This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our Look Together, week three, day three, at the Book of Exodus,
Exodus chapter 13 today. And as we read this chapter together, the people of
Israel are free. They've gotten out of Egypt.

They've gotten out of that land where they have been kept in slavery for
hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of years. They are free.
Their Declaration of Independence was written with ten plagues and signed with
the blood of the Passover lamb.

But that's far from the end of the story of Exodus. Now they have to determine
how they're going to live in freedom, what they're going to do with their
freedom. How do you live a life of freedom, of deliverance?

Living your freedom is just as important as attaining it. The American
Declaration of Independence would have been meaningless without a constitution.
How do you live out that freedom?

There's a well-known malady among prisoners that's called the institutionalized
prisoner, the person who can't make it outside of the prison and so commits
crimes again and again to get back in where they feel more comfortable. I don't
want to ever get comfortable with a place of slavery. So how do you live with
freedom?

The Israelites, Moses and the Israelites, for the next several chapters of
Exodus, are going to be learning some important lessons about the life of
freedom. These experiences that they have teach you and I about God's presence
in our lives, what He wants to do in our lives. We're going to see some very
practical lessons through some things that God does for them.

The pillars that we're going to see, a fire and a cloud that go before them,
show us about God's leadership, teach us about God's leadership. The Red Sea
teaches us about God's miraculous intervention. The desert, when they reach the
desert, shows us about God's miraculous supply.

As we watch these people of Israel struggle with life and freedom, I want to
encourage you right now to decide to let their example help you to grow in this
life of freedom. Not just being free, but it was for freedom that Christ set us
free. He set you free, so now how do you live in freedom?

And the first lesson that we get about that is through the pillars of fire and
cloud. And this is a lesson about the Lord's leadership. The Lord does more than
just set you free.

He leads you in the life of freedom. The pillars show how vital his leadership
is in living this life of freedom. And they help you and I to understand some
ways of his leading that if you don't understand how he leads, it might seem
confusing at first.

For instance, there's this pillar of fire, this pillar of cloud that went before
them and led them in the direction they should go. In Exodus 13, 17, and 18, he
leads them in what seems to be a very strange direction. Has God ever do that in
your life?

He leads you in what seems to be a very strange direction. Listen to what
happens in verses 17 and 18. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead
them on the road to the Philistine country.

That was shorter. For God said, if they face war, they might change their minds
and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the desert road toward the
Red Sea.

And the Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle. This is amazing as you
read through it. God did not take the shortest route to the promised land.

Why? It's very clear. He says, because the Philistine army stood in the way and
the Israelites were not physically or spiritually prepared to face such an
obstacle.

They would have turned back from their freedom. Why? Because he has this great
experience of growth prepared for Israel in another direction, in the direction
of the Red Sea.

Do you ever feel like God is taking you the long way around to the promised
land? Why is it taking so long, Lord? Why did you lead me in this direction,
God?

I could see from point A to point B, why didn't you do that in my life? Maybe
doing it for one of these two reasons we just looked at. He may be taking you
what seems to you to be the long way around, to keep you from an experience
which would make you run back to Egypt, run back to that addiction, run back to
that fear, run back to that place of slavery.

And you think I would never do that, but God knows me. He knows you better than
you know yourself. He knew that if the people of Israel immediately had to face
a battle with an army, they would run back.

So he didn't lead them in that direction. And no one in your life, no one in my
life, there are places in your life you can look back to and say, "Why did God
lead me that way? Why did that take so long?

Why didn't God allow me to do that? " And you could blame this person or that
person and they may have been involved, their choice, but the truth is God is
greater than any person's choice. So maybe, just maybe, God was protecting you,
protecting you from something that was taking you the wrong direction in life,
kept you from living out the freedom that you can live out in Christ.

It may have been that or it may be a second thing that we see here. He may be
doing this to give you an experience that will build your faith to new heights.
He led them around towards the Red Sea because he wanted to do something at the
Red Sea in their lives.

This lesson of God's leadership in the people of Israel is that in your walk of
faith, a straight line is not always the best way or even the quickest way to
truly grow in faith, to get where God wants you to be. So God led them toward
the Red Sea instead of what seemed to be the quickest way. There's a second
lesson in verse 21 about God's leadership, a very clear lesson.

This pillar and the cloud, it went ahead of them. Listen to this simple verse.
By the day, the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on
their way.

And by night, in a pillar of fire to give them light, so they could travel by
day or night. What I want you to notice about this verse is that simple phrase
went ahead of them. Ahead of them.

There's a tremendous lesson there about God's leadership. The cloud went ahead
of them. He wasn't pushing them with a wind, he was leading them with a cloud.

He wasn't hurting them with a hot poker, he was leading them with a fire. This
is a reminder that following God's leadership is a matter of human choice. God
leads, but I must choose to follow that leadership.

God shows us the next steps to take, and then he allows you, he allows me to
choose whether we're going to take them. Now, he keeps leading. He's right there
with the fire and the cloud all the time in your life.

Here's where I want you to go. But I've got to choose to take the next step in
my life. Now, look at this.

The cloud moved as they moved. The fire moved as they moved. His continual
leadership is based on our continual following.

Do you want to know where God wants you to go next? Go where he's leading you
now. We often think, "God, would you show me like the fourth step out, and then
maybe I'll follow you in the next step?

" And God says, "I'm not showing you the next step until you follow me in this
step. " It's just one step at a time. That's how he leads in our lives.

It was ahead of them. That's how he led. The Lord is my shepherd.

A shepherd leads out ahead of the sheep. He doesn't drive the sheep. He leads
ahead of the sheep.

The pillar and the cloud went ahead of them. That's a lesson about God's
leadership. And then there's a third lesson about God's leadership in this
chapter.

The pillars were not taken away. We just read they were there by day or by
night, but then listen to verse 22. "Neither the pillar of cloud by day, nor the
pillar of fire by night, left its place in front of the people.

It was always there. " God's leadership. Here's the lesson.

God's leadership never stops. The pillars never disappear. You always have God's
word in your life.

You always have God's people in your life. You always have God's leadership in
your life. Now when it comes to God's leadership, you may run ahead of God's
leadership.

You may turn your back on God's leadership, and so you wonder where his
leadership has gone. Maybe you just need to turn around. You ran ahead of it.

Maybe you just need to lift your head up, turn your back on it. We may at times
disagree with God's leadership. I'm sure Israel felt that way after they ran
into the Red Sea.

Why did you lead us this way? We may at times simply try to ignore God's
leadership. It could have been that there were those in Israel that looked at
this pillar of fire and cloud and thought, "What a strange natural phenomenon.

Let's study the science of this and try to figure it out for ourselves. " It's
one way to ignore God's leadership is to overthink it. But the truth of the
matter is, whatever I do with God's leadership, whether I run ahead of it, or I
don't understand it, or I ignore it, his leadership never, never stops in your
life.

It's always there leading you. And the big question as you see this chapter is,
what's he leading you to do next? What's the next step?

Let's take a moment to stop, pray, and just thank him for his leadership. Our
Father, we thank you. We thank you that through your spirit, through your word,
through your love, through your truth, through your people, you continually lead
us.

Lord, sometimes we don't quite understand, and so we have to take a moment to
stop and to listen. But when we do, we see your leadership. Sometimes we want to
get ahead of you.

So it's very confusing to us because you're not leading us in the direction that
we want to be led. So we have to stop and listen. So right now today, we stop
and we listen to you.

Lord, what do you want me to do next? Show me, lead me, and thank you for the
promise of your leadership in my life. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to see that God leads them to the Red Sea, and he
prepares them for a lesson on his miraculous intervention.