The Exodus Way Part 5: Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him?

The Exodus Way Part 5: Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him?

In this podcast we spend time in the Exodus story asking a question that still sits behind much of everyday life, whether or not we notice it: "Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him?"

Pharaoh doesn't doubt God's existence. He questions God's right to rule. And everything that follows in Exodus 5–12 is God's response. These are not random acts of power, but a revelation of reality itself.

We see that the plagues are not just about showing Pharaoh God's power; they are also about defeating Egypt's gods and exposing the deeper assumptions Egypt lived by - assumptions that didn't feel like "religion" at all but felt instead just how the world worked:

•  Life comes from the Nile.
•  Security comes from power.
•  Stability comes from control.
•  Worth comes from success.

God doesn't debate those assumptions. He shows that they cannot be trusted and that He alone is Lord.

That's what brings the Exodus story uncomfortably close to home. Most of us don't bow down to false gods. We simply assume them. We assume money will keep us safe. That control will keep us steady. That comfort will make life good. That success proves our worth. And most of the time, those assumptions work… until pressure comes.

Exodus shows us that when false gods are asked to save us, they don't just fail, they enslave. Anxiety rises. Rest disappears. Fear takes over. And when those "realities" start to collapse, people either harden like Pharaoh or begin, slowly and imperfectly, to trust God again.

The gospel doesn't just expose what can't save us, it replaces it. Where false gods collapse under pressure, Jesus carries the weight. And He carries us with Him.

Reflection:

• In the plagues, God exposes the things Egypt trusted to give life and stability. As you look at your own life, what things have you tended to rely on to keep everything "working"?
• When something you rely on feels shaken, what usually happens next for you? Do you find yourself anxious, defensive, or more open to trusting God? What might that reveal about where your security has been coming from?
• Can you think of a time when something that felt solid in your life failed, but God proved more faithful than you expected? How did that experience shape your view of Him?
• The plagues expose what can't give life, but they also point toward the freedom God is offering. As you reflect on your own life, you might be aware of something that isn't quite right — perhaps there's fear, control, or the need to keep everything together. Instead of stopping there, can you imagine what freedom might look like in that area if God were at work?
• What might it look like this week to respond like Israel rather than Pharaoh: not hardening your heart, but loosening your grip and choosing trust, even in a small way?

If you find what Dean has said interesting and have a question, please use the 'Ask Dean' link to get it to us as we will try to put together a Q and R podcast in due course. Thank you for your support and for listening in!

You can see past sermons on the Leominster Baptist Church website at https://www.youtube.com/@leobc2402/streams and can contact us directly with your feedback or queries through the Ask Dean a Question link at the top of the episode description text.

Leominster Baptist Church can be found on Etnam Street in Leominster, Herefordshire. To find out more about us, visit our website leobc.co.uk. If you would like to speak to someone about anything that you have heard on our podcasts please give us a call and ask for a chat.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

In this podcast, we spend time in the Exodus story asking a question that still sits behind much of everyday life, whether or not we notice it. Who is the Lord that I should obey him? Pharaoh doesn't doubt God's existence. He questions God's right to rule. And everything that follows in Exodus 5-12 is God's response. These are not random acts of power, but a revelation of reality itself. We see that the plagues are not just about showing Pharaoh God's power. They are also about defeating Egypt's gods and exposing the deep assumptions Egypt lived by. Assumptions that didn't feel like religion at all, but felt instead just how the world worked. Life comes from the Nile, doesn't it? Security comes from power. Stability comes from control. And worth comes from success. God doesn't debate those assumptions. He shows that they cannot be trusted, that he alone is lord. And that's what brings the Exodus story uncomfortably close to home. Most of us don't bow down to false gods. We simply assume them. We assume money will keep us safe, that control will keep us steady, that comfort will make life good, that success proves our worth. And most of the time, those assumptions work until pressure comes. Exodus shows us that when false gods are asked to save us, they don't just fail. They enslave. Anxiety rises, rest disappears, fear takes over, and when those realities start to collapse, people either harden like Pharaoh or begin slowly and imperfectly to trust God again. The gospel doesn't just expose what can't save us, it replaces it. Where false gods collapse under pressure, Jesus carries the weight, and he carries us with him. Let's dive into Exodus.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

