bit to you from the Wiki books in Hebrew, Hebrew roots slash idolatry slash Easter. What happened in that pagan festival back then, during that time, as they worshipped that God? It says, the original pagan festival of Ishtar was a sex orgy that celebrated the return of life via the fertility of Ishtar's conception of tammuz. Worshippers celebrated the conception of tammuz 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 tammuz by lying down in the temple and having sex with whoever entered. The man was required to leave her money. And it goes on with some other graphic things. Can you even imagine that? Can you even imagine what kind of society that was? That when they were celebrating their spring festival and tammuz, that that was what was expected of that time. And that was that was just kind of their thing. Just unbridled, anything goes, whatever you want to do is okay, type sex. That was for the heterosexuals. They're a little more graphic, because they talk about another god that they were worshiping at that time that had to deal with the homosexual people of that time. And part of the homosexual part of that was, you are during this festival, you are welcome to have sex with any man that you want. It is just that's the way it is.

And as I read that, I had to think back and think, could that have been what was going on? Were they celebrating this festival at that time that the men of the city said, where are these guys? They came! We're in this festival time. We want to be with them. And God looked down on that and thought, how depraved, how sick, how sin has so fully grown at this point that he said, this society isn't going to repent. This society doesn't need to be here any longer. And he wiped it out. He wiped it out at that time. Well, you know, the men that were there, the angels, told a lot. God's going to destroy this city. He's going to destroy this city. And you remember down in verse 15 here, of Genesis 19, it was time for a lot to go. The city was going to be destroyed. The stench of it had risen up to God, who had issued his command regarding the city. But Lot wasn't ready to leave.

Lot kind of enjoyed living inside him. He had gotten used to what went on around him. He had become enamored with it, if you will. And while he wasn't participating in it, he had become a little bit numb to what was going on around him. Verse 15 says, when the morning's on, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, arise. Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city. Lot, get up. Get going. You don't want to suffer the punishment of Sodom. You don't want to suffer the punishment of Gomorrah. Get out of here!

But they actually had to take Lot and his wife and kids out of that city, because God was interested in saving their lives and getting them out of that area. Well, that was Sodom's time.

You know, God says a similar thing to you and me. In the end times, there's going to come a time when God says, enough is enough. The society that you've been living in has come to the point where I no longer will tolerate it. I'm going to destroy it. You can keep your finger there in Genesis 19. Let's go back to Revelation 18. Revelation 18. Speaking of the society, the civilization, the future, the Bible calls Babylon a thoroughly corrupt civilization. Doesn't know God.

Last themes against God. Puts to death the people of God. Revelation 18 in verse 4. God says this, He says, and I heard another voice from heaven, or John recording this as God gave him the vision. I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people.

Get out! Don't stick around! Be ready to leave! Come out of her, my people! Lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. What will we be like when the time comes that God says, enough of this civilization, enough of this society, it's time for it to go. It's time for it to be wiped off the face of the earth. What will we do? Will we linger like lot? Will we think it's a great place to live?

I like having all these advantages here in this area that we live.

Or will we listen to God, because over the years we've become attuned to listening to God, and obeying Him. When that time comes, it's like, come out of her, my people.

Don't participate in her sins, and don't have to partake of her plagues. That's not something God's going to say just at the end of time. He tells all of us on an ongoing basis, right? Come out of her, my people. Be extricating yourself from society. I don't mean physically. I don't mean that we go live in a commune, or that we work, don't work. We do all those things. We live in society, just as Jesus Christ said. I pray that you don't take them out of the world. They're not of the world. They'll be in the world. We learn how, spiritually, to extricate ourselves from the morals and everything that we see around us, and to grow closer and closer to God and trust Him and see Him. Lot wasn't able to do that. He had to be taken by the hand. I don't know that God is going to take us by the hand. He's given us plenty of time to prepare our minds and hearts. He's given us plenty of opportunities to learn Him, and to learn, and to listen to Him, and what His voice is. That when that time comes, we'd better be ready, unlike Lot, who wasn't ready.

And we do that by doing what God asked us to do.

Back in Genesis 19, Lot and his wife had to be taken by the hand and let out of the city.

