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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Jeremy Segstro > Light Into The Darkness 2: The Story of the Guiding Light | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Reading: Nehemiah 9 Text: Exodus 13
LIGHT INTO THE DARKNESS: THE STORY OF THE GUIDING LIGHT
Words to Listen For: pantheon, skipping, throne, myself, soften
Questions for Understanding:
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Beloved in Christ Jesus our Lord,
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In the beginning God created
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Now there arose a new king over Egypt
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In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land
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There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job
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In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
These verses begin some of the most beloved stories in history.
In the beginning God created - the story of EVERYTHING. The beginning of EVERYTHING
Now there arose a new king over Egypt - the story of Moses
In the days when the judges ruled - the story of Ruth
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job - the story of Job
In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus - the story of Jesus. The story of Christmas.
You see, God is telling a story. And He has been since the very beginning. It is a story with a defined beginning…the words “in the beginning” and it is a story with no end - it stretches into eternity future.
It is a story with peaks and valleys. A story made up of thousands of smaller stories. It is a story that seems to repeat itself, and yet is distinct and unique each time. And the centerpiece of this story, the centerpiece of the timeline, what splits history into BC - before Christ, and AD - Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord) is when God entered His creation in a brand new, never-before-seen way. The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. That very first Christmas.
And the earth-portion of this story could reach its conclusion today, or in 3 thousand years. We don’t know.
And WHY does God use stories? He could have used anything! Well one reason is because stories are POWERFUL and MEMORABLE. God wants to reveal who He is POWERFULLY and MEMORABLY! He wants us to know Him and remember Him - He is the throughline throughout all of our stories. The one constant in a world that can feel like chaos.
And what is amazing, is that this is a story into which God also invites you and me as characters. We are, all of us, story-shaped creatures. We are born into stories, we grow up in stories, we live and we die in stories.
If life were something merely to be UNDERSTOOD, we could be fact-shaped creatures. We could be equation-shaped creatures. But, instead, because life is something to be LIVED, we need a story.
And the main plot, though the details vary from person to person, though they vary from generation to generation, is hope in times of despair. Order in the chaos, strength in times of weakness,
LIGHT INTO THE DARKNESS. This morning we will examine together THE STORY OF THE GUIDING LIGHT. We will look at
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The Story,
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The Telling of the Story, and
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The Living Out of the Story
LIGHT INTO THE DARKNESS: THE STORY OF THE GUIDING LIGHT
Picture with me the Exodus Story. Picture with me the events that led up to the ACTUAL EXIT from Egypt. And…for an added twist, picture it with me from the perspective of an Egyptian who had to live in this story.
You are an average Egyptian citizen. You own a few slaves - everyone does, it is the way of the world. You don’t treat them badly, but also not particularly well…and why would you? Slaves aren’t exactly human, are they? They aren’t EGYPTIAN at least. They are not the people blessed by the gods with success and wealth and power. They aren’t those whose king was a son of Ra - the sun god. The most powerful god.
And then, one day there was a murmuring. A whispering among your slaves. Something was happening. But, you don’t pay any attention. It’s just…foolish slave talk.
But then…TROUBLE. One morning your wife sends her slave to the river for water, and that foolish slave comes back with…something else in the bowl. At first it looks like dirty, muddy, contaminated water. But looking closer, you discover it’s BLOOD! In between beatings, the slave claims that the Nile had turned to blood. Foolish. Ridiculous. The god Hapi would never let that happen. Just the lies of a foolish slave.
And then, over the span of the next few weeks…more and more trouble. The gods have abandoned us!
What started with Hapi, continued with Heket, Geb, Khepri, Hathor, Isis, and all the rest! The whole pantheon is being humiliated! And it has something to do with these filthy slaves. WHAT IS GOING ON?
But as long as the sun rises in the east, you know that everything will be okay. The god of a slave couldn’t touch Ra. As long as the sun rose in the sky, you know that Ra is smiling with favor upon his son Pharoah, and all his people.