So just to catch us up to where we are, last week in the Exodus story, we saw Moses comes to Pharaoh and delivers the message from God, you need to set my people free. And God's Pharaoh's response sorry is no. No, and in fact, I'm going to make things harder for them. I'm going to double down, they're going to be oppressed. Yesterday we watched the film. There's a film called The Prince of Egypt made by DreamWorks. If you haven't seen it, if you haven't seen it, go see it. It's actually a faithful rendering. It says at the start, obviously, it's a film, so things are added in, but it's a quite a faithful rendering for a popular film that was um well publicised at the time. Uh and the imagery of it actually for a cartoon, it's sort of beautiful. It's like those old Disney films, the sort of scenery and things like that. So there you go, your homework for this week. Go watch the Prince of Egypt, it's got some good songs in it as well to get along with it. But yeah, it is a beautiful story. But it captures all of this, and then this idea that they go to Pharaoh. Um in the film, they sort of play it off as Pharaoh being knowing more of Moses and being have grown up with him and seen him and being the son of the previous Pharaoh. So interesting dynamic there. Um, but they come to Pharaoh and he says no and doubles down, and so the people turn on Moses. And Moses the last week we saw that God comes to him with this promise. I am, and I have, and I will. I am the great I am, and I have proved my faithfulness in the past, and I will set my people free. I will do this work, and so we're gonna come to the work that God does, the plagues. Very well known. If you're familiar with the Bible or even unfamiliar, you will know of either the idea, the concept, the ten plagues uh that Egypt suffer before God's people are set free. And and we're gonna just try and dig a bit deeper into them because on the surface it seems like what happens is Pharaoh says no, so God hits Pharaoh until he says yes. And that's sometimes how it's portrayed: that God just keeps doing things to Pharaoh in Egypt, keeps hurting them, keeps hurting them, keeps making them suffer until they finally relent and let them go. And then, if you know the story changes his mind. But we're gonna see that actually there is more going on here, and the original readers, the original writers were trying to tell us more than simply God got angry, beat up Pharaoh, and then Pharaoh let them go. Um, that's that's one way to characterize it, but it's certainly there is a deeper revelation, I think, going on. Because God is not only about rescuing Israel from slavery, that's certainly his intent and his goal, but he is also exposing something. He is showing them something. You see, Israel are going to come out of Egypt, but as the famous saying goes, it takes a while to get Egypt out of Israel. You see, they've grown up with a reality. They've grown up with simply Egypt is the way it is. And Egypt at that time that there were gods, but it's it's it's hard to get across in our culture because we have religions, but we also have kind of secular life. So you have ordinary life and then you have these little pockets of religion. So there's sort of a church here and a mosque here and a synagogue here, and all these little pockets of religion that are all around us, but they're separated from everyday life. And in ancient Egypt, that wasn't the case. You had temples and you had shrines and things, but the the gods were woven into every single thing that you did. Gods were woven into the cattle that you raised and the harvest that you harvested and the water that you drank and the houses that you lived in and the babies that you had. Gods were woven into every single bit of everyday life. They were part of the fabric, part of what you saw and breathed. You didn't say, I believe in this God. You you God just that these gods just were. It wasn't like I believe in this god, but I don't believe in that god. Gods were just a fact of life. And they were in every single part of everything that you did. And so is the Israelites have grown up in this culture. The reason there are slaves is because there are gods of the slaves. The reason that they they drink this water is because there's a god of water. The reason that anything happens, the sun shines and the moon shines is because there is a God who's making it happen. And so they have this worldview, this idea of how things are, and the plagues are God addressing not just Pharaoh and setting him free, although that is a part of it, but he's also revealing something else. He's unpicking a way of seeing the world that they've had ingrained in them for year after year after year. And he's going to show Israel and show Egypt who it is that gives life, who it is that rules, who it is that really holds the world together. And so we start with a question that Pharaoh has that we saw last week. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what the Lord God of Israel says, let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to meet in the wilderness. And Pharaoh responds, Who is the Lord? Who is this Yahweh that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, I do not know Yahweh, and I will not let Israel go. I know all the gods. Pharaoh was God of the gods. I know the gods, I know their role, I know what they do in life, but Yahweh never heard of him. He has no authority here, he has no say in this. We've got Ra, he controls the sun, we've got Happy, he controls the Nile, we've got Apis and Hathor, they control our cattle, we've got Seth, the god of the storms, we've got Nut and Shu, the god of the air and the sky, we've got Imatep, the god of healing, we've got Geb the god of earth, Kerpi, the god of insects, we've got Heket, the god of fertility, we've got all these gods, but Yahweh, there's no place for him here. We're covered, thank you very much. We have all the gods we need, everything's under control. They do their job, I do my job, and everything is working. The slaves are doing their job because we've got gods of them too. We do not need Yahweh, he has no authority here. And so they go away. And God then comes to show Pharaoh not just that he should do what he God says, but to show him that his way of seeing the world, all that he understood is false, that he has a worldview that doesn't relate to reality. Who is the Lord? It's not a question of whether he exists or not, he doesn't care if Yahweh exists, but this God has no authority here. He doesn't rule here. But when God's word comes, he shows him that his word is greater. When God shows his rule, he shows that his rule is stronger. And when he reveals, he shows him that his will does matter more than any other God. When we see it like that, we suddenly realize that Pharaoh is a bit more of a relatable character. The voice that often sits behind so many of our choices is there may be a God, but he doesn't get to tell me what to do. There may be a God out there, but he has no say in this part of my life. Even those of us who call ourselves believers, followers of Jesus, that God is ruling, but I keep this little bit for myself. I keep this little area just just for me. He doesn't need to have any say here. He has no authority. And God often allows things, or as we're gonna see, will will gently and sometimes forcefully show us that doesn't work. Not because he's he's he's jealous, although God is described as a jealous God, but that's uh that he loves us and and wants us to know him. His jealousy is not vengeful, it's not not petty, it's you were made for a certain kind of life. And when you build your life on something else, it not only keeps it from me, that's not not God isn't concerned about that, but what it does is it destroys you. When you hold on to something and you think this is just this is my thing, actually the result of it, you as we're going to see, is death. And so God answers Pharaoh. The plagues are God's answer to Pharaoh. So the first plague, if you know it, is who knows the first plague? It's the Nile turning into blood. So Moses comes and he sees Pharaoh, and he it says in chapter 7, it says, The Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is unyielding, he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river, confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. Then say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say to you, Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. This is what the Lord says, By this you will know that I am the Lord. Who is the Lord? This Pharaoh's question. By this you will know I am the Lord. This is what the Lord says, by this you will know I am the Lord. With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish of the Nile will die, and the river will stink, the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water. The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron, take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs, and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone. Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt. But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard. He would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. Instead he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even his even this to his heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river. And then it says, Seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile. So God's first wonder that he performs is turning the Nile into blood. He then addresses the others, and so there are different things that he does. He sends frogs to cover the land, he turns the dust into gnats that they cover the land, swarms of flies cover the land, their livestock die, their skin, their bodies become covered in boils, there's hail from the skies, locusts swarm across the land, then there is darkness, and then the death of the firstborn, which we're gonna come on to on its own topic next week. But each of these they attack something, but they're attacking different gods at the same time. See, there is a God of the Nile, the God Happy. It's a nice name, isn't it? Happy the God of the Nile. And if you honor the God happy, then he'll make you happy. He'll give you what you want, he'll give you life, he'll give you goodness, it will nourish you and sustain you. And what happens is when the Nile was turned to blood, not only is something taken away from the people, but they are shown that happy doesn't have much say here. When the God of the Hebrew shows up, happy has no influence. In fact, when when happy is allowed to do what he he does, all you end up with is blood. See, in Egypt, there are gods, or we call them false gods. Now, there are two things in the Bible. There's idolatry, which is when we choose something to worship, and it could be a false god, but here we've got false gods, and these don't necessarily they're not necessarily chosen, they're just part of the reality. There are things that just that they're just assumed that this is how it is. Happy makes the water good, Hepet controls the frogs and is in charge of fertility. Uh, Geb is the god of the earth. All these gods, they're just they just are, and they're just