Joshua and the Exodus

Transcript

I wanted to know, did anybody hear any echoes from the book of Exodus as we read through that chapter and a portion into the next chapter? Anything jump out at you guys?

Well, yeah, you had the Ark of the Covenant in front of everyone entering the water first. The water was raised up in a wall. Everyone went through on dry ground. It was very similar to the Red Sea crossing. Yeah. I mean, almost detail for detail. Yep. Yep. But I don't remember them picking up the stones out of the Red Sea. Right. So not every detail was the same. But there were enough details put in both accounts that you can see that there was a link meant to be drawn between the Red Sea crossing and the crossing of the Jordan. So yeah, there's a crossing. And I think that's the one that jumps out at us the most. And we see that echo back to Exodus. And they're both a miraculous crossing on dry ground. And they stand out as stories that we learn in Sunday school that stick with us.

And when we read a passage and we see an obvious connection like that, one thing I'm encouraged you to do is to keep looking and see.

So actually, yeah, here's that passage to see.

If there's anything else that that in the context that also might bring you back to that passage that you're hearing the echo of, because often you're seeing like a tip of an iceberg when you when you look at an iceberg, what you see on top scientifically is only 10 percent varies a little bit depending on the temperature of the water and the ice, but basically about 10 times more ice is below the surface or nine times more ice is below the surface than above the surface. So there's more there often if we if we keep looking, if we keep digging. And there are a number of connections that go between these these books, the book of Joshua here, in particular in chapter three, four and five, and the book of Exodus earlier, especially early access first 19 verse chapters of of Exodus. And I'm going to share with you a bunch of connections, these connections that I didn't see, but were shared with me by somebody who I've mentioned before, Rabbi David Forman, who does some really excellent Bible teaching that I've enjoyed. He does a podcast called A Book Like No Other. And I think that's just an apt description of our Bible, because no other book is rich with this kind of of structure of connection. And and it's really it's really a powerful testament to the inspiration of scripture. So a lot of what most of what I'm sharing tonight will be attributed to him, but I'm sharing it with you because this was just another case of me being blown away by the amazing tapestry that the scripture is. You know, when you look at a tapestry, you see this picture, you see the different, you know, things that go together and colors of the threads that go together, make that tapestry. But you don't immediately recognize when looking at the front side of the tapestry that it's all connected. And and it takes a, you know, an artist, a master to

connect all the different parts

of the of the tapestry together to to make the the image that you see. And in the same way, the Bible is is just filled with amazing interconnections. You don't see it without turning, you know, coming around and seeing the backside of the of the tapestry and without digging in in our scriptures. We often miss a lot of the connections. But when you do see them, it often brings out lessons in a very powerful way. And that's what I hope to share with you guys today, that the powerful lessons that I've seen in this this intertextuality between these two two sections of the Bible. And it's actually a chiastic connection like it follows the ABCBA kind of kind of pattern that we call a chiasm. And it's it's amazing in a way that it's a chiasm that actually stretches between, you know, two books. You don't always see that often. It's within a passage that you see a chastic structure. But we're we're looking tonight at one that's actually in two different books of the Bible, which is written by different authors. And the fact that it still links together this way is just, you know, just amazing. So we're going to try to look closely tonight, look at the backside, see if we can find some of these threads and trace them and see the interlinks. And and these interlinkages, I believe, are very purposeful and meant to lead us to deeper insights and understandings as we as we meditate on them. So the first thing we saw that jumps out is that that water crossing. And it's the first of many connections.

