Dear Lord, we Praise You tonight. We come
before you and ask for a
good study of Your Word. You Provide,
and we thank You for that. Thank
You for who You are and what You are doing
and are going to do. Touch
us deeply, Lord, let us see more of Your
Glory. In Jesus' Mighty Name,
Amen.
Provide -> Pro = before, in advance;
Vide = from Latin videre, to see.
So, basically...Provide comes from the
basis of 'seeing in advance'.
Tonight we will be discussing how He provided
for Moses and Abraham in
the past and how the Lord has provided
and provides for us today.
I. Red Sea Parting - the Lord Provides
for Moses
First off, you all probably have heard
about the story of the Parting of
the Red Sea before at some point in your
life. :)
Because Pharaoh kept holding the Israelites
captive and didn't let them
go, the Lord put a final plague upon Egypt,
where a family's firstborn
son would be killed if the family didn't
have the blood of the Passover
lamb upon the top and sides of the outside
door.
Pharaoh, after losing his son to the plague,
finally told Moses that his
people could be free, FINALLY - after
all the years of bondage they had
suffered.
Exodus 13:21-22: "21 And the LORD went
before them by day in a pillar of
a cloud, to lead them the way; and by
night in a pillar of fire, to give
them light; to go by day and night: 22
He took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire
by night, from before the
people."
So, they were led by the Lord - in a pillar
of cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night.
Exodus 14:4-6: "4 And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart, that he shall
follow after them; and I will be honoured
upon Pharaoh, and upon all his
host; that the Egyptians may know that
I am the LORD. And they did so. 5
And it was told the king of Egypt that
the people fled: and the heart of
Pharaoh and of his servants was turned
against the people, and they
said, Why have we done this, that we have
let Israel go from serving us?
6 And he made ready his chariot, and took
his people with him:"
The Lord said that he would harden Pharaoh's
heart, and He did, and it
ended up for His Glory. Pharaoh, after
telling Moses that he could be
free with his people (the Israelites),
Pharaoh changes his mind and gets
ready to take them prisoner again.
Exodus 14:10-12: "10 And when Pharaoh drew
nigh, the children of Israel
lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the
Egyptians marched after them; and
they were sore afraid: and the children
of Israel cried out unto the
LORD. 11 And they said unto Moses, Because
there were no graves in
Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die
in the wilderness? wherefore hast
thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth
out of Egypt? 12 Is not this
the word that we did tell thee in Egypt,
saying, Let us alone, that we
may serve the Egyptians? For it had been
better for us to serve the
Egyptians, than that we should die in
the wilderness."
The Israelites panicked when they saw the
Egyptians coming, so what does
Moses do? Does he freak out like a chicken
with its head cut off?
NOPE!
He keeps his cool
He stays in school!
well......maybe not the school part.
Exodus 14:13-14: "13 And Moses said unto
the people, Fear ye not, stand
still, and see the salvation of the LORD,
which he will shew to you to
day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen
to day, ye shall see them again
no more for ever. 14 The LORD shall fight
for you, and ye shall hold
your peace."
He had total faith and trust in God's Protection
in this situation.
Exodus 14:15-20: "15 And the LORD said
unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou
unto me? speak unto the children of Israel,
that they go forward: 16 But
lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out
thine hand over the sea, and
divide it: and the children of Israel
shall go on dry ground through the
midst of the sea. 17 And I, behold, I
will harden the hearts of the
Egyptians, and they shall follow them:
and I will get me honour upon
Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his
chariots, and upon his
horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know
that I am the LORD, when I
have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon
his chariots, and upon his
horsemen. 19 And the angel of God, which
went before the camp of Israel,
removed and went behind them; and the
pillar of the cloud went from
before their face, and stood behind them:
20 And it came between the
camp of the Egyptians and the camp of
Israel; and it was a cloud and
darkness to them, but it gave light by
night to these: so that the one
came not near the other all the night."
The Lord tells Moses what to do in verse
16 - to lift up his rod and
stretch his hand over the sea, and divide
it. Simple enough, eh?
However, it takes a TON of faith to do
that. In verse 21, that's
exactly what Moses did.
Exodus 14:21: "21 And Moses stretched out
his hand over the sea; and the
LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong
east wind all that night, and
made the sea dry land, and the waters
were divided."
There was a wall of water to their left
and right, and dry ground right
in front of them. Pharaoh then, with his
Egyptians, went in after them.
All their horses & chariots were with
them, too.
In verse 24, we see that the Lord looks
at the Egyptians through the
pillar of fire and cloud, and we see in
verse 25 that the Egyptians are
terrified and want to turn back...
Exodus 14:24-25: "24 And it came to pass,
that in the morning watch the
LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of fire
and of the cloud, and troubled the host
of the Egyptians, 25 And took
off their chariot wheels, that they drave
them heavily: so that the
Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face
of Israel; for the LORD
fighteth for them against the Egyptians."
God then tells Moses what to do again,
and Moses obeys fully...
Exodus 14:26-28 - "26 And the LORD said
unto Moses, Stretch out thine
hand over the sea, that the waters may
come again upon the Egyptians,
upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
27 And Moses stretched
forth his hand over the sea, and the sea
returned to his strength when
the morning appeared; and the Egyptians
fled against it; and the LORD
overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of
the sea. 28 And the waters
returned, and covered the chariots, and
the horsemen, and all the host
of Pharaoh that came into the sea after
them; there remained not so much
as one of them."
