THROUGH THE BIBLE - Exodus 1..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi HaHitharoth, between Magdol 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 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, 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 encamped at the sea by Pi-Hirioth, 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 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.

or 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 might go through the sea on dry land or dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they shall go in after them. And I will get the glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. Then the angel of God, who was going before the host of Israel, moved and went behind them.

And 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 of darkness, and it lit up the night without one coming near to 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 the 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, watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud look down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into 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 the 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 of the Lord used against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and they believed the Lord and in his servant, Moses. Amen. This is the word of the Lord.

Well, the Israelites are free, and they're free at last, and they've finally begun to make their journey into the land flowing with milk and honey. And so chapter 14 begins for us, and it begins by our Lord giving Moses instruction of how that journey is going to work out, what path they ought already alluded in chapter 13 in the previous chapter, the route that the Lord had instructed Moses to take was an unconventional route. They could have traveled to the north of Goshen and then northeast around Goshen into the land of the Philistines and into the land of Canaan. However, that would have been the shortest route to the land flowing with milk and honey, but the Lord said that that would not be the case. God chose to take them south instead.

Now, the Philistines, we're told in the previous chapter, are war-like people. They're ready for war. And one of the reasons why God did that is by His grace. He knew that if these Israelites were to face these formidable Philistines, then they would probably be afraid. their fear would cause them to retreat and even want to or even be tempted to want to go back into Egypt.

That's what we're told in the previous chapter. But there is also another reason why the Lord had told these people to go down south. Unbeknown to the Israelites, they would once again experience the awesome power of Yahweh. Because God was going to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that that He alone is Lord, that He alone is God. None of the Egyptian deities will ever compete with this God, the God of Israel.

And He will once and for all deal with the enemy, His enemy, as well as the enemy of his people. No longer will they have to walk with their heads over their shoulders looking back in the possibility of Pharaoh following them to capture them. They wouldn't have to sleep at night with one eye open in fear that that enemy may one day come and pursue them. That will be behind them, because God will take care. that enemy.

He will judge them once and for all. But beloved, for that to happen, the Israelites will have to be confronted with their most terrifying ordeal yet. They will come face to face with the battle-trained, formidable military power of the Egyptian army. You see, God instructed that Moses take men and women and children, probably two million at least strong, as well as all their cattle and their herd and their camels, and to go and camp beside the sea, the Red Sea. But in the meantime, God had hardened Pharaoh's heart and Pharaoh had become He let the people of Israel go.

He let the servants go. The service they rendered to him and his people was no longer. And he said, I'm going to go and pursue these slaves. I'll get them back. So he does.

He gathers his army, a formidable army, and he makes the trek towards the people at the sea. from a distance, the people of Israel could see Pharaoh coming. I mean, you can just imagine the sight. They would have heard the rumblings of the chariots and the horses. They would have seen the dusty clouds that the horses, and as they ran through the wilderness there, and they could see them from a distance, and their hearts sank.

The Bible tells us that they were filled with fear. Why? Because they could see that this Pharaoh, their greatest enemy, was coming towards them. What are they to do? What options does Israel have?

They can't go to the north or to the south. The chariots are probably five times faster than they. They're coming from the West and they can't go to the East because all there is in the East is the Red Sea. I mean, they can jump in the water and take their chances, but that would be a death wish. Beloved, the fact of the matter is they're trapped.

These people are trapped. They've got nowhere to go. They are completely helpless in this state. And so what do they do? Well, they complain.

Already they'd forgotten what Yahweh had done for them already. Have they forgotten about the 10 supernatural, the nature-defying plagues that God had done before them, before their very eyes, to free them from the land of Egypt, the plagues that were listed in our Bible reading this morning in Psalm 105? Had they already forgot God's power? Had they forgotten about the institution of the Passover whereby God says, when you enter into the land, telling them that you will enter the land and this will be practiced so that you could remember the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Had they forgotten about these things already?

Had they forgotten about the very pillar of cloud and fire that is before them even now and the angel of the Lord that is among them? Well, this is human nature, beloved. We should not point the finger too quickly. Because when we are confronted with the immediate crisis, what we human beings tend to do is focus on that crisis and forget about the faithfulness of God. We forget how good God is to us and how he's always been faithful to us in keeping his promise.

And we concentrate on the things that are immediately before us using our own senses. And what happens is fear overwhelms us. fear overwhelms. And so these Israelites begin to mumble and grumble and complain before Moses. The joy that they experienced from leaving Egypt as free people was short-lived, and now they even regret their departure.

What do they do? They accuse this prophet of God of bringing death upon them. And not unlike Exodus chapter 5, when Pharaoh had commanded that the people of It's a very similar complaint back then, where they said to Moses, you placed a sword in their hands. Here, they're saying to Moses, you brought us out here to die. You see, as I said, when we concentrate on our circumstances, we remove God from the equation, and then we rely on our own perception of the things around us.

We begin to doubt, and we allow fear into our hearts, and rather than remember the goodness of God, the covenant-keeping God, who always keeps His promises, and rather than putting hope in Him, we put hope in our own feelings and emotions. Our natural response is to act. Our natural response is to act according to our knowledge and our understanding. But beloved, this is the point here. Even that is taken away.

There are times where we can't even act. Because for the Israelites right here and right now, they have no options. They can't do What they're compelled to do is probably the most difficult thing that human beings can do. And that is, wait. Wait.