things that are just they're carved into stone, they're just the way things are, and nothing will ever change. And false gods are one of the things that God wants to free us from. He wants to free us from our sin, the choices we make and the habits we formed and the actions we take. He wants to free us from death. The fact that we cannot find life in itself, but he also wants to free us from powers that hold us in check, powers that stand above us, that tell us this is the way things are and you are stuck. It's what we call slavery. That we, either through choice, but more often not, just because of the systems we're we're brought up in, the lives that we live, there are powers over us that tell us this is the way things are and nothing will ever change. Now, for us, they don't sound like happy or heket or gep or any of the other names of the gods. But to us they may sound something like this is how powerful people win by having power. You have to protect yourself because there is no one looking out for you. Money is what will keep you safe. Comfort is the goal of life. Success proves your worth. Things that they just when you say them, they just say, yep, that's right. That's the way it is, that's how it is, that's the way things work. These are false gods. They are things that are over us, that tell us this is the way things are, and so we obey them, we fear them, we sometimes even protect them. But when they get exposed, we realize that they are not the truth, they are not the foundation that the world is built on. And God is not just challenging beliefs, he's challenging what the Egyptians think is non-negotiable. He's challenging the thing that lies behind them. And so when he turns the Nile into blood, he is saying, Happy is no God here. You've offered sacrifice to him, you've given things to him, you you live in fear of what he will do to you, but he has no say in this place. I am the God of the Nile. Then the frogs come and they cover the land. And this God Hekat, he actually has a frog head. If you see a picture of him, he's he's the god of the frogs and fertility. And here he's showing, look, Heket has no control over the frogs, he can't stop them. And so Pharaoh sort of at this point starts to cotton on and he says, Well, can you pray for your God to take them away? And so Moses prays, and the the frogs go, but he doesn't quite take it to heart. And so he turns again and says, I'm still not going to let your people go. So then you get the gnats from the dust, and they take over. And there's a God of the earth, the dust of the earth, and he can do nothing here, and he is exposed. He is powerless before the God of the Hebrews. So again they say, Well, go to the God of the Hebrews and pray to him that he will stop it, and God stops it. Then the flies. And again, the same pattern. The God of the insects can do nothing to stop this. So they go to the God of the Hebrews, would you stop this? And he stops it, and then they say no again. And at this point, God stops giving them another chance. He stops answering their prayers when they cry out to him. And so the livestock die. And the boils come and the hail falls and the locusts come, and darkness covers the land, and each of them are showing something. Your God of the livestock, they have no control here. The God of healing, Imotep, he has no say here. The God of the skies, I am the God of the skies, my throne is in heaven. The God of chaos, Seth, who looks like a locust, he has no say here. The God Ra, the sun god, one of the greatest gods, I can turn him off. And God is gradually dismantling their worldview to show them all these things that have controlled you. All these things that Pharaoh have given you so much power, given you so much control, given you the ability to subjugate and oppress and take people into slavery. All these gods that have given you authority and legitimated your rule and reign, they are nothing before me. I am the God of all these things. The plagues are often read, as I said, of God flexing his muscles. Look how good I am, showing them who's boss. And there is a part of that, but there's also something deeper. The plagues are also showing what happens when God is rejected. There's a little line after the Nile turned into blood, and it says there are then seven days rest. Seven days, but seven days after that anything else happened. It's a really odd line, and scholars try to work out why did we get that? There's no other timeline in the Bible, there's no other spacing. And they wonder if actually it's a little clue from the writer that we should be thinking in a different way. Seven days, obviously, it appears in the creation story. And what God is doing here is each thing is an act of uncreation. It's letting things return to the chaos from which they started. So if you don't know, in Genesis it starts not with a good world, it says it starts with chaos. Chaotic waters, wilderness and wildness, everything out of form, out of shape, and God brings order and beauty and creativity and wonderful things out of the chaos. And God then holds it all together. He sustains it. God's power is seen every single day. I don't think God needs to send these things to show his power. His power is seen every single day when the earth rotates again, when the moon stays in its place, when the plants grow, when the trees shed their leaves, where the whole of the universe sustained and held together. Every particle doesn't fly off, and even scientists don't know why that doesn't happen. That things should be spinning all over the place, that we shouldn't be where we are, that