Crossing the Red Sea
Part 1 - Escape From Slavery is Not Escape From Fear
Exodus 14v5-12
29th July 2016
The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. That puts our suffering into some perspective, doesn't it? I have bad days but I've never had a bad 400 years.
As the conditions of their slavery grew worse, they cried out to God, and God heard them. He found a murderer (Exodus 2v12) who was hiding in the desert, and chose to use him to save Israel. God got Moses's attention by setting a bush on fire, and keeping it burning (Exodus 3v1-3). When Moses went to look, God told him "Take off your sandals, for the place whee you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3v5). Moses protested that he was nowhere near qualified for such a task, but God sent him anyway.
Moses went to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and demanded that he set the Israelites free. Pharaoh, aware of how useful the Israelites had been to him and his forebears, refused. God then sent a series of plagues on Egypt to help Pharaoh change his mind (Exodus 7v14-11v30). Pharaoh remained stubborn despite the first nine plagues, but the tenth - the plague of the death of the firstborn male of every family and of all livestock in Egypt - was enough. Pharaoh finally relented. He seemed to have eventually realised that it's foolish to fight God. He let the Israelites go. Indeed, the Egyptians were then so keen to get rid of the Israelites, and so avoid another plague, that they gave them clothes, silver and gold to go away (Exodus 12v35-36).
Countries and empires that oppose God will be called to account, even if it takes 400 years.
Exodus 14v5-9
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them
and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!"
So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him.
He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly.
The Egyptians - all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops - pursued the Israelites and overtook them as
they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.
The Egyptian government wanted the financial benefits they got from enslaving God's people so, soon after they buried their dead sons, they persuaded themselves that their deaths were nothing to do with God, and chased after the Israelites. Pharaoh pursued the Israelites personally, and he took the army with him, including 600 of his best chariots. How quickly we forget the fear of the Lord!
The Israelites were marching out boldly. It's easy to be bold when God has just performed a mighty miracle for you, your enemies are reeling from their defeat, you've escaped from slavery and you're free for the first time in 400 years. But the Israelites weren't going to be bold for long:
Exodus 14v10-12
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified
and cried out to the Lord.
They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have
you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve
the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"
The Israelites saw the Egyptian army coming. They knew they were trapped between the army and the sea, and they were terrified. It was obvious that they couldn't escape unless God intervened to help them. But God who had done such wonders to free them from slavery wouldn't abandon them now.
How quickly we forget what God has done for us. How quickly we forget that the Lord is faithful and strong, and can protect us. How quickly we doubt that God is for us!
God has set us free from slavery to sin, free from Satan, free from guilt, free from condemnation and death. He's set many of us free from sickness or depression. But many of us are not yet free from fear.
The Bible tells us that "God did not give us a spirit of timidity [AV: fear], but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1v6). But we don't always live like that's true.