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South Bay SDA Church

The Long Journey Home

Jeremy Arnall

The Iron Furnace

Gives as 1 of the surest tests for diamonds, the water test.

Have you heard of the water test with diamonds?

He says, an imitation diamond is never so brilliant as a genuine stone.

If your eye is not experienced enough to detect the difference between the real and the fake, a simple test is to place the stone underwater.

The imitation diamond is practically extinguished.

A genuine diamond sparkles underwater and is distinctly visible.

If you place a genuine stone beside an imitation stone underwater, the contrast will be apparent even to the least experienced of eyes.

Many seem confident of their faith so long as they have no trials.

But when the waters of sorrow and the waters of affliction overflow them, their faith loses its brilliancy.

It is under these circumstances that the true condition of the soul is revealed.

And that the true children of God shine as jewels for Jesus.

Title of the message this morning is the Iron Furnace.

Dear Lord, please speak to our hearts this morning that we might see Jesus more beautifully in all his glory and all the sparkle and brilliance that He possesses.

Hide me therefore behind yourself and with the angels, we ask that they would attend us and that your spirit would fill us.

So wash us, cleanse us, and fill us with Your presence that we might radiate into the community around us.

Today marks the beginning of a series entitled, The Long Journey Home.

And I'll let you know in advance that this series will be a bit long, because hence the title.

You may think that our story began in 1844, but truth be told, it began long before that.

We must always remember that we are but a chapter in the great story of redemption.

And that God has brought about this movement as a result of the trials and experiences of those who've gone before us.

Indeed, as we shall see, our story was prefigured in the great story of Israel and the Exodus.

The Exodus is a pivotal story in scripture and is referred to time and time and time again because it sets the stage through type and therefore antitype, the story of God's last day church.

Just as the sanctuary paints through type and antitype the symbols of the story of redemption, so the story of the exodus paints through type and symbol the reception and application of that story of redemption by God's people today.

You see, types and antitypes are not identical in nature, but only similar and can contain rather obvious differences.

If you're new to this notion of type and antitype, of a symbol that points forward and it's a story or person or thing, whatever the symbol may be, You have to understand that it sort of prefigures a similar story or symbol or type of thing in the future.

For example, Adam, that is Adam and Eve, Adam was a type of Christ according to Romans 5.

But Christ, the second Adam, excelled where the first Adam failed.

The Bible has more such as baptism being a symbol of death and resurrection.

This morning, I would like to begin a journey as we look for lessons in the Exodus story with its stories and types and through scripture, with the use of scripture, identify through the revelation how this applies to us as a people preparing for the promised land.

The first parallel, now I'm just going to tell you up front, you're going to have to really pay attention.

Don't put your phone away if you have it out.

When I said that, something popped in my mind and I hesitate to say it, but I think we need to be alert.

I heard that 1 of the key, my son was telling me this, how you could look up in our computer system what devices are online.

And they said that the most visited site, if I understood Jordan right, in our church during the, oh boy, during the service was TikTok.

First parallel I would like for us to take note of this morning is that both movements, you understand what I'm saying?

Both movements, that is the movement of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land and the movement of God's remnant people in these last days to the Promised Land, both movements were based on a time prophecy.

The Exodus was based on the prophecy given in Genesis 15.

And the Advent movement was based on Daniel 8, 14 and Revelation 10.

And both time prophecies hold clues as to the why of their circumstance.

So first, why was Egypt necessary for the Exodus?

Exodus 12, 41 says, and it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, on that very same day, it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

Paul refers to this experience and points to the starting date for the 430 years in Galatians.

And let's turn there to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 17.

Remember Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, General Electric Power Company, right?

Galatians 3 and verse 17, And this I say, and this I say, that the law which was 430 years later cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

Paul is saying, hey, the law that was given, He didn't say hey, but you understand.

The law that was given at Sinai did not make void the covenant given to Abraham in Genesis.

But the point we want to take note of here is that according to this passage, the time from the covenant given to Abraham, you see that?

The time given from the covenant to Abraham to the Exodus, which was just 50 days prior to Sinai, where the law was given, was 430 years.

Thus the 430 year period began at the time the covenant was first given to Abraham.

So let's turn to that episode there in Genesis, okay?

So Paul tells us that there was 430 years from the giving of the covenant to Abraham in Genesis 12 till the law was given at Sinai.

And here we find the covenant as it's originally given to Abraham.

Now the Lord said to Abraham, to Abram, I'm sorry, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

I will bless you and make your name great.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him.

And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.

So Abram left Haran, which is in the area of Babylon.

He left Haran, which was in the area of Babylon, and left for Canaan.

If you notice carefully in verses 1 to 3, God gave a command, then a promise, and then a blessing.

He gave a command, a promise, and a blessing, and that is typical of how God relates to us.

And Then he encourages us with his garden of promises.

The command is the direction on how to get to the blessing, and the promise is the vehicle by which we are able to get there.

Perhaps in this room we have some who are 75 today.

