Desert Wandering #2

Good morning! We are now going to be following these 2 million plus people as they head toward the Red Sea. And what is the first consequence of their departure from Egypt?

Exod 14:1-8

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.

3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

4 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.

5 And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?

6 And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him:

7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.

8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand.(KJV)

We see the Pharaoh changing his mind about the loss of his economic base, his slaves. These 2 million plus people did all the work that kept the country going, and I imagine the Pharaoh asked himself how he could have been so dumb as to let that happen. Well, we already know why. Look at verse 4. "And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow them;". Also verse 8 you see it happening. You see, it was all here in God’s plans to harden Pharaoh’s heart again. Purpose? That God would be glorified using Pharaoh and his army, and to give even more proof that He was God, not their Pharaoh, not their gods.

We have an emergency here, don’t we? And guess what! This was by God’s own making. Have you ever thought that some emergencies you face could be God’s doing? Does He bring these about to be mean to you or really cause you problems or do these happen because God can’t stop them, etc.? No, of course not. Any thing He does is for His glory and He already has a solution ready for the situation. If we don’t get our marching orders from Him as to how to respond to an emergency, that is our fault, because we are not tuning in to Him to get the help.

In this situation we already know that this situation is of God’s making and we also know the outcome; but let’s look at this whole situation, even though we have done it at various times in our lives, and see if we can get a fresh perspective of God’s part not only in their lives but in ours.

Ok, here we have Pharaoh going after the people of Israel with at least 600 chariots and thousands of soldiers. He had a reasonable sized army, at least he must have thought he did, and off they go chasing after the people of Israel. Meanwhile the people had reached the Red Sea and were camped by this body of water. I wonder how many of you have ever seen the Ten Commandments movie with Charleton Heston. I bet it was much like that. Now, for those of you who have never heard a herd of horses coming your way, I can tell you from what I have seen in Westerns, that when a herd of horses is coming your way, you can hear them from quite a few miles away. The pounding of the hooves is loud and the sound also travels through the ground in the form of vibrations in the ground. Do you remember seeing in cowboy movies these cowboys putting their ears to a set of railroad tracks or to the ground. They knew that sound traveled in the ground too.

Exod 14:9-10

9 But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.

10 And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.(KJV)

Look at verse 10-and when the Pharaoh drew near, the people realized that the Egyptian army was after them. And this terrified them of course because they figured they would be annihilated and they probably saw them coming too. Verse 9 it seems should have been written before verse 10, but it is a general comment that the army did overtake the Israelis, caught up to them there by the Red Sea. And of course we see the people hollering to God and Moses:

Exod 14:11-12

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!"(NIV)

And now they are suggesting surrender. They probably figured that would save their lives at least. And notice the accusation they make to Moses. "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? " They are already accusing him of bringing them into the desert to die.

Have you ever noticed when in a bad predicament that people will sometimes say it is someone else’s fault and that this other person was going to bring disaster on them? These people were using the blame game on Moses. I don’t think, even with all the miracles, that they believed Moses was following God’s instructions. Would you be convinced by miracles? Some folks wouldn’t be. Remember the Pharisees? They weren’t convinced at all.

What is Moses’ answer?

Exod 14:13-14

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."(NIV)

I can imagine these people saying to themselves, ‘Moses has to be crazy to say that. How can God possibly rescue us from this situation?’ I can picture them saying, "Yeah, sure!" Well unlike these people, Moses had faith that God would do something about the situation. The miracles had convinced him. He knew God gave him this job. And I believe that his heart was right and he was happy to have that relationship with the almighty creator of this world who was the God of his ancestors, and not the god of some other people’s ancestors. But in realizing this predicament, he himself starts crying out to God for help. What is God’s response?

Exod 14:15-16

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.(NIV)

It is quite possible that Moses had already been told that by raising his staff over the sea that the water would divide, and he had not done it yet. We don’t know. We do know that God seems to be reproving Moses. At least from the translations from the Hebrew that we have, but again, not knowing Hebrew, I can’t say. Perhaps our Jewish scholars can tell us. Regardless, Moses (again?) gets his instructions to tell the Israelites to move forward-obviously toward the sea, and then stretch the shepherd’s staff over the sea to cause it to divide and give the people dry ground to travel on.

Other than seeing something like this on TV, have you ever seen anything like that-where there are two walls of water on either side of a road, being higher than the road by who knows what measurement, held in place just by air? Other than in the movies, I have never seen such a thing and you can be sure they never had either. Yet God did it. As a matter of fact, it had never happened before.

Deut 4:32-37

32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?

33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?

34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

35 Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.

36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.

37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;(KJV)

This point was made that God had never done something like this for a nation, but for the people- the nation of Jacob, He did.