And as the men were leaving, as they were taking them out, it says in verse 17, it came to pass when they had brought them outside that they said, escape for your life. Don't look behind you or stay anywhere in the plane. Escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed.

Get out of here. Keep your eyes directed to where your God wants you to go. Don't look back.

Don't try to see what's going on back there. Divorce yourself from it. Extricate yourself from it. Realize where you're going and be pointed in that direction. And don't look back.

Crystal clear in their commands. But Lot's life just couldn't resist the temptation to look back.

She just couldn't resist it. She had to see what is going on.

And she looked back and she became a pillar of salt. She lost her physical life.

She lost her physical life.

Dangerous for us spiritually. If we look back, we can lose our spiritual life.

Let's go back because Jesus Christ talks about this very same concept back in Luke 9.

Luke 9. In Luke 9, the verses leading up to the very last verse here, verse 62, that I'm going to read, you see the people that He's calling, and some of them have an excuse. So I have to go back and do this for a while. And He says, no, don't do that. And another one has another excuse. No, follow me. When I open your mind and when I call you, follow me. And verse 62 of Luke 9, Christ said to Him, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. No one. When they respond to God, when they choose God, when they commit to Him, when they're baptized, when they receive the Holy Spirit, no one looking back at the world behind them and who have that affect them, no one looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

God wants our eyes forward. He wants us looking and having that vision of His kingdom ahead of us the entire time. No one having put their hand to the plow, looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. A person who looks back, who kind of like Israel, you remember the stories of Israel, when they would find themselves in a little problem, they would look back at Israel, oh, if we had the food of Israel or Egypt, oh, if we were able to eat the onions and the leeks that Egypt had, oh, if we could go back into these slaves again, oh, if we could do this. They were constantly looking back. God said, I've taken you out of there. I've taken you out of that sinful place and I put you and I promise you something so much better. Keep your eyes there. Keep your eyes on me. They were there. He was with them the whole time of the way. And when they had their little problems and their little tests, they took their eyes off of God and they kept looking at, let's go back to Egypt. Let's do that. Things were so much better there. But that isn't what God wanted them to do. He said, don't look back. Don't look back. That's not your country anymore. That's not your land anymore. That's not what your future is anymore. You live there. You make your way there. You set an example there. You be a good employee there. You be a good neighbor there. You be a good community member there. But that's not where your future is. It's ahead and not behind. A few chapters forward in Luke 17. Christ specifically said and drew our attention to Lot's wife and won three-word little verse here in Luke 17 verse 32. And if you'll remember, back a few weeks ago, I talked about the word remember and how it's associated with the days of Unleavened Bread. And there's a lot of power when we remember the lessons that God gives us. A lot of power when we remember what He has given us. A lot of power when we remember how we used to be and where we need to be.

And He says in verse 32 of Luke 17, remember, remember Lot's wife. She lost her physical life.

You're in danger of losing your spiritual life if you keep looking back. Don't look back. When you're called out of sin, don't go back for friends. Don't go back for family. Don't go back for job.

Don't think that God's going to give you a pass when you say, I just need to go back for a little while. I need to just get this fixed for a little while, and then I'll come back. That's the way God operates. He wants us committed to Him. And learning the lessons of the days of Unleavened Bread and really of all of our lives.

I won't read Matthew 24 verses 14 through 18. That's the verses that it says, you know, when you are called, don't go back and look for your cloak. Just follow what God says.

When persecution comes, just leave when He says, don't look back. Don't go back for your tunic. Don't go back for this or that or whatever. Just follow God. He has it all in control.

Now Romans 18, 28 says all things work together for good.

To those who are called, who love God and who are the called according to His purpose.

You know, for Israel, everything that they went through, on a physical level, you'd be like, wow, they had to go through the Red Sea. They had to wonder where their water was going to come from. They had to wonder what were they going to eat. And you would think, why did God do that to them?

All things work together for good. He was trying to teach them faith. He was trying to teach them trust. He was trying to teach them reliance on Him because that's where salvation comes from.

It doesn't come from a mixture of our ideas and our ingenuity and our way of handling things.