But then…one morning…the sun doesn’t rise. 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock, and it remained dark. And you begin to tremble. The darkness lasts 3 days…or so. It’s hard to keep track of time without the sun. And then, in the darkness, you hear a wailing begin. It’s the voice of your neighbour’s wife, and then, another voice joins her. You recognize the cries of your own wife. Your firstborn son has died.
This is all because of those filthy slaves. And then you scream, not in sadness over your son, but in anger towards these…people…GET OUT. GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, GET OUT OF MY LAND. WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE.
And then they have the gall to ask for gold and silver. Your wife throws necklaces, earrings, idols at them. TAKE IT! TAKE IT ALL! JUST LEAVE!
And suddenly, as your slaves exit the house, your eyes see something they haven’t seen in a while. LIGHT. But not the light of the sun…but rather a pillar of fire! A tower of flames that came from the sky and stood with its base on the ground. All the slaves were flocking to it, and slowly the pillar began to move southeast, with hundreds of thousands of slaves following it.
Now just think, this story... what would it have told the Egyptians about THEIR 'gods' and what would it have told them about OUR God?
Their gods were WORTHLESS. Hapi - the god of the Nile had been humiliated - he couldn't even preserve the water!
Ra- their most powerful god of all was humiliated as the God of the Slaves held down the Sun for DAYS. Ra couldn't even get the sun to rise on his own people!
And then, what did this story tell the Egyptians about our God?
This God is POWERFUL. This God is MIGHTY. This God is unstoppable. This God…is angry at Egypt. So GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE SLAVES! TAKE YOUR GOD AS FAR AWAY FROM US AS YOU CAN! LEAVE!
Well, good riddance! Good riddance to the slaves and the power of their god. Let’s forget and try to move on.
This is how a typical Egyptian would have lived through the Exodus. But what about a typical Israelite?
Don’t worry, we won’t go through the same story again from a slightly different perspective. But through the plagues, the Israelites would also have seen the nature of Yahweh. The power of the one true God over the false gods of the Egyptians. And they would have feared.
For they had been in Egypt now for 400 years. 20 generations. 20 generations having heard nothing from God. And the God who should never have been forgotten was lost as the generations who knew Him died out. History became legend, and legend became myth. For 20 generations, the memory of Yahweh passed out of all knowledge. And then suddenly these events. This STORY. Suddenly these incredible occurrences are happening, and you are told that this ALMIGHTY God, well, He is YOUR GOD. And He has heard your cries, and He IS bringing you out of slavery.
And your first reaction is confusion - WHO? Which God is this? And He’s OUR GOD? Not the god of the Egyptians?
The second reaction is fear - He is THIS POWERFUL? More powerful than all the gods of the Egyptians?
Your third reaction is awe and thankfulness - He’s using this power for US? For ME?
Whoever this God was, you knew three things about Him - He was powerful, He was loving, and you would follow Him wherever He would lead you. If He WOULD lead you - you’d be crazy to go anywhere else!
And lead you He would. And not with a map - but with his own presence - in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of raging FIRE by night. He would lead you east and then south. He would lead you through the waters of the Red Sea. He would lead you to Elim - the 12 springs of water, the 70 palm trees. He would lead you through the wilderness to His mountain, and then, after another 40 years of wandering - every night a pillar of fire, every day a pillar of cloud - He would lead you into the Promised Land. The journey was long, the way was rocky, but as long as you were following THIS GOD - the GOD of THIS STORY - you had everything you need!
The Pillar of Fire:
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A mighty pillar of protection, disorienting and panicking the Egyptians when they pursued the Israelites
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A wise pillar of guidance, leading them out of Egypt, leading them away from the Philistines, towards water and manna and quail
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A faithful pillar of love, with them every night and every day, reminding them of His constant care and provision.