And like I said, with the iceberg analogy, you want to look closer, look deeper and see what other things are there below the surface. And in this case, we'll take a look starting at the beginning of of Joshua, Chapter three, and see if we can see other connections that are a little more subtle than that one that was in our face with the with the water crossing. In the beginning, we had so I'm a highlight some of the other verses that Jim read, some of the key language that let's see if this brings any anything to mind from the Exodus in verse one. So they they go to they set out from Shittim and they're heading to the Jordan. In verse two, it says at the end of three days, the officers went through the camp and told them when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, your God being carried by the little levitical priests, you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet, verse four, there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2000 cubits in length. Do not come near it in order that you may know the ways you go. And in verse five, Joshua said to the people, Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among you. Does that preparation and the command to kind of stay back ring any bells in the Exodus? Sorry, I couldn't hear that a little bit louder. Brother, brother Richard. Yep, Richard. Hi, Richard. All right. When it comes to my man, is that when I still go to speak to people back from the Mount. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you, Richard. Yeah. In Exodus 19, and notice some of the other things in the little details that are in that Joshua passage. The Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. In Germany, verse 12, you shall set limits for the people around, as Richard mentioned, saying, Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it, or touches the mountain should be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up. And the Hebrew there is up upon the mountain. So there you see the echoes between that Joshua passage and

and and you start to realize that there's there's meant to be a link between these passages. If the if the obvious one wasn't just a one off, there's some other things here. We can see there's there's more.

And and as we look at these parallel elements, notice that when we go forward in Joshua from Joshua chapter three, verse one through five to chapter 17, we're actually going backwards in Exodus. So that's because the Chiasm has the parallel. The parallels are further and further out as you work your way away from the center. So let's keep looking. There's more, more to our to our iceberg. So let's go on to verse seven in Joshua three, and here the Lord says to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that you may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. In verse nine, and Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, here is how you shall know that the living God is among you. And he will without fail drive out from before you, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Parasites, the Girishites, the Amorites and the Jebusites. So does that have any connections back to to Exodus? Especially if I highlight those yellow parts. Well, first of all, note that there's a direct link to Moses. Joshua, God's saying to Joshua, I'm going to exalt you just like I exalted Moses. And just as I was with Moses, I'm going to be with you. So there's a direct connection right there in the in the text explicitly. But also in the in the wording, there's more actually, let me let me do a little slight tangent, but but it's actually connected to the to the idea that when he says, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. That's that word. Yeah, that I've kind of gone on about a bunch in the past few years, because I've just seen all kinds of places where God's name, which is connected to this word, I will be I will be who I will be. God says to to Moses at the burning bush. That was that was that word. Yeah, I will be. And. Hmm. Also, you might not remember, but in the very first class, when I first was kind of blown away by this

by the things that this word kind of reveals. I shared with you that that word is exclusively used in the first six books of the Bible to be only used by God. Nobody else uses this word. I will be in the first six books of the Bible and even into a little bit into judges. It's reserved for God's speech only. And the narrator doesn't use the the word. Other people don't use the word in their speech, even though later in the in the narrative or historical books

like Samuel and Kings, other people will use it. It's a it's a common word used in in modern Hebrew as well that people will say in a in a secular way. But but the Torah, the first five books, Moses and Joshua, it's been kind of hallowed. It's been reserved to be only spoken by God. So I would say the inspiration by the inspiration of God, the writers have reserved this for God's speech only. And as they do, there's the God uses the word for two things. He repeats. This message to a number of his servants that I will be with you and.

