The Christian community in the UK and around the world are devastated today because of a tragedy at a festival that happened yesterday. One man has died, and 6 people are seriously injured.

https://bigchurchfestival.com/2026-public-statement

This morning I didn’t want to simply carry on with reading through Exodus. I needed to pause because on top of this horrible incident, I am totally shocked by the thousands of anti-Christian comments on social media that are mocking the incident. I read a few and couldn’t believe how people would take the opportunity to say such horrendous comments.

It’s one thing to grieve alongside a community in shock. It’s another to watch, in real time, people using someone else’s tragedy as an excuse to mock the faith of those grieving. But should any of us actually be surprised? Peter warned us this would happen. He gave this kind of person a name: scoffers.

Peter focuses on a group of people who have been ridiculing, in particular, the belief in the return of Christ. He calls them scoffers. Having reminded God’s people to hold on to the truth of what the prophets wrote in the Old Testament, the words of Jesus, and those of the apostles, he now focuses on addressing those who mock our faith.

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 3:3-7)

Here is what yesterday’s and this morning’s scroll through social media confirmed all over again.

1. Scoffers were always going to be here.

The last days will contain scoffers as well as the family of God. Since the ascension of Jesus Christ, the world moved into the last days. During this last 2,000 years, the ‘brothers and sisters’ (1:10) will exist alongside those who ridicule the faith, the ‘scoffers’. It was always going to be. Just because they exist and ridicule this belief doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is returning soon. The comments I read yesterday weren’t a new phenomenon — they were the oldest phenomenon in the book, playing out on a new platform.

2. Scoffers follow their own evil desires.

These are not just the last days, but they are days of evil. Not only do they scoff at the Coming King, but they also scoff by their behaviour at the Lordship of the King. Look around you and see what is happening to the Church. The scoffers, with their behaviour, scoff at the Lordship of Jesus, and they do it from within the Church.

3. Scoffers reject the promise.

They won’t accept the promise found in the Old Testament, the Gospels, Acts or what the Apostles Paul, James, Peter and John confirm. They will turn their back on the Communion/Lord’s Supper that we regularly partake of until He comes, and they will reject the eternal promise which is in the heart of every born-again believer.

4. Scoffers say ‘there has been no change’.

They will rule out the divine intervention of God through Jesus Christ, and they will say God has not intervened since Creation, and He does not, and He will not bring any change to this world. A grieving festival crowd, praying for the injured, means nothing to a scoffer — because they’ve already decided nothing means anything.

5. Scoffers forget the story of Noah.

There were scoffers in Noah’s day and in Peter’s day, and so there is no surprise also in our day. Scoffers may talk of the love of God — “God loves everybody so live how you want.” But they deliberately forget. They choose to forget God’s judgment with the Flood. Ignore the Flood, and you don’t have to worry about future judgment nor any return of Jesus.

Yesterday a community lost one of its own and six more are fighting to recover. Today that same community is being mocked. It is grim, and the grief makes the mockery cut deeper, but it is not new, and it is not the last word.

The promise remains even if the foolish scoffers do.

Every believer knows the road from Elim to the Desert of Sin. It’s the ordinary wilderness in between, and it’s where most of us actually live. This passage doesn’t let us fake our way through that gap or write it off as spiritual dryness. It shows us how to walk it until glory shows up again.

“The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. ⁵ On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” ⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, ⁷ and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” ⁸ Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.” ⁹ Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” ¹⁰ While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹² “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’” (Exodus 16 v 1-11)

Israel travels from Elim to the Desert of Sin. A name that makes us think of wrongdoing unsettles until you notice it isn’t about sin at all. It comes from Sinai. This is the road to the mountain, the desert that borders the place of God’s descent, where the commandments will be given. But that’s not yet. Right now, it’s just desert.

After the place of refreshment comes the place of tension. Elim had its palm trees and its springs. The Desert of Sin has neither. After God’s Spirit refreshes you, there’s always a time when the hallmarks of glory are nowhere in sight.

We tend to handle that tension one of two dishonest ways. Either we pretend — “glory is here,” when really we’ve found a stream, not the source. Or we go bone dry and fatalistic — nothing is happening, the church is dead, God has gone quiet. Both postures are really the same move: pretending we’ve arrived when we haven’t.

Israel does something different; they rewrite their own history. “We sat around pots of meat” — as slaves! That’s what an empty stomach does to memory.

Moses’ answer is still relevant for us today.

First: we are not God (v7, 9). “Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” Grumbling always aims higher than its target. It looks like a complaint about circumstances, but it’s about a person who has more authority than a created being.

Second: don’t deceive yourselves about what you once had (v3). Egypt was not a banquet. Nostalgia for bondage is still bondage.