This is is just one of many powerful stories within THE STORY of God. And yet, the story of the Exodus, the story of God’s provision for Israel in the desert isn’t JUST ANOTHER STORY. There is something unique about it. Something special. For this is a story that is told again and again and again throughout Scripture. Our second point.
Did you know that, apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, and don’t you worry, we’ll get there this morning, apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, the story of the Exodus is the one that is told most often in Scripture? It’s the one that is told the most, and it is even the one that God’s people are COMMANDED TO TELL the most.
This is a story that God’s people NEED to be REMINDED OF.
What did we read at the beginning of our text?
Verse 3 - Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place.”
And then skipping ahead to verse 7 - Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son on that day, “It is because of what the LORD did for ME when I came out of Egypt.”
What does this mean? It means that, throughout the generations, every year, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites were to tell this story. The story that shows just who the LORD is, and how he had intervened for ME. This is a story that must be told AT LEAST once a year.
But it’s more than that too. If we keep on going…verse 11 - When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD’s. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. AND WHEN IN TIME TO COME your son asks you, “what does this mean?” you shall say to him, “By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.”
Not only once a year was this story to be told…but EACH AND EVERY TIME A FIRSTBORN ANIMAL was sacrificed or redeemed…and every time a firstborn son was born. This is a story that was to be told multiple times a year, EVERY YEAR.
And we see how engrained this is in the mindset of the Israelites.
In Nehemiah 9, our reading, a full half of the story of Israel’s history of rebellion and God’s love…is about the exodus.
And then, in Acts 7, when Stephen is laying out Israel’s history of rebellion, the vast majority of the story is about the Exodus once more!
The climax of the story is that this people who rebelled against the salvation of God in the desert, this people who rejected the prophets, ended up reviling, and rejecting their very Messiah - betraying and murdering the Christ.
It was all building up to Christ, but the building blocks were THIS VERY STORY. The story of the EXODUS, which showed the power, and glory, and wisdom, and might, and love and faithfulness of God - a God who cared for his people so much, so powerfully, that He would one day send his own Son to free them once and for all.
The Exodus story powerfully revealed this God, and powerfully set the scene for a life lived WITH and FOR this God. And so, this story had to be repeated.
And this is a story that was not only TOLD, but SUNG. 8 different psalms reference the Exodus story. 8 different psalms, 2 of which are in our liturgy this morning.
And WHY? WHY is this story to be told, to be sung, to be remembered so often?
Why? Why is this story SO IMPORTANT? Why is this a story that should be worn out in both your Bible and the children’s Bible your kids have?
Well, it comes back to the importance of stories. The power of stories.
And stories have this power whether they are fiction or nonfiction, because stories, whether historically accurate or not, have the ability to bring with them VITALLY IMPORTANT TRUTHS. They have an ability to teach DEEP truths in a way so compelling even a CHILD can remember them.
You may have heard the phrase “stranger than fiction” - while the story of the exodus could be called STRANGER THAN FICTION, it is definitely MORE POWERFUL than fiction. It is MORE EPIC than fiction. It is MORE MEANINGFUL than fiction.
The real historical events teach us real and abiding truth. These deep theological truths about our Almighty, transcendent God, anchored within real historical events…they are the greatest teacher of them all.
This past week I had the pleasure of reading some Deitrich Bonhoeffer, and this was part of the passage: No priest, no theologian stood at the manger of Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology has its origin in the wonder of all wonders: that God became human. Holy theology arises from knees bent before the mystery of the divine child in the stable.
This is because Christianity is not something primarily to be dissected. Christianity is not something primarily to be ripped apart into its various theological pieces. It is not something primarily meant for textbooks…but rather…STORYBOOKS! Christianity is the story of stories. It is meant for storytellers. That’s what I am. I’m a storyteller. Now, a good storyteller is also a teacher. There is a lesson, there is application…but it’s all about a story.