And just imagine if at 75 you had to totally uproot your life and leave home based on the Word of God alone.

For a 20-year-old this might sound exciting.

For a 75-year-old, well, what do you think?

Heron was a fertile area with 2 rivers and a culture of wealth.

But God called him to leave the wealth, to leave the splendor of home for a densely wooded and mountainous countries.

We are told that the roads to Palestine were, according to ancient Egyptian documents, a nightmare to travel.

And so Abraham left in faith ready to follow God's will.

Come Find Rest

I remember working the 11 to 7, the midnight shift, graveyard shift as we would sometimes call it, at night in the nursing home when I was in high school.

I was a village student, so we would have to drive, My dad would drive us to work at that late hour.

And I remember how envious I would be as we rode along on the way to work at the homes that were dark.

Or that had just maybe 1 or 2 lights on, but you knew they were in bed or getting ready to go to bed.

To think that everyone was slipping into bed for a welcome, welcome slumber made the drive into the dark night all the more arduous.

Even while at the nursing home serving there at those in those late or early morning hours, walking the length of those dimly lit halls, that fluorescent lighting.

It was challenging as I was required, you hear me now, I was required to persistently refuse sleep's beckoning call.

It's a curious thing when you think that amidst all the important people and events of the world, Amidst the chaos and the fame of governments and business and entertainment, that most of the world still sleeps during those hours of night.

I don't know, if you just turn your head a little bit, doesn't that make you kind of curious?

Yet, for those who refuse to work, refuse for, refuse whether for work or worry's sake, they often long, don't they, for that sweet rest.

God established, now don't go to sleep on me.

God established in the very creation week a rest that is set to repeat itself every seventh day.

And just as the creation order goes about its regular routine with the Sun going up and down and the moon likewise, so the Sabbath resurfaces at the end of each week, a haven in which the creation may find sweet rest through the communion with the divine.

Yet many refuse this perhaps, this sweet rest, perhaps unknowingly and yet are perplexed by the weariness that such neglect leaves with their soul.

For those who have entered into that rest, the respite is splendid and refreshing, like a cool drink amidst a dry and arid desert.

Each week we return to Sabbath to worship and we worship in this place, do we not?

It's a habit you might say, but habits are not all bad.

For notice what happens when someone gets out of the habit, if you will, from weekly worship together in this place, and you will see a life that begins to slowly spiral amidst the cares of this world.

I would especially extend a warning to our young people, that the temptations, especially when you leave home, will be great.

But don't remember what God established at creation.

Sabbath worship was designed by God to be a routine.

It's etched into the very fabric of time.

Because it reminds us of creation and redemption and it illustrates the story of God, a story that I want to review with you today.

The title of the message, by the way, is Come, Find, Rest.

Help us just to immerse ourselves in your presence through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wash me, hide me, for we all have come to sit at your feet.

Speak to us young and old, for we know through your Spirit all things are possible in Jesus' name, amen.

Couple of weeks, or actually last week I should say, we looked at the time prophecy surrounding the Exodus.

You know we're in a series now, the long journey home.

And it's a long series because it's a long journey.

And they, we asked the question last week at the dawn of this series, why Egypt before the Exodus?

We also noted that both movements, that is the Israelite journey from Egypt to Canaan and the Advent movement in these last days, that both movements began with a time prophecy.

To review briefly and if you didn't quite, I heard several of you say, I got lost.

Paul tells us in Galatians 3.17 that the time between the covenant given to Abraham in Genesis 12 in Sinai was 430 years.

430 years, which is corroborated by the fact that Exodus 1241 in the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament, the Greek version of the Old Testament that was in Christ's day, it says in Exodus 1241 that Israel's 430 years began, took place both in Canaan and Egypt.

We then looked at how in Genesis 15 and verse 13 that Abraham is told that his people will spend 400 years in affliction.

So then we carefully calculated the time in which Isaac was weaned and noted that it was some 28 years after the covenant given that likely a seed of jealousy was placed in that young Isaac because Ishmael would have been 17 years old at the time of Isaac's weaning.

Yeah, Ishmael would have been 17 at Isaac's weaning.

So I thought it was easy, but let's see here.

And Paul refers to that jealousy, that scoffing as Genesis 21 describes.

It would appear that the affliction spoken of to Abraham was a direct result, hear me carefully, was a direct result of Abraham's failure to trust God for it came about as a result of trying to have a promised child through Hagar.

Thus we concluded that while God often tests his people, the affliction that God's people goes go through often need not be as severe as we often make it.

Nonetheless, God is working to refine his people through affliction for this, that we are to be purified and tested for heaven.

Today, I want to invite you to consider with me chapter 1 of Exodus.

For in this, we find a clear glimpse of our story in Exodus 1.

And you find this story that reflects to a great degree our story.

It's unfolding before us as we'll see and it's nothing new for God's people.

Exodus 1, I'll be reading from the New King James.

Now, these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt.

Each man and his household came with Jacob.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

All those who were descendants of Jacob were 70 persons, for Joseph was in Egypt already.

And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation.