Third: God can outgive what the world offers (v8). They had meat in the evening, bread in the morning, more than Egypt ever set on the table.

God doesn’t correct the grumbling before He feeds the grumblers. Verse 4 comes first: “I will rain down bread from heaven.” Grace trumps repentance. Then, verse 10: “the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” Glory interrupts the grumbling. It doesn’t wait for it to stop.

If you’re in the Desert of Sin, provision behind you, Sinai not yet in view, then don’t fake the glory but don’t declare it absent either.

Gather what today requires, and let God prove, again, that He can outgive any Egypt.

There’s an incredible poster of Taylor Knox, a surfer, in front of a huge wave — over fifty feet high — at Todos Santos, Mexico. Underneath are the words: “What if your fears and dreams existed in the same place?”

“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” (Exodus 15:27)

After Marah’s bitterness, Elim looks like the perfect place to finally stop. And for a while, they do. Twelve springs, seventy palms, it tells us this really was a good place. But Elim was never the destination; it was provision for the next leg of the journey. We tend to camp at our Elim’s, to settle where God only meant us to be refreshed.

The enemy’s best plot against you is not bigger than God’s purpose for you. Whatever you may be going through today could be described as a desert, a trial, and it can even feel impossible. But the truth is the truth even when you have reached your very end.

Notice what happens at Elim: the supernatural provision of manna doesn’t come until after they leave. At Elim they were still living off what they’d carried out of Egypt. Only once they moved did the miracle come. Will you do it again, Lord? There is more when you move.

But moving is rarely the hard part logistically; it’s the hard part in us. Rob Parsons, in his book Let Me Tell You a Story, describes watching a camel owner offering rides to tourists in the Middle East. Among the crowd was a boy no older than five, watching wide-eyed as his older sister was lifted onto the camel’s back. He ran alongside, laughing, captivated, right up until the camel turned around and he realised it was his turn next. He bolted back behind his father, and no amount of coaxing from either his dad or the camel owner could get him near the animal. Eventually his father gave up, paid for his daughter’s ride, and led both children away. Ten metres down the street, the boy stopped, turned, and looked back at the camel one last time before walking on. That look said what he couldn’t: I desperately want to try… but I just can’t.

It’s a look Parsons says he’s seen in adults too, not just children, even his own reflection included. A look that glances at an opportunity, imagines what could be, but stays paralysed by fear.

Whatever Elim you’ve camped at, don’t mistake the resting place for the finish line. God isn’t finished with you yet.

The sea is barely dry behind them, and already Israel is walking into the Desert of Shur. An enclosure they cannot break through on their own. Three days, no water. You can almost hear their thoughts, “You won’t make it. You don’t have what it takes.”

“Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. ²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” ²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink. There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. ²⁶ He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” ²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” (Exodus 15 v 22-27)

After God makes a way where there was no way, He takes them into a similar experience. The Desert of Shur means a ‘fortress wall’. An enclosure that they were not going to get through.

They couldn’t find water. Sometimes we know the experience, which is like a voice saying, ‘You won’t make it’.

It was for 3 days. Again, we can easily hear, “You don’t have the strength.”

They had a bitter experience. We all know that experience: it’s disappointing; we expected far more than we got.

• V25 Testing is part of life with God.  Deuteronomy 8 v 2 “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” Are you committed to the Lord? Are you going to turn back? How do you know? The testing is the way.
• V25 God wants to show you things. Ultimately that you can turn bitterness into sweetness and a dead opportunity into one full of life.
• V26 God wants to reveal you to the world. To show others how He deals with you. The Lord tells Moses He does not want to deal with His people the way He dealt with the Egyptians.

Every Marah you walk through is on its way to an Elim you haven’t seen yet. But can you trust the Lord?

“When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemenwent into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. ²⁰ Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. ²¹ Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.” (Exodus 15 v 19-21)

Miriam didn’t wait to see how the wilderness would treat them. The sea had barely closed before she picked up her timbrel. “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted” — sung on the far shore, with the whole future still unknown.

That’s the pattern all through Scripture. David sang in the cave before Saul stopped hunting him. Habakkuk sang when the fig tree hadn’t budded, and the fields were empty. Paul and Silas sang in a Philippian jail with their feet still in stocks. None of them waited for the circumstances to justify the song. The song came first and made room for what God was about to do.

That’s because singing isn’t just an emotional overflow. It’s a decision. A weapon. A way of declaring what’s true. God doesn’t only do something around us; he does something in us first, and the song is often how it starts.

Moses is already singing of nations and battles even before the people of God has met those people. When you know God is master of everything then you know the victory is guaranteed.  

