3-9-25 - We Were Slaves To Pharaoh In Egypt

So this morning, we're gonna be continuing our study in the book of Deuteronomy chapter six. We're in the middle of the chapter. One of the things, that we ought to appreciate about scripture and that I've appreciated as we've been, working our way through Deuteronomy is how simple and straightforward scripture is. It's actually quite understandable. If you, as I read our text I think all of you could tell us what it's about.

It's the the the things that God's telling his people are not hidden. They're not, he's not speaking in parables. This is just very straightforward gospel truth. God knows us and he deals with us plainly so that we're not left with, ignorance and we're also not left with excuse. Our text this morning is a very simple command and warning and promise.

The command is that they ought not to test God. They ought not to put their lord the lord their God to the test. How often and in what ways do you test God? Do you think that you do test God? These are the things we're gonna be working our way through this morning.

My contention is there's not a day that goes by where we're not tempted to question God's dealing with us. And to set up foe ultimatums in our minds. If God loves me, he'll do this. As we started our text this morning, my hope is that God will show us how we test him. And then he'll bring us to repentance for those sins.

And then he'll bring us to faith in Jesus. And finally, to trust in his provision and his timing as he shepherds us. Do you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Deuteronomy chapter six verses 16 to 19. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at massa. You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you.

You shall not you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord. That it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land, which the Lord swore which the Lord swore to give your fathers by driving out all of your enemies from before you as the Lord has spoken. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.

Now, if you're struggling with the idea of testing God, that's what we're gonna start with this morning. How do we test God? This is a command that Moses has given to them. It's under it's presumed that they know what he's talking about. He does give them an example that will come to.

But I want to get you thinking and considering how is it that we test God. I would submit to you that we test God when he purifies us. That that's when we test him. When we face trials or sufferings, we test God by questioning his provision and his care. We question his power.

We question his will. Why are you allowing this to happen to me? If you loved me, you would not allow this to be. That is not a biblical thought. And the reason that that's not a biblical thought, though the psalmist says it, there's a way of saying it that's biblical and true that that's that's born out of faith.

That's not testing God, but pleading and crying out to God. But many times, that's not what we're doing. What we're doing is complaining and grumbling and threatening because of what God has done to us. So I ask you a simple question. When you read scripture, do you find that God's people are comfortable most of the time or afflicted most of the time?

I think most of the time you find that they're afflicted in some way or another. That they have some hardship or some burden or some trial that they're going through. Now sometimes that's the result of their sin. Sometimes that's the result of other people's sin. And sometimes we don't know why it is.

But it just is. Whatever the case, then the occasion of our afflictions and our sorrows and our sufferings, God does watch us to see what we do and how we respond. In second Corinthians chapter four verses 15 to 18, it said Paul writes this. He says, for all things are for your sakes. So that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to a balance to the glory of God.

Therefore, we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Now you have to think for a minute. What does he mean by the outer man is decaying? It's just getting old and having aches and pains.

There's a spiritual decay or or a spirit there's a spiritual coming to life and it's shedding off and causing discomfort and pain and sorrow in the outer man. And then he describes what they're going through. This outer the decay of the outer man and the and the the renewing of the inner man in this way. He goes on and he says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So when you suffer, when you're afflicted, when you're fearful, when you're, grieving, God's purifying you. He's working in you. At the very point at which you say something must be wrong because I'm going through this, I'm contending that nothing is wrong and that God has not withdrawn from you, but has thought carefully and specifically about you and is caring for you by allowing what you're going through. Now that's a mouthful.

We have this idea that when suffering comes or affliction confronts us or we have burdens to bear that something is broken And it's not as it should be. And there's a sense in which that's true, but only in the sense that we're comparing a fallen world to the glory of heaven. We expect life on this earth to to resemble our lives to come in heaven. When there won't be sorrows and there won't be afflictions and there won't be griefs and there won't be tears and there won't be death and there won't be loss because there won't be sin. But we don't live in that world.

We're being prepared for that world. And it's through our sufferings and through our trials that we are prepared. Okay? Now these are the circumstances where we test God. Where Satan comes in and tells us, if God loved you, he wouldn't allow this.

If God listens to your prayers, he would let this go. You must deserve this and nothing can be done about it. He's not strong enough. Many other things. It's pretty incredible how much affliction and sorrow and grief we bear on our own before we cry out to God for help.

