The Israelites were free, but they were still scared, so God took
them out the long way. Sometimes, when we are afraid, we have to
take the long way instead of the shortest way possible. But, if we
are “armed and ready” we can go the short way. That would be my
preference.
Exodus 13:17-18
17
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road
through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God
said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to
Egypt.” 18 So God led the people around by
the desert road toward the Red Sea. [c]
The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.
THE ISRAELITES
WERE ARMED, BUT THEY WEREN’T REALLY READY. THEY STILL HAD THE “SLAVE
MENTALITY”. We have to not only HAVE our armour on—we have to be
ready to stand and use it. To take ground and hold it.
THEIR JOURNEY CONTINUED---AND GOD TRAVELED WITH ISRAEL. He lit the
way for them and made His path visible.
20
After leaving Succoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the
desert. 21 By 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 that they could travel by
day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of
cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front
of the people.
GOD WILL LIGHT
YOUR PATH AND CLEARLY SHOW HIS PRESENCE—IF YOU EXPECT HIM TO.
THIS WEEK
So the
Israelites are out of Egypt and they are free of Pharaoh—right?
Nope. God has other plans. Sometimes we just want to run and we’re
so glad that we have escaped from something that we want to just
forget about it. But God is not ready for us to forget about it; He
wants us to remember it for all time—even set up a memorial in our
hearts for it.
God wants us to
have victory—to conquer—not just escape. But, this doesn’t mean
going back into sin or bad situations in order to prove we are
strong enough. Only God can show us when to flee and when to fight.
GOD ACTUALLY
TOLD MOSES THAT THEY WERE TO TURN BACK!
Exodus 14:1-4
1
Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “Tell the
Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol
and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal
Zephon.
GOD HAD A PLAN! He
knew the wickedness of pharaoh’s heart and the thoughts of his mind,
and would use this against him.
3
Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in
confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And
I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will
gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the
Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So the Israelites did this.
Oh no! Why would
God do this? Hadn’t they had enough of Pharaoh? Well, God didn’t
want them to have an enemy like pharaoh always lurking behind them.
And He didn’t want pharaoh to go unpunished. He wanted His glory to
be shown—so He hardened pharaoh’s heart one more time.
But I can just
imagine what was going through the mind of Moses. He must have been
groaning inside because I’m sure he had quite enough of pharaoh and
I’m also sure he had quite enough of dealing with the fears and
complaints of the Israelites.
Well, he might
as well get ready because he was going to have 40 years of the same
leading Israel. His purpose would not be fulfilled until he led them
though the wilderness and brought them right up to the promised
land. But, he would not lead them in. Joshua would do that.
The methods God
uses to bring us out of bondage are not the same ones He uses to
bring us into our “promised land”—our place of blessing. Israel came
out of Egypt as slaves. By the time they entered the Land, they
would be truly free.
5
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh
and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What
have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their
services!” 6 So he had his chariot made
ready and took his army with him.
WHAT A JERK!! I
mean, if you were to look for a human illustration for stupidity and
stubbornness—it would be Pharaoh. There are leaders of nations in
our day who are as evil and as ignorant of God’s Truth as Pharaoh
was. They believe that God is a God of HATE but God is a God of
Love.
And if they
don’t repent, they will come to the same end as pharaoh. We need to
pray for them to repent.
Unfortunately,
sin, pride, anger, revenge and hatred can make a person so blind
that they are willing to do things that amount to being suicidal.
They rush headlong into danger. And the wicked haven’t really got
the fear of God in their hearts.
You may think,
but this isn’t fair; God hardened pharaoh’s heart. Yes, He did. But
the only reason He did was because pharaoh was evil and there was no
true repentance. His heart was already hard and, since he would not
repent, god did not want him to save himself with cunning and false
piety.
7
He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other
chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
8 The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so
that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly.
9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and
chariots, horsemen [c]
and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped
by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.
