Children of Israel came out of
Egypt. As they approached the edge of the wilderness, the Lord
God gave them a visible token of his presence, something they
could see that would lead and protect them throughout their
sojourn for those 40 years they must wander in the wilderness.
Look at Exodus 13, verse 20, for just a second. Exodus 13,
verse 20. And they took their journey from
Succoth and encamped in Etham in the edge of the wilderness.
Verse 21. And the Lord went before them
by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them in the way, and
by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day
and night. He took not away the pillar of
cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people. They saw in the sky above them
a pillar of cloud. Every night as the sun would
set, that pillar of cloud stood before the camp of Israel as
a huge column of fire This was not something that looked like
a pillar of cloud during the day and looked like a column
of fire at night. This was something that was actual. It was a supernatural work of
God performed specifically for his people. It was that by which
he guided them and protected them. This supernatural work
This thing that God gave to the children of Israel, this pillar
of cloud and pillar of fire never departed from them all the 40
years they walked around in the wilderness. But great as the
symbol was, the reality was greater. That pillar of fire, that pillar
of cloud, was not just the symbol of Christ's presence, it was
Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord, present with his people. It was one of those many miraculous,
pre-incarnate revelations of the Lord Jesus with his people
on this earth, demonstrating what he would be to his people
when he had come to the earth and accomplished our redemption
in the days to come. The Lord Jesus Christ their savior
walked with them and was with them continually those 40 years,
protecting them, guiding them, lighting the way before them,
dividing and separating them from their enemies, protecting
them from the heat of the day and giving them light in the
night so that they could walk through the wilderness just as
easily at night as they could during the day. When the sun
was shining or when the sun was completely covered over and darkness
had come, they could walk all the same because the Lord God
himself led them with his own light. The Lord had said, I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. And he was as true as his
word. He spake unto them, the psalmist
said, in the cloudy pillar. Wherever the cloud went, They
went. It was like a huge umbrella covering
the whole camp of Israel all the time for 40 years. And that was not just a little
camp. We tend to think that the children
of Israel were a very small group of people. They went down into
Egypt just 70 souls, but they came out of Egypt at least 2
million souls, probably considerably more than that. And they increased
all the days they were in the wilderness. And this pillar of
cloud and pillar of fire was over them continually. Well might
they sing as David did in Psalm 84, the Lord hath been a sun
and a shield. They saw the fulfillment of that
which was later given in promise many years later. The sun shall
not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. Now this blessed
symbol of God's presence. must have been a source of relentless
joy and comfort to God's people as they beheld it. It must have
been a glorious sight. Every man, woman, and child in
Israel, every man, woman, and child in Israel could step out
his tent's door and see that pillar. Every man, woman, and
child, millions of them, could see this pillar of fire and this
pillar of cloud hovering over them, protecting them. Moses
declares he took not away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the
pillar of fire by night from before his people. Now, my point
is just this, and I want you to see it and understand it. The Lord Jesus Christ, our God
and Savior, is always with us. He promised, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. In the night of sorrow, he's
with us. In the day of joy, he's with
us. But we don't always perceive
his presence. We don't always enjoy his presence. The fact is, I can't speak for you. I speak
only for myself. Most of the time, I am fully
convinced he's with me. But I have no real enjoyment
of his presence. No real delight in his presence. Much of the time, things seem
utter darkness within and without. And that's how I spend most of
my days. Most of my days. Now, that's. I know what you're accustomed
to hear preachers say concerning themselves and maybe not what
you expect to hear me say. But I'm determined, Bobby Estes,
to be as honest as I can with you, with me and with God. That's just the way it is. Most
of the time there's nothing in me but coldness, emptiness, and
deadness of spirit. That's just the way it is. The
sun always shines, but when the earth turns, we can't see it
anymore. And sometimes he who is the glory
of Israel removes the manifestation of his presence and stands, as
it were, behind us. not before us, and nothing is
so troubling. Nothing is so troubling. That's my subject tonight, when
God isn't there. So, Brother Don, that never happens
to me. Well, one of two things, either I should greatly envy
you or I greatly pity you." One of the two. One of the two. This
is how Job spoke. Job was an upright man and perfect. God said there was none like
him upon the earth. And when the Lord God hid himself
from Job, he cried, oh, that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his seat. But even then, the Lord God, even when it seems
utterly to have forsaken us, is with us and fighting for us,
defending us, protecting us, and saving us. That's the message
of Exodus 14, verses 19 and 20. Let's look at this text. Exodus 14 verses 19 and 20. And the angel of God, that's
our Redeemer, that's Christ Jesus the Lord, the angel of the covenant,
that same angel John saw standing with one foot on heaven, one
foot on the sea and one foot on the earth with the book of
God's decree in his hand. The same angel John saw coming
down out of heaven with a great chain binding Satan when he came
here on this earth. The angel of God, which went
before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. And the
pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind
them. And it came between the camp
of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud
and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these
so that the one came not near the other all the night. I think usually the best commentary
on scripture is scripture. Let's look at a couple of passages
which deals with this very same matter. Isaiah chapter 52. Hold
your hands here in Exodus. We'll be back, but I want to
look at several passages tonight. Isaiah 52 verse 9. Break forth into joy and sing
together. Ye waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. Now he's talking about the example
used of the children of Israel coming out of Babylon. Very much
the same as when they were brought out of Egypt. Verse 10. The Lord
hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence. Touch no
unclean thing. Go ye out of the midst of her.
Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Verse 12. For you
shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight. That is, you
don't have to run from these folks. You don't have to be confounded
or confused. No reason to be. You shall not
go out as a people who are just running in mad confusion from
someone they cannot dare face. For the Lord will go before you. and the God of Israel will be
your reward. Now that's an archaic English
term. The word simply means rearward. The Lord will go before you and
the God of Israel will be behind you. It means toward the rear
or the rear guard. The Lord God who goes before
us is sometimes out of sight, behind us. but is still the Lord
God of Israel fighting for us, defending us, protecting us,
and saving us. Look at chapter 58 of Isaiah's
prophecy. Isaiah 58. We'll begin at verse 8. Then shall thy light break forth
as the morning, and thine help shall spring forth speedily,
and thy righteousness shall go before thee, The glory of the
Lord shall be thy reward, thy rearward, thy rear guard. Verse
nine. Then, when the glory of the Lord
is behind you, your rear guard, when the glory of the Lord is
moved from in front of you, behind you, then shalt thou call and
the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry and he shall say,
Here I am, verse 11, the Lord shall guide thee continually
and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou
shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose
waters fail not, verse 13. If thou turn away thy foot from
the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, Call the Sabbath
a delight the holy of the Lord honorable and shall honor him
Not doing thine own ways Nor finding thine own pleasure nor
speaking thine own words When you come to rest in Christ our
true Sabbath then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord and
I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth
and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father For the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it There's one more passage turned Isaiah
54 The Lord's manifest presence is our great joy His absence
our great misery if God smiles None can make me miserable But when God hides his smiling
face, none can give me joy. When I know the sweet countenance
of his smiling approval experienced in my soul, nothing disturbs
my peace. And when I don't, nothing gives
me peace. Yet still, Though we need to
see the cloud by day nor the flame by night, God, our Savior,
I repeat, is with us. He is still our salvation, fighting
for us, protecting us, and saving us. Here in Isaiah chapter 54,
beginning at verse 7, the Lord speaks and says, for a small
moment have I forsaken thee. I thought he said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. He doesn't, but it so appears
that he does, that it's real to our souls. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn
that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so
have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke
thee. For the mountains shall depart,
the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
Does that seem like a contradiction of terms? It does to anyone who's
never experienced what he's addressing here. He said, for a small moment
I've forsaken you, but my mercy, my covenant, my kindness, it'll
never depart from you. Things are not as they appear
most of the time. Read on verse 11. O thou afflicted,
tossed with tempest, and not comforted. Behold, I will lay
thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with
sapphires. And I will make thy windows of
gates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant
stones. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.
In righteousness shalt thou be established. Thou shalt be far
from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for
it shall not come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather
together, but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fall for thy sake. Anybody, anybody sets himself
against you. Anybody for your sake will fall
before you. Read on. Behold, I have created
the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth
forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster
to destroy. I've created the blacksmith and
the coals in his fire, and I have created the waster to destroy,
not to destroy you. but to destroy everything about
you that needs destroying. And sooner or later, one way
or another, Darwin, he's going to destroy everything about you
and me that needs destroying. It will be done at last when
he takes us to glory, but all along the way here, he keeps
destroying every prop every crutch, every foundation, every refuge,
every hiding place in which we would hide from him and trust
in ourselves. Read on. No weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. Right back here in Exodus, chapter
14, verse 19. Give me your attention for a
few minutes. I've got something I'm sure will help you in understanding God's way with
your soul. Number one, sometimes the Lord
mysteriously removes himself from before us. The angel of
the Lord which went before the camp of Israel removed and went
behind them. This visible symbol of God's
presence, that by which the Lord God declared himself with them
is removed and taken behind them. It's removed before Israel. Just
as the fearful Israelites could feel the hot breath of Pharaoh's
chariot horses Breathing down their necks just as they were
fully aware that Pharaoh was about to destroy them they could
they could hear the sabers rattling behind them and suddenly suddenly
God Steps behind them That pillar of fire behind them
Taken out of vision. Taken out of sight. Suddenly,
it's gold. What were they doing to cause
this? Tell you what they were doing.
