Exodus 14:10-14; 21-15:2 • God Makes a Way
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your Bibles at Exodus 14 as we continue our walking with the people of God on their journey of faith, understanding God's unlimited grace. You will love this chapter because of the movies and the songs describing the events. This is about the parting of the Red Sea. And you may think you already know all there is to know about that, but recognize that Exodus 14 verse 5 begins with the classic V8 head slap moment.
Pharaoh says, "What were we thinking?
We let the slaves go.
Who's going to make the bricks? Who's going to do the laundry?
Boys, get in the chariots.
We're going to round them up. And off they head.
Six hundred chariots of the royal guard plus all the army to re-get the Israelite slaves." Now it's a long passage, so I'm going to ask you to sit where you are. Look at Exodus 14 and verse 10 as we see what happens next. Exodus 14 verse 10, "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 will 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, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. The people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground." On to verse 21, "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, 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." On to verse 26, "And in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire, the cloud looked down." Oh, I'm looking.
"And the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters 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.
As the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
Chapter 15 has Moses and the people's response.
Verse 1 of chapter 15, "Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord.
I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea. I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea. The Lord is God, and I will praise Him my Father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is God, and I will praise Him my Father's God, and I will exalt Him."
We know the songs, and we know the story.
Is it real?
And if not, what difference does it make?
After all, you cannot be in Christian circles long without hearing the story of the parting of the Red Sea and almost as quickly the naturalistic explanations for what actually happened. I mean, there's an old story about a new believer who is praising the Lord with Moses' song. "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea." And a wizened professor said to him, "You don't need to praise the Lord for the miracle of the Red Sea. The Red Sea on the shores of Egypt is marshy ground.
All you needed was a strong wind and a receding tide, and the Israelites walked along in two inches of water. They were just fine."
Well, that kind of cowed and silenced the new believer for a moment, and then he began to sing again. "I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously." And the professor, "Why are you singing?
I told you there was no miracle of the parting of the Red Sea." He said, "I know. I get it. I'm praising God for the miracle of drowning the Egyptian army in two inches of water." You either believe it or you don't.
And the question is, all the naturalistic explanations, why are they offered when they do not actually answer the details of Scripture? A receding tide? What does the Bible actually say? The water walled up on both sides of them to their right hand and to their left. That is not a receding tide. Two inches of water over marshy ground? The Bible says they walked across on dry land. Was it a peninsula hidden in the water that the Israelites found? Well, if so, why didn't the Egyptian chariots follow them onto the peninsula? And why in the world did they get off to drown in the sea?
There are no naturalistic explanations for what actually happened. The explanation is God did what He said, working and fighting in behalf of His people. But if you do not believe that, what is actually at stake in whether this is a mirage or a true miracle?
What's at stake in believing that God can work in extraordinary ways in behalf of His people? Just this. If this is false, you are just on your own no matter what happens.
If this is true, you are never alone no matter what happens.
Clearly the Israelites believed, some of them, that they were alone. After all, verses 11 and 12 are pretty frank. They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness?" Verse 12, "Is this not what we said to you? Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians." Not only did they say, "We're on our own, but leave us alone."
It'd be better to go back there into Egypt and serve Pharaoh. It's just the constant reminder of what we know is true. We always prefer the devil we know over the devil we don't know.
Uncertainty, fear, worse than the trial they are already in. Let us just go back to Pharaoh rather than face what we fear could be worse.
So what are Moses' first word from God to the people? Verse 13, "Fear not."
The seriousness of the words to be known by their frequency in Scripture.
Fear not.
When this people's forefather, Abram, received from God a vision that said, "I, despite your age, will make you a father of many nations," the opening words were fear not.
