God Our Healer

Good morning, we are getting back to our series in Exodus. So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Exodus 15. We took a break last week to celebrate Reformation Day as we look to Ephesians to grace alone. But with this morning, we're getting back to Exodus 15. If you don't have a Bible, there are Bibles at the end of each pew. Just nudge your neighbor or reach across and please feel free to take that with you if you need a Bible. Really, this morning, we're going to start a mini series within the book of Exodus. It's a series of three that they're all connected because they're in the wilderness. They take place in the wilderness. They all three include grumbling. and they all three include food. God has really set apart a mini-series for us within the book of Exodus, and the topic is grumbling. The major events in Exodus are the Red Sea Deliverance. We can look back and see in chapter 14 the great deliverance through the sea where God parted the waters. Israel went on dry land. That's one great event. The other great event is Sinai. And so oftentimes these chapters are overlooked because those are the two great events. But in order to bridge the deliverance to the law, to calling out God's people to be God's holy nation, there's this wilderness and there's three different stories that are clearly connected. There's a series of three. The first is what we're looking at this morning. Verses 22 through verses 27 of chapter 15. It's interesting, they all have to do with food. The first one is water, the second one bread, then we go back to water. It's interesting how this most essential element of life is the great source of temptation here. But it kind of makes sense in the big picture of Scripture. What was the first temptation? Adam over food. When Jesus is presenting himself as the true Israel, the new Adam, the new head of a new humanity, what was the first temptation he faced in the wilderness? Food. And he battled that temptation with the Declaration of Deuteronomy that reflects upon our series, Man Shall Not Live on Bread Alone. connected here. And one other one other aspect of these three that connects them is in chapter 15, verse 25. It says God tests Israel in our third of the series, chapter 17, verse seven. It says Israel tests God. There's a there's a book ending there that should draw our attention to see these three are meant to be read and understood together. We'll we'll take them piece by piece. So we're in for a series of three on grumbling. Make sure you're not grumbling about walking through a series of three. Be careful. Why is it so important? Why take three weeks and think about grumbling? Well, first, because God intended us to by putting these three stories together like this. Grumbling is not all scripture, though. It's not just here. God wants us to think about this because it It really defines who we are as sinners. We complain to God, we murmur, we grumble. We're supposed to have his praise on our lips, but instead we complain. We can look to 1 Corinthians 10, a passage I'll encourage you to read through this series as well, because Paul continues to reflect upon these events in 1 Corinthians 10. And I'll just take part of this passage. We must not put Christ to the test. As some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as an example. But they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages come. These events, Paul is telling us, are precisely for us. These are examples that they're warnings for us. So we're looking at this passage and Paul is telling us, this is for Christians. This happened for us because we are like them. We're grumbling. So let's begin to think about grumbling. Let's begin by reflecting on the question, what do you grumble about? What brings forth that bursting of complaining? What draws out the complaining words and the grumbling to others or to God? This is important because what we grumble about is important to us. It tells us a lot about ourselves. What we grumble about helps us identify our idolatry. What we grumble about shows us where we don't yet trust God. We grumble in the areas of life where we don't trust God yet to take care of us. We grumble in the areas of life where we think we're wiser than God. That's what we complain. Now, I'm going to assume no one's going to say, no, I'm not wiser than God, but when we complain, that's what we're acting like. Most of all, when we grumble against God, what we're saying is that what we want is more important than him. That's why it's idolatry. When we grumble against God because of circumstances in life, what we're saying is what we want. The life we have said is our ideal. That's more important than you. And so it's telling us where our idolatry is. Let me give some examples. If we grumble against God and how he leads our life, our idolatry is autonomy. If we're grumbling, like Israel will here, about how God leads us and directs us, we're We're idolizing autonomy and independence. If we grumble against God in trials and suffering, we have the idolatry of comfort and leisure. If we complain that God brings trials and suffering, if we complain that God disciplines us, we're making an idol out of comfort. Oftentimes, we grumble because we do not think we get what we deserve. We had an ideal life. We had a picture of what life was supposed to