And the story for believers before Christ came, THE DEFINING STORY was the Exodus.
There isn’t enough time this morning - not enough time today even if we came back to it this afternoon - to fully mine the depths of what the Exodus story teaches us, but we can at least touch on a few of the main points together this morning.
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The Power of God
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The Love, and Wisdom of God
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The Faithfulness of God
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The Sin and Inability of the people
Just briefly, because we’re already seen it - the POWER OF GOD. Power over the god of Egypt. All the way from Hapi, the god of the Nile, to Ra, the god of the sun. Through the plagues, the gods of Egypt were humiliated and forced to acknowledge that there was one God above all other Gods. And His name was Yahweh.
The Egyptians, from the highest to the lowest, from Pharaoh on his throne to the imagined citizen we heard about in our first point, had to admit defeat and submit to the commandment of God to let His people go.
And then the LOVE AND WISDOM OF GOD - You see, God did not free His people from Egypt to simply let them roam the desert. He did not free them from the Egyptians to let them become prey for the Philistines, but rather He wisely did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.
But rather, He led them out of Egypt, as if by the hand. He provided for them throughout their wilderness wanderings, giving them water - changing the bitter water of Marah into sweet water. Taking them to oases, even twice producing water out of a rock! He gave them bread, literally raining it down from heaven. He gave them quail in the same manner. More than that, He led them with a pillar, representing His own presence, to comfort and to guide.
And finally the FAITHFULNESS OF GOD - though we will get into this more in our final point shortly, realize that EVERY DAY AND EVERY NIGHT FOR 40 years, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire was there. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
14 600 days.
14 600 times the cloud appeared in the morning and the fire appeared at night.
It’s hard to be more faithful than this!
But what did the people do? Did they recognize the power, love, wisdom, and faithfulness of God? Not at all.
Nehemiah puts it well when we read - But they are our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.
They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.
They did not recognize their inability to save themselves in Egypt. So helpless, hopeless, blind and foolish. And they did not recognize the goodness and wisdom of God when He saved them. Instead, their wilderness wanderings were caused by their grumbling.
We heard this a little over a year ago, maybe you remember - that the way from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh Barnea is an 11 day journey. If the Israelites would have obeyed, if they would have submitted to God’s law, the wilderness wanderings would have been 11 DAYS instead of 40 YEARS. But due to their FAITHLESSNESS, they were delayed 14 589 days. But because of His FAITHFULNESS, God stayed with them every step of the way.
And this is the story that the Israelites had to remember. They had to have this told to them, constantly.
DO YOU REMEMBER?
Do you remember WHO GOD IS and WHAT HE HAS DONE?
Do you remember WHO YOU ARE?
Do you remember YOUR WEAKNESSES?
The same blood flows through your veins. The same weakness.
Israel - DO NOT FORGET YOUR HISTORY! How are you going to respond when this happens again?
But we KNOW how they responded. We KNOW that the exact same story beats repeated again and again. In the cycle of the judges - God was faithful, the people sinfully rebelled against Him and forgot Him.
In the days of the kings - all the good kings eventually showed their weakness. In fact, we know in the days of the Kings - they lost the book! They lost the stories! The stories that God himself had given them, to show so clearly, so powerfully, SO MEMORABLY, who he is and how he loves them.
The bad kings lost the stories, and they led Israel into idolatry to worship worthless “gods,” like those of the Egyptians, to the point where they were removed from the promised land!
And when they returned from the Exile, under the leadership of Nehemiah, when they were told their history, when they had to acknowledge their national history, their national ongoing sins…what became of this? Grumbling. Wickedness. Corruption. Faithlessness. And so they were taken over by the Greeks and then the Romans.
But the good news, brothers and sisters, is THERE IS MORE TO THE STORY. And when there was another mighty act of salvation, THE MIGHTIEST ACT. An act by which the God of the Israelites would reveal, once and for all, the depths of his WISDOM, and FAITHFULNESS and POWER and LOVE.
