10th June 2024

10th June 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 15:1-21 focus v1-10)


Message (Alan Burke) 


The concept that most people have in their heads of God is of a senile old Granda figure who still loves us even though we’ve set his garden shed on fire. I’ve used that one before but I don’t think it’s far from the truth for most people. But what is your concept of God, if you had to give me a word or a sentence what would you say? For those who are in the church maybe they would say shepherd, that is a good word, maybe it would be friend, saviour, loving. There are many words that we could use to describe God, good words, words that convey the truth of who he is. I wonder how many of us would have ‘Warrior’ to describe God? 


Here the people are singing praise to the Lord for he is a “warrior” as the NIV puts it, or “a man of war” as the ESV and KJV put it (v3). This imagery of the Lord as a warrior, a man of war is woven throughout this chapter because the people as they sing praise to the Lord their God were responding to what they had just seen. For the Lord was the one who fought for them, saved them from the formidable foe of the Egyptians, the super power of the known world. The people themselves were powerless before the Egyptians but the Lord fought for his people, he brought them redemption. For the Lord is a warrior fights for his people and he hurled the pursuing Egyptians into the sea, words and phrases are used to describe poetically what happened, like they sank to the depths like a stone, they were shattered, thrown down, consumed like stubble. Those who come against the Lord are powerless before him. 


And look at the image we are given in verse 8, how the Lord by the blast of his nostrils the waters piled up, stood firm like a wall. The Lord that we come before well the wind is his and it obeys his command just as easy it is for us to breath in and out through our nostrils, so much so that the impossible is possible to him, so that the waters soon firm like a wall. While the enemy boasted, the pursued the people, the Lord simply blew with his breath and the sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty waters. The Lord did this all because he is sovereign over all, his is sovereign over creation, sovereign over his creatures, he is the warrior and saviour. Warrior because of how he fought for his people and saviour for he brought them salvation. Notice how the people were praising the Lord for, it was his judgment that fell upon the Egyptians that experienced his wrath. 


When you think of it like that, that this is a celebration of the judgement of God on the Egyptians that might not sit well with us. A celebration of a defeated foe, of people consumed by the Lord’s wrath as the waters returned to their place. God’s wrath is not like ours, when our wrath is kindled it is often separate from any other emotion that we have, when the red mist descends we forget common sense, love, mercy, we loose it. The wrath of God is just and right, it is not out of proportion, capricious or uncontrolled, rather the Lord God always does what is just and right and his judgement is appropriate. The Lord Is warrior but he is also saviour, he was saviour for his people and scripture makes clear time and again that all who call on his name will be saved. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q61. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?
A. The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission, or careless performance, of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations.
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