하나님께 가까이 함이 내게 복이라(시편73:28)

해설

이하는 금문교회에서 지원하는 엑토르 모라노 까예 목사가 2016년 1월 17일 주일예배 때 전한 메시지 원고입니다. 엑토르 목사는 1월 16일 샌프란시스코 공항에 도착하여, 버클리 장로교 선교사의 집에 여장을 풀었습니다. 그는 ABSW의 DMIn 과정을 이수하기 위해 미국에 왔습니다. 앞으로 2주일 동안 모두 두 개의 intensive 과목을 수강할 예정입니다. 우리는 이미 콜롬비아 출신 미겔 페르난데스 목사를 초청, ABSW에서 DMin 학위를 받기까지 후원했습니다. 엑토르 모라노 목사는 그 두번째 콜롬비아 신학생입니다. 스페인어를 주로 사용하는 엑토르 목사에게 스페인어로 설교해도 통역이 가능하다고 했지만, 듣는 우리를 생각해서 굳이영어로 원고를 작성해서 보냈습니다. 전체 분위기를 해치지 않는 범위에서 읽기 쉽도록 조금 다듬었습니다. 해당 성경본문도 삽입해 넣었습니다. 마침 금문교회 1월 특별새벽예배가 출애굽기 강해로 나가고 있는데, 오늘 설교가 이와 겹치는 것이 하나님의 섭리 같습니다. 주님의 치유의 은혜가 넘치시기를 기도합니다. 조은석 목사

17 January 2016

Sunday Worship

Golden Gate Presbyterian Church

Rev. Héctor Molano

Professor of Old Testament, Seminario Theologico Reformado de Colombia

DMin student, American Baptist Seminary of the West

God, Our Healer

Exodus 15:22-27

PRAYER

Walk to the disease v. 22

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea

and they went into the Desert of Shur.

For three days they traveled in the desert

without finding water.

Exodus 15:22

Before entering to this point we must observe something of the context in which our text appears. Let´s observe the beginning of the chapter 14.

In Exodus 14:1-2, I want you know that Migdol was a city strengthened in the edge of Egypt, and the other city was named Baal Zefon, which is a city that can be translated as the Baal of the north, or a city dedicated to Baal. Baal was the Semitic deity of the storm or the god of the fertility.

Then the Lord said to Moses,

"Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth,

between Migdol and the sea.

They are to encamp by the sea directly opposite Baal Zephon."

Exodus 14:1-2

With this, the text wants to indicated us that the Hebrew people was cornered, on the one hand the walled city, by other one, by a place of pagan adoration. Now then, the place where God sets them to encamp has the name Pi Ajirot. In this place there is a certain shrub similar to the pasture, it grows in humid lands, this is, it is a place where they can be provided with water.

In spite of what was surrounding them, God had placed them in a special place. God knew what was going to happen, the Pharaoh would go out to prosecute them because they were cornered and it would be easy to take them.

The Egyptians--all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops--

pursued the Israelties and overtook them

as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

Exodus 14:9

Israel´s people due the Pharaoh's pursuit did not have loophole Exodus 14:9, the complaint of the people comes and you already know what happens in Exodus 14:21-22, the Hebrews pass for dry land the red sea, the Egyptians prosecute them and fall them in the sea.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,

and all that night the Lord drove the sea back

with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.

The waters were divided,

and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground,

with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Exodus 14:21-22

The incredible of this context is that seemingly people believed, let's read Exodus 14:31.

And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord

displayed against the Egyptians,

the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him

and in Moses his servant.

Exodus 14:31

In the chapter 15:1 said to us that Moses and the children of Israel sang a song of praise to God, we will not detain in the whole song but let's see some of the things that they say to God,

Verse 2: Father, my God

Verse 6: Your right-hand side of power

Verse 11: Who is like unto you? -- Fearful in praises, doing marvels?

Verse 13 observes closely the verse: For your great love you guide people that you have rescued; for your force you take them to your holy mansion.

The song is filled with praises to God and the same thing does Miriam from the verses 19 to 21.

When Pharaoh's horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea,

the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them,

but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand,

and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing.

Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.

The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea."

Exodus 15:19-21

And finally we come to our text, remember the marvelous things that God made with them, before crossing the sea they were not without enemies at sight but they were in a good place and what do you say about the tremendous miracle of dividing the sea.

BUT let's read what the verse 22 says 22.

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea

and they went into the Desert of Shur.

For three days they traveled in the desert

without finding water.

Exodus 15:22

I ask to you, who was the one that move the Israel´s people? Was God? No, it was our darling Moses that probably fells himself proud of the miracles, remember he raised the walking-stick to see to act of God in the Red Sea and now he feels encouraged to make to move the people.

Let's see the movements or the actions of the people of God in the book of Exodus, the movements always were first ordered always by God. For example everything what Moses was doing in front of Pharaoh always God firstly was saying to Moses. Let´s see some verses 8:1, 8:20, 9:1, 9:8, 9:13, 9:22, 10:1, 10:12, 11:1, etc.

Indeed, God guided people with his presence in a cloud and in a fire at night. Nevertheless, Moses moved people to enter in rough and difficult way.

BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,

HOW MANY TIMES WE ENCOURAGE OURSELVES FOR SEEING THE GOD'S HAND TO ACT IN OUR LIFE AND FORGET THE CONTINUOUS DEPENDENCE IN?

HOW MANY TIMES WE GO FOR A WAY THAT IS GOING TO MAKE ILL?

Medicine that does not recover v.23-24

When they came to Marah,

they could not drink its water because it was bitter.