Verses 13, 14, and 15. The Lord said, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. He said, Moses, tell my people,
tell my people now, go forward. You know what they were doing,
Larry? They were obeying what God required them to do. The Lord wouldn't do that unless
you'd done something real bad. They were doing exactly what
the Lord told them to do. They were walking before Him
in obedient faith. They were going forward to the
Red Sea. They were going forward to that
raging sea. And as they looked forward, suddenly
they saw nothing. The Lord had removed himself
and was gone behind them. That's the way it is with us
much of the time. Sometimes the Lord hides his
face. He takes away his manifest presence. He refuses to show
himself. As we walk in the light of God's
countenance enjoying the blessed blessed, sweet fellowship of
our Redeemer, bathing our souls in the consolation of the Spirit,
rejoicing in his goodness, suddenly we look up and there's nothing
but darkness before us. Like the spouse in the Song of
Solomon, we cry, I sought him, but I found him not. Everything was bright, cheerful.
We expected to go on from strength to strength, from victory to
victory, until at last we come to the mount of God and dwell
forever in his rest. And then sudden darkness, sudden
darkness, nothing but darkness. Clouds return, fears assail,
and we cry with Job, oh, that I knew where I might find him,
then I would come to his seat. John Newton expressed what I'm
trying to tell you very well in one of his hymns. It's not
in very many, just one or two of our modern songbooks, and
that's probably best. It's not a hymn I recommend we
sing, but it is a hymn that well expresses our experience. Tis a point I long to know, oft
it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? Has all this been just a delusion?
Has it all just been a fleeing, groundless, baseless hope? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull, this lifeless
frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard his name. Could my heart so hard remain? Prayer a task and burden prove. Every trifle give me pain if
I knew my Savior's love. When I turn my eyes within, that's
the trouble. That's the trouble. Now, hear
me. Hear me, children of God. That's
always the trouble. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I
deem myself a child? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed.
Tell me, is it thus with you? At such time, we look within
and see nothing but vanity and sin, wild beastliness. God's promise seems to fall to
the ground. Our circumstances seem to contradict
every promise given in the scriptures. Our hearts sink to the depths,
crying at the foundations be destroyed. What can the righteous
do? And we begin to call into question the very word of God
which once caused us to hope. We've said this God is our God
forever and ever. He will be our guide unto death.
And then when he withdraws from before us, nothing seems sure. And we think what we won't dare
say. I've told you many times, one of the reasons I'm convinced
when you find a saint who's been carrying the same Bible for a
long time, an old man or an old woman, you pick up the Bible
and you'll find the thickest pages of Psalms. Because in the Psalms, I can go into
the closet with a man. after God's own heart and hear Him say what I feel
in my soul that I don't dare have the honesty to say is His
mercy clean go forever? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from the
words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not. I know some of you understand
what I'm talking about. What's the cause of the trouble? It can be anything or many things. Suddenly you go through some
devastating experience. I have a friend over in Ashton
by the Jim Eccles. He's an old man now. He came
in one day from work, found his first wife laying on the floor
dead. Kissed her goodbye in the morning, just as healthy as she
was the day before. That's devastating. That's devastating. as he waited for his son to die, refused to eat, refused to go
to the house of God, shut himself up in his own chambers and refused
to be comforted by anyone. And then David, when he had taken
Bathsheba and murdered Uriah and done that which displeased
the Lord, when he kept silence before God and would not confess
his sins, his bones waxed old within him because of his roaring
all the day long. And that went on for month after
month after month after month. The difficulty I'm talking about
can be caused by lots of things. But don't ever presume, don't
ever presume that because you go through such times of darkness,
That it's an indication that somehow you've done something
horrible, that somehow God's doing this because of something
you've done that you must be punished for. God doesn't punish
his own. He punished our substitute. Can
you understand that? God Almighty laid my sin on his
son and made it his son's sin. And he drew forth the sword of
his justice and buried it in his son. And he will never bring
up the issue again. No, he doesn't punish us for
our sins. I can well imagine the children
of Israel thinking to themselves, oh, God's doing this because
we didn't believe him, because we murmured and complained. We
said, we're glad we died in Egypt. Now he's going to let us die
out here. I can well imagine them thinking so, because we
tend to think just like them. But the fact is, God brings us