A story of ANOTHER light that came into the darkness, a light that came down from heaven to lead them out of slavery and sin, what did they do? But brothers and sisters, this time they didn’t even grumblingly follow the light…they KILLED THE LIGHT! They tried to snuff it out because the people loved darkness instead of light!
Israel was trapped in this story. But what about us? Are we going to live IN the story, or are we going to live OUT of the story? Our final point.
This is the application aspect of the story. The bringing of the story to us, here today.
Because we have to acknowledge what the Israelites acknowledged in Nehemiah - that the story of Israel IS OUR STORY TOO.
Though we do not have the same blood in our veins, we do have that same weakness. We are no better than the Israelites. Each and every human being has this sinful nature that nags us. This sinful nature that seeks to control everything that we do. This sinful nature wants us to write our OWN STORY This sinful nature that tries to make us forget God, to doubt Him, to focus ONLY INWARDS. THIS ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT I WANT IN THIS VERY MOMENT, AND SO I GUESS I HAVE TO DO IT MYSELF.
We forget God and His ultimate story of what He has done for us in the past, what He is doing for us in the present, and what He promises to do for us in the future. Of WHO HE IS and HOW HE LOVES US!
And so, in a way, so often…we act…like infants. It’s INSULTING, but it’s TRUE.
Have you ever wondered why infants love the “peek-a-boo” game so much? The game where you cover your face with your hands, and then quickly uncover it, saying “peek-a-boo!” The infant will smile and laugh, and guaranteed, YOU will become bored of the game before HE will.
So…what is it about this game that is so wonderful for infants and so boring for adults? I’ve never met any adult who still plays this game with his friends.
Well, there IS actually an explanation for this. It’s what is known as OBJECT PERMANENCE. Object Permanence. You see…infants don’t have it.
The reason that the infant will smile and laugh when you say peek-a-boo and uncover your face is because you seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. When he can’t see your face, he thinks that you don’t exist anymore. But when those features reappear…then… “oh it’s mommy! She exists again!”
This idea of object permanence comes in around 8 months or so, and peek-a-boo loses its excitement.
But the idea of “spiritual object permanence” is something that we still need to work on, even though we are long past 8 months old.
Because…
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How often do we read God’s law, then look away and forget, like a man, glancing in the mirror and immediately forgetting what he looks like?
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How often do we panic when, just for a moment, we don’t FEEL God’s hand of care on us? As though, just because we lost sight of Him, He must not be there.
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How often do we devolve into fear when we don’t see God’s hand of sovereignty in our lives?
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How often do we hear a wonderful song or sermon explaining God’s perfect story of salvation, then immediately rush off and live as though the story isn’t even true. As if God doesn’t love us, as if He isn’t with us, as if He isn’t guiding us and leading us every step of the way.
What happens when we read the Bible and pray and our anxious hearts are not calmed, our souls are not strangely warmed by God’s divine Word and we simply…feel nothing?
Isn’t it true that doubts begin to creep in?
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Is God angry at me?
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Does God still care?
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Did He ever care?
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Did He…ever…exist?
And our spiritual lives go on this rollercoaster of emotions, from these amazing mountaintop experiences where you can almost feel the arms of the Almighty wrapping you up in a big hug, where you can almost hear His voice, guiding you in the way that you should go…to these moments in the pit where all is silence, where all is confusion and despair, when we feel so alone and don’t know down from up.
When our lives are chaos. When they are darkness.
We NEED to spiritually mature. We need to learn from the stories that God has given us. We need to trust that God IS always there, He is always with us, even when He seems to cover His divine countenance and we cannot feel His face shining upon us.
We need to mature, but while we are in this time of spiritual infancy, a time which may last for decades, even cropping up occasionally in the very mature, we need to know the story of the pillar of fire. We need to live OUT OF IT, rather than in it.