It comes from relying on God. And over the course of our lifetime, from the time we put sin out of our lives until the time we die, letting God purify us, teach us, and mold us into the people of faith, loyalty, trust, and dependence on Him that He wants us to be.

So as we look at Sodom, we can think, we can remember some of the lessons. Be ready to go.

Be ready to leave it behind when He says. And don't look back. Don't look back when we do leave or when God calls us out and we put our hands to the plow, so to speak. Don't look back. Trust Him.

Follow Him. Keep your eyes on Him. Israel kept their eyes on the cloud and pillar of fire. We keep our eyes on Him because we know we keep our eyes on Him by praying to Him and engaging Him and allowing His Holy Spirit to work in us.

Let's go back to Exodus. Let's go back to Exodus 14, where we left Israel as they were coming out and they were comforted by the presence of God as He was with them day and night during all their wanderings. In chapter 14, we know well the story here too of their backs against the Red Sea. And as God led them, it wasn't a mistake, as God led them to have their backs against the Red Sea, He wanted them to learn something about Him and something to develop them, something that would be developed in them. Let's look at a little of the narrative here. Chapter 14 and verse 5. Now, remember Israel, they were happy. They had gone out of Egypt with a high hand. They were wandering now for six days and this happened, you know, the common knowledge is that this happened on the seventh day of unleavened bread. Verse 5, it says, it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people. Well, he had let them go. Ten plagues had come and gone. He had lost his son. He had lost his firstborn and he had let the people go. And now he's having second thoughts. Okay, I wish we had not maybe let those people go. There's two million people less here. All those workers that we had, they're gone. So as the Pharaoh was having second thoughts about this and they said, why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us.

So Pharaoh did what people do. He made ready his chariot and took his people with him and he took 600 choice chariots, all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them. And 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. They trusted in God. They had seen what God had done. Pharaoh had another thought behind him. Because you know Pharaoh, as he was going out to sea... Well, let's read verse 9 here in 10. So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and he overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pihahirath, before Baals of On. He caught up with them. Now Pharaoh had two things, maybe, maybe just one thing in his mind as he caught up with the children of Israel. He was really mad. He was really mad that he had let those people go. And when he caught up with them, he may have had one of two things in mind. Either he was going to bring them all back to Egypt to be slaves again, or more likely he wanted just them dead. I don't want them to have their freedom. I'm mad that I ever did this. I will just kill them all here because that's what Pharaoh was about. And Pharaoh is a type of Satan. You know, Satan, when God takes us out of the world, when he calls us out and we start following him, Satan has only one, maybe two things in mind. They all have one common endpoint. One, if he can get us to look back and go back to the world, if he can get us to look at it and say, man, those things of the world, they really look good. That's really kind of nice. I really would like to be part of that. What's so wrong with that? Why do I have to do this? God doesn't really care. Doesn't it really make any difference at all? If we can just get us to go back to the world and look back and want that and go back, that's fine with him because he knows the end result of that is death. And that's really what he's about. I want them dead. I don't want them to go. I don't want them to have what God has promised them. I just want them dead. And that's what Pharaoh was. I'll either make him slaves again, but they're going to be dead because I'm really mad that their God brought them out. And that's the same thing he thinks about you and me, Satan. You know, Pharaoh had lost everything. God had executed judgment on all the gods of Egypt during those 10 plagues. The Bible tells us that. But he still had his weapons. He still had his sheriffs. He still had his army. And so here he is pursuing Israel, and he's going to throw the entire weaponry, all of the power of Egypt, against them just because he wants them dead.

Satan's going to do the same thing to us. Whatever it takes to get us to fall, whatever it takes for us to, for him to let us go back, he just wants us dead. Spiritually dead. He wanted Israel physically dead. So, verse 10, 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. And they said, 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 out of Egypt? Isn't this the word we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, let us serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.