Here we have the emergency-orchestrated by God Himself, and the solution also provided by God. What else did God do? He moved Himself from in front of the people to behind them to block the sight of the people from the Egyptians.

Exod 14:19-20

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.(NIV)

Notice how long that cloud and the fire stayed between the 2 groups of people. All night. And the cloud appeared to the Egyptians to be just that - a cloud, but on the Israeli side God had that pillar or column formed of fire for light to see by.

Exod 14:21

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,(NIV)

It is not clear from scripture how long it took God using the east wind to mount up the water. It seems that it had to have happened for a part of the night. It had to be, I would guess, of hurricane or tornado strength to mount up this water.

Exod 14:22

22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.(NIV)

Now if a wall of water was on their right and left, you know it had to be deeper than some people imagine. Some folks think that because the Hebrew says Sea of Reeds instead of Red Sea that it had to be shallow. Well, the whole sea could have been called the Sea of Reeds at that time, and no doubt its shallow areas near the shore did have reeds in them, but that does not mean the whole area was shallow. Plus we really still don’t know the exact location-it is guessed at-of Pi Hahiroth which was opposite Baal Zephon. Bible scholars can’t really all agree as to this location. At any rate, anyone who thinks that the people of Israel had to have gone across a shallow area need to ask themselves, how in the world would Pharaoh and his army have drowned in the sea when it started coming back if it was just shallow water, say like under 4 or 5 feet deep. No way would they have drowned. Most of Pharaoh’s army would have made it back to the shore they came from or would have swum after the people of Israel. They would have been able to release most of their horses from the chariots and swum with them after the people. The only reason people come up with the crazy idea that this water was not deep enough to drown people is their inability to believe God can and does and did work miracles.

Did God get the glory? He told Moses before it happened what would be happening:

Exod 14:17-18

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."(NIV)

Now I used to wonder if the Pharaoh had been one of the folks who drowned, because in the movie with Charleton Heston and Yul Brenner we see him staying on the shore. Psalm 136:15 tells us "But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever."(KJV)

And here is what happened:

Exod 14:22-28

22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

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.

25 He made the wheels of their chariots come off 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."

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 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.(NIV)

Notice too in verse 24. It says during the last watch of the night the Lord threw the army of Pharaoh into confusion. I think this is somewhere around 3 am in the morning. I am not exactly sure, but this shows us that the people were making their way across at night. And once the people got across, God had Moses stretch his arm out over the water to drown Pharaoh’s entire army.

Now I want to ask you this. What is your enemy and who is your enemy? I will answer it for you. Sin and Satan are the enemy. Who has miraculously delivered you from sin and Satan? You know of course that it was Jesus who did this. We actually have a picture here of Jesus delivering the world of sin and Satan, just as is going to occur before the Great White Throne Judgement. Actually, He has already delivered us from those, however, Satan’s final destruction will come right before the Great White Throne judgment. But we truly have here a picture of deliverance. A picture of complete deliverance. We have been delivered from the power of sin, from the deception the devil has worked hard trying to put on us, from his influence in our lives, from the slavery he wants us all in, and one day he himself and all his demons and followers will go into the lake of fire. Notice, he and company get destroyed by a lake, even though this one is one of fire, not of water like was the situation with the Pharaoh and his hoard. But the image comparison fits closely enough.

We have been given two deliverance pictures by God in the old Testament. 1. The deliverance from the death angel and being slaves in Egypt, 2. the deliverance from any ability of Pharaoh to get them back. God is in the deliverance business as you can see.

Do you see Him as your deliverer? In the case above, we had the deliverance of a physical situation. Sometimes He will deliver us from those. Other times He wants to deliver us from the spiritual bondage we sometimes put ourselves because we are ignorant of what we may be doing wrong. In those situations, the deliverance is in the soul, mind, spirit. The situation may not change, but the outlook and means of handling it does, and that is the way of escape-the change of heart and mind. God has done both in my life and I know He does it in yours too. And there are more deliverances to come. There were for the people of Israel. Next week we will be following them from the Red Sea in route to Sinai and seeing more pictures of God’s ways and truths and how these point to the New Testament.

Now for the Bible Trivia Question from last week: We are back in Acts. What was Paul’s basic message to these people, to this crowd in chapter 22? He gave his testimony in Hebrew to the crowd as to how he got saved and what instructions Jesus gave to him.

Today’s Bible Trivia Question: How did the crowd respond to Paul’s testimony?

That’s it for today. God bless you with the deliverances you may need this weekend. The Good News Lady

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem even more so now. "They shall prosper that love thee." Psalm 122:6 Pray also for wisdom for President Bush as enjoined us by I Timothy 2:1-03 and pray for our troops. Continue especially to pray God’s protection around our soldiers that are still in Iraq and other parts of the Arab world.