March 16, 2026 - Exodus 14 & Psalm 60

We read Exodus 14 and Psalm 60, and reflect on how God delivers on His promises. When we are struck with loss, the Sovereign remains. When defeat brings confusion and excruciating pain, we hold onto the banner of God’s Word. Through trials, we learn to trust His promises and look to Christ for the ultimate victory and deliverance over sin and death. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome To The Reading Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way. I'm Tyler Sanborn, Student Ministry Director at Compass Bible Church South Valley. Today is Monday, March 16th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus fourteen. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi Haharoth between Migdal and the sea, in front of Baal Zephon. You shall encamp facing it by the sea, for Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, They are wandering in the land, the wilderness has shut them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed towards the people, and they said, What is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel, while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them and camped at the sea, by Pi Haharath, in front of Baal Zephon. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly, and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground, and I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten the glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. Then the angel of God who was going before the hosts of Israel, moved and went behind them in the pillar of cloud, moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel, and there was the cloud and the darkness, and it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them, into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen, and in the morning watched the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea, the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea. Not one of them remained, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses, and you have been angry, O restore us. You have made the land to quake, you have torn it open, repair its breaches for its totters. You have made your people see hard things, you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger. You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow, that your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us. God has spoken in his holiness, with exaltation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the veil of Succath. Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine, Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter, Moab is my wash basin, upon Edom I cast my shoe, over Philistia I shout in triumph. Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth, O God, with our armies. O grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man. With God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes. My youngest child in about a couple weeks will be turning three years old, and Shepard is a a little guy that loves to see the good guys win. He has this understanding that the bad guys are bad and the good guys are good, and it is truly good that the bad guys lose and the good guys win. And in our text today, what a classic example of God providing victory over Israel's foes. And we see the Egyptians in this passage in Exodus 14 drowned out and blotted out in the midst of the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his hosts, his chariots, his horsemen, all the chariots of Egypt go under, and we we see the the epic loss that Egypt suffers at the hand of Yahweh, at the hand of God in his name is lifted up as a result. And if you and I were in a position where Israel is, we see them showing fear, we see them complaining, we see them in this position of anger, even where they're getting frustrated. Like, was there not enough space for all of us to be buried in Egypt? Uh people are turning on Moses and uh expressing themselves in in certain ways. And we see such a uh a great one-liner that Moses shares. He says, Fear not in verse 13, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. He's gonna do it to you today, he's gonna make this happen. I just I just imagine Moses saying, just watch. Just watch what God can do. Um, he says at the end of verse 14, you have only to be silent. Just let God work. You just follow, just follow his plan. He promised that he would lead you out of Egypt. He promised in Exodus 6 that with great power and great judgment there was going to be a scene that God is God is going to exercise his promises in Exodus 7 at verse 5. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. When I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them, God is coming through on his promises, and he is providing for his people in an epic way. Uh, such a uh vivid imagery for us today to see the the walls of water on the left and on the right. And uh ultimately we see God fulfilling his promise that the reason he has raised Pharaoh up, this purpose that he has made, is so that the name of Yahweh would be proclaimed in all the earth. And uh what an epic defeat that Egypt, uh Pharaoh and his army had had suffered. And great we see, great is the power of the Lord against the Egyptians, and what a great response from Israel. Um, the people fear the Lord and they believe in him, and they are they are seeing that God clearly has used the servant Moses in a powerful way, and uh that is a great encouragement to us. Now, as we look at our text in the Psalms, we see Psalm chapter 60. And in this time of contemplation and and confusion, even there's a lot of questions being asked by uh by Israel. You have where are you, God? You've rejected us, um, broken our defenses, you have been angry. We look to verse one. Uh, there's this cry out from God's people um asking, where are you? Where were you to defend us? Uh, where is our God? We we're we're suffering great heartache now because you you allowed this to happen. There's destruction and and there is a cloudiness and an uncertainty among God's people. Um there's defeat and and much more. Verse 3, you've made us, you've made your people uh see hard things. They experience bitter, bitter loss. And the the text here is showing us um that there is a a key point to to reorient your focus, this banner. Uh you have set up a banner in verse four for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. And uh when our hearts grow faint in us, when we're neat needing to wave the surrender flag, and we need to regroup and retreat. And at times we we need to rally and our our focal point to to regroup and refocus it is the truth of God's scripture. It's the truth of God's word, and we can find a refuge in Him. And uh at times in life we have a lot of unanswered questions, and we can we can look to God and say, Well, you've you've been with us though so far. Now, now what do we do? This is this is a new and unique circumstance. What do we do when we're suffering loss? Or what do we do when there's so many questions that are just void of answers? We look to the God that has been faithful, we look to the God that has been providing for us day after day after day, and uh there's uh a text here in the middle that kind of refocuses the the reader's eyes and the heart towards what is really going on. It's it's God and his authority being exercised. God has spoken, verse 6, in his holiness with exaltation. I will divide up Shechem and portion out the veil of Sekoth. Uh these are just geographical points, and we can remember as we look to the Old Testament, God promising specific geographical positions on the map and saying, This land of Canaan, it's gonna be yours. This point in Egypt where you're suffering, where you're enslaved, it's only gonna be a for a time I'm gonna deliver you out with a mighty hand. And we can see God's uh protection in all of this. We can see um as we look to God's uh protection, his rule, um, and the way that it is just so good that God uses mankind and uses specific peoples for different acts of service, uh servitude to him, even. And um we look to God's enemies, ultimately, he has the victory, and over the course of time, God's people they did suffer defeat, uh, they did suffer um hard losses, but God also provides victory. He is equally as much orchestrating losses as he is victories, and every every loss that is suffered by God's people, specifically here we're looking at Israel. He had sovereignty over that. And and as we look to the end of the psalm here in Psalm chapter 60, we look to verse 12. Uh, with God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes. The the victory, any victory or success that we have in our in our life, the ultimate answer is that God provided that for us. Though we do have a responsibility to work hard, to to strategize, to plan uh and to be shrewd and to be using the resources and skills that God has given us uh to glorify him. It's it's ultimately God that provides the victory. It's God that orchestrates the details of our life in the way that he pleases. So that's an encouragement to us, and we can we can praise God for that. We can praise God that even though it feels at times like God has rejected us, he doesn't feel like air quotes feel near to us. We know that the truth of the matter is God is uh God is omnipresent, he is omniscient, he knows our every thought, he knows uh how we are feeling, he knows the attitudes of our heart, he knows what we're thinking, and he is ever and everywhere present. And so we have a great comfort there in wherever we go, whether it's in into the valley of the shadow of death, or if we are uh just entering a season of triumph or uh great success here in a in a worldly sense, uh, we can know that God is uh orchestrating the details. We can trust that no matter what happens, uh we have a God that is faithful, we have a God that is true to follow through with his promises, and that is a great encouragement. We can look back to the Exodus, we can look back to the plagues and the great power that God has displayed over other nations to show his might, to make his name known and his name great uh in all the earth. And and what a great privilege that is for us to wave the banner of Christ, for us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and uh to proclaim the great works that God has done in our life to save us from sin and to uh to give us life uh everlasting through the cross of Jesus Christ. So if you're feeling uh if you're feeling a sea if you're currently in a season of uncertainty, if you're feeling feeling low, or the details and the in the circumstances of your life are really challenging right now, uh let's all look to God who is faithful to deliver, ultimately deliver his people from death to life, and he provides us victory over the grave. We don't need to fear it anymore. That the the very greatest enemy that we ever had was uh was our sin, the grave and death, and and God has provided victory over all these things. So we we have a hope and a joy that is eternal in the eternal God. Thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.