into these circumstances. We try to pray, but the heavens
are brass. Come to hear his word, and the
word is nothing but the sound of a man's
voice. We read the book. And there's nothing in it for
us. There's just no light. It's thick darkness. When we
come to such circumstances, the very worst thing we can do is
turn our eyes within. Turn to Isaiah again. Chapter
50, verse 10. Don't turn your eyes within,
but turn them without. looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was sent before
him endured the cross despising the shame for the salvation of
our souls he endured it now look at Isaiah 50 verse 10 who is
among you that feareth the Lord I can say that I do that obeyeth the voice of his
servant, look unto me. I do that. My faith's not much,
but I've only got one object. I don't see the object very clearly,
but I have no object of faith but Christ Jesus the Lord. Now
watch this, that walketh in darkness and hath no light. What's he to do? What shall you
do? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. Now let me put that in shoe-leather
language so Davey Birch can get hold of it and walk around in
it. My sin ought never keep me from
believing my Savior. My unbelief ought never cause
me to look upon Him as unfaithful. My deadness ought never cause
me to doubt His life. My corruption ought never cause
me to doubt His redemption. Feelings come and feelings go. and feelings are deceiving. I trust the living Word of God,
naught else is worth believing. And faith is that which trusts
Him when you have no prop but Him. Faith looks to Him when
you have no light to look to anywhere else. Faith rests on
him when you have no resting place but him. These Israelites
were in a time of dark necessity. Never did they more need the
light of God's presence. But just in the time of their
greatest need, he removed himself and went behind them. I can't
help but to ask why. Why? The fact is, God often sends
his messengers of love on a black horse of trouble and sorrow.
For the believer, darkness of soul is the fruit of God's love
in the way he deals with his children. You see, our heavenly
father is so much better father than we are. infinitely better
than any of us because all of us, all of us spoil our children. I was a pretty firm disciplinarian. Now, you who knew me when Faith
was a child understand that. You who just see me around the
grandchildren, that's a different story. But with my children,
my child, I was a firm disciplinarian. But you know what she could always
do? She could always do. All she had to do to get anything
she wanted that I could get her, to this day, was crawl up on
my lap and ask just the right way, and it's hers. And that's
the way it was when she was a baby, and that's the way it is now.
Because I just can't help it. But my father never spoils his
children. Never. He sends darkness and hides His face to teach us
patience that we must have if we live in this world, to prove
our faith and give us strength of faith, to destroy confidence
in ourselves, sweetly to force us to seek Him, to excite our
desires after Him, what Bobby prayed or read just a little
bit ago in Psalm 17. Then shall I be satisfied when I awaken
thy likeness. He does this to keep us from
being satisfied with things as they are. He does it to make
us tender and sympathetic toward our brethren when they walk in
darkness. Whatever your trial is, there's
a needs before it. If God removes from before you
and stands behind you, there's a needs before it. God in Israel
sows the seeds of affliction, pain, and toil. These spring
up and choke the weeds that would else or spread the soil. Let's
look at another passage. Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon. Chapter four. I'll give you a
minute to get there. I want you to follow me. Now, the Song of Solomon will
never make sense to you until you understand that this is a
story about Christ and his church. It is the continual expression
of love between the Redeemer and his bride. It is a continual
interaction of our souls with our Savior given to us in this
beautiful allegorical picture by divine inspiration and in
the song you see the continual reviving and refreshing and languishing
and reviving and refreshing and languishing this movement of
our souls to Him and our soul's abandonment of
him. But all the while, he never abandons
us. Song of Solomon chapter 4, verse
16, the Son of God speaks. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south, blow upon my garden. He commands his spirit to blow
upon his garden, his bride, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits, she responds. Verse one, chapter
five, the Savior speaks. I'm coming to my garden, my sister,
my spouse. I've gathered my myrrh with my
spice. I've eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I've drunk my wine with my milk.
Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O my Lord. Well,
man, that ought to do it. That ought to do it. And here's the response. Some other time, Lord, I've got
better things to do now. I sleep. But my heart waketh. Sleep, but not like the dead.
I sleep, but not like I used to. My heart waketh. There's something in me moved
by him. It is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled. Oh, my soul, does he so speak
to me? Even as I am, he so speaks, because
that's the way I really am before him. Read on. For my head is
filled with the dew, my locks with the drops of the night.