It's not actually our first recourse. It's like when everything else has gone away and all of the other things we we've turned to for help or comfort or distraction, when all of those things also are taken away, then we may cry out to God. And I'm not saying this is true specifically of us. I'm saying this is just true of God's people. Read the book of Judges.

God is merciful to them. The whole story, it's just it's just like a rinse and repeat cycle of God is God is they get themselves into a big mess. It gets so bad they cry out to God. God raises up a judge and sets things back right, relieves them a little bit and then the judge dies and then they're right back into a mess again. And it has to get bad before they cry out and over and over and over again.

This is their life. This is our life. So is there any benefit in that cycle? I say yes. Because unless there was suffering and hardship for those people, they would never cry out to God.

It's only when we come to the end of ourselves and our grumblings and our complainings and and and who we are and what we are and what's truly in our hearts is finally exposed that we see if we love God. Everything that leads up to that is us testing him. And so suffering and burdens and the burdens that we bear, God allows to draw us closer to him. You hear me? The burdens that you're carrying, as heavy as they are, as difficult as they are, as long as you've been dealing with them, and as long as you will deal with them, they are meant to to draw you near to God.

He's using them to reel you in. And you're fighting with every ounce of your being to keep from being reeled in. Because you think the way away from the suffer the way the way out of the suffering is away from God. When the opposite is true. The way away from the suffering or the proper context to and the strength to bear the suffering is going toward God.

And so he's pulling us in. It's along that process though that we test him because of our weaknesses. You'll remember that when Jesus was in the garden, the wilderness, and he'd gone out and he was being tempted, Satan came to him. In Matthew chapter four, it says that the devil took him, Jesus, into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. And he said to them, if you're the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you.

And on their hands, they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. So Satan's taking scripture and using it to tempt Jesus. And you're like, well, what's the temptation? Well, the temptation is put God to the test. Do something foolish.

Try to kill yourself because the Bible says he won't God God won't let that happen. If you're the son of God, he won't let that happen to you. So so test God by jumping down from here. And Jesus quotes this section of Deuteronomy in response. He says, Jesus said to him, on the other hand it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Now this is gnarly what Satan's doing here. He's taking scripture and twisting it to try to compel Jesus to test God. And we're capable of the same thing, of taking certain scriptures and twisting them wickedly to justify our frustrations and our griefs and our sorrows and our general disobedience. But it's wicked. You see here that Jesus unties this knot of temptation and says, we're not to put the Lord our God to the test.

And so I won't do it. As I was preparing, I was thinking, is there any place where put where where God is tested? And it's not the sort of sinful testing that goes on. And the answer is yes. There's actually multiple examples.

I'll give you just two. Okay? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego going into the fiery furnace. Right? If you don't bow out and and and and worship, we're gonna throw you into the fire.

And they said, well, that's okay. Our God will save us or if he doesn't, it'll be okay too. Now I'm paraphrasing this the the the account. But they say, God will save us or he won't save us. We're going to act in such a way that God's going to have to intervene or work or something very difficult is bad is gonna happen to us.

We're gonna be burned to death. And what does God do? He comes and he saves them. They peer into the fire and they see not three but four standing in the fire. God was there with them and he sustained them.

So that's an area where they're they they put God to a test. They they ventured their life on God's rising up. Another example, the second one I'll give you is Elijah with the prophets of Baal. We're gonna see whose God is the real God. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna set up two altars.

You have yours and I have mine. And you can go first. And you can you can you can there's been this this drought. And you call upon your God with these sacrifices and ask for rain. And the big prophets of Baal go on and on and on and they try and they they dance around and they cut themselves and do all this terrible stuff.

In an effort to try to coerce their their non god, their idol to send rain, it never works. And Elijah mocks them. Says maybe you're maybe you're God's maybe he's on the stool and can't make it right now. That's what he says. And then and then it comes Elijah's turn.

What's he do? He's, you know, can you imagine Elijah? It's like all the spears and all of the anger of of Jezebel and Ahab and all of the false prophets of Baal. They're all focused on him to kill him. But the Lord said he would protect him and so he says okay, my, you know, it's my turn.

And he says, hey, go down to the sea, get water, completely douse this thing. Just soak it. We're gonna see if the Lord will send fire. And they do it. And Elijah then he prays.

Will you, you know, will you send fire? Will you send rain? Was that not a test? It was a test. It was a different kind of test.

