Exodus chapter 14 and reading
from verse 23. And the Egyptians pursued and
went in, that is, into the Red Sea after the children of Israel,
after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses,
his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the
morning watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians
through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and of the cloud, and
troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels,
that they draved them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, let
us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them
against the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come
again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their
horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his
hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when
the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against
it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the
sea. and the waters returned and covered the chariots and
the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the
sea after them. There remained not so much as
one of them. But the children of Israel walked
upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were
a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. Thus
the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel
saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians,
and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his
servant Moses. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us also. In the Bible we find several
occasions when we are told that God fights for his people. And this is one example. When the children of Israel marched
through the sea, the Red Sea, in their attempt to escape from
the Egyptian army. we're told that there were walls
of water on each side and the Lord set himself between them
and their enemies and the Lord fought for his people. And whether we think about this
image that we might have of what it was that was happening here,
whether we think of this as a picture of the Lord defending the Israelites
as they crossed the Red Sea, we can also, I trust, see that
there is a likeness a metaphor, a type in this of the way in
which the Lord defends his people throughout history and how he
defends us and how he protects us and fights for us. We might think of this as the
Lord defending his church in the world and that would be quite
proper because the Lord protects his church, he protects his people
and he protects the testimony of the gospel that we preach.
We're told that the Lord will not leave himself without a witness
and so he protects and provides for his people all the days of
our life. The Psalmist David said, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Or we might think of this as
the Lord interposing himself between his beloved people and
God's wrath. Either way, it is a delightful
picture of Christ being our shield and our defender. And this is
what he was to the children of Israel on this day. We are told
that the Egyptians pursued the children of Israel and went in
after them to the midst of the sea. Maybe they thought, if the
children of Israel can do it, we can do it too. But that action
of Pharaoh in pursuing the Lord's people into the Red Sea or into
the channel between these two walls of water was to be the
end of the man and the destruction of his army. This destruction of the chariots
and the soldiers of Pharaoh was brought about in two ways, and
I hadn't noticed this before. This was new to me. As I was
sitting and looking at this passage and thinking about what I was
going to say to you, I realised that I hadn't quite grasped something
about this story that I probably should have done before now.
First thing we see is that as the army pursued Moses and the
people, we're told that the Lord troubled them out of the midst
of the cloud. Now I was always of the view
that the destruction of the army took place as the waters came
back upon them, but this is something distinct and this is something
different. The Lord troubled the armies
of the Egyptians. We're told that the Lord looked
into the host of the Egyptians and troubled the host. So that it wasn't as if the Lord
looked to see where they were, he knew where they were, but
it is as if he went in amongst them as an assailant. He went in amongst them as a
warrior and he did them harm. as he went. That's the picture
of the Lord looking into them or looking unto them. And just
exactly what this trouble was, we're not told. It might have
been rain, it might have been hail, it might have been a lightning
storm with thunder and strong wind. These things have been
used by the Lord to trouble armies at different times. And if it
was these kind of things, then it all must have been very frightening
for the Egyptians. Remember, it was night time,
it was darkness, and there they were, endeavouring to pursue
after the children of Israel into the Red Sea, with walls
of water on either side, and all the time being troubled by
the Lord. And the effect, we're told, of
this trouble was that the chariot wheels detached from the chariots
and the chariots became stuck on the seabed. It must have been
chaotic. The vehicles would begin to collide
with one another. The horses would be rearing up
and bolting. The people at the front would
be falling down beside the horses and if it was a storm then maybe
slipping on the seabed and then the stones that were there and
the soldiers coming behind them would be pushing forward and
there would be cries and screams and shouts and crushing. And all of this was happening
in the darkness. The screams and the shouts must
have been terrible to hear. And the confusion that arose
at that moment led the Egyptians to believe that the children
of Israel had turned back and were now attacking them from
the front. And panic seized them. and they
realised that God was fighting for the children of Israel and
they turned back and they fled back out towards the shore. And as they did so, we're told
that they met a wall of water in front of them. Israel's victory,
God's victory over Pharaoh and his host was to be complete. It wasn't sufficient this time
merely to warn them or frighten them. God told Moses to once
again raise his rod over the sea and to bring its waters down
upon the retreating army. And as they fled into this wall
of water that faced them, so the walls at the side began to
collapse as well. And the destruction was entire. All during the night the waters
returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the