Now, you can imagine the scene there, and you and I would probably have been exactly the same way Israel was. Our backs are up against the Red Sea. There's no way out. Pharaoh's there. The only thing separating them is the cloud that God allows to separate them in the meantime. But Pharaoh is there, and they're looking at death in the face, and they're thinking, We would have rather lived. They're running around panicked. All these things were happening. Two million people, or maybe more, that were sitting there in the desert. They see what's happening, and they are absolutely panicked because they were looking at their most cells and saying, How are we going to get this? There's nowhere to go. We're backs up against the Red Sea. We're sitting ducks. The spiritual application to us should be very evident. We're going to find ourselves, I think, probably all of us at some point in our life, when we're going to be literally with our backs up against the Red Sea. We're going to look around and say, There's no way out. And what are we going to do? The Israelites panicked. They were screaming. They were out of control. They were probably the same way you and I would be.

Because, you know, it may not be Red Sea that we have find ourselves where they're back against the literal Red Sea. But somewhere along the line, God will test us, just like He tests all of His people, because His purpose is, make us ready. Get us stronger. Through sufferings, we get stronger. Through trials, we get stronger. Every time we resist temptation and we choose God rather than ourselves, we become stronger. And God will try us and test us for that reason because He loves us and He wants us to be in His kingdom. And we have to understand that. And we may have problems that come up in life, really big problems. We may have a financial problem and say, There's no way out of it. And in our human reasoning, we might think, Well, you know what? There's no way out of it. I can't lose my home. I can't lose my car. I can't lose my business. I got a family to feed.

God must want me to go back and work on the Sabbath. He'll be okay with it, right? Because if I just do that for six months to get ourselves out of this hole, wouldn't God be okay with that?

You can answer that question. Would God be okay with that? No. No. He didn't say, Use your human reasoning to get yourself out of this hole. We have ourselves up against, you know, with a health problem. All of a sudden we get a diagnosis. We have no... we didn't see coming at all, just like the Israelites didn't see the Red Sea coming at all. And we see this diagnosis and we're looking at the doctor thinking, Is that something that could have even happened? Well, we could panic.

We could say, What is it? Human reasoning could say to me, Oh, we got to do this. We got to do this. And, you know, when you're looking at the face of the doctor, I understand that they could be very convincing. This you have to do, this you have to do, this you have to do, and if you don't do this, X, Y, Z is going to happen. And all of a sudden you can find yourself panicking and think, I got to do something, right? I got to use my reasoning in it. And I back us up against the Red Sea. I have to do something. Is that what God would have us to do? Would He have us panic? Would He have us say, You know, you got to use the wisdom of the world. You've got to do the things the world says. You've got to do this, this, this. This is what the Israelites were doing. Their wisdom would be, Can we just go back? Can we just sit down with Pharaoh and say, Can we go back to Egypt? We'll just peacefully go back to Egypt. We'll just do what you want us to do.

No. We might have financial problems. And we think, or marital problems, I think I already addressed. We may have marital problems. But we might think, What do I do? I can't lose my husband. I can't lose my wife. She's wanting me to do this, or he's wanting me to do that. I know it's not against God's will. They want me to do whatever it is, and I'm refusing to do it. Maybe God wants me to just do it and break his law, because it's more important to keep the marriage together, or to keep my husband or wife happy, that obey him. Is that what God would say? No, that isn't what he would say. That isn't what he would say here to Israel, who found themselves in a very, very precarious situation. It was a life-and-death situation, something that you and I might find ourselves with here. As we find ourselves in those situations, when we find ourselves thinking, as often we think, I can fix this. I can use this. This is how we're going to get ourselves out of that. God didn't ask Israel. Moses wasn't encouraging, Can you think of any ideas? You've got any ideas how we're going to get ourselves out of this situation? Can we kind of skirt around this way, maybe, and fool Pharaoh, and go around the right end? No. God didn't say any of that. He didn't see lean on your own understanding. He didn't say, you figure it out. God had a plan in mind, but not one of them that were there that day ever thought of that solution. Not one. But God knew what he was going to do, because his thoughts, as it tells us in Isaiah 55, 8, and 9, they're much higher than our thoughts. His ways are much higher than our ways. What he thinks of and what is possible for him, we don't even think of. But we have to learn to think and trust in him. We have to learn to rely on him. And in verse 13, when we find ourselves in those situations, and they won't be the big situation at first, right? Because Israel wasn't the Red Sea the first time they had a trial. They had other trials through the Ten Plagues. God was preparing them, trust in me, I can do this. I said I would do it, and I would. But they had ten times that they had to have faith in God, and they should have at that time. But, you know, here was a brand new situation that they hadn't passed it on. We find ourselves in those situations, collectively or individually. In verse 13, we find what God says to do. Moses said to the people, don't be afraid. How many times in the Bible does it tell us, don't be afraid? Don't be dismayed.

