The Lord Leads Israel By The Way Of The Wilderness Exodus 13:17-22

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1 The Parting Of The Red Sea Exodus 13:17-14:31 How many of us memorized Psalm 23 when we were growing up? I had my students in Bible class memorize it this last week. It is short and sweet and to the point. The Lord is not just like a shepherd. He is a shepherd to those who trust in Him. In first person English we could say that He leads us, guides us, He is with us and he protects us. His goodness and love surround us and this relationship is a forever deal. Exodus is a wonderful example of how this psalm plays out in the history of Israel. It s all about how the Lord led His people, was with them, protected and delivered them from their enemies and in a sense, the valley of death. The parting of the Red Sea is the sequel to the Passover. The people of Israel were slaves to the Egyptians. The Lord sent ten plagues upon Egypt so that Pharaoh would let them go and that is just what he did after the 10 th plague. The firstborn of Egypt were struck down, yet the firstborn of Israel were spared due to the blood of the Passover lamb. If the keyword of Passover is redemption, then the key word of the parting of the Red Sea is salvation. Moses announces this in 14:13 and it s recorded as fact in 14:30. In a sentence, the Lord brought the 10 plagues upon Egypt so that Pharaoh and all the Egyptians would know that the Lord was God and would set the Israelites free. Now here is what happened once they were set free. Exodus is about the Lord saving His people from Egypt once for all. And as we read through this passage we are going to see what kind of shepherd and what kind of savior, our God is not only for Israel, but also for all who call upon His name. The Lord Leads Israel By The Way Of The Wilderness Exodus 13:17-22 Three times we are told that the Lord is leading His people (13:17,18, 21). We are told how He is leading them in 13: These verses tells us that the Lord gave the people a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to lead them. He is right there with them as a guide and a help. In one sense they are walking by sight. They can see this cloud. He is giving them very direct clear revelation of what to do and where to go. In another sense they are walking by faith. They take Joseph s bones with them. How much did they know about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and God s covenant with them? I don t know. They knew circumcision was the sign that the Lord had made a covenant with Abraham to bless Him and give his descendants the land of Canaan. So based on this verse, they probably knew about Joseph s prophecy in Genesis 50:25 and that their future as a people was in Canaan not Egypt. That s why this journey is a walk of faith and not just sight. Think of who these people are, what they have been through and what the Lord is giving them. They have been oppressed slaves in Egypt for at least a generation or two. They have seen the plagues. They have their freedom. Now they need to know that the Lord is with them. By the way, we need to know this at times as well. Sometime I get a

2 bit scared or troubled or anxious about life. It is comforting and encouraging to know that Jesus promises never to leave us or forsake us. It s like He says, Don t worry, I ll take care of you. 13:17 tells us one reason for this route. It says that if the people saw war, they would change their mind and return to Egypt. This is a danger to all who have been redeemed by the Lord. It s easy to see the bad stuff that goes on in the world, get discouraged and want to go back to our old ways. The book of Hebrews was written for this very purpose. But there is a second reason the Lord is leading the people on this route. He is going to demonstrate His mighty power one last time to Pharaoh and the Egyptians and in doing so He is going to save His people and at the same time destroy Pharaoh s army. One comment before we move on: The Lord can choose however He wishes to lead His people, whether as a group or as individuals. The problem facing us today is that there are many curious (a friend of mine would say wacky ) ideas about how the Lord leads any one of us as we walk by faith in Him. If someone were to ask my advice on the Lord s leading I would tell him/her to follow the clear revelation. The Lord has given us, like He did these people, very clear revelation about His plans for us. And in a sense they are two pillars; the Old Testament and the New Testament. These are our two pillars of revelation. Follow these pillars and leave the rest up to Him. This isn t a passage about daily decision-making. It is a text about God s leading. So here is a lesson: We can always trust the Lord to lead His us in ways that are truly for our good and for His glory. That is why David writes (using the same word for lead that is used in here in 13:17 and 13:21); He leads or guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name s sake. Psalm 23:3 The Trap Of The Lord Exodus 14:1-14 The crossing of the Sea may be one of the most familiar stories of the Old Testament as a whole. It is mentioned a number of times in the Psalms and Isaiah and the people who returned to Israel from captivity in Babylon will bring it up in their prayers (Nehemiah 9). Stephen cites it in Acts 7:36 during his sermon, Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 10 and Hebrews 11 says the people crossed the Red Sea by faith. I ve wondered at times about the disciple s comments to one another when they re in a boat during a really bad storm and they cry out to Jesus who is asleep, to wake up and save them. Jesus rebukes the wind and tells the sea to hush. They see all this and say, Who is this that the winds and sea obey Him? Does the parting of the Red Sea enter their minds when they ask this question of each other? I ve divided chapter 14 into two sections. 14:1-14 (The Trap). 14:15-31 (The Way Of Salvation). Let s read it and I ll make a few comments along the way.