It wasn't the kind of test that was that that's being described here. That was a test, that was born out of his faith in God and not his anger at God. Elijah knew that his life was in his hand when he came out of hiding. But god said that he would sustain him and protect him and that he wasn't the only one left. And so he went and he acted.

He trusted god. Whereas the Israelites, when they test God, their test is born out of grumbling and complaining and sin. Not faith. The example that he gives is at Massa. So, the natural question is, what happened at Massa?

Well, the Israelites were out wandering in the wilderness. They left Egypt with their families, with their livestock, and they were in a dry and desolate part of the land. And there was no water. Sort of a desert. And they were thirsty.

And so they grumbled at Moses, and this is in Exodus 17. It's on their way to Mount Horeb. They grumbled at Moses and they accused him of bringing them out of Egypt to kill them along with their wives and their children and the livestock. They accused accused Moses of terrible cruelty. And they were close to killing him.

Moses is aware of knowing of what's going on. He goes to the Lord and he petitions and asks God what to do or what he should say because he knows that if they don't get water soon, they're going to stone him to death. That's what he says to the Lord. If this goes on much longer, they're gonna kill me. So God tells him take the staff take your staff and go to the rock at Mer At, at Meribah at the at the foot of Horeb and and I'll stand there with you and strike the rock with your staff and then there'll be water for the people and for the livestock to drink.

So Moses does and there's water. But that was the test that was condemned. And that was a test because God had just brought them out of Egypt not long ago. The people that he's speaking to now in Deuteronomy in this chapter of Deuteronomy, this is forty years later. This was their fathers.

This was those who'd just come out of Egypt. And and and this is this this temptation comes really, really quickly after they're coming through the Red Sea, even before they get to the to the mountain to receive the 10 commandments. And so they've got this this firstborns, alive with the wealth of the Egyptians having delivered them through the Red Sea on dry land. And now they're questioning whether God will provide for them water. Why wasn't the water plentiful?

Why didn't he just take them to a place of comfort and ease with lots of water and and lots of food and lots of houses and lots of vineyards and lots of all that they need? Well, in the way that I've described it, you might have thought I tipped my hand a little bit. That's exactly what he's taking them to. That is exactly the description that that scripture gives to us of the promised land. But to get to the promised land, they had to go through a desolate land where there was not water for a time.

And so the Israelites forgot what God had already done for them and what he had promised that he would do for them in the future. All they could see was right now. That's all they could see. And aren't we like that? God can be faithful to us and can't provide for us.

And I'm I'm not even to the point of talking about him providing his son for our salvation. We can come to that. But he provides for you every single day and you forget it. You take it for granted. You suck it in and you go, what what about what about what's going to happen tomorrow?

The same thing that's always happened. God is going to provide for you and care for you. That doesn't mean he's going to give you everything you want and and in the timing and in the form that you want, but he's going to care for you as a father cares for his children. He's a father to them, to this nation. At this time, he's ministering to them.

They can't see it. They can't remember it. They're unfaithful children. They're concerned only with their bellies. They're concerned only with their thirst.

And they really do accuse Moses of bringing them out to kill them. They really do think, that the character of Moses and of God is that he would deliver them from Egypt only to make to intensify their suffering and to and to and to watch them languish and slowly perish. Now there's an interesting thing to note here. When they were angry about not having water, it wasn't God that they were angry with or at least that they they didn't express their anger in terms of being angry at God. They were angry at Moses.

You have brought us out here. You haven't given us water. You want to kill us. And this is what we do. We think that because we get angry at God's shepherds or those that that that he that care for us, whether that's pastors and elders or that's our parents or our husbands or our bosses or whomever.

We think that our anger directed at them has no bearing on on God. That we can be very angry and and and disapproving of those whom God has placed over us, but not be disapproving and angry with the one who put them there. That's foolish. How can you say that you love God whom you've not seen if you don't love your brother whom you have seen? How can you say that you submit to and are content with God if you're not if you won't submit to and aren't content with the people he's placed over you?

You children, how is it possible that you would say, I love God and I wanna serve God and I believe in Jesus, but I can't do what my mother tells me to do. I can't remember the things my father has reminded me of. It's often the case that we blame those whom God raises up and deceive ourselves into thinking that that has no consequence in our relationship with God. But I mean to tell you that there's a direct correlation. If you're angry and and mistrusting of the people whom God raises up to care for you, then you are angry and mistrusting of God himself.

