Exodus – The Clue is in the Name. (Matthew 14: 1-31/ 4448)
The Exodus has been described as one of the most dramatic events in all of the Bible. In fact, it's been said to be the greatest miracle in all of history. Most people know the story: the children of Israel departed from the land of Egypt, and they are pursued by the Egyptian army, they got to the Red Sea, and God parts the waters of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel crossed on dry ground. They are then pursued and followed by the Egyptian army, and when the Egyptian army got in the midst of the crossing, the sea wall of water collapsed and the Egyptian army is destroyed.
That's the story we all know. But I have a few questions about it. Questions like, is it describing real events? What was the initial reaction of the children of Israel when they got into this situation? And of course, the ultimate question is, what is the lesson here for us?
In our series through the book of Exodus, we've come to the Exodus. chapter 14. Exodus chapter 14. It's a long chapter, so we go through it in small bit size chunks try and unpack what it is saying as we go along, then try and draw some conclusions and even a modern day application from it. So beginning at verse one.
1Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They
are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’ 4 Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honour over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
(Exodus 14: 1-4)
Let me pause here. We're going to look at the whole chapter, but we're going to move through it, piece by piece. At this point, we're simply told that they left Egypt. In verse one that they went by the sea? Because of this we see that Pharaoh thought they are now trapped.'
As a matter of fact, the text seems to indicate that he thought they were confused which is understandable, not knowing what was about to happen he probably thought it was a stupid place to stop and camp. The text then says, 'The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.' And I would simply point out that Pharaoh hardened his heart before the Lord did, we have talked about that at length in the previous episodes. One more observation, look at the end of verse four."
“I will gain honour over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.”
So, the chapter opens by telling us they camped by the Red Sea, and Pharaoh is coming after them. The next section talks about the chase. Verse 5.
5 Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
(Exodus 14: 5)
In other words, they're saying, "Wait a minute, what have we done? They turned against the people and asked why this was done.
So, verse 6 says,
6 So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. 7 Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness.
(Exodus 14: 6-8)
So, it says quite an army went out after them, six hundred choice chariots”. That indicates quite an army. There was a historian, a Jewish historian named Josephus. He actually lived in the time of Christ and beyond, in the 1st century. When he comments on this passage, he says there were 600 chariots, 50,000 horsemen, and 200,000-foot soldiers. The text indicates in verse 7 that there was a large army, and Josephus elaborates on that and indicates this was a huge force led by the elite charioteer; that came after the children of Israel. This army was certainly sufficient for taking on the number of men in the Exiting nation of Israel, whether they actually had an army at all is open to question. So, this force was capable of taking them on. Verse 8 says, "And the children of Israel went out with boldness." That's an interesting comment. Some suggest that this little phrase means that they were, at this point, very confident and they went out with boldness. Now, that's significant because in verse 9, it says.
So, the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon.
(Exodus 14: 9)
You need to get this picture in mind. They left Egypt, they camped by the sea. They have no way of crossing the sea, right? There are no bridges. They turn around, and here's Pharaoh's army coming at them, pursuing them, and they can see that's quite a force coming at them. Somebody has suggested that maybe this is the origin of the expression "between the devil and the deep blue sea," and that's probably right. Meaning no matter which way you go, you can't win? They don't have, we have if any military type men, they don't have any armaments. They have no way of defending themselves against Pharaoh's army, and they certainly don't have any way to cross the sea. So, at this point, they are trapped, and that's exactly how they felt. So, what do they do? Answer, what all children do when they get in a pickle? They start complaining. Look at verse 10.
10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So, they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.
(Exodus 14: 10)
Can you imagine what they were saying? "What have you done? How did we get in this mess? It's all because you had this bright idea that we should leave Egypt. If you think I'm exaggerating, read the next verse.
11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”3 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Standstill, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
(Exodus 14: 11-14)
Now, this part of the chapter, we clearly see a stark contrast between the people and Moses. The people see Pharaoh's army, and the text says they were very afraid. One commentator says they were petrified, and they started crying out to the Lord, and then they started verbally attacking Moses. And what they say is, "What did you do? We told you in the back in Chapter 5, 'Just let us alone. We were fine. We'll serve you. Just don't stir up trouble.' It's all your fault. You got us out of Egypt, and you brought us out here to just die." So, they were really complaining against him and the Lord. Now, the truth of the matter is, this is blatant unbelief. What, in their lifetime, have they seen the Lord do? Ten plagues, supernatural plagues, the last of which was the death of the firstborn, which, if because they had just obeyed the Lord and put a little blood on the doorpost, the escaped it. These people have seen, over, and over, again, the Lord work, and He said, "I'm going to take you to the promised land." They knew they were not in the promised land, camped by the sea, right? When they say, "You just brought us here to die," you've got to ask, "Well, wait a second. Don't you believe that God was going to bring you to the promised land after all? You think about to die? That is really nothing more than unbelief."
