Friday, August 17, 2007

By Faith... Or Not? Israel's Exodus and Conquest, Part 2 of 41

TEXT: "Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, 'Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt' " (Exodus 13:17).

IDEA: The shortest distance between two points may be a zigzag.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that God sometimes leads us in a strange way to take us where He wants us to go.

Have you ever taken any courses in geometry?

If I say “the shortest distance between two points is . . .” – fill that in.

Sometimes the shortest distance with God from where we are to where He wants us to go is a zigzag.

I. God deliberately took Israel in a zigzag course.

What would the normal route from Egypt to Palestine be?

The King’s Highway ran along the Mediterranean and through Philistine country. But in Exodus 13:17-18, God takes the people in the opposite direction.

II. The reason God sometimes leads us on a zigzag course is that we would never make it by going in a straight line.

Israelites had a slave mentality (having been slaves in Egypt nearly 400 years).

Exodus 13:17 says, “For God said, ‘If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” Do you think that God was underestimating these people?

III. The people first needed other experiences that God planned for them, and God sometimes knows that that’s true for us as well.