Part of the difficulty is you don't have access to him directly. So you focus your your consternation and your frustration on those that are in front of you. So we ought not to put the Lord our God to the test, even when we're suffering. The the burdens that we carry, the trials that we face, all of the hardship. And I really do mean all of the hardship.

No one in this room has a special exemption from this. None of us can say, well, but my situation has been going on so long and this is so intense that I'm justified. You are not justified. You are not justified. You're not on the brink of death because you have no water.

They were not justified in that circumstance and you're not justified in testing God in yours. Who you are and what you love will be shown to you and to those around you when suffering comes. And it's a beautiful thing when what we bleed is faith in Jesus Christ when our hardships come. And it's through those hardships that we learn to trust him. So don't stiffen your neck when they come and don't test God.

Moving on, he says, you should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he's commanded you. Simply put, what this means is that our focus should always be on obeying God, not getting distracted or grumbling because of our circumstances. I realized that your life is not perfect. It's kind of insane that you would think it would be. Like your expectations are all screwed up.

In this world, you're going to have trouble. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ that he's overcome the world and all of its trouble. But in this life, you're gonna have trouble. You should expect it. You should not be surprised by it when it happens.

I can't believe you'd say that to me. Why not? I mean, seriously, why not? Because I don't deserve to be talked to like that. You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God.

Our excuses and our justifications and our self pity, which we're all very capable of and and and conversant with. If we give into those things, if we use scripture to justify our poor attitudes, all we're doing is adding to our sins and adding to, a judgment that we deserve. It's an interesting thing about judgment. I've thought about this is regards this this passage, the Israelites in their history. I've thought about this as regards parents.

There is, there's this weird paradox. When somebody else does something wrong, we think that judgment should be swift. I mean, now. Like, now. And and it should be intense.

And it should be it should just it should just be overwhelming until they repent. And one wonders if repentance is actually what we desire. Or if what we really want is just to see someone suffer? That's a question. Here's the difficulty.

And our parents have this problem with their with their kids. We we feel this way when we're with our children. We think, well, I just need to fix the problem right now. So if I just am intense enough, they'll stop. No.

You'll just you'll just ruin them. That's what you'll do. So you're saying that we shouldn't discipline them and we should let them get away with it? No. I didn't say that either.

Here's the thing about God. He is very, very patient with us. And there's a way that of abusing his patience, Thinking that because he doesn't act like that that he will never act. Or that he because he doesn't act like that there's nothing to act on. Neither of those are true.

What you're seeing when God doesn't immediately jump to to to judgment with you is his kindness and his patience toward you. Romans tells us, do you not understand that his loving kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? You're supposed to bear in your mind all of the things you haven't done right and then go, I haven't gotten what I deserve. The Bible If the Bible lies to me, what it lies to me in is saying that God doesn't act swiftly and judge sins. That he kind of just does nothing about it.

He doesn't do anything about other people's sins. And if you're honest you'll say, he actually doesn't do anything about my sins. Don't you live like that? Aren't you tempted to think that because the consequence doesn't come immediately that there will be no consequence? We live like the way the scripture describes it as wild beasts.

Like un unbroken horses who have to have a bit in their mouth attached to, you know, to to leather straps that have to be pulled on to keep us from running away. And we live that way and if we're not constantly being yanked back, we're like, well I must be free to do whatever I want because there's no immediate consequence for my actions. That is a very dangerous and attractive sin. To think that because, well I didn't do what I should have done today and I wasn't punished for it today that they'll never be punished for it. God may wait and in many times God does wait.

It's not because he's weak. It's not because he's busy. It's not because he doesn't care. It's not because your sins aren't heinous to him. It's because he is merciful and patient in a way that you don't understand.

He is also just in a way that we are very prone to forget. That's why Moses tells the Israelites you should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord. You've been brought out of Egypt with their wealth. Now at this point they've wandered in the wilderness but they're about to go into a land. Last week you remember with cities that you didn't build and houses that you didn't furnish and vineyards that you didn't plant.

You're about to get a bunch of comfort and wealth. Last week's sermon. When that happens, do not forget the Lord. You're about to get a bunch of good stuff, guys, that you didn't deserve. Be sure to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Don't forget him. Be diligent to observe all that he commanded. Why? Why is it important if God has given his people all of these things? Why is it important since God has given you so many good things?

Why is it important that you be diligent to keep his commandments? I'll tell you why. Because he will take them away. He will take them away. He took it away from the that generation that wouldn't go into the land.