And when his son Isaac took the land that was promised but was threatened by famine and foe to be driven from the land, God said to Isaac, "Fear not." And when Jacob's son Joseph had been sold down into Egypt and Jacob was living in grief when famine came upon the land and he had to go into Egypt and suddenly faced Joseph, a prince in Egypt who had been betrayed by his brothers, Joseph's words to his own family were, "Fear not." You meant this for evil. God meant it for good. And now when Moses comes 400 years later to rescue this people and they say, "Who are you? And who sent you?" Moses' words are fear not. "I am Yahweh, the great Jehovah God has sent me." And when he led the people to the promised land but by his own sin was denied entrance, it was Joshua who took over. And when the people began to complain to Joshua saying, "We can't go in that land. There are giants there. We will look like grasshoppers next to them. Please don't make us go." And Joshua said, "Be strong and courageous. Fear not. The Lord will fight for you." And when David the King established the land from Dan to Beersheba and said to his son Solomon, "Now it is yours to rule," the opening words are, "Fear not, O wise man. The Lord will be your wisdom and your strong right arm." And when Elisha began now to instruct the kings of Israel in how they should win, how they should fight to lead for the Lord, and the Syrian army began to come against the people of Israel, and the servant of Elisha feared, Elisha said to his servant, "Fear not. There are more with us than are with them." And he opened the eyes of his servant to see the heavenly host and chariots ready to fight for God's people. And when Isaiah saw the real chariots of the Assyrians who would come and overthrow the kingdom and recognize that that meant for the people of God, there would be centuries of struggle where God would discipline his people till they returned to him, and they feared that there would be no help for them, God said, "Fear not. I will strengthen you and help you. I will be your righteous right hand. I will fight for you." And when that righteous right hand appeared, it was the angel of God that went to Zacharias, the husband of Elizabeth, who said to her, "You will give birth to a son, and he will announce his cousin to the world, saying, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. Fear not." And when the angel went to Mary a virgin to say, "The Holy Spirit shall overshadow you, and you will give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel," which means God with us, fear not. And when Joseph did not want to take her, what did the angel say to Joseph? Fear not to take Mary as your wife. And when the child of that wonderful provision of God came upon the earth, the angel appeared to the shepherds and said, "What?
Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be to all the people." And when that child was on his way to Jerusalem as a lamb to be sacrificed, and even the disciples began to tremble, saying, "If we get to Jerusalem, they will murder you, and they will kill us not." Jesus said, "Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father's will to give you the kingdom." And John the Apostle tells us in the book of Revelation that when Jesus comes in his kingdom, he will say, "I am the beginning and the end. From the beginning I have been. The plan has always been for me to rescue you, and that is the end of the story, so fear not."
There are those who say there is a fear not in the Bible for every day of the year, including leap year.
What does that mean? God knows how much we can tremble before the circumstances of our lives, and so he says, "I want you to know that you need not fear." And he says it over and over again with great frequency, but it is the foundation of that command that you must hear. Why don't we fear?
Whatever it is God, point to us as the basis for not fearing our character. Rather he points to his character and his working in our behalf. Verse 13, how do we begin?
Fear not. Stand firm. See the salvation of the Lord, for he will work for you today. He will work for you. More than that, verse 14, the Lord will fight for you. Always the foundation for our fearlessness is not God coming to his people and saying,
"Buck up, boys.
Develop a little spine.
Big girls don't cry.
There's no crying in baseball or before the Lord's call.
None of that.
The Lord will work for you. He is Yahweh. Remember when Moses came to the people of God and they say, "Who are you and who sent you?" And God said, "Tell them I am. Yahweh. Jehovah. He is God and Jehovah is his name. He is the one who created the universe. He is the one of all power and all tenderness and he is now for you. And not only will he work for you, he will fight for you." It is the precursor of all that the New Testament will tell us. If God is for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, along with him, graciously give us all things? All things are being worked together for good for those who love God, are being called according to his purpose. Why do we believe that?
Because we have seen a God who would fight for us, even to the shedding of his own blood, even to giving himself and our behalf to fight hell that we would not face it and give us life and life eternal that we could never have claimed for ourselves. His work in our behalf. And when we know that, even when we face the hard things of life, we say, "I will not fear
because God is for me."
Is it just sentiment of Sunday school stories or did it make a difference to you?
I think of a phone call from a friend just a couple of weeks ago.
A man who because of his alcohol dependence, his last job and reputation and church.
Praise God, not his family.
But now he has to provide for his family with an uncertain and honestly fearful future.
And so as we were talking in the phone, he said he was moving from where he currently lives, where?
To another town.
I'm moving to the town of the pastor who led me to the Lord and ultimately married me and my wife.
Why there? Why to him? Why there? Why to him?
He said to my friend, "Because I remember in our premarital counseling how that pastor told me he came to know the Lord.
He had been at the edge of despair. Life was crushing him and he began to consider taking an ultimate step."