Over and over. Don't be afraid. But, you know, sometimes we have to tell ourselves, well, I am a little afraid. I don't need to be afraid. God knows exactly what's going on.

God was still there in the cloud by the day and the pillar of fire by night as Israel was in the situation. They didn't think to look to Him. They thought about, we just want to go back to Egypt. We just want things to go back the way they were. We want to forget all this. The easiest thing to do is go back. When we find ourselves in whatever situation we find ourselves in, don't be afraid. Catch yourself and say, God said, don't be afraid. He knows what's going on. He knows every single thing that's going on with us. Sometimes we do it to ourselves by, you know, I talk about sometimes about diet. Sometimes we make ourselves sick by the things that we eat. You can't eat a steady diet of junk food and not end up with a junk health somewhere down the road.

It's going to catch up with you. Just like spiritually, we can't eat a steady diet of internet and TV and everything that the world has to offer and think we're not going to end up with a junk mentality spiritually. If that's what we feed ourselves on, we're going to become what we think about or what we entertain ourselves with. So the lesson of the day of the 11 bread is put the sin out, but eat daily of the unleavened bread, the things that are of God, the things that are true, the things that we should be priming our minds with if we want to be spiritually healthy.

If we want to be spiritually healthy. If we want the joy, if we want the peace in our lives, and if we want the depression and the despondency and everything to disappear.

Well, God says, don't be afraid. And the very next word He says is stand still.

Stand still. You don't have to jump. You don't have to do everything that the financial advisor says. You don't have to do everything your family says. You don't have to do everything the doctor says. Stand still. Stop and think. Stop and realize there's a God in heaven who watches over us, who has every single answer and doesn't expect us to have every single answer, just like Israel didn't have the answer to getting through that Red Sea. But He did. Stand still. Take some time to think of Him. Take some time to contact Him. Take some time to ask Him what His will is. Stand still and see the salvation of the Eternal, which He will accomplish for you today. Let Him do it.

Cash your cares on Him is what Jesus Christ said. Don't try to take matters into your hands. Don't put yourself on the back and say, I'm doing everything the God wants me to do. Trust in Him.

If we're panicked, if we're scared, if we're doing everything the world tells us to do, we're probably not doing a whole lot of what God would have us do. And that's what Israel was doing. And if we don't watch out, we can do the same things that they did.

Stand still and see the salvation of the Eternal, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, who you see today, you shall see no more forever. Let's go over to Luke 21. Luke 21. We'll come back to Exodus 14 in a few minutes here.

Luke 21. Here'll come a time when our backs will feel like they're up against the Red Sea, and we may feel afraid, and we may feel panicked, and we may feel like there's something we have to do or say or reason ourselves out of a situation. Here in Luke 21, speaking of the end time, in verse 16, Christ says this. He says, you'll be betrayed, even by parents and brothers.

It's going to be a tough time, isn't it, to know that someone that we love and someone that, you know, or our children, or our relatives and our friends, would do this. And He says, it'll put some of you to death. That's going to be a tough time. You know, if someone says, says the society becomes more and more anti-God, as it becomes more and more anti-God, as it says, you know, if you believe in this Bible, you don't need to deserve to live. What you need to do is be bowing to me, the peace power would say, you need to be taking my bark, my mark, if you want to live and survive and provide for yourselves. That would be a tough thing to have brother, sister, parent, child betray you and say, they're one of those. They're not bowing down to you. They're trusting in a God. They still keep their Sabbath day. They still trust in God and they don't want to bow down to you. That's going to be tough. And we'll have a choice to make. Will we give in?