things are so wonderfully held together every day. We see his power. And here with the Egyptians, God says, here's what happens when I stand back. When I don't hold the Nile together, it becomes a stinking mess of death and destruction. When I don't hold back the frogs, they take over everything. They're in your bread bin, they're in your toaster that you can't get rid of, they take over the world. When I don't hold back the gnats of the earth, they swarm and they fly around. When I don't hold back the flies, they dominate. Have you ever been in the city? We had it in Naomi's parents' house in France, the farmer had these goats that stunk. And you'd be sat there by the pool when you're like, smacking yourself a little, trying to get rid of these flies. Imagine covering everything. When I do not sustain the life of your cattle, this is what happens. When I don't give you the healing and wholeness in your body, this is what happens. When I don't hold back the skies, this is what happens. When I don't hold back the locusts that eat your crops, this is what happens. When I don't tell the sun to turn on, this is what happens. And what God is showing is that when he withdraws, when he doesn't hold things together, the world returns to chaos. The world falls apart. See, God's power is not necessarily in the things that happen. God's power seen is that when he doesn't hold it, when he doesn't do his thing, everything descends into chaos. The plagues are not God being cruel, they are God being honest. They reveal that without the Lord, the world does not drift towards life. Without his good hand holding it, we descend into chaos. And judgment isn't always enough in the Bible, it's not described as God losing control or losing his temple, temper. The most common phrase in the Bible for God's judgment is handing over. You want life without God? Here it is. Even your water stinks, even your crops don't grow, your animals don't live, your sun doesn't shine, you are handed over to that choice, you're handed over to the disorder, you're handed over to the false gods that can do nothing for you. You're handed over to your choice to separate yourself from God. He hands them over. And each of the plagues can be seen as God handing them over. You're handed over to this, you're handed over to this, and by themselves, the world falls apart. It crumbles around them. See, this is what the false gods do. All these things that we we just assume are the way they are, things that happen as they happen, if God were to withdraw, they would fall apart. And what happens is when that happens, people get angry. So the clearest example we had a few years ago, financial crash. Things went wrong, banks couldn't support themselves, had to be bailed out, everything falls into chaos, and suddenly people get angry. Because I'd invested money and I'd saved money and I'd built up this, and now that's been taken from me. And suddenly we realize this thing that we'd all trusted, we hadn't realized it, we hadn't really even chosen it. It was just a state of affairs, it's how it was. Money was our security, and then that false God got shown to be not very secure, and we all panic. And for a moment, perhaps we realize, but then perhaps like Pharaoh, we turn back to it. As soon as it got good again, we return to it. Pressure reveals what we worship. And God here is exposing the powers. Exposing these things that we think are firm, but they are not. Not to hurt us, not to not to drive us to insanity, but to show us you cannot put your trust in these things. They are not Yahweh. They are not in control. They cannot deliver what they promise. In fact, they can only deliver death. But I have come that you can trust me. I have come because I am the one who does hold all things together. I'm the one who keeps the world spinning. I'm the one who provides. I'm the one who sustains. I'm the one who is for you. And the whole of the plagues are God exposing these powers and showing them for what they are. They cannot do what they promise. Exodus is a local thing. It's situated in Egypt. But if we fast forward to the cross, we get similar language. At the cross, we're told that the false gods are given their chance. Jesus puts it like this: He says, This is your hour when darkness reigns. When Jesus goes to the cross, the false gods are given their chance to prove themselves. Jesus is, in the language of the Bible, handed over. He's handed over to them, and they do their worst. Power finally gets to decide what is right. The strong get their way, the rich get away with things. Control exerts its power, the lies block out the truth. Comfort and keeping peace is equaled with happiness. And these false gods are allowed to do to Jesus all that they want. And in that case, the innocent get persecuted, the righteous gets punished, beauty is spat on, and the author of life is subjected to death. See, in the Exodus story, Egypt is handed over to their gods. At the cross, Jesus is handed over. He's handed over to the false powers. And so you get the same language, the language of uncreation. There is darkness at noon, the earth shakes, the creation convulses. All these things take place, that imagery returns, and judgment falls not on the oppressor, but it falls on the Son of God. And he absorbs the chaos. So there's a verse that summarizes this. It says, When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ, death to life. He forgave us all our trespasses, cancelling the dead ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us, he's forgiven you. But here's the bit we don't miss, and it's the bit the Exodus story seems to major on. Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. The powers and the authorities, the false gods, were exposed on the cross. Because at the cross, the powers of this world, whether we give them a name or not, in Egypt it was easy because everything had a name, but in our day, perhaps we didn't have names for them, we just have power and authorities and finances and political entities. We have these sort of things. At the cross, they all do their best, and it results in violence and shame and fear and death. And that verse says, in that they are exposing themselves, they're being shown for what they are. All the things that we trust in can only kill. They cannot create life. And Jesus exposes them. He exposes the lie that power is the best way. If you've got power, use it to force others to bend to your will. At the cross, Jesus exposes that. Because when it got to do what it wanted, it killed the author of life. The false God that says, if you can get away with it, then get away with it. On the cross, it is shown that that kind of thinking leads you to greater shame and guilt. Jesus exposes these powers. Power kills. And Jesus comes to lay down his life. Control dominates, but Jesus reigns through surrender. Comfort avoids suffering, and Jesus enters into it. He comes to show us there is a better way. The gospel exposes those gods and triumphs over them. It says these things are not the foundation of the world. I wonder just if with Mary's question, sorry, Pharaoh's question, who is Yahweh? I just wonder are there things that perhaps you have assumed? Because we don't tend to think about false gods in our time. Kind of is either a god or no god, those are our options. But I have no doubt that there are powers and principalities. There are ways of thinking that we just assume are true, and in the end they lead to death. Money is what keeps us safe, control is what keeps us steady. These things, they are false gods. And they control people and they subject people to slavery. They keep people trapped. And just as God does with Pharaoh, he wants to expose them for the lie that they are. And there are two reactions, I guess. There's the reaction of hardness. Pharaoh hardens his heart when these things are challenged. When God shows you, you know, that thing isn't your security. You know your pension, you know that that isn't your security. You know that you've paid off your mortgage, you know that that isn't your safe place. You know your health, you know that that can turn, you know these things aren't, you can't build your life on these things. And when we're challenged, we can harden our hearts. No, they are my security. I've worked hard for this. No, this is, I am going to keep myself healthy and nothing's going to happen to me. No, I will keep this thing and I will make this happen and I will and I will. And that hardness of heart that says, no, I will. Which is what Pharaoh does. It's interesting because it says Pharaoh hardens his heart, and then it says God hardens Pharaoh's heart. And I often thought that meant that God sort of flicked a switch and hit Pharaoh and then hit him again and blamed him for it. But I think what it means is God, how did God harden his heart? By confronting it. There's an old saying that says, the sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. That God confronts it, and your choice is either to be hardened or to be humbled. To realize you're right. All these things I've built my life on, all these things that our whole culture says, build your life on, they aren't actually very secure. And when we get this, when we hear wars and rumors of war, when we see the fragility, suddenly for years we've just been secure. And we've worn our poppies each year, and we've reminded ourselves nothing bad's ever going to happen again because we remember how bad it was last time, and suddenly we see, wow, that's really not as secure as we thought it was. That way of thinking isn't as as robust as we thought. Or again, our finances, this is secure, and then suddenly there's a big dip, and you go, Whoa, that savings, all that money, that it wasn't as secure as I thought it was. And all these things they get exposed, and our response is either to harden ourselves, double down, make ourselves grab on, cling on, make it work, sacrifice to the false gods, give them what they want so you can get what you need in return, or which Fairy never arrives at, or to be humbled. Say, God, this world, as Hebrews puts it, this world is built on cities with cracking foundations. But if you are a solid rock, then I want to build my life on you. God, I never realized it, but everything I have is really fragile. Everything that other I think is so secure is actually not. It's American, wasn't it? Um, secondary school, that her, you just heard that her dad suddenly passed away. An aneurysm was there one day, missed a phone call from them the next, and they went to see him and he passed away. And again, you're reminded, this life is so fragile. Health is so fragile. These things are so fragile, and while we spend so much time investing in them, this world is so fragile. And there are times when when they're shown for what they are. There are times I believe that God wants us to see them for what they are. So that while they are good gifts and wonderful blessings, they are awful foundations. And God would invite all of us. See, He doesn't do this to Pharaoh to hurt him, he does this to say, look, your world is crumbling. Not your own fault, but it's built on a foundation that could never sustain