And then he said one day it occurred to him, if he went to hell, his own father would not care and would not lift a finger to stop it.
So he said, "Why not trust a father who gave everything to save me from hell?
What have I got to lose?"
It may not be very good theology, but I get it.
He fought for me. He gave his all for me. He wrestled for me. And when I know that is the God that I serve, that the God of all power nonetheless has said he would fight for his people. He loves them so much. And he did it with the ultimate gift of his own son. If that is my God and he is for me, then I need not fear. And my friend said, "I got to get close to that pastor again because I need to be remembered when I am so afraid of my future that my God fights for me."
It's not just my pastor friend who remembers and needs to remember that. I think of our own community. No mystery to you. We are a community that is hearing more and more of the stress of economic and population loss.
And the consequence is there is huge pressure on families, on couples, on marriages. And people are experiencing some of them great fear, some of them great rage because they recognize that sometimes it's the mature and the experienced workers who are dispensed with because they're more expensive than younger ones who for the moment feel more secure.
And with the bitterness and the anger and the rage is just the sense, "Why am I having to go through the deep waters?
Why is this right? Why is this good?" And it becomes a profound matter of faith. Not just to think back to a Sunday school bulletin of a story, but to say, "I will believe that God is even calling me through the deep waters because he is working for me and fighting for me." After all, when did we ever take the opinion that what is going to draw you closer and your family closer to God and to eternity is an easy life and all success and no worries?
How many times do we see people when life is just easy and they're cruising and they know nothing but success? They grow far more distant from God.
It is in the deep waters, it's in the trial that we say, "God, you have to help me. I can't fix this." And God taking us through the deep waters is not just working in our hearts. He's demonstrating to children and to spouses and to neighbors what it means for the people of God to fear not in a world that is full of fear because we believe in a God who works for us and fights for us and we trust him.
And the evidence of that trust is what Moses says would follow. Verse 13, "Moses said to the people, "Fear not, but stand firm."
The words are a combination of not running away and digging in.
You believe what God has said, believe that he is for you, and that means you're going to have to ignore some of the voices that are competing with the Word of God in this very moment.
After all, what are the voices that you recognize are all around the people of God and around Moses himself?
We are going to die.
This is not the right path.
This is stupid. God's leader is a fool.
God's promises are not real.
Let's go back.
Let's do something else.
This way that God is designed cannot be right.
And against all of that is God saying, "Not only will I work for you, but," verse 14, "I will fight for you."
And it is that strong assertion that is in the context because I'm Yahweh. Remember I'm the one who provided the plagues that got you released. The words of verse 13, "I will work for you today."
And verse 14, "I will fight for you tomorrow."
I was the God for your family in the past.
I am the God for you today, and I will be the God for the future. And because I am the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, you trust me and walk with me, and I will fight for you even when it seems that the world is closing in on you. After all, there are armies behind and the ocean before. I will fight for you. Fear not. Stand firm on the promises of God's Word. Easy?
No.
In our own church's history is the account of the two Margarites, Scottish women who would not bow to the religion of the king but said they would follow the Scriptures instead.
One was an older widow, the other just a girl in her teens.
And in order to shake them, what the soldiers did is made them face another ocean, tying to the stake in a rising tide the older woman far out from the shore and the younger teen near the shore so that the teen could watch the older woman in the faith drown in the rising tide and shake her from her faith.
As the older Margaret was drowning, the soldiers to tempt the younger Margaret said, "What does your faith provide for you?
What do you see there?"
Said the young Margaret, "What do I see there but Christ wrestling for me?"
In the person of the older Margaret, the younger saw, "That is what my Savior did for me. He fought hell and death and sin. Knowing it all, He gave Himself for me. And that is what somebody is doing even in this moment. And it means when I recognize my Savior gave Himself, wrestled against hell for my sake, I stand firm on my faith, my calling, my commitments to Christ."
It can be terribly hard. It can be terribly hard in any generation. You recognize that as we are as a country, more and more pressuring Christians in various ways for what we believe, what we say about the Scriptures, what we say about our culture around us, we can begin to say, "It's just foolish to be a Christian.
You sacrifice too much right now, reputation, perhaps in days to come, jobs and income and perhaps even our freedoms.
It would not be the first time."