The second way that he uses the word is in his name. I will be who I will be. And because of the context where that name is introduced in Exodus three to two verses before, God tells Moses, I will be with you. I think we're meant to see those two uses of the word by God as being as being related, as being they should be combined and thought of together because God's name is intended to remind us of that message that I am with you. So I also mentioned that the the word we're very familiar with, Yahweh, the divine name, the memorial name of God is a third person variation of this. And so by implication, I think that God is tending is intending to remind us with his name that he is with us. That's such a beautiful promise that is there again and again and again. And now we see it here in Joshua. This is one of those passages that's that's used by God just to repeat this message. And he's saying it now in comfort to Joshua that, you know, there's battles ahead, but I'm going to be with you. That's that's a really powerful thing. So God's speaking of elevating Joshua, and he explicitly connects it to Moses. But the well, and here's the passage, I think, that the wording is also connecting to besides that thematic idea of God being with Moses and God being with Joshua. In Exodus 19, verse nine, we read that the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud. This is going to be at Sinai that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. So just like God revealed himself in front of the people to Moses up on the mountain to show the people that Moses was God's representative, God's saying to Joshua, I'm going to do the same thing here with you. So so we have that that linkage. And it fits perfectly into our under our chiastic sequence. We have the leader exalted as our second element of the chiasm. Now, the third one that comes next is really a a combination of five words. And these words are not, you know, super rare or anything like that. But the fact that all five of them come together here in two verses and Joshua three, verse eight, nine, and that there's a connection back in Exodus, I think clearly shows this is part of the part of the intended chiasm. So looking at Joshua three, we read about the the priests were to bear the Ark of the Covenant and they were come. They come to the brink of the waters of Jordan. They shall stand still in the Jordan. And then Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. Well, wouldn't you know it that just a little bit before the what we were reading about in Exodus in our last element, we have those same five words in Exodus nine, verse four, five and six. We read you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you the Hebrew there is cause you to come. So it's the same. It's got the same word that we had in Joshua cause you to come to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and that's the same word as as listen in and Joshua and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. For all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you shall speak to the people of Israel. So not only is it part of the chiastic structure, the message, the message is so so beautiful. And I think we're seeing a repetition of of themes of God being with his people. This this loving picture of of God being an eagle that that bore them on on his wings is a really meaningful. Image to me, and I'm going to I'm sure a little bit more about that later, but well, let's let's move on for now. So we had these four elements that all have these parallels. Now we started at the water crossing, the obvious one, and we worked our way forward in Joshua from

sorry, backward in Joshua from that water crossing. And we were working from that water crossing. We were working forward to Sinai. But what if we kept going or looking on both sides of those elements, the fourth element that we have so far that they were crossing on drag? And if we go further in Joshua, do we continue to go further backward in Exodus? Well, let's take a look. So the fifth element we read about the Joshua commanding them to put the stones, to take the stones and set them up as a as a sign. In verse six, that this might be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the water of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord now.

And these stones will be a memorial forever. So does that remind us of anything in Exodus? Well, if we look at Exodus, again, working our way backwards in Exodus to Exodus 13, we have these famous words of the Passover there

in the Passover instructions. When in time and when in time to come, your son asks you, what does this mean? You shall say to him, by a strong hand, the Lord brought us up out of Egypt from the house of slavery, for when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of the sons I redeem. And it shall be a mark, which is the same Hebrew word as a sign used in in Joshua. On your hand or on the frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. So just so happens that there's this language of of children, you know, asking and and then the God commanding them that they should tell them. And and and that there would be this this sign. Interesting linking those passages and and it's coming through again that that presence of God with his people, that God is the deliverer who was there for his people with a mighty hand, bringing them out of Egypt. So this is starting to, you know, be pretty convincing when we have those five elements so far. But if we keep going, we come to Joshua five near the end of what Brother Jim read for us. That the I'm sorry. No, this is going further than what Brother Jim read for us. Now into the next chapter. So let's read Chapter five verses two and three. At that time, the the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel that give you a hot are a lot. And then going on to verse 10, says when the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land unleavened cakes and parched grain. So what do you know? This sounds kind of familiar. Actually, both things are similar. Things are two similar things are mentioned in Exodus. Let's see if I get my.

Sorry. There we go. And Exodus four,

we read about Zipporah taking a flint and cutting off her son's foreskin and touching Moses feet with it and saying, surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. Kind of a bizarre story. And then the the the Lord, who was there, the angel who was about to put this son to death, let the son alone. And it was said then that she said the bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. So we have the flint, the circumcision being being mentioned, which parallels what we had in Joshua. And then it's a it's a bit more separated here in Exodus, but it's followed by unleavened cakes and eating of the Passover. And notice in verse 41, at the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. So we see the the echoes in this these words and terminology that continue. So that gives us a total of six so far, four in the last chart and then two in this new one. And it continues in Chapter five of Joshua. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in it, sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, No, but I am a commander of the army of the Lord. Now, I have come and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said, What does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Now, Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in under siege. Verse two, And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor. Now, hmm. Take off your sandals from your feet. That obviously brings us to Exodus three in the burning bush, where we have the same language. The angel from the burning bush says, our God speaking through the angel says, Do not come near. Take off your sandals off of your feet for the place in which you're standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hit his face for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I've heard their cry because of the taskmasters.