He said he his anger was kindled against them and he says, you will not enter my rest. You will not go into this land. First Corinth Corinthians, I think it's second Corinthians tells us that they were given to us this this temptation at at Maribah, the waters of Maribah at at at Massa. It says it says that with many of them God was not well pleased. And he struck them down.

And that was recorded for us. This is what scripture tells us. That was recorded for us so that we would not be like them. They were consumed because of their testing of God and their their rebellion. And God wrote it down so we wouldn't do the same thing.

Instead of doing what we want we ought to be diligent to keep the commandments of the Lord. When God gives time and doesn't jump immediately to judgment, he's being gracious toward us and we ought not to take it for granted. We ought always to keep in mind what our sins deserve. Because that's the proper context to understanding who Jesus is and what he did. You should be able to say in a moment's notice what God is saving you from, and what he's, what he's keeping, what judgments he's withholding because of his kindness to you.

But man, we forget it. We think we deserve it. All of the good things we have, we're like, yeah, but what about that other stuff I don't have? I'll tell you, there's no end to that line of of temptation or desire. You will never be content if you're not content now.

No amount of whatever you want will will will satisfy your lust. Concerning obedience, it really doesn't take too much to keep us from obeying God. We're to diligently keep the commandments of the Lord. What does it take to turn us out of the way? A bad night of sleep?

A football game? Or basketball game this time of year? A little bit of rain or cold weather. I mean, you realize these are pretty insignificant things. But it is enough to turn us out of obedience.

It doesn't take much. Now, interestingly, it won't keep us from going to work. But it might keep us from coming to church. What's it take for you to forget to read your Bible? Forget.

Didn't have coffee this morning. Got an email from my boss. Kid's got a runny nose. Got a fight with my spouse, my boyfriend or girlfriend. Parents told me no.

It really doesn't take much and we're just like, well, I forgot. But Moses tells us that we should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord. So we should learn to think in this way. What what have I not done that I ought to have done today? And the reason you can think that way in safety is that whatever you're discovering about your disobedience, God already knows all of it.

You may be figuring out something about yourself, but God already knows all of your sins better than you do. And if he's willing to send his son and has sent his son to save sinners, then it's in our best interest to admit that we're sinners and big sinners. Because the Bible tells us that the one who is forgiven much loves much. And so if you minimize your sins and you're not all that bad, then you don't need Jesus. You just need money or you just need comfort or you just need ease.

You just need pleasure. You don't need salvation. Diligently keeping the commandments of the lord doesn't produce obedience most of the time, actually. What it produces is of is an awareness of disobedience, A need of salvation. Who will set you free from the body of this death?

Paul asks in Romans. When he's seen himself for what he is, he exclaims, what's gonna happen to me and who can save me? I see who I am. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's his response.

God will save you from all of your disobedience, and it's just penalty. Do you believe you have it? You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord. That it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land, which the Lord swore to give to your fathers. This section has to do with approval.

Do what's good and right in the sight of the Lord. It's telling us to seek his approval. Now, I'll tell you every one of you from little to big wants approval. You all want approval. You're all motivated by it.

You're compelled to act based on it. You want to be told good job. Every one of you wants to be told good job. The question is, who do you want to tell you good job? When social media influencers post, they want someone to tell them good job.

How is it that they are told good job? I don't know what that means, guys. Likes, shares. Right? Yeah.

Sure. I didn't realize the thumbs up. Got it now. Sorry. Right.

They want somebody to say yes. And they get their little dopamine hit of good job. You did a good job. You want that too. I want that.

We want to be told, good job. The question is, do we want God to be the one who says it? Or would we rather have our spouse tell us good job or our kids tell us good job? By the way, it's your kids, it's not their job to tell you, to approve of you. It's really foolish to expect to like let your your your life hang in the balance of whether your children approve of you.

I'll tell you, they will not approve of you if you're being faithful, at least not all the time. And that's okay. Their job is to love you and to obey you and to honor you and to bring you joy. Their job is not to put their stamp of approval on your parenting. And you will not have their lasting approval if you seek it that way.

You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord. You should care what God says and what God please is pleased by. That should be your concern. What if it that runs contrary to my desires or what's popular? Then you should choose what pleases God and you should say no to your desires.

What if everyone around me is doing it? You should say no to everyone around you and yes to what pleases God. What if all these other Christians are doing it? You still have to ask, is what they're all doing pleasing to God? And if the answer is, no, I don't think it's pleasing to God, don't let the mob mentality lead you astray.