3 Read 14:1-4: We see right off the bat that the Lord tells Moses what He is up to and what he is going to do one last time to Pharaoh. The reason is simple: God will be honored/receive glory and the Egyptians will know that He is God. This is going to be restated in 14: He is going to demonstrate His glory in the following ways. He has absolute power over every aspect of creation and it is useless to fight against Him. This is in once sense a word of prophecy or maybe better, a word of promise. Read 14:5-9: Pharaoh does have a change of heart and he chases after them just as the Lord said he would. Pharaoh takes plenty of firepower with him. Even though the sons of Israel go out in martial array, they are not warriors and they have women and children with them. They may be organized, but they are not soldiers. Pharaoh goes out overconfident that He will crush these people. Unfortunately the people of Israel go out a bit overconfident too (boldly 14:8). Boldness is good when our boldness is in the Lord. Boldness is not good when our confidence is in ourselves to strut our stuff or toot our horn and take credit for something that doesn t belong to us. This word bold is literally high hand and usually implies arrogance. God wants them to depend on Him. He wants us to do that also. Arrogance always runs opposite of faith. Read 14:10-12: Their arrogance has evaporated and they are very frightened. They are a people who live more by sight than faith. This is sometime true of us as well (it is often easy to see our own weaknesses in this group of people). They may cry out to the Lord but they lash out at His servant Moses. They lay the blame at his doorstep. It is His fault they are in this predicament. Isn t it always easy to blame leaders when things go bad? These people have what some might call, buyer s remorse. They should have continued to cry out for help to the Lord rather than complain against Moses. By the way, I hope if any of us is ever in this type of situation, we will stand firm in the truth that it is better to follow the Lord than to serve the enemy. Read 14:13-14: Moses isn t discouraged nor is he insulting to the people. He tells them not to fear. He tells them to stop complaining and watch God fight for them. What a change in Moses from the burning bush. What had he learned through the plagues? He learned that if God is for us who really is against us? If Moses were with us right now I think he would tell us that it is good to pray, it is foolish to complain, and it is best to let God fight for us when things are hopeless and we are helpless. The Way Of Salvation Exodus 14:15-31 The Lord has led the people to a place where there is no human means of escape. They have nowhere to turn but to the Lord and they kind of do, but they really don t. This is a Martha and the Vandellas moment: There s nowhere to run to baby, there s nowhere to hide. These words come to mind when I think about where these people are at physically: Desperate, helpless, cornered, powerless, caught, sitting duck.