But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them.

Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

And he said to his people, look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so go up out of the land.

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pytham and Ramses.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and they were in dread of the children of Israel.

So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.

All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives of whom the name of 1 was Shifra and the name of the other Pua.

And he said, when you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him.

But if it is a daughter, then she shall live.

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.

So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?

And the midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.

And therefore, God dealt with the midwives and the people multiplied.

And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that he provided households for them.

And so Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, every son who is born you shall cast into the river and every daughter you shall save alive.

A key issue in the text is that of trying to manage the rapid growth of Israel.

The text explains carefully and repeatedly that it began with the family of Jacob and that there were only 70 at the beginning.

For that matter, At the beginning of the 430 years there were only 2, Abraham and Sarah.

A Pillar and a Prophet

Albert Einstein was traveling from Princeton on a train.

When the conductor came down the aisle punching tickets, Einstein reached into his vest pocket.

But to his dismay, he could not find his ticket.

So he reached into his trousers pockets and To his dismay, they weren't there either.

It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase, but he still couldn't find it.

Looked in the seat next to him, he still could not find it.

I'm sure you brought a ticket, don't worry about it.

The conductor continued on his way punching tickets along the train.

Just before he went To the next car, he turned around and he saw the great scientist down on his hands and knees under the seat looking for that ticket.

The conductor rushed back and he said to Mr.

Einstein, do not worry, I know who you are.

Einstein." Einstein said, young man, I know who I am too.

What I don't know is where I am going." And so it was that after 3, 000 years, there lived a vast number of God's people who, enslaved by an enemy nation, couldn't find their way home Because they too had lost their ticket and did not know for which they, where they should go.

How did Israel find its way out of Egypt?

It was through 2 primary means, young people.

Dear Lord, please speak through us, through me this morning, to us.

May your Spirit take hold of me, arrest me so that I will be a tool in your hand, a vessel for by which you may fill your wisdom and understanding that collectively we might leave this place with the brightness of heaven's glory.

We ask Lord that angels will attend and protect, that your Holy Spirit will enlighten, that we might see Jesus in his name.

We're in our third week in a series entitled the long journey home.

In this series we are looking for similarities, we're looking for lessons between Israel's journey to the promised land and ours as we anticipate the promised land soon to appear.

We began our series with a message noting that the Exodus and the Advent movements in the last days both involved a time prophecy.

We also noted that considering the time prophecy, that after considering the time prophecy that while God allows us to go through trials and tribulations, afflictions as a means of refining us, often our affliction need not be as severe as it ends up being for us.

That as we saw with Abraham and those who followed after, with Isaac and Jacob and so forth, that the affliction was much more intense because of the choices made by man.

What pain and suffering could be prevented if we down on our knees would seek His face?

Last Sabbath, we noted that the story of the Exodus represents a story that in many ways has been told again and again throughout history.

That the same issues of testing God's people has been repeated throughout history with Adam and Eve in the garden, with the Israelites in Exodus, the Israelites in Babylon, and the church in the dark ages, and the church in these last days and perhaps most importantly with the story that you are carrying out right now in your own life.

Amidst these trials, amidst these tribulations and the way in which you respond and the choices you make as to who and where you will turn, determine the story and its ending in your life.

Yes, the story has been rehearsed again and again and continues to be done so, So that it's Nahum 1 verse 9 says, affliction will not rise up a second time.

Affliction will not rise up a second time.

Because the story has been told to the point that now the faithful have rehearsed it to the point that now it is ingrained into their minds.

And thus by God's grace a habit has emerged.

A habit that is So established, so placed in the brain that when we are following His will, we are but carrying out our own impulses.

Thus by His grace, it may be said of His saints that when carrying out His will, we are but carrying out the habits that have been established there.

Because we have learned to fixate our attention on Jesus.

Not on the neighbor, not on self, but on Jesus.

Today we want to consider the 2 primary means of how Israel found their way out of Egypt.

It Turns out the scripture tells us that again it was through a pillar and a prophet.

Notice these words taken from Patriarchs and Prophets 364.

If man had kept the law of God as given to Adam after his fall, preserved by Noah and observed by Abraham, there would have been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision.

And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant of which circumcision was a sign, they would have never been seduced into idolatry nor would it have been necessary to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt.

They would have kept God's law in mind and there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from Sinai or engraved upon the tables of stone.

And had the people practiced the principles of the 10 Commandments, there would have been no need of the additional direction given to Moses.

God, if we had said yes to Him from the beginning and we had stayed faithful to His calling after the fall, we would have never had to see the law written on stone because it would have already been written in the heart.

And it is not as fearful when it's written in here than when it's written on stone.

So circumcision, Egyptian bondage, Sinai, Moses, all was necessary because of our lawlessness.

So catch this, amidst their bondage, God used 2 primary means.

I want you to notice these words shown in Exodus chapter 13 verses 21 and 22.

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night.

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Series

The Long Journey Home

A Pillar and a Prophet

Transcript

Parent Series

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Recorded

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