October 23, 2022 Faith Story: They Crossed...It Fell
Faith Story: They Crossed…It Fell
Hebrews 11:1-2; 29-30
Rhonda Blevins
October 23, 2022
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.
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How faithful does one have to be to become a “hero” of the faith? Let’s find out!
During the series I’m calling “Faith Story,” we’ve been looking at the great heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11 . . . the great “Roll Call of Faith.” Abel and Enoch and Noah, Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph.
You may remember last week we talked about Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt after 430 years there. After 430 years, they just . . . left. Two million, maybe three or four million people just . . . left. The entire population of Chicago or maybe Los Angeles, plus all their livestock, just . . . left. Wow! What an act of faith!
How faithful does one have to be to become a “hero” of the faith? Faithful enough to leave behind the only home you’ve known for 430 years?
There is more to the story than meets the eye.
Within just a few days of the great escape from Egypt, the Hebrew people hit a wall—a wall of water to be specific. It is called “The Red Sea.” There’s no ferry service to get them to the other side. No Carnival cruise ship to carry them across. Behind them: death from Pharoah’s angry army. Ahead of them: death by drowning. They are stuck.
How faithful are the Hebrew people now? Let’s let scripture tell us:
As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:10-12)
The epitome of faithfulness, right? Ok, maybe not. But you know how this story goes:
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:21-22)
They walked through on dry ground. The Egyptians followed, and they drowned in the Red Sea. What was the response of the Hebrew people?
Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. (Exodus 14:31)
Faithless one moment—faithful the next. That sounds like someone I know, maybe someone you know, too. For me, it’s the person I see in the mirror every day. Who is it for you? Faithful one moment—faithless the next.
· Filled with fear and dread when I watch the news or doomscroll on Twitter. Filled with faithfulness when I look in the rearview mirror and recognize the things I feared never came to pass.
· Faithless when I imagine I must face the future in my own power—faithful when I remember God has been with me in my yesterdays and God will go with me into my tomorrows.
I don’t know about you, but my life of faith isn’t always faithful. I don’t think I’ll make anybody’s “Roll Call of Faith.” (Or will I?)
How faithful does one have to be to become a “hero” of the faith? Faithful enough to cross through a sea on dry ground (after doubting God’s providence)?
There is more to the story than meets the eye.
So now the people of Israel are filled with faith, right? Not so fast. Let’s see how they’re doing just a couple of months into their journey:
On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt the whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:1b-3)
The epitome of faithfulness, right? Ok, maybe not. But you know how this story goes:
Manna! Bread from heaven! Surely the Israelites will be found faithful now? Let’s see:
The Israelites also wept again and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (Numbers 11:4b-6)
The epitome of faithfulness, right? Ok, maybe not. But you know how this story goes:
Are you seeing a pattern here? Every challenge they meet during their wilderness journey seems to turn the Hebrew people into whiny, sniveling little brats. They so easily forget God’s providence for them any time there’s some obstacle or even discomfort. These people of faith don’t always seem so faithful.
Then there’s the pièce de resistance. Moses goes up to the top of Mt. Sinai, leaving the people down below. In his absence, the people become anxious. They can’t handle an absentee Moses and a God not made by human hands. So they demand of Aaron, give us a god we can see! A god we can touch. So Aaron collected gold jewelry from the Israelites and forged a golden calf. They made sacrifices to a cow they built with their own hands. They celebrated a human-made moo cow with a festival. They completely rejected Yahweh, the God of their fathers and of their father’s fathers. How fickle and faithless can a group of people be! There’s no way they’re going to make it into the “Roll Call of Faith” in Hebrews 11. There’s no way they’re going to be named among the heroes of faith celebrated . . .
What? Hebrews 11:29 you say?
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.
So I suppose they did make it into the Roll Call of Faith. They are named among the great heroes of faith celebrated in Hebrews 11. But they were so . . . faithless.
And maybe that’s the point.
None of the people named in the Roll Call of Faith are perfect. Not a single one. Here are some highlights:
· Noah? He built an ark AND he got drunk and passed out naked.
· Abraham? He followed God to a land to be revealed AND he gave his wife to powerful men . . . twice.
· Sarah? Became the mother of the Hebrew people AND had Hagar and Ishmael sent off to die.
· Jacob? God named him Israel AND he lied to just about every person he knew, including his own father.
· Joseph? Rescued his family from famine AND was so arrogant that his brothers wanted him dead.
· Moses? He led the people of Israel out of slavery AND murdered someone.
And now we find ourselves thinking about the Hebrew people—about how in the world the author of Hebrews included them among the heroes of faith. Sure they bravely left Egypt AND they whined and complained for forty years in the desert.
And maybe that’s the point.
Our faith does not have to be perfect for us to be counted among the perfectly faithful.
I think the word is . . . grace.
It seems like most people, if we have faith at all, live our lives faithful one moment—faithless the next.
· Walking through the Red Sea on dry ground one moment AND whining about being tired of manna the next.
· Admiring a particularly beautiful sunset one moment AND speaking harshly about our neighbor the next.
· Generous with our resources one moment AND hoarding them the next.
· Worshiping God one moment AND serving ourselves the next.
And in the meantime, God is there—steady—ready to carry us through the next Red Sea that we come to along life’s journey.
For the Israelites, their next major obstacle was the people of Canaan. After forty years in the wilderness:
· Crossing the Red Sea on dry ground
· Manna every morning and quail every evening
· A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night
After forty years in the wilderness experiencing God’s providence day after day after day, it’s finally time to claim the land promised to Abraham so many generations prior. And once again, the Hebrew people are terrified.
Ten of twelve spies told the people that the Canaanites will surely conquer them. Not only that, some of the Canaanites are giants! But after forty years of experiencing God’s providence day after day after day, the Israelites aren’t afraid, right? Wrong! Listen to how they respond to the prospect of finally claiming the land flowing with milk and honey:
Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” (Numbers 14:1-4)
These people. These are the people we celebrate for their great faithfulness in Hebrews 11. There’s hope for you and me after all.
Once again God proves their fear pointless. God tells them to march around Jericho, and on the seventh day, to march around the city seven times, then to shout and blow their trumpets. They do just that. The walls of Jericho fall. They fall, by faith, we are told in Hebrews 11. Perfectly imperfect faith.
Today we come to this moment in time from different places along our journeys of faith. Maybe we’re unsure about God, faith, religion, church, our place in all of it. Others of us may feel that our faith is vibrant and alive. Others can’t think much about faith because of depression or addiction or anxiety or some other mental health condition. Some of us are barely hanging on to faith—the result of disappointment and unspeakable grief.
Wherever you are on your journey of faith, hear this: God accepts you just the way you are. You may not think of yourself as a “hero” of faith—maybe the world would think the exact opposite. But we know from scripture that our metrics are not God’s metrics.
Question: How faithful does one have to be to become a “hero” of the faith?
Answer: Faithlessly faithful.
The rebellious, whiney, chicken Israelites made the Roll Call of Faith. Maybe, just maybe, you will too. And if you’re ever in doubt whether God will be with you through the uncertainty that tomorrow brings, just remember God’s faithfulness.
We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord,
Trusting in the holy Word; God’s never failed us yet.
O, can’t turn around, we’ve come this far by faith.
We’ve come this far by faith.