In contrast to that, Moses says, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." Now, that's very important. "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." You've probably heard me say this before, but the word "salvation" in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, simply means "delivered." When we hear the word "salvation," we automatically think of salvation by grace through faith, right? Well, that's mis applying the word if we think it is referring to that in very situation. The word simply means "delivered." Now, when applied to our spiritual salvation, we are delivered from the penalty of sin. We are delivered from the power of sin. We are delivered from the presence of sin. So, it's perfectly legitimate to say we were saved, meaning we were delivered from sin, that is after all what we were saved from. But someone can be "delivered" from danger as well as physical death, not just spiritual death, which is what it means when considered from a New Testament point of view. So here, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" is not talking about what we would refer to as spiritual salvation by grace through faith. It's talking about the Lord delivering you from danger or even physical death. Hold still, Moses says. Just stand still and watch.
Even today when you are in trouble whatever way you turn. What do you do? What else can you do? You just stand and say, "Lord, you promised." I’m going to claim the promise. I’m going to stand, see the salvation of the Lord.
15 And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. 16 But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17 And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honour over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained honour for Myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved, and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. 20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus, it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night. 21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
(Exodus 14: 15-22)
"In the sequence of the story, what we see now is after their complaints, and Moses says, 'Be still and see the salvation of the Lord,' we have the crossing of the Red Sea. What is significant here is that the text says, 'I'm doing this that they may know I am the Lord.'
Look at verse 18. Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.'
That's been said before, and it says it again. He is saying in verse four that the Egyptians may know I am the Lord. You can't help but feel that that's a major point he's trying to make in this passage. Then we're told the Angel of God, verse 19. Is the word 'Angel' in your Bible spelled with a small 'a' or a large 'A'? What does that tell you? It tells you that this was no ordinary Angel.
There, this expression, the Angel of the Lord, appears repeatedly in the Old Testament. Some of the time it is referring to an (a)ngel, other times it is very clear that it's talking about the Lord Himself. And the Angel of the Lord is taken as the pre-Incarnate Christ, that before He became a man, He appeared in the Old Testament as an (A)ngel. And this, no doubt, this is such a case in point.
The Lord, at this point, is their guide and their guardian. He is telling them where to go, straight up the water, and He's telling them that He will protect them. Then the cloud comes between them and the army. I just think this is so interesting. It's light on one side and dark on the other. So, the Egyptians see is dark, and on the other side of the cloud, all the children Israel are in the light. Incredible. The text says that He sent a mighty East wind. That indicates this is probably a special supernatural wind. Pushing the water back to a point that some ingenious people has figured out that this was probably as much as a half a mile wide of dry seabed to walk across.
I'm labouring the point that this was a miracle, and I don’t have a problem saying that. The simple truth is in the first verse of the first book of the Bible, in the first verse it says: 'In the beginning, God created the earth.' The heavens and the earth. If He created the earth, cutting a little path through the Red Sea is no problem. So, I think this was a supernatural miracle, and I think they went across on dry ground. If you think that means I believe the Bible, I plead guilty
23 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians.
(Exodus 14: 23-24)
Before I go on, did you notice where the Lord was? He looked down upon the children of Egypt through the pillar of the cloud and the pillar of fire in the cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. This happens it says during the morning watch? That is somewhere between 2:00 AM and dawn in the morning. It's the last watch of the night, and it's called the morning watch because it ends with the morning sun coming up. The Lord looked down on the Egyptian army, and He “troubled”. The word troubled used mean to worry and cause anxiety, So, sometime between two in the morning, even 5 in the morning, and they wake up and say, 'I just don't feel right about this.' But what about this doesn't feel right?
25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
(Exodus 14: 25)
How many times in this passage has it said that 'they may know that I am the Lord'? Verse 4 and verse 18. And now, what happens? They got the message. They finally realise the Lord is fighting against them.
Other passages confirm this is the situation.
'The waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You; they were afraid; The depths also trembled. The clouds poured out water; The skies sent out a sound; Your arrows also flashed about. The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea, your path in the great waters, And Your footsteps were not known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.'
(Psalm 77 16-20
This passage actually adds some extra insights to the story. Apparently, there was lightning, there was thunder, and there was an earthquake as well. So, accompanying what is told to us in Exodus is lightning, thunder, and an earthquake. No wonder they were afraid. No wonder they were troubled. And the Lord also causes the wheels of their chariots to break or fall off, no wonder some of them said, 'Let’s get out of here.'
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” 27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. 29 But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30 So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so, the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.