Taskmasters, I know their sufferings, and I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey to a place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. And I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. So the chiasm continues outward. And again, associated with these words of divine compassion, God's care for his people, his hearing their cries and bringing this deliverer, Moses, his servant Moses, preparing him to go do this work. And this parallels here Joshua, who's now about to bring the Israelites into the land and to conquer Jericho, the beginning of God giving the land and fulfilling this promise that we had here at the burning bush in Exodus three.

So you can see the

the parallels are really quite stunning, I think. So he tells

Moses what he's about to fulfill and

and he did fulfill the deliverance from Egypt. And now he's telling Joshua he's about to fulfill the second part of the promise, the part that had yet been unfulfilled, that giving them the land. So he brought them out of Egypt with Moses, and now he's bringing them into the land with Joshua. All right, so that's seven elements.

And at this point, I think that the direct parallels are kind of over, but there are along the edges just beyond those seven elements. There's also something that is an important connection as well. And so there's there's our last three of the seven elements. And if we just kind of continue our look beyond, we continue forward in Joshua. So we got through Joshua, Chapter five, verse 15. Then comes Joshua, Chapter six, when they actually go to take Jericho and the instructions about that are familiar that, you know, they march around the city for six days and then on the seventh day.

Well, let's read it in Joshua six, verse three, on verse four, seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ramhorns before the ark. And on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priest shall blow the trumpets. Notice all those sevens. Hmm. I think we have some creation links as well, because here we have a new creation beginning with God's people, you know, going into the land. And then in verse five. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and all the people shall go up, everyone straight before him. Now, these exact words, you know, aren't before the burning bush, but there is an interesting thematic connection. And rather than being a. Well, there's some there's some similarities, but there's also some important differences. I think what this is meant to. Bring us back to to consider the connection is Exodus two, beginning verse 23. During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. The cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And God saw the people of Israel and God knew. So we have this.

Parallel, it's a different kind of cry. We have a cry, a groaning of agony from the suffering that they're experiencing in Egypt. And we have a different kind of cry, a great shout, a cry of a victory, a cry of deliverance that that that God was bringing for his people in Joshua. So there's there's kind of an important difference. And what I think that shows is God is saying, I heard you back then. And now here I'm fulfilling my promise. And there's a different kind of cry that that that indicates a change, a change. Now I've delivered you. You're free. I'm with you. And now you're entering the land to take possession of the land. And eventually to start the, you know, the Kingdom of Israel. So and and and if we meditate on this more and we think about it, I think there's all a lot of really powerful, deep things that we can come to understand as well. In addition to this, we probably wouldn't have connected the sound of the shouting of the people of Israel with the cry of the people in Egypt without this chiasm. I don't think I ever would have would have would have connect those two. But seeing the characteristic pattern working its way out, we go just a little bit further and we were led to kind of compare and contrast those and those two different cries and see that the difference be highlighted by their being put in light of each other. The great noise raised up in Jericho contrasts the the groans and cries of Egypt before there were cries of despair. And Brother Ben's, you know, exhortation this past Sunday was was was was a beautiful, you know, consideration of cries of despair, like like Psalm 88. Well, the the children of Israel and Exodus, too, were crying those kind of cries. And sometimes that's that's all we can do. We can just cry out. And we might not know, you know, if there's going to be deliverance, we might we might even have. You know, a test, we might be having a testing of our faith and we might be struggling to, you know, to believe that that God's going to deliver us, not knowing when we're going through some some deep despair. And sometimes all we'll have is just cries of despair. But God hears those cries. That was the message that was beautifully illustrated in in Exodus, that God heard. He heard their groaning. It wasn't ignored. He hears now there is a time of of waiting. It the deliverance didn't come immediately, you know, just like Joseph in the pit. He had to he had to wait for days of years as he was in there, even though he had that glimmer of hope that, OK, I've got an inside man with Pharaoh, you know, going in to tell Pharaoh about me. But he had to wait days of years, is what the Hebrew says. It sounds like an agonizingly long wait. You know, there there there can be

a delay. There can be time where we have to have patience. But but God hears, even if the answer doesn't come. Immediately, even if the answer doesn't come in this lifetime, God hears.