be like. We think we've worked hard to earn things in this life and we complain to God that we haven't gotten those things. And this is the idolatry of wanting more and better. The question is, do you grumble? I don't think I'm imposing myself upon everyone here. I think it's universally true. Yes, we all grumble. Is it godly? Absolutely not. It's the opposite of Godliness. Godliness is using our words to praise the Savior. Grumbling is ungodly. Why is it ungodly? Because it demonstrates our lack of trust and our lack of thankfulness. We are saved to praise him. And the great thing about God is he saved us. He continues to be with us. And when we're grumbling, he seeks to teach us how not to grumble. So look at chapter 15. I want to give some background. There's some folks who haven't been here with us. And the background is really important to get up to this point. So God took Israel into Egypt. He took them there intentionally because there they would have the greatest land in Egypt. They would be able to grow and prosper in number. They became a large people. They entered as a small people, as a microcosm of what they would be. And now they're leaving with a number, a great multitude. Moses begins to pronounce the plan of salvation after Egypt has enslaved Israel. So while they're there, God has also allowed Egypt to enslave them and to abuse them, to treat them harshly. And Moses begins to announce the plan of salvation as the people are crying out to God, please save us. And when Moses first gives the plan of God, they bow down and they worship. But then Pharaoh makes their work harder. Pharaoh takes away the straw. Pharaoh makes their labor more bitter. And they go back to Moses. What have you done? This is not what we wanted. They go from praising to complaining. They want Moses to leave them alone. God doesn't leave them alone. God who said, I am with you, he's with them. He doesn't leave them. So then God brings ten mighty plagues upon Egypt. He destroys the nation of Egypt, the last one being the one that breaks Pharaoh's back. He kills the firstborn in every family, protecting the firstborn of Israel because Israel is his firstborn. Pharaoh pushes Israel out. God says, I'm not done yet. I am going to have absolute glory over Pharaoh in Egypt. So the people, they leave. They plunder the Egyptians. They take all the wealth of Egypt. They're traveling out and they don't go north because God led them south. God leads them to the Red Sea where they're pinned in. There's rocks on one side and then a mountain on the other and the Red Sea on another. And then they see the mighty army of Egypt coming towards them. And they cry out. Were there no graves in Egypt? Did we not say to you, leave us alone? It would have been better for us to be slaves in Egypt than to die in the wilderness. Their grumbling hearts still exist, even though they've seen the mighty work of God deliver them from the mightiest nation in all the world. They still grumble. They still don't trust. They still complain. And God is still faithful to them. He moves His glory to their back to protect them from the army. He then divides the waters. He marches them through on dry land. And then when Pharaoh comes into the waters, He crushes him, getting glory over him. And Israel responds with a song of praise. You can see that there on chapter 15. That is a song of praise that the entire nation praised God with. And if you're an Israelite, you really wish the story stopped there. They praise him, we see it better, they praise God, they grumbled, they praise God, and then they lack faith and they begin to grumble. This wilderness series, this series of three stories in the wilderness, it's really a boot camp. And the purpose is to get the grumble out. That's what we're looking at for three weeks. We're looking at this boot camp, which God is designed to get the grumble out because they can't praise him as they are called to until they stopped grumbling. They must learn to tame their tongues. That could be a curse before they can praise God and bless him as he is called. Let me read our story, Chapter 15, verses 22 through 27. Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Moriah, they could not drink the water of Moriah because it was bitter. Therefore, it was named Moriah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then I will put none of these diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord your healer. Then they came to Elim. where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. God is faithful to provide and heal for his people. We'll see two things here. I'm going to have two sections. We're going to begin with the last verses. The latter half of verse 25 through the end, we'll see that God's people are called to obey the God who heals them. God's people are called to obey the God who heals them. And secondly, God's people grumble and then God provides good gifts. First, God's people are called to obey the God who heals them. I want to begin with the end because it begins with a great declaration about God. And the first thing we need to always talk about and think about is God. So let me read that passage again, beginning with, They're the Lord made for them. It's halfway through verse 25. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule. There he tested them, saying, If you diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God and do that which is right in his eyes and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord your healer. The purpose of Exodus is for God to make his name known. The purpose of the plague is so that Egypt would know that Yahweh alone is God. The purpose of delivering Israel is that they would know that Yahweh is God and that he is their God. He's with them. And then they are meant to be a light to the nation so that the entire world knows that Yahweh alone is God. The purpose is to let his name be known, and there in the last verse at the end of 26, I am Yahweh. We get a new description. We get something new about him. He's revealing himself more. I am your healer. Now, the healer here is connected to I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, and so we need to go back and look and see that all these plagues, they were the diseases you're referring to. And there's a real clear, beautiful picture of God protecting and healing his people over against the Egyptians. A number of the plagues, God lied, put a wall of protection around his people in Goshen. When Egypt got boils, Israel was safe. When Egypt had swarming flies, Egypt had nice, clean, fresh air. When the cattle of Egypt had the plague, The Egyptian livestock were safe and protected. He had his healing power upon them. He protected them from those diseases. As part of his goodness, they didn't deserve it. It wasn't their right, but it was God's good gift to them. Now, as their king, as one who has delivered them, he's saying, you need to learn how to be aligned with me. You need to learn how to follow me, to trust me, to know that I will care for you. He gives a conditional statement beginning in verse 26. If you will listen, if you will do, if you will give ear, then I will not put these diseases upon you. I want to begin by pointing out this condition is not a condition to be in the covenant. God has already initiated the covenant. God has already said, I am your God. You are my people. He has already delivered them. He's already called them out to be his people. The condition is to teach them how to now follow him and to obey him, how to truly experience the full blessing of God that is theirs if they obey. So the healing here is tied to their following him. So let's think about healing in a bigger context. There's a lot of what we call health and wealth preaching, that God intends you to always be healthy. If you just have enough faith, you'll never have sickness. This is an absolute perversion of God's promises. God has never promised us great health. God has never promised us that we'll live forever in these bodies now. It says that if you pray, if you just pray with enough faith, then you'll be healed of whatever you ask. It's a perversion of the gospel because the gospel is about making us whole in our relationship with God, reconciling us to the Father. So let me just walk through a few passages that deal with healing and the gospel related to Jesus. First, I want to affirm that healing was a sign that pointed out that Jesus was the Messiah. Let me read to you Matthew 11, beginning in verse 2. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come? Or shall we look for another? And Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up. And the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." Jesus is pointing out, yes, I am the Messiah, and these signs of healing are evidence that I am the Messiah. And notice how he ends there, the poor have the good news preached to them. It still ends and focuses upon the gospel. We can ask, what is Christ's purpose? He tells us, He came to seek and save sinners. I think Mark 2 is a very important transition. See, Mark has the records of Christ doing a lot of healing and people are coming, wanting to be healed. And then when the paralytic gets lowered down, Christ takes the opportunity to show he's not coming to do a healing ministry. And he's coming to a forgiving ministry. He says, which one is greater, the healing or the forgiveness of sins? He's saying what is harder, but he's also saying what is greater. He's not come just to heal everyone. He's come to save sinners. And look to Isaiah 53 that tells us what Christ is coming to do. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The wounds that need to be healed are our sins. What he's seeking to do is not give us health, but to heal our relationship with God so the wrath of God is no longer upon us. Our health matters to God. We're told to pray for physical healing. Our health matters, but it's not the end game. It's not the ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose is to make sure that we have hearts that worship him fully. The end purpose is that our souls are cleansed from sin so that we worship Him with a whole heart. One of the clearest teachings is that the end game is not our health. It's that God uses our infirmaries, our sickness, for our spiritual well-being. Let me read 2 Corinthians 12. This is Paul talking about his own weakness. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness, therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." We don't know what Paul's thorn in the flesh is, but it's clear that Satan has attacked him with some physical ailment, some physical weakness. He prayed to God, and God said, no, it's for your own sake that you have a physical weakness. And so that you will know that I am great, that you are weak, that you will know that I am strong and you need to depend upon me. God uses our physical weakness to show us his spiritual greatness to correct us. Before we move on to our first section or the top section, the beginning of the story, I want to focus on one more word here. Verse the first part of the second part of 25. They're the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them. So the God who heals is the God who is testing us, and I really think the best word here for this testing is actually he's training us. He's training us to be worshipers. He's training us to know he's the God of salvation. He's also the God of sanctification. He's a God who is teaching us to worship him. So how do I get the word train from the word test? All you students, wake up, be alert here. We're going to talk about some testing. The word test inherently has the concept of training in it. I used to teach, and I would always try to help the students be prepared by helping them see that a test is not just something you're trying to get a grade on. A test is an opportunity to prove how much you know. That positive spin really didn't work. Because it's also something else. See, a test helps us realize how much we do not know. A test is meant to show us where our weaknesses are in a given subject. It's not just to get a grade. A test is given to us so that we know where we need to learn more. It's funny, I was in school for a long time. I can still remember an ethics exam from my first semester in seminary, 2001. And I can't tell you any question I got right on that exam. But I remember one that I got wrong. It was a question, what was Kant's system of ethics? And I can tell you today that it's deontological. I didn't know it when I took the test because I got it wrong. But what the test, it accomplished what it was supposed to. It showed me what I still needed to learn. See, God's training us. He's testing us. He's pointing out to us how weak we are. Where we still need growth. Where we need to know more of Him and trust Him more. See, training here is not like an athlete. It's not like a basketball player who who has the dribbling down, he has the passing down, he's got the three pointer down. And he decides, you know what, in the offseason, I'm going to work on my post game. It's not an athlete who adds something to his skill set. No, what God is doing when he trains us is not adding a skill so that we're more effective. He's actually showing us how deficient we truly are so that we're more effective. God's training is meant to show us how much we need him and how great his grace is. When you're being trained by God, you're not being you're not getting more revelation, how many spiritual gifts you have. No, you're being fit to be used by realizing that the only thing you can boast in is God. So we look to the God who is the healer. We look to obey him so we enjoy the full blessing of God. We look to be trained by God. Let's go to the second point, God's people grumble and God responds with grace. Let me read our verse again, verses 22 through the first half of 25. Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Morav, they could not drink the water of Morav because it was bitter. Therefore, it was named Morav. The people grumbled against Moses saying, what shall we drink? And he cried to the Lord and the Lord showed him a log and he threw it in the water and the water became sweet. Remember that you can look here in the text, the beginning of chapter 15, there's a great song of praise, sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. Three days later. with parched lips, with dehydrated bodies, that song is left. And then they come to water and they sit. OK, some relief. Three days you go without water and you're parched, you're dehydrated, you're suffering and you think, finally, some relief. And then they discover it's undrinkable. They cannot drink the water. What Israel should have remembered is that God is sovereign over the waters. He's turned the Nile River, the great and mighty divine river of Egypt, blood red already. He divided the Red Sea. He's shown himself ultimately and finally sovereign over the waters. He's done everything but turn water into wine, and that's still to come. They complain. Because they've forgotten who God is, what he has done for them and what he is calling them to. The voice in their hearts now comes out and they grumble against Moses. For us to truly appreciate this, we have to realize we're just like them. We praise God for his past salvation, but trusting him today in the midst of suffering, in the midst of trial, in the midst of discomfort is difficult. We are like them because we grumble against God. Again, much of our grumbling because we believe we deserve better. We grumble because we have an ideal life and unless God gives us that ideal life, we grumble. And what you're doing there is you're making an idol out of something other than God. You're making an idol to worship and you're saying, God, would you deliver this? And I'm going to complain if you don't, you're you're using God to enjoy something else rather than what we're supposed to do. And that is to be worshipers who use all of life to enjoy God. Moses cries out to God on