Stephen Nichols, the Christian historian looking at our culture today, simply says, "This is the time for confidence."
Each age and generation will have unique challenges in the early 20th century.
Science and evolution question the need for God.
In the late 20th century, philosophers and English departments at every university questioned the possibility of any truth that was not relativistic.
In the early 21st century, we are being shaken by new perspectives on marriage, gender, and sexual orientation.
Those that claim Scripture is not just outdated, but cruel and oppressive.
What is our calling?
To stand firm. And what is the basis of that calling? We look to those who have gone before us with the unique challenges of their age and their generation who stood firm and they did so because they recognized a God who would fight for them and therefore they were willing to commit their futures as well as their present to standing for Him in the present time. It is still our calling and we don't just have to think about the large movements and waves of culture.
Recognize what is happening in this place, in our homes, where the economic conditions of our present community are so pressing in on us.
What happens when a mom or a dad is recognizing there is not the money to pay for food this month? We can't pay the mortgage. We don't have the payments. Or you look at somebody so much younger and inexperienced who had your job now because you have been either let go or demoted to pay you less.
We are visited in our own homes nightly by the twin furies of rage and fear.
Not recognizing what God may be doing is saying to mothers and fathers and grandparents, it is your moment of confidence to stand firm, to say the rage is justified, the fear is justified but we will not fear.
We will not give in. We will stand on the assurances of God's Word because our children are watching and they will face their challenges most surely.
And our neighbors are watching and our spouses are watching. Maybe our grandchildren are watching. And so we say as people of faith, I believe that my God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He did not give me His Word so I would smile at the Sunday School songs. He gave me the Word so that I would profoundly and deeply believe my God will work for me. My God will fight for me and so I will stand firm for Him. Even against my own heart's rage, my own heart's fear and the example of a crumbling faith that I will stand firm against for the sake of the family and the people to whom God calls me now.
After all, what is standing firm all about? Ultimately, we fear not and stand firm, not to do nothing. We stand firm as a call to action.
What is verse 15 telling us? Do you remember?
The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward." Standing firm is not the same as standing still.
It is standing on the foundation of God's Word and His promise so that we will act upon what God has said and move forward in the direction to which He calls us. Genuine, resolute faith is that faith that is acted upon taking the step of God's calling. And we say, "Well, of course they're going to do it. They've got dry land to go onto." Not a fair assessment.
Such swirling east wind that it is holding up walls of water on both sides of you. The Egyptian army is following you. Who knows how long till they come? Who knows how long the wind is going to hold? And if you make it to the other side, there is nothing there but wilderness and desert where no one can live.
Why should we go forward?
Because we are being called to step forward to do what God calls us to do, whatever that is. It can vary greatly. I will grant you.
One of the things that so often distresses preachers when I teach young preachers is saying to them, "You will very rarely tell anybody something they don't already know to do."
Tell people not to lie. Well, they never heard that.
Tell them not to steal. Oh, is that in the Bible?
Tell them they should be faithful to their spouses. Telling them with their children they should be kind but firm.
Everybody already knows what to do. What's the problem?
They don't do it. Why?
Because of fear.
If I do that, I'll get in trouble. If I do that, the boss will not appreciate it. If I do that, prophets will be at risk. If I do that, my wife will not respect me. If I do that, my kids may leave.
So often we as Christians inside somewhere believe that the basis of obedience is knowing the outcome, that I will do X so God will do Y.
Listen, God will be no man's debtor. He's not under our control. He is saying, "What I am calling you to do is take the next step of what you know is right before God." And he does not say that will be easy. He simply says, "Go forward in the way that you know to go."
Beth and I learn deeply from a friend of ours what that can actually mean. A couple that we have known for decades who now as they are about our age is facing the difficulty of multiple parents with Alzheimer's. They are facing the difficulties of their own careers coming to an end when they need money more than ever before. Two years ago their house burned down.
They have difficulties not only with their health but their children's health and their grandchildren's health.
They have had a true job experience for years now.
And at some point Kathy said to her friend Pam, she simply said, "Pam, what do you do in the face of all this?"
And Pam's response that we have repeated to one another over and over again is simply, you do the next right thing and trust God to do the rest.