it. It was never meant to be built on these things. It was meant to be built on something else. And so when Jesus comes, he announces the kingdom of God is here. A kingdom that is built on something solid, a kingdom that does not crack or fragile is fragile, a kingdom that cannot be broken by this world because it's not of this world, a kingdom that is greater, and you're invited to build your life on it. Pharaoh, as you will see, hardens his heart again and again and again and again until he can no longer see the goodness of what God is offering. He can only see a God who's taken away what mattered most to him. When instead what God's trying to show him is you could never build your life on this. It was never going to provide. Look what it does. When it's left to itself, it just brings ruin to you. When it's left to yourself, it just brings anxious thoughts and desperate pleas and forced labor to work and work and work to sustain it. But I've come to be something firmer. Who is the Lord? That's Pharaoh's question. And if he had eyes to see and a heart receptive to hear, perhaps he would have noticed the Lord is the foundation of heaven and earth. He is a rock on which we can stand. As Jesus puts it, we tell our kids it, but we should tell ourselves it as well. That if you build your life on sand, the storms will come, the water will rise, and it will fall. If you build your life on rock, storms will still come, floods will still come, but you will stand firm. The question is, what are our foundations? At the cross, all the other foundations are exposed. All the other powers they they cannot provide, they only lead to death. But God has come to be a solid foundation. Today this may confront you, it may challenge you. And like Pharaoh, there are there are those two options. You can be hardened, you can double down, you've got good stuff, you're in a culture that tells you you've got enough, you're good, don't worry about anything else. Or maybe you say, these are wonderful gifts, God, but I realize in my own heart that I've made good gifts into bad foundations. And it's a simple shift. God, would you would you be my foundation? Would you be my rock? Would you be? Sorry, that's God calling. Would you be the one that I can stand on? Would you be the one that can hold me and keep me? Because I could lose a lot in this world. So much can be taken from me, but but you, you are forever. Let's just come to God, shall we, with our hearts? We do that, we do we come with our hearts because it's our hearts that need to be touched by you. It's our hearts that run after false gods, it's our hearts that believe that we are we are the masters of our own destiny. Like Pharaoh, no one tells us what to do. We're in control. We don't need anything else because we can hold things together. That we've organized and worked hard and structured our life in such a way that we we don't need anyone else. And this lie this lie brings such ruin to so many. When suddenly the things that were secure are exposed. When our health that was so good is suddenly taken. Where our resources that were so abundant suddenly are stripped bare. Where our our our the culture and our climate that seemed to be so steady suddenly seems very shaky. And we realize that we've put our trust in something other than God. We've relied on things that can never be relied on. And so this is a challenge, God, because it's it's our daily life. It's the way we spend our money, the way we use our time, it's the way we think about ourselves and what we do. But Father, would you would you help help us to be humbled? That we are so frail. We are like little children. And the world is like a big storm tossing us back and forth. So much can so easily be taken, and and we go along blissfully ignorant of how fragile things are, but sometimes it comes home. Sometimes we see it and it hits us. And in those moments, Lord, help us not to harden ourselves further, but to humble ourselves and say, I have no good thing but you, God. That all this is is steady, unsteady, and shaky, but you are rock solid. So much comes and goes and changes in a moment, but you, God, are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we say, would you help us, Lord, to put our trust in you? To lean on you. To recognize that we were not made for this world. We were made for a world that we long for. A world where foundations don't crack and systems don't fall apart, and powers don't destroy and corrupt. You said we were made for that world, Jesus, and you came to announce that that world is coming. For your death and resurrection, that world is coming. The old is going and the new is coming. And so we pray as you taught us to Jesus, your kingdom come, your will be done, here on earth as in heaven. And we look forward to that city whose foundations are unshakable. A city that is rock solid, for you are its cornerstone. You hold it together. Lead us, Lord. Where there is hardness, would you soften our hearts? Where we are clinging tightly, would you loosen our grip and allow us to take hold of what you offer?

SPEAKER_02 37:01

We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's thoughts today. If anything that he has said has challenged you or raised questions that you'd like answers to, please don't hesitate to contact us and ask for a chat. You can find our details on our website, which is eobc.co.uk, as well as on the information that we have posted for this podcast. Alternatively, if you live in our area, you're very welcome to join us on Sunday morning at 10 30 to hold things firsthand. We'd love to see you there.