4 Read 14:15: If I didn t know better I would say this verse is comic relief in a tense setting. It brings a smile to my face. It is as if the Lord is telling Moses, Quit talking and get going. Remember, the Lord is saying this to a guy who said that He was slow of speech and slow of tongue. Read 14:16-20: The Lord tells Moses to tell the people to go forward (into the sea). He tells Moses to lift up his staff, stretch out his hands over the sea and divide the waters so that the people can walk right through the middle of the sea. In the meantime while Moses does that, the Lord places the pillar of cloud between the Israelites and the Egyptians. The cloud brings darkness to the Egyptians but light for the Israelites to go. Read 14:21-28: Wow. When I read these verses it s difficult not to envision the Cecil B. DeMille film, The Ten Commandments, and the way this event is depicted. I have heard you can tour the set on which it was filmed if you go to Universal Studios in Hollywood. The parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14 was not some man-made engineering feat for the purpose of making a movie. It was the power of God to save His people and at the same time destroy the enemy. We don t need to explain or explain away this miracle. The text tells us exactly what happened. The Lord swept back the sea. Read 14: Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. This is a passage about God saving His people. He saved them from physical death or at the very least from being re-enslaved. God parted the waters of the Red Sea so that the Israelite lives were spared and their oppressors were drowned. Israel saw what Moses said they would see; the salvation of the Lord. 14:30 is pretty graphic, but here is the deal: The more we comprehend God s judgment and what He has saved us from; the more we will appreciate His mercy. I want us to think about the word saved for a moment. It is a pretty important word in the Bible and especially in the NT. Reading it here makes me think of the Philippian jailor s question to the apostle Paul. What must I do to be saved? Acts 16:30-31 It reminds me of Peter s words in Acts 4:12 (There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved). It reminds me of Jesus words to Nicodemus in John 3:17 (For God did not send His son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him). These verses and ones like them all refer to our need for God to save us from sin and the kind of death that is the opposite of eternal life. The desperate situation that the Israelites are in reminds me of what Paul will write In Romans 5:6: While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. He goes on to write, Much more then, having been justified by His (Jesus ) blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him (5:9). We re as helpless to save ourselves from sin, as the Israelites were to save themselves from the Egyptian army by the Red Sea. Our great need is bigger than that of the

5 Israelites in Exodus 14. Our great need goes back to mankind s first need (Genesis 3). The wages of sin is death. Exodus 14 teaches us that just as the Lord had the power to save the Israelite from certain physical death, so He too has the power to save us from the wages of sin and what Scripture calls the second death (Revelation 20:14). Exodus 14 is narrative history; but it tells of God s power to save His people when all seems lost and desperate. And in that sense it really does point to our very desperate need as sinners to be delivered from the enemy of sin and death. Last Tuesday morning at our study, Sean Masterson said that the all is lost attitude of the Israelites by the Red Sea reminded him of Jesus disciples and the time between His arrest and His resurrection. Like the people of Israel here, the disciples were not exactly masters of faith. So let me wrap this up with two comments. First: Salvation is of the Lord. Whether it is the salvation of Israel from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea or the salvation of anyone of us from the wages of sin and the second death. I think Sean is right: The miracle of the Red Sea occupies a similar place in the Old Testament Scriptures as the resurrection of the Lord Jesus does in the New Testament. It tends to be the standard of measurement, as the supreme demonstration of God s power. The apostle Paul uses the terminology of baptism to describe what occurred here. That is worth thinking about. So imagine for a moment that someone was writing our spiritual biography just like the nation of Israel here? When, where and how was our Red Sea moment with Jesus? For me, the when and the where was July 1973 in the basement of my parent s house. The how was like this: I wanted what Jesus offered; forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But I really didn t want Him in or in charge of my life. I knew if I gave Him and inch, so to speak, He d want the whole mile and I liked compartmentalizing my Christianity to Sundays. Maybe another way to put it is that I wanted to hang with my friends and do what they did more than I wanted to be with Jesus or wanted him to be with me. That night the Lord caused me to remember a Bible verse I learned in confirmation: If God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31). It was then and there I understood that my life really meant nothing without Him and I asked Him to forgive me and save me. The way of salvation from the Egyptians in Exodus 14 is through the parted waters of the Red Sea. Jesus simply says this: I am the way... no man comes to the Father but through Me. I hope there has been a Red Sea moment with Jesus for all of us here and I hope we tell others about it and invite them to trust Christ to deliver them from the wages of sin and death. Second: If the Lord can save us from the wages of sin and give us eternal life with Him, then we can certainly trust Him to be with us and guide us and shepherd us in this life. Exodus 14 and the parting of the Red Sea is not a promise of, or a picture of, the Lord delivering us from all the bad things of life. However, no matter what happens to us, no matter how trapped we feel or how hopeless the situation, we must trust Him, pray and

6 let Him fight for us in those times of helplessness and fear. After all, what does Jesus tell us? He says that He is the good shepherd. He will lead us down paths of righteousness even though His leading may seem to trap us between the sea and the enemy. Too many times we try to figure our way out of problems when the Lord simply wants us to call on Him and watch Him work His mighty power on our behalf. Exodus 14 teaches us to let the Lord be our savior, our shepherd and our chief problem solver in life. By the way, so does Psalm 23.