He says that He will fight for you. He says He will make provision for you as He knows is right for your eternity and your children's eternity and your neighbor's eternity and your church's mission. And so you do the next right thing, not knowing the outcome but knowing your God. He is the one who will fight for you. He's the one who sent Christ for you. He is the one who says He cares for you ultimately and eternally. And when He calls, what do you do? You do the next right thing and trust Him with the results. What does that look like? You would have been thrilled just yesterday to have sat with me and other officers of this church as various officer candidates were coming before us. And one of them told a story. I'm not going to mention his name because it would embarrass him. But as we listened, we were all moved. We just felt chills go down our spine to hear him talk about how doing the next right thing had caused the oceans of life to part in such a way that God had used him so powerfully and so wonderfully. I ask His permission, I will just tell you.
He said he grew up on a family farm with the intention of escaping from the farm with a medical career.
All went according to plan.
Good college, pre-med degree, good grades, application to med school, which was rejected.
He did not get in, and it was a shock to him.
Farm work behind him, medical career closed before him. What should he do? The next right thing.
I will seek to find out what God wants for my life. He went on a summer mission trip because he'd recently become a Christian with Campus Crusade for Christ. I went to Mexico because I did not speak Spanish, therefore I knew I would not have to share my faith.
Only to be disappointed when he got to Mexico to find that Crewe had on one sheet of paper how to explain your faith if you knew no Spanish.
And then with disappointment behind him, awkward faith sharing in front of him to actually speak what God was doing in his heart and life and to watch the spirit of God fight through his weakness, fight through his awkwardness, and part the sea of spiritual division and other people in such a way that they began to believe. And he watched the power of God at work doing what he could not do himself.
And then as he was rejoicing in the power of God in that place, suddenly to experience he and 50 other kids with him, dysentery, that meant they could not share their faith anymore.
He had seen the glory of God and now the disappointment of his health. What do you do?
The next right thing. Share your faith with your nurse as God split the seas and she became his wife.
And then God is calling them to the mission field. They believe that's why God has put us in this place, given us this background, given us the experience, only to get a letter from the military. Your country has need of your service.
Can't go to the mission field.
Disappointment behind, military service ahead. What do you do? The next right thing. Learn in officer training and international experience what God might use on the mission field after the military. He gets out of the military. He goes back to crew and becomes the youngest airy director of a national ministry, having the experience that God had prepared him to have. He did the next right thing. And then as God calls him into that service, they serve with fruitfulness and wonder and joy for years until the ministry says, "We need you to go to our most dangerous mission field."
Nicolae Ceausescu's communist Romania, where people die for their faith.
Danger ahead of them. Disappointment at leaving the past ministry behind them and yet they do the next right thing. And God parts the seas and they are already established in Romania when Ceausescu's government and the communist rule falls and they become the couple that are there to steer all the western missions who are coming into Romania and begin to broker them across the country. Already there as God has pre-prepared the land ahead of them as the hearts were taken in doing the next right thing. This gained wonderful ministry and a hard place. And then when you would think it's just time to rest on your laurels, God calls them here. Your family is in need.
Older parents diseased and hurting.
A sibling who needs your help.
Off the mission field here.
Disappointment behind them. Burden before them. What do you do?
The next right thing. They come here, meet with Pastor Reagan and me and say, "Can we start English as a second language ministry here?" And within months we have 37 people here trained and we last year had 33 nations being ministered the gospel here through English as a second language. What did they do? They did the next right thing. And what did God do? He parted the waters and made a way. And now, Mike told me yesterday, what's going to happen? Because of what has happened here at Grace Church, that model of ESL is going to be used by Campus Crusade as a model for the churches across this nation on how to share the gospel with foreign speaking people.
God split the waters when people did the next right thing to accomplish His purpose. What is He calling you to believe? That He will work for you and the God who gave Jesus will fight for you. Therefore, what do you do?
Fear not. Stand firm on the Word of God and go forward into the next right thing. It is God's calling and He will work for you, fight for you, seek Him, do His will, Amen. And Father, so work in this people that we who have seen Your power and Your heart would turn to You even now, believing that even where there is so much to fear, the reality of a world that has fallen, of a community that is struggling, of families who are suffering, that You nonetheless are the God who has eternity in view. And for that reason, You say to this people, "Fear not.
Stand firm.
Do the next right thing and I will split the waters so that you can walk right through it." So work in us, God of yesterday. Today and tomorrow we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.