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Cornerstone Church
Hosted by Robert Clark · EN
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Bitter-Sweet Providences
3d ago00:36:12Tap to summarizeWhen we left off, the Israelites were on top of the world. God had rescued them from certain death by parting the Red Sea, ushering them through, and drowning all their enemies. In celebration of this miraculous victory, they sang a song of salvation to their God. What a triumphant moment! If we were writing the story, many of us would have stopped it right there. The words "The End" would come up and the credits would roll. But, in God's story, that was not the ending. Instead, God's people went directly from this triumph into a trial, from this amazing high to a significant low. They soon discover that they are without their most basic necessity; there is no water. Once again, they are facing certain death, and once again, they are utterly dependent upon God to provide for them what they do not have. And once again, God will show Himself faithful. He will turn a bitter providence into a sweet one.
Transcribe →A Song of Salvation
2w ago00:39:05Tap to summarizeIn one quick and decisive act, God ushered His people from danger to safety, from death to life, and from slavery to freedom. Miraculously, He parted the Red Sea and brought the Israelites through on dry ground. Then, once the last Israelite was safely on the other side, and once the last Egyptians soldier had entered the Red Sea floor, he brought the waters back in upon them and drowned every one of them. The enemy was destroyed, the threat was eliminated, and the Israelites were relieved. They stood on the other side, looked over the dead bodies of their enemies, breathed a sigh of relief, and sang for joy. Exodus 15 contains Moses' song of deliverance whereby he led the people in singing praises to God for the great victory He had granted. It is a song of salvation, much like the ones we sing because of the great deliverance God has provided for us through Jesus.
Transcribe →God is Fighting For You
3w ago00:40:10Tap to summarizeGod is fighting for His people. They could not fight for themselves, and they could not free themselves. If they were to be rescued, it would have to be God's work, in God's way, and in God's time. He had already unleashed the 10 deadly plagues and had begun pursuading Pharaoh to let the people go. Now, He will lead them out of Egypt...but direcly into a trap. They will be penned in with mountains around them and the Red Sea before them and--once he changes his mind--with Pharaoh's army baring down on them. From a human perspective, it appeared to be a trap and a hopeless situation for Israel. They are like sitting ducks. Surely the Egyptians will massacre them. Thankfully, God will not allow that. He is up to something profound that requires challenges along the way, not just smooth sailing. At the perfect time, He steps in and miraculously parts the Red Sea so that His people may pass through to the other side safely. As for the Egyptians, they will continue in hot pursuit and once they all enter the passage way through the water, God will bring the water in on them, killing them all in an instant. God fought and won for His people. They were free! The same God fights for us today, in the deepest and best of ways. He has freed us not from some external enemy, but from the internal one. He has, through Jesus, freed us from sin. His death and resurrection enables us to pass from death to life, to go from separation from God to a relationship with Him. And in that relationship, we are free!
Transcribe →Jesus, Our Passover
Jun 2800:33:39Tap to summarizeGod has begun the work of setting His people free, by unleashing ten deadly plagues on the Egyptians. The tenth and final plague is the most devastating of all as God sends His angel of death to kill the first-born sons and animals of every household. There is only one way to avoid certain destruction: A spotless lamb must be killed and its blood applied to the doorway. For those households, the angel will pass-over and the people and animals will be spared. The lamb will have taken their place in death and saved their life. It is another awesome picture of Gospel truth, foreshadowing the coming of Jesus, the spotless lamb of God who "takes away the sin of the world" (1:29). Because He died for us, we are set free to live in the provisions of God.
Transcribe →Jesus, the One and Only
Jun 2100:51:33Tap to summarizeIn Luke 4:14–30, Jesus publicly reveals Himself as the Spirit-anointed Messiah promised by God through the prophets. As He announces the arrival of God's Kingdom, He offers forgiveness, freedom, healing, and restoration to those who recognize their need. Yet many who heard Him were impressed by His words without embracing Him as their Savior. This passage reminds us that Jesus is not merely a great teacher or one solution among many—He is the One and Only Savior who has come to reconcile us to God. The question is not whether Jesus is impressive, but whether we truly trust Him as our Savior
Transcribe →The God of Death and Life
Jun 1400:46:19Tap to summarizePharaoh has no intentions of letting the Israelites go. He will not cut them loose; he cannot let them be free. The status of his reputation and the advancement of his kingdom depend upon their slavery. If it were up to the Israelites, they would be stuck, completely incapable of liberating themselves. They have no resources and no strength to make their way out. God must intervene...And He will. In chapters 7 through 12, God begins the process of deliverance by unleashing 10 deadly plagues on the Egyptians. Through one miraculous plague after another, God shows His superiority to the gods of the Egyptians and His sovereignty over death and life. In no time, He turns Egypt into a barren wasteland. By these judgments and acts of power, God persuades Pharaoh to let His people go. As He ravages the Egyptians with death, He also preserves the lives of His people, protecting them and leading them out of slavery. Thousands of years later, He will send Jesus to bring about the ultimate exodus whereby we are brought from death to life through union with Him and His crucifixion and resurrection.