But eventually there will be.

Deliverance, you know, that came in the time of of Joshua, that great noise raised up at Jericho, contrasting those cries. And notice that it's it's with the shouts that the walls fall down, you know, we think the trumpets maybe made the walls fall down sometimes when we're recounting or remembering the story. But there was the trumpet, the shofar blast, and then there were the cries and then the walls fell down. So there's there's something important about this trumpet blast and cry together that led to the victory. Now, what about that trumpet blast? We didn't hear any trumpet blast in Exodus two.

Could that be pointing us back somewhere else in Exodus? When do we hear or read about the blast of the trumpet or the shofar in Hebrew early on? Well, wouldn't you know it? It fits into our pattern, but it happens to be in the middle. Now, let's look at. So we had remember we we were working backward in Exodus, we were working forward in Joshua. So now if we work our way in reverse, we go backwards in Joshua and forward in Exodus and we'll work our way to the middle. Reviewing our our different

elements of our chiasm, we started drones and cries. Then the shofar shouts. That's kind of where we ended because we were working our way outward. But if we work our way back to the middle. After shoes for the promise, after circumcision in the Passover feast, the children ask. And there's the sign. There's the water crossing the five word. The leader is exalted. There was preparation and separation for.

Sinai, Sinai is at the top. Of this chiasm, it's all leading to a pinnacle, a pinnacle of the presence of God being very.

Like visible and powerful. On Sinai and wouldn't you know it? There was a shofar blast at Sinai. So at Sinai, we're at the top of the mountain and the top of the the mountain of this chiasm as well. And there was that shofar, the sound of the shofar blast. We even we've read about it in the preparation text.

And but it doesn't mention a person blowing a shofar in Exodus 19 or 19. Where was that shofar blast coming from? It was coming from heaven. It was coming from God. Now, think about that. We're so in Exodus or starting in Joshua, we have. The shofar blast and then the cry. And then here in Exodus, we had the cry back in Exodus two.

And then we had the shofar blast in verse 19. And I think we're supposed to see them as connected. So here's the passage. Let's let's look at it. And we'll think about that connection in Exodus 19 verses 16 through 19. It says on the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast. So that all the people in the camp trembled. They trembled in awe. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln. And the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder. The Lord came down from on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up. So we have this just stunning picture of of God's mighty power and this this vision that the people would see of the mountain enveloped in smoke and the thunder and the chauffeur blast. And all of it made the people tremble, tremble in awe. And so why did God use this chauffeur blast here in

Exodus 19 at the pinnacle of the of the chiasm that we've been seeing, of that structure that's built into the biblical text that then is anchored by the groans and cries and the chauffeur and the shouts?

I believe that this was God's cry of response to the cry of the people. Like a parent consoling their child. I have this memory in my brain and I can't quite place it of maybe it was a nature documentary. I saw at one point of like this ocean animal, like a baby like separated from its mother and crying out, crying out, crying out. And then there's the response of the mom and they they get reunited. I don't I thought I was thinking it was like a Disney animation or something. But then maybe it's I couldn't seem to find anything that was like that. So maybe it was a nature documentary. I don't know. But I have this image and it makes me think of God's response. The cry of the chauffeur is like the response of of the father to the children. He hears their cries and he's responding. I hear you. I hear you. I heard your pain. And now I've delivered you out of Egypt. It's just a powerful, powerful image, I think. And and I think it's it's got some echoes to, you know, in Steve's class on Sunday on Sunday, he mentioned how there was the spirit of the Lord hovering, fluttering over the waters of creation like a mother bird with her emotional connection to her eggs that are about to hatch. That's that's kind of what God's spirit was was doing with this world. It was about to blossom and in life as a result of the creation. Well, here we are before the creation of a new nation. Remember those seven day, seven times, seven chauffeurs, all that seven imagery that was in Joshua. This is this is a new creation beginning. God's people, you know, out of Egypt, he's brought them over on dry ground and they're become a nation to bear fruit. There's all creation images. And God cares deeply for his new creation, just like he cared for the world through his spirit and that image of Genesis one verse two. So then think about that cry of the chauffeur expressing that empathetic cry of response that God had for his people, the sound of a chauffeur cry from heaven. Well, now in Joshua, we hear those same two things

