Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In our 30 day “Walking with Jesus” journey toward Christmas 2022, I left you yesterday standing on the shore of the Red Sea with about 1 million Hebrew slaves who had run out of Egypt in the middle of the night and then rushed through a ‘water tunnel’ God made for them through the Red Sea. As they looked out on the shimmering waves of the Red Sea they could see an abundance of floating debris, all that remained of Pharaoh’s great army! (Exodus 14:30,31) God had delivered them in a most unusual way, and right there, they had a great shoreline celebration as recorded for us in Exodus 15. That celebration pointed forward to Christmas, do you see how?
With the very same exuberance the shepherds left the stable celebrating first the host of angels they’d seen in the night sky and the message those angels had delivered to them, and also, they were celebrating that they had found the baby, just as predicted, lying in a manger in an animal stable in Bethlehem! The record tells us: “When the shepherds had seen Him [baby Jesus] they spread the word concerning what had been told to them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them… They returned [to their fields & sheep] glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen…” (Luke 2:17-20)
I love that picture, don’t you? Can you see them, these smelly, ragged shepherds, knocking on Bethlehem doors late at night, awakening the people inside and then in their excited voices, with wide eyes, almost shouting the news of what they have just experienced? Angels! A baby in a manger! A Savior! But what troubles me is that we have no record of ANYONE, not one person, responding to their late-night excitement! No one made any effort to find this stable and baby… everyone went back to bed, as far as we know!
Is that the world you live in today, my friends, as your community is ramping up for Christmas with very little if any mention of what really happened in that stable or those shepherd fields, or what God intended for Christmas to be all about?
Well, as you can tell, I’m taking 30 days to help us not miss the wonder and grandeur of Christmas this year! I’m trying to help us realize that God has been pointing to Christmas for thousands of years and He doesn’t want us to miss it or minimize its significance this year!
So, let’s rejoin Moses and those 1 million people as they leave the Red Sea and the crowd starts away from the Red Sea, into the desert! Yes, I said the desert! Have you ever been in a desert? I mean a real, sand as far as you can see in any direction, desert?! As I write this, I’m visiting my family in a West African country. They only have rain here a few weeks out of the entire year… it’s dry season here now and I mean it’s dry and will be for another 8 months! Dust is everywhere. The Sahara Desert is not too far north of us and as you may know it’s creeping south rapidly. Sand, cloudless, bright sun sky, heat, cactus, sand and more sand… no water. Deserts can be dreadful places of imminent death. 1 million people and their children and their animals, fleeing Egypt, but the excitement of freedom soon turned to the terror of desert thirst without water! Doubt and fear filled their hearts and minds and soon the wail of children and bellowing of thirsty animals caused parents and grandparents to panic! Water is a nonnegotiable in life, isn’t it? Freedom from slavery bondage is wonderful but not if you are dying of thirst with nothing but sun and sand in every direction.
In that moment these 1 million fleeing, thirsty, desperate people did what we all do when life gets frightening and desperate. They cried out for help… but in the desert there was no one to hear their cries. Naturally they turned on the man Moses who’d given them hope that freedom would be better than slavery, but Moses had no water. Moses did what any good leader does… Moses turned to the only source of help Who could do anything about this desperate situation, Moses turned to God! The Almighty God whom Moses had met at the burning bush and who had sent Moses on this mission of leading the slaves in following God out of Egypt.
This was another moment pointing forward to Christmas, even though neither Moses nor the people had any idea. 1400 years later the world under the iron fist of Roman rule would be crying out for help but neither politics nor military might nor economic power nor religious traditions could satisfy the desperate cries of people suffocating in a wicked world, then or now, do you agree? God ALWAYS hears the cries for help of desperate people, did you know that? Do you have any proof of that statement from your life experience?
Listen to Psalm 18 “The LORD God is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God in whom I take refuge…. In my distress I called to the LORD, I cried to my God for help. From His heaven He heard my voice, my cry came before Him into His ears…. God reached down from on high and took hold of me, He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the days of my disaster, but the LORD God was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place, He rescued me because He delighted in me…”
In that desert, Exodus 15:22-27 records that Moses was led by God to a lake in that desert. They people were ecstatic and rushed to the water filling their mouths… and then in shock, spitting it out again! It was bitter, salty water! Anger filled their hearts, had God played a trick on them, was God mocking them? Again, Moses asked God for help, for guidance and again God showed Moses the answer he needed. A piece of wood was lying on the sand. Just an old piece of a tree which evidently had died of thirst years before. Moses felt led by God to pick up that wood, throw it into the water and then taste the water… sweet, wonderful, pure water! Oh, what a wonderful, lifesaving miracle! A lake of water in the desert instantly purified by God Himself! Help yourself thirsty, terrified Hebrew slaves, drink to your fill and bring your children and your animals… drink of the God supplied water. Almighty God, the God who created each of you and loves you has heard your cries and He has responded with His God provided rescue once again!
Now can you see how this miracle of God supplying pure water for these thirsty people points to Christmas? Do you remember the story of Jesus and His disciples walking from Jerusalem back home to Galilee on a particularly hot day. Without explanation, Jesus led them into Samaritan country, a road these good Jewish guys would never have taken, for there was great animosity between Jews and Samaritans.
But John, who was there that day, recorded for us in his 4th chapter, what happened as Jesus, thirsty from their long walk, sat down at a well, ready to draw up a bucket of water when a Samaritan woman approached the well with her water jar. She too was thirsty but her thirst, like yours and mine, was for more than simply water.
Suddenly the 1400-year-old picture of Moses & the thirsty Hebrews in the desert was happening again, right here by a well in Sychar, Samaria. This woman longed for acceptance and safe relationships and freedom from the shame of her past. She longed for something only God could provide her. She assumed, like too many people, that she was lost in the crowd and God probably didn’t notice her pain, the deep thirst of her life. That was a mistake! For not only did God see her pain, not only did God understand her need and that only God could help her, God had responded by sending His Son Jesus at Christmas, and now that baby was a grown man, sitting at her well, ready to satisfy her deep soul thirst like nothing else could, like only God can! John chapter 4 in the New Testament gives us the story of that life changing encounter at the well and how Jesus said to her: “Everyone who drinks this well water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13,14) That woman’s life changed that day as she met Jesus, and if you read the rest of the story, you’ll see she ran back to her town, told the people there about Jesus and they came running to the well and invited Jesus to come to their town and share His message of God’s life thirst satisfying hope. Jesus did, in fact He stayed two days with them, and the entire town was changed because the Jesus of Christmas brought His message of God’s love to them!
Now I have a question or two for you and me to ponder…
1. How thirsty are you today, with 18 days till Christmas? With what are you trying to satisfy your God given, deep soul thirst?
2. Have you discovered the God given living water that leads to eternal life which Jesus spoke of and brought to that Samaritan woman and her town?
3. When you think of all the people your life touches on a regular basis… how many of them are thirsty for that which only Jesus can give them?
Now, do you think God is ready, right now, to fill you with His Holy Spirit living water and then help you bring that hope to those thirsty people you know? Yes, I’ve found another great song to help us celebrate the wonderful Christmas truths we’ve discussed today, let’s sing along with the Getty’s, my friends…
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 15 & John 4.
Choose below to read or listen.
Exodus 15
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John 4
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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