¹² “You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies. ¹³ In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. ¹⁴ The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia. ¹⁵ The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the peopleof Canaan will melt away; ¹⁶ terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone—until your people pass by, Lord, until the people you bought pass by. ¹⁷ You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance—the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established. ¹⁸ “The Lord reigns for ever and ever.” (Exodus 15 v 12-18)

The same hand that split the sea is now pictured reaching ahead, into Philistia, Edom, Moab, Canaan, nations Israel hasn’t even encountered yet! Moses sings about victories that haven’t happened as though they’re already won!

That in itself speaks so much to us today.

If God has dealt with Pharaoh, He can be trusted with everyone and anything that still stands between us and the promise. The battle is always His: we just learn to walk in His victory.

See how the song closes. “The Lord reigns for ever and ever.” Not Pharaoh or the nations ahead. The Lord reigns.

Maybe you need to sing over your future and what lies in front of you. God hasn’t finished yet, but He will.

Perhaps the enemy of your life is pressing in hard. It may look like there is no other outcome, and it isn’t what you hoped for. Exodus 15 isn’t just a victory song; it’s a lesson in what happens when human certainty meets divine holiness.

“In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger;  it consumed them like stubble. ⁸ By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea. ⁹ The enemy boasted, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.’ ¹⁰ But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. ¹¹ Who among the gods is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exodus 15 v 7-11)

See the chilling words of the enemy in v 9. “I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide. I will gorge. I will destroy.”

As this song is sung, that enemy is no more.

Moses wants the people to celebrate that their enemy is defeated.

But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them (v10).

So what is your enemy at the moment? A diagnosis, an accusation, a circumstance that boasts the way Pharaoh’s army boasted? This song reminds us not to allow anyone to be so certain of the outcome in your life.

Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

Do you see it? Holiness, not just power. God didn’t drown Egypt because He could. He delivered Israel because He is who He is: a God whose holiness moves toward His people rather than away from them.

That’s the shape the cross would later take too, the love of God breathing life into what looked finished.

There are big moments in all our lives when all we can do is sing. It’s not a report that is needed, some deep analysis of what has happened. It’s a testimony in worship. That’s exactly what happens next: a new song rises up from Moses, and the whole nation joins in.

 ^“But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel …” 

And on that day a song was born. A new song coming from within their leader, Moses.

“Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:  “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. “The Lord is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea.The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy.” (Exodus 15 v 1-6)

Some days it is imperative that you sing. It isn’t the right time for discussion and analysis. This is the time for worship, for God has done what only He can do.

Let’s look at what Moses and the people sang.

V 2. “He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has now become his God. He has experienced God for himself. This miraculous story has given him (and the nation) a personal story.

Every generation needs to experience Him and have their own miracles to testify to.

V3 “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.”

Israel didn’t fight this battle; they stood still and watched God fight it for them. God will fight our battles.

Finally, “Your right hand, Lord.” Not Moses’ hand, nor Israel’s courage (they didn’t have much). The song keeps returning to whose hand did this.

What has God’s right hand done in your life that still deserves a song?

Some outcomes look settled long before they happen. Everyone points to the evidence, and apparently there is only one way it can go. But God can write a different story.

“He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving.” (Exodus 14 v 25)

Have you heard the phrase “to set the wheels in motion”? There are seasons in our life when a series of actions and developments indicates that there is only one course of action. The wheels are in motion. However, never underestimate God. He can remove the wheels! (v25). The inevitable is not always inevitable.

Pharaoh’s chariots were the best technology of the ancient world. Six hundred of them, hand-picked, bearing down on a nation of former slaves trapped between the sea and the sky. Every human calculation said the outcome was fixed. The wheels were in motion, and nothing stops a chariot at full speed.

Except God.

He didn’t need to destroy the chariots. He just jammed the wheels.

Think about what’s bearing down on you right now. The diagnosis that seems certain. The decision that seems already made. The relationship that seems beyond repair. The habit that seems too entrenched to break. It looks inevitable because every visible factor points one direction.

But God can still jam a wheel. It’s too early to panic.

They had a sea in front of them and an army behind them. No way forward and no way back. That is exactly where God wanted them.

 ^“But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ³⁰ That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. ³¹ And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” (Exodus 14 v 29-31)

Have you noticed what it says? They walked on ‘dry ground’.

Surely it would have been muddy ground? No, it was dry. A small detail, but it reveals God looks at the detail.

Either side of them was the wall of the sea. Chaos held back by the hand of God.

The crescendo of the whole story is the last verse. It was not just a miracle of all miracles. It is what happened to the Israelites. They feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

What is your wall of water? What is chasing you that looks unstoppable? The sea did not move because Israel was brave. It moved because God was faithful, and Moses lifted his staff, and the people kept walking.

Sometimes the only way through is straight through.

So in answer to those two questions, I say to you – walk on.