Transcribe →God's Saving Hand
Jun 700:43:49Tap to summarizeIn hearing that the Israelites wished to break from their labors in order to worship their God, Pharaoh was incensed. Rarther than granting them freedom, he turned up the heat even more. Not only would they need to keep fulfilling their quota of work, going forward they would also have to gather their own supplies. He wouldn't let them go; instead, he commanded them to "Work harder!" The desperate plight of the Israelites has only worsened. Under the tyranical hand of Pharaoh, their suffering is intensifying. And they are powerless, utterly powerless, to save themsleves. There is nothing they can do. They are dependant upon God. He is the only One who can set them free. Only God's liberating hand can overpower Pharaoh's enslaving hand. As we move from chapter 5 into chapters 6 and 7, God repeatedly reassures Moses that He will indeed, by His saving hand, set His people free. Israel may be no match for Pharaoh, but Pharaoh is no match for God. He will set His people free. He will not be stopped.
Transcribe →Showdown with Pharoah
May 3100:47:47Tap to summarizeThe eagerly anticipated time has come for a showdown with Pharaoh. In Exodus 5, Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh to request permission to go into the wilderness for a feast unto their God. He immediately denies their request. He does not know their God and He will not allow his work force to be depleted for the Israelite people to have a holiday. Not a chance! He won't allow them to rest; they must work! In fact, he assumes that their request is simply an excuse to be lazy, to cease their efforts, and to threaten his kingdom and his plans. So, not only will Pharaoh not let them go, he will also increase the demands on them. He will make the work harder. Adding insult to injury, going forward the Israelites will be required to gather the supplies for their building work in addition to doing the building work. Pharaoh is an actual historical figure, and he is also a type of Satan himself, and a type of the voice within each of us which says, "You must work for life!" While in the natural realm, it is true that we must work to accomplish anything in this world and to live, in the spiritual realm, such work is suicide. It is a deceptive denial of the living and loving God who gives life as a gift of grace, not as a wage earned. Sadly, we are all work-aholics who believe the lie that if we just work hard enough, we can please ourselves, prove ourselves, and protect ourselves. There are secular ways of going about it; and, there are religious ways of going about it. And, it is all deadly. It is heavy, burdensome, and enslaving. It sabotages any chance at real joy, or real peace, or real love for God and others.
Transcribe →Our Identity and Our God
May 2400:40:05Tap to summarizeAs Moses stands in the dust with God before the burning bush, he is vulnerable and exposed. In their interaction, God is revealing to Moses what he believes about himself, i.e. who he thinks he is, and what he believes about God, i.e. who he thinks God is. As the conversation proceeds, it becomes increasingly clear that Moses has some major misconceptions about Who God is and who he is. One of the many things God is up to is making more clear who He Himself really is, The Great I Am, and making more clear who Moses really is as one created by, loved by, and provided for by God.
Transcribe →I Am.....Your Deliverer
May 1700:41:02Tap to summarizeSince there is a God, nothing is more important than Who He is and What He is like. In this part of Exodus, He introduces Himself to Moses personally as the great "I Am." He is the true God, the living God, the everlasting God, the One who always has been and always will be. He is the God who loves His people and is committed to their freedom. As Moses stands vulnerable and exposed before Him at the burning bush, God reveals Himself with greatest clarity as the great "I Am" who has always been with and for His people and who has both the plan and the provisions to set His people free. He will execute His plan with perfection and to completion, in His way and time. Just as God worked in the lives of Moses and the Israelites, He works in our lives as well, showing us the desperation of our predicament and the sufficiency of His redemption. He shows us the various ways in which we are enslaved and He reveals Jesus as the One who alone can set free. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
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