I've been engaged in redeeming you. I've been working for you. My beloved put his hand in by
the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. He knocked and I got up and barred
the door. And he sticks his hand right in my heart and moved my heart for him. I
rose up to open to him. My hands dropped with the myrrh,
my fingers with the sweet-smelling berry. He left behind the sweet
fragrance of his grace upon the handles of the lock. I opened
to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself. He went
behind me and was gone. My soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but I couldn't
find him. I opened his word, but he wouldn't
speak. I went to his house, but he wouldn't speak. I cried out
to him, but he gave me no answer. I went to the house of God and
the church, the church of the living God, the faithful pastor,
the watchman. They went about the city, found
me, and they smoked me. They wounded me. The keepers
of the walls took away my veil from me. That's what preachers
are supposed to do. Expose what you are. I charge
you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell
him I'm heart sick for him. Tell him I'm sick of love. That's
the intent of the trouble. That's the intent of the trouble. But I remind you, he's with the
still, even when he hides himself. Though the pillar of cloud and
fire was not seen, though it was removed from before them,
it was with them still. Their sun and their shield was
hid from their eyes, but he was still their sun and their shield.
The glory of the Lord was their re-reward. Look at verse 19,
the last line of verse 19. Moses tells us the pillar of
the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. I like that, Bob. Stood behind
them. Fixed. Immovable. Stood behind them. stood behind
them, as it were, like the angel standing at the garden of God
with a sword drawn, saying to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians,
you shall proceed no further. He stood behind them to defend
and protect them, though he was hidden from them. He stood between
the Egyptians and Israel. And he still does. There are times when we can see
nothing before us to give us hope, nothing to give us joy,
but the living God stands behind us to fight off the adversary. He says, can a woman forget her
sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee. But listen to me. If the children of Israel had
been smart, David, if we were smart, all
they had to do was look behind them. There he was. There he was. If we were smart, We should look behind and see
Him. In all the past history of our
own life's experience, let alone the rest of the world, in all
the history of this sinner's life, I look behind me. Let me tell you what I see. Unimaginable. indescribable goodness
and mercy and nothing else. That's all. That's all. Just,
just goodness and mercy. Every heartache, goodness and
mercy. Every pain, goodness and mercy. Everything that we look at and
say, that was evil. goodness and mercy. The ones
I brought on myself and the ones others brought on me, God brought
on me in goodness and in mercy. And goodness and mercy past is
the assurance of goodness and mercy present and the promise
of goodness and mercy to come. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. If the rainbow were always visible,
it wouldn't be near as attractive, would it? It would be near as
pretty. I never will forget the only
time in my life I've ever seen a full spectrum rainbow. I was out in Great Falls, Montana
with Brother John Mitchell. We'd been out fishing. Came in
late in the evening, it had been raining, drizzling all day. Just
as the sun was setting, we were driving back into Great Falls,
and that full spectrum bow in the sky. From one side to the other. And
we drove under that thing like it was a tunnel. I couldn't imagine
such, I'd never seen such a thing. If I saw it every day, it wouldn't
impress me much. Do you know none of those fellows who I was
with really thought a great deal about it? They see it like that
all the time. They see it like that all the
time. God doesn't show the bow all the time so that we might
value it the more when he does. He doesn't show us his covenant
all the time that we might value it the more when he does. He
doesn't show himself all the time that we might value him
the more when he does. One more thing, and I'll wrap
this up. Back in Exodus 14, verse 20. And it came to pass, or it came
between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it
was a cloud of darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these. Can you imagine Israel's joy? They're proceeding along. God's
removed from before them and gone behind them and then suddenly,
as they're coming right at the Red Sea, the light shines before
them. You see, God commanded them to
go forward, but they must go forward in faith on the bare
word of God and nothing else. And they did. They are hemmed
in, pressed in, God fixed it, so they didn't have to make a
decision about this. There wasn't one way to go. They got to go
into that sea. Now, try to imagine. stepping into that sea with walls
of water. I'm talking huge walls of water,
a raging sea beating and nothing holding it up, just the water
standing there, but beating as if it was going to come down
at any time. And they walked right into it. It'd be a whole
lot easier to join Peter and walk across the water to the
master. But they were commanded to go
forward. And God fixed it so they had to go forward. And as
they went forward, He showed Himself again. And the Lord will, at just the
right time, show Himself again to you and to me. Repeatedly. And when, at last, We have entered
into the land of our rest. He will stand before us glorious
forever. Now, if you look at verse 30,
this is how the Spirit of God sums this whole thing up. Thus, the Lord saved Israel that
day. our Father. Oh, our Heavenly Father, thank you for your wisdom and
grace, for the free forgiveness of our
sins through the blood of your darling Son. Thank you for all the way you
have led us and all the way you shall. Thank you for your infinite
wisdom and goodness, your prudence and mercy, your grace and love
that you prove and prove and prove again in Christ the Lord. Amen. F-A-M Lindsay.