So, Pharaoh took
his army and followed after the Israelites. And the Israelites, who
have experienced all of God’s miracles and seen all the plagues that
afflicted the Egyptians, look up and see the Egyptian army marching
after them. Did they react in faith? Absolutely not. They were
shaking in their shoes.
Granted, this
was a fearsome sight, but look at what they had already seen God do.
Look at the deliverance they’d already experienced.
When we come up
against sudden roadblocks and threats, do we look back at what God
has already done for us and then say “He will do this too”? Or do we
respond in unbelief and fear as if He has never delivered us before?
The comments of
the Israelites to Moses were ridiculous:
10
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the
Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to
the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it
because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the
desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us
alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
In other words,
“did you do all those miracles in order to play a huge prank on us?
To take us out and dash our hopes and kill us in the desert? It
didn’t seem to occur to them that this was another step to their
complete victory; that the same God that did all the wonders and
miracles could deliver them from the enemy. In fact, they didn’t
just doubt his power—they doubted his
intentions and motives!!
Do you ever do
that? Do you think that God heals you of one thing just so you can
get sick again? Have you ever thought He’s given you blessings just
to take them away? Unbelief, doubt, and lack of trust can be very
hazardous to our lives.
Once again,
Moses had to deal with the people and encourage them. He knew what
God’s intentions were.
13
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you
will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The
Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Then God spoke
to Moses and the people.
15
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the
Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff
and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that
the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
17 I will harden the hearts of the
Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory
through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his
horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I
am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his
horsemen.”
And God began to
move—even BEFORE Moses raised up his staff. So many times God has
begun to move and we aren’t aware, but there are signs there if we
look for them—sometimes even a pillar of cloud between us and our
enemies. And there are always angels around God’s people.
19
Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's
army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved
from in front and stood behind them, 20
coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night
the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other
side; so neither went near the other all night long.
What a sight that
must have been, but more was coming. The Israelites were about to
see things no one had ever witnessed.
Now Moses had to
act with greater faith and faster than ever before. They were up
against the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army was closing in on them. Have
you ever felt like that. Sometimes, there is no way out because God
wants us to trust Him and see His power at work. But now, Moses had
to do something. He had to stretch out his staff—and he did. God
will always give us our own “staff”—the tools we need to perform
God’s will—the method for deliverance.
21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night
the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it
into dry land. The waters were divided, 22
and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall
of water on their right and on their left.
We’ve probably
all seen movies that depicted this, but nothing we’ve seen on the
screen could ever match what the people actually saw with their eyes
that day.
23
The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots
and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24
During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the
pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into
confusion.
I LOVE THIS!!
Can you just picture it?
25
He made the wheels of their chariots come off [d]
so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's
get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against
Egypt."
And, God told
Moses to stretch out his hand again.
26
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so
that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots
and horsemen." 27 Moses stretched out his
hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place.
The Egyptians were fleeing toward [e]
it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. 28
The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the
entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the
sea. Not one of them survived.
Voila!! No more
Pharaoh and no more army of Egypt!!! Not only were the Israelites
completely delivered, but the Egyptians were too. They had suffered
enough because of the ungodly leadership of this stubborn king. Now
they had two wonderful things in their favor:
they now knew the power of
God and could choose to serve Him
they no longer had a leader
who would lead them into destruction
But, the
Israelites were not drowned in that water. They went through on dry
ground and saw the enemy—the mighty army of Egypt and pharaoh lying
dead before them.
29
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.
Our enemies are
not flesh and blood, but God will destroy our enemies as surely as
He destroyed the Egyptian army that day---if we will trust Him.
31
And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed
against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their
trust in him and in Moses his servant.
And finally, the
Israelites put their trust in God and in His servant Moses. At least
for a time.
What is your
great need today? What is the “army” pursuing you? What is the Red
Sea you are up against?
God has an
answer for you. He has put a “staff” in your hand and He will tell
you when to use it. But, you have to completely trust HIM.
God is speaking to some one today saying "trust me" I have it under
control.