Will we give in and say, oh, okay, you know what, I can't deal with this? Or through the course of our lives, from the time that God brought us out of Egypt until the time we die or we're faced with, whatever it is that he will have a space in the future, will we have been allowing God to strengthen us and mature us to the point that we can look at in the face and not be panicked?

Not run around with our hands waving in the air like the Israelites, but that we can remember what God said in Exodus 13. Don't be afraid.

Stand still. See the salvation of God. Verse 17, he says, you'll be hated by all. For my name's sake. That's going to be a tough time. But he says in verse 18, that not a hair of your head will be lost. By your patience, verse 19, possess your souls. By your patience. Pay attention to what you're doing. Stand still. Don't be afraid. Wait for God. See the salvation of God, and don't think you have to have all the answers yourself. By your patience, possess your souls.

Israel didn't know that lesson at that time. They didn't pay attention to that. They did what we would do. All of us would have done by human nature. Panic. Wish that we could go back. Try to get ourselves out of the situation. Come up with a way that we can get ourselves and fix the situation. But maybe forget God somewhere along the line. Well, God doesn't want us to forget Him. And with those lessons we learn here, as we read through Exodus, on the seventh day of Unleavened Bread, lessons that we can learn. Let's look at one more city. The city of Jericho. The city of Jericho. At the time Israel is at this time they've wandered for 40 years through the desert or the wilderness. Moses is dead. Joshua is now the leader, and he will lead them to the promised land that God had promised them 40 years before. And at the time we pick it up in Joshua 5. In Joshua 5 they have crossed the Jordan Sea. God has part of the waters of the Jordan River, not the Jordan Sea, part of the waters of the Jordan River, and they have crossed over them and they find themselves coming into the promised land. And in Joshua 5 we see that God's reputation has preceded the Israelites Genesis 5 or Joshua 5 verse 1. 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, in Joshua writing, had crossed over. Their heart melted and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. They saw the power of the God of Israel. Israel at this time had seen God deliver on his promises. He had fed them for 40 years. He had clothed them for 40 years. He had provided water for 40 years.

They saw that he was true to his word and at this point they were ready to listen to God.

In Genesis or Joshua 5 you see that they go through the covenant, the old covenant sign of the covenant with God and that was circumcision. They kept the Passover. So we know the time of year this was and many people would say that what happened in Jericho and you know the story for those seven days that occurred during the seven days of Unleavened Bread. They kept the days of Unleavened Bread and as the people marched around the city and you can read about it in chapter 6, I'm just going to kind of highlight it here for you in chapter 6. You know, God told them to do something that not one of them that day would have thought this is the way we're going to conquer that city of Jericho. They looked at those walls of Jericho and thought, man, those are pretty tall, pretty tall buildings. Jericho was kind of seen as impenetrable. There was no one that was going to be able to to conquer that city and God told them, here's what you do. You march around the city once on the first day, sound the trumpet, don't say a word and do that for the next six days. Do that through day six and on the seventh day, march around the seven times, blow the trumpets, and then shout. Now when you shout, the walls will come humbly down. Now, no one in that camp would have said, this is the way to conquer Jericho. Not one, right? And there may have been some who thought, what kind of idea is that? We need to figure out a way to lay siege to the city. We need a way to look something over their walls. We need to have some way. We can freeze them out or whatever, human reasoning, but Israel listened to what exactly God said, even though there isn't anyone there that day would have said, let's just march around the city and be silent.

But they did what God said. Even though humanly it means nothing, that wouldn't be the way you would conquer that city. God tells us to do things. You know, sometimes we can question it. You know, some may say, why do we have to put all the leavening out of our homes? Isn't that just an Old Testament thing? We put all the leavening out of our homes. There's a very good lesson we learned from it because God said to do it. And Jesus Christ didn't ever negate that command.