repeated, but now it's the chauffeur cry, which should have brought the mind of the children of Israel back to back to Simon's and now they realized, yes, God did hear our cries. God did respond with the chauffeur blast with showing us that he heard our cries. And now we are going to raise our voices and cry in response and and shout the shouts of joy and shouts of victory now that we're here entering the land and God is fulfilling his promise. These are all the things that I think were meant to hear as we read these passages in light of this structure. And if you think I'm reading too much into it, I'd be glad to have that feedback. But maybe consider this as well, that I think a psalmist sees

these things as well. Psalm 81, that makes me think that now this isn't just an imagination thing.

Psalm 81, sing aloud to the God our strength, shout for joy to the God of Jacob, raise a song, the sound of the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp, blow the shofar at new moon. That is something that happens at the beginning of each Hebrew year, the feast of trumpets is at a new moon. And I think that's being brought into light. And actually the name, the Hebrew name for that is like the day of remembering the blast. That's, I think that is echoing us back to Sinai as well. That cry of God, empathetic cry of response that I've heard your cries. I know your sufferings and I'm delivering you at the full moon and our feast day. So the Rosh Hashanah begins what's called the days of awe that continue on to the Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. And then the Sukkot, the feast of tabernacles that begin like at that new moon time. So I think we have an image of these feast days that's being brought to mind. But we'll see more connections here as we continue. Verse four, for it is a statute for Israel. It's a rule from the God of Jacob. He made it a decree in Joseph when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a language I had not known. I relieved your shoulder of the burden. Your hands were freed from the basket. In distress, you called and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I think that's a picture of that event on Sinai. And after that, I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah. So I really think that we're meant to read these messages into these passages when we look at these passages in light of the structure that God has put here into his word. And there's power in knowing that we serve a God who cares. And I mentioned that this Rosh Hashanah, the feast of trumpets, is a day of looking back in memory of these events. And it's not just in awe, being in awe of these days of awe, or not just being in awe of God's mighty power, but being in awe of God's care and concern that God, this is the God who hears our cries and cares.

You know, there may be a time of waiting, as I mentioned. God had to raise Moses up, train him in the wilderness, and call him to his mission to save God's people before they were released. And we could be waiting, you know, too, at times for God's deliverance, and times we might have to wait till the resurrection for that deliverance. But we can be confident that we have a God who hears our cries and will deliver us. Now, I'm going to share with you a little personal story that connects to all this. Back when I was listening, I mentioned I listened to this podcast called A Book Like No Other. Our scripture is, indeed, a book like no other in the way that it's been put together by Almighty God. And I was listening that this was the culmination. A lot of the things that I'm sharing today were from a culmination of a season, maybe about five podcasts.

And I was driving down the road in a beautiful mountain valley in Vermont, and listening as Rabbi Foreman was kind of like making these connections between Jericho and the burning bush and Sinai. And it's all like coming together, and it's blowing my mind. And as I'm listening to this, as I'm driving down this river valley, out of a treetop, all of a sudden a bald eagle lights off from that branch and starts gliding and flying. And, you know, Brother Jim mentioned on Sunday when he was presiding that sometimes things can't be explained by natural reasons, but they show God's presence. I feel like this was one of those experiences because I didn't just see an eagle, you know, just kind of cross, go across my field of view on the road. I saw a bald eagle take off from a branch and soar ahead of me. And he kept going, and I kept following. I just had to slow down. I was going like 50 miles an hour. I slowed down to like 35, so I didn't overtake him. And I just was able to look up, look up, and just watch this magnificent bird. Gliding and soaring above me, about 30 feet above me. And as I'm watching this, as I'm listening to this, you know, these passages in the scripture come alive and coming to this culmination at Mount Sinai, and I'm watching this eagle and I'm realizing, you know, immediately comes to mind the verse, you know, I bore you on eagle's wings. And I realize that that verse is in the very passage that I'm having, like, erupt in my mind with significance. And I realize this, God is like convincing me, you know, in this experience that I am with you. I'm bearing you on eagle's wings. I'm going to be with you in life's struggles. And everything's going to be okay, even if there are times when it doesn't feel like it, even if there are times that are really difficult. It was just it was just amazing. I've never had an experience like that, where I just