The Israelites were fine, though. Unscathed,
untouched, not drowned (I
would say undrowned, but that ain't a
word).
Exodus 14:29-31: "29 But the children of
Israel walked upon dry land in
the midst of the sea; and the waters were
a wall unto them on their
right hand, and on their left. 30 Thus
the LORD saved Israel that day
out of the hand of the Egyptians; and
Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon
the sea shore. 31 And Israel saw that
great work which the LORD did upon
the Egyptians: and the people feared the
LORD, and believed the LORD,
and his servant Moses."
What does this 'feared the LORD' mean?
To fear the Lord doesn't mean to
be 'afraid' of the Lord, but to revere
Him, be in awe of Him, and in
result, be obedient to Him in your actions.
Proverbs 14:26-27 tell about what the fear
of the Lord carries with it:
"26 In the fear of the LORD is strong
confidence: and his children shall
have a place of refuge. 27 The fear of
the LORD is a fountain of life,
to depart from the snares of death."
II. Jehovah (YHVH) Jireh - the Lord
our Provider
Abraham was a great man of faith, and he
followed after the Lord.
There was one time where the Lord tested
him to really make sure Abraham
was obedient to Him.
The Lord told Abraham to go up to Mount
Moriah and sacrifice his son
Isaac. Genesis 22 is our text. Abraham
brought Isaac up with the wood
and knife and fire to light the wood,
and Isaac was a little
surprised...
Genesis 22:7 - "7 And Isaac spake unto
Abraham his father, and said, My
father: and he said, Here am I, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire and
the wood: but where is the lamb for a
burnt offering?"
Abraham had faith, however, that the Lord
would provide for him a lamb
to sacrifice, as we see in verse 8:
Genesis 22:8 - "8 And Abraham said, My
son, God will provide himself a
lamb for a burnt offering: so they went
both of them together."
So Abraham is about to stab his son Isaac
for a sacrifice, but then an
angel of the Lord calls out to him and
stops him from slaughtering
Isaac.
Genesis 22:11-12: "11 And the angel of
the LORD called unto him out of
heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and
he said, Here am I. 12 And he
said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou any thing unto
him: for now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son from me."
Abraham must have been THRILLED, but must
have been EVEN MORE THRILLED
when he saw that the Lord had provided
a sacrifice...
Genesis 22:13: "13 And Abraham lifted up
his eyes, and looked, and
behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns: and Abraham
went and took the ram, and offered him
up for a burnt offering in the
stead of his son."
...and appropriately enough, Abraham calls
this place 'Jehovahjireh',
meaning 'the Lord Sees' or 'the Lord Provides'!
Genesis 22:14: "14 And Abraham called the
name of that place
Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day,
In the mount of the LORD it
shall be seen."
GOD IS GOOD! What also was really cool
about this was that Abraham had
faith that the Lord would provide a lamb.
In this case, the RAM was not
Random Access Memory, but a male sheep.
(Haha, imagine Abraham
sacrificing 1 Gig of RAM on the altar.)
III. The Sacrificial Lamb of God - Our
Perfect Sacrifice - the Lord
Providing for us...
Jesus is often called the 'Lamb of God'.
Pretty cool, huh? :) God
the Father sent down His Son, and He was
the Sacrificial Lamb for the
payment of our sins.
Romans 5:8 - "8 But God commendeth his
love toward us, in that, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
He died on the cross, rose again on the
third day, and is seated in
Glory at the Right Hand of the Father...but
He'll be back!
I Corinthians 15:3-4: "3 For I delivered
unto you first of all that
which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to
the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried,
and that he rose again the
third day according to the scriptures:"
The Lord provides a way for us to not only
escape sin's curse: death.
Romans 6:23: "23 For the wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord."
John 10:10: "10 The thief cometh not, but
for to steal, and to kill, and
to destroy: I am come that they might
have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly."
Jesus has come to give us life - and life
more ABUNDANTLY! If you want
Jesus Christ to be your Savior and have
not done so already, it's as
simple as ABC.
A - Admit that you are a sinner, B - Believe
that Jesus is God's Son,
rose from the dead and is the only way
to Heaven, and C - Confess your
sins to God, ask Him to be Your Savior.
Basically, if you want eternal life with
Him and haven't accepted Him
yet as your Lord & Savior, pray this
with me:
"Dear Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Forgive
me of my sins right now. Thank
You for dying on the cross to pay for
my sins. I ask You right now to
become my Lord and Savior so that I might
be with You in Heaven for
eternity after life. Let me live a life
pleasing to You and let me know
You more. Thank You, in Jesus' Name, Amen."
Salvation is EXTREMELY weighty in value,
if you didn't know already.
Either eternal damnation or eternal love,
joy, peace, etc!!!! No road
rage in Heaven, either!
The Lord provides for us in so many ways,
it's AWESOME! He is Worthy of
all our Praise, and He will bless us beyond
measure for being obedient
to His Word. He can take us out of the
toughest situation, He will
provide. Let's finish the message in prayer...
Lord, thank You so much for Providing for
us. You are Holy, Holy, Holy!
Even though we are sinners, Lord, You
are so Merciful and bless us and
provide for us, anyway, because You Love
us unconditionally. Thank You
for so much, Lord. You provided for Abraham
and Moses, but not just for
them, for us as well as a whole. We Praise
Your Righteous Name, in
Jesus' Name we pray this and thank You,
amen.