their behalf. God points them to a log, he throws it in the water. I don't think there's anything special about this log and the fact that God uses it like God used his staff to deliver. It makes the water drinkable. It's amazing how God's patient with his people. After 10 plagues, after the Red Sea, they shouldn't, three days later, this shouldn't happen. It's amazing how patient God is with us. To remind us where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. And we should see that it's not just how abundant God's grace is, that we have a better leader than Moses. Moses is able to lead them and teach them and provide them. Our Savior is so much greater because he has died for us on a tree. He died for our sins, our grumbling against God, which is offensive to God. He died for that. All of our sins, if we believe in him, have been paid in Christ. So we need to get the grumble out. How do we get the grumble out? This is the question we'll continue to ask for three weeks. We're going to continue to add to our list. We'll review next week and then we'll come back and add more ways that Scripture teaches to get the grumble out. This is just the first two. First, how do we get the grumble out? First, learn from the mistakes of Israel. This is what wise people do. Wise people learn from the mistakes of others. As foolish folk, we learn from our own mistakes. Children, be wise, learn from others' mistakes. God has given us Israel here in the text for our instruction. Let me read 1 Corinthians 10 again. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, these things happen to them as an example or warning. But they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. The warning here is to not connect the God who saves you to the God who's sanctifying you. The God who is faithful to save, the God who is mighty and able to save, he's the God who is mighty and able to sanctify you, to change you. He heals and forgives you, and then he stays with you. His work wasn't once and for all done in the sense that your work is now done in you. No, the work is once and for all done in Christ. He is faithful to complete the good work he has begun in you. We are like them. Sinners saved. Sinners need to be sanctified. We need to realize that physical trials have real spiritual significance. Our physical trials have real spiritual significance. So as we look back to the gospel and we know that we are saved, we have to realize that the physical trials we face, they're not coincidences. who are ordained and purposed by God for our spiritual well-being to make us better glorifiers. He disciplines us for our good. He's seeking to shape us spiritually so we worship Him. Learn from the example of the Israelites. Be watchful. Do not let the physical cause you to spiritually murmur against God. Finally, the second way we get the grumble out, we learn from the example of Christ. We we learn from the example of Israel to do not be like them. But thankfully, we have a faithful savior is the perfection of our faith that we can look to and learn a positive model. Here, as I read Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. The Son, He endures the physical pain of the cross because He trusts God. He knows God is good. He knows God has made promises. He will keep those promises. He knows that He will rise again. We're to look to Him not only as a model, but He's the object of our faith. The one who's crushed sin. The one who's defeated our enemy. The one who's now risen in the right hand of the Father. When we're in the midst of trials, we need to look up. When we're in the midst of trial, it's easy to keep our eyes down and focus on that trial to focus on and let it let it fester and let it grow and worry as we look at the physical trial. We look we like to look down and just wallow in it. Now, in the midst of a trial, we must look up to Christ to pray, God, give me wisdom to know how to endure this trial. Let me see how the suffering in this trial helps me participate in the suffering of you on the cross. It will make me a more righteous man or woman. We must remain in our hardship, endure the race by looking up to Christ. Remind you what follows in that Hebrews passage. God disciplines his sons. If you're not being disciplined, you're not a son. We need the corrective discipline. The reason for the wilderness is to get them ready for the law, to get them ready to be made a nation. They've been delivered. Now they be made ready so they can build a temple and be in the temple and be worshipers. God is working in us. He's correcting us so that we are better worshipers. Let us look to the God who heals us. Not just to save us from our sins, to correct us from our sins so that we can know him and enjoy him and love him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we praise you and thank you. We thank you for this warning. We thank you for Christ and the hope he has set before us. The hope that no man can take away. The love and the assurance we have in Christ. Help us to know that grace and the power of that grace in our lives. Help us to remember what you've done for us so that we do not complain in the midst of trials. Help us to come alongside one another. To remind one another of your goodness, your power, and your love. Make us living sacrifices. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.