Wait upon the Lord. Trust in God. Believe that He will act as He said that He will. And now just wait. And the Lord does in fact, wait, my apologies, act.

But you know what? The thing is, before the Lord does act, Moses knew what these people were thinking. He heard their grumblings and he knew their complaints. But I love what he says in verse 13 and verse 14. It responds to what they say.

It says, 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. I love those words. The Lord will fight for you.

And you have only to what? To be silent. It's not by your military power that you'll have victory today. Moses is telling the people, wait, the Lord will fight this battle. Now, it is true that in the previous chapter, chapter 13, we're told that the people of Israel came out of Egypt.

equipped for battle. But beloved, they have no chance against this military power of the superpower of the Egyptian forces. They have no chance. But Moses is saying you don't have to worry about that. Yahweh, the Lord will fight this battle.

He will rescue you from the Egyptians. As far as you're concerned, Israel, no defensive action is necessary on this day. God will fight the battle. You only need to be silent and watch his mighty hand. It reminds me of the words of the Psalmist some centuries later, be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. And so now, with their backs against the Red Sea and the mighty army before them, they wait for the Lord to act. And act He does. The narrative then tells us that the presence of God goes from leading them in front And now the pillar comes to the front, the pillar which is the cloud and the cloud in the day and the fire in the night and the angel of the Lord now goes before them and stands before them and the host of Egypt who are coming towards them.

Now that is not to say that God is not omnipotent. He, my apologies, omnipresent. Of course He is. He's in all places at all times. But this is really a visual for the people of Israel to know not only is He leading them and guiding them in their path, but He'll also be their shield.

He'll also be their protector. And so Moses lifts up his staff by the command of Yahweh. And then the sea is parted. God does indeed come to the rescue of his people as he said he would. Hebrews 11 tells us that when the people saw this by faith, by faith they see this miracle happen and they cross the sea on dry ground.

They've seen the power of God and now they believe. We know that many historians and many scholars in history have tried to disprove this exact point, right? You can read so many books, and we're not even going to entertain any of them this evening. Why? Because if you don't believe in a God who can do supernatural things, then you cannot believe in the God of the Bible.

Because it's simple. The God of the Bible, we already we've seen these 10 miraculous plagues that he does upon the people of Egypt, just to even get his people out of there. And we'll see miracle after miracle. Our God is a God of miracles. Our salvation, beloved, is a miracle.

And so it gets them out, they walk through the sea, and behind them you have the Egyptians who are now walking in darkness. And their chariots get stuck, they get clogged, they're panicky, they're confused. And in that point, what do they concede? They realize they have no chance, because it's not against a people that they're fighting. They realize that the Lord is fighting with these people.

They realize that it is God who is fighting for the people of Israel, but it's too late. They want to concede. They want to go back, but they're clogged up. And then Moses commands the sea, the walls to collapse. And it does with all the Egyptian forces and they're all killed.

They all perish that day. And verse 30 tells us the Israelites saw the dead bodies on the seashore and they believed the Lord and they believed his servant Moses. Beloved, I want to end on two short points. It's interesting how in verse 20, how the pillar, the manifest presence and the glory of the glory of God is the source of light to the Israelites. It gives them light for their path to know where they're going so that they can see clearly where they're headed.

Yet, in verse 20, we see it is darkness to the Egyptians. The Israelites were able to see and walk But the Egyptians were not. They were confused and panic overwhelmed them because they could not see before them. Is this not so true even now with our God and the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ? That the gospel gives light and clarity and life to those who believe upon Him, but for those who do not, it judges and condemns.

darkness. And here's the thing, we need to remember that God gets glory from both. This is a difficult thing for us to conceive, because he simultaneously is glorified in the salvation of his people, while at the same time he is glorified through the judgment of his enemies. And Exodus 14 is a perfect example of this, beloved. And I also want to see the significance in verse 30, and I want to end with this.

The Israelites seeing the bodies of their enemies wasted or washed ashore. What is the significance of that image? They're looking upon the shore, they're on dry land now and they see that the body's floating and finding rest dead all over the place. And they're looking at these bodies and what can they see? They see that these were their slave masters.

These were the masters that had them in bondage, that were bound to them. And the thought that must have crossed their mind is this, I will never fear again of being a slave. I will never fear again of being a slave in Egypt. Yahweh has freed us from that bondage. And beloved for us in the 21st century, it's not the physical slavery that we need to be saved from, but the bondage to sin and the depravity of that sin that we've all been born into.

but to be freed from this bondage, this spiritual bondage, spiritual slavery, is not that we need a mediator like Moses. We don't need Moses as our mediator, my apologies, but the one who is like Moses, the only mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, 1 Timothy 2, 5. He is our salvation. He is our light in this dark world. Beloved, if you are in Christ, What a glorious thing.

If you are in Christ, when you think of sin, when you think of this depravity and the unrighteousness that once held you in bondage, beloved, we ought to be thinking as the Israelites, when they saw these bodies scattered across the seashore, you ought to be looking and thinking, I have another master now. I've been freed from that slavery. I've been freed from that bondage. That master is dead to me. Because I have a new master.

I am now a slave of righteousness, a slave to God. Beloved, praise God, we've been freed. Let's not live as Christians who live as though they have not been freed from the power of sin and destruction. We have Christ who has conquered over sin. He is now our master and we enjoy all the spiritual blessings in him, even being free to the bondage of sin.

Let's pray.