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Unfamiliar Territory
How do you view situations that are unfamiliar to you?
For example, would you be excited about the new possibilities and people when it comes to a new job or school?
Or would you be anxious about the unknown?
Some of us view changes in life with great excitement and others with great fear.
But as a church, we are facing the challenge of a change in pastoral leadership.
As I prepare my last sermons to this body of believers, I want to help you look to God’s Word for guidance through the transition.
I pray that you will continue to trust God and allow Him to lead you through this unfamiliar territory.
If we are patient and obedient, we will experience a greater understanding of what it means to have faith in a faithful God.
Today we are going to look at the example of Israel’s response to unfamiliar territory at the time of the Exodus.
Between the Red Sea and Pharaoh
After God sent the final plague upon Egypt, He told Moses to direct the people to turn back and encamp in an area between the Red Sea and Migdol.
God told Moses that the reason for this location was to draw Pharaoh to take his army to follow them.
Pharaoh was the target, and Israel was the bait.
The people recognized that this unfamiliar place was very dangerous.
It seemed God was leading them into a trapped corner with no way to escape the army that was in pursuit.
Look at what scripture tells us about this situation.
God had a plan, and He informed Moses and the people about the end goal.
But why should God allow the people to be in a vulnerable place so He could judge the sins of Egypt?
Camping between the Red Sea and Pharaoh was unfamiliar territory.
The people complained that it would have been better to remain enslaved in Egypt than to die in the wilderness.
Life was predictable in Egypt until Moses came.
Sure it was slavery, but it was predictable.
They knew they could do the hard labor of slavery during the day and knew where they could lay their head down at night.
They knew the food they would eat, even if it wasn’t the best.
It was at least consistent and familiar.
God set up this unfamiliar territory to do more than judge Egypt.
He wanted to teach the leaders and the people about the God who just saved them from slavery.
The Exodus story is as much about Moses' journey to trust God as it is about the people of Israel.
Moses was familiar with leading sheep in the wilderness for forty years.
Leading Israel out of Egypt was unfamiliar territory.
Do you recall how Moses tried to make excuses about his disabilities?
When Moses told God he was slow of speech and tongue, God reminded Moses that He was the God who sovereignly gives humans various abilities.
He is also the God who gives the message to those He chooses.
We are to obey whatever He commands.
Moses learned to trust God and lead the people according to God's Word.
If God said to camp near the Red Sea, then Moses simply had to direct the people to the location and do so with confidence.
God wanted to teach Israel about His faithful word.
Whatever God has promised will surely come to pass.
Although God promised salvation, He did not reveal all the details.
How would he bring salvation?
They had to wait and see.
And God caused a great wind to blow all night to push back the water and dry the ground so they could walk on it.
The people saw Pharaoh and his army follow them and drown in the Red Sea when God opened the water.
The people saw that God was faithful to His word.
God sometimes withholds the details of His plans so that we may learn to trust Him in the Big Picture and leave the details to Him.
God wants us to have faith and trust in Him when we don’t know all the details.
So if you are a details type of person, you may have to learn to wait for God to give them to you on His terms.
He will provide the details you need to know when you need to know them.
Not knowing the details of God’s plan may be an unfamiliar territory, but it is a situation that you will get to see God fulfill His promises and supply your needs.
How will you trust God in the coming months of unfamiliar territory?
Waiting at Sinai
A lot of things happened between Exodus 14 and Exodus 32.
Moses and Israel learned that God was with them.
They learned that God could feed them in the wilderness with manna and quail.
God gave them water to drink from a rock.
God had demonstrated salvation and miraculous provision.
But in Exodus 32, they were called to the mountain of God.
They had instructions to not get too close to the mountain and prepare themselves to meet with God.
And they waited for Moses to come down from the mountain from his meeting with God.
But they grew impatient with waiting.
The people entered the unfamiliar territory of waiting.
Managing people and unfamiliar territory can inspire us to act of our own will rather than to wait upon God.
Moses had to lead an impatient and stubborn people.
And while Moses was on the mountain with God, the people grew impatient.
What was the next move?
What was on the agenda, and where was their leader, Moses?
The only instructions they had were to wait.
But how long should they wait before doing something?
Waiting is the most unnatural desire we have as humans.
From infancy, we only know how to cry when we want something.
And we scream louder when we wait longer.
The people, like impatient children, pressured Aaron to lead them in the familiar direction and experience back in Egypt.
The religion of Egypt included the worship of various gods and included worship by making idols to honor the gods and having feasts.
But the One who saved Israel would never let himself be represented by an image nor endorse the kind of celebration they had.
They became self-indulgent and rejected the plan and direction God had given to them.
They wandered away from God desires toward desires of the flesh.
The Hebrew term translated "play" has the connotation of sexual orgies and self-indulgence.
Such actions were typical for the other religions but not for the worship of the One True God.
Not knowing the timeline is uncomfortable, unfamiliar territory.
How long is too long for something to occur?
So often, we want change to happen faster than we see it happening.
By design, something will occur according to a timeline that you should not accelerate.
Waiting upon God is a spiritual discipline.
When we wait on God, we show that He is in control and that we want Him to bring about His sovereign will instead of ours.
How are you responding to the current unfamiliar territory of waiting?
Be careful not to make things happen that need to be delayed according to God’s timing.
Complaining at Kibroth-hattaavah
The book of Numbers shows us the ups and downs of progress and failure for the people of Israel to learn to trust God in all things.
They were out of Egypt and on their way to the Promised Land.
But the journey meant living in the wilderness and depending upon God for direction and provision.
The Promised Land would be a place “flowing with milk and honey”, but the journey there meant traveling an indirect path.
Look at what happened as they traveled in the wilderness.
The location of this incident is Kibroth-hattavah which means “a place of strong craving”.
Instead of craving the desires and will of God, they desires something else.
It is not a sinful thing to desire the wonderful seasonings of good food.
The sinful thing was to let that desire for something good become the basis for a false view of their past and God’s goodness.
Their cravings were so strong that they had forgotten that they ate it in the land of slavery.
They even reasoned that it “cost nothing”.
And they believed they recieved no strength from the food God provided.
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