You shall do what's right and good in the sight of God. What if you receive pressure from your peers or from your parents or from your children to please them. You ought to remember what Jesus said in Matthew 10. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. What does it mean to love somebody but to want their approval and to want to be unified with them?

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake will find it.

How is it that we find life in Jesus? By seeking his approval, by diligently keeping his commands. Another thing to point out from this section, you shall do what's right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you. Our well-being is directly tied to our obedience and service to God. It really is.

Now I'm I'm always sympathetic to being to the to the mischaracterization of what I'm saying as you have to earn your standing with God. I'm not saying any of that. If we have to earn our standing with God, then we're it's hopeless. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not talking about you get saved and you please God and he offers you salvation as a result of of of of what you do.

I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is for those who are God's people, their well-being and their their their prosperity is directly tied to their obedience. If you don't obey God, it's not gonna go well with you. Seems pretty simple. Like, we could list a number of examples where it's like if you don't like you it will go poorly with you if you don't do what God says.

If you decide that you're better off single than married, it won't go well with you. And it certainly won't go well with your children. Some of you have grown up in divorced families. Are you glad your parents got a divorce? No one's glad about that.

No one thinks that was good. I'm so that was so much better off. Our well-being and the well-being of those who are dependent on us is is directly tied to our obedience to God. God may well afflict us in spite of our obedience. Think of Job.

He may well afflict us in spite of our obedience to him, and even that is for our good. But we will never be truly safe or content until we are at peace with God in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. Then it will go well with us. It's possible. I've seen it for people to suffer and to be in in the midst of their suffering, to be more concerned about god and his approval and their obedience to him in the midst of their suffering.

I've seen it happen. And it's beautiful. And it's what we all ought to be pursuing and aspiring to. I'll end with this. The very last section where he says that, he will drive out all of their enemies from before them as the Lord had spoken.

It's God's way often with us to take the things we set up as roadblocks and for him to run right through them and to get them out of our way. Now sometimes oftentimes he uses us to do that. That's what he does with the Israelites here. I'm going to give you this land. I'm going to go before you and clear out your enemies.

Well, we could read the different accounts of how he does that. Just think of Jericho. How did he get rid of the city of Jericho? By long and arduous siege of battle? No.

What did he do? He's a bit of a fool's errand, isn't it? Say what he did. Say it louder, Nathan. March around the city blowing trumpets.

This big fortified city that we can't get into and they're gonna kill us, you know. Here's what you do. March around the city blowing trumpet seven times. And the seventh time blow them really loud. And then what happens?

The walls fall down. What do you what if you were in that city, what would you have thought if the walls fell down? Were you be ready to fight? Inevitably, you wouldn't be ready to fight because you got these walls. But now you don't got these walls.

I'll go before you and drive out all of your enemies. God removed piece by piece the object of the Israelites fear and their excuse for not obeying him. And he does that with us. The thing we're so afraid of, the thing that paralyzes us, he just moves it out of the way. And we're left being like, well, I'm not ready to obey now.

And what we find out is that we were never ready to obey and we were just making an excuse. That when he takes away the thing that was in our way, now what? Well, it turns out I I I actually didn't wanna do that at all. And I just had a convenient excuse like the Walls Of Jericho. I thought I did anyway.

It's one of the ways that we justify our our ingratitude and our disobedience. We say that things will always be this way. Nothing could ever change. And I challenge you to read scripture and look at how God changes things that are immovable. He just moves them.

Think of Nebuchadnezzar. Was it Nebuchadnezzar or Darius? I always get confused. The one that ate grass. It's Nebuchadnezzar.

Okay. I was right. It's like this great and powerful and proud and majestic king. God's like, no. You're a blasphemer.

You're gonna eat grass. God does incredible things. He really does. Things will not stay the way they are. The burdens that you're bearing and the excuses that you're making won't last.

They won't endure. What will last and what will endure is God and his word. He will never change. And he will take care of you and provide for you. So you ought not to put him to the test, but rather diligently keep his word doing what's right in his sight.

So that he doesn't take his blessings away from you and give them to somebody else. As a part of that process of purifying you and making you more like Jesus, even if he does allow some of the things that you're afraid of to happen, the question has not changed. Will you trust God and obey him in whatever circumstance you're in? That really is the question that this text poses to us. Or will you fall to testing him and rebelling against him?

That's it. That's the point. Let's pray.