(Exodus 14: 26-31)
So, the Lord saved them, meaning He delivered them from the army of the Egyptians, and it closes the chapter by saying, the people feared, and they believed the Lord. They believed the Lord and they believed His servant Moses. Very interesting.
Alright, did you learn anything? Did you learn anything you didn't know? Did you know there was lightning, thunder, and an earthquake? What should we take away from this?
Let me suggest that one of the points of this passage is, in fact, it may be the point, that the Lord delivered them from bondage by His power. They were redeemed by blood (The Passover Lamb) and they were delivered by power. The Passover commemorates the redemption, the Exodus is emphasizing the deliverance by power, and I’ve pointed that out several times as we’ve worked through these recent chapters. The Exodus illustrates God's deliverance of His people by power. One commentator I read said, 'The crossing of the Red Sea is the greatest display of God's power in the Old Testament.' He then adds, “But the greatest power of all time is that which raised Christ from the dead.” Contrary to what critics say, this was a manifestation of God's supernatural power. In fact, immediately after this deliverance, the Israelites regarded their salvation as supernatural, as we'll see in the next chapter. They continued to do that for generations, as is indicated hundreds of years later in the writing of the Psalms and elsewhere, right down to this day. The text clearly presents a supernatural deliverance and even states that God acted as He did to prove His supernatural power.
If there's any one thing we should get out of this chapter, it's the single word 'power'. Is God powerful? I don't think I have to tell you this if you’re a Christian believer, but I'm going to anyway. We have power, do we not? The last thing Jesus told the disciples before He ascended, is 'You shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me.'
If anybody should have realized the power of God, it should have been them. They saw ten plagues, and then they saw God part the waters of the Red Sea. So, what's the problem? And with that point, I'd like to turn to Psalm 106,
'Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies but rebelled by the sea, by the Red Sea.' Nevertheless, He saved them for His name’s sake,
That He might make His mighty power known.
(Psalm 106: 7)
What did they do? They did not remember the multitudes of His mercies, meaning His miracles. They didn't remember the miracles of the ten plagues. Nevertheless, He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His power known. That's the next generation: They soon forgot, they will be tested in the desert, and they will fail the tests because they forgot that God is powerful, supernaturally powerful. The truth is, some of us are going to walk away from this passage and forget what it tells us. We might not forget the story, but we may very well forget the awe and the power of God. How many of you have heard a great sermon or teaching on a passage, and you walked out, and you said, 'Wow! That's tremendous. I'm going to remember that for the rest of my life.' And the next time you faced a trial you forgot that God is powerful. We soon forget, and that's what the problem is with these people, and it’s the problem with a great many people today. He delivered them from the hand of the enemy. He did it by a mighty deliverance, a deliverance by power. And you know what? They forgot. They forgot the power of God. They were not able to take it with them, even though it was God's desire, even though He delivered them by power, and it was obvious He delivered them by power.
This is that is so typical of the people of God, is it not? It is so typical of us sometimes. You know, when you come to that point, you know what you're going to have? You're going to have faith. That's what you're going to have. And you know what? That's what He wants from us. That's what He wants from us. But you know what, that's why when they left Egypt, He didn't take them the short way. Do you remember why, he it said he didn’t take them the short route, we studied this in yesterday’s episode. ? He said, 'Lest they see war and run back to Egypt. They had to learn something.
They had to learn something that they could not learn in Egypt. They had to learn something about the God of power, about the God of deliverance. And you know what? Even their deliverance of Egypt did not immediately teach them that. They had to come out into the wilderness, and see God works for almost another 40 years, to get them ready. They had to see it over and over and over again. But you know what? They were not able to take it away. They didn't learn their lesson. They didn't get it. It would take another generation.
The Apostle Paul says, 'These things happened for an example to us.' You know what? We have not seen what they saw. We have not seen what they saw. We have not seen the ten plagues. We have not seen the Red Sea part. We have not seen the Egyptian army drowned. We have not seen the water come out of the rock. We have not seen the quail and the manna fall. We have not seen those things. We have not seen the river parted. We have not seen that. But you know what? We have seen the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have seen that. And you know what? It takes more than just seeing it. It takes more than just seeing it. Paul says, 'These things happened to them for an example to us, upon whom the ends of the world are come.'
The problem is, we forget. We forget. And you know what? That's why we come together. That's why we are commanded to come together regularly and worship, because we have a tendency to forget. That's why do church, come together as a community on a Sunday. That is why we take communion. That's why we take communion. We take communion to remember, because we are inclined to forget. We take communion to remember the body that was broken and the blood that was shed, because we forget. We forget. That's why we read the Word of God. That's why we study the Word of God, because otherwise we will forget. That's why we pray. That's why we pray, because we forget, and that is why we worship. That's why we worship. Because we forget. So always reminder friends that God has the power to do what he promised that don’t forget that, always remember that.