Some might ask, well, what about the night to be much observed? Do we really need to keep the night to be much observed? Well, you know what? God says it in the Bible. We do it. God says you follow and live by every word of God. That's what Jesus Christ said. You don't add to it. You don't take away from it. You do it exactly the way He said. And Jesus Christ, who was our example, who did it exactly the way He said. You do it. It may not make sense to you, but you do it. You do it the way He said. You build that habit of obedience. You build that pattern of obedience. You listen to what God says. You know the Bible. You know His Word. And you pay attention to it so that when you hear that word, you know exactly the spirit that is talking to you and the spirits that are not talking to you. You know those things and you do those things. The people of Israel, to their credit, they follow God what He said exactly. Exactly to the hilt. They saw Him. They listened to Him. They did it exactly the way He said. They didn't apply human reasoning. They didn't apply the mechanics of the day, the war mechanics of the day. They listened to Him. And you know what? Every single one of those walls of Jerusalem, it came tumbling down. Every single wall came tumbling down because they sought God first and they did it His way. They did it His way. Somewhere along the line, we're going to have walls that come up around us. Walls that may scare us, that we may say, we can't overcome those by ourselves. And that's a very healthy place to be.

God, I have to rely only on you. It teaches us something. Back in Revelation 12.

Revelation 12 and verse 12.

At the end time, you know, Satan will be cast down to earth, we're told here in verse 12, before the return of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12 says, Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, that the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time. And his focus is on the people of God. He wants them dead. That's what his mission is. And he will take any opportunity he has to get us to mess up and to follow what he wants. Verse 13. When the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. We know that the woman is the church. The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. They think they're on their way. Just like Israel in Exodus 13. God is there. The pillar of fire is there by night. The cloud is there during the day. Everything is well. They had no idea that right around the corner was the Red Sea, event that would teach them or should have taught them a lot. Look what Satan does. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. He's going to send something. There will be another trial.

What will the people of God who are part of that group at that time do? Well, they run around with their hands in the air and say, what do we do now? What plan do you have? What do you do? What would they do back in World War II? What would they have done here? How can we do this? No. They won't do that. Those people will have learned the lessons of Exodus 13. They will be ready to leave when the time comes when God says, I'm ready to take you off on the wings of a great eagle to the wilderness. And when it comes, they're not going to panic. They're going to stand still. They're not going to be afraid. They're going to see the salvation of God because they know and they have proof from a lifetime of putting sin out and putting the unleavened bread in that he is faithful to what he says and that he will deliver them and that they will see the salvation of God. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. He just wants them dead. But the earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon has spewed out of his mouth.

God was there. God took care of it. God opens of earth. It wasn't what they did. It was what he did. It wasn't what the Israelites did as they crossed the Red Sea. It wasn't what the Israelites did except that they obeyed. It won't be what the people here who are in that group do except that they will have learned to be loyal and trust in God and to follow the lessons of the days of unleavened bread that we are in or about to exit right now. We have to remember who he is. We have to remember who we are. We have to remember what he is doing and allow him to work his purpose in us.

Isaiah 55.

Isaiah 55.

Verse 1.

Isaiah, under inspiration of God, writes, And everyone who thirsts, everyone who has this need, 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.

Do it my way. You need something? You got a problem? Come to me. Look and see what I have to offer. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Verse 6 He's right there. We know where to find him. He hasn't moved. If we feel far from him, it's us who's moved. Get back close to him. Seek the Eternal 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 the Eternal. Let him return to what he wants you to do. Follow him! Do him! Seek him! Follow what he says and put your trust in him. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Follow him! Let's close back in Exodus 14. Exodus 14. All the lessons that we can learn, all the lessons that God will give us the opportunity to learn, if we take those opportunities to learn them and not just let them all pass by us. In Exodus 14, after God tells Israel, do this. Stand still. Don't be dismayed. See the salvation of God. It says in verse 14, the Lord will fight for you. You shall hold your peace. We can take that instruction. God will fight for us. He'll see us through whatever comes there. We can just hold our peace. Not panic. Not chatter. Not make all the plans. Not think this is all the things that God wants us to do. Let him do it as we search him, as we search his word and do his will. And the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. You keep marching forward. You don't look back. You don't think, Oh, I wish I could go back there just for a little bit. You keep your eyes going forward. You made a commitment. You made a decision. You know what the truth is. You just keep going forward. And God, as we follow him and as we apply the lessons that we learn from these holy days, as we keep them each year, God will deliver us, just like he did Israel, into his kingdom.