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one of them was left. But the !sra–
elites walkcd through the sea on
dry g round, the waters forming a
wall to right and left.
" Thus did the Etern a ! save
Israel that day from t he Egyptians,
till Israel saw the Egyptians lying
dead on the sea-shore; Is rael saw
the mighty act ion of t he Eterna!
against the Egyptians, ANO THE
PEOPLE STOOO IN AWE OF THE
ETERNAL, BELIEV ING IN TH E
ETERNAL and in bis se rvant
Moses" (Ex.
14:21-31 ).
Ves, for a short while, the spell
of AWE sti ll over them, these people
actually BELIEVEO in God. Trus ting
God to oo what he has promised
requires bclieving in MIRACLES, you
say? ÜF COURSE! Salvat ion requires
miracles! God is a miracle-working
God!
After this miraculous delivery
from disaster- from a
w
AR- a
whole army of a thcn great nation
destroyed- thosc Israelites ex–
pressed a little temporary FAITH.
With Moses, they sang a song of
praise and rejoicing: " 1 will s ing
unto the Lord.... The Lord is my
strength a nd song, an d he is
become my salvation ..." (Ex.
15: 1-2).
But now UNDERSTANO the lesson
here!
Ancient Egypt is a type of SIN.
God was, figuratively in type, deliv–
ering these people out of SIN. They
were starting out on Goo's WAY of
life.
But , UNOERSTANO!- God's way
of life req uires FAITII.
lt
is a life of
OBEDIENCE to Goo. Obedience
requi res FAITH. WE are SAVEO by
GRACE through FAITH "and that
not of yourselves:
it is the gift of
GOD"
(Eph.
2:8).
But not by a
OEAO faith!
lt
is a LI VING faith that
makes obedience possible.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed–
nego (Dan.
3)
obeycd God's com–
mand against ido! worship-but
their stou t refusal to bow down to
Nebuchadnezzar's ido! was possi–
ble
on/y
by their RELIA CE ON
Goo to protect and deliver them.
They TRUSTEO God (Dan .
3:28).
T hey excrciscd
FA ITH-living
faith!
Empty, dead fai t h- just
BELIEVING that God exists- is not
the faith that savcs. "The [de–
mons] also bel icve, a nd tremble"
(J as.
2: 19).
12
But faith and obedience must
ENDURE! The newly freed Ts raelite
slaves, sti ll under the spell of AWE
after experiencing such miracles,
expressed fait h and sang.
But they di dn't believe very
deeply or for very long. When they
carne to the oasis of Marah, they
found the water too bitter to drink.
T his one little problem in their
path brought them again to com–
plaining and OOUBTING (Ex.
15:24).
Again, by a miracle, God
made t he waters sweet.
Moses led these people on to
the wilderness of Sin- between
Elim and Sinai. They had now
been gane from Egypt one month.
And again, "the whole congrega–
lían of the children of Israel mur–
mured agai nst Moses and Aar–
o n ... and ... said ... Would to
God we had died by the hand of
t he Lo rd in th e l an d of
Egypt ... for ye have brought us
forth into this wilderness, to kili
this whole assembly with hunger"
(Ex.
16:2-3) .
So God
gave them a test of obe–
dience,
along with miracu lous ly
providing food . God said:
" 1
will
rain bread from heaven for you;
and the people shall go ou t and
gather a certain rate every day, that
1
may prove them,
whether they
wi/1 wafk in my /aw, or no"
(Ex.
16:4) .
The particular LAw God was
testing them on was his Sabbath.
And remember , they had not yet
reached Sinai. On the s ixth day of
the week he would provide them
wi th a TWO-DAY portian. On the
seventh day, God' s Sabbath, he
commanded them to res t a nd
refrain from gathering manna. On
the sixth day God provided the
two-day supply. Nevertheless, on
God's Sabbath, sorne of t he people,
in a spirit of rebellion, and greedy
for gain , went ou t to gather man–
na.
" How LONG refuse ye to keep
my commandments and my laws?"
t hundered God at them (Ex.
16:28).
They were neither
trusting
nor
obeying
God.
The vast congregation journeyed
on and pitched tents in Rephidim.
Again, there was no water. Again
they griped, murmured, accused ,
lost faith and " tempted the Lord "
(Ex. 17:1-2).
Now we come to tbe CRUCIAL
INCIOENT t bat explains WHY Israel
went to war. Regularly they bad
been grumbling, complaining, ac–
c u sing, di sobey ing , LOSI NG
FAITH- in face of constant MIRA–
CLES from God. Now, again, as
God performed anotber miracle,
causing water to gush fort h out of a
rock, t he people oou BTEo tbat God
was with t hem. " ... Tbey tempted
the Lord, saying, Is tbe Lord
among us, or not?" (Ex. 17:7).
Now consider wbat bad bap–
pened . Repeatedly, God bad given
tbese people awe-i nspiring and
miraculous demonstrations of bis
intention
to fight their battles for
them.
These were VISIBLE mira–
eles, wbich tbe people witnessed
with tbeir own eyes. God had
demonstrated bis faitbfulness, bis
POWER, bis willingness, HIS WAY!
Y et repeatedly, these people
doubted, complained, found fault,
grumbled . Repeatedly t hey LOST
FAITH. After all of this OYER–
WHELMING PROOF, tbese people
ooUBTEO God 's faitbfulness–
OOUBTE D bis power-even
OOUBTED his very existence. Tbey
disobeyed. Tbey went
the way
of
SIN!
At this point, Mases was dis–
traught, bis nerves sbattered, bis
patience about exbausted. After al!,
Moses was only human!
" W bat am
1
to do with t b is
people?" Moses appealed to God
(Ex . 17:4, Moffatt translation).
"Tbey are almost ready to stone
me."
God answered Mases, bad bim
move ahead of the people, and
smite tbe rack at Horeb with tbe
same stick he had used in the part–
ing of tbe waters of the Red Sea.
Then again God performed a visi–
ble MIRACLE-water gusbed out of
tbe rock.
But, at this juncture, Amalek
carne against tbe Israelites in great
strengtb witb an invading army.
This time God ALLOWEO the !sra–
elites
to write the.lesson of experi–
ence.
He allowed them to SIN. God
does not forcibly prevent bumans
from sinning.
Mases, at the end of bis patience
trying to induce tbese stubborn,
rebell ious people to believe in and
TR UST God, said to J osb u a,
"Choose us out men, and go out,
The PLAIN TRUTH