1st September 2025

1st September 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 17v1-7 focus v1)


Message (Alan Burke) 


Good luck to you! I remember saying that to a Presbyterian minister some years ago and he responded by saying he didn’t believe in luck, dismissing it outright. Now I’d just spent two years working in Donegal and it was a common refrain when people were parting and I had never really thought about it, what I was actually saying. "Good luck" is something that we have all heard I’m sure, and it wishes success or a positive outcome based on chance and one can either be lucky with everything going their way or unlucky and well that sucks for you. The belief in luck is chaos, for it is complete disorder and confusion, there is no rhyme or reason for anything in life just luck or the lack of it. The minister in question said he believed in ‘Providence’. 


The Scriptures are clear that God is at work by his providence. The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives us a helpful summery of what that means, in Q11 where it asks What are God’ s works of providence? A. God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving, and governing all his creatures, and all their actions. 


God’s providence does not only include good and pleasant things but things that are far from good and pleasant, in his holy, wise and powerful way, he governs all. This is one of the hardest concepts to understand, much less accept, is the absolute sovereignty of God. He is not only King of all kings. He is Ruler over every molecule, every quantum of energy, every event, and every outcome. He governs all the nations of the earth whether they recognise His rule over them or not, to direct and guide them for His purposes for history in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:9-10; Psa. 67:4; Prov. 16:9)!


Knowing that our God is a God of providence, who is sovereignly in control over all should help us even in the midst of those things that are far from good and pleasant. Here as we come to this passage we see God’s providential leading of his people. Now remember what’s gone on in the big picture of the book of Exodus, the Israelites were in Egypt as slaves and the LORD heard their cries (Ex 3:7). He brought salvation to them, bringing them out of Egypt, he figuratively carried them as on eagles wings (Ex 19:4), he had led them across the Red Sea and to the Desert of Sin. Now it’s not that it was aptly named because of the sin of the people for it actually has nothing to do with the English word sin rather the Desert of Sin is called that because it is in the region of Sinai. It’s now just over a month since they left and we are told that they camped at a place called Rephidim. Rephidim literally means resisting place and they quickly discover that there is no water. The Lord had been leading them, he led them there and yet there is no water. 


What would you do in that situation? 


God was providently leading his people, he had brought them to this very situation. The Lord in his providence does not only include good and pleasant things but things that we think in those times are far from good and pleasant, in his holy, wise and powerful way, he governs all. While he was guiding his people in the wilderness he is likewise at work in our lives, in all the events that take place, he brings His purposes to pass. In the small things and the big things he is at work, we may struggle to believe that the Lord is in control but he is. What is more we know that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes (Rom 8:28), that means even in difficult situations, in the hard things as well as the easy things. The Lord by his providence was at work leading his people in the wilderness as well as throughout the ages even in our lives. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q62 What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?
A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath day.
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