tailing an eagle for a quarter of a mile. But that's what that's what happened. And it was like two days or day before Rosh Hashanah, the feast of trumpets, where all this, you know, gets commemorated and stuff. And so it was just amazing. So and then a week later, eight days later, I'm driving along the road on my way home on my road, and there was a great blue heron standing in the middle of the road. I've never seen that before on my road. I've seen bear and moose and foxes and, you know, different things, but porcupines, skunks, turkeys, but never a great blue heron just standing in the middle of the road. Then it just happened to be eight days after this other event with the eagle. I slow down, the great blue heron takes off, and he's gliding for a quarter of a mile. And I'm watching him until he lands on a tree branch that sure a tree branch next to a driveway that used to have this boat parked. I remember I think of this house because of they used to have a boat parked by the side of the road that was labeled Noah's Ark. It was weird. It was like, not the same as an eagle, but, you know, it's like this duplication of the sign in a way for emphasis. Anyway, so I share that with you as a personal experience that was happening as I was thinking about the subject of the class. And, you know, it's been very powerful to learn these things and to be able to share this with you. Share them with you. I hope they've been encouraging. I think of some of those thoughts that Ben was talking about in his exhortation last week about, you know, meditating on these despairing thoughts, like, why are they there? You know, he said, let's see, we feel regret from time to time, we feel lost and alone. But the objective reality is that if God were only a creator, but not a sustainer, if you're only a lawgiver, but not a redeemer, then we might stand in awe of him how great our God is. But maybe the sense of what he was saying was that, you know, we still wouldn't maybe, I don't know, feel connected. Ben's going to have to help me with this a little bit. I apologize. Should have talked with Ben about trying to just make sure I was getting your point there. But I feel like those thoughts of despair, like we're in Psalm 88, are there because God knows our sorrows. And he's letting us know it's okay to call out, to cry out to him from the pit. He hears our suffering. And the reality is because he is not just creator, but he is also sustainer and deliverer, that deliverance is coming. And we can stand in awe, in amazement of the fact that we have a creator, the creator of the universe, who doesn't just ignore us, because he has bigger things to worry about in some distant galaxy. He cares about us despite our insignificance in this immense, vast creation. We're still significant to him. And he still has compassion for us and how great that compassion is. Yeah, so I better close up. I want to share with you just in closing, give you an opportunity to just listen to, if I can make this work, the sound of the shofar and to think about this sound. And as you listen, I want you to take yourself back in your mind, to think about the time of slavery in Egypt, the cries of the people going up to God, to Sinai and being in awe of God's wordless, empathetic response as you feel that mountain quake, to Jericho, where the people hear the shofar cries and they in faith know that the God who heard their cries in Egypt knows and cares about their suffering now. And this is the God who is the God, the being with you God, who's among you now and bringing victory over your enemies as you shout cries of victory and watch the walls of Jericho fall. And think forward to a time when the last trumpet will sound and we'll see our Joshua who is showing us that Yahweh is with us as he was with Moses. And we can see clearly he's with the Lord Jesus and he's our Emmanuel, the one who reminds us that in the midst of our trials and sufferings that God is with us. Have in your mind this vision of

the time when he's coming down from heaven with the sound of a cry, the voice of the archangel and trumpet call and we see the walls of our enemy fall down when the grave gives up her captives and the dead in Christ arise to a new life and we're with the Lord forever. We see him, we see Jesus come to usher in a jubilee of release, the head of a new year, a new beginning of days, the days of awe when we'll be in awe of the wonder of God's presence and dwelling as God is with men.