(That is why the place is called Marah.)

So the people grumbled against Moses, saying,

"What are we to drink?"

Exodus 15:23-24

After a few days, the water is ended, the water that they had guarded in Pi Ajirot. And they come to this place, a place where there are watering places for farm animals, but that are not suitable to consume. MARAH was a mining rich zone in copper that was exploited by the Egyptians between January to March, the Hebrews are in this place about April according to Ex 16:1.

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim

and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai,

on the fifteenth day of the second month

after they had come out of Egypt.

Exodus 16:1

It is interesting to notice that marah expresses the tragic thing, the not pleasant experience, in our language we say " we had a bitter experience ."

BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,

HOW MANY TIMES WE DO NOT GET INTO EXPERIENCES OF BITTERNESS FOR NOT FOLLOWING THE GOD'S WORD?

look At Jeremiah 2:11-13

Has a nation ever changed its gods?

(Yet they are not gods at all.)

But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.

Be appalled at this, O heavens,

and shudder with great horror, declares the Lord.

Be appalled at this, O heavens,

and shudder with great horror, declares the Lord.

My people have committed two sins:

They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,

and have dug their own cisterns,

broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Jeremiah 2:11-13

BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,

HOW MANY TIMES, ON THE OTHER HAND OF CONFESSING OUR SIN WERE TURN TO LOOK FOR WATER IN PLACES WHERE WE DO NOT GO AWAY TO SATISFYING?

Or, WE GO AWAY TO FALLING ILL.

Certainly, there comes the problem of the gossip, in fact, goes to Moses but goes to God.

BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,

how many TIMES WE HAVE NOT FALLEN ILL DUE TO OUR BAD DECISIONS AND THEN WE BLAME GOD?

But God has an immense mercy, and in his infinite love does something, something weird

A weird medicine v.25

Then Moses cried out to the Lord,

and the Lord showed him a piece of wood.

He threw it into the water,

and the water became sweet.

Exodus 15:25

The text says, Moses cries out to God, the meaning of this word is to call someone by help in moments of great misery (Zaaq); looking at this word in the New Testament it is interesting to observe Luke's text 18:38 the blind person of Jérico who asks that Jesus cures him.

He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Luke 18:38

HAVE WE CRIED OUT GOD AS THESE MEN?

How do they think that Moses felt about this situation?

How Moses feel for cry out to God?

When Moses cry, Israel´s people could hear his laments. Then the text says: God showed him a tree. ¡so strange thing¡, to throw a tree in the bitter water.

Why not only God change it or why did God not say that Moses will raise his walking-stick?

But God acts in his ways, ways that we do not understand; the idea is to cry out God to look for his mercy. Now, let me a small allegory, if I transpose this word to the Greek (eulon) and searching in the New Testament, I found the same idea in 1 Peter 2:24.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,

so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;

by his wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:24

Your life is coming to convert in a bitter water, your life is going to be bitter, then, throw to your life the cross.

FRIENDS AND BROTHERS,

DO YOU WANT THAT YOUR LIFE GOES OUT FROM THE BITTERNESS TO THE SWEETNESS?

CRIES OUT GOD IN ORDER THAT HE SHOWS YOU THE CROSS AND DRINK THE WATER; CRIES OUT GOD IN ORDER THAT HE SHOWS YOU HIS CROSS OF PARDON.

In addition the text in v. 25 tells us, God gave to them a statute and an ordinance; a statute refers to the limit that a chief puts to his subordinate; and an ordinance, one that does that the order lost in the community is established.

Then Moses cried out to the Lord,

and the Lord showed him a piece of wood.

He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made a decree and a law for them,

and there he tested them.

Exodus 15:25

Many people has interpreted evidently is the mandate of taking the tree and to throw it, then God proves the fidelity of Moses and the fidelity of people.

BROTHERS AND FRIENDS,

WE ARE NOT TEMPTED TO DENY GOD, DENY THE MARVELOUS WORKS OF GOD, THE WORKS THAT HE DOES IN US BEFORE THE OTHERS?

A real healer

In the verse 26, God places the conditional sentence, if, if you do this, if you behave this way, if you live hereby, in this way God will be our healer. Certainly God frees us of many things if we fulfill what sends us.

He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God

and do what is right in his eyes,

if you pay attention to his commands

and keep all his decrees,

I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians,

for I am the Lord, who heals you.

Exodus 15:26

Let me a break about this point, not the whole diseases in the world appears for a direct sin, let see Exodus 4:11, the diseases exists, many times, to show the God's works in them John 9:3, or maybe they are necessary for some another reason 2 Corinthians 12:7.

The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth?

Who makes him deaf or mute?

Who gives him sight or makes him blind?

Is it not I, the Lord?

Exodus 4:11

Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus,

but this happened so that

the work of God might be displayed in his life.

John 9:3

To keep me from becoming conceited

because of these surprisingly great revelations,

there was given me a thorn in my flesh,

a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

2 Corinthians 12:7

The text of our study goes to verse 27, they come to Elim. Elim is a big palms, and in that place, there are twelve fountains, one for every tribe.

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs,

and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Exodus 15:27

But twelve it wants to mean also the totality of the people of God. In the other side of the sea, after the bitterness, there is water for the whole people. And there are 70 palms each one for 70 elders of the people of God (Exodus 24:1).

Then he said to Moses, "Come up to the Lord,

you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu,

and seventy of the elders of Israel.

You are to worship at a distance.

Exodus 24:1

God is preparing for us this place, probably you are drinking from the bitterness of the disease, but let's sight in the distance, this one, our Elim.