host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There remained,
we're told, not so much as one of them. The Lord overthrew the
Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And in the morning, Moses
and the people saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. This
was a great victory for the people of Israel. But really, in truth,
it was exclusively a victory for God. It was God who fought
for his people here. And some people think that this
was the occasion from which the... the coming of the bodies onto
the shore was the occasion from which the children of Israel
gathered weapons that they would later use during their wilderness
journey. If that's true or not, we're
not told in the passage. But what we find is that the
destruction of the Egyptians was total and the deliverance
of Israel was complete. The Lord took the glory. for
it was his work and the children of Israel saw and feared and
believed in the Lord and in Moses his servant. There's a couple
of lessons that I would like us to take from this passage. The passage teaches us, I think,
the great lengths to which sin drives men and women and boys
and girls in opposition to God. not only had Pharaoh pursued
and chased the children of Israel into the desert in order to slay
them and in order to re-enslave them, bring them back into captivity,
But when he arrived at the shores of the Red Sea, it must have
been an awful prospect to drive his chariots in between those
walls of water. But Pharaoh was so driven by
hatred and greed that he did not hesitate to pursue the children
of Israel. He had learned no lessons from
the plagues that ruined his country. And we should never doubt the
wickedness of the sin that is in the hearts of people, nor
the lengths to which they will go in opposition to God. Paul tells us in Romans chapter
8, the carnal mind is enmity against God. That means that
it is violently opposed to God. It is an intense enemy of God. It's not neutral, it's not calm,
it's not peaceful. The carnal mind, the mind of
sin, the mind of this world and its fallen nature is opposed
to God in every way. for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. Enmity is described as a
deep-rooted hatred and the Bible tells us that this deep-rooted
hatred of God and the Lord Jesus Christ is the natural condition
of fallen men and women. And at the base of all the anger
and dissatisfaction in the world and in people's hearts is hatred
towards God. We will not honour God. We will
not serve God. We will not obey God. We will
not worship God. And Pharaoh is a picture of that
sinful nature, rebelling constantly against God. And overthrowing and destroying
Pharaoh was a just thing to do. God is telling us by this picture
that someday he will completely judge and condemn all who rebel
against him and refuse to worship him as their God and honour their
creator. There's another thing that I
think we can picture from this little narrative here, and it's
this. We're going to be thinking in
a little while about a look that the Lord gave to Peter. But here we see another look
of the Lord. The Lord looked into the camp
of Egypt and troubled them. And I don't think we should pass
this by without making mention of it again. It should be a lesson
to us, and it can be a lesson to us, that before the Lord utterly
destroys His enemies, He troubles them. You hear that? Before the Lord utterly destroys
His enemies, He troubles them. That's what He did with the Egyptians
here. These people would soon be dead. And God can be rid of
his enemies, he can slay his enemies instantly if he chooses
to do so, by whatever means he chooses to use. Remember he had
sent a death angel just very recently through Egypt to slay
the firstborn in all the land. And yet before he destroys, the
Egyptian army here, God afflicts them. It's as though he is saying,
my troubling you is a sign of worse judgment to come. And that's
a warning. Perhaps the Egyptians, had they
not been so rebellious and hated the children of Israel so much
and hated God so much, they could have taken the troubling that
they felt and turned and fled at that moment. We should pay
attention to this. God's troubling of the Egyptians
was a warning to them and a warning to other nations. It was a warning,
and a warning is an act of patience, an act of forbearance. We could
even say that a warning was an act of mercy. If God warns us
of judgment to come, Ought we not to seek a way of escape?
Should we not try to make peace with such an offended God? If
God gives us ears to hear His warning and eyes to see that
there is a judgment coming, let us be wise and use that opportunity
to seek the Lord and to seek peace with the Lord in time before
it's too late. And the third thing is this.
The way of life for the children of Israel was in seeing, and
fearing, and believing. That's what we're told at the
very end of this little chapter. Fearing means they're obeying
and worshipping. And they feared, or they saw,
and they worshipped, and they believed the Lord. And they believed
Moses his servant. There's a lesson here for us.
Seeing their deliverance from Pharaoh is like us seeing the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We see that this
has happened. We are told that this has happened. We learn the story, the message
of the gospel. That cross was where Christ fought
our battle. That cross was where Christ fought
for us and defeated sin. And fearing the Lord is knowing
and understanding His glory, His holiness, our own guilt and
our unworthiness. And believing is hearing the
gospel and trusting what God has said is true. Spiritually speaking, no man
or woman or boy or girl can ever do this by themselves. because
of that sinful nature that is within us and keeps us opposed
to God. But when God gives us grace to
believe, then we can worship Him in spirit and in truth. Then
we can follow Him and then we can obey Him and trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ. What are we to believe? The people
believed Moses. because Moses was God's prophet. Moses brought the word of God
to the people. He was his spokesman. And we
believe the Lord Jesus Christ because he has spoken the good
news in the gospel to sinners like us. Our hearts are sinful. but God has warned us of a judgment
that is to come. He tells us in the gospel of
a way of salvation by the death of Jesus Christ. He is the substitute
and he is the deliverer. May the Lord open our eyes and
our hearts to see and believe the gospel of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.