And there is an important distinction here - living OUT OF THE STORY rather than IN IT.
If we would live IN THE STORY, we would do exactly the same things. We would act in exactly the same way. We would be caught up again in this stiff-necked rebellion.
And just briefly, it’s valuable to understand this phrase: stiff-necked.
What does it mean to be stiff-necked? Well, it means to be STUBBORN. It means to be UNWAVERING in your own opinions and conclusions AGAINST THE WORD OF GOD. It means being so unbelievably arrogant that you don’t acknowledge that there is a POSSIBILITY that MAYBE you MIGHT be wrong about something you think or do.
Children, we can imagine this in a very literal way. Imagine turning your head to one side, locking your neck to the side, REFUSING with all your might to see the truth that God is showing you over here.
Being stiff-necked means turning away and REFUSING to see the truth.
This is what it would look like if we lived IN THIS STORY.
But what about living OUT OF THIS STORY?
That means to know the story and to learn from it. To know the story, to identify with the foolish, rebellious people of God, and confess: THIS IS ME! God, please. Soften my neck, let me turn to you, let me gaze into your wonderful face and see your truth - which is the only truth. See what is true and good and beautiful and live in humility and righteousness.
And when we remember THIS STORY, we must see, ultimately, what it points us to.
The greater story. The climax of the story of redemption. Our Saviour Jesus Christ.
For He was the light that came down from Heaven.
He was the light in the darkness.
He came down to guide the people into faithful worship of God.
He came down to bring us to God through His sacrifice on the cross.
And so, as often as you remember and tell and live out of the story of the Exodus, the story of the pillar of fire that guided, guarded and loved His people…we have to be even more familiar with the fulfillment of that story.
The order that came in the chaos
The strength that came in the weakness
The God who came into our sinfulness
His light that came into our darkness.
Beloved, the exodus out of Egypt is the second best redemption story in history. So let’s read it. Let’s live OUT OF IT, seeing how God worked with His weak and sinful people as they struggled with spiritual object permanence. He knew they were baby believers and so there was no “peek-a-boo” game He played with them. Rather, there was never a moment, in all those 40 years, when the people did not see the evidence of God’s love and favor.
Every morning, as sure as the sun rises in the east, there would be that cloud. That cloud in the sky, that cloud overshadowing them.
Every night, as sure as the sun would set in the west, there would be that fire. That fire in the sky, that fire serving as their nightlight. They might wake up in the middle of the night, fearful, hearing the sound of a wild animal, or having night terrors of the horrors of slavery in Egypt. And all they would have to do is to open the flap of their tent, look up, and see the divine fire, and they would be at peace.
And we might wish that we could have this too. This constant reminder of the faithfulness of God. We might wish for a cloud. For a pillar of fire.
But what we have is not LESS but SO MUCH MORE!
The Israelites had what they could see and touch…but all they had were shadows and ceremonies. They did not have the fulness that we enjoy.
For as awesome and powerful as it was for God to reveal Himself in a pillar of fire…what is more intimate, what is more loving, what is more direct than God coming down in the form of a man and living, healing, preaching, dying and rising to life FOR US?
A pillar of fire shines brightly. But that’s all it does.
But our light, the true light of the world did so much more than shine.
Our light set us free, and then took up residence in our heart. Our light dwells inside of us, guiding and guarding us still, confirming to us that we are part of the greatest story ever written. That we are characters, penned by God’s own hand, with a glorious future where we meet with, live with, and experience the full love of the author Himself.
THIS is the story we are to live by. THIS is the story we need to tell ourselves, and our children, and our neighbours, and our friends day and night. LET’S NEVER FORGET this story GOD HIMSELF TOLD. This story showing His amazing POWER, His perfect WISDOM, His steadfast- FAITHFULNESS, His unmeasurable love, even for people like us.
AMEN.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Jeremy Segstro, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright, Rev. Jeremy Segstro
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